Postscript, 1942
Since this book was written two indispensable aids to the study of Godwin and his Circle have been published. (1) An adequate modern life of Godwin is now available: The Life of William Godwin by Ford K. Brown (J. M. Dent & Sons). The work could hardly have been better done. (2) Mr. Elbridge Colby has given us in two volumes a modern edition of The Life of Thomas Holcroft (Constable & Co.) by himself with Hazlitt’s continuation. Mr. Colby’s scholarly notes and introduction add greatly to its value.
A modern edition of Godwin’s Political Justice (Knopf, Political Science Classics) is now available, but cannot be recommended. The editor has abbreviated it by capricious omissions.
The Heavenly City of the Eighteenth-Century Philosophers by Carl L. Becker (Oxford University Press, also Yale) is a most readable study of the political thought of the period. See also Professor H. J. Laski’s The Rise of European Liberalism (Allen & Unwin) and Voltaire by H. N. Brailsford in this series.