ABSTRACT
Old Godwin greatly preferred a quiet game of whist in a cosy corner, to conversation. In his manner he was a quiet, retiring, unpretentious old gentleman. At first I was rather surprised to discover how much he had modified many of his political opinions, and how completely he had changed others. Some of his books had been dogmatical and positive enough; but now he never dogmatized, and to his very utmost shunned argument and discussion. A flippant young man asked him one evening, “What are your fixed opinions?” “Sir,” said Godwin, “I have none; I left off my fixed opinions with my youth.”
