ABSTRACT
Thoughts on Man, his nature, productions, and discoveries. Interspersed with some particulars respecting the author (London: Effingham Wilson, 1831). The present text is based on the only edition to appear in Godwin’s lifetime. The essays were written between 3 February 1830 and 14 February 1831. Godwin regarded Thoughts on Man as ‘the most faultless book I ever printed. It contains some egotism, but kept within proper bounds’.a The view was contentious: the manuscript was rejected by eleven publishers, Thomas Robinson referred to it as ‘the sweepings of his study’ and Henry Crab described it as ‘a book of senilities’.b
