Shelley, The Necessity of Atheism and A Declaration of Rights

Shelley, Necessity of Atheism (1811) and Declaration of Rights (1812); Brighton Magazine, I (May 1822), 540-544. It may be a sign of Shelley’s growing reputation that a hostile critic would think it necessary to call attention to two works that had been virtually forgotten (and that remain among the rarest of all Shelley’s publications). The reviewer has not been identified, but he must have known Shelley at Oxford or have gone to some trouble to gain possession of these anonymous tracts and the history of their author.