from Miles Vaughn A d v e r t i s e m e n t
. . . the Terror of 1794 was answered by the article in the Morning Chronicle.
Authorship of that article, however, remained a matter of speculation. Many
thought that Miles Vaughn had written it, a belief that persists today in families
that still observe October 20th as Miles Vaughn Day. To a lesser extent, Horne
Tooke was credited with having authored Cursory Strictures on the charge
delivered by Justice Eyre to the Grand Jury. However, when Mary Shelley
wrote Frankenstein, so full of the kind of parallels mentioned above, she was
among the few who knew who had authored the article that had first led to the
acquittals of Hardy, Tooke, and Thelwall, and then to the release of the remaining
nine prisoners. Indeed, she dedicated Frankenstein to the anonymous author of
Cursory Strictures, her father, William Godwin . . . . which Hazlitt later held to
be ãone of the most acute and seasonable political pamphlets that ever appeared . . .
[editor recommends William Godwin A Biographical Study by George Woodcock
(see TCW Further Reading).
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[text of Political Justice]
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[WILLIAM GODWIN: His Friends and Contemporaries] This is an excellent
source, probably the best biographical Godwin site on the web. Our hats are off
to Dana Ward for this one, as well as the link below.[Thoughts on Man, His Nature, Productions and Discoveries - William Godwin]
Text of [The Necessity of Atheism]
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| from Frontier A d v e r t i s e m e n t
. . . This is particularly useful when considering some of Godwinâs
seemingly impractical ideas. For example, George Washingtonâs view
of political parties is one he shared with Godwin.
[editor comments that, as explained elsewhere in TCW, Godwin
observed that political parties and associations tended to corrupt
the political process.
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Edmund Burke, much admired by some of our readers, is important to
understanding the context in which Frankenstein was written. To a Candid
World advertisements focus on some of the areas in which Burke is at odds
with Godwin. The careful reader will also notice that Burke is at odds with
Burke at times. That is, when some of his aphorisms are compared to some
of his conclusions, serious inconsistencies at times appear.
[Edmund Burke Texts]
[Edmund Burke] aphorisms
[Edmund Burke, 1729-1797] biographical[Return to advertisement index]
Unfortunately it is difficult to find the writings of Martin
Luther that reveal his hostility toward Jews, which makes it
difficult to appreciate how much destructive potential exists
within what appears to be constructive Christian teaching. We
recommend the paper by Mark U. Edwards Jr. in Essential
Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict From Late
Antiquity to the Reformation, edited by Jeremy Cohen, 1991,
New York University Press. Edwards' paper is helpful to
developing understanding the complexity of the problems.
We are very grateful to Jim Walker for making available
the book central to Edwards' examination of Luther's attacks
on Jews, On the Jews and Their Lies. The following link
will take you to Jim Walker's site, where you may read bits
of Luther's writing that have been swept under the rug. There
you will also find an e-mail form for requesting the text of
Luther's book by return e-mail in a zip file. Walker's remarks
concerning the book and his purpose in offering it reflect the
very understanding we are dedicated to promoting.
[Martin Luther's dirty little book ]
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For text link for Robert Owen's A New View of Society do a Google Search
Google Search: <Linux> for owen new view of society and at or near the
top of the list you will see a link to the text. Sorry we can't establish the link here.
Excerpts from A New View of Society Robert Owen's "A New View of Society" (1813)
For a list of other essays by Owen: Published Works of Robert Owen
For information about Owen's life, beliefs and work American Atheists // Robert Owen
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While the British defeat of Napoleon's fleet in 1798 did dispel fears of
a French invasion of Britain, an invasion by air was contemplated in 1808.
A proposal was submitted to the Emperor, which would have involved
one hundred Montgolfier balloons, each capable of carrying one thousand
soldiers, twenty-five horses, two weeks provisions, several artillery pieces,
as well as fuel for the operation of the balloon. The Vitebsk story's mention
of a Montgolfier balloon used by an English explorer may be hinted at in
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein as Victor speaks of the insignificance of the
mountains of ice and of the crew being more than men. Although the balloon
mentioned in the Vitebsk story was evidently considerably smaller than those
contemplated by Napoleon, its usefulness in clearing ice blockages, as well
as a vital aid to navigation, is clear.[Return to advertisement index]
Neglect of the significance of the discrepancy in the story of The Fall is
not one hair's breadth short of astonishing, and raises the question, why?
The likelihood that the second commandment (that the tree in the center
of the garden not be touched by humans) was invented by the male is entirely
consistent with the facts the story presents. Philo of Alexandria, whose
Embassy to Gaius inspires the greatest confidence, disappoints, clearly identifying
the discrepancy yet offering no more than explanations, which, in process of
subsumption forget the purpose of the question. When we view his answer
in the light of what he has to say about the superiority of the male to the female,
it gets much worse. The female is more susceptible to influences of sensation than
the male, he tells us. If a situation calls for reasoning, look for a male. Preposterous!
The question was, "Why, when the commandment was not to eat the fruit, did the
woman add a commandment not to go near it?" Philo fails to count the sensations
of fretfulness, which we see affecting him. The woman appreciates the pleasures of
existence too much to be trusted with authoratative intelligence concerning how
existence she enjoys might be preserved? Philo himself, rather than his explanation,
is the answer to the question. He believes himself to be superior to women, is
prepared to dispense with sincerity in his dealings with them, and ignore his own
responsibility when the consequences begin to flow. Victor Frankenstein's
thoughts on the Orkney island, which lead to his destruction of the female creature,
ought to be examined with a view to the unique nature of the Monster, whose
appreciation of the pleasures of life to the end suggest that, of all candidates in
all literature, he is worthy of nomination to the office of second Adam. Is there
any other more likely to trust in the goodness of treating a mate as an equal?
[return to TCW index] [return to keys to understanding Frankenstein]
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Percy and Mary read Benedict de Spinoza's A Theologico-Political
Treatise in October and November of 1817 and began translating it, which
work they continued in 1820 and which Percy resumed with Edward Williams
in 1821. Spinoza begins with the problem of superstition, which is mistakenly
identified as religion. His observations concerning such matters as interpretation
of Scripture and the teaching of the church (churches actually do little real teaching,
preferring to entertain) are as illuminating today as they were when the book was
published in 1760. By the time Percy and Mary read the book, its influence among
those interested in human perfectibility was well established. The problem remained,
however, that a practical means of demonstrating the operation of superstition did
not exist. That is, ancient books such as Lucretius' On the Nature of Things,
which the Shelleys also read, would be seen as anti-religious (Lucretius, very likely
responding to the problem of the confusion of superstition and religion, insisted on
using the word religion where Robert Owen would use the word superstition or
the words so-called religion). Frankenstein, written during the period in which
translating Spinoza's A Theologico-Political Treatise was one of the Shelley's
projects, provides the much needed machinery for the examination of the way in
which human moral tendencies become misguided and destructive. Because it is so
easy to see Victor Frankenstein as the person who has gone astray, we readers give
too little attention to our own thoughts and actions.
The genius of Frankenstein is that, regardless of our affiliation with any social class,
religious institution, political party, or philosophy, we all make the same mistake. We
are all prone to credulity, missing opportunities to indentify certain destructive
consequences and avoid them. We unknowingly announce our willingness to be
manipulated. Carelessly, we create circumstances in which the order we need and
desire is doomed. We fail to perform the simplest tests to determine the relative
reliability or value of the information we receive and thereby render ourselves useless
to effect any change for the better. In other words, without realizing what we are doing,
we are quite capable of bringing about the the conditions that Spinoza identifies as
causing insanity. When, through the exercise of the machinery of Frankenstein, we
come to see ourselves as equally susceptible to this carelessness, we also have the
understanding necessary to add to our lives reminders of the need to guide our
moral tendencies and the means necessary to that end. The benefits are so numerous
and significant that we and our world are new. Can we, having seen how easily we
can prefer to be entertained than to educate ourselves or each other, blame the
churches or other institutions for preferring to act more as entertainers than
educators? Isn't the exercise of untried resources of mind both educating and
entertaining?
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