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And, with a resolute mastery shaking offThe accidents of nature, time, and place,That make up the weak being of the past,Build social freedom on its only basis,The freedom of the individual mind,Which, to the blind restraints of general lawsSuperior, magisterially adoptsOne guide, the light of circumstances, flashedUpon an independent intellect. (X 818-830)After Wordsworth finally realised how isolated he had become in his fanatical support of theFrench republican cause, he had turned to Godwin’s rationalist philosophy in the hope of finding hisbearings again, and ‘reason’ did briefly become the necessary antidote to his enthusiasm. Godwin’sphilosophy served the purpose of rescuing him from his manic state of mind, and his method requiredthat Wordsworth think more seriously about his own convictions, and question his own motives. Buthe was to find that ‘human reason’ as defined by Godwin was not sufficient to answer his ownparticular questions about the true nature of justice.III. Political JusticeGodwin’s Enquiry concerning Political Justice, and its influence on General Virtue andHappiness was among a number of studies of political philosophy that Wordsworth was reading in1794. Whatever eighteenth or seventeenth-century texts he may have been reading according to LeslieChard; whether those of French philosophes or the English republicans, he would most likely havealso read Cicero’s De Legibus and the extracts of De Republica available to eighteenth centuryreaders, since both were foundational texts of classical republican political philosophy. Given hisconnection with Brissot in France he may well have read De Oratore by this time as well. His lettersto William Matthews during this period provide evidence that he was reading and reflecting onpolitical philosophy and concerned with defining his own particular position with some sense ofprecision. 16 In contrast to the manic picture presented in Book X, his correspondence with Matthewsis well reasoned, and during the course of 1794 he shows that he has spent some time defining his ownpolitical principles. Far from expressing his views with enthusiastic fervour, he plans to set up ajournal, to be called The Philanthropist with Matthews, and to write articles aimed at educating thepublic about the virtues of true republicanism. He is critical of the government for their draconiantreatment of those who had dared to speak openly of their political beliefs, 17 and pronounces himselfto be a democrat stressing that ‘it will be impossible’ for him not to ‘inculcate principles ofgovernment and forms of social order of one kind or another’:Besides essays on morals and politics I think I could communicate critical remarks uponpoetry &c, &c, upon the arts of painting, gardening, and other subjects of amusement. But I16 Legouis drew heavily on these letters, as did all subsequent biographers, since they provide the only solidevidence about Wordsworth’s state of mind, and his thinking, during this period.17 Thomas Hardy, Thomas Holcroft, Horne Tooke and John Thelwall had all just been imprisoned on charges ofHigh Treason.170