[In the Relics of Shelley Mr. Garnett published a letter from Mrs. Shelley to Mrs. Leigh Hunt, wherein mention is made of Shelley's "Essay on Devils." Mr. Garnett said in a note (page 131), "This amusing fragment was prepared for publication in 1839, with the rest of Shelley's prose works, but withdrawn, for reasons which seven other essayists have since conspired to deprive of much of their weight." The preparations went so far as setting up in type, with such omissions as pre-Essays-and-Reviews expediency seemed to demand. In a proof, however, which was preserved, Mrs. Shelley reinserted the omitted passages: this proof is in the possession of Sir Percy and Lady Shelley, who have kindly allowed me the privilege of first giving to the world this remarkable example of Shelley's lighter mood. The essay is given from the interpolated proof, the MS. not being at hand. Adverting to the remarks quoted at page 376 of this volume, on the subject of a "Lucianic essay," it is to be observed that, in the essay on the Devil and Devils, as preserved, there is no explicit setting-forth of the thesis that the Holy Ghost and then God the Father follow the Devil in departing from the popular belief. It is true that the Devil is described as the weak point, outwork, and so on, of the Christian faith; and had the essay been finished the line indicated might probably have been followed. It seems possible that the preceding fragment, The Elysian Field, may be a portion of an essay dealing with these matters independently in another method, or that Shelley began to approach this subject in the form of a Lucianic epistle, and then rejected that form in favour of the present.—H. B. F.]
