together, and held endless talk of metaphysics, pre-existence,
and the sceptical philosophy, on winter walks across country,
and all night beside the fire, until Shelley would curl up on
the hearthrug and go to sleep. He was happy because he was left
to himself. With all his thoughts and impulses, ill-controlled
indeed, but directed to the acquisition of knowledge for the
benefit of the world, such a student would nowadays be a marked
man, applauded and restrained. But the Oxford of that day was
a home of "chartered laziness." An academic circle absorbed in
intrigues for preferment, and enlivened only by drunkenness and
immorality, could offer nothing but what was repugnant to
Shelley. He remained a solitary until the hand of authority
fell and expelled him.

He had always had a habit of writing to strangers on the
subjects next his heart. Once he approached Miss Felicia
Dorothea Browne (afterwards Mrs. Hemans), who had not been
encouraging. Now half in earnest, and half with an impish
desire for dialectical scores, he printed a pamphlet on 'The
Necessity of Atheism', a single foolscap sheet concisely
proving that no reason for the existence of God can be valid,
and sent it to various personages, including bishops, asking
for a refutation. It fell into the hands of the college
authorities. Summoned before the council to say whether he was
the author, Shelley very properly refused to answer, and was
peremptorily expelled, together with Hogg, who had intervened
in his behalf.

The pair went to London, and took lodgings in a house where a
wall-paper with a vine-trellis pattern caught Shelley's fancy.