IT IS NOW WIDELY ACCEPTED THAT BOTH GODWIN'S TREATISE, AN ENQUIRY Concerning Political Justice (1793) and his major work of fiction, Things As They Are; Or, The Adventures of Caleb Williams (1794) are to achieve change and also designed to refute case for status quo familiarised, above all, by Burke.(1) Nevertheless, two books must be designed to fulfill this objective in different ways, if only because design--the form--of a novel and a treatise are different. It has been convincingly argued--notably by Gary Kelly, Pamela Clemit and Jon Klancher--that Godwin was alert to complexity of relationship between politics and form.(2) The present essay shares that view, while also making a number of further claims. The relationship between politics and is in fact, I shall argue, a principal preoccupation of both Political Justice and Caleb Williams. I shall also argue, however, that Godwin's treatment of' this relationship is as interesting for its uncertainties as for its intelligence, uncertainties which derive in part from semantic instability of vocabulary available for its discussion. To focus a discussion of and politics on and is immediately to beg one of questions it is my purpose to answer. That is, is a a political institution? The answer to that question will clearly depend on what is meant by word family; and it will also depend, I shah suggest, on what is meant by word story. In what follows I shall explore relationship between stories and families in Caleb Williams and Political Justice by focusing on Godwin's often puzzling use of two groups of words: on one hand, words used to describe or features of narrative, including story, history, and narrative itself; on other hand, words for significant social relationships, including family, domestic, servant and master. These words--the words and social words--have always been complex. They were especially complex in period of Godwin's writing life because they were all undergoing semantic transformation. They are of course distinct lexical groups and a change of meaning within one group does not necessarily or immediately entail a shift of meaning in other. The two groups are nevertheless connected, if only because changes in all these words helped to alter way in which distinction between public life and private life was conceived. Private life came to be associated with, on one hand, family as James Mill defined it in 1829, the group which consists of father, mother, and children,(3) and, on other hand, with a conception of personal identity that was inward in specific sense of being detached--in a way I shall describe--from any open connection to representation. It is interesting to watch some of these words at work in specific passages. In Preface written for first edition of Caleb Williams in 1794, Godwin tells his readers that following is intended to answer a purpose more general and important than immediately appears upon face of it. The question now afloat in world respecting THINGS AS THEY ARE, is most interesting that can be presented to human mind. While one party pleads for reformation and change, other extols, in warmest terms, existing constitution of society. It seemed as if something would be gained for decision of [the] question, if that constitution were faithfully developed in its practical effects. What is now presented to public, is no refined and abstract speculation; it is a study and delineation of things passing in moral world. It is but of late that inestimable importance of political principles has been adequately apprehended. It is now known to philosophers, that spirit and character of government intrudes itself into every rank of society. …