6 Margaret King, Mary’s dear friend, and pupil in Ireland, later Countess Mount Cashel, and still later, after leaving her husband and living in Italy as the wife of George William Tighe, M.P. of Co. Wicklow, they were known as ‘Mr. and Mrs. Mason,’ a name she adopted from the heroine of her governess’s Original Stories.
178 HEPES TO: FOHN SON LETTER IX Saturday Night...I have been very ill—Heaven knows it was more than fancy...I even imagined that I intruded on you, because you never called on me— though you perceived that I was not well...I acknowledge that life is but a jest—and often a frightful dream—yet catch myself every day searching for something serious—and feel real misery from the disappointment. I am a strange compound of weakness and resolution! However, if I must suffer, I will endeavour to suffer in silence. There is certainly a great defect in my mind—my wayward heart creates its own misery—Why I am made thus I cannot tell; and, till I can form some idea of the whole of my existence, I must be content to weep and dance like a child—long for a toy, and be tired of it as soon as I get it.
We must each of us wear a cap and bells; but mine, alas! has lost its bells, and is grown so heavy, I find it intolerably troublesome.—Good- night! I have been pursuing a number of strange thoughts since I began to write, and have actually wept and laughed immoderately—Surely I am a fool Mary W.
Mary W.
LETTER X Monday morning.
I really want a German grammar, as I intend to attempt to learn that language—and I will tell you the reason why.—While I live, I am persuaded, I must exert my understanding to procure an independence, and render myself useful. To make the task easier, I ought to store my mind with 179 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS knowledge—The seed-time is passing away. I see the necessity of labouring now—and of that necessity I do not complain; on the contrary, Iam thankful that I have more than common incentives to pursue knowledge, and draw my pleasures from the employments that are within my reach. You perceive that this is not a gloomy day—lI feel at this moment particularly grateful to you—without your humane and delicate assistance, how many obstacles should I not have to encounter—too often should I have been out of patience with my fellow- creatures, whom I wish to love!—Allow me to love you, my dear sir, and call friend a being I respect. —Adieu! Mary W.
LETTER XIV? [July 1788].
I send you all the books I had to review except Dia ’s Sermons, which I have begun. If you wish me to look over any more trash this month— you must send it directly. I have been so lowspirited since I saw you—I was quite glad, lastnight, to feel myself affected by some passages in Drie. *s sermon on the death of his wife—I seemed (suddenly) to find my soul again.—It has been for some time I cannot tell where. Send me the Speaker ® and Mary, I want one—and I 7 This letter furnished me with a clue to the whereabouts of Mary’s early contributions to The Analytical Review.
8 The Speaker; ov Miscellaneous Pieces, Selected from the best English Writers, and disposed under proper Heads, with a View to facilitate the Improvement of Youth in Reading and Speaking, as well as to lead young Persons into Some Acquaintance with the most valuable Writers, and impress upon their Minds Sentiments of Honour and Virtue. To which is prefixed, an Essay on Elocution. By W. Enfield, LL.D., Lecturer on the Belles Lettres, in the Academy at Warrington. London: Printed for J. Johnson, St. Paul’s Church-Yard. Price 3s. 6d.
180 LETTERS TO ¥OHNSON shall soon want some paper—you may as well send it at the same time—for I am trying to brace my nerves that I may be industrious—I am afraid reason is not a good bracer—for I have been reason- ing for a long time with my untoward spirits—and yet my hand trembles.—I could finish a period very prettily now, by saying that it ought to be steady when I add that I am yours sincerely M ARY. If you do not like the manner in which I reviewed Dr. J "SS on his wife, be it known unto you —I will not do it in any other way—I felt some plea- sure in paying a just tribute of respect to the memory of a man—who, in spite of his faults, I have an affection for—I say have, for I believe he is somewhere—where my soul has been gadding perhaps;—but you do not live by conjectures.
The letter which follows and concludes this series refers, I believe, to Mary’s masterful reply to Burke, and that it may therefore be dated (November 1790): My DEAR Sir, I send you a chapter which I am pleased with, now I see it in one point of view—and, as I have made free with the author, I hope you will not often have to say—what does this mean? You forgot you were to make out my account— I am, of course, over head and ears in debt; but I have not that kind of pride, which makes some dislike to be obliged to those they respect.— On the contrary, when I involuntarily lament that I have not a father or brother, I thankfully recollect that I have received unexpected kindness from you and a few others.—So reason allows, what nature impels me to—for I cannot live without loving my fellow-creatures—nor can I love them, without discovering some virtue.
181 Mary.
SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS The time has now come to introduce a person who exercised a considerable influence on this part of Mary’s life. Henry Fuseli was born (Heinrich Fiiessli) in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1741. He came to England in 1763 and early made the acquaintance of Joseph Johnson, bookseller, who was then just starting in business for himself.
An interesting and well written contemporary opinion of Fuseli is given by William Hazlitt in his essay On the Old Age of Artists. He says: Mr. Fuseli’s conversation is more striking and extravagant, but less pleasing and natural than Mr. Northcote’s. He deals in paradoxes and caricatures. He talks allegories and personifica- tions, as he paints them. You are sensible of effort without any repose—no careless pleasantry—no traits of character or touches from nature—every thing is laboured or overdone. His ideas are gnarled, hard, and distorted, like his features—his theories stalking and straddle-legged, like his gait— his projects aspiring and gigantic, like his gestures —his performance uncouth and dwarfish, like his person. His pictures are also like himself, with eye-balls of stone stuck in rims of tin, and muscles twisted together like ropes or wires.
Yet Fuseli is undoubtedly a man of genius, and capable of the most wild and grotesque combina- tions of fancy. It is a pity that he never applied himself to painting, which must always be reduced to the test of the senses. He is a little like Dante or Ariosto; but no more like Michael Angelo, Raphael, or Corregio, than I am, Nature, he complains, puts him out. Yet he can laugh at artists who ‘ paint ladies with iron lap-dogs’; and he describes the great masters of old in words and 182 ———-_— = = so —- bine ae \ PRIENDSHIP WITH FUSELT images full of truth, and glancing from a pen or tongue of fire.
I conceive any person would be more struck with Mr. Fuseli at first sight, but would wish to visit Mr. Northcote oftener. There is a bold and startling outline in his style of talking, but not the delicate finishing or bland tone that there is in that of the latter. Whatever there is harsh or repulsive about him is, however, in a great degree carried off by his animated accent and broken English, which give character where there is none, and soften its asperities where it is too abrupt and violent.
I am inclined to date the beginning of Mary’s acquaintance with this artist in June or July 1788, a month or two after his marriage with Sophia Rawlins. John Knowles fixed the date of their meeting two years later; but, since they were both early contri- butors to The Analytical Review and must have met frequently at Johnson’s house, their first acquaintance probably began soon after the magazine was founded. The principal authority for their relations, which were at all times purely Platonic, is Fuseli’s biographer John Knowles. His account, which has been carefully avoided by Mary’s commentators, contains not a single fact derogatory to her. Here are a few extracts from his book.® Several publications having gone so far as totally to misrepresent the nature of his [Fuseli’s] inter- course with this highly-gifted lady, it becomes the duty of his biographer to give a plain statement opfacts,...°The Life and Writings of Henry Fuselt, Esq...London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, 1831. 183 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS Mary, Knowles goes on to say, recognised Fuseli’s talent for conversation, his ‘ great power and fluency © of words, a poetical imagination and ready wit.’
Talents such as these, Mrs. Wollstonecraft acknowledged she never saw united in the same person; and they accordingly made a_ strong impression on her mind. ‘ For,’ said she, ‘ l always catch something from the rich torrent of his con- versation, worth storing up in my memory, to exercise my understanding.’ She falsely reasoned with herself, and expressed to some of her intimate friends, that although Mrs. Fuseli had a right to the person of her husband, she, Mrs. Wollstonecraft, might claim, and, for congeniality of sentiments and talents, hold a place in his heart, for ‘ she hoped,’ she said, ‘ to unite herself to his mind.’...
At length Mrs. Wollstonecraft appears to have grown desperate, for she had the temerity to go to Mrs. Fuseli, and to tell her that she wished to become an inmate in her family: and she added, ‘as Iam above deceit, it is right to say that this proposal arises from the sincere affection that I have for your husband, for I feel that I cannot live without the satisfaction of seefng and conversing with him daily.’...This frank avowal immediately opened the eyes of Mrs. Fuseli, who...not only refused her solicitation, but she instantly forbade her the house. No resource was now left to Mrs. Wollstonecraft, but to fly from the object which she regarded: her determination was instantly fixed; she wrote a letter to Fuseli, in which she begged pardon ‘for having disturbed the quiet tenour of his life,’ and on the 8th of December 1792, left London for Paris.
All communication ceased between the parties from this time until after Mrs. Wollstonecraft’s marriage with Mr. Godwin. Fuseli noticed this 184 ..
Pr eNO SHEP WITH FUSE LI occurrence in a letter to a friend, in the following terms: ‘ You have not, perhaps, heard that the assertrix of female rights has given her hand to the balancier of political justice.’
Fuseli saw Mrs. Godwin but seldom; he dined only once at her table. Indeed, this lady did not live very long to enjoy the happiness she had pictured to herself, in being the wife of a man of genius and talents; for she died on the 1oth September 1797, after giving birth to a female child,} who has proved herself, by works of imagination, to be worthy of her parents. Fuseli could not but feel much regret on the occasion; but as ‘ grief does not give utterance in words,’ so he barely noticed the catastrophe in the postscript of a letter to Mr. Roscoe, in these terms.—‘ Poor Mary!’
The letters which Mary wrote to Fuseli during this period, and which Knowles says ‘ he would allow...to be some days unopened in his pocket,’ seem to have disappeared—at least I have not been able to discover them. Fuseli apparently kept them, although Mary, in a letter she wrote to him in October 1796, and which will later appear, asked him to return them, for ‘ it must be the same to you.’ Godwin also tried to get Fuseli to return them, perhaps when he was writing Memoirs. For this attempt I have MS. evidence: Godwin went to Fuseli for her letters to him. Fuseli opened a drawer, showed the packets and then shut the drawer saying ‘ Damn you, that is all you will see of them.’?
1 Mrs. Bysshe Shelley. 2C.G.M.G. MS. This, and other brief notes to follow are written in the hand of the late Rt. Hon. Charles George Milnes Gaskell (1842-1919), P.C., LL.D., M.A., D.L., J.P., 185 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS I can trace these elusive letters down to 1884, but. at that date or a few years later, they disappear. Knowles, as Fuseli’s literary executor, received them in 1825, and must have had them until the publication of his biography in 1831. The next trace I find is a_ letter in Notes and Queries (4th S. VI. November 19, 1870, p. 434).
LETTERS OF MARY WOLLSTONCRAFT Let me make a note in your columns (as Mary Wollstonecraft’s name has lately been mentioned there) that I have the autograph letters written by her to Fuseli.
Kenilworth. E. H. KNow es.
In 1884 these letters were in the possession of Sir Percy Florence Shelley, Mary’s grandson. He had probably noticed Knowles’ note, and purchased them. Elizabeth Robins Pennell writes me: of Thornes House, Yorks, on the fly-leaf of his copy of the second edition of the Memoirs now in my possession. As unquestionable authority he cites as his source Mrs. Procter, née Skepper, b. 1799, daughter of Thomas Skepper of York, wife of Bryan Waller Procter (1787-1874), ‘ Barry Cornwall.’ Miss Skepper’s mother, as a widow, married Basil Montagu, Mary’s good friend, making Miss Skepper Montagu’s step-daughter. Miss S. is spoken of as ‘a lady of great gifts both social and intellectual,’ and Procter’s biographer says that after her marriage to Procter, ‘ by her brilliant qualities she made his house one of the chief centres of London society for a space of nearly half a century.’ They were married in 1824, and in 1825 and for several years after, the Procters lived with the Montagus at 25 Bedford Square. Since Basil Montagu (1770-1851) was an intimate friend of both Mary and Godwin, his step- daughter must have received the information at first hand. we Milnes Gaskell dated his notes December 29 and 30, 1887. 186 “THE FEMALE READER” “THE FEMALE READER” When I wrote my book all the Wollstonecraft and Shelley MSS. were in the possession of Sir Percy Florence Shelley...After my book was published—or at the last minute before it was issued—I learned that among these things were Mary’s correspondence with Fuseli. I wrote to Sir Percy to ask him if he would allow me to publish these letters, or, at least, to see them. But he was not willing. He wrote very politely but without giving me the least hope that he would change his mind.
To whom the letters passed or where they now are, I have been unable to discover.
For 1789 I can mention only one book by Mary, but can give one of her noble letters. The book is The Female Reader, a compilation on the plan of Enfield’s Speaker, into which, her publisher Johnson says, she introduced ‘some original pieces, and prefixed a preface to it.’ I can give no clue to these, as the only copy of The Female Reader that I know of is in the British Museum.
The letter was written to a ‘ Mr. Cristall,’ about the welfare of whose ‘amiable sister’ Mary expresses considerable solicitude. This is probably that Ann Batten Cristall whose name is written on the title-page of Locker-Lampson’s copy of the novel Mary, and whose book of poems ° was reviewed in The Analytical Review (22: 326). This lady was a friend of Southey, who writes that she is ‘a fine, artless, sensible girl,’ and that ‘ her heart is alive, she loves retirement, she loves the country...she has genius.’
3 Poems by Ann Batten Cristall. (Johnson.) The British Museum attributes to this woman a volume entitled Poetical Sketches (London 1795) which is probably the same book.
187 ’ SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS Mary’s letter is addressed to: Mr. Cristall, Mr. Turner’s China Manufacture near Brosely Salop.
London, March 19th (1789).
I was a little angry with you for sending a copy of Mr. Blood’s letter to Charles; but I will let my resentment subside for the present and only write about your own affairs. I think you ingenious— yet I am afraid that you are too sanguine in your expectation of succeeding as an artist.—Besides abilities a happy concurrence of circumstances is necessary to enable a painter to earn a livelihood— and many years of anxiety and painful industry must be passed before a man of superior talents can look with any certainty for tomorrow’s subsistence; you admired Mr. Horne’s pictures, yet he was obliged to leave the kingdom, because he could not get employment—and Mr. F. with his original genius and uncommon diligence had a very pre- carious support till the Shakespearian plan com- menced. In short I could mention many other instances, but it appears unnecessary—for you will not put yourself on a par with Mr. Horne I am sure —however my arguments are not brought forward to discourage you from following in some degree your bent.—I only wish to caution you against the headstrong ardour of youth. Pursue your studies,: practice as much as you can, but do not think: of depending on painting for a subsistence before you know the first rudiments of the art. I know that you earnestly wish to be the friend and protector of your amiable sister and hope no inconsiderate act or thoughtless mode of conduct will add to her cares—for her comfort very much depends on you.
I find Mr. Turner intends to send you to travel for him very soon; this will in every respect be a 188 ¥ Wit ioe LO, AR ROR STALL great advantage to you,—you will see the country, form connexions and have more leisure to improve. Pray let me hear from you soon, and tell me what you intend to do and I will candidly give you my opinion and as I have more experience than you it may be useful to you. I now write in a hurry— because the post is going out, but I wish I could forcibly represent to you the necessity of following your inclinations with caution. A manly character is of the greatest importance in any line—and if you determine to leave Mr. Turner when your time expires I hope you will be careful not to quarrel with him.
Charles is now at Cork eating the bread of idleness, and living on the kindness of relations who do not respect him. His example ought to impress you— it is a great disadvantage to a young man to be thought unsettled. How do you come on with your Music and Drawing.—You scarcely know what industry is required to arrive at a degree of perfection in the fine arts, and how dreadful it is to plunge into the world without friends or acknowledged abilities. I have lately made some enquiries, and I think it will be next to madness for you to launch out before you have made any preparatory steps. London is not now paved with gold and a false step in the beginning of life frequently th(r)ows a gloomy cloud over the fairest hopes. If you determine to endeavour to become a painter—declare your intention to your Master, father and friends ina manly manner, when you have arranged to do so, and act with firmness instead of rashness, I shall then begin to think that you have some chance to succeed—a wise man may be rash—but only a strong understanding may enable a youth to act with firmness. Should I perceive such strength of mind in you I shall suppose that you follow the impulse of nature and are not led 189 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS away by unprincipled wishes—wild desires (of) which nature you selfishly forgot your sister’s peace of mind—and your own future advantage, virtue is self-denial—if you cannot bear some present inconvenience you are a common man and will never arise to any degree of eminence in any- thing you undertake. Iam yours MW.
There are two reasons for assigning this letter to 1789. In the first place Charles ‘ now at Cork eating the bread of idleness,’ she ‘ placed with a farmer for instruction’ before sending him to America in ‘ the latter end of 1792,’ and I am inclined to date her reference to him in Cork about two or three years before he finally sailed. The second reason is that the ‘ Shakespearian plan’ which benefited F.(useli) was begun in 1786, and its first exhibition, in the Shakespeare Gallery, Pall Mall, occurred in 1789, with thirty-four paintings. The Analytical Review, October 1788 (2: 234-6) carried, under the heading THE ARTs, an article not signed, but (I feel sure) written by Mary, from which the. following may be quoted: In the commencement of this work we promised to notice the progressive steps of the Fine Arts, and we are happy to congratulate the public on the turn which the age is likely to give to the execution of painting and engraving. The magnificent scheme of Messrs. Boydell, for a series of pictures from Shakespeare, will of course present itself here to all who claim acquaintance with the productions _ * This letter has never before been printed. The original is in The Henry E. Huntington Library and Art Gallery, San Marino, California, and my transcript was taken from a photostat reproduction.
190 aaa i i a MAR TIOAS ART =-CRITICG of taste. The proposals of his plan dispersed over these kingdoms, and probably over all Europe, render it unnecessary for us to enter into a minute detail of this intended edition of our great poet, and leave us at liberty to prepare our readers, by an account of the pictures already finished or sketched out, for the pleasure they may promise themselves at the magnificent saloons, which are now preparing for their exhibition.
Sir Joshua Reynolds has nearly finished the terrific scene of the Death of Cardinal Beaufort, from the second part of Henry VI.
Mr. West has painted a scene of Lear in the Storm; of which an engraving is begun by Mr. Sharpe.
She gives four lines to Barry; three lines to the combination of Romney, Gilpin and Hodges—all working on the scenery of the Forest of Arden; and then these eight lines to Fuseli: Mr. Fuseli has finished pictures of Lear renounc- ing Cordelia, now engraving by Mr. Earlom; of Macbeth and Banquo addressing the Witches in the Storm; intended, as the proposals tell us, for Mr. Bartalozzi; of Hamlet following the Ghost of his Father; of Henry the Fifth discovering the Conspiracy of Scroop, Cambridge and Grey; and the same artist, we understand, is preparing a scene from the Midsummer Night's Dream of Titania introducing her fairies to Bottom.
Mary allows Opie and the Rev. Mr. Peters three lines each; five to Northcote; Hamilton three; Rigaud, Downman, Wheatly and Durno two each. She then concludes with this paragraph:...It is certainly to be wished, that in the progress of so great, we will say, so national a plan, 191 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS as much attention as possible might be exerted to choose such subjects, such moments, as distinguish — Shakespeare from all other poets, and set him above all rivalship; but whether that be attainable or — not, we should consider ourselves as egregiously deviating from our plan, were we to obtrude on the - public our individual opinion of the comparative — merits of the pictures already painted, till by exhibition they are become the property of general criticism. We shall only observe that we consider the plan of Messrs. Boydell as a nursery of historic painting, as a hint towards the true method of calling forth the grandeur of art in a country whose religion, climate, and fashions, have hitherto repressed it; and as a full refutation of that imputed sterility of genius with which the criticism of the continent has hitherto branded the production of Britain.
192 Lin rk wna ignore "Om bmi Sree A soe ooh oe rend ““ Look, what a fine morning it is!”
From the original drawing by William Blake (cf: below, pp. 207-11) Re a ae SURE ah he spp en ee a ee IV 1790-1791 RICHARD PRICE v. EDMUND BURKE. A VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF MEN.
In 1789 and 1790 a three-cornered battle was joined between Mary’s friend Dr. Richard Price, Edmund Burke and Mary herself. Dr. Price was the originator of the trouble. On November 4, 1789, he delivered a ‘ Discourse’ at the meeting-house in Old Jewry to the Society for Commemorating the Revolution in Great Britain (of 1688). This speech was printed the same year.! Only the last page or two touch on the French revolution, but these contained passages that helped to provoke Burke to his famous Reflections on the Revolution in France. Two, in. particular, roused the great orator’s hostility. The first is this: This Society has, very properly, in its Reports, held out these principles, as an instruction to the 1A Discourse on the Love of our Country, Delivered on Nov. 4, 1789. At the Meeting-House in the Old Jewry, To ‘the Society for Commemorating the Revolution in Great Brita by Richard) Prices DID: LL.D:; F.R.S., and ‘Fellow of the American Philosophical Societies at Phila- )delphia and Boston. 8vo. 64 pp. Price 3s. 6d. Cadell. +1789.
M.W. 193 N SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS public. I will only take notice of the three follow- — ing: 3 First: The right to liberty of conscience in religious: matters.
Secondly: The right to resist power when abused, And Thirdly: The right to chuse our own governors; to cashier them for misconduct; and to frame a government for ourselves. And the second: What an eventful period is this! I am thankful that I have lived to it; and I could almost say, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, for mine eyes have seen thy salvation. I have lived to see a diffusion of knowledge, which has undermined superstition and error. I have lived to see the rights of men better understood than ever; and nations panting for liberty, which seemed to have lost the idea of it—I have lived to see THIRTY Mitttons of people, indignant and resolute, spurning at slavery, and demanding liberty with an irre- sistible voice; their king led in triumph, and an arbitrary monarch surrendering himself to his subjects. After sharing in the benefits of one Revolution, I have been sparéd to be a witness to two other Revolutions, both glorious. And now, methinks, I see the ardour of liberty catching and spreading; a general amendment beginning in human affairs; the dominion of kings changed for the dominion of laws, and the dominion of priests giving way to the dominion of reason and con- SClencGsa.., Burke’s book, although long expected, did not appear until November I, 1790.?
* Reflections | on the | Revolution in France, | and on the | Proceedings in Certain Societies | in London | Relative to that Event. | In a / Letter / intended to have been sent 194 PhPHECRIGHTSA OR MEN" He comments on Price’s ‘ principles’: This new, and hitherto unheard of, bill of rights though made in the name of the whole people, belongs to those gentlemen and their faction only. The body of the people of England have no share init. They utterly disclaim it. His tremendous denunciation of the barbarities of the revolutionary mob is too well known to need quotation here, but it may be remarked that Dr. Price, in the preface to the fourth edition of his Discourse, maintained that he was alluding to the destruction of the Bastille in July 1789 and not, as Burke in his fierce response assumed, to the seizure of the king and queen on October 6. The point is not of great importance, but helps to explain some part of Mary’s vehemence in her counter-attack on Burke.
This counter-attack was made without loss of time. Two editions of her A Vindication of the Rights of Men, In a Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke, Occasioned by his Reflections on the Revolution in France, appeared in November and December 1790, preceded by the anonymous ‘ Short Observations on the Right Honourable Edmund Burke’s Reflections,’ and by ‘A Letter to the Rt. Hon. Edmund Burke, in Reply to his Reflections on the French Revolution, By a Member of the Revolution Society.’
Her Advertisement, and a few brief passages from the early pages of the text, will indicate the manner in which she made her assault.
to a Gentleman / in Paris. / By the Right Honourable ay Edmund Burke. / (printer’s line) / London: / Printed for 7’ J. Dodsley in Pall-Mall. / m.pcc.xc.
TQ5 _” SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS —@ _ ADVERTISEMENT.
Mr. Burke’s Reflections on the French Revolu- tion first engaged my attention as the transient topic of the day; and reading it more for amuse- ment than information, my indignation was roused by the sophistical arguments, that every moment crossed me, in the questionable shape of natural feelings and common sense.
Many pages of the following letter were the effusions of the moment; but, swelling considerably in size, the idea was suggested of publishing a short Vindication of the Rights of Men. But not having leisure or patience to follow this desultory writer through all the devious tracks in which his fancy started fresh game, I have confined my strictures, in a great measure, to the grand principles at which he has levelled many ingenious arguments in a very specious garb.
A LETTER TO THE Right Honourable EpbMuND BURKE SIR, It is not necessary, with courtly insincerity, to apologise to you for thus intruding on your precious time, nor to profess that I think it an honour to discuss an important subject with a man whose literary abilities have raised him to notice in the state. I have not yet learned to twist my periods, nor, in the equivocal idiom of politeness, to disguise my sentiments, and imply what I should be afraid to utter: if, therefore, in the course of this epistle, I chance to express contempt, and even indignation, with some emphasis, I beseech you to believe that it was not a flight of fancy; for truth, in morals, has ever appeared to me the essence of the sublime; 196 Witte RIGHTS OR MEN” and, in taste, simplicity, the only criterion of the beautiful. But I war not with an individual when I contend for the rights of men and the liberty of reason.
I glow with indignation when I attempt, metho- dically, to unravel your slavish paradoxes, in which I can find no fixed principle to refute; I shall not, therefore, condescend to show you where you affirm in one page what you deny in another; and how frequently you draw conclusions without any previous premises:—it would be something like cowardice to fight with a man who had never exercised the weapons which his opponent chose to combat with.
I know that you have a mortal antipathy to reason; but, if there is any thing like argument, or first principles, in your wild declamation, behold the result:—that we are to reverence the rust of antiquity, and term the unnatural customs, which ignorance and mistaken self-interest have con- solidated, the sage fruit of experience; and that, if we do discover some errors, our feelings should lead us to excuse, with blind love, or unprincipled filial affection, the venerable vestiges of ancient days. These are gothic notions of beauty—the ivy is beautiful though it insidiously destroys the trunk from which it receives support.
Mary opened her defence of Dr. Price against Burke’s violent attack with these remarks: In reprobating Dr. Price’s opinions you might have spared the man; and if you had had but half as much reverence for the grey hairs of virtue as for the accidental distinctions of rank, you would not have treated with such indecent familiarity and supercilious contempt, a member of the com- munity whose talents and modest virtues place him high in the scale of moral excellence. I am 197 SUPPLEMENT TO MEMOIRS not accustomed to look up with vulgar awe, even when mental superiority exalts a man above his fellows; but still the sight of a man whose habits are fixed by piety and reason, and virtues consoli- dated into goodness, commands my homage—and I should touch his errors with a tender hand when I made a parade of my sensibility...
I could almost fancy that I now see the respectable old man, in his pulpit, with hands clasped, and eyes devoutly fixed, praying with all the simple energy of unaffected piety; or, when more erect, inculcat- ing the dignity of virtue, and enforcing the doctrines his life adorns; benevolence animated each feature, and persuasion attuned his accents, the preacher grew eloquent, who only laboured to be clear; and the respect that he extorted, seemed only the respect due to personified virtue and matured wisdom. Is this the man you brand with so many opprobrious epithets, he whose private life will stand the test of the strictest enquiry—away with such unmanly sarcasms and puerile concepts: As Mary approached the conclusion of her reply to Burke, the vehement indignation with which she began it seems to have waned. She indulged in many observations, which, without a close examination of the context (and sometimes even with it), appear to have little relevance to her subject. But even these digressions are not without interest—particularly the one that, as evidence of Mary’s mysticism, has been quoted in the Preface.
G. R. Stirling Taylor makes admirable comment on Mary’s reply: Mary threw herself on her opponent-with the rush of a cavalry charge. It is one of the most dashing 3 Above, p. XXxXviii. 198 TRANSLATIONS