a woman of uncommon talents and considerable knowledge: well known throughout Europe by her literary works...Her manners were gentle, easy, and elegant, her conversation intelligent and amusing, without the least trace of literary pride or the apparent consciousness of powers above the level of her sex; and for soundness of under- standing, and sensibility of heart, she was, perhaps, rarely equalled. Her practical skill in education was even superior to her speculations upon that subject; nor is it possible to express the misfortune sustained, in that respect, by her children.
In this year two poems about her by Southey were published. The first occurs in some lines from his metrical Introduction to his friend Joseph Cottle’s Icelandic Poetry, or The Edda of Saemund. Southey’s part of the book is dated ‘ Bristol, November I, 1797.
Amid such scenes as these, the Poet’s soul Might best attain full growth; pine cover’d rocks, And mountain forests of eternal shade, And glens and vales on whose green quietness The lingering eye reposes, and fair lakes That image the light foliage of the beech, Or the grey glitter of the aspen leaves On the still bough still trembling. Scenes like these Have almost lived before me, when I gazed Upon their faint remembrance traced by him % Who sung the banished man of Ardebeil, * Charles Fox, author of Some Views in Norway. XXX PREPACE TO MEMOIRS Or to the eye of Fancy held by her,* Who among women left no equal mind When from this world she passed; and I could weep, To think that She is to the grave gone down!
The other is from Southey’s Poems, and appears as a Dedication to his poem entitled The Triumph of Woman. It was written in 1795.
To Mary WOLLSTONECRAFT.
The lily cheek, the ‘ purple light of love,’ The liquid lustre of the melting eye,— Mary! of these the Poet sung, for these Did Woman triumph: turn not thou away Contemptuous of the theme. No Maid of Arc Had in those ages for her country’s cause Wielded the sword of freedom; no Roland Had borne the palm of female fortitude; No Cordé, with self-sacrificing zeal, Had glorified again the Avenger’s name, As erst when Caesar perished, haply too, Some strains may hence be drawn, befitting me To offer, nor unworthy thy regard.
In 1799 Godwin drew her portrait in the character of Marguerite Louise Isabeau de Damville in his novel St. Leon: A Tale of the Sixteenth Century: I cannot even now recollect her without tears...That incomparable woman the first time I saw her made a deep impression on me...The purity of her mind seemed to give a celestial brilliancy and softness to her person...Her complexion was of the most perfect transparency, her eyes sparkling and her eyebrows long. Such was the perfect 4 Mary Wollstonecraft, ¢ XXX] PREFACE TO '(MEMOTRS smoothness and clearness of her skin that she appeared five years younger than she was, and she long retained this extreme juvenility of form. Her step was airy and light as that of a young faun, yet at the same time firm, and indicative of strength of body and vigour of mind...
She is a treasure, the equal of which, perhaps, the world does not hold...In understanding, accom- plishments, and virtue I firmly believe no woman living can compare with her...She has all the simplicity of genuine taste. The more she delivered herself up to nature, the greater was her content. All superfluous appendages and show appeared to her as so many obstacles to enjoyment. She derived her happiness from the tone of her own mind, and stood in no need of the gaping admiration and stupid wonder of others to make herself happy...Marguerite seemed to shed ambrosial odours round her; her touch was thrilling; her figure was that of a descended deity...Amidst the singular assemblage of her intellectual accomplishments, there was nothing by which she was so much distinguished as the uncommon prudence of her judgment, and the unalterable amiability of her Mainers.
Her defects, if defects she had, drew their pedigree from rectitude of sentiment and perception, from the most generous sensibility, from a heart pervaded and leavened with tenderness.
William Blake must have been one of Mary’s friends, as there is no doubt that they met frequently at Johnson’s, and he made engrav- ings for two of Mary’s books—Original Stories from Real Life, and Elements of Morality.
I believe that Blake’s poem Mary, in the Pickering MS., is based on the character and XXXil PREFACE TO MEMOIRS life of our own Mary. S. Foster Damon, in his recently published William Blake, His Philosophy and Symbols, is of the same opinion. Dr. Sampson, another authority on Blake, from internal evidence says Mary ‘ was certainly written before August 16, 1803.’ The first three verses are all that belong here: Sweet Mary, the first time she ever was there, Came into the ball-room among the fair; The young men and maidens around her throng, And these are the words upon every tongue: ‘ An angel is here from the heavenly climes, Or again does return the golden climes; Her eyes outshone every brilliant ray, She opens her lips—’tis the month of May.’
Mary moves in sweet beauty and conscious delight, To augment with sweet smiles all the joys of the night, Nor once blushes to own to the rest of the fair That sweet Love and Beauty are worthy our care.
The testimony, so far, has come from Mary’s friends—from people who knew and loved her. The ones that follow (with the exception of the first) are from those born too late to have known her, but all possessing the same affection for her.
The first is from A Defence of the Character and Conduct of the late Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin (1803). The anonymous author of this book was evidently not even an acquaint- 5 William Blake: His Philosophy and Symbols. London: Constable & Co. Ltd. 1924. XXXI11 PREFACE LO MEM OTR oe ance, but gathered all his material from Mary’s © = books and Godwin’s Memoirs. Kegan Paul says this ‘ ‘‘ Defence ” is mingled with a good deal of venom.’ But, indeed, there is no venom in it. The writer really means to defend her, and he does. This is one of the many pleasant things he says about her: The leading traits in the character of Mary Wollstonecraft were activity, taste, sensibility, and a peculiar quickness of perception: her heart beat high with sentiments of generosity and a most comprehensive benevolence: her affections glowed with singular ardour towards all who became interested in her heart: and so great was her respect for the dictates of virtue and for what she believed to be the line of her moral duties, that no consideration of worldly applause could induce her to prevaricate, or to swerve in the least degree from the direct principles, which she had assumed as the regulators of her general conduct. The decisiveness of her judgment rendered her superior to evasions or deception: semblances and assumed characters, that have no natural foundation in the principles of her mind, were far remote from her; because it was her particular desire to appear in her true and genuine colours to the world.
Shelley, in his Dedication to Mary, his wife, of The Revolt of Islam (1817), had this to say of her mother: They say that thou were lovely from thy birth, Of glorious parents, thou aspiring child; I wonder not—for one then left this earth Whose life was like a setting planet mild, Which clothed thee in the radiance undefiled XXX1V PREPACE TO MEMOIRS Of its departing glory; still her fame Shines on thee, through the tempests dark and wild Which shake these latter days; and thou canst claim The shelter, from thy Sire, of an immortal name.
Her daughter, Mary Shelley, wrote of her that she was one of those beings who appear...to gild humanity with a ray which no difference of opinion nor chance of circumstances can cloud. Her genius was undeniable...Her sound understanding, her intrepidity, her sensibility and eager sympathy, stamped all her writings with force and truth, and endowed them with a tender charm which enchants while it enlightens. She was one whom all loved who had ever seen her. Many years have passed since that beating heart has been laid in the...grave, but no one who has ever seen her speaks of her without enthusiastic veneration.
And then an extract from an unsigned, undated, 18 pp. pamphlet in the New York Public Library, entitled Memoirs of William Godwin. Since the bibliography of Godwin’s books therein contained includes Cloudesley (1830), Godwin’s penultimate novel, but does not include Thoughts on Man (1831) or De- loraine (1833), I believe the pamphlet may be assigned to the year 1830: The writings of this celebrated woman are monuments to her moral and intellectual superio- rity. Her lofty spirit, her eager assertion of the claim of her sex, animate the Vindication of the Rights of Woman; while the sweetness and taste displayed in her Letters from Norway depict the XXXV PREFACE TO MEMOIRS softer qualities of her admirable character. Even now, those who have survived her so many years never speak of her but with uncontrollable en- thusiasm. Her unwearied exertions for the benefit of others, her rectitude, her independence, joined to a warm, affectionate heart, and the most refined softness of manners, made her the idol of all who knew her.
Kegan Paul, in the ‘ Prefatory Memoir’ to his edition of Letters to Imlay (1879) makes the following agreeable comment: Like her mind...her beauty would appear to have ripened late. In July 1792, Mrs. Bishop says in a letter to Everina that ‘ Charles informs me too that Mrs. Wollstonecraft is grown quite handsome.’ The grudging admission is more than confirmed by her portrait by Opie...which was painted for Godwin during the brief period of her marriage; long therefore after she had reached mature age, and when all the waves and storms of her sorrows had gone over her. More than one print was engraved of that portrait, in which is well preserved its tender, wistful, childlike, pathetic beauty, with a look of pleading against the hardness of the world, which I know in one only other face, that of Beatrice Cenci. But these prints can give no notion of the complexion, rich, full, healthy, vivid, of the clear brown eyes, and. masses of brownish auburn hair.
One final reference is from Allene Gregory’s The French Revolution and the English Novel (1915): Mary Wollstonecraft lives! One has an odd feeling of having known and talked with her somewhere—the girl of Opie’s portraits, with her sweet XXXV1 PREFACE TO MEMOIRS wistful face under the soft waves of dark auburn hair, the expressive brown eyes that Southey praised so, the sensitive, almost childlike mouth...Paine, Horne Tooke, Fordyce, Godwin, Fuseli, Holcroft, and all their brilliant circle welcomed her as an equal.
To the opinions expressed by Mary’s friends on her keen intellect and her great personal charm, may be added one more. Mysticism has never before been attributed to her (save by one hostile commentator) and yet there can be no shadow of doubt that it was one of her most pronounced qualities. Evidence of it appears in her writings all through her life.
The only person who had hitherto noticed this quality in Mary was the malignant Mrs. Jane West (1758-1852), who published many books, among which was one entitled Letters Addressed to a Young Man on His Furst Entrance into Life. In this work, which contains many venomous comments on Mary, Mrs. West chances, in one milder passage, to classify her ‘ among mystical and enthusiastic persons.’
Even as a child ‘sublime ideas filled her young mind’; she would sit and talk with angels who ‘sometimes visited this earth,’ and ‘ make little songs addressed to them, and sing them to tunes of her own composing.’ ‘The wandering spirits which inhabited every part of nature were her constant friends and 6 Three volumes. London: Printed for A, Strahan.
1801. XXXV11 PREFACE TO MEMOIRS -confidants.’ She at this time ‘formed just notions’ of the attributes of ‘ the Great First Cause,’ and ‘ dwelt on his wisdom and good- ness.’
In her Cave of Fancy, called by Godwin ‘a sort of oriental tale,’ which she composed soon after her arrival in London in 1787, at the age of twenty-eight, she writes: The sun was fled, what was this world to me! I wandered to another, where death and darkness could not enter; I pursued the sun beyond the mountains, and the soul escaped from this vale of tears. My reflections were tinged with melancholy, but they were sublime—I grasped a mighty whole, and smiled on the king of terrors; the tie which bound me to my friends he could not break; the same mysterious knot united me to the source of all goodness and happiness.
This striking passage concludes the Cave of Fancy: He who formed the human soul, only can fill it, and the chief happiness of an immortal being must arise from the same source as its existence. Earthly love leads to heavenly, and prepared us for a more exalted state; if it does not change its nature and destroy itself, by trampling on the virtue, that constitutes its essence, and allies us to the Deity.
The sensation, technically known as ‘a state of ecstasy,’ is again expressed in her reply to Burke, written three years later:...When we walk along the accustomed path, and, almost fancying nature dead, ask, Where art thou who gave life to these well-known scenes?
XXXVlil - PREFACE TO MEMOIRS When memory heightens former pleasures to contrast our present prospects—there is but one source of comfort within our reach; and in this sublime solitude the world appears to contain only the Creator and the creature, of whose happiness he is the source.
Towards the conclusion of her life Mary wrote in the fragmentary Hints, designed for a continuation of the Rights of Woman, a passage which again displays this feeling: .. reason in this world is the mother of wisdom —yet some flights of the imagination seem to reach what wisdom cannot teach—and, while they delude us here, afford a glorious hope, if not a foretaste, of what we may expect hereafter. He that created us, did not mean to mark us with ideal images of grandeur, the baseless fabric of a vision—No. That perfection we follow with hopeless ardour when the whisperings of reason are heard, may be found, when not incompatible with our state, in the round of eternity.
Mary’s adoration of imagination and fancy, and her corresponding disdain for base reason, resemble those of her friend William Blake. A further instance of her mysticism is supplied by a paragraph in her little essay On Poetry and Our Relish for the Beauties of Nature: Love to man leads to devotion—grand and sublime images strike the imagination—God is seen in every floating cloud, and comes from the misty mountain to receive the noblest homage of an intelligent creature—praise. How solemn is the moment, when all affections and remembrances fade before the sublime admiration which the wisdom XXX1X PREFACE TO MEMOIRS and goodness of God inspires, when he is worshippedin a temple not made with hands, and the world seems to contain only the mind that formed, and the mind that contemplates it! These are not the weak responses of ceremonial devotion; nor, to express them, would the poet need another poet’s aid; his _ heart burns within him, and he speaks the language of truth and nature with resistless energy!
In the last work Mary wrote—The Wrongs of Woman: or Maria, a Fragment—she still displays this feeling: I recollected with what fervour I addressed the God of my youth: and once more with rapturous love looked above my sorrows to the Father of nature. I pause—feeling forcibly all the emotions I am describing; and reminded, as I register my sorrows, of the sublime calm I have felt, when in some tremendous solitude, my soul rested on itself, and seemed to fill the universe; I insensibly breathe soft, hushing every wayward emotion, as if fearing to sully with a sigh, a contentment so ecstatic.
And, again, in the same Fragment: ...How had I panted for liberty—liberty that I would have purchased at any price, but that of my ownesteem! Irose, and shook myself; opened the window, and methought the air never smelled sosweet. The face of heaven grew fairer as I viewed it, and the clouds seemed to flit away obedient to my wishes, to give my soul room to expand. I was all soul, and (wild as it may appear) felt as if I could have dissolved in the soft balmy gale that kissed my cheek, or have glided below the horizon on the glowing, descending beams. A seraphic satisfaction animated, without agitating my spirits; and my imagination collected, in visions sublimely terrible, xl a a ; PREFACE TO MEMOIRS or soothingly beautiful, an immense variety of the endless images, which nature affords, and fancy combines, of the grand and fair. The lustre of these bright picturesque sketches faded with the setting sun; but I was still alive to the calm delight they had diffused through my heart.
Wishing to be quite sure that my inter- pretation was correct, I sent two of the preced- ing passages to Mr. Foster Damon, whose recent work on Blake has established him as an authority on mysticism. He replied: Your citations from Mary Wollstonecraft are certainly true mysticism: the record of authentic ecstasy. It is not, of course, of the enthusiastic and visionary degree which Blake cultivated; it..4s more akin to Wordsworth’s and Tennyson’s. But it is all the same ultimately. And the lines in which she expresses it are the most beautiful of hers that I have ever read.
I have now to express thanks and grateful acknowledgments to the many individuals who have kindly aided me in the production of this book.
Earliest, in point of time, to John Wilson Townsend, of Lexington, Kentucky, himself a Kentucky author, whose books: Kentuckians in History and Literature (1907) and Kentucky in American Letters (1913) first aroused my interest in Imlay; and to Miss Louise Kellogg of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Madison, and Mrs. Charles F. Norton, Librarian, Transylvania College, Lexington, for xli PREFACE TO MEMOIRS papers, letters and facts about that same person.
I am indebted to many librarians and members of library staffs, among whom I want to express my grateful thanks to Dr. A. W. Pollard, late Keeper of Printed Books, British Museum, and to the Deputy Keeper, Mr. A. F. Sharp, for information on books I could obtain in no other library; to Mr. J. L. Farnum, Secretary to the Librarian of Congress, Washington; to Mr. Walter B. Briggs, Assistant Librarian, Harvard College Library; Miss Harriet Swift, of the Public Library of the City of Boston; Mr. C. K. Bolton, Secretary and Librarian, Boston Athenaeum; Dr. George Watson Cole, Librarian of the Henry FE. Huntington Library and Art Museum, San Marino, California, for two un- published letters; to Miss Anne S. Pratt, Assistant Librarian, Yale University Library; and to Mr. C. F. M‘Combs, Superintendent, Main Reading Room, the New York Public Library.
I want to thank Miss Joan Joshua for the remarkably intelligent research work she accomplished for me in the British Museum. To her I am indebted for the biographical account of G. J. Schweizer and his wife Madeleine, and for many details in the Bibliography.
To four other friends, not connected directly with libraries, but all interested in books (and in this particular book as well), who have xh PREFACE TO MEMOIRS assisted me in many various ways, I hereby express my grateful thanks: First, to A. Edward Newton, of Philadelphia, for his gift of photographs of the ten sepia drawings made by Blake for the 1791 edition of Mary’s Original Stories from Real Life, which are now in his possession. The importance of their appearance here, in the form in which they are given, may be emphasized by stating the facts that (a) they have never before been published as a complete group; that (b) only two (II and III reproduced by Geoffrey Keynes in his admirable Bibliography of William Blake) have ever been reproduced photo- graphically direct from the drawings; that (c) two (I and VI) are here reproduced for the first time by any process; and finally, that (d) the six remaining drawings—five of which were engraved by Blake for the book (IV, VU, VIII, 1X and X) and the other made into a woodcut for Gilchrist (V)—are nearly all, in their pristine state, as here shown, more brilliant impressions, and more gracefully designed, than the prints from the engravings made after them. This applies particularly to the lovely group of three graceful slender figures (IV) which Blake engraved for the frontispiece.
Second, to Michael Sadleir of London—with whom I first became acquainted through my enjoyment in his fine novel Privilege (1921), and his equally interesting Excursions in Victorian Bibliography (1922)—for his conxliil PREFACE TO MEMOIRS stant interest in my work, and his prompt replies to my many queries.
Third, to Frederick Coykendall, of New York, for the loan of his copy of Mary, A Fiction, formerly in the possession of Frederick Locker Lampson, and annotated by him.
Fourth, to Elizabeth Robins Pennell, herself the author of an excellent Life of Mary Wollstonecraft, who has furnished me with material collected while she was writing it, has encouraged me by her unfailing interest, and has benefited this book by wise suggestions and judicious advice.
My researches have taken on an inter- national aspect, and I must acknowledge the careful and painstaking research of American Consul Walter H. Sholes of Gothenburg, which resulted ‘ by singular good fortune’ (as Mr. Sholes wrote) in his finding, in Stockholm, a descendant of that Elias Backman who is mentioned in the document Imlay gave Mary to take to Sweden, authorizing her to act on his behalf in ‘the tryal now carrying on, instigated by Mr. Elias Bachman (sic), as my agent, for the violation of the trust which I had reposed in his (Peter: Ellyson’s) in- tegrity.’ This gentleman, Mr. Pierre Back- man, very kindly sent me a comprehensive biography of his ancestor, Imlay’s ‘agent’ and business associate in Paris.
I must also thank the American Consul at Hull for putting me in communication with the sister and son of Walter Consitt Boulter xliv PREFACE TO MEMOIRS who notified all those interested in Mary— through Notes and Queries—of her letters in English Exercises. Unfortunately the book was not in Mr. Boulter’s library when he died, and is still as inaccessible as ever. And my final vote of thanks must go to the Department of State, which very kindly instituted an investigation into its files at the Paris Embassy and also at Washington for any record of that ‘ certificate from the American minister, as the wife of a native of that country.’
I think I may claim to be the most faithful, constant, and unfailing lover Mary Wollstone- craft ever had. Mary and Ihave lived together now, off and on, for four years, although ‘from the nature of’ our ‘ connec- tion,’ she has not yet obtained ‘a certificate from the American minister as the wife of a native of that country.’
Often have I felt, while engaged in typing my MS., that this charming creature was in the same room with me, looking over my shoulder every now and then, to discover whether the paragraphs then visible were pleasant or painful reading to her.
When I started putting my Supplement together, I turned to her usual corner, to see whether she were still with me. There indeed she sat, looking at me with her brilliant brown eyes, and the smile on her mobile, expressive face that was always her particular charm. xlv q PREFACE TO MEMOIRS j ‘Mary, dear,’ I said, ‘I’m just beginning my Supplement—How would you like to colla- borate with me in the writing of it?’ And she responded, ‘To be sure, my dear,—l’ve been reading, all along, the many pages you have typed about me, and I want you to know how happy it’s made me to find a new friend, in this new century and in this new country where I’ve always longed to dwell, who says kind things about me, in place of those hateful reviewers who wrote such dreadful scurrilous articles, only a few months after I was laid in St. Pancras’s Churchyard! Tell me what you want me to write, and I'll be only too glad to do it!’
I feel as though Mary might have written me this note: ’ Tuesday morning.
The books sent to me are such as we may read together; sol shall not look at them till you return; when you shall read, whilst 1 mend my stockings.
Yours truly, Mary.
* Posthumous Works, Letter IX, iii. 23.
xlvi ea nore eae i N\ \ N YW WY “Trying to trace the sound, I discovered a little hut, rudely built” Drawn and engraved by William Blake and published in 1791 as an illustration to “ Original Stories from Real Life” (cf: below, pp. 44. and 208) A NOTE ON THE TEXT Gopwin’s Memoirs, first published in January 1798, were attacked by a flood of condemna- tory reviews in current periodicals. In- fluenced, perhaps, by this storm of criticism, Godwin prepared ‘ The Second Edition, Cor- rected,’ published some months later in the same year.
In this more discreet ‘Second Edition ’ Godwin made many changes; eliminating, for instance: the ‘ frequent intercourse ’ of Joseph Gascoyne and his family ‘ with the family of Mary ’ during their stay near Barking—‘ the acquaintance of the Wollstonecrafts ’ in Wales with ‘the family of a Mr. Allen ’—the ‘son already adult’ of ‘Mrs. Dawson of Bath ’— Mary’s unbelief in ‘the doctrine of future punishments ’"—and other incidents suscep- tible of misconstruction. Godwin frequently changed the wording, and in two places re- wrote several paragraphs. He also inserted additions here and there.
My practice in selecting the text has been to use that of the first edition throughout, save in cases where Godwin’s revisions add to clarity or correctness.
3 ONO ESON La Ere Wherever the second edition text is substituted, the variant is marked below, Ist ed. All variants without this designation are variants in the second edition.
Passages, phrases or words in the text enclosed between brackets, are added in the second edition.
The text of two passages which were en- tirely re-written for the second edition— Mary’s affection for Fuseli, and the mutual influence of Mary and Godwin upon each other—is placed after ‘ THE ENp.’
Through the whole course of this delightful book I have adhered religiously to Godwin’s idiosyncrasies in spelling, punctuation, and use of capital and small letters. I have put in every superfluous comma, and have gaily allowed him to spell cheerfully, chearfully, and vice versa, as the fancy seized him. The only feature omitted is the old fashioned ‘s.’
MEMOIRS MEMOIRS Ir has always appeared to me, that to give the public some account of the life of a person of eminent merit deceased, is a duty incumbent on survivors. It seldom happens that such a person passes through life, without being the subject of malignant? calumny, or thought- less? misrepresentation. It cannot happen that the public at large should be on a footing with their intimate acquaintance, and be the observer of those virtues which discover themselves principally in personal intercourse. Every benefactor of mankind is more or less influenced by a liberal passion for fame; and survivors only pay a debt due ® to these bene- factors, when they assert and establish on their part, the honour they loved. The justice which is thus done to the illustrious dead, converts into the fairest source of animation and encouragement to those who would follow them‘ in the same career. The human species at large is interested in this justice, as it teaches them to place their 1 malignant] thoughtless rst ed.
2 thoughtless] malignant Ist ed.
3 due del. 4 them del. 5 MEMOIRS respect and affection, upon those qualities which best deserve to be esteemed and loved. I cannot easily prevail on myself to doubt, that the more fully we are presented with the picture and story of such persons as the subject of the following narrative, the more generally shall we feel in ourselves a sympathy in! their fate, and an attachment to® their excellencies. There are not many individuals with whose character the public welfare and improvement are more intimately connected, than the author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
The facts detailed in the following pages, are principally taken from the mouth of the person to whom they relate; and of the veracity and ingenuousness of her habits, perhaps no one that was ever acquainted with her, entertains a doubt. The writer of this narrative, when he has met with persons, that in any degree created to themselves an interest and attachment in his mind, has always felt a curiosity to be acquainted with the scenes through which they had passed, and the incidents that had contributed to form their understandings and character. Impelled by this sentiment, he repeatedly led the con- versation of Mary* to topics of this sort; and, once or twice, he made notes in her presence, of a few dates calculated to arrange 1a sympathy in] an attachment to 1st ed.
2an attachment to] a sympathy in rst ed. 3 Mary] her whose story he now undertakes to record. 6 q (ease PhS “Ec eer ees ~~ CHAP TE Ral 1759-1775 Mary WOLLSTONECRAFT was born on the 27th? of April1759. Her father’s name was Edward John, and the name of her mother Elizabeth, of the family of Dixons of Ballyshannon in the kingdom of Ireland: her paternal grandfather was a respectable manufacturer in Spitalfields, and is supposed to have left to his son a property of about 10,000l. .Three of her brothers and two sisters are still living; their names, Edward, James, Charles, Eliza, and Everina. Of these, Edward only was older than herself; he resides in London. James is in Paris, and Charles in or near Philadelphia in America. Her sisters have for some years been engaged in the office of governesses in private families, and are both at present in Ireland.?
I am doubtful whether the father of Mary was bred to any profession; but, about the time of her birth, he resorted, rather perhaps as an amusement than a business, to the mate “hed MEMOTRS occupation of farming. He was of a very * active, and somewhat versatile disposition, and so frequently changed his abode, as to throw some ambiguity upon the place of her birth. She told me, that the doubt in her mind in that respect, lay between London, and a farm upon Epping Forest, which was the principal scene of the first five* years of her life.
Mary was distinguished in early youth, by some portion® of that exquisite sensibility, soundness of understanding, and decision of character, which were the leading features of her mind through the whole course of her life. She experienced in the first period of her existence, but * few of those indulgences and marks of affection, which are principally calculated to sooth the subjection and sorrows of our early years. She was not the favourite either of her father or mother. Her father was a man of a quick, [and] impetuous disposition,’ subject to alternate fits of kind- ness and cruelty. In his family he was a despot,® and his wife appears to have been the first, and most submissive of his subjects. The mother’s partiality was fixed upon the eldest son, and her system of government relative to Mary, was characterized by con- 3 very del. 4 first five] five first 1st ed. 5 some portion] the indications.
5 whole course of her] course of her subsequent.
6 but del.? disposition] temper.
8 cruelty] severity. 9 a despot] absolute.
9 MEMOIRS siderable rigour. She, at length, became convinced of her mistake, and adopted a different plan with her younger daughters. When, in the Wrongs of Woman, Mary speaks of ‘‘the petty cares which obscured the morning of her heroine’s life; continual restraint in the most trivial matters; un- conditional submission to orders, which, as a mere child, she soon discovered to be un- reasonable, because inconsistent and contra- dictory; and the being often obliged to sit, in the presence of her parents, for three or four hours together, without daring to utter a word;”’ she is, I believe, to be considered as copying! the outline of the first period of her own existence.