No doubt the voyage to Lisbon tended con- siderably to enlarge the understanding of Mary. She was admitted into the best com- pany the English factory afforded. She made many profound observations on the character of the natives, and the baleful effects of superstition. The obsequies of Fanny, which it was necessary to perform by stealth and in darkness, tended to invigorate these observa- tions in her mind.
She sailed upon her voyage home about the twentieth of December. On this occasion a circumstance occurred, that deserves to be recorded. While they were on their passage, they fell in with a French vessel, in great distress, and in daily expectation of foundering at sea, at the same time that it was almost destitute of provisions. The Frenchman hailed them, and intreated the English captain, in consideration of his melancholy situation, to take him and his crew on board. The Englishman represented in reply, that his stock of provisions was by no means adequate 36 et i ee o * : i - + MEMOIRS to such an additional number of mouths, and absolutely refused compliance. Mary, shocked at his apparent insensibility, took up the cause of the sufferers, and threatened the captain to have him called to a severe account, when he arrived in England. She finally prevailed, and had the satisfaction to reflect, that the persons in question possibly owed their lives to her interposition.
When she arrived in England, she found that her school had suffered considerably in her absence. It can be little reproach to any one, to say that they were found incapable of supplying her place. She not only excelled in the management of the children, but had also the talent of being attentive and obliging to the parents, without degrading herself.
The period at which I am now arrived is important, as conducting to the first step of her literary career. Mr. Hewlet had fre- quently mentioned literature to Mary as a certain source of pecuniary produce, and had urged her to make trial of the truth of his judgment. At this time she was desirous of assisting the father and mother of Fanny in an object they had in view, the transporting themselves to Ireland; and, as usual, what she desired in a pecuniary view, she was ready to take on herself to effect. For this purpose she wrote a duodecimo pamphlet of one hundred and sixty pages, entitled, Thoughts on the Education of Daughters. Mr. Hewlet obtained from the bookseller, Mr. Johnson in oF MEMOIRS St. Paul’s Church Yard, ten guineas for the copy-right of this manuscript, which she immediately applied to the object for the sake of which the pamphlet was written.
Every thing urged Mary to put an end to the affair of the school. She was dissatisfied with the different appearance it presented upon her return, from the state in which she left it. Experience impressed upon her a rooted aversion to that sort of {a] cohabitation with her sisters, which the project of the school imposed. Cohabitation is a point of delicate experiment, and is, in a majority of instances, pregnant with ill-humour and unhappiness. The activity and ardent spirit of adventure which characterized Mary, were not felt in an equal degree by her sisters, so that a dis- proportionate share of every burthen attendant upon the situation, fell to her lot. On the other hand, they could scarcely perhaps be perfectly easy, in observing the superior degree of deference and courtship,? which her merit extorted from almost every one that knew her. Her kindness for them was not diminished, but she resolved that the mode of its exertion in future should be different, tend- ing to their benefit, without intrenching upon her own liberty.; Thus circumscribed, a proposal was made her, such as, regarding only the situations through which she had lately passed, is usually termed advantageous. This was, to accept 1 courtship] court, 2 PR) MEMOTIRS - the office of governess to the daughters of lord viscount Kingsborough, eldest son to the earl of Kingston of the kingdom of Ireland. The terms held out to her were such as she deter- mined to accept, at the same time resolving to retain the situation only for a short time. Independence was the object after which she thirsted, and she was fixed to try whether it might not be found in literary occupation. She was desirous however first to accumulate a small sum of money, which should enable her to consider at leisure the different literary engagements that might offer, and provide in some degree for the eventual deficiency of her earliest attempts.
The situation in the family of lord Kings- borough, was offered to her through the medium of the rev. Mr. Prior, at that time one of the under masters of Eton school. She spent some time at the house of this gentleman, immediately after her giving up the school at Newington Green. Here she had an oppor- tunity of making an accurate observation upon the manners and conduct of that cele- brated seminary, and the ideas she retained of it were by no means favourable. By all that she saw, she was confirmed in a very favourite opinion of her’s, in behalf of day- schools, where, as she expressed it, ‘‘ children have the opportunity of conversing with children, without interfering with domestic affections, the foundation of virtue.”’
Though her residence in the family of lord 39 MEMOIRS Kingsborough continued scarcely more than twelve months, she left behind her, with them and their connections, a very advantageous impression. The governesses the young ladies had hitherto had, were only a species of upper servants, controlled in every thing by the mother; Mary insisted upon the unbounded exercise of her own discretion. When the young ladies heard of their governess coming from England, they heard in imagination of a new enemy, and declared their resolution to guard themselves accordingly. Mary however speedily succeeded in gaining their confidence, and the friendship that soon grew up between her and Margaret King, now countess Mount Cashel, the eldest daughter, was in an un- common degree cordial and affectionate. Mary always spoke of this young lady in terms of the truest applause, both in relation to the eminence of her intellectual powers, and the ingenuous amiableness of her disposition. Lady Kingsborough, from the best motives, had imposed upon her daughters a variety of prohibitions, both as to the books they should read, and in many other respects. These prohibitions had their usual effects; inordinate desire for the things forbidden, and clandestine indulgence. Mary immedi- ately restored the children to their liberty, and undertook to govern them by their affections only. The consequence was, that their indulgences were moderate, and they were uneasy under any indulgence that had 40 i ware , qa ee es ee ee MEMOTRS not the sanction of their governess. The salutary effects of the new system of education were speedily visible; and lady Kingsborough soon felt no other uneasiness, than lest the children should love their governess better than their mother.
Mary made many friends in Ireland, among the persons who visited lord Kingsborough’s house, for she always appeared there with the air of an equal, and not of a dependent. I have heard her mention the ludicrous distress of a woman of quality, whose name I have forgotten, that, in a large company, singled out Mary, and entered into a long conversation with her. After the conversation was over, she enquired whom she had been talking with, and found, to her utter mortification and dismay, that it was Miss King’s governess.
One of the persons among her Irish ac- quaintance, whom Mary was accustomed to speak of with the highest respect, was Mr. George Ogle, member of parliament for the county of Wexford. She held his talents in very high estimation; she was strongly prepossessed in favour of the goodness of his heart; and she always spoke of him as the most perfect gentleman she had ever known. She felt the regret of a disappointed friend, at the part he has lately? taken in the politics of Ireland.® Lord Kingsborough’s family passed the summer of the year 1787 at Bristol Hot-Wells, 2 lately] since. 3 Treland] his country.
AI MEMOIRS and had formed the project of proceeding from thence to the continent, a tour in which Mary purposed to accompany them. The plan however was ultimately given up, and Mary in consequence closed her connection with them, earlier than she otherwise had purposed to do.
At Bristol Hot-Wells she composed the little book which bears the title of Mary, a Fiction. A considerable part of this story consists, with certain modifications, of the incidents of her own friendship with Fanny. All the events that do not relate to that subject are fictitious.
This little work, if Mary had never produced any thing else, would serve, with persons of true taste and sensibility, to establish the eminence of her genius. The story is nothing. He that looks into the book only for incident, will probably lay it down with disgust. But the feelings are of the truest and most ex- quisite class; every circumstance is adorned with that species of imagination, which enlists itself under the banners of delicacy and sentiment. A work of sentiment, as it is called, is too often another name for a work of affectation. He that should imagine that the sentiments of this book are affected, would indeed be entitled to our profoundest com- miseration.# “indeed be...commiseration.] I believe, betray a total want of sensibility and taste.
42 BEING now determined to enter upon her literary plan, Mary came immediately from Bristol to the metropolis. Her conduct under this circumstance was such as to do credit both to her own heart, and that of Mr. Johnson, her publisher, between whom and herself there now commenced an intimate friendship. She had seen him upon occasion of publishing her Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, and she addressed two or three letters to him during her residence in Ireland. Upon her arrival in London in August 1787, she went immediately to his house, and frankly explained to him her purpose, at the same time requesting his advice and assistance as to its execution. After a short conversa- tion, Mr. Johnson invited her to make his house her home, till she should have suited herself with a fixed residence. She accordingly resided at this time two or three weeks under his roof. At the same period she paid a visit or two of similar duration to some friends, at no great distance from the metropolis. 1 At the same period...metropolis. del. 43 MEMOIRS MEMOIRS At Michaelmas 1787, she entered upon a house in George street, on the Surry side of Black Friar’s Bridge, which Mr. Johnson had provided for her during her excursion into the country.2. The three years immediately en- suing, may be said, in the ordinary acceptation of the term, to have been the most active period * of her life. She brought with her to this habitation, the novel of Mary, which had not yet been sent to the press, and the com- mencement of a sort of oriental tale, entitled, the Cave of Fancy, which she thought proper afterwards to lay aside unfinished. I am told that at this period she appeared under great dejection of spirits, and filled with melancholy regret for the loss of her youthful friend. A period of two years had elapsed since the death of that friend; but it was possibly the composition of the fiction of Mary, that renewed her sorrows in their original force. Soon after entering upon her new habitation, she produced a little work, entitled, Original Stories from Real Life, intended for the use of children. At the commencement of her literary career, she is said to have conceived a vehement aversion to the being regarded, by her ordinary acquaintance, in the character of an author, and to have employed some precautions to prevent its occurrence.
The employment which the bookseller sug- gested to her, as the easiest and most certain ®* which Mr. Johnson...country del.
8 period] part. 44 MEMOIRS source of pecuniary income, of course,‘ was translation. With this view she improved herself in her French, with which she had previously but a slight acquaintance, and acquired the Italian and German languages. The greater part of her literary engagements at this time, were such as were presented to her by Mr. Johnson. She new-modelled and abridged a work, translated from the Dutch, entitled, Young Grandison: she began a translation from the French, of a book, called, the New Robinson; but in this undertaking, she was, I believe, anticipated by another translator: and she compiled a series of extracts in verse and prose, upon the model of Dr. Enfield’s Speaker, which bears the title of the Female Reader; but which, from a cause not worth mentioning, has hitherto been printed with a different name in the title-page.
About the middle of the year 1788, Mr. Johnson instituted the Analytical Review, in which Mary took a considerable share. She also translated Necker on the Importance of Religious Opinions; made an abridgment of Lavater’s Physiognomy, from the French, which has never been published; and com- pressed Salzmann’s Elements of Morality, a German production, into a publication in three volumes duodecimo. The translation of Salz- mann produced a correspondence between Mary and the author; and he afterwards 4 of course del.
45 MEMOIRS repaid the obligation to her in kind, by a German translation of the Rights of Woman. Such were her principal literary occupations, from the autumn of 1787, to the autumn of 1790.
It perhaps deserves to be remarked that this sort of miscellaneous literary employment, seems, for the time at least, rather to damp and contract, than to enlarge and invigorate, the genius. The writer is accustomed to see his performances answer the mere * mercantile purpose of the day, and confounded with those of persons to whom he is secretly conscious of a superiority. No neighbour mind serves as a mirror to reflect the generous confidence he felt within'® himself; and perhaps the man never yet existed, who could maintain his enthusiasm to its full vigour, in the midst of this kind of solitariness. He is touched with the torpedo of mediocrity. I believe that nothing which Mary produced during this period, is marked with those daring flights, which exhibit themselves in the little fiction she composed just before its com- mencement. Among effusions of a nobler cast, I find occasionally interspersed some of ” that homily-language, which, to speak from * my own feelings, is calculated to damp the moral courage it was intended to awaken.
5 mere] merely. § within] in.
7Among effusions...some of] Interspersed among occasional traits of an original mind, I find a portion of.
8 from del.
46 MEMOIRS This is probably to be assigned to the causes above described.
I have already said that one of the purposes which Mary had conceived, a few years before, as necessary to give a ® relish to the otherwise insipid, or embittered, draught of human life, was usefulness. On this side, the period of her existence of which I am now treating, is more brilliant, than in a literary view. She determined to apply as great a part as possible of the produce of her present employments, to the assistance of her friends and of the distressed; and, for this purpose, laid down to herself rules of the most rigid economy. She began with endeavouring to promote the interest of her sisters. She conceived that there was no situation in which she could place them, at once so respectable and agree- able, as that of governesses in private families. She determined therefore in the first place, to endeavour to qualify them for such an undertaking. Her younger sister she sent to Paris, where she remained near two years. The elder she placed in a school near London, first as a parlour-boarder, and afterwards as a teacher. Her brother James, who had already been at sea, she first took into her house, and next sent to Woolwich for in- struction, to qualify him for a respectable situation in the royal navy, where he was shortly after made a lieutenant. Charles, who was her favourite brother, had been articled ® a del.
47 MEMOIRS to the eldest, an attorney in the Minories; but not being satisfied with his situation, she effected a transfer of his indentures to another attorney,! and in some time after, having first placed him with a farmer for instruction, she fitted him out for America, where his specula- tions, founded upon the basis she had pro- vided? are said to have been extremely prosperous. The reason so much of this parental sort of? care fell upon her, is to be traced to the embarassed circumstances of her father. His affairs having [some time before] grown too complex for himself to disentangle, he had entrusted them to the management of a near relation; but, as they did not appear to benefit from the superintendence of their new manager, Mary about this time® took them into her own hands. The exertions she made, and the struggle into which she entered however, in this instance, were ultimately fruitless. To the day of her déath her father was almost wholly supported by funds which she supplied to him.* In addition to her 1she effected...to another attorney] she removed him ist ed.
2 basis she had provided] preparation thus bestowed on him.
3 sort of del.
4is to be traced...her father] was, that her father had by ae time considerably embarassed his circumstances. Ist ed.
a but, as...about this time] but Mary, not being satisfied with the conduct of the business, ts¢ ed.
° which she supplied to him.] with which she supplied him,: 48 MEMOIRS exertions for her own family, she took a young girl of about seven years of age under her protection and care, the niece of Mrs. John Hunter, and of the present Mrs. Skeys, for whose mother, then lately dead, she had entertained a sincere friendship.
The period, from the end of the year 1787 to the end of the year 1790, though consumed in labours of little eclat, served still further to establish her in a friendly connection from which she derived many pleasures. Mr. Johnson, the bookseller, contracted a great personal regard for her, which resembled in many respects that of a parent. As she fre- quented his house, she of course became acquainted with his guests. Among these may be mentioned as persons possessing her esteem, Mr. Bonnycastle, the mathematician, the late Mr. George Anderson, accountant to the board of control, Dr. George Fordyce, and Mr. Fuseli, the celebrated painter. Be- tween both of the two latter and herself, there existed sentiments of genuine affection and _ friendship.
CHAPTER VI 1790-1792 ‘tase er Hirnerto the literary career of Mary, } had. for the most part, been silent; and had been | productive of income to herself, without apparently leading to the wreath of? fame. From this time she was destined to attract — the notice of the public, and perhaps no female writer ever obtained so great a degree 3 of celebrity throughout Europe.
It cannot be doubted that, while, for three ~ years of literary employment, she ‘held the noiseless tenor of her way,’ her mind was insensibly advancing towards a _ vigorous maturity. The uninterrupted habit of com- position gave a freedom and firmness to the — expression of her sentiments. The society: she frequented, nourished her understanding, — and enlarged her mind. The French revolu- | tion, while it gave a fundamental? shock to the human intellect through every region of — the globe, did not fail to produce a con- 4 spicuous effect in the progress of Mary’s — 1 the wreath of del. * fundamental del. 50 + Tee fees, ee ee i es | aa os» MEMOIRS reflections. The prejudices of her early years suffered a vehement concussion. Her respect for establishments was undermined. At this period occurred a misunderstanding upon public grounds, with one of her early friends, whose attachment to musty creeds and ex- ploded absurdities, had been increased, by the operation of those very circumstances, by which her mind had been rapidly advanced in the race of independence.
The event, immediately introductory to the rank which from this time she held in the lists of ° literature, was the publication of Burke’s Reflections:on the Revolution in France. This book, after having been long promised to the world, finally made its appearance on the first of November 1790; and Mary, full of sentiments of liberty, and impressed with a warm interest in the struggle that was now going on, seized her pen in the full burst of indignation, an emotion of which she was strongly susceptible. She was in the habit of composing with rapidity, and ' her answer, which was [nearly] the first of the numerous ones that appeared, obtained extra- ordinary notice. Marked as it is with the _ vehemence and impetuousness of its eloquence, it is certainly chargeable with a too con- _temptuous and intemperate treatment of the great man against whom its attack is directed. But this circumstance was not injurious to the success of the publication. Burke had a 3 the lists of del.
e 51 “MEMOIRS a been warmly loved by the most liberal and — enlightened friends of freedom, and they were © proportionably inflamed and disgusted by the fury of his assault, upon what they deemed om be its sacred cause.
Short as was the time in which Mary 3 composed her Answer to Burke’s Reflections, there was one anecdote she told me concerning — it, which seems worth recording in this — place. It was sent to the press, as is the general * practice when the early publication al of a piece is deemed a matter of importance,® — before the composition was finished. When Mary had arrived at about the middle of her — work, she was seized with a temporary fit of — torpor and indolence, and began to repent of her undertaking. In this state of mind, — she called, one evening, as she was in the | practice of doing, upon her publisher, for the — purpose of relieving herself by an hour or — two’s conversation. Here, the habitual in- genuousness of her nature, led her to describe © what had just past in her thoughts. Mr. — Johnson immediately, in a kind and friendly way, intreated her not to put any constraint upon her inclination, and to give herself no — uneasiness about the sheets already printed, * which he would cheerfully throw aside, if it — would contribute to her happiness. Mary had *anecdote she told me concerning it] circumstance that occurred while it was under her hands.
5 the general] a frequent. um 8a matter of importance] important. we 52 MEMOIRS wanted incentive.’ She had expected re- proach, rather than to be encouraged, in what she well knew to be unreasonable. Her friend’s ® so readily falling in with her ill- humour, and seeming to expect that she would lay aside her undertaking, piqued her pride. She immediately went home; and proceeded to the end of her work, with no other inter- ruptions but what were absolutely indis- pensible.
It is probable that the applause which attended her Answer to Burke, elevated the tone of her mind. She had always felt much confidence in her own powers; but it cannot be doubted, that the actual perception of a similar feeling respecting us in a multitude of others, must increase the confidence, and stimulate the adventure of any human being. Mary accordingly proceeded, in a short time after, to the composition of her most cele- _brated production, the Vindication of the Rights of Woman.
_ Never did any author enter into a cause, -with a more ardent desire to be found, not a flourishing and empty declaimer, but an effectual champion. She considered herself as standing forth in defence of one half of the _human species, labouring under a yoke which, 7 incentive] stimulus Ist ed.
®She had expected...unreasonable.] She had not expected to be encouraged, in what she well knew to be an unreasonable access of ideleness. 1st ed. ® Her friend’s] Mr. Johnson’s. 53 MEMOTIRIS through all the records of time, had degraded © them from the station of rational beings, and almost sunk them to the level of the brutes. She saw indeed, that they were often attempted to be held in silken fetters, and — bribed into the love of slavery; but the disguise and the treachery served only the more fully to confirm her opposition. She regarded her sex, in the language of Calista, as ‘In! every state of life the slaves of man:”’ the rich as alternately under the despotism of a father, a brother, and a husband; and the middling and the poorer classes shut out from the acquisition of bread with independence, when they are not shut out from the very means of an industrious subsistence. » Such were the views she entertained of the subject; and such were the feelings with which she warmed her mind.
The work is certainly a’ very bold and original production. The strength and firm- ness with which the author repels the opinions of Rousseau, Dr. Gregory, and Dr. James Fordyce, respecting the condition of women, cannot but make a strong impression upon every ingenuous reader. The public at large formed very different opinions respecting the character of the performance. Many of the sentiments are undoubtedly. of a rather masculine description. The spirited and de- cisive way in which the author explodes the bhi allt Be ster ad wes Tf MEMOIRS system of gallantry, and the species of homage with which the sex is usually treated, shocked the majority. Novely produced a sentiment in their mind, which they mistook for a sense of injustice. The pretty, soft creatures that are so often to be found in the female sex, and that class of men who believe they could not exist without such pretty, soft creatures to resort to, were in arms against the author of so heretical and blasphemous a doctrine. There are also, it must be con- fessed, occasional passages of a stern and rugged feature, incompatible with the writer’s essential? character. But, if they did not belong to her fixed and permanent character, they belonged to her character of the moment; ® and what she thought, she scorned to qualify.
Yet, along with this rigid, and somewhat amazonian temper, which characterized some parts of the book, it is impossible not to remark a luxuriance of imagination, and a trembling delicacy of sentiment, which would have done honour to a poet, burning * with all the visions of an Armida and a Dido.
The preconceived ideas of the public were not less erroneous as to the person of the author, than those they had formed of * the 2 writer’s essential] true stamina of the writer’s 1st ed. 3 of the moment] pro tempore ist ed. 4 burning] bursting 1st ed.
5 The preconceived...they had formed of] The contradic- tion, to the public apprehension, was equally great, as to the person of the author, as it was when they considered Ist ed.
5S MEMOIRS temper of the book. In the champion of her sex, who was described as endeavouring to invest them with all the rights of man, those whom curiosity prompted to seek the occasion of beholding her,* expected to find a sturdy, muscular, raw-boned ’? virago; and they were not a little surprised, when, instead of all this, they found a woman, lovely in her person, and in the best and most engaging sense, feminine in her manners.
The Vindication of the Rights of Woman is undoubtedly * a very unequal performance, and eminently deficient in method and arrange- ment. When tried by the hoary and long- established laws of literary composition, it can scarcely maintain its claim to be placed in the first ® class of human! productions. But when we consider the importance of its doctrines, and the eminence of genius it displays, it seems not very improbable that it will be read as long as the English language endures. The publication of this book forms an epocha in the subject to which it be- longs; and Mary Wollstonecraft will perhaps here-after be found to have performed more. substantial service for the cause of her sex, than all the other writers, male or female, that ever felt themselves ani- § prompted to seek the occasion of beholding her] led to seek an opportunity of seeing her.
? sturdy, muscular raw-boned] rude, pedantic, dictatorial. 8 undoubtedly del. * first del. 1 human] finished.
56 7 2 MEMOIRS mated in the behalf of oppressed and injured beauty.’
The censure of the liberal critic as to the defects of this performance, will be changed into astonishment, when I tell him, that a work of this inestimable moment, was begun, carried on, and finished in the state in which it now appears, in a period of no more than six weeks.
[The remainder of the story I have to relate is less literary, than personal. For the rest of her life Mary was continually occupied by a train of circumstances, which roused all the prepossessions and passions of her mind.]
It is necessary here that I should resume the subject of the friendship that subsisted between Mary and Mr. Fuseli, which proved the source of the most memorable events in her subsequent history. He is a native of the republic* of Switzerland, but has spent the principal part of his life in the island of Great-Britain. The eminence of his genius can scarcely be disputed; it has indeed received the testimony which is the least to be suspected, that of some of the most con- siderable of his contemporary artists. He has one of the most striking characteristics of genius, a daring, as well as persevering, spirit of adventure. The work in which he is at present engaged, a series of pictures for 2in the behalf...beauty] by the contemplation of their oppressed and injured state. 3 which proved...history del. 4 republic] Union. ay MEMOIRS the illustration of Milton, upon a very large scale, and produced solely upon the incite- ment ® of his own mind, is a proof of this, if indeed his whole life had not sufficiently proved it.
Mr. Fuseli is one of Mr. Johnson’s oldest friends, and was at this time in the habit of visiting him two or three times a week. Mary, one of whose strongest characteristics was the exquisite sensations of pleasure she felt from the associations of visible objects, had hitherto never been acquainted, or never intimately acquainted, with an eminent painter. The being thus introduced therefore to the society of Mr. Fuseli, was a high gratification to her; while he found in Mary, a person perhaps more susceptible of the emotions painting is calculated to excite, than any other with whom he ever conversed. Painting, and subjects closely connected with painting, were their almost constant topics of conversation; and they found them inex- haustible. It cannot be doubted, but ® that this was a species of exercise very conducive to the improvement of Mary’s mind.
Nothing human however is unmixed. If Mary derived improvement from Mr. Fuseli, she may also be suspected of having caught the infection of some of his faults. In early life Mr. Fuseli was ardently attached to 5 produced solely...incitement] undertaken solely from the instigation.
§ but] del, 58 MEMOIRS