Part 1 (2/2)

That she fully deserved this disapprobation and contehter, Mary Godwin, consented to live with Shelley before their union could be legalized The independence of hter excited private as well as public ani a collection of drawings, newspaper slips, and written notes, illustrative of the history and topography of the parish of Saint Pancras As Mary Wollstonecraft was buried in the graveyard of Saint Pancras Church, {1} by Opie, which was supposed until very recently to be her portrait, is pasted on one of the pages of this book, and opposite to it is the following note, written on a slip of paper, and dated 1821: ”Mary Wollstonecraft, a disgrace tohts of Women,' but an ill example to them, soon terminated her life of error, and her remains were laid in the cemetery of Saint Pancras, araved and published in the ”Monthly Mirror,” with Mary's naan Paul published the ”Letters to Imlay,” in 1879, there seemed no doubt of its authenticity But since then it has been proved to be the portrait of the wife of an artist who lived in the latter part of the eighteenth century

”There is aa square pillar”

(The inscription here follows) ”A as planted on each side of the pillar, but, like the character of Mary, they do not flourish Her unfortunate daughters were reared by their infamous father for prostitution,--one is sold to the wicked poet Shelley, and the other to attend upon her The former became Mrs Shelley” The prejudice of the writer of these lines against the subject of theether with his readiness to accept all the ill spoken of her, is at once shown in his reference to Claire, as the daughter of the second Mrs Godwin by her first husband, and hence no relation whatever to Mrs Shelley This ossip

During all these years Mary was not entirely without friends, but their number was small In 1803 an anonymous admirer published a defence of her character and conduct, ”founded on principles of nature and reason as applied to the peculiar circumstances of her case,” in a series of nine letters to a lady But his defence is less satisfactory to his readers than it is to be presumed it was to himself In it he carefully repeats those details of Godwin's Memoir which were ives a new and scarcely more favorable construction He candidly admits that he does not pretend to vindicate the _whole_ of her conduct Hethe motives frouments chiefly from his inner consciousness Had he appealedhis own ingenuity in reasoning, he would have written to better purpose

Southey was always enthusiastic in his ad to dine on Wednesday next with Mary Wollstonecraft, of all the literary characters the one I most admire,” he wrote to Thomas Southey, on April 28, 1797 And a year or two after her death, he declared in a letter to Miss Barker, ”I never praised living being yet, except Mary Wollstonecraft” He made at least one public profession of his esteem in these lines, prefixed to his ”Triuht of love,'

The liquid lustre of the , for these Did Woman triumphturn not thou away Contees, for her country's cause Wielded the sword of freedom; no Roland Had borne the pal zeal Had glorified again the Avenger's name, As erst when Caesar perished; haply too So ard”

Shelley too offered her the tribute of his praise in verse In the dedication of the ”Revolt of Islam,” addressed to his wife, he thus alludes to the latter's famous mother:--

”They say that thou wert lovely fro child

I wonder not; for one then left the earth Whose life was like a setting planet mild Which clothed thee in the radiance undefiled Of its departing glory”

But the ainst popular prejudice Year by year Mary's books, like so many other literary productions, were less frequently read, and the prediction that in another generation her name would be unknown bade fair to be fulfilled

But the latest of her adan Paul, has, by his zealous efforts in her behalf, succeeded in vindicating her character and reviving interest in her writings By his careful history of her life, and noble words in her defence, he has re-established her reputation As he says hihty years after her death has any serious atteht in the eyes of those ill choose to see her as she was” His atte her sad story as he tells it in his Life of Godwin, can doubt her htness His statement of her case attracted the attention it deserved Two years after it appeared, Miss Mathilde Blind published, in the ”New Quarterly Review,” a paper containing a briefer sketch of the incidents he recorded, and expressing an honest recognition of this great but ned woman

Thus, at this late day, the attacks of her ene defeated

The critic who declared the condition of the trees planted near her grave to be sy noould be forced to change the conclusions he drew from his comparison In that part of Saint Pancras Churchyard which lies between the two railroad bridges, and which has not been included in the restored garden, but reravestones, the one fresh green spot is the corner occupied by the monument{1} erected to the memory of Mary Wollstonecraft, and separated fron of withering s in this enclosure Its trees are of goodly growth and fair promise And, like them, her character now _flourishes_, for justice is at last being done to her

{1} Her body has been removed to Bournemouth

CHAPTER I

CHILDHOOD AND EARLY YOUTH

1759-1778

Mary Wollstonecraft was born on the 27th of April, 1759, but whether in London or in Epping Forest, where she spent the first five years of her life, is not quite certain There is no history of her ancestors to show frouished her, but which characterized neither of her parents Her paternal grandfather was a manufacturer in Spitalfields, of whom little is known, except that he was of Irish extraction and that he himself was respectable and prosperous To his son, Edward John, Mary's father, he left a fortune of ten thousand pounds, no inconsiderable sum in those days for a hter of Mr Dixon, of Ballyshannon, Ireland, who belonged to an eood family Mary was the second of six children The eldest, Edward, as more successful in his worldly affairs than the others, and James, ent to sea to seek his fortunes, both passed to a great extent out of her life But her two sisters, Eliza and Everina, and her youngest brother, Charles, were so dependent upon her for assistance in their many troubles that their career is intimately associated with hers

With her very first years Mary Wollstonecraft began a bitter training in the school of experience, which was to no s her character and for her philosophy There are few details of her childhood, and no anecdotes indicating a precocious genius But enough is known of her early life to make us understand ere the principal influences to which she was exposed Her strength sprang frogles against the poverty and vice which surrounded her Her father was a selfish, hot-teravated by his dissipated habits His chief characteristic was his instability He could persevere in nothing Apparently brought up to no special profession, he was by turns a gentleman of leisure, a farmer, a man of business It seems to have been sufficient for him to settle in any one place to almost immediately wish to depart from it The history of the first fifteen or twenty years of his rations The discoe families in pre-railroad days necessarily increased his irascibility The inevitable consequence of these reater loss of temper That his financial experiments proved to be failures, is certain from the abject poverty of his later years That they were bad for hirown up, found it impossible to live under the same roof with him His indifference in one particular to their wishes and welfare led in the end to disregard of them in all matters

It is s of Woely from her own experience for the characters therein represented, and we shall not err in identifying the father she describes in this novel with Mr Wollstonecraft himself ”His orders,” she writes, ”were not to be disputed; and the whole house was expected to fly at the word of command He was to be instantaneously obeyed, especially by my mother, whom he very benevolently ation when she dared in the slightest instance to question his absolute authority” He was, in a word, an egotist of the worst description, who found no brutality too low once his anger was aroused, and no ahts and comforts of others interfered with his own desires When contradicted or thwarted his rage was ungovernable, and he used personal violence not only to his dogs and children, but even to his wife Drink and unrestrained selfishness had utterly degraded him Such was Mary's father

Mrs Wollstonecraft was her husband's most abject slave, but was in turn somewhat of a tyrant herself She approved of stern discipline for the young She was too indolent to give much attention to the education of her children, and devoted what little energy she possessed to enforcing their unquestioning obedience even in trifles, and tothem as afraid of her displeasure as they were of their father's anger ”It is perhaps difficult to give you an idea of the petty cares which obscured the h her heroine,--”continual restraint in the most trivial matters, unconditional submission to orders, which as a mere child I soon discovered to be unreasonable, because inconsistent and contradictory Thus are we destined to experience a mixture of bitterness with the recollection of our most innocent enjoyment” Edward, as the mother's favorite, escaped her severity; but it fell upon Mary with double force, and ith her carried out with a thoroughness that laid its shortcos bare, and consequently forced Mrs Wollstonecraft to er children This concession on her part shows that sheat heart, even when her policy in their regard was uided, and that her unkindness was not, like her husband's cruelty, born of caprice But it was sad for Mary that her mother did not discover her mistake sooner

When Mary was five years old, and before she had had ti impressions of her earliest ho Forest near the Chelmsford Road Then, at the end of a year, he carried his fa in Essex, where he established them in a comfortable home, a little way out of the town Many of the London , so that the chance for his success here was pro