Part 2 (1/2)

_Mondayto tell you, ive you pleasure Yesterday was a dis and dreary Bishop was very ill, etc, etc He is much better to-day, but misery haunts this house in one shape or other How sincerely do I join with you in saying that if a person has common sense, they cannot overn a weak mind is iardless of ierness, believe what it desires practicable though the contrary is as clear as the noon-day My spirits are hurried with listening to pros and cons; and ht to say yes My heart is al to B while he reasons the case I cannot insult him with advice, which he would never have wanted, if he was capable of attending to it Maythe tribe that can't look beyond the present gratification, that draw fixed conclusions fro only, and, because a thing ought to be, expect that it will come to pass B has made a confidant of Skeys; and as I can never speak to himent If it does, I should not either wonder at it, or blame him For I that know, and aly adhere to it; and when I reason, I a Miracles don't occur now, and only a row old, and we can only discover by their countenances that they are so To the end of their chapter will their misery last I expect fanny next Thursday, and she will stay with us but a few days Bess desires her love; she grows better and of courseand her brain reeling, her closer acquaintance with Bishop convinced her that Eliza must not continue with him She determined at all hazards to free her sister fro her, and she knew she was right in her determination ”Whoso would be a man must be a nonconformist,” Emerson says Mary, because she was a true woman, was ruled in her conduct not by conventionalities or public opinion, but by her sense of righteousness

In her oords, ”The sarcasms of society and the conde to her, cos which were the foundation of her principles” For some months Eliza's physical and mental illness made it impossible to take a decided step or to form definite plans But when her child was born, and she returned to a norh at the same time sadder, because conscious, state, Mary felt that the tiht it advisable for her sister to leave her husband, though this necessitated the abandonment of her child, conclusively proves the seriousness of Bishop's faults It was no easy matter to effect the separation Bishop objected to it It is never unpleasant for ahis victim

Pecuniary assistance was therefore not to be had from him, and the sisters were penniless Mary applied to Edward, though she was not sure it was desirable for Eliza to take refuge with him However, he does not seeestion was never acted upon Theirs was a situation in which friends are not apt to interfere, and besides, Bishop's plausibility had won over not a few to his side

Furthermore, the chance was that if he worked successfully upon Mr

Skeys' sympathies, the Bloods would be influenced There was absolutely no one to help them, but Mary knew that it was useless to wait, and that the morroould not make easier what seemed to her the task of the present day When there ork to be done she never could rest with ”unlit lairt loin” What she now most wanted for her sister was liberty, and she resolved to secure this at once, and then afterwards to look about her to see hoas to be ly, one day, Bishop well out of the way, the sisters left his house forever There was a mad, breathless drive, Bess, with her insanity half returned, biting her wedding ring to pieces, a hurried exchange of coaches to further insure escape fros in Hackney, a giving in of false na of doors, and then--the reaction Eliza, whose excitement had exhausted itself on the way, became quiet and even ready for sleep Mary, now that irew nervous and restless With strained ears she listened to every sound Her heart beat tihtest knock

That night, in a wild, nervous letter to Everina, she wrote:--

I hope B will not discover us, for I would sooner face a lion; yet the door never opens but I expect to see hi for breath

Ask Ned hoe are to behave if he should find us out, for Bess is determined not to return Can he force her? but I'll not suppose it, yet I can think of nothing else She is sleepy, and going to bed; itated mind will not permit me Don't tell Charles or any creature! Oh! let me entreat you to be careful, for Bess does not dread hiain, let me request you to write, as B's behavior ain fanny carried s to Lear's, brush-maker in the Strand, next door to the White Hart

Yours, MARY

Miss Johnston--Mrs Dodds, opposite the Mermaid, Church Street, Hackney

She looks now very wild Heaven protect us!

I almost wish for an husband, for I want somebody to support me

The Rubicon was crossed But the hardshi+ps thereby incurred were but just beginning The two sisters were obliged to keep in hiding as if they had been cri with Bishop

They had barely h to pay their i more were limited by the precautions they had to take It had only been possible in their flight to carry off a few things, and they ithout sufficient clothing Then there caeneral belief then was, as indeed it unfortunately continues to be, that women should accept without a ive them, whether it be kindness or blows Better a thousand times that one human soul should be stifled and killed than that the Philistines of society should be scandalized by its struggles for air and life Eliza's happiness ht have been totally sacrificed had she res of her acquaintances, in whom respectability had destroyed the more humane qualities, would have been saved Her scheme, Mary wrote bitterly to Everina, was contrary to all the rules of conduct that are published for the benefit of new married ladies Many felt forced to forfeit the friendshi+p of these two social rebels, though it grieved them to the heart to do it Mrs Clare, be it said to her honor, remained stanch, but even she only approved cautiously, and Mary had her s that she would advise a reconciliation if she once saw Bishop

To add to the hopelessness of their case, the deserted husband restrained his rage so well, andher child, that he drew to hiiven to her Mary feared the effect his pleadings and representations would have upon Edward, the extent of whose egotism she had not yet measured, and she commissioned Everina to keep him firm As for Eliza, she was so shaken and weak, and so unhappy about the poor motherless infant, that she could neither think nor act The duty of providing for their wants, immediate and still to come, fell entirely upon Mary She felt this to be just, since it was chiefly through her influence that they had been brought to their present plight; but the responsibility was great, and it is no wonder that, brave as she was, she longed for some one to share it with her

Her one source of consolation and strength at this tie tobut few facts of her life, conclude from her connection with Godwin and her social radicalism that she was an atheist But the sincerest spirit of piety breathes through her letters written during her early troubles When the desertion of her so-called friends made her most bitter, she wrote to Everina:--

”Don't suppose I aree be expected fro the Supre, and those who humbly rely on Providence will not only be supported in affliction but have peace i This state is indeed a warfare, and we learn little that we don't s The cant of weak enthusiasts has ion and the assistance of the Holy Spirit appear ridiculous to the inconsiderate; but it is the only solid foundation of comfort that the weak efforts of reason will be assisted and our hearts and minds corrected and improved till the time arrives e shall not only see _perfection_, but see every creature around us happy”

The consolation she found was sufficient to make her advise her friends to seek for it froe Blood at a tiives me the sincerest satisfaction to find that you look for co in whom you trust will not desert you Be not cast dohile we are struggling with care life slips away, and through the assistance of Divine Grace we are obtaining habits of virtue that will enable us to relish those joys that we cannot now form any idea of I feel myself particularly attached to those who are heirs of the promises, and travel on in the thorny path with the same Christian hopes that render my severe trials a cause of thankfulness when I _can_ think”

These passages, evangelical in tone, occur in private letters, meant to be read only by those to whom they were addressed, so that they must be counted as honest expressions of her convictions and not mere cant Just as she wrote freely to her sisters and her intimate friends about her temporal matters, so without hesitation she talked to therew older She never was an atheist like Godwin, or an unbeliever of the Voltaire school But as the years went on, and her knowledge of the world increased, her religion concerned itself ave up going to church altogether But at the tiular in her attendance, and, though not strictly orthodox, clung to certain forms The mere fact that she possessed definite ideas upon the subject while she was young shows the naturally serious bent of her ious education Her belief, such as it holly the result of her own desire to solve the problems of existence and of the world beyond the senses It is this fact, and the inferences to be drawn fro

There seem to have been several schemes for work afoot just then One was that the two sisters and fanny Blood, who, so and anxious to leave home, should join their fortunes fanny could paint and draw Mary and Eliza could take in needlework until more pleasant and profitable employment could be procured Poverty and toil would be enial co very Utopian in such a plan; but fanny, when the tihtened Her hard apprenticeshi+p had given her none of the self-confidence and reliance which belonged to Mary by right of birth Her family, despite their dependence upon her, seeainst the outer world And so she held back, pleading the small chances of success by such a partnershi+p, her own poor health, which would ood reasons that the plan was abandoned She, then, with greater aptitude for suggestion than for action, proposed that Mary and Eliza should keep a haberdashery shop, to be stocked at the expense of the much-called-upon but sadly unsusceptible Edward There is sorimly humorous in the idea of Mary Wollstonecraft, destined as she was from all eternity to sound an alaru her days behind a counter attending to their trifling teht as well have been asked to become cook, a Sir Galahad to turn scullion Honest work is never disgraceful in itself Indeed, ”Better do to no end, than nothing!” But one regrets the pain and the waste when circureat work to spend their energies in ordinary channels A greater misery than indifference to the amusement in which one seeks to take part, which Has, is positive dislike for the work one is bound to do Fortunately, fanny's project was never carried out Probably Edward, as usual, failed to meet the proposals made to him, and Mary realized that the chains by which she would thus bind herself would be unendurable

The plan finally adopted was that dearest to Mary's heart She began her career as teacher She and Eliza went to Islington, where fanny was then living, and lodged in the same house with her Then they announced their intention of receiving day pupils Mary was eminently fitted to teach

Her sad experience had increased her natural sympathy and benevolence

She now made her own troubles subservient to those of her fellow-sufferers, and resolved that the welfare of others should be the principal object of her life Before the word had passed into moral philosophy, she had become an altruist in its truest sense The task of teacher particularly attracted her because it enabled her to prepare the young for the struggle with the world for which she had been so ill qualified Because so little attention had been given to her in her early youth, she keenly appreciated the advantage of a good practical education But her ton Like the man in the parable, she set out a banquet of which the bidden guests refused to partake No scholars were sent to her Therefore, at the end of a few ton Green, where better prospects seemed to await her There she had relatives and influential friends, and the encouragein work on a large scale She rented a house, and opened a regular school Her efforts met with success Twenty children became her pupils, while a Mrs

Campbell, a relative, and her son, and another lady, with three children, came to board with her Mary was now more comfortable than she had heretofore been She was, co, prosperous She hadherself, and at the saoal” of self-renunciation

Then she had cause for pleasure in the fact that Eliza was now really free, Bishop having finally agreed to the separation Mary Wollstonecraft, at the head of a house, and mistress of a school, was a very different person from Mary Wollstonecraft, simple companion to Mrs