Part 6 (1/2)
CHAPTER V
LITERARY WORK
1788-1791
As has been stated, Mary Wollstonecraft began her literary career by writing a small pamphlet on the subject of education Its title, in full, is ”Thoughts on the Education of Daughters: with Reflections on Female Conduct in theas her first work Otherwise it is of no great value Though Mr Johnson saw in it the inality in its contents or strikingthem The ideas it sets forth, while eminently commendable, are rehteenth century for wo and unive expression
The pa certain laws and principles which Mary thought needed to be enerally understood and more firmly established That a woman should not shi+rk the functions, either physical or moral, of maternity; that artificial manners and exterior accomplishe and simplicity of conduct; that matrimony is to be considered seriously and not entered into capriciously; that the individual owes certain duties to humanity as well as to his or her own family,--all these are truths which it is well to repeat frequently But if their repetition be not accoht on ethical science, or else if it be not e of hus, it will not be rehters”
certainly bears no relation to such works as the ”Imitation” on the one hand, or the ”Data of Ethics” on the other It is not a book for all tinificant to readers interested in the study of Mary Wollstonecraft's life and character Every sentence reveals the earnestness of her nature Many passages show that as early as 1787 she had seriously considered the problems which, in 1791, she attempted to solve She was even then perplexed by the unfortunate situation of wo received but the pretence of an education, eventually become dependent on their own exertions Her sad experience probably led her to these thoughts Reflection upon them made her the champion of her sex Already in this little pa of their intellectual powers, woencies of fortune and to fulfil the duties of wife and oodwith feminine occupations, increases a woman's fitness for them Thus she writes:--
”No e domestic duties; and I cannot conceive that they are incompatible
A woman may fit herself to be the companion and friend of a man of sense, and yet kno to take care of his family”
The intense love of sincerity in conduct and belief which is a leading characteristic in the ”Rights of Women” is also manifested in these early essays Mary exclaims in one place,--
”How many people are like whitened sepulchres, and careful only about appearances! Yet if we are too anxious to gain the approbation of the world, we ain she says, as if in warning:--
” Let the uise for the genuine es ard can scarcely be borne when there is no internal support”
Another marked feature of the pamphlet is the extremely puritanical tendency of its senti sere Blood, and breathes the sah not to special doge which occurs in the treatise is one on love, and in which, strangely enough, she establishes a belief which she was destined some years later to confirm by her actions When the circumstances of her union with Godwin are remembered, her words seem prophetic
”It is too universal a maxim with novelists,” she says, ”that love is felt but once; though it appears toan iuish, will turn to a new object when the first is found unworthy I aoodness has the first place in the mind, and notions of perfection are not affixed to constancy”
Though not very wonderful in itself, the ”Education of Daughters” is, in its choice of subject and the standards it upholds, a worthy prelude to the riper work by which it was before very long followed
The next work Mary published was a voluinal Stories froulate the Affections and form the Mind to Truth and Goodness” This ritten while her experience as school-overness was still fresh in her memory As she explains in her Preface, her object was to make up in so which, as a rule, children in those days received from their parents
”Good habits,” she writes, ”are infinitely preferable to the precepts of reason; but as this task requires enerally falls to the lot of parents, substitutes imen would have answered the purpose much better
” To wish that parents would, themselves, mould the ductile passions is a chieneration have their own passions to co those nature points out Weone; and, teaching virtue, explain the nature of vice”
In addressing a youthful audience, Mary was as deeply inspired by her love of goodness _per se_, and her detestation of conventional conceptions of virtue, as she was afterwards in appealing to older readers She represents, in her book, two little girls, aged respectively twelve and fourteen, who have been sadly neglected during their early years, but who, fortunately, have at this period fallen under the care of a Mrs Mason, who at once undertakes to forood lady, in whose name Mary seres a moral lesson The defects she attacks are those most coreediness, indolence, procrastination, are in turn censured, and their opposite virtues praised Some of the definitions of the qualities commended are excellent For example, Mrs
Mason says to the two children:--
”Do you know theto answer I will tell you It is, first, to avoid hurting anything; and then to contrive to give as ain, she warns them thus:--
”Remember that idleness must always be intolerable, as it is the most irksome consciousness of existence”
This latter definition is a little above the comprehension of children of twelve and fourteen But then Mary is careful to explain in the Preface that she writes to assist teachers She wishes to give them hints which they must apply to the children under their care as they think best The religious tone of the ”Stories” is even hters” The following is but one of many proofs of Mary's honest endeavors to ious devotion In one of her conversational serion your chief colect the duty of prayer Learn fro known your wants and sorrows to the wisest and best of Beings, in whose hands are the issues, not only of this life, but of that which is to cothen the effect of Mrs Mason's words, an example or story is in every chapter added to her remarks They are all appropriate, and many of the tales are beautiful As the book is so little known, one of these iven here The story selected is that of Crazy Robin