Part 9 (1/2)
CHAPTER VII
VISIT TO PARIS
1792-1793
The ”Vindication of the Rights of Woenerally known Its fame spread far and wide, not only at home but abroad, where it was translated into Gerhts of Man,”
or Malthus' ”Essay on the Theory of Population,” it advanced new doctrines which threatened to overturn existing social relations, and it consequently struck men with fear and wonder, and evoked itation, the question of wohts still creates contention The excitement caused by the first word in its favor ined If one of the bonds stones for the pyramids, or one of the yptians or Greeks could not have been lishmen were at a woman's assertion that, usted with such a bold breaking of conventional chains; a feere startled into admiration
Much of the public amazement was due not only to the principles of the book, but to its warlish authoresses of those days ”kept their readers carefully at pen's length, and see achievele minute that they were in print” But here was a woman rote eloquently froht upon subjects of which her sex, as a rule, pretended to know nothing, and who forgot herself in her interest in her work It was natural that curiosity was felt as to what ed into surprise when, instead of the virago expected, she was found to be, to use Godwin's words, ”lovely in her person, and, in the best andsense, feminine in her manners” The fable was in this case reversed It was the sheep who had appeared in wolf's clothing
In her own circle of friends and acquaintances she was lionized Some of her readers were converted into enthusiasts One of these--a Mr John Henry Colls--a few years later addressed a poem to her However, his admiration unfortunately did not teach hiood poetry, and his verses have been deservedly forgotten The reputation she had won by her answer to Burke was now firmly established She was respected as an independent thinker and a bold dealer with social proble and leading criticism
”The lesser wits,” her critic writes, ”will probably affect to make themselves merry at the title and apparent object of this publication; but we have no doubt, if even her contemporaries should fail to do her justice, posterity will co that if the bulk of the great truths which this publication contains were reduced to practice, the nation would be better, wiser, and happier than it is upon the wretched, trifling, useless, and absurd system of education which is now prevalent”
But the conservative avoided her and her book as ues Many people would not even look at what she had written Satisfied with the old-fashi+oned way of treating the subjects therein discussed, they would not run the risk of finding out that they rong Their attitude in this respect was much the sahts of Man” ”No overned, while I feel the contrary”
Women then, even the cleverest and most liberal, bowed to the decrees of custom with a submission as servile as that of the Hindu to the laws of caste Like the latter, they were contented with their lot and had no desire to change it They dreaded the increase of knowledge which would bring with it greater sorrow Mrs Barbauld, eloquent in her defence of her aie to reeable_ companions to their husbands and brothers Should there be any deviation from the methods of education which insured this end, they would, she feared, become like the _Precieuses_ or _Feorous appeal for i for her Hannah More, enthusiastic in her denunciations of slavery, but unconscious that her liberty was in the least restricted, did not hesitate to for it, thus necessarily nificance In this she doubtless represented a large majority of her sex She wrote to Horace Walpole in 1793:--
”I have been hts of Woon, I hatefantastic and absurd in the very title Howridiculous! I aood use of, now I a one I had, I dare say, , perhaps I should not overnment, I suppose, because they are not fit for it To be unstable and capricious, I really think, is but too characteristic of our sex; and there is, perhaps, no aniood behavior as woman I have soberly and uniformly maintained this doctrine ever since I have been capable of observation, and I used horridly to provoke some of my female friends--_maitresses femmes_--by it, especially such heroic spirits as poor Mrs Walsingha herself by her arguhts,--an interference they could not brook To the Tories the fact that she syh to damn her Walpole, when he answered the letter from which the above extract is taken, wrote armth:--
” It is better to thank Providence for the tranquillity and happiness we enjoy in this country, in spite of the philosophizing serpents we have in our bosolad you have not read the tract of the last-h assured it contains neither metaphysics nor politics; but as she entered the lists of the latter, and borrowed her title fros_ of men, she is excoh of new systereat deal too much already”
Walpole may be accepted as the typical Tory, and to all his party Mary probably appeared as the ”philosophizing serpent” She seems always to have incurred his deepest scorn and wrath He could not speak of her without calling her names A year or two later, when she had published her book on the French Revolution, writing again to Hannah More, he thus concludes his letter:--
”Adieu, thou excellent woman! thou reverse of that hyena in petticoats, Mrs Wollstonecraft, who to this day discharges her ink and gall on Marie Antoinette, whose unparalleled sufferings have not yet stanched that Alecto's blazing ferocity”
There was at least onewho, it is known, treated the book with indifference, and he, by a strange caprice of fate, was William Godwin It was at this time, when she was in the fulness of her fa at Johnson's with Paine and Shovet, and Godwin had come purposely to meet the American philosopher and to hear him talk But Paine was at best a silent man; and Mary, it seems, monopolized the conversation Godas disappointed, and consequently the i He afterwards wrote an account of this firstbecause of the closer relationshi+p to which an acquaintance so unpropitiously begun was to lead
”The intervieas not fortunate,” he says ”Mary and myself parted hts of Women' I had barely looked into her answer to Burke, and been displeased, as literary rammar and other minute points of composition I had therefore little curiosity to see Mrs Wollstonecraft, and a very great curiosity to see Thoreat talker; and, though he threw in occasionally so remarks, the conversation lay principally between me and Mary I, of consequence, heard her very frequently when I wished to hear Paine
”We touched on a considerable variety of topics and particularly on the character and habits of certain eminent men Mary, as has already been observed, had acquired, in a very blaloo censure with a plentiful hand, where circuree doubtful I, on the contrary, had a strong propensity to favorable construction, and, particularly where I found unequivocal enerous and manly virtue We ventilated in this way the character of Voltaire and others, who have obtained froreater number have treated them with extreme moral severity Mary was at last provoked to tell me that praise, lavished in the way that I lavished it, could do no credit either to the commended or the coion, in which her opinions approached much nearer to the received ones than mine As the conversation proceeded, I became dissatisfied with the tone of my own share in it We touched upon all topics without treating forcibly and connectedly upon any Meanwhile, I did her the justice, in giving an account of the conversation to a party in which I supped, though I was not sparing of my blame, to yield her the praise of a person of active and independent thinking On her side, she did me no part of what perhaps I considered as justice
”Weyear, but ress towards a cordial acquaintance”
Not until Mary had lived through the tragedy of her life were they destined to become more to each other than mere fellow otten, before the ti
Her family were naturally interested in her book from personal motives; but Eliza and Everina heartily disapproved of it, and their feelings for their eldest sister became, froan Paul says, their small spite points to envy and jealousy rather than to honest indignation
Both were now in good situations Mary felt free, therefore, to consider her own comforts a little Besides, she had attained a position which it becanity She was non as _Mrs_ Wollstonecraft, and was a proure in the literary world Shortly after the publication of the ”Rights of Woe Street, to larger, finer rooms on Store Street, Bedford Square, and these she furnished coer her only standard She also gave more care to her dress Her stern apprenticeshi+p was over She had so successfully trampled upon the thorns in her path that she could pause to enjoy the flowers To ns of the awakening of the springtime in her cold and wintry life But her sisters resented the less, received less fro in Aratitude, sent the, and thus unconsciously kindled their jealousy into a fierce flame When the extent of Mary's kindness and self-sacrifice in their regard is remembered, the petty ill-nature of brother and sisters, as expressed in the following letter from Mrs
Bishop to Everina, is unpardonable:--