Part 14 (2/2)
Citizens discovered the iniquity of lahich gave so little security to their lives and property, that these could be sported with impunity by the aristocracy In a word, the people found that without a pretext of justice, they were forced to be hewers of wood and drawers of water for a chosen few Once enlightened they rebelled against the nobles who treated them as beasts of burden and trod thehts as huiven the _raison d'etre_ of the great French crisis, she describes with striking energy the events which ensued She makes s and vile intrigues of ministers, the duplicity and despotism of the parliaments, which prevented the petitions and de the attention and consideration which alone could have satisfied theovernnition of the done aith There were but two methods by which this could be accoovernment refused to accept the first course; the people resolved to adopt the second Mary's treate contains her chief arguments upon the subject, and the conclusion she drew fro on the sae is an excellent specimen of the style in which the book is written The hastyworthy of philosophical investigation, fall into two distinct inquiries:--
”First, if froovernments will be meliorated, and the happiness of radually prepared by the i distinctions of rank, born in barbaris in the estimation of all sensible people so contemptible, that a modest man, in the course of fifty years, would probably blush at being thus distinguished; if the coed froo, and the liberty of its citizens tolerably secured; if every day extending freedoeneral dissee,--it then seems injudicious for states at the speedy destruction of obstinate prejudices; because these pre, destroy the cos who are under their doest argue in opposition to the theory of reason Besides, the objects intended to be forwarded are probably retarded, whilst the tumult of internal commotion and civil discord leads to theof human victims
”But, secondly, it is necessary to observe, that, if the degeneracy of the higher orders of society be such that no reht with horror can effect a radical cure; and if, enjoying the fruits of usurpation, they domineer over the weak, and check, by all the means in their power, every huradation into which the inequality of fortune has sunk hi recourse to coercion to repel coercion And, further, if it can be ascertained that the silent sufferings of the citizens of the world are greater, though less obvious, than the calamities produced by such violent convulsions as have happened in France, which, like hurricanes whirling over the face of nature, strip off all its blooraces, it may be politically just to pursue suchcountry, and at once root out those deleterious plants which poison the better half of hues in the book are those relating to Marie Antoinette As was the case when she wrote her answer to Burke, the misery of millions unjustly subjected moved Mary more than the woes of one woman justly deprived of an ill-used liberty Her love and sympathy for the peopleepithets, are indeed used of Marie Antoinette,” Mr Kegan Paul says in his short but appreciative criticis that she, who could in thosepersonally, could not but depend on Paris gossip; but this is interesting, as shohat the view taken of the queen was before passion rose to its highest, before the fury of the people, with all the ferocity of word and deed attendant on great popularlines, therefore, reflecting the feelings and opinions of the day, must be read with as much, if not more interest than those of later and better-informed historians:--
”The unfortunate Queen of France, beside the advantages of birth and station, possessed a very fine person; and her lovely face, sparkling with vivacity, hid the want of intelligence Her coly clear; and when she was pleased, her led thevoluptuous softness and affability with an air of grandeur bordering on pride, that rendered the contrast ives a degree of dignity to the noble souls, fro themselves superior to others, have actually acquired a look of superiority
”But her opening faculties were poisoned in the bud; for before she came to Paris she had already been prepared, by a corrupt, supple abbe, for the part she was to play; and, young as she was, becarandizeed deep in pleasure, she never o immense su, in itself very disgusting, was rendered ard of delicacy, and even decency, in his apartments; and when jealous of the queen, for whoreat brutality, till she acquired sufficient finesse to subjugate hi that a very desirable wouine constitution, should shrink, abhorrent, from his embraces; or that an empty mind should be employed only to vary the pleasures which emasculated her Circean court? And, added to this, the histories of the Julias and Messalinas of antiquity convincingly prove that there is no end to the vagaries of the iination, when power is unlimited, and reputation set at defiance
”Lost, then, in the ues, the queen became a profound dissembler; and her heart was hardened by sensual enjoyree that, when her family and favorites stood on the brink of ruin, her little portion of er As a proof of the justness of this assertion, it is only necessary to observe that, in the general wreck, not a scrap of her writing has been found to criminate her; neither has she suffered a word to escape her to exasperate the people, even when burning with rage and contempt The effect that adversity , time will show [this ritten so her prosperity, the lide into the interstices of enjoyment were passed in the or of ination Still, she was a woh her conversation was insipid, her compliments were so artfully adapted to flatter the person she wished to please or dupe, and so eloquent is the beauty of a queen, in the eyes even of superior men, that she seldoain an ascendency over theshe acquired unbounded shen, ust she had for his person, she ly price for her favors A court is the best school in the world for actors; it was very natural then for her to become a complete actress, and an adept in all the arts of coquetry that debauch the ”
Mary's inflexible hatred of the cruelty of the court and the nobility, which had led to the present horrors, though great, did not prevent her froed so soon as they obtained the mastery Her treatment of the facts of the Revolution is characterized by honesty She is above all else an iuishes, it is true, between the well- multitude--those who took the Bastille, for exas of society,--those who headed the st the French a spurious race of loried in their cri out the hearts that did not feel for them, have proved that they themselves had iron bowels” But while she makes this distinction, she does not hesitate to admit that the retaliation of the French people, suddenly all becons, was as terrible as that of slaves unexpectedly loosed fro her denunciations of Marie Antoinette, to sho far the new rule was fro the silence and ruin which have succeeded the old-tirandeur of Versailles, she exclai, scarcely conscious that I weep, O France! over the vestiges of thy for man from man with a fence of iron, sophisticated all, and made many completely wretched, I tre fro the snap of the _guillotine_ at his heels, merely because he was once noble, or has afforded an asylum to those whose only crierness to record the day that levelled the Bastille with the dust,the towers of despair tremble to their base, the recollection that still the abbey is appropriated to hold the victie and suspicion palsies the hand that would fain do justice to the assault, which tumbled into heaps of ruins, walls that seemed to mock the resistless force of time Down fell the temple of despotism; but--despotism has not been buried in its ruins! Unhappy country! ill thy children cease to tear thy bosoe of ive life to real nanimity, and justice place equality on a stable seat?
When will thy sons trust, because they deserve to be trusted; and private virtue becoovernment become the most perfect, because thy citizens are the most virtuous?”
The same impartiality is preserved in the relation of even theand easily eous and resolute resistance of the Third Estate to the clergy and nobility is described with dignified praise which never descends into fulsoenuousness, self-sufficiency, and interested ly exposed in recording such of their actions as, exaht see the details of the taking of the Bastille, and the women's an Paul's opinion eously cited ”Her accounts of the Bastille siege and of the Versailles episode,” he says, ”are worth reading beside those of the reat a contrast Carlyle has seized on the comic element in the ic; and hers seems to me the worthier view”
Many of the remarks upon civilization and the influence of the cultivation of science on the understanding, hich the book is interspersed, are full of wisdoht and careful research Hers was, to use with but slight change the words hich she concludes, the philosophical eye, which, looking into the nature and weighing the consequence of human actions, is able to discern the cause which has produced soits excellence and the reputation it once had, this work is now almost unknown But few have ever heard of it, still fewer read it; a fact due, of course, to its incompleteness The first and only volume ends with the departure of Louis from Versailles to Paris, when the Revolution was as yet in its earliest stages Thisvolumes, had she written them, would have been even better is very probable There was marked develophts of Women” The increased merit of her later works somewhat confirms Southey's declaration, made three years after her death, that ”Mary Wollstonecraft was but beginning to reason when she died”
The last book she finished and published during her life-ti a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark” Her journey, as has been explained in the last chapter, was undertaken to attend to certain business affairs for I in Sweden, she went froain to Sweden, and finally to Den, in which latter places she reo and come as she chose, she was sometimes detained in small places for two or three weeks, while she could stay but a day or two in large cities But she had letters of introduction to es to which business called her, and was thus able to see soh ht her into close contact with the peasantry As the ground over which she travelled was then but little visited by English people, she knew that her letters would have at least the charm of novelty
They were published by her friend Johnson in 1796 Hitherto, her work had been purely of a philosophical, historical, or educational nature The faun to record her observations of the French people had been quickly changed for the more formal tone of the ”French Revolution” These travels, consequently, marked an entirely new departure in her literary career Their success was at once assured Even the fastidious Godho had condemned her other books, could find no fault with this one Conteood opinion
”Have you ever met with Mary Wollstonecraft's 'Letters from Sweden and Norway'?” Southey asked in a letter to Thomas Southey ”She has made me in love with a cold cliht” The i When, several years later, he wrote an ”Epistle” to A S Cottle to be published in the latter's voluain alluded to the to the places described in northern poems he declared,--
” Scenes like these Have alazed Upon their fair rese the banishedWomen left no equal mind When from the world she passed; and I could weep To think that _She_ is to the grave gone down!”
The ”Annual Register” for 1796 honored the ”Letters” by publishi+ng in its colu a description of the Norwegian character The ”Monthly Magazine” for July of the sah not written with studied elegance, interests the reader in an uncoht, by bold sketches of nature andexpressions of delicate sensibility” The verdict of the ”analytical Revieas as follows:--
”A vigorous and cultivated intellect easily accommodates itself to new occupations The notion that individual genius can only excel in one thing is a vulgar error Apowers and quick sensibility, and by culture furnished in an uncoree with habits of attention and reflection, wherever it is placed will find itself employment, and whatever it undertakes will execute it well After the repeated proofs which the ingenious and justly adiven the public, that her talents are far above the ordinary level, it will not be thought surprising that she could excel in different kinds of writing; that the qualifications which have enabled her to instruct young people by moral lessons and tales, and to furnish the philosopher with original and important speculations, should also empower her to entertain and interest the public in aa book of travels
”We have no hesitation in assuring our readers that Mrs
Wollstonecraft has done this in the present volume”
The qualities most desirable in a writer of travels are quickness of perception, active interest in the places and people described, appreciation of local color, a nice sense of discrimination, and a pleasant, simple style It is true that occasionally affected and involved phrases occur in Mary's letters froes is a trifle too so and fewer in nus; while, when it is re her journey her heart was heavy-laden with disappointiven her With the exception of these really trifling shortcos, she may be said to have ably fulfilled the required conditions It may be asserted of her, in almost the identical words which Heine uses in praise of Goethe's ”Italian Journey,” that she, during her travels, saw all things, the dark and the light, colored nothing with her individual feelings, and pictured the land and its people in the true outlines and true colors in which God clothed it
Determined to avoid therather than from reason, she shows her readers the virtues and faults of the people a the forians unaffected and hospitable, but sensual and indolent Both good and evil she attributes to the influence of clie of culture attained in these northern countries The long winter nights, she explains in her letters, have ish Their want of interest in politics, literature, and scientific pursuits have concentrated their attention upon the pleasures of the senses They are hospitable because of the excitement and social amusements hospitality insures They care for the flesh-pots of Egypt because they have not yet heard of the joys of the Promised Land The women of the upper classes are so indolent that they exercise neither e, the latter soon loses all beauty The men seek no relaxation froian dinners and suppers If they are Godly, they are never cleanly, cleanliness requiring an effort of which they are incapable
Indolence and indifference to culture throughout Sweden and Norway are the chief characteristics of the natives
To Mary the coarseness of the people seemed the more unbearable because of the wonderful beauty of their country as she saw it in midsummer She could not understand their continued indifference to its loveliness Her own keen enjoyment of it shows itself in all her letters She constantly pauses in relating her experiences to dwell upon the grandeur of cliffs and sea, upon the ireat pine-coveredwith others entle and fertile, which are covered with broad fields of corn and rye She loves to describe the long still su, the sweet scents of the forest, and the soft freshness of the western breeze The s picture do not escape her notice She records theof distant cow-bells and the mournful cry of the bittern She even tells how she sometimes, when she is out in her boat, lays down her oars that shein the water