Mary Wollstonecraft | Page 4

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 them, together with his
readiness to accept all the ill spoken of her, is at once shown in his
reference to Claire, who was the daughter of the second Mrs. Godwin
by her first husband, and hence no relation whatever to Mrs. Shelley.
This mistake proves that he relied overmuch upon current gossip.
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 most severely
criticised, and to some of them gives a new and scarcely more
favorable construction. He candidly admits that he does not pretend to
vindicate the whole of her conduct. He merely wishes to apologize for
it by demonstrating the motives from which she acted. But to
accomplish this he evolves his arguments chiefly from his inner
consciousness. Had he appealed more directly to her writings, and
thought less of showing his own ingenuity in reasoning, he would have
written to better purpose.
Southey was always enthusiastic in his admiration. His letters are full
of her praises. "We are going 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 "Triumph of
Woman:"--
"The lily cheek, the 'purple light of love,' The liquid lustre of the
melting eye, Mary! of these the Poet sung, for these Did Woman
triumph ... turn not thou away Contemptuous from the theme. No Maid
of Arc Had, in those ages, for her country's cause Wielded the sword of
freedom; no Roland Had borne the palm of female fortitude; No Condé
with self-sacrificing zeal Had glorified again the Avenger's name, As
erst when Cæsar perished; haply too Some strains may hence be drawn,
befitting me To offer, nor unworthy thy regard."
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 from thy birth, Of glorious parents,
thou aspiring 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 mere admiration of Southey and Shelley had little weight
against 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 admirers, Mr. Kegan 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 himself, "Only eighty years after her death has any serious attempt
been made to set her right in the eyes of those who will choose to see
her as she was." His attempt has been successful. No one after reading
her sad story as he tells it in his Life of Godwin, can doubt her moral
uprightness. 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 much-maligned woman.
Thus, at this late day, the attacks of her enemies are being defeated.
The critic who declared the condition of the trees planted near her
grave to be symbolical of her fate, were he living now, would 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 remains a