Mrs Shelley | Page 3

position of comparative ease to her, and, although all the former
companions had left the lady in despair, she remained two years with
her till her mother's illness required her presence at home. Mrs.
Wollstonecraft's hard life had broken her constitution, and in death she
procured her first longed-for rest from sorrow and toil, counselling her
daughters to patience. Deprived of the mother, the daughters could no
longer remain with their father; and Mary, at eighteen, had again to
seek her fortune in a hard world--Fanny Blood being, as ever, her best
friend. One of her sisters became housekeeper to her brother; and Eliza
married, but by no means improved her position by this, for her
marriage proved another unhappy one, and only added to Mary's sad
observation of the marriage state. A little later she had to help this sister

to escape from a life which had driven her to madness. When her
sister's peace of mind was restored, they were enabled to open a school
together at Stoke Newington Green, for a time with success; but failure
and despondency followed, and Mary, whose health was broken,
accepted a pressing invitation from her friend Fanny, who had married
a Mr. Skeys, to go and stay with her at Lisbon, and nurse her through
her approaching confinement. This sad visit--for during her stay there
she lost her dearly loved friend--broke the monotony of her life, and
perhaps the change, with sea voyage which was beneficial to her health,
helped her anew to fight the battle of life on her return. But fresh
troubles assailed her. Some friend suggested to her to try literature, and
a pamphlet, _Thoughts on the Education of Daughters_, was her first
attempt. For this she received ten guineas, with which she was able to
help her friends the Bloods.
She shortly afterwards accepted a situation as governess in Lord
Kingsborough's family, where she was much loved by her pupils; but
their mother, who did little to gain their affection herself, becoming
jealous of the ascendency of Mary over them, found some pretext for
dismissing her. Mary's contact, while in this house, with people of
fashion inspired her only with contempt for their small pleasures and
utterly unintellectual discourse. These surroundings, although she was
treated much on a footing of equality by the family, were a severe
privation for Mary, who was anxious to develop her mind, and to
whom spiritual needs were ever above physical.
On leaving the Kingsboroughs, Mary found work of a kind more
congenial to her disposition, as Mr. Johnson, the bookseller in St. Paul's
Churchyard who had taken her pamphlet, now gave her regular work as
his "reader," and also in translating. Now began the happiest part of
Mary's life. In the midst of books she soon formed a circle of admiring
friends. She lived in the simplest way, in a room almost bare of
furniture, in Blackfriars. Here she was able to see after her sisters and
to have with her her young brother, who had been much neglected; and
in the intervals of her necessary work she began writing on the subjects
which lay nearest to her heart; for here, among other work, she
commenced her celebrated _Vindication of the Rights of Woman_, a
work for which women ought always to be grateful to her, for with this
began in England the movement which, progressing amidst much

obloquy and denunciation, has led to so many of the reforms in social
life which have come, and may be expected to lead to many which we
still hope for. When we think of the nonsense which has been talked
both in and out of Parliament, even within the last decade, about the
advanced women who have worked to improve the position of their
less fortunate sisters, we can well understand in what light Mary
Wollstonecraft was regarded by many whom fortunately she was not
bound to consider. Her reading, which had been deep and constant,
together with her knowledge of life from different points of view,
enabled her to form just opinions on many of the great reforms needed,
and these she unhesitatingly set down. How much has since been done
which she advocated for the education of women, and how much they
have already benefited both by her example and precept, is perhaps not
yet generally enough known. Her religious tone is always striking; it
was one of the moving factors of her life, as with all seriously thinking
beings, though its form became much modified with the advance in her
intellectual development.
Her scheme in the Vindication of the Rights of Woman may be summed
up thus:--
She wished women to have education equal to that of men, and this has
now to a great extent been accorded.
That trades, professions, and