CHAPTER II.

HER LITERARY WORK.

THE works of Mary Wollstonecraft display unusual versatility of mental powers. She was able to turn her mind to new tasks in a way that made her eminent in several directions. She may be classed among pedagogical writers, but she also wrote on historical subjects and took part in discussions in political principles. She wrote fiction, and her letters descriptive of experiences in travel, and letters personal, take a high rank even to this day, among productions of that kind. And more than all this, her genius furnished, in her Vindication of the Rights of Woman, the motive power, derived from originality of conception, which helped to carry forward an historic movement.

Her intellectual endowments then, were of a wide scope. She was a born educator. Her practical skill in education was even superior to her speculations upon that subject," is the tribute

1 The Gentleman's Magazine, 1797. Among "Obituaries of Remarkable Persons."

paid her by one of her contemporaries. Godwin says of her: "No person was ever better formed for the business of education; if it be not a sort of absurdity to speak of a person as formed for an inferior object, who is in possession of talents, in the fullest degree adequate to something on a more important and comprehensive scale." "I have heard

her say, he continues, "that she never was concerned in the education of one child, who was not personally attached to her, and earnestly concerned not to incur her displeasure. Another eminent

advantage she possessed in the business of education, was that she was little troubled with scepticism and uncertainty. She saw, as it were by intuition, the path which her mind determined to pursue, and had a firm confidence in her own power to effect what she desired." She wrote but little on strictly educational matter, but she brought to bear upon her Vindication of the Rights of Woman all the skill, practical and theoretical, which she possessed, as an educator. It is, as the Analytical Review said, "in reality an elaborate treatise on female education." The educator was here merged in the reformer.

The leading traits of the reformer were hers. Courage and strength of conviction marked her attitude; nor did she hesitate to place implicit trust in her own opinions, however much at variance

1 W. Godwin: Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of

the Rights of Woman, p. 43.

2 The Analytical Review, March 1792.

they might have been with those held by the great majority. The enthusiasm which inspires belief in success, however insurmountable the obstacles might seem, was hers and carried her forward.

Her love for humanity was on a grand scale and gave her a keen insight into the causes that lay at the root of social evils, lent her a firm hand to open out these causes and lay them bare, and inspired her with a burning desire to see the wrongs of humanity set right, and justice meted out to that part of the human race, whose rights had thus far been largely overlooked.

Blended with the eminently practical tendency of the reformer, displayed in the measures which she advocated, was the speculative reasoning of the philosopher. She possessed the high mental power of seeing truth intuitively; and at the same time aimed at accurate expression of terms and thus sought a rational basis for ideas, which she had attained by way of intuitive perception. The great questions, that have engaged thinkers in all ages, concerning the laws of the universe and their invisible law-giver; concerning the destiny of man and the ultimate triumph of right over wrong, had early confronted her, and she had come to her own conclusions regarding them. This speculative reasoning forms the background of her practical applications.

This threefold gift: The practical skill of the educator, the zeal of the reformer, and the thoughtfulness of the philosopher, supported as it was by an unusual command of language, made her a woman

"well known throughout Europe by her literary works."

Mary Wollstonecraft began her public career as a teacher, and as a consequence her first literary efforts were put forth in the direction of education. Her first production did not enjoy great success. It is full of precepts, full of counsel, and is written in a sombre tone, with little of the joyousness of life and youth vibrating in it. The burdens of her life seemed to her insupportably heavy at the time, and the heaviness of spirit is apparent in her writing. Yet the germs of later, riper thought are there.

3

Her second attempt as a writer of educational books was in a happier vein, and met with far greater success. In Original Stories from Real Life she abandoned the somewhat stilted form of precept, and in the form of stories, taught the children to see the deeper meanings in the daily occurrences of their lives.

A prominent educator in Germany, C. S. Salzmann, had adopted a similar method. His book accidentally fell into Mary Wollstonecraft's hands while she was learning German, and as an exercise in language, she began to translate it. She was soon so pleased to find, as she says in the preface,

The Gentleman's Magazine, 1797.

2 Thoughts on the Education of Daughters with Reflections on Female Conduct in the more important Duties of Life. London, 1787.

Original Stories from Real Life. London, 1788, 1791, 1796 (with illustrations designed and engraved by W. Blake). London, 1807, 1820, 1835. Dublin, 1799.

that the writer coincided with her in opinion respecting the method, which ought to be pursued to form the heart and temper of children, that she made her translation' an English book, by avoiding the introduction of German customs and local opinions, thus giving it the spirit of an original. "All the pictures," she says, "are drawn from real life, and that I highly approve of this method, my having written a book on the same plan, (Entitled Original Stories from Real Life) is the strongest proof." It is interesting, as an indication of the later development of her thought, that in her own book she inserted a little tale to lead children to consider the Indians as their brothers, "because the omission of this subject appeared to be a chasm in a well-digested system."

Both these books, her own Original Stories from Real Life and her rendering of Salzmann's Moralisches Elementarbuch were much read in their day.

Mary Wollstonecraft's other translations did not enjoy so great a degree of popularity. She translated Necker's Opinions Religieuses and Lavater's Physiognomy from the French. A translation from the Dutch of Young Grandison was put into her hands, which she almost re-wrote. She also compiled a French Reader, introducing some original

1 C. S. Salzmann: Elements of Morality. Translated by Mary Wollstonecraft. London, 1790, 2 vols.; 1792, 3 vols.; 1793, 2 vols.; Baltimore, U. S. A., 1811; Edinburgh, 1821.

2 Jacques Necker: Of the Importance of Religious Opinions. Translated by Mary Wollstonecraft, London, 1788; Philadelphia, 1791.