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In France

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finding her school much decayed, she turned her attention to literature. Her first production was a pamphlet entitled Thoughts on the Education of Daughters; for which she received ten guineas. She now gave up her school and accepted the situation of governess in Lord Kingborough's family; in which capacity she was very highly esteemed. In 1787, she parted from them at Bristol Hot Wells; and there wrote a little book of fiction, called Mary. She now came to London; and engaged a house in George Street, Blackfriars, purposing to devote herself to literature. Here she resided three years, principally occupied in translating; and rendering great services to her family, then much distressed. About this period she became acquainted with Fuseli, the painter. At the close of 1790 appeared the pensioned Burke's Reflections on the French Revolution. Mary Wollstonecraft published the first reply to this insolent attack on liberty; and her work attracted much deserved notice. Shortly after was produced her celebrated Vindication of the Rights of Woman. In 1792, she went to Paris, mainly persuaded by a desire to disengage herself from an attachment to Fuseli, who, being a married man, might not return her affection. she became acquainted with a Mr. Imlay, an American merchant. attachment, apparently mutual, ensued. She refused, however, to marry him, not wishing to render him liable to certain family and pecuniary embarrassments to which she was exposed. A decree of the French Convention, for the imprisonment of all the English residents in France, made it necessary that she should at least take his name: to obtain protection as the wife of an American citizen. Her first child, a daughter, was born at Havre, on the 14th of May, 1794. In September, Mr. Imlay went to London on account of his business; and she remained in France. appointed time of his absence being prolonged, she joined him in London; in April, 1795. Meanwhile he had formed a new connection; and seemed desirous of breaking with her. Her endeavours to regain his affections were vain; and she resolved upon self-destruction. This was prevented by his interference; and she almost directly undertook a voyage to Norway, to conduct a difficult business for him. The narrative of this voyage was published in her Letters from Norway. Her return was hastened by the conduct of Imlay. She had written, desiring to know on what terms they were hereafter to stand toward each other. He only gave her unsatisfactory and evasive answers. She returned to London; and too soon discovered the cause of his desertion. She again attempted suicide; and threw herself into the Thames, from the top of Putney Bridge: but was rescued and recovered. Imlay now tried to persuade her that his new connection was merely casual and sensual; and that she might, in time, be reinstated in his affections. This was not tolerable. After repeated efforts to detach him from his new passion, she, at length, flung him from her heart. About the same time, she renewed an acquaintance with Godwin (the author of Political Justice, Caleb Williams, &c.) which had commenced at Paine's house, in 1791; an acquaintance which soon produced esteem that ripened into love. They did not immediately marry. They saw no especial seemliness in trumpeting to the world the moment when their most sacred feeling had "arrived at its climax." It was not till April, 1797, that their marriage was declared. Then it had only taken place on account of her pregnancy, to prevent her exclusion from society-a purpose which was not answered. They resided at Somers Town. On the 30th of August she gave birth to a daughter, afterwards the wife of the Apostle of Poetry, the God-inspired Shelley. On the 10th of September, she died of mortification occasioned by a part of the placenta that remained in the womb, she was buried in St. Pancras Churchyard.

Abridged from Godwin.

The state of Society in which we exist is a mixture of feudal savageness and imperfect civilization.-Shelley.

REVELATIONS OF TRUTH.

CHAP. X.

A CERTAIN man, after long years of debauchery-feeling his health fail, and fearing that in his old age he should be without a nurse or a comforter; wishing also to have children who might bear the honours of his name, and inherit his mortgaged estates;—took unto him a woman to be his housekeeper and bedfellow.

She was young, and needed a home; her friends had taught her that to be alone was a crime; her own feelings told her that she required a companion: whether this man or another were most fitting she had not considered.

One of their fellow-men assured them that God had joined them together: they were commanded by the laws of their country to love and honour each other, and the woman to obey the man, whose property she became in right of their mutual infirmities.

The man had more regard for her than for most of his mistresses; he honoured her for her connection with himself.

She loved him not, for he had no qualities to attract affection; she honoured him as a bond-servant honoureth a tyrant; and obeyed him to avoid deceit, collision, or compulsion.

There was a void within her heart, which even a mother's fondness for her offspring could not fill up.

The man still clung to his old companions, or sought new mistresses: the world called him gay and inattentive, and watched the woman more narrowly. And while sorrow thus daily companioned her, and nightly couched at her side, she beheld one who seemed to be the reverse of him whom she had sworn to love, yet loved not.

And after long knowledge of his character she found that she loved the stranger; moreover, she felt that she was loved by him.

And she saw that her children, the fruit of her womb, were not the children of Love, but of prostitution, born of one who had never loved her.

And he, the man who was called her husband, seemed unto her as a loathsome thing standing between her and the desire of her life.

And she tended her children kindly; submitting to the pollution of an unloving embrace; and she clothed her life with smiles: but her heart was broken-and she died.

The approving world read these words upon a costly tomb, "The woman who performed her duty": It was a lying epitaph.

And again, There was a woman who, knowing nothing of the dispositions of men, having no means of studying their characters, was wedded unto one of pleasant appearance and fascinating manners.

He had little perception of moral beauty; no idea of intellectual enjoyment. His mere physical love was soon sated; he tired of her person: and, as her beauty faded, disgust supervened.

Yet he rendered her all the attentions of which a cold and passionless heart was capable: and, though he had no joy with her, he sought not pleasure elsewhere.

Meanwhile she became acquainted with one of an impassioned nature, and pure and lofty intellect: and she loved him.

Then she proposed to him whose name she unwillingly bore-as a beast beareth the mark of its owner-that, since they could not be happy together, they should seek their happiness apart: that each should cease to torment the other.

Her proposal was rejected with horror as a monstrous iniquity.

Then, in the right of an independent nature, she united herself to him who loved her, whom she also loved: and she learned that happiness dwelleth with the loving, and with the loving only.

But the prudery of the world allowed not this for long.

She was hunted from society; she was pursued to the retirement of her home: she was persecuted, and reviled, and trampled-even to death.

The epitaph of the Murdered was truly written on the heart of One: "The woman whose purity the world understood not."

From the evil road are many paths which may reconduct to the way of Happiness: they may lead through sorrow and anguish and dismaying pain; yet linger not in the highway of Evil-the end thereof is certain Death.

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CULTIVATION AND EXERCISE REQUISITE FOR ALL THE FACULTIES OF OUR NATURE.

EACH individual is so organized that his highest health, his greatest progressive improvement, and his permanent happiness depend upon the due cultivation of all his physical, intellectual, and moral qualities, or elements of his nature, upon their being all called into action at a proper period of life, and being afterwards temperately exercised according to the strength of the individual.

The proper business of human life is to form man to attain the highest degree of physical, intellectual and moral perfection; to remove from around him every impediment to the acquisition of happiness, and to create new circumstances, which shall contribute most essentially to promote his permanent enjoyment. He must, therefore, be well-educated physically, mentally and morally; he must be beneficially employed and occupied, so trained as to act cordially with his associates, who must be equally well trained and occupied; he will thus be formed to know the truth, to feel it, and to look and act uniformly in accordance with it. He will then know and feel the importance of exercising all the faculties of his nature, in their due order, to the point of temperance, and of never exceeding that point. He will then discover that all parts of his nature are equally necessary to his happiness; that his physical propensities require to be as regularly exercised as his intellectual faculties, and these, again, as his moral feelings; and that as the health of each part is essential to maintain the health of all the other parts, no one portion of human nature can be inferior to another, because, although composed of many parts, it is one individual whole, and perfect only in proportion as all its parts approach perfection.

Those systems, therefore, which have thrown discredit upon the physical propensities or intellectual faculties and enjoyments of human nature, have been formed in gross ignorance of what manner of being man is, and of the mode of creating and securing his happiness.

In a rational state of society, arrangements will be permanently formed to cultivate and regularly exercise the physical propensities, the intellectual faculties and the moral feelings, each in subserviency to the other, and thus keep the health of body and mind, through life, in the best state for action and enjoyment.-Robert Owen.

Equality and Liberty are two essential attributes of man, two laws of the Divinity, not less essential and immutable than the physical properties of inanimate nature.- Volney.

Rulers. He is unfit to rule others, who cannot rule himself.-Plato.
March 9, 1839.

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