Godwin, William (1756-1836)

Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

London

J. Johnson

1798

"Wounded affection, wounded pride, all those principles which hold absolute empire in the purest and loftiest minds, urged her to still further experiments to recover her influence, and to a still more poignant desparation, long after reason would have directed her to desist, and resolutely call off her mind from thoughts of so hopeless and fatal a description."

Why did she thus obstinately cling to an ill-starred, unhappy passion? Because it is of the very essence of affection, to seek to perpetuate itself. He does not love, who can resign this cherished sentiment, without suffering some of the sharpest struggles that our nature is capable of enduring. Add to this, Mary had fixed her heart upon this chosen friend; and one of the last impressions a worthy mind can submit to receive, is that of the worthlessness of the person upon whom it has fixed all its esteem. Mary had struggled to entertain a favourable opinion of human nature; she had unweariedly sought for a kindred mind, in whose integrity and fidelity to take up her rest. Wounded affection, wounded pride, all those principles which hold absolute empire in the purest and loftiest minds, urged her to still further experiments to recover her influence, and to a still more poignant desparation, long after reason would have directed her to desist, and resolutely call off her mind from thoughts of so hopeless and fatal a description. Mr. Imlay undertook to prove, in his letters written immediately after their complete separation, that his conduct towards her was reconcilable to the strictest rectitude; but undoubtedly Mary was of a different opinion. Whatever the reader may decide in this respect, there is one sentiment that, I believe, he will unhesitatingly admit: that of pity for the mistake of the man, who, being in possession of such a friendship and attachment as those of Mary, could hold them at a trivial price, and, "like the base Indian, throw a pearl away, richer than all his tribe." (pp. 125-5 in 2nd ed., cf. p. 212 in Broadview ed.)

Government::Empire

Reading

4 entries in the ESTC (1798, 1799). [First edition published in January. Second edition published in August of the same year. Variants included from the "corrected," second edition, are flagged in the text field and included under this same entry.]

See Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: By William Godwin (London: Printed for J. Johnson; and G. G. and J. Robinson, 1798). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO-TCP>

See also Memoirs of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. By William Godwin. The second edition, corrected. (London: Printed for J. Johnson, No. 72, St. Paul’s Church-Yard, 1798). <Link to ESTC><Link to ECCO>

Reading Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman eds. Pamela Clemit and Gina Luria Walker (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview, 2001).

07/12/2014