t pleasant. But still
the advantages outweighed the drawbacks, and Mary agreed to Lady
Kingsborough's terms.

Mr. and Mrs. Prior intended taking a trip to Ireland, and they suggested
that she should accompany them. Travelling was not easy in those days,
and she decided to wait and go with them. But, for some reason, they did
not start as soon as they had expected. She had already joined them in
their home at Eton, in which place their delay detained her for some
time. This gave her the opportunity to study the school and the
principles upon which it was conducted. The entire system met with her
disapprobation, and afterwards, in her "Rights of Women," she freely and
strongly expressed her unfavorable opinion. Judging from what she there
saw, she concluded that schools regulated according to the same rules
were hot-beds of vice. Nothing disgusted her so much in this institution
as the false basis upon which religion was established. The slavery to
forms, demanded of the boys, seemed to her to at once undermine their
moral uprightness. What, indeed, could be expected of a boy who would
take the sacrament for no other reason than to avoid the fine of half a
guinea imposed upon those who would not conform to this ceremony? Her
visit did much towards developing and formulating her ideas on the
subject of education.

Mrs. Prior seems to have given her every chance to become acquainted not
only with the school, but with the social life at Eton. But her interest
in the gay world, as there represented, was lukewarm. Its shallowness
provoked her. She, looking upon life as real and earnest, and not as a
mere playground, could not sympathize with women who gave themselves up
to dress, nor with men who expended their energies in efforts to raise a
laugh. Wit of rather an affected kind was the fashion of the day. At its
best it was odious, but when manufactured by the weaklings of society, it
was beyond endurance. Heine says that there is no man so crazy that he
may not find a crazier comrade who will understand him. And it may be
said as truly, that there is no man so foolish that he will not meet
still greater fools ready to admire his folly. To Mary Wollstonecraft it
was doubtful which was most to be despised, the affectation itself or the
applause which nourished it. The governess elect, whose heart was heavy
laden, saw in the flippant gayeties of Eton naught but vanity and
vexation of spirit.

She wrote to Everina on the 9th