e settled that business; and not to
doubt is her point of perfection. She therefore pays her tithe of
mint and cummin, and thanks her God that she is not as other women
are. These are the blessed effects of a good education! these the
virtues of man's helpmate!"

At this point Mary, after having given the picture of woman as she is
now, describes her as she ought to be. This description is worth quoting,
but not because it contains any originality of thought or charm of
expression. It is interesting as showing exactly what the first sower of
the seeds of female enfranchisement expected to reap for her harvest.
People who are frightened by a name are apt to suppose that women who
defend their rights would have the world filled with uninspired Joans of
Arc, and unrefined Portias. Those who judge Mary Wollstonecraft by her
conduct, without inquiring into her motives or reading her book, might
conclude that what she desired was the destruction of family ties and,
consequently, of moral order. Therefore, in justice to her, the purity of
her ideals of feminine perfection and her respect for the sanctity of
domestic life should be clearly established. This can not be better done
than by giving her own words on the subject:--

"Let fancy now present a woman with a tolerable understanding,--for
I do not wish to leave the line of mediocrity,--whose constitution,
strengthened by exercise, has allowed her body to acquire its full
vigor, her mind at the same time gradually expanding itself to
comprehend the moral duties of life, and in what human virtue and
dignity consist. Formed thus by the relative duties of her
station, she marries from affection, without losing sight of
prudence; and looking beyond matrimonial felicity, she secures her
husband's respect before it is necessary to exert mean arts to
please him, and feed a dying flame, which nature doomed to expire
when the object became familiar, when friendship and forbearance
take the place of a more ardent affection. This is the natural
death of love, and domestic peace is not destroyed by struggles to
prevent its extinction. I also suppose the husband to be virtuous;
or she is still more in want of independent principles.

"Fate, however, breaks this tie. She is left a widow, perhaps
without a sufficient provision; but she is not desolate. The pang
of nature is felt