en, born at Hoxton, of humble Irish
parentage; at 19 she began to support herself by teaching, and continued
to do so till 1788, when she established herself in London to push her
way as a writer, having already published "Thoughts on the Education of
Daughters"; in 1791 she replied to Burke's "Reflections," and in the
following year appeared her famous "Vindication of the Rights of Women";
while in Paris in 1793 she formed a _liaison_ with an American, Captain
Imlay, whose cruel desertion of her two years later induced her to
attempt suicide by drowning; in 1796 she became attached to William
Godwin, a friend of five years' standing, and with him lived for some
months, although, in accord with their own pronounced opinions, no
marriage ceremony had been performed; in deference to the opinions of
others, however, they departed from this position, and a marriage was
duly celebrated five months before the birth of their daughter Mary
(Shelley's second wife); contemporary opinion shows her to have been
generous and gentle of nature, and animated throughout by a noble zeal
for the welfare of humanity (1759-1797).

GODWIN, WILLIAM, a political writer and novelist, the son of a
Presbyterian minister, born at Wisbeach, Somersetshire; was educated for
the Church, and was for five years in the ministry; during this period
his opinions on politics and religion underwent a radical change, and
when in 1787 he threw up his holy office to engage in literature, he had
become a republican in the one and a free-thinker in the other; various
works had come from his pen, including three novels, before his
celebrated "Political Justice" appeared in 1793, "Caleb Williams," a
novel, and his best-known work, being published in the following year; in
1797 he married Mary Wollstonecraft (_See_ preceding), who died the same
year, and four years later he married a widow, Mrs. Clement; to the close
of his long life he was a prolific writer on literary, historical, and
political subjects, but his carelessness and lack of business habits left
him little profit from all his literary activity; his writings are clear
and vigorous in the expression, if visionary and impracticable in theory
(1756-1836).

GOETHE, JOHANN WOLFGANG VON, a great poet and wise man, the
greatest, it is alleged, the world has seen since Shakespeare left it,
and who, being born in Frankfort-on-the-Main 10 years before Robert
Burns, died in the small duchy of Weimar the same