tment
of life.

In 1790, Mary Wollstonecraft's "Vindication of the Rights of Women,"
published in London, attracted much attention from liberal minds. She
examined the position of woman in the light of existing civilizations,
and demanded for her the widest opportunities of education, industry,
political knowledge, and the right of representation. Although her
work is filled with maxims of the highest morality and purest wisdom,
it called forth such violent abuse, that her husband appealed for her
from the judgment of her contemporaries to that of mankind. So exalted
were her ideas of woman, so comprehensive her view of life, that
Margaret Fuller, in referring to her, said: "Mary Wollstonecraft--a
woman whose existence proved the need of some new interpretation of
woman's rights, belonging to that class who by birth find themselves
in places so narrow that, by breaking bonds, they become outlaws."
Following her, came Jane Marcet, Eliza Lynn, and Harriet
Martineau--each of whom in the early part of the nineteenth century,
exerted a decided influence upon the political thought of England.
Mrs. Marcet was one of the most scientific and highly cultivated
persons of the age. Her "Conversations on Chemistry," familiarized
that science both in England and America, and from it various male
writers filched their ideas. It was a text-book in this country for
many years. Over one hundred and sixty thousand copies were sold,
though the fact that this work emanated from the brain of a woman was
carefully withheld. Mrs. Marcet also wrote upon political economy, and
was the first person who made the subject comprehensive to the popular
mind. Her manner of treating it was so clear and vivid, that the
public, to whom it had been a hidden science, were able to grasp the
subject. Her writings were the inspiration of Harriet Martineau, who
followed her in the same department of thought at a later period. Miss
Martineau was a remarkable woman. Besides her numerous books on
political economy, she was a regular contributor to the London _Daily
News_, the second paper in circulation in England, for many years
writing five long articles weekly, also to Dickens' _Household Words_,
and the _Westminster Review_. She saw clearly the spirit and purpose
of the Anti-Slavery Movement in this country, and was a regular
contributor to the _National Anti-Slavery Standard_, published in New
York. Eliza Lynn, an Irish lady, was at this time writing leading