The Project Gutenberg EBook of Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of
the Rights of Woman, by William Godwin

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Title: Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman

Author: William Godwin

Release Date: July 4, 2005 [EBook #16199]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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[Illustration: Mary Wollstonecraft Godwin.]

MEMOIRS
OF THE
AUTHOR
OF A
VINDICATION OF THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN.

By WILLIAM GODWIN.

_LONDON_:
PRINTED FOR J. JOHNSON, NO. 72, ST. PAUL'S
CHURCH.YARD; AND G.G. AND J. ROBINSON,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.
1798.

[Transcriber's Note: corrobation has been corrected to corroboration]

MEMOIRS.

CHAP. I.

1759-1775.

It has always appeared to me, that to give to the public some account of
the life of a person of eminent merit deceased, is a duty incumbent on
survivors. It seldom happens that such a person passes through life,
without being the subject of thoughtless calumny, or malignant
misrepresentation. It cannot happen that the public at large should be
on a footing with their intimate acquaintance, and be the observer of
those virtues which discover themselves principally in personal
intercourse. Every benefactor of mankind is more or less influenced by a
liberal passion for fame; and survivors only pay a debt due to these
benefactors, when they assert and establish on their part, the honour
they loved. The justice which is thus done to the illustrious dead,
converts into the fairest source of animation and encouragement to those
who would follow them in the same carreer. The human species at large is
interested in this justice, as it teaches them to place their respect
and affection, upon those qualities which best deserve to be esteemed
and loved. I cannot easily prevail on myself to doubt, that the more
fully we are presented with the picture and story of such persons as the
subject of the following narrative, the more generally shall we feel in
ourselves an attachment to their fate, and a sympathy in t