e frankly confesses in her Prefaces. Her translations
are, in consequence, proofs of her industry and varied talents and not
demonstrations of her own mental character.

The novel "Mary," like Godwin's earlier stories, has disappeared. There
are a few men and women of the present generation who remember having
seen it, but it is now not to be found either in public libraries or in
bookstores. It was the record of a happy friendship, and to write it had
been a labor of love. As Mary always wrote most eloquently on subjects
which were of heartfelt interest, its disappearance is to be regretted.

However, after she had been in London about two years, constant writing
and translating having by that time made her readier with her pen, she
undertook another task, in which her feelings were as strongly
interested. This was her answer to Burke's "Reflections on the French
Revolution." Love of humanity was an emotion which moved her quite as
deeply as affection for individual friends. Burke, by his disregard for
the sufferings of that portion of the human race which especially
appealed to her, excited her wrath. Carried away by the intensity of her
indignation, she at once set about proving to him and the world that the
reasoning which led to such insensibility was, plausible as it might
seem, wholly unsound. She never paused for reflection, but her chief
arguments, the result of previous thought, being already prepared, she
wrote before her excitement had time to cool. As she explains in the
Advertisement to her "Letter" to Burke, the "Reflections" had first
engaged her attention as the transient topic of the day. Commenting upon
it as she read, her remarks increased to such an extent that she decided
to publish them as a short "Vindication of the Rights of Man."

A sermon preached by Dr. Richard Price was the immediate reason which
moved Burke to write the "Reflections." The Revolutionists were in the
habit of meeting every 4th of November, the anniversary of the arrival of
the Prince of Orange in England, to commemorate the Revolution of 1688.
Dr. Price was, in 1789, the orator of the day. He, on this occasion,
expressed his warm approbation of the actions of the French Republicans,
in which sentiment he was warmly seconded by all the other members of the
society. Burke seized upon these demonstrations as a pretext for
expounding his own views upon the proceedings in France. The sermon and
orations were really not of enough