avantes_ of Moliere. Mary's vigorous appeal for
improvement could, therefore, have no meaning for her. Hannah More,
enthusiastic in her denunciations of slavery, but unconscious that her
liberty was in the least restricted, did not hesitate to form an opinion
of the "Rights of Women" without examining it, thus necessarily missing
its true significance. In this she doubtless represented a large majority
of her sex. She wrote to Horace Walpole in 1793:--

"I have been much pestered to read the 'Rights of Women,' but am
invincibly resolved not to do it. Of all jargon, I hate
metaphysical jargon; beside, there is something fantastic and
absurd in the very title. How many ways there are of being
ridiculous! I am sure I have as much liberty as I can make a good
use of, now I am an old maid; and when I was a young one I had, I
dare say, more than was good for me. If I were still young, perhaps
I should not make this confession; but so many women are fond of
government, I suppose, because they are not fit for it. To be
unstable and capricious, I really think, is but too characteristic
of our sex; and there is, perhaps, no animal so much indebted to
subordination for its good behavior as woman. I have soberly and
uniformly maintained this doctrine ever since I have been capable
of observation, and I used horridly to provoke some of my female
friends--_maitresses femmes_--by it, especially such heroic spirits
as poor Mrs. Walsingham."

Men, on the other hand, thought Mary was unsexing herself by her
arguments, which seemed to interfere with _their_ rights,--an
interference they could not brook. To the Tories the fact that she
sympathized with the Reformers was enough to damn her. Walpole, when he
answered the letter from which the above extract is taken, wrote with
warmth:--

"... It is better to thank Providence for the tranquillity and
happiness we enjoy in this country, in spite of the philosophizing
serpents we have in our bosom, the Paines, the Tookes, and the
Wollstonecrafts. I am glad you have not read the tract of the
last-mentioned writer. I would not look at it, though assured it
contains neither metaphysics nor politics; but as she entered the
lists of the latter, and borrowed her title from the demon's book
which aimed at spreading the _wrongs_ of men, she is excommunicated
from the pale of m