seeing everything on the gloomy side, and bestowing
censure with a plentiful hand, where circumstances were in any
degree doubtful. I, on the contrary, had a strong propensity to
favorable construction, and, particularly where I found unequivocal
marks of genius, strongly to incline to the supposition of generous
and manly virtue. We ventilated in this way the character of
Voltaire and others, who have obtained from some individuals an
ardent admiration, while the greater number have treated them with
extreme moral severity. Mary was at last provoked to tell me that
praise, lavished in the way that I lavished it, could do no credit
either to the commended or the commender. We discussed some
questions on the subject of religion, in which her opinions
approached much nearer to the received ones than mine. As the
conversation proceeded, I became dissatisfied with the tone of my
own share in it. We touched upon all topics without treating
forcibly and connectedly upon any. Meanwhile, I did her the
justice, in giving an account of the conversation to a party in
which I supped, though I was not sparing of my blame, to yield her
the praise of a person of active and independent thinking. On her
side, she did me no part of what perhaps I considered as justice.

"We met two or three times in the course of the following year, but
made a very small degree of progress towards a cordial
acquaintance."

Not until Mary had lived through the tragedy of her life were they
destined to become more to each other than mere fellow mortals. There was
much to be learned, and much to be forgotten, before the time came for
her to give herself into his keeping.

Her family were naturally interested in her book from personal motives;
but Eliza and Everina heartily disapproved of it, and their feelings for
their eldest sister became, from this period, less and less friendly.
However, as Kegan Paul says, their small spite points to envy and
jealousy rather than to honest indignation.

Both were now in good situations. Mary felt free, therefore, to consider
her own comforts a little. Besides, she had attained a position which it
became her to sustain with dignity. She was now known as _Mrs._
Wollstonecraft, and was a prominent figure in the literary world. Shortly
after the publication of the "Rights of Women" she moved from the modest
lod