s, are changed, and when I see that the turn of the tide
has left the dregs of the old system to corrupt the new. For the
same pride of office, the same desire of power, are still visible;
with this aggravation, that, fearing to return to obscurity after
having but just acquired a relish for distinction, each hero or
philosopher, for all are dubbed with these new titles, endeavors to
make hay while the sun shines; and every petty municipal officer,
become the idol, or rather the tyrant of the day, stalks like a
cock on a dunghill."

The letters were discontinued, probably because Mary thought
letter-writing too easy and familiar a style in which to treat so weighty
a subject. She only gave up the one work, however, to undertake another
still more ambitious. At Neuilly she began, and wrote almost all that was
ever finished, of her "Historical and Moral View of the French
Revolution."

While she was thus living the quiet life of a student in the midst of
excitement, her own affairs, as well as those of France, were hastening
to a crisis.

CHAPTER VIII.

LIFE WITH IMLAY.

1793-1794.

While Mary was living at Neuilly, the terrors of the French Revolution
growing daily greater, she took a step to which she was prompted by pure
motives, but which has left a blot upon her fair fame. The outcry raised
by her "Vindication of the Rights of Women" has ceased, since its
theories have found so many champions. But that which followed her
assertion of her individual rights has never yet been hushed. Kegan Paul
speaks the truth when he says, "The name of Mary Wollstonecraft has long
been a mark for obloquy and scorn." The least that can be done to clear
her memory of stains is to state impartially the facts of her case.

As has been said in the previous chapter, Mary often spent her free hours
with Mrs. Christie, and at her house she met Captain Gilbert Imlay. He
was one of the many Americans then living in Paris. He was an attractive
man personally, and his position and abilities entitled him to respect.
He had taken an active part in the American rebellion, having then risen
to the rank of captain, and, after the war, had been sent as commissioner
to survey still unsettled districts of the western States. On his return
from this work he wrote a monograph, called "A Topographical Description
of the Western Territory of North America," which is remarkable for its
thoroughness and