After the painting by C. L. Mueller.
]
For Madame Roland and her husband too the day of darkness was soon to
come. They found that they could no longer control those passions
which they had helped to call forth. Repulsed by the incredible
excesses, which were committed during the progress of the revolution,
Mr. Roland sent in his resignation on January 22, 1793, the day after
the execution of the king. But all his and his wife’s efforts to
regulate and elevate the Revolution failed. Both became more and more
the butt of calumny and the object of increasing dislike on the part
of the ultra-revolutionists, whose leaders, Marat and Danton, heaped
the foulest falsehoods upon them. At the instigation of these men
Madame Roland was arrested early on the morning of the last of July,
1793, and thrown into the same prison cell, that had been occupied by
Charlotte Corday a short time before. On November the 8th she was
conveyed to the guillotine. Before yielding her head to the block, she
bowed before the statue of Liberty, erected in the Place de la
Revolution, uttering her famous apostrophe: “O Liberty! what crimes
are committed in thy name!”—
After the elimination of the three leading spirits of woman’s
emancipation all attempts to claim political rights for women were
sternly repressed. The bold deed of Charlotte Corday, who on July 17th,
1793, killed Marat, the chief of the Mountain party, had given to his
followers a warning of what resolute women were able to do. And so all
female clubs and political meetings were forbidden by the Convention.
Women were even excluded from the galleries of the hall where it sat,
and Chaumette warned them that by entering into politics they would
violate the law of nature and would be punished accordingly. French
girls were also entirely excluded from all educational reforms that were
instituted by the Convention and, later on, by Napoleon, who always
maintained that female education should be of the most rudimentary
description.
* * * * *
At the same time that Olympe de Gouges, Théroigne de Méricourt and
Madame Roland took such a conspicuous part in the French Revolution,
there appeared in England a most remarkable book, which might be called
the first comprehensive attempt to establish the equality of the sexes.
Its authoress was =Mary Wollstonecraft=, a woman of Irish extraction,
born at Hoxton on April 27, 1759. Compelled to earn her own living, she,
together with her sisters, had conducted a school for girls. Later on
she held a position as governess in the family of Lord Kingsborough, in
Ireland. Among her early publications are “Thoughts on the Education of
Daughters” (1787) and “The Female Reader” (1789). That she followed the
events of the French Revolution with the utmost interest, appears from
her book: “An Historical and Moral View of the Origin and Progress of
the French Revolution, and the Effects it has Produced in Europe.” It
was intended to comprise several volumes, but after the first one had
been published in 1790, the work remained unfinished. Two years later,
in 1792, appeared the work with which the name of Mary Wollstonecraft is
always associated, as from this book was born one of the grandest
movements which exists in the world to-day—the =Woman Suffrage
Movement=.
This book, entitled “A Vindication of the Rights of Woman,” was a sharp
protest against the assumption that woman is only a plaything of man. It
is also a demand on her to become his equal and his companion.
In the preface the authoress states the “main argument” of her work,
“built on this simple principle that, if woman be not prepared by
education to become the companion of man, she will stop the progress of
knowledge, for truth must be common to all, or it will be inefficacious
with respect to its influence or general practice.” In carrying out this
argument she explains that woman can never be free until she is free
economically; it makes no difference how poetic, romantic and chivalrous
we become,—the fact is, there can be little equality between the sexes
as long as the male partner has entire charge of the purse. Woman may be
free socially; she may get rid of all sexual superstition, and she may
crack and cast from her all theological trammels: but of what value is
all this if she is still dependent upon man for food, raiment and
shelter? What good does it do her to say “My body is my own, subject to
the whims and lusts of no man,” if upon that very man depends her
livelihood? Woman’s economic dependence is the root of that tree which
nourishes the poisonous fruits of her subjection and abject slavery.
Only when woman is on equal terms with man, can she be really virtuous
and useful. But this result can only be obtained by rejecting the
fallacious idea of weakness and refusing man’s help.
After that the authoress states, that woman by open air exercise can
become healthy and strong. By study she can acquire a solid education
and useful knowledge, and thus become fit to earn her own living.
Marriage will then cease to be her sole hope of salvation. If she
marries she must not expect infinite romantic love from her husband,
that would be an endeavor to perpetuate what is transitory in its very
essence. From her husband she should require esteem and friendship. But
before she can ask for or inspire these sentiments she must have shown
herself a lofty mind and a sincere, benevolent, and independent temper.
“But this ideal will remain a myth unless the system of education is
entirely changed. It is the duty of the Government to organize schools
and colleges, for boys and girls, both rich and poor, and of all ages.”
Mary Wollstonecraft recommends that boys and girls should study
together. She does not regard as an evil the attachment which might
result under these conditions. On the contrary, she is an advocate of
early marriage, and believes that the physical and moral health of young
people would be greatly benefited thereby. “Do not separate the sexes,
but accustom them to each other from infancy!” she demands. “By this
plan such a degree of equality should be established between the sexes
as would break up gallantry and coquetry, yet allow friendship and love
to temper the heart for the discharge of higher duties.”
Thus asking the widest opportunities of education for women, she demands
also her participation in industry, political knowledge, and the rights
of representation.
While Mary Wollstonecraft in this manner advanced progressive ideas, she
also discussed several questions, dangerous and explosive at that time.
In regard to marriage she recommended emancipation from the coercions
and ceremonies imposed upon all Christians by the Church. And where love
had ceased, divorce should be made easy. These points, together with her
extraordinary plainness of speech and her denial of the eternity of the
torments of hell, caused an outcry of all classes, to whom the dust of
tradition was sacred, or who saw their assumed authority endangered. The
air grew thick with insults and insinuations, hurled at the champion of
such principles by churchmen feeding on their worn-out thistle-creeds.
There were also the shrill, polished shrieks of society, whose
antiquated dogmas Mary Wollstonecraft had repudiated. But the impulse,
given by her, did not die. It became the heritage of later and more
advanced generations, who have tried to realize the ideas of this most
remarkable woman of the 18th Century.
[Illustration]