OF MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT AND THE RIGHTS OF WOMAN BY EMMA RAUSCHENBUSCH-CLOUGH, Pí.D. LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO. 39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON NEW YORK AND BOMBAY 1898 All rights reserved 130 PREFACE. My attention was first directed to the subject of this book by Professor Dr. M. Heinze, of the University of Leipzig. He observed, in conversation, that though much was being written on the subject of the position of woman and on the movement in connection with her emancipation, comparatively little was being done by way of patient research in the annals of the past, to define the influences which have resulted in the social revolution of the present day. As a center for possible investigation of this kind, he mentioned Mary Wollstonecraft, her work and her times. Following his suggestion, I took a survey of that which had been done in this particular direction, and found that Mr. C. Kegan Paul, Mary Wollstonecraft's biographer in recent times, had done valuable work in editing letters by her in connection with his work on William Godwin, his Friends and Contemporaries, London, 1876. His work had formed the foundation for several biographical sketches. full analytical and critical investigation of her views, as they had found expression in her life and works, with a survey of the influences which had moulded her thought, had yet to be given. This was the task which I made my own. A In the spring of 1894, the result of my research in form of an Inaugural Dissertation was presented to the |