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University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 No. 2212: March 22, 1922 
 
 BROGKDEN BROWN AND THE RIGHTS 
 OF WOMEN 
 
 BY 
 
 DAVID LEE CLARK 
 
 Instructor in English 
 
 COMPARATIVE LITERATURE SERIES No. 2 
 
 PUBLISHED BY THE UNIVERSITY FOUR TIMES A MONTH, AND ENTERED AS 
 
 SECOND-CLASS MATTER AT THE POSTOFFICE AT AUSTIN TEXAS. 
 
 UNDER THE ACT OF AUGUST 24, 1912 
 
* The benefits of education and of 
 useful knowledge, generally diffused 
 through a community, are essential 
 to the preservation of a free govern 
 ment. 
 
 Sam Houston 
 
 Cultivated mind is the guardian 
 genius of democracy. ... It is the 
 only dictator that freemen acknowl 
 edge and the only security that free 
 men desire. 
 
 Miraheau B. Lamar 
 
P5 i|38 
 
 Wfo C5 
 
 BROCKDEN BROWN AND THE RIGHTS 
 OF WOMEN 
 
 BY 
 DAVID LEE CLARK 
 
 INSTRUCTOR IN ENGLISH 
 
I 
 
 NOTE 
 
 This monograph is part of an extended study of 
 the life and works of Brockden Brown which the 
 author has in forward state of preparation. 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 One cannot correctly appraise the literature dealing with 
 the social and political emancipation of women in the last 
 third of the eighteenth century without some knowledge of 
 the evolution of the thought of which that literature is 
 a record. Particularly is this so in evaluating the work of 
 Mary Wollstonecraft, William Godwin, and Brockden 
 Brown. It is too generally assumed that the first two were 
 the originators of the social theories that are now so in 
 variably associated with their names ; and that their work 
 in turn inspired Brockden Brown in America. 
 
 Although a detailed study of the struggle for the social 
 and political freedom of women is beyond the scope of the 
 present work, certain general tendencies in the literature 
 of revolt in England, France, and America, will be briefly 
 traced. 
 
 As a matter of fact neither Mary Wollstonecraft, nor 
 William Godwin, nor yet Brockden Brown was an original 
 thinker, for there is nothing really new in any of them. 
 Mary Wollstonecraft in her Rights of Women (1792), and 
 Godwin in his Political Justice (1793) and in his novels, 
 did, however, _put the arguments for the social emancipation- 
 of men and women in imperislTabTe~ foTmranoTthus estab 
 lished their chief claim to a place in the literature of the 
 movement. Brockden Brown was familiar with the works 
 of these writers, but he was also familiar with what had 
 been done by others earlier than the time of Godwin. It 
 can be shown that Brown was full of the revolutionary 
 spirit before the appearance of the Rights of Women and 
 Political Justice, and that the influence of these two works 
 upon Brown has been overemphasized. 
 
 Theories of government and social reform are so much 
 a part of Brown s life and writings that some account of 
 them in relation to his predecessors seems necessary. 
 RjCpwn/s political_thepries were shaped by Locke and his 
 French and American disciples^ Hobbes had asserted the 
 
6 university of Texas Bulletin 
 
 absolute authority of the ruler, but Locke pointed out how 
 the compact into which men had voluntarily entered by 
 giving up some of their natural rights for certain ad 
 vantages, was unalterably binding upon all subsequent 
 generations, and thus were established those rights of man 
 that no law of man or king could transgress. This theory, 
 so generally accepted during the first half of the eighteenth 
 century, in the hands of the radical became the basis of an 
 argument that led straight to the American Revolution and, 
 subsequently, to the greater revolution in France. But in 
 the hands of the conservative it was a tool for despotism, 
 for it gave a kind of sanction to any existing order. Per 
 manence, not progress, became the ideal of government. 
 According to Locke government existed solely for the good 
 of the people. He even spoke of an ideal state, a golden 
 age in the past, and of government as being made necessary 
 to check the ambition and luxury that have subsequently 
 crept in. No man, he said, should be governed except by 
 his own consent, and no man should be punished by fallible 
 men. Yet it is to be carefully noted that these doctrines 
 of the natural rights of man had no marked effect upon the 
 English people as a whole, for in England the conservative 
 Whigs interpreted Locke as giving sanction to the position 
 that "whatever is, is right/ and it is upon this ground that 
 Burke defended the English Constitution and condemned 
 the French Revolution. Price, Priestley, Paine, Jefferson, 
 Brockden Brown, and others, however, put a construction 
 upon Locke s theory of state that embraced all the current 
 radicalism in France, England, and America. William 
 Godwin, indeed, was an ultraradical and would have abol 
 ished all government. 
 
 While Locke s plan of government did not specifically as 
 sign to woman a place in the body politic, by implication, at 
 least, she was acknowledged to be an important factor in 
 the social fabric. But women were so hopelessly low in the 
 social scale that only the bravest men and women before 
 1790 ventured to suggest that women, like men, have polit 
 ical rights. They had first, indeed, to be emancipated so 
 cially and intellectually before any thought could be given 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 1 
 
 to political and economic freedom. Woman had for cen 
 turies been considered a shallow, helpless creature, tojbe 
 petted, caressed, or corrected by her superior lord, or else 
 she was a moral being whose virtue had to be constantly 
 guarded" The old Hebre^w"canon law was generally in force 
 and was pointed to as authority for the enslavement of 
 women. The sacred scriptures were invoked to prove that 
 woman was created solely for the comfort of man, and as 
 such had no liberty of active or independent judgment. 
 Her highest virtue was obedience to the will of her lord, 
 and her chief occupation was child-bearing. Indeed, her 
 whole life was regulated by these considerations. She had 
 no part in the moral, intellectual, or economic direction of 
 her home, and no authority over her children. But, as 
 there was no alternative course to marriage, we_read much 
 in the literature of the times of woman s useof social tricks 
 andT^naresTo inveigle men into marriage, and to keep them 
 hoodwinked afterwards" This notion of woman as a mere 
 charmer grew to such proportions that it came to the notice 
 of the English Parliament, and as late as 1770 a law was 
 passed that prescribed that "all women, of whatever age, 
 rank, profession, or degree, whether virgins, maids, or 
 widows, that shall, from and after such act, impose upon, 
 induce, or betray into matrimony, any of his Majesty s male 
 subjects by scents, paints, cosmetic washes, artificial teeth, 
 false hair, Spanish wool, iron stays, hoops, high-heeled 
 shoes, etc., shall incur the penalty of the law now enforced 
 against witchcraft and like demeanors, and that the mar 
 riage upon conviction shall stand null and void." 1 
 
 Oliver Cromwell in the famous civil marriage code of 
 1653 sought to lighten the burden for women by placing 
 all marriages and divorces in the hands of the civil courts, 
 in which the man and the woman were on an equality. But 
 this law was ineffectual, for public opinion was against it. 
 
 ^Woman: Women of England, Vol. IX, p. 318. Cf. Pope s Epistle 
 to a Lady (1735) in which woman s ruling passion is said to be 
 "the love of pleasure and the love of sway." 
 
8 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 Milton s attitude toward matrimony was more nearly rep 
 resentative of the Puritan point of view. He pleaded vig 
 orously for liberal divorce laws, but solely for the sake of 
 the man. Imbued as he was with the sentiments of the 
 scriptures Milton s position was not at all singular. There 
 were many arguments in the literature of his time for the 
 enslavement of women. It is not necessary in this connec 
 tion to consider the social freedom of certain types of women 
 in the beau monde. 
 
The first significant reaction in favor of women set in 
 during the closing years of the seventeenth century.- Mary 
 Astell (1668-1731) in her Serious Proposal (1695) endea 
 vored to lift the women of her day to a dignified, moral, 
 and self-sustaining life. She emphasized economic inde 
 pendence and a life of religious service, an ideal which was 
 to be attained through proper education of young women. 
 It may be urged against her scheme of education that it 
 was too far removed from .life a kind of nunnery. In 
 her Reflections on Marriage (1700) Mary Astell took the 
 contemporary Lockean view of the permanence of the mar 
 riage bond, and argued against divorce. Her remedy for 
 unhappiness in the matrimonial state was timely preven 
 tion of unwise marriages. This prevention would be found 
 only in a more generous education for women. When once 
 married, the woman was submissively to bear the yoke; 
 the family must have a head and the man, though not 
 superior, is the natural head. 
 
 Daniel Defoe in his An Essay Upon Projects (1697) was 
 the first writer of any importance to champion the cause of 
 women. In a way his essay has a modern ring to it, and 
 is very suggestive of Mary Wollstonecraft and Brockden 
 Brown. He argued that man reproached the sex the usual 
 designation of woman throughout the eighteenth century 
 for folly and impertinence, but he maintained that the only 
 remedy for the deplorable condition of women was adequate 
 educational opportunities. It is a wonder, he said, that they 
 do so well when "their youth is spent to teach them to stitch 
 and sow or make bawbles." What would a man be good 
 
 -The Renaissance and Reformation had promised much in disa 
 busing the minds of men of long-established errors and prejudices, 
 yet their influence in the matter was but limited and feeble. Only 
 a few men, like Coverdale, Tyndale, More, and Hooker questioned 
 the absolute authority of the church in matters of divorce. These 
 men maintained the dignity of woman, and claimed for her an equality 
 with man in matrimonial affairs. 
 
10 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 for if taught nothing else? Why have women been denied 
 the benefits of instruction so necessary? Knowledge and 
 understanding would be useful to the sex, and why can any 
 man wish to keep women ignorant? Why upbraid them 
 with folly when only the error of this inhuman custom made 
 them foolish? "The capacities of women," he goes on to 
 say, "are supposed to be great, and their senses are quicker 
 than those of the men." 3 Have men denied them an educa 
 tion for fear of competition with themselves? Defoe was 
 ultra-revolutionary when he asserted that "God has given 
 to all mankind equal gifts and capacities, in that he has 
 given them all souls equally capable; and that the whole 
 difference in mankind proceeds either from accidental dif 
 ference in the make of their bodies, or from the foolish 
 difference of education."* Women must not be men s cooks 
 or slaves, but men s companions. 
 
 I have dwelt on this work of Defoe because there is a 
 striking similarity of argument between it and Brown s 
 Rights of Women, just one hundred years later. Defoe 
 makes the first claim for woman s natural equality with 
 man. In only one particular was he a slave to contemporary 
 prejudices, and even in this, one cannot be sure that Defoe 
 was not ironical. Woman s virtue, he said, must be a clois 
 tered virtue, and consequently proper guards must be set. 
 He would place women in public academies with all the 
 facilities for advanced work in the arts and the sciences, 
 but the school building must be so plain and so situated 
 that a watchful eye could take in all parts of it at one glance ; 
 and he would take particular pains to surround it with a 
 large moat having only one accessible entrance, that intrig 
 uing with young men might be made difficult. 
 
 The work of Mary Astell and of Defoe was not particu 
 larly influential, and the first third of the eighteenth cen 
 tury saw but little improvement in the condition of women. 
 The attitude of Addison, 5 under the thin disguise of helping 
 
 3 An Essay upon Projects, p, 284. 
 *An Essay Upon Projects, p. 299. 
 
 5 Addison: Tatler, Nos. 100, 102, 120, 250, 256, 265; Spectator, Nos. 
 37, 45, 311. 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 11 
 
 women, was one of contempt for their weakness, and his 
 was the typical attitude, for married life was still thought 
 of as a sexual relation; the wife was not a companion of 
 her husband. Education was deliberately discouraged, and 
 an open sanction of a double standard of morals was every 
 where given. Such a condition was upheld both by the 
 teachings of the church and by the practice of the law, and 
 made popular in current literature. 
 
 But together with the general conception of the weakness 
 of women was a vague feeling on the part of some men that 
 the cause of the low social condition of men and women 
 alike, was the neglect of woman s education. Unlike Addi- 
 son, Richard Steele in The Christian Hero and the Jenny 
 Distaff numbers of The Tatler* pleaded for a higher view 
 of woman than the conventional one, according to which 
 immorality was considered an indication of high spirits; 
 in his dramas the loftier virtues always triumph ; he decried 
 the double standard. Steele engendered a feeling, which, 
 as the years passed, grew to a firm conviction in the minds 
 of many unprejudiced men and women and around this 
 conception a formidable bulk of pamphlet literature sprang 
 up. Swift, too, held that women were not entirely to 
 blame for the deplorable social conditions. "The nobility 
 and gentry of both sexes," he said, "are entirely corrupted, 
 both in body and mind, and have lost all notion of love, 
 honor, friendship, generosity." He attributed this condi 
 tion to the exclusion of women from any share in society, 
 other than that of play, dancing, or the pursuit of an 
 amour. He put the whole trouble succintly when, in a 
 Letter to a Young Lady on Her Marriage, he said that 
 women were uneducated and unable to converse intelli 
 gently on important matters, that they spent their time on 
 trifles, as if their whole existence was concerned with the 
 cut or color of a dress. Again he wrote, they should be 
 educated in essential things, whereas they were actually 
 taught to be fools, coquettes, gamesters, talkers of nonsense, 
 
 : Tatter, Nos. 10, 33, 36, 37, 79, 104, 143; Spectator, Nos. 
 155, 182, 190, 266, 274, 437, 479. 
 
12 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 idlers. How then could they hope to gain the esteem of 
 their husbands? 7 Swift also insisted upon a single standard 
 of morality for men and women. "I am ignorant of any 
 one quality," he said, "that is amiable in a man which is 
 not equally so in woman. I do not except modesty and 
 gentleness of nature. Nor do I know any vice or folly 
 which is not equally detestable in both." 8 Lady Mary Wort- 
 ley Montagu in a letter to Wortley Montagu in 1710 de 
 plores the general notion that "ignorance and folly are 
 thought the best foundation for virtue." 9 In another let 
 ter she says that "a face is too light a foundation for hap 
 piness." 10 She wrote to the Countess of Mar in 1723 that 
 she was "very sorry for the forlorn state of matrimony - 
 both sexes have found the inconvenience of it." 11 But Lady 
 Mary acknowledged the inferiority of women in all respects. 
 The notion of the relative merits of the sexes had grad 
 ually crept into the discussions, until in 1739, an interesting 
 pamphlet war was on. The first shot was an article en 
 titled Woman Not Inferior to Man, 12 by "Sophia, a Person 
 of Quality," in which women s claims to economic independ 
 ence were strongly protested. The writer asserted that 
 women are capable of becoming successful doctors, lawyers, 
 professors, legislators, and even soldiers, but not clergy - 
 women. This was, indeed, the boldest claim yet made for 
 the rights and powers of women. But such a challenge did 
 not long remain unanswered, for a fierce attack was made 
 in the same year in a pamphlet calledd Man Superior to 
 Woman, which concluded that women were qualified for 
 
 " Essay on Education of Ladies. 
 
 ^Letter to a Young Lady on Her Marriage. 
 
 9 Letters of Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, London, 1861, Vol. I., 
 p. 173. 
 
 *Ibid., p. 175. 
 
 ^Ibid., p. 474. 
 
 * 2 Woman Not Inferior to Man: or, A Short and Modest Vindica 
 tion of the Natural Rights of the Fair Sex to Perfect Equality of 
 Power, Dignity, and Esteem, ivith Men, by Sophia, a Person of 
 Quality. 
 
 Wan. Superior to Woman containing a plain confutation of the 
 fallacious arguments of Sophia in her late treatise entitled, Woman 
 Not Inferior to Man, by A Gentleman. 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 13 
 
 nothing but the propagation of the race. Sophia replied in 
 another pamphlet, 14 repeating much of the argument of her 
 first article. All three pamphlets were published together 
 as Beauty s Triumph in 1751. 
 
 In an article in the Craftsman (1739) a correspondent 
 pleaded for professional training for women, particularly 
 for unmarried women. An important article appeared in 
 the Gentleman s Magazine, October, 1739, under the rather 
 daring caption of A New Method for Making Women as 
 Useful and as Capable of Maintaining Themselves as Men 
 Are; and Consequently Preventing Their Becoming Old 
 Maids, or Taking III Courses, by "a Lady." The writer 
 lamented the fact that women spend their time on trifles, 
 whereas they should be set to learning useful trades, 
 such as those of glovers, perfumers, grocers, mercers, etc. 
 These trades, she maintained, are as useful and as cred 
 itable for daughters as for sons. Only by making them 
 selves economically free from men can women ever rise 
 to the dignity of human beings. Marriage must not be 
 their only occupation, and should they perchance marry, 
 they should be considered the companions, not the slaves 
 or toys, of their husbands. She pointed out that a reaction 
 in favor of women had come, that the leading men had 
 acknowledged women s rights and capabilities. ir> 
 
 Hume in 1742 in his essay Polygamy and Divorce 
 pleaded for more sensible marriages marriages based upon 
 mutual consent, and formed upon friendship. But in his 
 essay on The Rise of the Arts and Sciences he said that 
 nature had made women inferior to men both mentally and 
 physically. William Melmoth in letter XLI of the Letters 
 of Sir Thomas Fitzborne (1750) made an estimate of 
 the comparative merits of the sexes. It is granted that 
 men are physically, mentally, and morally superior to 
 
 l *Woman 8 Superior Excellence over Man, by Sophia. 
 
 ir Claims of the natural rights of women to have representation 
 and to be representatives in Parliament found their way into the 
 press in 1739, and the storm of discussion continued intermittently 
 to the end of the century. 
 
14 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 women, but not by nature education has been the decid 
 ing factor in men s superiority. The writer deplores the 
 intellectual condition of women, and pleads for proper and 
 efficient training for them. They should be educated for 
 lives of usefulness. They should study the sciences liber 
 ally that their minds might be freed from vulgar prejudices, 
 and that! they might become reasonable creatures. The 
 Gentleman s Magazine (November, 1765), carried a review 
 of a book entitled A Dialogue Concerning the Subjection of 
 Women to Their Husbands, the purpose of which was to 
 prove the propriety of their inferior position by the usual 
 appeal to existing laws, to nature, and to the sacred scrip 
 tures. Even a man of William Blackstone s ordinarily 
 sound judgment could maintain that existing institutions 
 were very generous to women. 
 
 After 1750 there was a new conception of women, and 
 great interest was everywhere shown in their proper edu 
 cation. By proper education, one is to understand that 
 peculiar variety sponsored by Rousseau, in which delicacy, 
 softness, sensibility, obedience, and sexual attraction were 
 considered the cardinal virtues. It was directly against the 
 baleful influence of the books 10 that embodied this ideal of 
 woman s education that Mary Wollstonecraft centered her 
 attack in her Rights of Women (1792). 
 
 It can be seen from this survey that the question of wom 
 an s rights, from Mary Astell to Mary Wollstonecraft, was 
 largely a question of her social and intellectual freedom. 
 Only once was there any claim for her political emancipa 
 tion. While Defoe and Sophia pleaded for the economic 
 independence of woman, it is evident that they considered 
 her social and intellectual freedom of first importance. 
 During the years from 1690 to 1790, it will also be observed, 
 there was no conscious effort on the part of women to assert 
 
 16 Goldsmith s The Citizen of the World (Letter XIX) ; Female 
 Worthies (1769) ; Alexander s History of Women (1769) ; Lord 
 Kame s Loose Hints upon Education, second ed., 1782; Dr. Gregory s 
 Legacy to His Daughters (1784) ; J. Bennett s Strictures on Female 
 Education (1788) ; and Hannah More s Essays for Young Ladies 
 (1789). 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 15 
 
 their claims to economic and political rights in the life of 
 the nation. But we shall see that with the coming of the 
 French Revolution and the industrial revolution, women as 
 sumed an importance in the economic and political life of 
 the state before unknown. 
 
 As the dawn of the "French Revolution approached, the 
 rights of men and women were merged, and the great writ 
 ers fought for the freedom of both. Their activity ex 
 pressed itself in political reform, with men like Paine, Price, 
 Priestley, Holcroft, Bage, and Godwin as champions; in 
 the humanitarian work of Howard, Holcroft, and Cowper; 
 in simplification in religion, law, and daily life, with par 
 ticular emphasis against the luxury of the rich and priv 
 ileged classes, with Wesley, Cowper, Crabbe, Burns, and 
 Mary Wollstonecraft as advocates; and in reform in the 
 educational system which most of these writers, particularly 
 Cowper, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Godwin, pleaded for as 
 one of the prerequisites to the realization of the whole re 
 form. These four movements were not always clearly de 
 fined in the minds of those who advocated them, but in the 
 literature of the day one is constantly faced with the fact 
 that only through political reform, prison reform, universal 
 benevolence, and the regeneration of schools and colleges, 
 could a state of society be realised in which men and women 
 would be valued solely for their individual worth. Some 
 of these men were practical, and others but Utopian dream 
 ers, and as they were almost universally read, they conse 
 quently had the chief merit of provoking discussion and 
 speculation that led eventually to many salutary reforms 
 and laid the foundation for a democratized England. 
 
 Benjamin Franklin once said, "Where liberty is, there is 
 my country," but Thomas Paine modified that statement by 
 saying, "Where is not liberty, there is mine." This is the 
 keynote of Paine s life, and the spirit which called forth this 
 utterance was the spirit that sent Paine to America, where 
 his services to the cause of liberty cannot be overestimated. 
 As editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine, Paine showed him 
 self a pioneer in social and political reform. He early ad 
 vocated the abolition of slavery, and helped organize the 
 
16 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 first American anti-slavery society. He pleaded for the 
 arbitration of international laws; and he demanded justice 
 for women. In his Common Sense, he fought manfully for 
 republicanism, and in 1787, when his cause had been won 
 in America, he carried the fight to British soil, where in 
 1791 appeared his most important book, The Rights of Man, 
 as an answer to Burke s Reflections on the French Revolu 
 tion (1790). This work aroused such opposition in Eng 
 land that Paine was forced to flee to France, where he was 
 almost immediately declared a citizen of the French Re 
 public, and elected to a seat in the Convention. He was 
 soon appointed a member of a committee of five to draft a 
 constitution. But in these days of sudden change, Paine, 
 like many of the great leaders, was borne down, and spent 
 ten months in a prison cell awaiting the guillotine. Yet 
 Paine never grew weary in the service of liberty; he never 
 faltered or lost hope. Thomas Paine was perhaps the most 
 daringly original thinker of his time, and most of the evils 
 of the day were rigorously and relentlessly exposed by him. 
 
 What Paine so signally carried forward in three coun 
 tries, Richard Price, Joseph Priestley, Thomas Holcroft, 
 Robert Bage, William Cowper, William Godwin, and Mary 
 Wollstonecraft advanced in their several spheres in Eng 
 land. Richard Price (1723-1791), the great apologist for 
 the Americans, was an early advocate of political reform. 
 His famous old Jewry Sermon in 1789, in defense of revo 
 lutionary reforms, provoked Burke s Reflections on the 
 French Revolution (1790), which in turn called forth 
 Paine s The Rights of Man, James Mackintosh s Vindiciae 
 Galliciae, and Mary Wollstonecraft s Letter to Burke. 
 
 Joseph Priestley (1733-1804), noted non-comformist 
 theologian and philosopher, was identified with the religious 
 controversy of the day; was one of the founders of the 
 Unitarian Society in 1791 ; vindicated the principles of the 
 French Revolution in a letter addressed to Burke ; set forth 
 in dialogue form the general principles of government 
 (1791) ; advocated the abolition of slavery; was a member 
 of the famous Constitutional Society and, because of his 
 activity in this society, was forced to flee. He landed in 
 
Brockden Broivn and the Rights of Women 17 
 
 America. June, 1794, where, as a close friend of Franklin, 
 he received a warm welcome. He was a liberal in politics 
 and at once took sides with the Republicanism of Jefferson, 
 for which he brought down upon him the wrath of William 
 Cobbett, better known as Peter Porcupine. 
 
 In the field of pure literature Thomas Holcroft (1745- 
 1809) is the best representative of the revolutionary spirit. 
 In his dramas 17 and in his novels s he attacked pride of 
 rank and wealth, and man s domination over woman. He 
 taught that error and folly had impeded progress toward 
 perfection, and that truth alone can make men happy. 
 Robert Bage (1728-1801) in several of his works 19 pictures 
 a Utopia like the Pantisocracy of Coleridge in 1794, and 
 anticipates parts of Brown s second dialogue of Alcuin, as 
 some of his characters and situations do Godwin s novels. 
 He held that reason is the only reliable basis of action ; that 
 women should have a part in the choice of a husband ; that 
 marriage should be for friendship and esteem, and not for 
 love merely, and should be a contract between equals; he 
 pleaded for humane divorce laws, for economic equality of 
 women with men, to be realized by better education of 
 women ; and finally he was an advocate of free love of the 
 Godwinian variety. 
 
 William Godwin (1756-1836) was early attached to re 
 publicanism, and by 1780 had read Rousseau, Helvetius, 
 Swift, and many other radicals; but he was far from ap 
 proving all the principles of the Revolution. In fact he did 
 not believe in reform through violent revolutions. Reason 
 would right all wrongs, if only given free rein. Govern 
 ment, he declared, is an evil, and a powerful enemy of 
 progress, and as the race grows more virtuous, all positive 
 governmental restraints will eventually vanish and leave 
 mankind free in the pursuit of happiness. Godwin detested 
 
 l7 The School of Arrogance, 1791; He s Much to Blame (1798); 
 Love s Frailties, 1794. 
 
 Alwyn (1780); Anna St. Ives (1792); Hugh Trevor, 1794-1797. 
 
 Mount Henneth (1781) ; Barham Downs (1784) ; James Wallace 
 (1788); Man as He Is (1792); Man as He Is Not or Hermsprong 
 (1796). 
 
18 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 luxury; he inveighed against the condition of the laboring 
 classes, and called for a minimum of daily labor and a max 
 imum of amusement and study; landlordism and the whole 
 system of property were attacked. As men s characters 
 originate in external circumstances, they are capable of vast 
 improvement through proper education, but unlike Helvetius 
 he did not regard men as absolutely equal at birth, and he 
 rejected the notion of innate ideas. Upon this argument, 
 rests Godwin s belief in the infinite perfectibility of man. 
 He denounced existing educational systems as destructive 
 of mind and body. Since the voluntary actions of men 
 originate in their opinions, persuasion rather than force, 
 should be employed to teach mankind. Sincerity he looked 
 upon as the chief virtue; all hypocrisies, even down to the 
 social or white lie, must be abolished. Man was not orig 
 inally vicious but has been made so through deceptions, 
 prejudices, and errors in existing positive institutions. He 
 declared that the institution of marriage is a fraud, and 
 cohabitation, an evil. 
 
 His advocacy of social and political reform, however, has 
 little claim to originality; he merely did for the larger 
 principles of the Revolution what Mary Wollstonecraft did 
 for the emancipation of women he putjhem into readable 
 and impressive form in his Political Justice (T793). The 
 only striking way in which the book differed from current 
 political and social doctrines was in the emphasis placed 
 upon idealized anarchy. Yet one must not overlook the 
 fact that Godwin gave to the whole body of radicalism a 
 permanent expression in a single work, and as such he will 
 always be looked upon as a vigorous proponent of the rev 
 olutionary doctrines of his day. 
 
 While Bage, Holcroft, Godwin, and others deplored the 
 condition of women, and wrote much in their behalf, it 
 remained for Mary Wollstonecraft to put into lasting form 
 the various pleas of the century for her sex. In 1787 she 
 wrote Thoughts on the Education of Daughters, in which 
 she denounced artificial manners and commended simplicity 
 of conduct and practical knowledge. This pamphlet is a 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 19 
 
 kind of introduction to her better known work, The Vindica 
 tion of the Rights of Women (1792). The Vindication is 
 remarkable for that time as a daring plea by a woman for 
 her sex ; it is the boldness, the fire and passion of her argu 
 ment that have made the work live. There is nothing new 
 in it but the spirit of its author. The book is poorly 
 planned, is full of repetitions and digressions, but there is 
 clearly running through it an unmistakable argument for 
 the dignity of women as human beings. Like her predeces 
 sors she argued for marriage based upon esteem and 
 friendship, and for the same education for both sexes, so 
 that sex distinctions might be minimized. But while she 
 asserted woman s capacity for many trades, she insisted 
 that her chief place is the home, where she should have a 
 voice in the education of her children. The sentimentalism 
 of Richardson, Sterne, and Rousseau was vigorously as 
 sailed. She pleaded for women of dignity and sense. 
 
II 
 
 Since one cannot escape the fact that the advocates of 
 freedom for women in England and America took their first 
 principles from France, a brief account of the movement 
 toward the disillusionment of men and women in that 
 country seems advisable at this point. 
 
 Some twenty years before Mary Astell and Defoe had 
 pleaded for the social and intellectual freedom of women in 
 England, Poulain de la Barre (1647-1723), in France, set 
 forth the same contention in three remarkably modern 
 books on the social position and education of women: De 
 VEgalite des deux Sexes (1673), De V Education des Dames 
 (1679), and De I Excellence des hommes contre I Egalite 
 des Sexes (1675). S. A. Richards in Feminist Writers of 
 the Seventeenth Century, (pp. 90-93), sums up Poulain s 
 work in these terms: "He denies that woman is in any 
 sense inferior to man : her characteristic failings are due to 
 custom, tradition and defective education. She is in every 
 ^way as capable as man, jsex having no influence on mind, 
 and even as regards physical effort for which her strength is 
 insufficient, it is probable that with proper training she 
 would acquit herself equally well." Poulain_jnaintained 
 that since virtue is based uponjoiowledge, education is an 
 absolute essential foT~women s happiness and well-being. 
 "As for the form that this education is to take, Poulain 
 would shorten the route by omitting Greek and Latin, and 
 substituting good French translations for the original clas 
 sical authors. In other respects the curriculum would fol 
 low the lines of a liberal humanistic education." Poulain s 
 works, like Brown s Alcuin, are cast in dialogue, and there 
 is a striking similarity in the emphasis that both place on 
 certain arguments; but I have been unable to find any 
 specific reference to Poulain or his writings in Brown s 
 works. 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 21 
 
 Montesquieu (1689-1755) in his The Spirit of Laws 20 had 
 exalted the English constitution and endeavored to show 
 that it was the influence of climate that differentiated the 
 races of mankind. But this notion precluded, by the very 
 nature of things, any possibility of reform, and consequent 
 ly he was attacked from many quarters, particularly by 
 Helvetius (1715-1771) in Of Laws. 21 In this book the first 
 rumblings of the French Revolution were heard, and it be 
 came the text-book for young radicals for nearly a genera 
 tion. Helvetius urged that men are the products of con 
 ditions conditions, which education, in the larger sense, 
 can greatly modify. He rejected the notion of innate ideas, 
 and accounted for genius not by birth, but by differences in 
 education. He even maintained that so-called idiots were 
 capable of being raised by education to normal. Above all 
 Helvetius denounced existing positive institutions, partic 
 ularly of government, as the source of all the errors and 
 prejudices of mankind. This last contention was strongly 
 and more convincingly restated by Holbach (1723-1789) in 
 his The System of Nature.- 3 It is the wandering from 
 nature s laws that has brought calamity upon mankind; it 
 is to errors and prejudices that misunderstandings must be 
 attributed. Unlike Rousseau, who asserted that man is 
 born free, but is everywhere in chains, Holbach insisted 
 that men never were free, that they have always been slaves 
 to natural laws. Consequently, any positive institution 
 must be false and injurious. This is a conception far re 
 moved from the social contract doctrine of the early 
 eighteenth century. Indeed, it was just the step necessary 
 to lead to revolution and reform in governments and morals. 
 To men like Helvetius, Holbach, Voltaire, Diderot, and Tur- 
 got one must look for the early revolutionary impulse that 
 stirred the men and women of two continents to demand 
 reforms. 
 
 But when the great French Revolution came and the 
 
 ^Esprit des lois (1748). 
 
 21 De I esprit (1758). 
 
 -*Sy steme de la nature (1770). 
 
22 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 young disciples of these so-called radicals were in the sad 
 dle, they displayed marked conservatism in the first con 
 stitution (1791). That great document declared that in 
 order to be an active citizen it is necessary to be twenty-five 
 years of age ; to be domiciled in the city or canton for the 
 time fixed by law. The voter had to present a tax receipt 
 for taxes of the value of three days work. It is notable 
 that women were not to be classed as active citizens. As 
 the revolution progressed there was a marked tendency to 
 institute the reforms of the early agitators. On August 11, 
 1792, by a special decree, the distinction between active and 
 non-active citizen was abolished; the age limit of voters 
 was lowered to twenty-one; the period of residence was 
 made one year; and no tax receipt was required. The 
 voter had only to show that he was living on the income 
 of his own labor. In the constitution of the Year One, 
 (June 24, 1793), even the servant classes were given their 
 freedom, and all foreigners who had done well for human 
 ity were allowed to vote Thomas Paine was a notable 
 beneficiary of this condition. But this constitution never 
 took effect. On February 4, 1794, negroes were made cit 
 izens of the French Republic. 24 
 
 During the trying days of the Reign of Terror, Condorcet 
 (1743-1794) wrote his Historical Picture of the Progress of 
 the Human Mind, 25 in which he commended the work of 
 Turgot, Price, and Priestley, and gave particular emphasis 
 to the famous doctrine of the infinite perfectibility of man. 
 Among the causes of human improvement that one is most 
 conducive to the general welfare that seeks the total anni 
 hilation of the prejudices which have established an in 
 equality of rights between the sexes. In vain might one 
 search for motives to justify this distinction in differences 
 of physical organization, of intellect, or moral sensibility. 
 Condorcet insisted even more strongly than Holbach had 
 
 24 Anderson, F. M., The Constitutions and Other Select Documents 
 Illustrative of the History of France (1789-1901), Minneapolis, 1904. 
 
 - r> Esquisse d un tableau historique des progres de V esprit humain 
 (1794). 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 23 
 
 done, upon the absolute necessity of reform in education 
 for women. He courageously maintained that there should 
 be no distinction in the form or content of the education of 
 men and women ; women should be allowed to study the 
 natural sciences. They should be educated for motherhood. 
 His final plea was that_women_Ji^ vp 
 
 the knowledge that men are entitled Jbo; and all instruction 
 should be given in common, thus raising the standard of 
 morality by annihilating false modesty.-" These ideas are 
 found in his report 27 to the Convention (1792) on the na 
 tional education bill, and consequently had a wide circula 
 tion, and they mark Condorcet as the greatest champion of 
 woman s rights before John Stuart Mill. 
 
 26 It is necessary to call attention to the fact that at the very 
 outset of the Revolution certain radicals, among them Talleyrand- 
 Perigord and Condorcet, made serious demands for universal suf 
 frage, including women. These demands, embodied in the famous 
 Cahiers, were presented to the king and to the National Assembly 
 in 1789 by Condorcet, but they were rejected by both with scorn and 
 derision. 
 
 27 "Rapport sur Porganisation generale de 1 instruction publique 
 presente a PAssemblee nationale legislative. 
 
Ill 
 
 During the last decade of the eighteenth century, America 
 became an asylum for the radicals and the political regu- 
 gees of France and England, and as a rule these men joined 
 in vigorously in the political disputes of the day. It is .no 
 wonder, then, that America was for a time a forum for 
 the discussion of the rights of men and women. Nor is it 
 surprising that Brockden Brown, then growing into man 
 hood, was stirred by the arguments heard on every hand. 
 Without doubt, it was during these formative years that 
 Brown s zeal for the freedom of mankind was first awak 
 ened. And yet this is not the whole story, for there had 
 been certain influences at work in America with which 
 Brown must have been acquainted. Some account of these 
 influences will now be taken. 
 
 The social condition of women in America in the eigh 
 teenth century was not markedly different from that in the 
 mother country. There was perhaps less of social frivolity 
 and immorality in sparsely settled America than in the 
 crowded districts of the old world. But colonial customs 
 and social distinctions paralleled in a remarkable way those 
 in England. In regard to marriage the laws were strik 
 ingly similar. In America as in England the Quakers were 
 most liberal in their views of matrimony ; and owing to thjs 
 liberality many false charges were brought against them. 
 William Penn had held that marriage was a divine ordin 
 ance, and that God alone could rightly join men and women ; 
 consequently, the priest and ecclesiastical courts were ruled 
 out. The Quakers, generally, believed that marriage was a 
 matter to be left to the conscience of the individual man 
 and woman. Thus it was said that they did not celebrate 
 marriage decently. 
 
 Divorces during the eighteenth century in America on 
 any ground were very difficult to obtain. In almost every 
 case the laws favored the man. Connecticut, however, did 
 insist upon the equality of men and women in matters of 
 
Brockden Broivn and the Rights of Women 25 
 
 divorce. In New York there was not a single case of di 
 vorce during the Colonial period, and only by a special act 
 of the legislature could a marriage be annulled. In New 
 Jersey and Pennsylvania there is no evidence that divorces, 
 partial or absolute, were common. In the Southern States 
 there is not a case of absolute divorce on record before 
 1775. 28 
 
 Politically, however, the women of America fared better 
 than their sisters in England and France. The early Puri 
 tans were not enthusiasts for political freedom, but there 
 was a tendency toward democratic principles in their man 
 agement of communities, particularly in town-meetings. 
 Yet their idea of government was theocratic rather than 
 democratic. It was among the Quakers of Pennsylvania 
 and New Jersey, however, that the most liberal ideas of 
 government were to be found. As a religious sect the 
 Quakers stood alone in maintaining the essential equality 
 of men and women, and in all important matters women 
 were allowed the same rights as men. The Friends be 
 lieved that the form of government did not matter so much 
 as the character of the men in whose hands the government 
 is lodged. Good men will make good laws. 
 
 Before the American Revolution there was, however, prac 
 tically no philosophical speculation on theories of govern 
 ment, but a steady progress toward democratization is no 
 ticeable. 29 The lofty terms of the Declaration of Inde 
 pendence, nevertheless, opened men s minds, as they had 
 never before been opened, to the essential principles of gov 
 ernment. Locke and his English and French disciples be 
 came the basis for discussions. Natural rights, laws of na 
 ture, social contract, consent of the governed, the general 
 welfare, were terms that became familiar to all Americans. 
 It is not surprising, then, that some of them were led into 
 fields of speculation and dreamed of ideal commonwealths. 
 
 28 A History of Matrimonial Institutions Chiefly in England and 
 the United States, by George Elliott Howard, Chicago, 1904. 
 
 2g A History of American Political Theories, by C. E. Merriam, 
 New York, 1913. 
 
26 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 The mildest of these held that government is a necessary 
 evil, and that consequently the least government is the best 
 government. This idea of the minimum of government be 
 came in time the fundamental doctrine of one of the great 
 political parties. It was only one step from this essential 
 fear of all government to the question of no government, 
 or rather to the contemplation of a perfect state of society 
 in which positive institutions are unnecessary. 
 
 In the formation of the American Constitution, however, 
 as with the first French Constitution, the most radical be 
 came conservative to a marked degree, and the much-her 
 alded natural rights and natural equality of the Declaration 
 were partially, and in some instances entirely, brushed aside. 
 The question of suffrage was an all-important one, and in 
 the minds of the most liberal, the limitations put upon the 
 exercise of the franchise were unjust and but one step 
 removed from conditions in England. It was a turning 
 back toward aristocracy. Thomas Jefferson was an advo 
 cate of universal male suffrage, but he acknowledged that 
 those who insisted upon a property qualification were honest 
 men, and had some solid basis of argument. Franklin held 
 that it was an impropriety to allow the vote to those without 
 landed property. The several state constitutions had va 
 rious qualifications, and between federal and state limita 
 tions the actual voting population was but a small fraction 
 of the male inhabitants. When all women, all slaves, all 
 immigrants under a certain limit of residence, and all men 
 who lacked the property qualification, were denied the fran 
 chise, it was plain to many Americans that democracy in 
 practice was far from the ideal government that the Decla 
 ration proclaimed. 
 
 It is not strange, then, to find many who protested against 
 this discrepancy. Although the majority of the Founding 
 Fathers saw no inconsistency, 30 religious, property, or racial 
 limitations were held by some, at least, to be inconsistent 
 with the natural rights of man. There had been, neverthe 
 less, a significant change in attitude among the leaders since 
 
 30 A History of American Political Theories, by C. E. Merriam. 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 27 
 
 1776. This reaction is best expressed in the Constitution of 
 1787, and when it was submitted for ratification the great 
 men of the time split into two camps : those that favored 
 the limited democracy of that instrument, and those that 
 called for a government of the people, by the people, and 
 for the people. The Federalist, a series of essays by Ham 
 ilton, Madison, and Jay, took the side of the proposed con 
 stitution. Annual election, weak central government, and a 
 more liberal franchise were advocated by the more demo 
 cratic group, led by Jefferson. John Adams asserted that 
 the people are unworthy of trust, and questioned the fea 
 sibility of any democratic government. 
 
 When the great shock of the French Revolution reached 
 America, with a consequent swing to the Jeffersonian theo 
 ries, there followed a decade of debate between Federalist 
 and Republicans which drew to it almost every American 
 of talent. The pamphlet war which resulted was the fiercest 
 known in American history. John Adams was the leader 
 of the reactionary Federalists, Jefferson of the democratic 
 group, and around these two men the nation gathered. Jef 
 ferson was the more popular leader, with his trust in the 
 ultimate wisdom of the mass of plain people. And his cause 
 triumphed until the Reign of Terror in France alarmed the 
 moro conservative of his followers. This alarm over its al 
 leged alliance with the radicals of France gave rise to a most 
 scathing attack on the Republican party. That Jefferson s 
 philosophy of government was largely derived from France 
 cannot be denied, but he was far from the radical that his 
 opponents painted him. He did highly commend the work 
 of Condorcet, particularly The Progress of the Human Mind, 
 and he may have derived some of his own ideas from this 
 work. 
 
 In the numerous political discussions that make up so 
 much of American history in the last quarter of the eigh 
 teenth century, a few pages at least were devoted to the 
 rights of women. Margaret Brent of Maryland asserted 
 her right to a seat in the legislature; Richard Henry Lee 
 was an advocate of woman suffrage; and Abigail Adams 
 
28 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 wrote to her husband in their behalf. 31 The Quakers had 
 always maintained, as has been already observed, the es 
 sential equality of women with men. But the general at 
 titude toward women is best expressed in a letter by John 
 Adams to James Sullivan, May 26, 1776, in which he said : 
 "But why exclude women? You will say, because their 
 delicacy renders them unfit for practice and experience in 
 the great businesses of life, and the hardy enterprises of 
 war, as well as the arduous cares of state. Besides, their 
 attention is so much engaged with the necessary nurture of 
 their children, that nature has made them fittest for domes 
 tic cares. 32 
 
 Certain state constitutions, however, admitted women to a 
 larger share in the life of the state than they could hope for 
 under the federal government. This was notably the case in 
 New Jersey, where from 1790 to 1807, women were allowed 
 to vote, a privilege due largely it seems, to the liberality of 
 the Quakers of that state. It should be noted, however, that 
 they rarely exercised this right. But an occasion once arose 
 in which the woman vote became the deciding factor, and 
 gave rise to a most lively discussion in the press. John 
 Condit of Newark, a Republican, and William Crane of 
 Elizabethtown, a Federalist, were in a close race for the 
 legislature, and in an endeavor to defeat his opponent, Crane 
 secured many women from Elizabethtown to vote for him, 
 but he was defeated. The newspaper war which followed, 
 for and against woman suffrage, soon passed beyond the 
 bounds of the state, and for some time centered attention 
 on the rights of women. 33 This event, the exciting national 
 election of 1796, and the criticism of the Jay Treaty, un 
 doubtedly furnished ample incentive for Brockden Brown s 
 Alcuin or The Rights of Women. 
 
 Such is a brief account of some of the more important 
 phases of the emancipation of woman. We have seen that 
 the promise which the Reformation held out was very slow 
 
 31 A History of, American Political Theories, by C. E. Merriman. 
 32 Library of American Literature, Vol. Ill, p. 199-200. 
 33 Smith College Studies in History, Vol. I, pp. 165-187. 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 29 
 
 in working its way into the minds of the later Puritans, but 
 nevertheless, there were gains, however slight they may 
 have been. It has been pointed out how in the latter part 
 of the seventeenth century, both in France and in England, 
 a great impetus was given to the movement by writers like 
 Mary Astell, Defoe, Fenelon, Poulain de la Barre, and others ; 
 and how that movement increased until almost every writer 
 of any importance was drawn to one side or the other of the 
 question. We have also seen how, as the forces which made 
 for the great revolutions in France and America became 
 dominant, the rights of women were merged with the 
 greater rights of mankind. It has likewise been observed 
 that, although the movement had an early beginning in Eng 
 land, it was in France that it reached its earliest maturity. 
 It was to France that young English and American demo 
 crats looked for inspiration. It was from France that the 
 first principles of the works of Mary Wollstonecraft and 
 William Godwin came. We have seen that in both France 
 and England emphasis was first placed upon the social and 
 intellectual emancipation of women, but that in the closing 
 decades of the eighteenth century arguments centered 
 around their economic and political freedom. It is of this 
 latter side of the movement that Brockden Brown became 
 an ardent proponent. 
 
 To say that Brown was familiar with the great body of 
 this literature of dissent would be, of course, an unwar 
 ranted assumption; but that he was acquainted with much 
 of it is beyond dispute. Concerning Brown s formative 
 years, it is said "that he was a frail, studious child, reputed 
 a prodigy, and encouraged by his parents in that frantic 
 feeding upon books which was expected, in those days, of 
 every American boy of parts. By the time he was sixteen 
 he had made himself a tolerable classical scholar and hurt 
 his health by over-work. As he grew older he read with a 
 hectic, desultory sweep in every direction open to him. With 
 his temper and education, he developed into a hot young 
 philosopher in those days of revolution. He brooded over 
 the maps of remote regions, glowed with eager schemes for 
 
30 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 perfecting mankind." 34 This zeal for knowledge and this 
 enthusiasm for the betterment of mankind were not at all 
 singular in a boy reared amidst the bustle and shifting 
 scenes of the nation s intellectual and political capital. Phil 
 adelphia thronged with French political refugees. And dur 
 ing these stirring days Brown is reputed to have learned 
 the French language that he might gain a first-hand knowl 
 edge of French literature. Such names as Fenelon, La 
 Bruyere, La Rochefoucauld, Voltaire, Rousseau, are scat 
 tered through the pages of his early essays and addresses. 
 It must be remembered, too, that Brown had access to the 
 best libraries in the nation, and that he frequented the home 
 of that liberal-minded American, Benjamin Franklin. When 
 all these facts are considered, one is not surprised that 
 Brown showed himself familiar with all the current argu 
 ments for the social, political, and economic rights of man 
 and woman. It appears now that he had decided opinions 
 on such matters before the appearance of the works of Mary 
 Wollstonecraft and William Godwin, and that those opinions 
 were stimulated by his French reading. An analysis of 
 Alcuin will show that Brown s sources were not specific , 
 but general. 
 
 34 Van Doren, Cambridge History of American Literature, Vol. I, 
 p. 287. 
 
IV 
 
 \ 
 
 Alcuin is important as the first published volume of the 
 first professional author in America, and it is interesting to 
 the bibliographer as one of the rarest American books. 35 
 And yet the curious student will search in vain for any ac 
 curate discussion of it. According to Dunlap it was written 
 in the "fall and winter of the year 1797," :i(i and the same 
 year has often been referred to as the year of publication. 
 There is reason to believe, however, that Alcuin was com 
 posed during the exciting fall of 1796. It was issued in 
 book form from the press of T. & J. Swords, No. 99 Pearl 
 Street, New York, in March, 1798, and reprinted in the 
 Weekly Magazine of Philadelphia (March 17 April 7, 
 1798) as The Rights of Women. Dunlap s statement that 
 it was written in the fall and winter of 1797 has misled 
 every subsequent critic of Brown s work. No one, it seems, 
 has ever suspected the existence of a sequel to Alcuin, and 
 yet, by a curious circumstance, it is the sequel or second 
 dialogue and not the original upon which discussion of the 
 book has been based. 37 The matter is easy to explain. The 
 
 35 The only copy of which I have any knowledge is in the New York 
 Public Library. 
 
 Life of Brown, Vol. I, p. 70. 
 
 37 (A) "Brown s inquisitive and speculative mind partook of the 
 prevailing skepticism. Some of his compositions, and especially one 
 on The Rights of Women, published in 1797, shows to what extent 
 a benevolent mind may be led." W. H. Prescott in Sparks "Library 
 of American Biography," Vol. I, p. 129. (B) "Near the close of 
 1797 he published his first work, Alcuin, A Dialogue on the Rights of 
 Women. It is not without ingenuity." The Prose Writers of Amer 
 ica, Griswold, p. 107. (C) "He wrote in the fall and winter of 1797 
 a work which he refers to in his journal as the dialogue of Alcuin, 
 in which the topic of marriage is discussed with some degree of sub 
 tlety at least. It was published in the same year, but its crude 
 and hazardous theories on the subject of divorce and other social 
 topics attracted little attention." E. A. and G. L. Duyckinck in the 
 Cyclopedia of American Literature, Vol. I, p. 397. (D) "His first 
 work, The Dialogues of Alcuin, published in 1797, to which he refers 
 
32 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 original Alcuin as published by Swords, March, 1798. car 
 ried an "Advertisement" signed by E. H. Smith, in which 
 he states that "the following dialogue was put into my 
 hands, the last spring, by a friend who resides at a distance, 
 with liberty to make it public. I have since been informed 
 that he has continued the discussion of the subject in an 
 other dialogue." Now the Smith Alcuin is, as I have stated, 
 exceedingly rare, and it appears that no critic has ever com 
 pared it with the "copious extracts" in Dunlap s Life of 
 Brown. It has simply been assumed that Dunlap quoted 
 from the original Alcuin. A comparison, however, shows 
 
 in his journal as discussing the topic of marriage, attracted little 
 attention, and many of the theories advanced on the subject of di 
 vorce were subsequently abandoned by the author." The National 
 Cyclopaedia of America Biography, Vol. II, p. 59. (E) From Mary 
 Wollstonecraft "he derived the idea of his next work, The Dialogue of 
 of Alcuin, 1797, an enthusiastic but inexperienced essay on the ques 
 tion of woman s rights and liberties." The Encyclopaedia Brittan- 
 nica, Eleventh Edition. (F) "It is not surprising, therefore, that his 
 first publication, Alcuin, in 1797, dealt with the social position of 
 woman, and advocated a very advanced theory of divorce. This brief 
 work, in the form of a rather stilted dialogue, made little impression." 
 Trent and Erskine in "Great American Writers, p. 15. (G) "In 1797 
 he published a work on marriage and divorce entitled The Dialogue 
 of Alcuin." Wendell and Greenough s A History of Literature in 
 America. (H) "The spirit of Godwin stirred eagerly in Brown 
 during the early days of his freedom. Toward the end of 1797 he 
 bore witness by writing Alcuin, a dialogue on the rights of women 
 which took its first principles from Mary Wollstonecraft and God 
 win." Van Doren, Chapter VI, The Cambridge History of American 
 Literature. In an unpublished article recently put into my hands 
 Professor Carl Van Doren, however, takes note of this confusion. 
 There is an entry in Dunlap s Diary, August 8, 1797, which lends 
 support to the statement Alcuin was published in 1797. He writes: 
 "Now S[mith] showed me 2 dialogues called Alcouin sent on by B. 
 to be forwarded to Danies paper." It is quite likely that Dunlap 
 none too careful with his spelling at any time meant to write Den- 
 nie s instead of Danies. Joseph Dennie, a friend and correspondent 
 of Smith, was at this time editor of The Farmer s Museum of Wai- 
 pole, New Hampshire. As I have not yet had access to the complete 
 files of this paper, I cannot deny that Alcuin was published therein. 
 But granting that it was published in 1797, its appearance did not 
 prevent subsequent confusion with the second dialogue. 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 33 
 
 that only three and one-half pages in Dunlap were taken 
 from the Smith Alcuin to serve, it seems, as an introduc 
 tion to the second dialogue published in Dunlap s Life in 
 1815. The Smith Alcuin is a small volume of seventy-seven 
 pages or approximately eleven thousand words, and is di 
 vided into two parts to correspond to Alcuin s two visits to 
 the home of Mrs. Carter, who conducts a kind of Philadel 
 phia salon. The dialogue as printed in the Weekly Magazine 
 differs in many points from the Smith Alcuin. It is some 
 what shorter ; the title is changed to The Rights of Women; 
 the hero is Edwin instead of Alcuin ; significant references 
 to certain famous characters and events are omitted; the 
 slur on the professions of soldier and barber is deleted ; and 
 the last thirteen lines of Alcuin are lacking in the magazine 
 edition. Why Brown made these changes is not readily 
 seen, and why he failed to have Smith make the same altera 
 tions in the volume published by Swords, both of which ap 
 peared in print during the same month, is even more mys 
 terious. It seems likely that Swords printed the book in 
 the spring of 1797 or soon thereafter, but did not publish it 
 until March, 1798. This asssumption would explain the 
 differences in the two versions. 
 
 The concluding paragraph of the Smith Alcuin clearly 
 points to a sequel. "Here the conversation was interrupted 
 by one of the company, who, after listening to us for some 
 time, thought proper at last to approach, and contribute his 
 mite to our mutual edification. I soon seized an opportunity 
 of withdrawing, but not without requesting and obtaining 
 permission to repeat by visit." The Smith "Advertise 
 ment" definitely states that the discussion was continued in 
 another dialogue. That Dunlap s "copious extracts" are 
 the continuation of the subject foreshadowed in Alcuin and 
 clearly expressed in the "Advertisement," is beyond cavil. 
 Then, too, the permission to repeat his visit which Alcuin 
 sought is realized in the continuation which begins: "A 
 week elapsed and I repeated by visit to Mrs. Carter." The 
 continuation, referred to hereafter as the second dialogue, 
 was entitled Alcuin in the Philadelphia edition (1815) of 
 
34 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 Dunlap s Life of Brown, and the Paradise of Women in 
 the London edition of that work (1822). 
 
 It is safe to conclude, then, that it was to the second dia 
 logue that Dunlap referred as being written in the fall and 
 winter of 1797. Smith and Dunlap both agree that the 
 second dialogue was written after March, 1797. The time 
 of the first is less certain, but more significant, as it was 
 Brown s first publication. Reasoning from internal ev 
 idence alone, however, the date can be quite definitely 
 established as the fall of 1796. On page eleven of Alcuin 
 the priggish schoolmaster speaks of the pleasure he derives 
 during his leisure evenings from watching a declining moon 
 and the varying firmament with the optics of "Dr. Young." 
 The Dr. Young here referred to was Thomas Young (1773- 
 1829), a noted British physicist, whose paper on the struc 
 ture of the eye was read before the Royal Society when he 
 was only twenty years old, and established for him the name 
 of founder of physiological optics. Young shortly thereafter 
 went to Germany, and in July, 1796 received the degree of 
 doctor of physic from the University of Gottingen. On his 
 return to England, he was hailed as a great genius. It is 
 not likely that Brown would refer to him as Dr. Young be 
 fore July, 1796. Significant, too, is Alcuin s remark, on page 
 fourteen, that "the theme of the discourse was political. 
 The edicts of Carnot, and the commentary of that profound 
 jurist, Peter Porcupine, had furnished ample materials of 
 discussion." Lazare Nichols Marguerite Carnot (1753- 
 1823) was a member of the French Convention, an import 
 ant member of the Committee of Public Safety, and the 
 guiding genius of the Executive Directory. He became a 
 member of the Directory in 1795, and because of his oppo 
 sition to the extreme measures of his colleague Barras, he 
 was suspected of royalist sympathy and was sentenced to 
 deportation in 1797. He spoke strongly against the viola 
 tions of the Bill of Rights, and objected to the dictatorial 
 and autocratic action of the Directory. But Brown s refer- 
 
 :J8 In Bage s novel, Man As He Is (1792), France is referred to as 
 the "paradise of women," Vol. II, p. 234. 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 35 
 
 ence to the edicts of Carnot undoubtedly suggests the un 
 compromising measures which Carnot felt were necessary 
 during the troublous fall of 1796. In order to put down 
 royalist and anarchistic plots, the Directory assumed ab 
 solute power over the life and property of the citizen. It 
 is quite certain, however, that Brown had in mind Carnot s 
 instruction to Citizen Adet, the French minister to the 
 United States, to address a note to the American Secretary 
 of State reproaching the Washington Administration for 
 the position of the President in his Farewell Address and 
 for the Administration s attitude toward the Jay Treaty. 
 Citizen Adet declared that America had violated her sacred 
 treaty with the French Republic, and that as a solemn pro 
 test against that dereliction his government had instructed 
 him to suspend his duties as minister. War with France 
 or rather with the Directory seemed imminent. 39 
 
 Peter Porcupine, mentioned in the same sentence with 
 Carnot and referred to as a profound jurist, was William 
 Cobbett (1762-1835). He was an English soldier, essayist, 
 politician, editor, and farmer who came to the United States 
 in 1792 to seek a berth with the Washington Administration. 
 But, failing in this, he settled down in Philadelphia as a 
 tutor in English to French political refugees. In 1794 Joseph 
 Priestley also came to America and plunged immediately 
 into the fight for republicanism. This action of Priestley 
 drew Cobbett to the defense of the Federalists, and his vi 
 cious attack upon the friends of democracy stirred up the 
 bitterest pamphlet war known in American history. He 
 issued at Philadelphia a monthly pamphlet under the title 01 
 The Censor (January, 1796-to March, 1797) which he signet 
 as Peter Porcupine. In this paper he was a vigorous and 
 unreasonable advocate of everything British and a violent 
 critic of everything republican. Cobbett even went so far 
 as to place in the windows of his bookstore in Philadelphia 
 pictures of nobles, princes, and kings including the infa 
 mous George the Third. We first learn of him as Peter 
 Porcupine in January, 1796, but if one may judge from 
 
 39 Stanwood, Edward, A History of the Presidency, Vol. I, 1898. 
 
36 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 newspaper allusions, he was not well known under this 
 pseudonym until August of the same year. In September, 
 1796, he wrote, "What must I feel upon seeing the news 
 papers filled from top to bottom with A Blue Shop for 
 Peter Porcupine, A Pill for Peter Porcupine, Peter Porcu 
 pine Detected," 40 etc. Cobbett reached the zenith of his rav 
 ings against American and French republicanism during the 
 fall elections of 1796. 
 
 While these allusions to contemporary characters and 
 events do not definitely fix the date of the Smith Alcuin, 
 they at least point to an earlier one than has usually been 
 assigned. 
 
 It is unfortunate that Brown is known only by the second 
 dialogue, which is on the very face of it only an Utopian 
 dream, not to be taken as representing Brown s real opin 
 ions. It is significant, too, that the second dialogue is one 
 of the few pieces that remained unpublished during the life 
 time of the author. It is a work of pure speculation, and as 
 such may represent Brown s fanciful interpretation of so 
 ciety in Godwin s Political Justice. But it will be seen that 
 the commonwealth here described has more in common with 
 the Utopia of Sir Thomas More than with the speculations 
 of William Godwin. In fact the influence of Godwin on the 
 thought of the two dialogues diminishes in proportion as one 
 studies them in relation to the temper of the age. 
 
 The discussions in the first dialogue, on the other hand, 
 are thoroughly sincere and practical, and represent the most 
 respectable democratic doctrine of the day. Indeed, it is 
 Brown s contribution to the great debate between the Fed 
 eralists and Republicans during the stormy days of 1796, 
 and registers his protest against the conservative American 
 Constitution. Brown, with others, had been clearly disap 
 pointed with the failure of the f ramers of the Constitution 
 to embody in that document the principles of the Declaration 
 of Independence. The Smith Alcuin is, furthermore, the 
 
 ^Selections from Cobbett s Political Works: being a complete 
 abridgement of the 100 volumes which comprise the writings of Peter 
 Porcupine, London, 1835. 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 37 
 
 first extended serious argument for the rights of women 
 that had yet appeared in America, and as such it merits the 
 praise that is the pioneer s. It is the author s plea for the 
 natural right of women to share in the political and eco 
 nomic life of the nation. In this general claim for women 
 Brown was not at all singular, as has already been pointed 
 out, for he only gave voice to a time-honored Quaker con 
 viction of the essential equality of women with men. Fur 
 thermore, we have seen that this conception of women s 
 rights and capabilities was of slow growth from Mary Astell 
 to Brockden Brown, and that it was neither fathered nor 
 fostered exclusively by only one. So much for the general 
 character of the work. 
 
 As Alcuin is almost inaccessible, a detailed account of it 
 is advisable. In each dialogue the argument is conveyed 
 in a conversation between the priggish schoolmaster Alcuin 
 and the widowed Mrs. Carter, a Philadelphia blue-stocking. 41 
 She is familiar with the current arguments for the rights 
 of women, and generally takes a more radical stand than 
 Alcuin. Her argument goes beyond that of Mary Woll- 
 stonecraft, whose plea is fundamentally for the emancipa 
 tion of women from low social standards through an educa 
 tion similar to that for men ; Mrs. Carter s contention is for 
 political and economic equality with men. Indeed, her ideas 
 on this and other subjects are so singular that her home be 
 comes a rendezvous for all liberal and respectable talent, so 
 that perhaps the strongest inducement to visit her home was 
 not the attraction of the woman, but that of the brilliant so- 
 ciey that gathered there. Following the description of Mrs. 
 Carter and her liberal coterie is a bit of philosophy on the 
 comparative merits of reading and conversation as means of 
 instruction. Like Swift, Alcuin sings the praises of con 
 versation. Books are too dull and insipid, and he hates a 
 lecturer, because his audience cannot canvass each step in 
 the argument. Formal debate is also condemned. But con 
 versation is free and unfettered and blends, more happily 
 
 41 Brown may wish to remind his readers of the famous London 
 blue-stocking, Elizabeth Carter (1717-1806). 
 
38 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 than any other method of instruction, utility and pleasure. 
 Alcuin spends the day in repeating the alphabet or engrav 
 ing on infantile minds that twice three make six, and the 
 evening, until his acquaintance with Mrs. Carter, in ampli 
 fying the seductive suppositions, "if I were a king" or "if I 
 were a lover." The schoolmaster longs for the liberalising 
 influence that only the conversation of the ingenious can 
 give, and after a careful self -analysis he decides to become 
 a frequent visitor at the home of Mrs. Carter. We are now, 
 after fourteen dreary pages of introduction, permitted to 
 hear the dialogue between Mrs. Carter and Alcuin. The 
 very dullness and narrow outlook of this prologue, the least 
 attractive part of the book, stand in striking contrast to the 
 liberal views that follow. 
 
 Alcuin, when the embarrassment of the introduction to 
 the circle is over, respectfully withdraws to a corner of the 
 room and there finds opportunity to engage the lady in con 
 versation. He somewhat awkwardly begins : "Pray, madam, 
 are you a federalist?" She evades the question, and replies 
 indirectly that she has often been called upon to listen to 
 political discussions, but never before was she asked her 
 own opinion. Mrs. Carter declares that women, shallow 
 and inexperienced as they all are, have nothing to do with 
 politics; that their time is consumed in learnng the price 
 of ribbon or tea or in plying the needle. No wonder, then, 
 she asserts with Defoe, Swift, 42 and others, that women are 
 narrow, and for the sake of variety they sometimes wan 
 der into the pleasant fields of scandal. Alcuin admits the 
 force of this argument, but submits that the work of woman 
 is not less useful and honorable than that of many profes 
 sions assigned to men, notably those of barber and soldier. 
 He dwells on the noble character of practical, simple, every- 
 
 Astell, Defoe, Swift, Mary Wollstonecraft, and Godwin, 
 whose ideas are paralleled in Alcuin, are not specifically mentioned; 
 Plato, Lycurgus, Newton, and Locke are, however. 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 39 
 
 day work. 4S He further declares that women are the equals 
 of men in all essential respects and morally their superiors ; 
 that the distinctions based upon sex differences are of no 
 consequence; and with the whole body of French and Eng 
 lish advocates of the rights of women, Alcuin maintains 
 that whatever important distinctions there are between men 
 and women are the direct results of differences in oppor 
 tunities. Women are superficial and ignorant because they 
 are generally cooks and seamstresses. 
 
 But unlike those who believe in the infinite perfectibility 
 of man, Alcuin takes a pessimistic view. He declares that 
 it is doubtful whether the career of the species will end in 
 knowledge, and with Locke he holds that man is born in 
 ignorance, that habit has given permanence to error. He 
 rejects the notion of innate ideas. Through ignorance or 
 prejudice certain employments have been exclusively as 
 signed to men, and the constitutional aversion of human 
 nature to any change has confirmed this error. Mrs. Car 
 ter adds that of all forms of injustice that is most vicious 
 which makes the circumstance of sex a reason for exclud 
 ing half of mankind from the more useful and honorable 
 professions. Alcuin falls back for a moment upon the re 
 spectable Whig doctrine of "Whatever is, is right," and 
 replies that the real evil lies in the fact that so much human 
 capacity is perverted. 44 Then Alcuin follows the argument 
 of Plato, More, and Godwin in desiring to have all tasks 
 shared in common without distinction of sex, but, unlike 
 Godwin, Alcuin is not sure that such an arrangement would 
 be practicable. He laments that, on account of a perverted 
 civilization, large portions of mankind are doomed to toil, 
 but he laments thus not because they are men or women, but 
 because they are human bengs. This is in line with the 
 
 42 Alcuin z reasoning here parallels in a remarkable way that of 
 Fenelon in his De Veavcation des filles (1681). It is very likely 
 that Brown was acquainted with this work, as he certainly was with 
 Telemaque, for he mentions Fenelon in an address before the Belles 
 Lettres Club. 
 
 44 Cf. Poulain s De VEgalite des deux Sexes. 
 
40 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 humanitarian movement of the latter part of the eighteenth 
 century and is not exclusively Godwinian. But Mrs. Carter 
 insists that under any arrangement women would bear the 
 greater burden because of the duties of motherhood. Al- 
 cuin replies that luxury and its attendant evils have greatly 
 increased that burden. Mrs. Carter believes that woman s 
 field of usefulness is too much limited by a consideration of 
 her function as mother, particularly as regards the liberal 
 professions. 45 But Alcuin insists that women are not really 
 excluded from the higher professions, that in Europe at 
 least women are found in such professions. He could never 
 wish woman to stoop to the practice of law, and as for the 
 ministry some sects (the Quakers and Methodists, of course) 
 do not debar women from the pulpit. The Christian re 
 ligion has done much to break down distinctions of rank, 
 wealth, and sex. Mrs. Carter does not try to refute Alcuin s 
 argument, but she points out that all professions which 
 require most vigor of mind, the greatest contact with en 
 lightened society and books, are filled by men only. Alcuin 
 replies by attacking all the liberal professions, charging 
 them with sordid motives; usefulness as such is but a sec 
 ondary consideration. Benevolence, universal benevolence, 
 should be the keynote of all the liberal callings college de 
 grees and examinations matter but little. 
 
 At this point Mrs. Carter broaches the question of wo- 
 "man s education. She takes the same line of argument as 
 Defoe, Swift, and others that women have been educated 
 for the profession of household slaves, that women of qual 
 ity are instructed in the art of the coquette. Men believe 
 that women should be thus educated ; consequently, they are 
 excluded from schools and colleges. Here again Alcuiu 
 takes a wholly unexpected turn in his argument by question 
 ing 1 the advisability of a college education, even for men, 
 for it seems unfavorable to moral and intellectual improve 
 ment. 40 It would be indelicate to conduct mixed classes in 
 
 45 Cf. Poulain s De VEgalite des deuac Sexes. 
 
 40 Fenelon in L Education des Filles takes this same position. See 
 also John Trumbull s The Progress of Dulness (1772-3). The same 
 strictures on college education are found in the works of Hopkinson 
 and Freneau. 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 41 
 
 anatomy or other such subjects. This idea of false mod 
 esty gives Mrs. Carter an opportunity to inveigh against 
 those who urge the separation of the sexes on the score of 
 delicacy. With Mary Wollstonecraft and Condorcet she in 
 sists that nothing has been so injurious as the separation of 
 the sexes. They are associated in childhood, but soon they 
 are made to take different paths, learn different language^ 
 different maxims, different pursuits ; their relations become 
 fettered and embarrassed. With the one all is reserve and 
 artifice, with the other adulation and affected humility : the 
 man must affect ardor, the woman indifference her tongue 
 belies the sentiments of her heart and the dictates of her 
 mind . Her_early life is a preparation for marriage ;_ her 
 married life is a state of slavery. She loses all title to pri 
 vate property, and the right of private opinion ; she knows 
 nothing but the will of her husband, and she may prevail 
 only by tears and blandishments. 
 
 Alcuin thinks this a great exaggeration, but Mrs. Carter 
 asserts that the picture is exact, that her own life has suf 
 fered from a mistaken education. Man is physically stronger 
 and thus in the primitive condition of society, woman was 
 enslaved ; but the tendency toward rational improvement 
 has been to equalize conditions and to level all distinctions 
 not based upon truth and reason. Women have benefited 
 by this progress of reason, but they are not wholly exempt 
 from servitude. Alcuin admits that the lot of woman is 
 hard, but he points out that it is the preferable one, freest 
 from the thorns of life and then he trails off into the song 
 of the needle, and the hand that conjures a piano. Mrs. 
 Carter replies that this is but a panegyric on indolence and 
 luxury, in which neither distinguished virtue nor true hap 
 piness is found. Alcuin agrees that ease and luxury are 
 pernicious ; that the rich and the poor alike are denied real 
 happiness and peace, 47 but still their lot is better than brutal 
 toil and ignorance. He concludes his argument by a state- 
 
 47 This point is particularly emphasized in Poulain s De VEgalite 
 des deny Sexes. 
 
42 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 ment that there is something wrong with society as it is 
 now constituted, and appeals to Mrs. Carter to waive the 
 problem of women and urge the much greater claims of 
 enslaved human beings. 
 
 Again Alcuin inquires of Mrs. Carter whether she is a 
 federalist; again she protests that women have nothing to 
 do with politics, that the American government takes no 
 heed of them, that the Constitution-makers, without the 
 slightest consciousness of inconsistency or injustice, ex 
 cluded them from all political rights, and made no distinc 
 tion between women and irrational animals. In the sense 
 that she prefers union to dissension she is a federalist ; but 
 if the term means the approval of the Constitution as a 
 document embodying the principles of right and justice, she 
 is not a federalist. 
 
 It is when Mrs. Carter inveighs against the Constitution 
 of the United States as harsh and unjust that she waxes 
 most eloquent. She scoffs at the maxims of the Constitu 
 tion that proclaim that all power is derived from the people, 
 that liberty is every one s birthright and is the immediate 
 gift of God to all mankind, that those who are subject to 
 the laws should enjoy a share in their enactment. These 
 maxims are specious, and our glorious Constitution in 
 practice is a system of tyranny. One is denied a voice in 
 the election of his governor because he is not twenty-one; 
 another because he has not been a resident for two years; 
 a third because he can not show a tax receipt; a fourth 
 because his skin is black ; a fifth merely because she is a 
 woman. So what have we to boast in the name of divinest 
 liberty when only a small fraction of our people have a 
 voice in our government? 
 
 Here Alcuin takes refuge in the Quaker doctrine that the 
 spirit is of vastly more importance than the form of gov 
 ernment; that the value of any government is measured by 
 the character of the men who administer its laws. But this 
 subtle distinction between power and the exercise of power 
 does not find favor with Mrs. Carter; she wishes a voice 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 43 
 
 in the choice of even the wise man. She is willing to ad 
 mit that government by the wisest would be the best gov 
 ernment, but how are the sages to be distinguished from 
 the mediocre, and how is one to know that the wise man 
 cannot be corrupted? That government is best, all things 
 considered, that consults the feelings and judgments of the 
 governed. Alcuin insists, however, that some qualifications 
 should be required of the voter. Mrs. Carter sidetracks by 
 saying that she is not arguing the claims of mankind in 
 general, but the rights of women in particular; for mere 
 sex is so purely a physical matter that to make it a basis 
 for excluding one-half of mankind from the enjoyment of 
 their natural rights is sheer folly. 
 
 Alcuin is most absurd in the eyes of Mrs. Carter when he 
 suggests that women justly relinquish all claims to liberty 
 and property when they marry; that they are contented 
 with their present position; that they would not exercise 
 the rights of citizens if the privilege were extended to them 
 this was a common argument in New Jersey where women 
 had the privilege of voting, but very seldom took part in 
 the elections. Alcuin admits that he is prejudiced, that he 
 could never bring himself to sympathize with the claims of 
 women to rights in business and politics; but he closes the 
 argument by prudently acknowledging that since women 
 are as thoughtful as men, and are more beautiful, they are 
 therefore the superior sex. 
 
 Thus ends the first dialogue or the Smith Alcuin. Just 
 why Dunlap elected to publish the more Utopian second is a 
 matter that passes understanding. It is only possible that 
 he wished thereby to re-create the speculative phase through 
 which Brown was then (1797) passing. That Dunlap was 
 acquainted with the first dialogue is evident from the fact 
 he recorded in his Diary (April 28, 1798) : "Read today 
 Smith s publication of Brown s Alcuin, 1 & 2 parts." Then 
 on the following day he notes that he read parts three and 
 four. It may be suggested that Dunlap felt that the first 
 dialogue had received sufficient publication in the Smith 
 volume and the Weekly Magazine. Certainly Dunlap thought 
 
44 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 highly of the first one, for an entry in his Diary (August 
 8, 1797) states that "there is much truth, philosophical ac 
 curacy and handsome writing in the essay." Perhaps, if 
 Dunlap had foreseen the misunderstanding growing out of 
 his publication of the second dialogue, he would have spared 
 his friend s reputation. 
 
The second work opens with Alcuin s declaration that he 
 has just returned from a visit to the paradise of women 
 a phrase commonly applied to France and that the journey 
 had been made instantaneously. To allay Mrs. Carter s 
 suspicion, Alcuin gives a lecture on the nature of the ex 
 ternal world, following- with almost verbal minuteness at 
 times, the argument which George Berkeley (1685-1733) 
 advanced to show that the external world 4 * exists only in the 
 mind that perceives it. Alcuin states that the language of 
 the people whom he visited is English; that their buildings 
 show traces of Greek and Roman models. 
 
 This may be meant to suggest Godwin s Political Justice, 
 but more likely Utopia of Sir Thomas More, for Godwin 
 says little about the rights of women apart from their mat 
 rimonial enslavement. But with the Utopia there are nu 
 merous points of contact. The frame-work is suggestive of 
 Gulliver s Travels. In this island commonwealth of Brown 
 both sexes were engaged in "awakening by their notes, the 
 neighboring echoes, or absorbed in musing silence, or en 
 gaged in sprightly debate." There were vast halls for mu 
 sicians and dancers; halls where state affairs were the 
 theme of sonorous rhetoric, or where the poet or annalist, 
 or the chemist, or the mechanical inventor, displayed his 
 gifts. 
 
 At this point Mrs. Carter stinteth Alcuin of his glowing 
 description; she wishes information unembarrassed bv- 
 rhetoric or ignorant conjecture. In response he draws a 
 picture of conditions as he observed them: there was no 
 distinction in dress ; the women shared equally with men 
 in all recreational activities; in the matter of art, poetry, 
 science, or debate the sexes mingled their inquiries, as all 
 were votaries of reason. As Gulliver found it difficult to 
 
 ^Dialogues, p. 379 ff.; Commonplace Book, Vol. I, p. 92. Alexan 
 der C. Fraser ed. It should be noted that Godwin in the second 
 edition of Political Justice (1796) had a brief footnote on Berkeley s 
 theory, but Brown does not seem to have followed him. 
 
46 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 make himself understood among the Houyhnhnms because 
 of the irrational meanings that he attached to words, just 
 so Alcuin is rebuffed in drawing moral and political dis 
 tinctions from a consideration of a difference in sex. His 
 guide admits finally that he has heard of nations of men 
 universally infected by error, and asks Alcuin to give an 
 account of some of those errors. He mentions differences 
 in dress, in education, in occupations, and in marriage. The 
 guide replies that utility guided by reason should deter 
 mine one s choice in dress; as to education it is prepos 
 terous to think that there should be any difference for the 
 two sexes the only demand made is that those instructed 
 be rational. With Locke he holds that we are born in 
 ignorance, that ideas are received only through the senses, 
 that our knowledge broadens with our experiences. In this, 
 nature has made no distinction in the sexes ; education and 
 environment are the deciding factors in one s career, and 
 the proper educational ideal is a curious mind in a sound 
 body. The young are admitted to the assemblies of their 
 elders and are instructed by them, as in the Utopia. Con 
 versations, books, instruments, specimens of art and na 
 ture, haunts of meditation, public halls, and leisure are at 
 the disposal of all without discrimination of age or sex 
 again suggesting Utopia. 
 
 As all must be provided with food, clothing, and shelter, 
 all must share in the production of these necessities. Agri 
 culture is considered the most useful occupation, as in the 
 Utopia; all are obliged to till the soil, thereby eliminating 
 any drudgery that would otherwise be the lot of a few. 
 One should share in the common labor, not because he shares 
 in the fruits, but because he is being guided by reason and 
 susceptible of happiness. It therefore becomes one s priv 
 ilege to promote the happiness of others. Alcuin suggests 
 that women are usually thought to be too soft and delicate 
 for rough and toilsome occupations, to which his interlocu 
 tor replies that that is the argument of men. 
 
 At this juncture the conversation is changed from the 
 general to the specific subject of marriage. Mrs. Carter 
 here interposes a caution against Alcuin s overstepping the 
 
Brockden Brown and the Rights of Women 47 
 
 bounds of modesty in the discussion of so delicate a ques 
 tion. She warns him that she is prepossessed in favor of 
 the system of marriage, but she is willing to reason on the 
 matter. With the preliminary sparring on questions of 
 delicacy and sophistry over, Alcuin begins by declaring that 
 in that paradise there is no institution of marriage. Mrs. 
 Carter sees at once the course of his argument and accuses 
 him of being in sympathy with that class of reasoners lately 
 risen meaning most likely Godwin and the whole French 
 school "who aim at the deepest foundation of civil so 
 ciety." She is thrown on the defensive and protests in 
 solemn tones her belief in the institution of marriage, for 
 without it all perception of moral rectitude would be de 
 stroyed. Mrs. Carter vigorously denounces Godwin s posi 
 tion on marriage and the sacred charities of family life 
 of course Godwin s name is not mentioned, but his pet 
 phrases are. Alcuin reminds Mrs. Carter that she once 
 submitted specific objections to the present system of mar 
 riage; that it renders the woman a slave to the man, that 
 it leaves the woman destitute of property. 
 
 At this point Alcuin philosophizes at length on the nature 
 of property and its relation to the family, following rather 
 closely Locke s ideas. With the same authority he urges 
 that since the family must have some head the natural head 
 is the man. Here, curiously, Mrs. Carter takes her main 
 argument from Godwin in his condemnation of cohabita 
 tion as the destroyer of reverence, personality, opinion, lib 
 erty, and self-respect. But still Mrs. Carter insists that the 
 institution of marriage is sacred, "but iniquitous laws, by 
 making it a compact of slavery, by imposing impracticable 
 conditions and extorting impious promises have, in most 
 countries, converted it into something flagitious and hate 
 ful." Her remedy is spontaneous, unlimited divorce on the 
 complaint of either party such as obtained in France at 
 that time. This is followed by a gruesome picture of the 
 ills of domestic life. Such ills often result from a marriage 
 of love or convenience, but seldom from one based upon 
 friendship guided by reason. She borrows Godwin s phrase 
 "groundless and obstinate attachment" 49 to describe those 
 affections that persist beyond reason. 
 
 49 Godwin, William, Political Justice, Vol. II, p. 245. 
 
48 University of Texas Bulletin 
 
 Emboldened by Mrs. Carter s liberal views, Alcuin dares 
 to advance a step further by suggesting that marriage is but 
 custom after all, a suggestion, however, which Mrs. Carter 
 rejects. She ends the dialogue by restating her position. 
 Marriage, she says, is a union founded on free and mutual 
 consent; it cannot exist without friendship and personal 
 fidelity; it will cease to be just when it ceases to be sponta 
 neous. 
 
 As the author s first serious publication, Alcuin is prom 
 ising. The style is simple, easy, and forceful; the descrip 
 tions vivid and accurate, and the argument persuasive. But 
 as a whole it is crude and unorganized ; it lacks a good dispo 
 sition of the material and a consistent grasp of character; 
 and the conversation is not at all brilliant. Only the un- 
 usualness of the ideas could ever have made it interesting. 
 But now that those ideas have been largely realized, one 
 finds it increasingly difficult to read the book with sus 
 tained interest. Co-education is general, the professions 
 are open to men and women without discrimination, women 
 now have a share in the enactment of the laws under which 
 they live, the marriage bond no longer makes a slave of 
 the woman, and it begins to appear that spontaneous and 
 unlimited divorce is the rule of the day. Common as these 
 things are now, they were in Brown s day most revolution 
 ary, and for the advocacy of such, many men and women 
 were dogged unceasingly by the law, particularly in France 
 and England. 
 
 It does not appear, however, that Alcuin made the least 
 stir in America; even among the author s friends this 
 maiden attempt was received but coldly. The Smith Alcuin 
 must have had only a small circulation, for it is now one of 
 the rarest American books. The version in the Philadel 
 phia Weekly Magazine, of course, reached a much larger 
 public, but there is not the least evidence that it attracted 
 any special attention. Smith in the "Advertisement" held 
 out a promise of a second dialogue on the same subject if 
 the first received a cordial welcome. It is to be observed 
 that the second remaining in hiding until 1815. Brown 
 must have felt that his talent did not lie in the field of 
 dialectics, for he immediately turned to the writing of ro 
 mances to release the energy that stirred in him. 
 
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