The event, immediately introductory to the rank which from this time she held in the lids of literature, was the publication of Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France.  This book, after having been long promised to the world, finally made its appearance on the first of November 1790; and Mary, full of sentiments of liberty, and impressed with a warm interest in the struggle that was now going on, seized her pen in the first burst of indignation, an emotion of which she was strongly susceptible.  She was in the habit of composing with rapidity, and her answer, which was the first of the numerous ones that appeared, obtained extraordinary notice.  Marked as it is with the vehemence and impetuousness of its eloquence, it is certainly chargeable with a too contemptuous and intemperate treatment of the great man against whom its attack is directed.  But this circumstance was not injurious to the success of the publication.  Burke had been warmly loved by the most liberal and enlightened friends of freedom, and they were proportionably inflamed and disgusted by the fury of his assault, upon what they deemed to be its sacred cause.

Short as was the time in which Mary composed her Answer to Burke’s Reflections, there was one anecdote she told me concerning it, which seems worth recording in this place.  It was sent to the press, as is the general practice when the early publication of a piece is deemed a matter of importance, before the composition was finished.  When Mary had arrived at about the middle of her work, she was seized with a temporary fit of torpor and indolence, and began to repent of her undertaking.  In this state of mind, she called, one evening, as she was in the practice of doing, upon her publisher, for the purpose of relieving herself by an hour or two’s conversation.  Here, the habitual ingenuousness of her nature, led her to describe what had just past in her thoughts.  Mr. Johnson immediately, in a kind and friendly way, intreated her not to put any constraint upon her inclination, and to give herself no uneasiness about the sheets already printed, which he would cheerfully throw aside, if it would contribute to her happiness.  Mary had wanted stimulus.  She had not expected to be encouraged, in what she well knew to be an unreasonable access of idleness.  Her friend’s so readily falling in with her ill-humour, and seeming to expect that she would lay aside her undertaking, piqued her pride.  She immediately went home; and proceeded to the end of her work, with no other interruptions but what were absolutely indispensible.

It is probable that the applause which attended her Answer to Burke, elevated the tone of her mind.  She had always felt much confidence in her own powers; but it cannot be doubted, that the actual perception of a similar feeling respecting us in a multitude of others, must increase the confidence, and stimulate the adventure of any human being.  Mary accordingly proceeded, in a short time after, to the composition of her most celebrated production, the Vindication of the Rights of Woman.