Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Principal events in Wollstonecraft's life
- Bibliographical note
- Note on the edition
- A Vindication of the Rights of Men
- Advertisement
- A Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke
- A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- Hints, chiefly designed to have been incorporated in the second part of the Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- Biographical notes
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
A Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 June 2012
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Introduction
- Principal events in Wollstonecraft's life
- Bibliographical note
- Note on the edition
- A Vindication of the Rights of Men
- Advertisement
- A Letter to the Right Honourable Edmund Burke
- A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- Hints, chiefly designed to have been incorporated in the second part of the Vindication of the Rights of Woman
- Biographical notes
- Index
- Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought
Summary
Sir,
It is not necessary, with courtly insincerity, to apologise to you for thus intruding on your precious time, nor to profess that I think it an honour to discuss an important subject with a man whose literary abilities have raised him to notice in the state. I have not yet learned to twist my periods, nor, in the equivocal idiom of politeness, to disguise my sentiments, and imply what I should be afraid to utter: if, therefore, in the course of this epistle, I chance to express contempt, and even indignation, with some emphasis, I beseech you to believe that it is not a flight of fancy; for truth, in morals, has ever appeared to me the essence of the sublime; and, in taste, simplicity the only criterion of the beautiful. But I war not with an individual when I contend for the rights of men and the liberty of reason. You see I do not condescend to cull my words to avoid the invidious phrase, nor shall I be prevented from giving a manly definition of it, by the flimsy ridicule which a lively fancy has interwoven with the present acceptation of the term. Reverencing the rights of humanity, I shall dare to assert them; not intimidated by the horse laugh that you have raised, or waiting till time has wiped away the compassionate tears which you have elaborately laboured to excite.
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- Wollstonecraft: A Vindication of the Rights of Men and a Vindication of the Rights of Woman and Hints , pp. 5 - 64Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1995