No resource was now left for Mrs. Wollstonecraft, but to fly from the object which she regarded: her determination was instantly fixed; she wrote a letter to Fuseli, in which she begged pardon "for having disturbed the quiet tenour of his life," and on the 8th of December, 1792, left London for France.

Shortly after her arrival in Paris, she again wrote to Fuseli, gave him her opinion of the state of public feeling at that important period of the revolution, and implored him to write to her occasionally. As this letter was not answered, all communication on her part during her residence abroad ceased.

The cause of Mrs. Wollstonecraft's protracted stay in France,—for she intended, prior to her departure from England, to have remained there only six weeks, and the attachment which she formed while in Paris, are foreign to this memoir; besides, if they were not, it would be unnecessary now to detail them, as they have been long before the public from the able pen of him who afterwards became her husband.*

After an absence of nearly two years and a half, Mrs. Wollstonecraft returned to London, (in April 1795,) and on her arrival called upon

*

"Memoirs of the Author of a Vindication of the Rights of Woman, by William Godwin."

Fuseli: the reception which she met with, it is presumed, was not very grateful to her feelings, for she shortly after wrote him the following letter.

"WHEN I returned from France, I visited you, Sir, but finding myself after my late journey in a very different situation, I vainly imagined you would have called upon me. I simply tell you what I thought, yet I write not, at present, to comment on your conduct or expostulate. I have long ceased to expect kindness or affection from any human creature, and would fain tear from my heart its treacherous sympathies. I am alone. The injustice, without alluding to hopes blasted in the bud, which I have endured, wounding my bosom, have set my thoughts adrift into an ocean of painful conjectures. I ask impatiently what and where is truth? I have been treated brutally; but I daily labour to remember that I still have the duty of a mother to fulfil.

"I have written more than I intended,for I only meant to request you to return my letters: I wish to have them, and it must be the same to you. Adieu! MARY."

"Monday Morning,-To Mr. Fuseli."

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All communication ceased between the parties from this time until after Mrs. Wollstonecraft's marriage with Mr. Godwin. Fuseli noticed this occurrence in a letter to a friend, in the following terms: "You have not, perhaps, heard that the assertrix of female rights has given her hand to the balancier of political justice."

Fuseli saw Mrs. Godwin but seldom ; he dined only once at her table. Indeed, this lady did not live long to enjoy the happiness which she had pictured to herself, in being the wife of a man of genius and talents; for she died on the 10th September 1797, after having given birth to a female child,* who has proved herself, by works of the imagination, to be worthy of her parents. Fuseli could not but feel much regret on the occasion; but as grief does not give utterance to words," so he barely noticed the catastrophe in the postscript of a letter to Mr. Roscoe, in these terms, "Poor Mary!"

Mrs. Bysshe Shelly.

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CHAPTER VIII.

Fuseli undertakes the Illustration of Cowper's Edition of Milton. First notion of the "Milton Gallery" hence suggested.-Letter to Mr. Roscoe from Fuseli and Mr. Johnson.-Curious circumstances attending Fuseli's Election as a Royal Academician. Sir Joshua Reynolds's temporary secession connected with that event.-Fuseli's progress in the pictures for the "Milton Gallery."-Controversy between Fuseli and the Rev. Mr. Bromley.Subjects painted for "Woodmason's Illustrations of Shakspeare." Subscription towards the completion of the Milton Gallery.-Letter from Mr. Roscoe.-Fuseli contributes to "Seward's Anecdotes."-His Visit to Windsor with Opie and Bonnycastle.-Anecdotes connected with that Visit. Letter from Mr. Roscoe.. Mr. Johnson's Imprisonment, and Fuseli's adherence to him.-Anecdote of Lord Erskine.-Exhibition of the "Milton Gallery," and List of the Works composing it, with incidental Comments, &c.—Letter to Fuseli from his brother Rodolph.Letter from Fuseli to Mr. Locke.

THE Shakspeare Gallery was now (in 1790) nearly completed, and hence Fuseli's commissions for this had ceased. The success which had attended Boydell, in his edition of Shakspeare's works, induced Mr. Johnson to issue proposals for publishing one of Milton, which should not only rival this, but, in point of letterpress, designs, and engravings, surpass any work

which had previously appeared in England. Cowper had long meditated giving an edition of Milton's poetical works, with copious notes on his English poems, and translations into verse of those in Latin and Italian; and, indeed, he had made some progress in the undertaking. Johnson, who was his publisher, urged him to complete it; to which he assented, and Fuseli was engaged to paint thirty pictures, which were to be put into the hands of the ablest engravers of the time. Cowper proceeded with his part, and Fuseli laboured in putting upon canvass the sublime, the pathetic, and the playful scenes in Milton. That of "The Contest of Satan, Sin, and Death,” was soon finished, and given to Sharpe to engrave. "Eve starting from seeing herself in the Water" was put into the hands of Bartolozzi. "Satan taking his flight from Chaos," and "Adam and Eve observed by Satan," were ready for the graver of Blake.

The serious mental indisposition of Cowper, which took place before he had completed his part of the work, and the opposition which Mr. Alderman Boydell offered to the progress of the scheme, thinking that it would affect the sale of his edition of Milton, made Mr. Johnson resolve to abandon it altogether. This undertaking of Fuseli's was, however, the foundation of a stupendous work by him, "The Milton