The Love Letters of Mary Wollstonecraft to Gilbert Imlay

Adieu! adieu! My friend – your friendship is very cold – you see I am hurt. – God bless you! I may perhaps be, some time or other, independent in every sense of the word – Ah! there is but one sense of it of consequence. I will break or bend this weak heart – yet even now it is full.

Yours sincerelyMARY.

The child is well; I did not leave her on board.

LETTER LII

[Gothenburg] June 27, Saturday, [1795].

I arrived in Gothenburg this afternoon, after vainly attempting to land at Arendall. I have now but a moment, before the post goes out, to inform you we have got here; though not without considerable difficulty, for we were set ashore in a boat above twenty miles below.

What I suffered in the vessel I will not now descant upon – nor mention the pleasure I received from the sight of the rocky coast. – This morning however, walking to join the carriage that was to transport us to this place, I fell, without any previous warning, senseless on the rocks – and how I escaped with life I can scarcely guess. I was in a stupour for a quarter of an hour; the suffusion of blood at last restored me to my senses – the contusion is great, and my brain confused. The child is well.

Twenty miles ride in the rain, after my accident, has sufficiently deranged me – and here I could not get a fire to warm me, or any thing warm to eat; the inns are mere stables – I must nevertheless go to bed. For God’s sake, let me hear from you immediately, my friend! I am not well, and yet you see I cannot die.

Yours sincerelyMARY.

LETTER LIII

[Gothenburg] June 29 [1795].

I wrote to you by the last post, to inform you of my arrival; and I believe I alluded to the extreme fatigue I endured on ship-board, owing to – ’s illness, and the roughness of the weather – I likewise mentioned to you my fall, the effects of which I still feel, though I do not think it will have any serious consequences.

– will go with me, if I find it necessary to go to – . The inns here are so bad, I was forced to accept of an apartment in his house. I am overwhelmed with civilities on all sides, and fatigued with the endeavours to amuse me, from which I cannot escape.

My friend – my friend, I am not well – a deadly weight of sorrow lies heavily on my heart. I am again tossed on the troubled billows of life; and obliged to cope with difficulties, without being buoyed up by the hopes that alone render them bearable. “How flat, dull, and unprofitable,” appears to me all the bustle into which I see people here so eagerly enter! I long every night to go to bed, to hide my melancholy face in my pillow; but there is a canker-worm in my bosom that never sleeps.

MARY.

LETTER LIV

[Sweden] July 1 [1795].

I labour in vain to calm my mind – my soul has been overwhelmed by sorrow and disappointment. Every thing fatigues me – this is a life that cannot last long. It is you who must determine with respect to futurity – and, when you have, I will act accordingly – I mean, we must either resolve to live together, or part for ever, I cannot bear these continual struggles. – But I wish you to examine carefully your own heart and mind; and, if you perceive the least chance of being happier without me than with me, or if your inclination leans capriciously to that side, do not dissemble; but tell me frankly that you will never see me more. I will then adopt the plan I mentioned to you – for we must either live together, or I will be entirely independent.

My heart is so oppressed, I cannot write with precision – You know however that what I so imperfectly express, are not the crude sentiments of the moment – You can only contribute to my comfort (it is the consolation I am in need of) by being with me – and, if the tenderest friendship is of any value, why will you not look to me for a degree of satisfaction that heartless affections cannot bestow?

Tell me then, will you determine to meet me at Basle? – I shall, I should imagine, be at – before the close of August; and, after you settle your affairs at Paris, could we not meet there?

God bless you!

Yours trulyMARY.

Poor Fanny has suffered during the journey with her teeth.

LETTER LV

[Sweden] July 3 [1795].

There was a gloominess diffused through your last letter, the impression of which still rests on my mind – though, recollecting how quickly you throw off the forcible feelings of the moment, I flatter myself it has long since given place to your usual cheerfulness.

Believe me (and my eyes fill with tears of tenderness as I assure you) there is nothing I would not endure in the way of privation, rather than disturb your tranquillity. – If I am fated to be unhappy, I will labour to hide my sorrows in my own bosom; and you shall always find me a faithful, affectionate friend.

I grow more and more attached to my little girl – and I cherish this affection without fear, because it must be a long time before it can become bitterness of soul. – She is an interesting creature. – On ship-board, how often as I gazed at the sea, have I longed to bury my troubled bosom in the less troubled deep; asserting with Brutus, “that the virtue I had followed too far, was merely an empty name!” and nothing but the sight of her – her playful smiles, which seemed to cling and twine round my heart – could have stopped me.

What peculiar misery has fallen to my share! To act up to my principles, I have laid the strictest restraint on my very thoughts – yes; not to sully the delicacy of my feelings, I have reined in my imagination; and started with affright from every sensation, (I allude to – ) that stealing with balmy sweetness into my soul, led me to scent from afar the fragrance of reviving nature.

My friend, I have dearly paid for one conviction. – Love, in some minds, is an affair of sentiment, arising from the same delicacy of perception (or taste) as renders them alive to the beauties of nature, poetry, &c., alive to the charms of those evanescent graces that are, as it were, impalpable – they must be felt, they cannot be described.

Love is a want of my heart. I have examined myself lately with more care than formerly, and find, that to deaden is not to calm the mind – Aiming at tranquillity, I have almost destroyed all the energy of my soul – almost rooted out what renders it estimable – Yes, I have damped that enthusiasm of character, which converts the grossest materials into a fuel, that imperceptibly feeds hopes, which aspire above common enjoyment. Despair, since the birth of my child, has rendered me stupid – soul and body seemed to be fading away before the withering touch of disappointment.

I am now endeavouring to recover myself – and such is the elasticity of my constitution, and the purity of the atmosphere here, that health unsought for, begins to reanimate my countenance.

I have the sincerest esteem and affection for you – but the desire of regaining peace, (do you understand me?) has made me forget the respect due to my own emotions – sacred emotions, that are the sure harbingers of the delights I was formed to enjoy – and shall enjoy, for nothing can extinguish the heavenly spark.

Still, when we meet again, I will not torment you, I promise you. I blush when I recollect my former conduct – and will not in future confound myself with the beings whom I feel to be my inferiors. – I will listen to delicacy, or pride.

LETTER LVI

[Sweden] July 4 [1795].

I hope to hear from you by to-morrow’s mail. My dearest friend! I cannot tear my affections from you – and, though every remembrance stings me to the soul, I think of you, till I make allowance for the very defects of character, that have given such a cruel stab to my peace.

Still however I am more alive, than you have seen me for a long, long time. I have a degree of vivacity, even in my grief, which is preferable to the benumbing stupour that, for the last year, has frozen up all my faculties. – Perhaps this change is more owing to returning health, than to the vigour of my reason – for, in spite of sadness (and surely I have had my share), the purity of this air, and the being continually out in it, for I sleep in the country every night, has made an alteration in my appearance that really surprises me. – The rosy fingers of health already streak my cheeks – and I have seen a physical life in my eyes, after I have been climbing the rocks, that resembled the fond, credulous hopes of youth.

With what a cruel sigh have I recollected that I had forgotten to hope! – Reason, or rather experience, does not thus cruelly damp poor – ’s pleasures; she plays all day in the garden with – ’s children, and makes friends for herself.

Do not tell me, that you are happier without us – Will you not come to us in Switzerland? Ah, why do not you love us with more sentiment? – why are you a creature of such sympathy, that the warmth of your feelings, or rather quickness of your senses, hardens your heart? – It is my misfortune, that my imagination is perpetually shading your defects, and lending you charms, whilst the grossness of your senses makes you (call me not vain) overlook graces in me, that only dignity of mind, and the sensibility of an expanded heart can give. – God bless you! Adieu.

LETTER LVII

[Sweden] July 7 [1795].

I could not help feeling extremely mortified last post, at not receiving a letter from you. My being at – was but a chance, and you might have hazarded it; and would a year ago.

I shall not however complain – There are misfortunes so great, as to silence the usual expressions of sorrow – Believe me, there is such a thing as a broken heart! There are characters whose very energy preys upon them; and who, ever inclined to cherish by reflection some passion, cannot rest satisfied with the common comforts of life. I have endeavoured to fly from myself and launched into all the dissipation possible here, only to feel keener anguish, when alone with my child.

Still, could any thing please me – had not disappointment cut me off from life, this romantic country, these fine evenings, would interest me. – My God! can any thing? and am I ever to feel alive only to painful sensations? – But it cannot – it shall not last long.

The post is again arrived; I have sent to seek for letters, only to be wounded to the soul by a negative. – My brain seems on fire. I must go into the air.

MARY.

LETTER LVIII

[Laurvig, Norway] July 14 [1795].

I am now on my journey to Tonsberg. I felt more at leaving my child, than I thought I should – and, whilst at night I imagined every instant that I heard the half-formed sounds of her voice, – I asked myself how I could think of parting with her for ever, of leaving her thus helpless?

Poor lamb! It may run very well in a tale, that “God will temper the winds to the shorn lamb!” but how can I expect that she will be shielded, when my naked bosom has had to brave continually the pitiless storm? Yes; I could add, with poor Lear – What is the war of elements to the pangs of disappointed affection, and the horror arising from a discovery of a breach of confidence, that snaps every social tie!

All is not right somewhere! – When you first knew me, I was not thus lost. I could still confide – for I opened my heart to you – of this only comfort you have deprived me, whilst my happiness, you tell me, was your first object. Strange want of judgment!

I will not complain; but, from the soundness of your understanding, I am convinced, if you give yourself leave to reflect, you will also feel, that your conduct to me, so far from being generous, has not been just. – I mean not to allude to factitious principles of morality; but to the simple basis of all rectitude. – However I did not intend to argue – Your not writing is cruel – and my reason is perhaps disturbed by constant wretchedness.

Poor – would fain have accompanied me, out of tenderness; for my fainting, or rather convulsion, when I landed, and my sudden changes of countenance since, have alarmed her so much, that she is perpetually afraid of some accident. – But it would have injured the child this warm season, as she is cutting her teeth.

I hear not of your having written to me at Stromstad. Very well! Act as you please – there is nothing I fear or care for! When I see whether I can, or cannot obtain the money I am come here about, I will not trouble you with letters to which you do not reply.

LETTER LIX

[Tonsberg] July 18 [1795].

I am here in Tonsberg, separated from my child – and here I must remain a month at least, or I might as well never have come.

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I have begun – which will, I hope, discharge all my obligations of a pecuniary kind. – I am lowered in my own eyes, on account of my not having done it sooner.

I shall make no further comments on your silence. God bless you!

MARY.

LETTER LX

[Tonsberg] July 30 [1795].

I have just received two of your letters, dated the 26th and 30th of June; and you must have received several from me, informing you of my detention, and how much I was hurt by your silence.

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Write to me then, my friend, and write explicitly. I have suffered, God knows, since I left you. Ah! you have never felt this kind of sickness of heart! – My mind however is at present painfully active, and the sympathy I feel almost rises to agony. But this is not a subject of complaint, it has afforded me pleasure, – and reflected pleasure is all I have to hope for – if a spark of hope be yet alive in my forlorn bosom.

I will try to write with a degree of composure. I wish for us to live together, because I want you to acquire an habitual tenderness for my poor girl. I cannot bear to think of leaving her alone in the world, or that she should only be protected by your sense of duty. Next to preserving her, my most earnest wish is not to disturb your peace. I have nothing to expect, and little to fear, in life – There are wounds that can never be healed – but they may be allowed to fester in silence without wincing.

When we meet again, you shall be convinced that I have more resolution than you give me credit for. I will not torment you. If I am destined always to be disappointed and unhappy, I will conceal the anguish I cannot dissipate; and the tightened cord of life or reason will at last snap, and set me free.

Yes; I shall be happy – This heart is worthy of the bliss its feelings anticipate – and I cannot even persuade myself, wretched as they have made me, that my principles and sentiments are not founded in nature and truth. But to have done with these subjects.

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I have been seriously employed in this way since I came to Tonsberg; yet I never was so much in the air. – I walk, I ride on horseback – row, bathe, and even sleep in the fields; my health is consequently improved. The child, – informs me, is well, I long to be with her.

Write to me immediately – were I only to think of myself, I could wish you to return to me, poor, with the simplicity of character, part of which you seem lately to have lost, that first attached to you.

Yours most affectionatelyMARY IMLAY

I have been subscribing other letters – so I mechanically did the same to yours.

LETTER LXI

[Tonsberg] August 5 [1795].

Employment and exercise have been of great service to me; and I have entirely recovered the strength and activity I lost during the time of my nursing. I have seldom been in better health; and my mind, though trembling to the touch of anguish, is calmer – yet still the same. – I have, it is true, enjoyed some tranquillity, and more happiness here, than for a long – long time past. – (I say happiness, for I can give no other appellation to the exquisite delight this wild country and fine summer have afforded me.) – Still, on examining my heart, I find that it is so constituted, I cannot live without some particular affection – I am afraid not without a passion – and I feel the want of it more in society, than in solitude.

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Writing to you, whenever an affectionate epithet occurs – my eyes fill with tears, and my trembling hand stops – you may then depend on my resolution, when with you. If I am doomed to be unhappy, I will confine my anguish in my own bosom – tenderness, rather than passion, has made me sometimes overlook delicacy – the same tenderness will in future restrain me. God bless you!

LETTER LXII

[Tonsberg] August 7 [1795].

Air, exercise, and bathing, have restored me to health, braced my muscles, and covered my ribs, even whilst I have recovered my former activity. – I cannot tell you that my mind is calm, though I have snatched some moments of exquisite delight, wandering through the woods, and resting on the rocks.

This state of suspense, my friend, is intolerable; we must determine on something – and soon; – we must meet shortly, or part for ever. I am sensible that I acted foolishly – but I was wretched – when we were together – Expecting too much, I let the pleasure I might have caught, slip from me. I cannot live with you – I ought not – if you form another attachment. But I promise you, mine shall not be intruded on you. Little reason have I to expect a shadow of happiness, after the cruel disappointments that have rent my heart; but that of my child seems to depend on our being together. Still I do not wish you to sacrifice a chance of enjoyment for an uncertain good. I feel a conviction, that I can provide for her, and it shall be my object – if we are indeed to part to meet no more. Her affection must not be divided. She must be a comfort to me – if I am to have no other – and only know me as her support. I feel that I cannot endure the anguish of corresponding with you – if we are only to correspond. – No; if you seek for happiness elsewhere, my letters shall not interrupt your repose. I will be dead to you. I cannot express to you what pain it gives me to write about an eternal separation. – You must determine – examine yourself – But, for God’s sake! spare me the anxiety of uncertainty! – I may sink under the trial; but I will not complain.

Adieu! If I had any thing more to say to you, it is all flown, and absorbed by the most tormenting apprehensions; yet I scarcely know what new form of misery I have to dread.

I ought to beg your pardon for having sometimes written peevishly; but you will impute it to affection, if you understand anything of the heart of

Yours trulyMARY.

LETTER LXIII

[Tonsberg] August 9 [1795].

Five of your letters have been sent after me from – . One, dated the 14th of July, was written in a style which I may have merited, but did not expect from you. However this is not a time to reply to it, except to assure you that you shall not be tormented with any more complaints. I am disgusted with myself for having so long importuned you with my affection. —

My child is very well. We shall soon meet, to part no more, I hope – I mean, I and my girl. – I shall wait with some degree of anxiety till I am informed how your affairs terminate.

Yours sincerelyMARY.

LETTER LXIV

[Gothenburg] August 26 [1795].

I arrived here last night, and with the most exquisite delight, once more pressed my babe to my heart. We shall part no more. You perhaps cannot conceive the pleasure it gave me, to see her run about, and play alone. Her increasing intelligence attaches me more and more to her. I have promised her that I will fulfil my duty to her; and nothing in future shall make me forget it. I will also exert myself to obtain an independence for her; but I will not be too anxious on this head.

I have already told you, that I have recovered my health. Vigour, and even vivacity of mind, have returned with a renovated constitution. As for peace, we will not talk of it. I was not made, perhaps, to enjoy the calm contentment so termed. —

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You tell me that my letters torture you; I will not describe the effect yours have on me. I received three this morning, the last dated the 7th of this month. I mean not to give vent to the emotions they produced. – Certainly you are right; our minds are not congenial. I have lived in an ideal world, and fostered sentiments that you do not comprehend – or you would not treat me thus. I am not, I will not be, merely an object of compassion – a clog, however light, to teize you. Forget that I exist: I will never remind you. Something emphatical whispers me to put an end to these struggles. Be free – I will not torment, when I cannot please. I can take care of my child; you need not continually tell me that our fortune is inseparable, that you will try to cherish tenderness for me. Do no violence to yourself! When we are separated, our interest, since you give so much weight to pecuniary considerations, will be entirely divided. I want not protection without affection; and support I need not, whilst my faculties are undisturbed. I had a dislike to living in England; but painful feelings must give way to superior considerations. I may not be able to acquire the sum necessary to maintain my child and self elsewhere. It is too late to go to Switzerland. I shall not remain at – , living expensively. But be not alarmed! I shall not force myself on you any more.

Adieu! I am agitated – my whole frame is convulsed – my lips tremble, as if shook by cold, though fire seems to be circulating in my veins.

God bless you.

MARY.

LETTER LXV

[Copenhagen] September 6 [1795].

I received just now your letter of the 20th. I had written you a letter last night, into which imperceptibly slipt some of my bitterness of soul. I will copy the part relative to business. I am not sufficiently vain to imagine that I can, for more than a moment, cloud your enjoyment of life – to prevent even that, you had better never hear from me – and repose on the idea that I am happy.

Gracious God! It is impossible for me to stifle something like resentment, when I receive fresh proofs of your indifference. What I have suffered this last year, is not to be forgotten! I have not that happy substitute for wisdom, insensibility – and the lively sympathies which bind me to my fellow-creatures, are all of a painful kind. – They are the agonies of a broken heart – pleasure and I have shaken hands.

I see here nothing but heaps of ruins, and only converse with people immersed in trade and sensuality.

I am weary of travelling – yet seem to have no home – no resting-place to look to. – I am strangely cast off. – How often, passing through the rocks, I have thought, “But for this child, I would lay my head on one of them, and never open my eyes again!” With a heart feelingly alive to all the affections of my nature – I have never met with one, softer than the stone that I would fain take for my last pillow. I once thought I had, but it was all a delusion. I meet with families continually, who are bound together by affection or principle – and, when I am conscious that I have fulfilled the duties of my station, almost to a forgetfulness of myself, I am ready to demand, in a murmuring tone, of Heaven, “Why am I thus abandoned?”

You say now

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I do not understand you. It is necessary for you to write more explicitly – and determine on some mode of conduct. – I cannot endure this suspense – Decide – Do you fear to strike another blow? We live together, or eternally part! – I shall not write to you again, till I receive an answer to this. I must compose my tortured soul, before I write on indifferent subjects.

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I do not know whether I write intelligibly, for my head is disturbed. But this you ought to pardon – for it is with difficulty frequently that I make out what you mean to say – You write, I suppose, at Mr. – ’s after dinner, when your head is not the clearest – and as for your heart, if you have one, I see nothing like the dictates of affection, unless a glimpse when you mention the child – Adieu!

LETTER LXVI

[Hamburg] September 25 [1795].

I have just finished a letter, to be given in charge to captain – . In that I complained of your silence, and expressed my surprise that three mails should have arrived without bringing a line for me. Since I closed it, I hear of another, and still no letter. – I am labouring to write calmly – this silence is a refinement on cruelty. Had captain – remained a few days longer, I would have returned with him to England. What have I to do here? I have repeatedly written to you fully. Do you do the same – and quickly. Do not leave me in suspense. I have not deserved this of you. I cannot write, my mind is so distressed. Adieu!