Real Life (1791); Vindication of the Rights of Man (1793); Mary, a Fiction (1796); Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway, and Denmark (1796); Posthumous Works, 4 vols. (1798). She was buried in Old St. Pancras, but her remains were afterward removed to St. Peter's, Bournemouth, by her grandson, Sir Percy Shelley.

THE RIGHTS AND INVOLVED DUTIES OF MANKIND.

In the present state of society it appears necessary to go back to first principles in search of the most simple truths, and to dispute with some prevailing prejudice every inch of ground. To clear my way, I must be allowed to ask some plain questions, and the answers will probably appear as unequivocal as the axioms on which reasoning is built; though, when entangled with various motives of action, they are formally contradicted, either by the words or conduct of men.

In what does man's pre-eminence over the brute creation consist? The answer is as clear as that a half is less than the whole; in Reason.

What acquirement exalts one being above another? Virtue; we spontaneously reply.

For what purpose were the passions implanted? That man by struggling with them might attain a degree of knowledge denied to the brutes; whispers Experience.

Consequently the perfection of our nature and capability of happiness, must be estimated by the degree of reason, virtue, and knowledge, that distinguish the individual, and direct the laws which bind society; and that from the exercise of reason, knowledge and virtue naturally flow, is equally undeniable, if mankind be viewed collectively.

The rights and duties of man thus simplified, it seems almost impertinent to attempt to illustrate truths that appear so incontrovertible; yet such deeply rotted prejudices have clouded reason, and such spurious qualities have assumed the name of virtues, that it is necessary

to pursue the course of reason as it has been perplexed and involved in error, by various adventitious circumstances, comparing the simple axiom with casual deviations.

Men, in general, seem to employ their reason to justify prejudices, which they have imbibed, they cannot trace how, rather than to root them out. The mind must be strong that resolutely forms its own principles; for a kind of intellectual cowardice prevails which makes many men shrink from the task, or only do it by halves. Yet the imperfect conclusions thus drawn, are frequently very plausible, because they are built on partial experience, on just, though narrow, views.

Going back to first principles, vice skulks with all its native deformity, from close investigation; but a set of shallow reasoners are always exclaiming that these arguments prove too much, and that a measure rotten at the core may be expedient. Thus expediency is continually contrasted with simple principles, till truth is lost in a mist of words, virtue, in forms, and knowledge rendered a sounding nothing, by the specious prejudices that assume its name.- Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

UNNATURAL DISTINCTIONS ESTABLISHED IN SOCIETY

It is a melancholy truth, yet such is the blessed effect of civilization! The most respectable women are the most oppressed; and, unless they have understandings far superior to the common run of understandings, taking in both sexes, they must, from being treated like contemptible beings, become contemptible. How many women thus waste life away the prey of discontent, who might have practiced as physicians, regulated a farm, managed a shop, and stood erect, supported by their own industry, instead of hanging their heads surcharged with the dew of sensibility, that consumes the beauty to which it at first gave lustre ;

How much more respectable is the woman who earns her own bread by fulfilling any duty, than the most accomplished beauty? - beauty did I say?-so sensible

am I of the beauty of moral loveliness, or the harmonious propriety that attunes the passions of a well-regulated mind, that I blush at making the comparison.-Vindication of the Rights of Woman.

ODWIN, PARKE, an American journalist; born at Paterson, N. J., February 25, 1816; died at New York, January 7, 1904. He graduated from Princeton College in 1834; studied law, but did not enter upon legal practice. He married a daughter of William Cullen Bryant, and from 1837 to 1853 was editorially connected with the New York Evening Post. Besides writing largely for various periodicals, he in 1856 published a collection of some of his papers, under the title of Political Essays. In 1865 he again became connected with, and later managing editor of, the Evening Post. His works include A Popular View of the Doctrines of Charles Fourier (1844); Constructive Democracy and Vala, a Mythological Tale (1851); Handbook of Universal Biography (1851); History of France, of which only. the first volume relating to ancient Gaul has been published (1861); Out of the Past, a volume of Essays (1870); Commemorative Addresses (1895); and A New Study of Shakespeare's Sonnets (1900). He edited the works of William Cullen Bryant, with a biography (6 vols., 1883, 1884).

THE ANTI-SLAVERY MOVEMENT OF 1855.

In the year 1850 it was decreed by conventions of the Whig and Democratic parties, representing three-fifths at least of the people who concern themselves with pol