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October 4, 1796
I would have liked to have dined with you today, after finishing your
essay - that my eyes, and lips, I do not exactly mean my voice, might
have told you that they had raised you in my esteem. What a cold
word! I would say love, if you will promise not to dispute about
its propriety, when I want to express an increasing affection, founded
on a more intimate acquaintance with your heart and understanding.
I shall cork up all my kindness - yet the fine volatile essence may fly
off in my walk - you know not how much tenderness for you may escape in
a voluptuous sigh, should the air, as is often the case, give a
pleasurable movement to the sensations, that have been clustering round
my heart, as I read this morning - reminding myself, every now and then,
that the writer loved me.
Voluptuous is often expressive of a meaning I do not now intend to give,
I would describe one of those moments, when the senses are exactly tuned
by the ringing tenderness of the heart and according reason entices you
to live in the present moment, regardless of the past or future - it is
not rapture - it is sublime tranquility.
I have felt it in your arms - hush! Let not the light see, I was
going to say hear it - these confessions should only be uttered - you
know where, when the curtains are up - and all the world shut out - Ah
me!
I wish I may find you at home when I carry this letter to drop it in the
box, - that I may drop a kiss with it into your heart, to be embalmed,
till me meet, closer.
Mary Wollstonecraft, Anglo-Irish feminist and writer, to William Godwin,
philosopher and writer. She was recovering from her previous
passion for Gilbert Imlay, who fathered her daughter, Fanny, and then
abandoned her, after which she tried to drown herself in the Thames.
She married Godwin on March 29, 1797. She died later the same
year, giving birth to Mary Godwin, who later eloped with the poet
Shelley and was the author of "Frankenstein".
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