Mary Must Be Forgiven Her Uber-Optimism

Mary Wollstonecraft can wax poetic re what she sees and feels. Given that, plus two centuries of "advancement," we can forgive her uber-optimism.

*

Excerpt from her letters:

     The increasing population of the earth must necessarily tend to its improvement, as the means of existence are multiplied by invention.
     You have probably made similar reflections in America, where the face of the country, I suppose, resembles the wilds of Norway. I am delighted with the romantic views I daily contemplate, animated by the purest air; and I am interested by the simplicity of manners which reigns around me. Still nothing so soon wearies out the feelings as unmarked simplicity. I am therefore half convinced that I could not live very comfortably exiled from the countries where mankind are so much further advanced in knowledge, imperfect as it is, and unsatisfactory to the thinking mind. Even now I begin to long to hear what you are doing in England and France. My thoughts fly from this wilderness to the polished circles of the world, till recollecting its vices and follies, I bury myself in the woods, but find it necessary to emerge again, that I may not lose sight of the wisdom and virtue which exalts my nature.

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