Memoirs of Modern Philosophers
Encyclopedia
Memoirs of Modern Philosophers is a novel by British author Elizabeth Hamilton
published in 1800. Responding to the Revolution Controversy
of the 1790s and the debates about what roles women should occupy in English society, the novel contends that a poor education limits women's opportunities while at the same time arguing they should limit their activities to the domestic sphere. It occupies a middle ground between the liberal arguments of novelists such as Mary Hays
and the conservative arguments by writers such as Hannah More
.
Modern Philosophers was part of the Revolution Controversy
of the 1790s, when Britons were debating “revolutionary ideas about a broader franchise, primogeniture, meritocracy, marriage and divorce”. The disenfranchised middle-class and other English Jacobins
(so-called by their detractors) wanted “to force a redistribution of power and status” while the Loyalists, who had power, wanted to retain the status quo. The key texts of this debate were Edmund Burke
’s Reflections on the Revolution in France
(1790), Thomas Paine
’s Rights of Man
(1791), Mary Wollstonecraft
’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
(1792), and William Godwin
’s Political Justice
(1793) and The Enquirer (1797). Hamilton assumes her readers know these works well; she makes many allusions and satirical
references to them.
Women participated in this debate by writing poems, conduct book
s, novels, children’s literature, and plays that addressed women’s issues specifically, namely the need for a good education, legal status, and the ability to be economically independent. Thus, the reading material of women became a political topic. Novels such as Modern Philosophers played a large role in this debate, since they were widely read and easily available. Discussion about women’s rights took place in novels because the genre itself was perceived as feminine and it was the most accessible kind of literature to women. Women were supposedly more receptive to fiction than men because of the small purview of their lives. Loyalists such as Hannah More
argued that this was because “there is a different bent of understanding in the sexes” while Jacobins such as Wollstonecraft argued that “there is no sex in the soul or mind” and women were only limited by their inadequate educations. Hamilton herself occupied a middle ground, arguing that women were capable of achieving more than they currently did but that their poor education held them back. Unlike the English Jacobins, however, she believed that women should only participate in the domestic sphere. Hamilton’s novel argues for moderate reform, reform based on middle-class morality and Christianity.
Hamilton wrote that the aim of her work was “not to pass an indiscriminate censor on that ingenious, and in many parts admirable performance, but to expose the dangerous tendencies of those parts of [Godwin’s] theory which might, by a bad man, be converted into an engine of mischief, and be made the means of ensnaring innocence and virtue” She wanted to warn readers against the dangerous tendencies of the New Philosophy associated with Godwin, Wollstonecraft, and Paine, particularly its emphasis on individualism; she viewed it as self-indulgent and egotistical.
Hamilton uses three protagonist
s to comment on the debate surrounding women’s roles in society: Julia Delmond, Bridgetina Botherim, and Harriet Orwell. Julia falls prey to New Philosophical ideas because she has little education and is spoiled by her father; he fails to guide her reading. She ends up eloping with Vallaton, a “vagabond” pretending to be a philosopher; after she becomes pregnant, he abandons her and she falls into poverty. Her conversion to Christianity and repentance convince Bridgetina to ultimately reject the New Philosophy and to avoid Julia’s fate.
Bridgetina is a parody
of the English Jacobin writer Mary Hays
and the fictional account of her life in Memoirs of Emma Courtney
(1796). As Grogan explains, “this work was viewed by the Loyalist camp with horror and disgust as it epitomized all the sexual promiscuity and female forwardness they feared resulted from adopting ‘revolutionary principles.’” Bridgetina adopts New Philosophical ideas and as a result insults her mother and openly declares her love to her beloved. She is a careless and uncomprehending reader, often simply parroting what she has read. Bridgetina is not a real reformer as the Christian characters in the novel are—she only uses her knowledge of the New Philosophy to impress others.
Harriet is juxtaposed to Julia. She has an aunt and a father who advise her; she reads carefully and skeptically and is a Christian. Harriet’s virtues are firmly based in religion: learning, self-control, and responsibility. Unlike Julia and Brigetina, Harriet restrains herself when it comes to love. While the other two protagonists selfishly follow their passions, Harriet refuses to ally herself with Henry Sydney while he is poor, since such a marriage would harm his career and make both unhappy. In the end, she is rewarded for this, as Mrs. Fielding leaves money to the couple to enable them to marry.
Hamilton’s comparison of the three protagonists encourages the reader to assess what is proper and improper behavior for a woman—this “reflects Hamilton’s belief that females should learn to think rather than just to obey”, which aligns her with English Jacobins such as Wollstonecraft rather than Loyalist writers. The important role that reading plays in the novel connects her more closely with the English Jacobins than with the Loyalists as well. While many Loyalists argued that women should not have access to a great deal of written material, Hamilton contended that since such control is impossible, teaching women to read carefully and thoughtfully is the best course.
Modern Philosophers is not just about women, however. The implicit comparisons between Mr. Gubbles, who abandons his job and family after subscribing to the New Philosophy, and Dr. Orwell and Henry Sydney who are "well-read, open-minded, compassionate and civil, but for whom moral conduct and religious faith are lode stars", suggests that Hamilton was more interested in particular virtues than in class or gender.
(1798) and Hays's Emma Courtney. The omniscient narrator presents the story and commentary on it, reducing readers' ability to judge the meaning of the story for themselves.
The Anti-Jacobin Review
described Modern Philosophers as “the first novel of the day” and as evidence “that all the female writers of the day are not corrupted by the voluptuous dogmas of Mary Godwin, or her more profligate imitators”.
Hamilton gained fame from Modern Philosophers, but she only wrote one more novel, the popular Cottagers of Glenburnie (1808). She turned instead to writing religious and educational treatises, such as Letters on Education (1801). George III granted her a pension for this work in 1804.
Elizabeth Hamilton
Elizabeth Hamilton was a British essayist, poet, satirist and novelist. Born in Belfast to Charles Hamilton , a Scottish merchant, and his wife Katherine Mackay , she lived most of her life in Scotland, dying in Harrogate in England after a short illness.Her first literary efforts were directed in...
published in 1800. Responding to the Revolution Controversy
Revolution Controversy
The Revolution Controversy was a British debate over the French Revolution, lasting from 1789 through 1795. A pamphlet war began in earnest after the publication of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France , which surprisingly supported the French aristocracy...
of the 1790s and the debates about what roles women should occupy in English society, the novel contends that a poor education limits women's opportunities while at the same time arguing they should limit their activities to the domestic sphere. It occupies a middle ground between the liberal arguments of novelists such as Mary Hays
Mary Hays
Mary Hays was an English novelist and feminist.- Early years :Mary Hays was born in Southwark, London on Oct. 13, 1759. Almost nothing is known of her first 17 years. In 1779 she fell in love with John Eccles who lived on Gainsford Street, where she also lived. Their parents opposed the match but...
and the conservative arguments by writers such as Hannah More
Hannah More
Hannah More was an English religious writer, and philanthropist. She can be said to have made three reputations in the course of her long life: as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical...
.
Historical context
Revolution Controversy
The Revolution Controversy was a British debate over the French Revolution, lasting from 1789 through 1795. A pamphlet war began in earnest after the publication of Edmund Burke's Reflections on the Revolution in France , which surprisingly supported the French aristocracy...
of the 1790s, when Britons were debating “revolutionary ideas about a broader franchise, primogeniture, meritocracy, marriage and divorce”. The disenfranchised middle-class and other English Jacobins
Jacobin (politics)
A Jacobin , in the context of the French Revolution, was a member of the Jacobin Club, a revolutionary far-left political movement. The Jacobin Club was the most famous political club of the French Revolution. So called from the Dominican convent where they originally met, in the Rue St. Jacques ,...
(so-called by their detractors) wanted “to force a redistribution of power and status” while the Loyalists, who had power, wanted to retain the status quo. The key texts of this debate were Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
’s Reflections on the Revolution in France
Reflections on the Revolution in France
Reflections on the Revolution in France , by Edmund Burke, is one of the best-known intellectual attacks against the French Revolution...
(1790), Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine
Thomas "Tom" Paine was an English author, pamphleteer, radical, inventor, intellectual, revolutionary, and one of the Founding Fathers of the United States...
’s Rights of Man
Rights of Man
Rights of Man , a book by Thomas Paine, posits that popular political revolution is permissible when a government does not safeguard its people, their natural rights, and their national interests. Using these points as a base it defends the French Revolution against Edmund Burke's attack in...
(1791), Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft
Mary Wollstonecraft was an eighteenth-century British writer, philosopher, and advocate of women's rights. During her brief career, she wrote novels, treatises, a travel narrative, a history of the French Revolution, a conduct book, and a children's book...
’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: with Strictures on Political and Moral Subjects , written by the 18th-century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, is one of the earliest works of feminist philosophy. In it, Wollstonecraft responds to those educational and political theorists of the 18th...
(1792), and William Godwin
William Godwin
William Godwin was an English journalist, political philosopher and novelist. He is considered one of the first exponents of utilitarianism, and the first modern proponent of anarchism...
’s Political Justice
Political Justice
Enquiry Concerning Political Justice and its Influence on Modern Morals and Manners outlines the political philosophy of the 18th-century philosopher William Godwin....
(1793) and The Enquirer (1797). Hamilton assumes her readers know these works well; she makes many allusions and satirical
Satire
Satire is primarily a literary genre or form, although in practice it can also be found in the graphic and performing arts. In satire, vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, ideally with the intent of shaming individuals, and society itself, into improvement...
references to them.
Women participated in this debate by writing poems, conduct book
Conduct book
Conduct books are a genre of books that attempt to educate the reader on social norms. As a genre, they began in the mid-to-late Middle Ages, although antecedents such as The Maxims of Ptahhotep are among the earliest surviving works...
s, novels, children’s literature, and plays that addressed women’s issues specifically, namely the need for a good education, legal status, and the ability to be economically independent. Thus, the reading material of women became a political topic. Novels such as Modern Philosophers played a large role in this debate, since they were widely read and easily available. Discussion about women’s rights took place in novels because the genre itself was perceived as feminine and it was the most accessible kind of literature to women. Women were supposedly more receptive to fiction than men because of the small purview of their lives. Loyalists such as Hannah More
Hannah More
Hannah More was an English religious writer, and philanthropist. She can be said to have made three reputations in the course of her long life: as a poet and playwright in the circle of Johnson, Reynolds and Garrick, as a writer on moral and religious subjects, and as a practical...
argued that this was because “there is a different bent of understanding in the sexes” while Jacobins such as Wollstonecraft argued that “there is no sex in the soul or mind” and women were only limited by their inadequate educations. Hamilton herself occupied a middle ground, arguing that women were capable of achieving more than they currently did but that their poor education held them back. Unlike the English Jacobins, however, she believed that women should only participate in the domestic sphere. Hamilton’s novel argues for moderate reform, reform based on middle-class morality and Christianity.
Themes
Hamilton uses three protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
s to comment on the debate surrounding women’s roles in society: Julia Delmond, Bridgetina Botherim, and Harriet Orwell. Julia falls prey to New Philosophical ideas because she has little education and is spoiled by her father; he fails to guide her reading. She ends up eloping with Vallaton, a “vagabond” pretending to be a philosopher; after she becomes pregnant, he abandons her and she falls into poverty. Her conversion to Christianity and repentance convince Bridgetina to ultimately reject the New Philosophy and to avoid Julia’s fate.
Bridgetina is a parody
Parody
A parody , in current usage, is an imitative work created to mock, comment on, or trivialise an original work, its subject, author, style, or some other target, by means of humorous, satiric or ironic imitation...
of the English Jacobin writer Mary Hays
Mary Hays
Mary Hays was an English novelist and feminist.- Early years :Mary Hays was born in Southwark, London on Oct. 13, 1759. Almost nothing is known of her first 17 years. In 1779 she fell in love with John Eccles who lived on Gainsford Street, where she also lived. Their parents opposed the match but...
and the fictional account of her life in Memoirs of Emma Courtney
Memoirs of Emma Courtney
Memoirs of Emma Courtney is an epistolary novel by Mary Hays, first published in 1796. The novel is partly autobiographical and based on the author's own unrequited love for William Frend . Mary Hay's relationship with William Godwin is reflected through her eponymous heroine's philosophical...
(1796). As Grogan explains, “this work was viewed by the Loyalist camp with horror and disgust as it epitomized all the sexual promiscuity and female forwardness they feared resulted from adopting ‘revolutionary principles.’” Bridgetina adopts New Philosophical ideas and as a result insults her mother and openly declares her love to her beloved. She is a careless and uncomprehending reader, often simply parroting what she has read. Bridgetina is not a real reformer as the Christian characters in the novel are—she only uses her knowledge of the New Philosophy to impress others.
Harriet is juxtaposed to Julia. She has an aunt and a father who advise her; she reads carefully and skeptically and is a Christian. Harriet’s virtues are firmly based in religion: learning, self-control, and responsibility. Unlike Julia and Brigetina, Harriet restrains herself when it comes to love. While the other two protagonists selfishly follow their passions, Harriet refuses to ally herself with Henry Sydney while he is poor, since such a marriage would harm his career and make both unhappy. In the end, she is rewarded for this, as Mrs. Fielding leaves money to the couple to enable them to marry.
Hamilton’s comparison of the three protagonists encourages the reader to assess what is proper and improper behavior for a woman—this “reflects Hamilton’s belief that females should learn to think rather than just to obey”, which aligns her with English Jacobins such as Wollstonecraft rather than Loyalist writers. The important role that reading plays in the novel connects her more closely with the English Jacobins than with the Loyalists as well. While many Loyalists argued that women should not have access to a great deal of written material, Hamilton contended that since such control is impossible, teaching women to read carefully and thoughtfully is the best course.
Modern Philosophers is not just about women, however. The implicit comparisons between Mr. Gubbles, who abandons his job and family after subscribing to the New Philosophy, and Dr. Orwell and Henry Sydney who are "well-read, open-minded, compassionate and civil, but for whom moral conduct and religious faith are lode stars", suggests that Hamilton was more interested in particular virtues than in class or gender.
Style
Modern Philosophers is written in the third person, which differentiates it from the first person narratives of English Jacobins such as Wollstonecraft's The Wrongs of WomanMaria: or, The Wrongs of Woman
Maria: or, The Wrongs of Woman is the 18th century British feminist Mary Wollstonecraft's unfinished novelistic sequel to her revolutionary political treatise A Vindication of the Rights of Woman...
(1798) and Hays's Emma Courtney. The omniscient narrator presents the story and commentary on it, reducing readers' ability to judge the meaning of the story for themselves.
Publication and reception
Two editions of the novel were published in 1800 and a third in 1801—the first sold out in two months. Hamilton’s name was included on the title page only with the third edition. In an “Advertisement” appended to this edition, Hamilton explains, “the Author of the …Memoirs resolved to introduce the first edition under a signature evidently fictitious” because “even the sex, of a writer may unwittingly bias the reader’s mind.” A fourth edition was released in 1804.The Anti-Jacobin Review
Anti-Jacobin Review
The Anti-Jacobin Review and Magazine, or, Monthly Political and Literary Censor , a conservative British political periodical, was founded by John Gifford [pseud. of John Richards Green] after the demise of William Gifford's The Anti-Jacobin, or, Weekly Examiner...
described Modern Philosophers as “the first novel of the day” and as evidence “that all the female writers of the day are not corrupted by the voluptuous dogmas of Mary Godwin, or her more profligate imitators”.
Hamilton gained fame from Modern Philosophers, but she only wrote one more novel, the popular Cottagers of Glenburnie (1808). She turned instead to writing religious and educational treatises, such as Letters on Education (1801). George III granted her a pension for this work in 1804.
External links
- Memomirs of Modern Philosophers (Fourth edition) at Google Books