16 
Indiana University Studies 
in A Topographical Description itself. Furthermore, if God- 
win’s statement is correct, there was little opportunity for 
Mary Wollstonecraft to exercise her influence on the author 
of The Emigrants before that novel was in print, for accord- 
ing to the Memoirs'*^ the connection between the two writers 
did not begin until about the middle of April, and the three 
volumes of the novel were published in England by August, or 
perhaps earlier.®^ 
V 
Imlay’s life from 1793 to 1796 is, on one side familiar to 
, every student of this period : it is known from Mary Woll- 
stonecraft’s letters and from Godwin’s account in his Memoirs 
of the Author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. 
The reader of these works cannot, however, fail to note the 
thoroness with which the authors suppress whatever facts 
about Imlay do not have a direct bearing upon the personal 
relations between him and this woman. Doubtless Mary 
Wollstonecraft herself was largely in ignorance as to the af- 
fairs of the man with whom she lived as wife outside the pale 
of the law, and what she did know she may well have kept in 
silence out of regard for his safety. Even after Imlay had 
deserted her, she never, says Godwin, spoke of him with acri- 
mony and ‘Vas displeased when any person, in her hearing, 
expressed contempt of him”.^^ At all events it is only the one 
side of Imlay that his biographers have seen. For a perhaps 
even more interesting picture of this stray from the Rousseau- 
istic fold, who, as he would have us believe, was nurtured 
among ''a people in a state of innocence”,®'^ one must turn to 
52 P. 106. 
53 A reviev/ of The Emigrants appeared in the Monthly Revietv for August, 1793 
(XI. 468-469). 
5'-^ Memoirs, p. 145. 
55 Other signs that Imlay had taken the impress of the spirit of the age are not 
lacking. The enthusiastic eloquence of his Memoire and Observations (for which see 
below), taking color, perhaps, from the French Revolutionary oi'atory, is paralleled in 
A Topographical Description, where his account of the charms of Kentucky is inter- 
spersed with professions of a strong sentiment for the welfare of mankind, . and with 
suggestions as to the best methods of securing general happiness. His remarkable 
protestations in favor of the equality of blacks and whites suggest a comparison with 
Brissot ; Imlay’s enthusiasm for racial equality carries him even to the point of recom- 
mending intermarriage (Ibid., p. 178). It is of interest to note, however, that he 
was apparently at one time during his residence in Kentucky the owner of a negro 
girl (Imlay to Henry Lee, May 28, 1785, Draper MSS., Wisconsin Historical Society). 
Other instances of his liberal views are his advocacy of women’s rights in his novel, 
and his attitude toward the convention of marriage as shown in his later conduct 
toward Mary Wollstonecraft. 
