STORIES***


This ebook was transcribed by Les Bowler.

[Picture: Look what a fine morning it is... Insects, Birds, & Animals,
                       are all enjoying existence]





                                   MARY
                             WOLLSTONECRAFT’S
                                 ORIGINAL
                                 STORIES


                         WITH FIVE ILLUSTRATIONS
                                    BY
                              WILLIAM BLAKE

                                * * * * *

                           WITH AN INTRODUCTION
                                    BY
                               E. V. LUCAS

                                * * * * *

                                  LONDON
                               HENRY FROWDE
                                   1906

                                * * * * *

                           OXFORD: HORACE HART
                        PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY




EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION


The germ of the _Original Stories_ was, I imagine, a suggestion (in the
manner of publishers) from Mary Wollstonecraft’s employer, Johnson of St.
Paul’s Churchyard, that something more or less in the manner of Mrs.
Trimmer’s _History of the Robins_, the great nursery success of 1786,
might be a profitable speculation.  For I doubt if the production of a
book for children would ever have occurred spontaneously to an author so
much more interested in the status of women and other adult matters.
However, the idea being given her, she quickly wrote the book—in 1787 or
1788—carrying out in it to a far higher power, in Mrs. Mason, the
self-confidence and rectitude of Mrs. Trimmer’s leading lady, Mrs.
Benson, who in her turn had been preceded by that other flawless
instructor of youth, Mr. Barlow.  None of these exemplars could do wrong;
but the Mrs. Mason whom we meet in the following pages far transcends the
others in conscious merit.  Mrs. Benson in the _History of the Robins_
(with the author of which Mary Wollstonecraft was on friendly