18/53 In the margin are two fragments, crossed out, evidently parts of what is supplanted by the substituted passage: "an angelic disposition and a quick, penetrating understanding" and "her visits ... his house were long & frequent & there." In _F of F--B_ Mary wrote of Diana's understanding "that often receives the name of masculine from its firmness and strength." This adjective had often been applied to Mary Wollstonecraft's mind. Mary Shelley's own understanding had been called masculine by Leigh Hunt in 1817 in the _Examiner_. The word was used also by a reviewer of her last published work, _Rambles in Germany and Italy, 1844_. |