ABSTRACT
Mary Hays sought and feared independence. Her desire for personal autonomy strengthened dramatically between 1793 and 1796, although the exercise of independent judgment in religious and political matters, individually and collectively, became increasingly perilous as war raged with France. Before he was forced to leave Cambridge, William Frend was a source of anxiety and pride to Unitarians for his prominent role in the ongoing religious and political print wars. William Godwin quickly produced Cursory Strictures, a work that revealed the rationale for the government’s prosecution of the radicals. Frend’s move to London had great personal and professional consequences for Hays. Godwin was the more socially sophisticated and the better educated, but in Hays he discovered a worthy sparring partner, at times an attentive student, at other times a shrewd if shrill critic. Hays called on Wollstonecraft in autumn 1795 while she was recovering from a second suicide attempt.
