Memoirs of Modern Philosophers

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”.

[7] 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.

[9] 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”[11] 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.

[12] Hamilton uses three protagonists 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.

[13] 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.’”[14] Bridgetina adopts New Philosophical ideas and as a result insults her mother and openly declares her love to her beloved.

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.

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.