Fortitude means strength and courage. It contains the root word fort which means strength. During this time period, women were not actively speaking out for women's rights and faced many who opposed them. Mary Wollstonecraft would have had to have a great deal of inner strength to speak out for women's rights.
Gravity means severity. It's frequently used in the phrase "the gravity of the situation." Before intervening in the conflict, I assessed the gravity of the situation to see if I was actually needed. Vindication is to clear someone of blame. The accused criminal was vindicated when someone else confessed to the crime. A person's scruples refers to their morals or hesitation to do something because of their morals.
Volcanic rock creates islands and different islands are created at different times from either volcanic eruptions or just flowing lava coming from the volcano :)
