diff options
Diffstat (limited to '36965.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 36965.txt | 7610 |
1 files changed, 7610 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/36965.txt b/36965.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d91416a --- /dev/null +++ b/36965.txt @@ -0,0 +1,7610 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Harriet Martineau, by Florence Fenwick Miller + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Harriet Martineau + +Author: Florence Fenwick Miller + +Release Date: August 3, 2011 [EBook #36965] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARRIET MARTINEAU *** + + + + +Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + +_Famous Women._ + +HARRIET MARTINEAU. + + + _Already published_: + + + GEORGE ELIOT. By Miss Blind. + EMILY BRONTE. By Miss Robinson. + GEORGE SAND. By Miss Thomas. + MARY LAMB. By Mrs. Gilchrist. + MARGARET FULLER. By Julia Ward Howe. + MARIA EDGEWORTH. By Miss Zimmern. + ELIZABETH FRY. By Mrs. E. R. Pitman. + THE COUNTESS OF ALBANY. By Vernon Lee. + MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT. By Mrs. E. R. Pennell. + HARRIET MARTINEAU. By Mrs. F. Fenwick Miller. + RACHEL. By Mrs. Nina H. Kennard. + MADAME ROLAND. By Mathilde Blind. + SUSANNA WESLEY. By Eliza Clarke. + MARGARET OF ANGOULEME. By Miss Robinson. + MRS. SIDDONS. By Mrs. Nina H. Kennard. + MADAME DE STAEL. By Bella Duffy. + + + + +[Illustration: FAMOUS WOMEN] + + +HARRIET MARTINEAU. + + +BY +MRS. F. FENWICK MILLER. + + +BOSTON: +ROBERTS BROTHERS. +1887. + +_Copyright, 1884_, +BY ROBERTS BROTHERS. + +UNIVERSITY PRESS: +JOHN WILSON AND SON, CAMBRIDGE. + + + + +PREFACE. + + +The material for this biographical and critical sketch of Harriet +Martineau and her works has been drawn from a variety of sources. Some +of it is quite new. Her own _Autobiography_ was completed in 1855; and +there has not hitherto been anything at all worth calling a record of +the twenty-one years during which she lived and worked after that date. +Even as regards the earlier period, although, of course I have drawn +largely for facts upon the _Autobiography_, yet I have found much that +is new to relate. For some information and hints about this period I am +indebted to her relatives of her own generation, Dr. James Martineau, +and Mrs. Henry Turner, of Nottingham, as well as to one or two others. +With reference to the latest twenty-one years of her life, my record is +entirely fresh, though necessarily brief. Mrs. Chapman, of Boston, +U.S.A., has written a volume in completion of the _Autobiography_, +which should have covered this later period; but her account is little +more than a repetition, in a peculiar style, of the story that Miss +Martineau herself had told, and leaves the later work of the life +without systematic record. As a well-known critic remarked in +_Macmillan_--"This volume is one more illustration of the folly of +intrusting the composition of biography to persons who have only the +wholly irrelevant claim of intimate friendship." But it should be +remembered that when Miss Martineau committed to Mrs. Chapman the task +of writing a memorial sketch, and when the latter accepted the +undertaking, both of them believed that the life and work of the +subject of it were practically over. I have reason to know that if +Harriet Martineau had supposed it to be even remotely possible that so +much of her life remained to be spent and recorded, she would have +chosen some one more skilled in literature, and more closely acquainted +with English literary and political affairs, to complete her "Life." +Having once asked Mrs. Chapman to fulfill the task, however, Harriet +Martineau was too loyal and generous a friend to remove it from her +charge; and Mrs. Chapman, on her side, while continually begging +instructions from her subject as to what she was to say, and while +doubtless aware that she would not be adequate to the undertaking which +had grown so since she accepted it, yet would not throw it off her +hands. But her volume is in no degree a record of those last years, +which constitute nearly a third of Harriet Martineau's whole life. I +have had to seek facts and impressions about that period almost +entirely from other sources. + +My deepest obligations are due, and must be first expressed, to Mr. +Henry G. Atkinson, the dearest friend of Harriet Martineau's maturity. +It is commonly known that she forbade, by her will, the publication of +her private letters; but she showed her supreme faith in and value for +her friend, Mr. Atkinson, by specially exempting him from such +prohibition. Her objection to the publication of letters was made on +general grounds. Her own letters are singularly beautiful specimens of +their class; and she declared that she would not mind if every word +that ever she wrote were published; but she looked upon it as a duty to +uphold the principle that letters should be held sacred confidences, +just as all honorable people hold private conversations, not to be +published without leave. But in authorizing Mr. Atkinson to print her +letters, if he pleased, she maintained that she was not departing from +this principle; for it was only the same as it would be if two friends +agreed to make their conversation known. I feel deeply grateful to Mr. +Atkinson for allowing me the privilege of presenting some of her +letters to the public in this volume, and of perusing very many more. + +I have been permitted, also, to read a vast number of Harriet +Martineau's letters addressed to other friends besides Mr. Atkinson, +and how much they have aided me in the following work and in +appreciating her personality, may easily be guessed; but, of course, I +may not publish these letters. Amongst many persons to whom I am +indebted for helping me to "get touch" with my subject in this way, I +must specially thank two. Mr. Henry Reeve, the editor of the _Edinburgh +Review_, was a relative and intimate friend of Harriet Martineau; and +her correspondence with so distinguished a man of letters was, +naturally, peculiarly interesting--not the less so because they +differed altogether on many matters of opinion. Her letters, which Mr. +Reeve has kindly allowed me to see, have been of very great service to +me. Miss F. Arnold, of Fox How, (the youngest daughter of Dr. Arnold, +of Rugby,) is the second to whom like particular acknowledgments is +due. She was young enough to have been Harriet Martineau's daughter; +but she was also a beloved friend, and was almost a daily visitor at +"The Knoll" during the later years of Miss Martineau's life. The +letters which Miss Arnold, during occasional absences from home, +received from her old friend, are very domestic, lively, and +characteristic of the writer. It has been of great value to me to have +seen all the letters that have been lent me, but especially these two +sets, so different and yet so similar as I have found them to be. + +I have visited Norwich, and seen the house where Harriet Martineau was +born; Tynemouth, where she lay ill; Ambleside, where she lived so long +and died at last; and Birmingham, to see my valued friends, her nieces +and nephew. If I should thank by name all with whom I have talked of +her, and from whom I have learned something about her, the list would +grow over-long; and so I must content myself with thus comprehensively +expressing my sense of individual obligations to all who have laid even +a small stone to this little memorial cairn. + +F. F. M. + + + + +CONTENTS. + + + PAGE. + +CHAPTER I. + +THE CHILD AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL 1 + +CHAPTER II. + +EARLY WOMANHOOD; DEVELOPING INFLUENCES 29 + +CHAPTER III. + +EARLIEST WRITINGS 49 + +CHAPTER IV. + +GRIEF STRUGGLE, AND PROGRESS 67 + +CHAPTER V. + +THE GREAT SUCCESS 100 + +CHAPTER VI. + +FIVE ACTIVE YEARS 130 + +CHAPTER VII. + +FIVE YEARS OF ILLNESS, AND THE MESMERIC RECOVERY 155 + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE HOME LIFE 178 + +CHAPTER IX. + +IN THE MATURITY OF HER POWERS 200 + +CHAPTER X. + +IN RETREAT; JOURNALISM 231 + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE LAST YEARS 264 + + + + +HARRIET MARTINEAU. + + + + +CHAPTER I. + +THE CHILD AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL. + + +When Louis XIV. of France revoked the Edict of Nantes, in 1688, a +large number of the Protestants who were driven out of France by the +impending persecutions came to seek refuge in this favored land of +liberty of ours. Many who thus settled in our midst were amongst the +most skillful and industrious workers, of various grades, that could +have been found in the dominions of the persecuting king who drove +them forth. They must have been, too, in the nature of the case, +strong-hearted, clear in the comprehension of their principles, and +truthful and conscientious about matters of opinion; for the +cowardly, the weak, and the false could stay in their own land. From +the good stock of these exiles for conscience-sake sprang Harriet +Martineau. + +Her paternal Huguenot ancestor was a surgeon, who was married to a +fellow-countrywoman and co-religionist of the name of Pierre. This +couple of exiles for freedom of opinion settled in Norwich, where the +husband pursued his profession. Their descendants supplied a constant +succession of highly-respected surgeons to the same town, without +intermission, until the early part of this century, when the line of +medical practitioners was closed by the death of Harriet Martineau's +elder brother at less than thirty years old. The Martineau family thus +long occupied a good professional position in the town of Norwich. + +Harriet's father, however, was not a surgeon, but a manufacturer +of stuffs, the very names of which are now strange in our +ears--bombazines and camlets. His wife was Elizabeth Rankin, the +daughter of a sugar-refiner of Newcastle-on-Tyne. A true Northumbrian +woman was Mrs. Martineau; with a strong sense of duty, but little +warmth of temperament; with the faults of an imperious disposition, +and its correlative virtues of self-reliance and strength of will. +These qualities become abundantly apparent in her in the story of her +relationship with her famous daughter. On both sides, therefore, +Harriet Martineau was endowed by hereditary descent with the strong +qualities--the power, the clear-headedness, and the keen +conscience--which she interfused into all the work of her life. + +Thomas and Elizabeth Martineau, her father and mother, were the parents +of eight children, two of whom became widely known and influential as +thinkers and writers. Harriet was the sixth of the family, and was born +at Norwich, in Magdalen street, on the 12th of June, 1802, the mother +being at that time thirty years old. The next child, born in 1805, was +the boy who grew up to become known as Dr. James Martineau; so that the +two who were to make the family name famous were next to each other in +age. Another child followed in this family group, but not until 1811, +when Harriet was nine years old, so that she could experience with +reference to this baby some of that tender, protective affection which +is such an education for elder children, and so delightful to girls +with strong maternal instincts such as she possessed. + +The sixth child in a family of eight is likely to be a personage of but +small consequence. The parents' pride has been somewhat satiated by +previous experiences of the wonders of the dawning faculties of their +children; and the indulgence which seems naturally given to "the baby" +gets comparatively soon transferred from poor number six to that +interloper number seven. Mrs. Martineau, too, was one of that sort of +women who, as they would say, do not "spoil" their children. Ready to +work for them, to endure for them, to struggle to provide them with all +necessary comforts, and even with pleasures, at the cost, if need be, +of personal sacrifice of comfort and pleasure, such mothers yet do not +give to their children that bountiful outpouring of tender, caressing, +maternal love, which the young as much require for their due and free +growth as plants do the floods of the summer sunshine. To starve the +emotions in a child is not less cruel than to stint its body of food. +To repress and chain up the feelings is to impose as great a hardship +as it would be to fetter the freedom of the limbs. Mothers who have +labored and suffered through long years for the welfare of their +children, are often grieved and pained in after days to find themselves +regarded with respect rather than with fondness; but it was they +themselves who put the seal upon the fountains of affection at the time +when they might have been opened freely--and whose fault is it if, +later, the outflow is found to be checked for evermore? + +The pity of it is that such mischief is often wrought by parents who +love their children intensely, but who err in the management of them +for want of the wisdom of the heart, the power of sympathetic feeling, +which is seen so much stronger sometimes in comparatively shallow +natures than in the deeper ones that have really more of love and of +self-sacrifice in their souls. Those who lack tenderness either of +manner or feeling, those to whom the full and free expression of +affection is difficult or seems a folly, may perhaps be led to reflect, +by the story of Harriet Martineau's childhood, on the suffering and +error that may result from a neglect of the moral command: "Parents, +provoke not your children to wrath." + +"My life has had no spring," wrote Harriet Martineau, sadly; yet there +was nothing in the outer circumstances of her childhood and youth to +justify this feeling. Her mother's temper and character were largely +responsible for what Harriet calls her "habit of misery" during +childhood. It is right to explain, however, that this unhappiness was +doubtless partly due to physical causes. She was a weakly child, her +health having been undermined by the dishonesty of the wet nurse +employed for her during the first three months of her life. The woman +lost her milk, and managed to conceal the fact until the baby was found +to be in an almost dying condition from the consequences of want of +nourishment. How far her frequent ill-health, during many succeeding +years, was to be ascribed to this cannot be known; but her mother +naturally attributed all Harriet's delicacy of health to this cause, +even the deafness from which she suffered, although this did not become +pronounced till she was over twelve years of age. + +Her deafness, which was the most commonly known of her deficiencies of +sensation, was not her earliest deprivation of a sense. She was never +able to smell, that she could remember; and as smell and taste are +intimately joined together, and a large part of what we believe to be +flavor is really odor, it naturally followed that she was also nearly +destitute of the sense of taste. Thus two of the avenues by which the +mind receives impressions from the outer world were closed to her all +her life, and a third was also stopped before she reached womanhood. +The senses are the gates by which pleasure as well as pain enter into +the citadel where consciousness resides. Of all the senses, those which +most frequently give entrance to pleasure and seldomest to pain, were +those which she had lost. "When three senses out of five are +deficient," as she said, "the difficulty of cheerful living is great, +and the terms of life are truly hard." + +She suffered greatly, even as a little child, from indigestion. Milk +in particular disagreed with her; but it was held essential by Mrs. +Martineau that children should eat bread and milk, and for years poor +Harriet endured daily a lump at her chest and an oppression of the +spirits, induced by her inability to digest her breakfast and supper. +Nightmares and causeless apprehensions in the day also afflicted the +nervous and sensitive girl, and she had "hardly any respite from +terror." + +A child so delicate in health could not have been very happy under any +home conditions. Only a truly wise and tender maternal guardianship +could have made the life of such an one at all tolerable; but Harriet +Martineau was one of the large family of a sharp-tempered, masterful, +stern, though devoted mother, whose cleverness found vent in incessant +sarcasm, and in whom the love of power natural to a capable, determined +person degenerated, as it so often does in domestic life, into a severe +despotism. + +Mrs. Martineau's circumstances were such as to increase her natural +tendency to stern and decided rule. Dr. Martineau tells me that all +who knew his mother feel that Harriet does not do justice in her +"Autobiography" to that mother's nobler qualities, both moral and +intellectual, and especially the latter. Harriet and James Martineau, +like so many other men and women of mark, were the children of a mother +of uncommon mental capacity. Her business faculties were so good, and +her judgment so clear, that her husband (a man of a sweet and gentle +disposition) invariably took counsel with her about all his affairs, +and acted by her advice. There are still inhabitants of Norwich who +remember Mrs. Martineau, and their testimony of her is identical with +her son's. "She was the ruling spirit in that house," says one of them. +"Whatever was done there, you understood that it was she who did it." +The way in which this gentleman came to know so much of her +corroborates Dr. Martineau's declaration that "she was really devoted +to her children, and would do anything for them; if we were miserable +in our childhood (a fact which he does not dispute) it could not be +said to be consciously her fault." Mr. ---- was the husband of a lady +who had been reared from early childhood by Mrs. Martineau, having been +adopted by her simply in order to provide her little daughter, Ellen, +who was nine years younger than Harriet, with a child companion +somewhat about her own age. This lady, her widowed husband tells me, +retained a most warm admiration and affection for Mrs. Martineau. +Mothers who have brought up eight children of their own can appreciate +the self-devotedness of this mother in receiving a ninth child by +adoption in order to increase the well-being of her own little +daughter. + +Several other instances were told to me of Mrs. Martineau's benevolence +and kindness of disposition. Young men belonging to her religious body, +and living in lodgings in Norwich, were uniformly made welcome to her +house, as a home, every Sunday evening. One of the Norwich residents, +with whom I have talked about her, received a presentation from her to +the Unitarian Free School, and afterwards, in his school life, met with +constant encouragement and patronage at her hands. He tells me that he +has never forgotten the stately and impressive address with which she +gave him the presentation ticket, concluding with a reminder that if he +made good use of this opportunity he might even hope one day to become +a member of the Town Council of that city,--and at that giddy eminence +her _protege_ now stands. + +For the sake of the lesson, it should be understood that she was thus +truly benevolent and kindly, and no vulgar termagant or scold. It is +for us to see how such a nature can be spoiled for daily life by too +unchecked a course of arbitrary rule, and by repression of outward +signs of tenderness. + +Not the least evil which a stern parent, who maintains a reserve of +demeanor, and who requires strictness of discipline within the home, +may do to himself and his children, is that by denying expression to +the children's feelings he closes to himself the possibility of knowing +what goes on in their young minds. Thus, a child so restrained may for +years suffer under a sense of injustice, and of undue favoritism shown +to another, or under a belief that the parent's love is lacking, when a +few words might have cleared away the misapprehension, and given the +child the natural happiness of its age. + +Speaking of her childhood, Harriet says: "I had a devouring passion +for justice; justice, first, to my own precious self, and then to +other oppressed people. Justice was precisely what was least understood +in our house, in regard to servants and children. Now and then I +desperately poured out my complaints; but in general I brooded over +my injuries and those of others who dared not speak, and then the +temptation to suicide was very strong." + +The most vivid picture that she has drawn of the discipline under which +such emotions were induced in her is found in a story, _The Crofton +Boys_, which she wrote during a severe illness, and under the +impression that it would contain her last words uttered through the +press. Mrs. Proctor, in _The Crofton Boys_, is depicted with remarkable +vividness by a series of little touches, and in a succession of trivial +details, with an avoidance of direct description, that reminds us of +the method of Jane Austen. Harriet never achieved any other portrait of +a character such as this one; for this is treated with such minute +fidelity, and such evident unconsciousness, that we feel sure, as we +sometimes do with a picture, that the likeness must be an exact one. So +distinct an individuality is shown to us, and at the same time, the +evidences of the artist's close and careful observation of his model +are so obvious, that, without having seen the subject, we _feel_ the +accuracy of the likeness. So does the "portrait of a mother" in that +tale which Harriet wrote for her last words through the press, show us +the nature of Mrs. Martineau in her maternal relation. + +"Mrs. Proctor so seldom praised anybody that her words of esteem went a +great way.... Everyone in the house was in the habit of hiding tears +from Mrs. Proctor, who rarely shed them herself, and was known to think +that they might generally be suppressed, and should be so." + +If any person were weak enough to express emotion in this way in +her presence, Mrs. Proctor would promptly and sternly intimate her +disapproval of such indulgence of the feelings. When the little lad was +leaving home for the first time, all the rest of the household became a +little unhappy over the parting. + +"Susan came in about the cord for his box, and her eyes were red,--and +at the sight of her Agnes began to cry again; and Jane bent down over +the glove she was mending for him, and her needle stopped. + +"'Jane,' said her mother, gravely, 'if you are not mending that glove, +give it to me. It is getting late.' + +"Jane brushed her hand across her eyes, and stitched away again. Then +she threw the gloves to Hugh without looking at him, and ran to get +ready to go to the coach." + +So little allowance was ordinarily made in that house for signs of +affection, or manifestations of personal attachment, that the child who +was going away for six months was "amazed to find that his sisters were +giving up an hour of their lessons that they might go with him to the +coach." Even when Hugh got his foot so crushed it had to be amputated, +though his mother came to him and gave him every proper attention, yet +"Hugh saw no tears from her"; nothing more than that "her face was very +pale and grave." His anticipations of her coming had not been warm; his +one anxiety had been that he might bear his pain resolutely before her. +"As Hugh cried, he said he bore it so very badly he did not know what +his mother would say if she saw him." And it was well that he had not +anticipated any outburst of pity or expression of sympathy from her, +for, when she did come, "she kissed him with a long, long kiss; but she +did not speak." Her first words in the hearing of her agonized child +were spoken to give him an intimation that the surgeons were waiting to +take off his foot. The boy's reply was--not to cling to her for +support, and to nestle in her bosom for comfort in the most terrible +moment of his young life, but--"Do not stay now; this pain is so bad! I +can't bear it well at all. Do go, now, and bid them make haste, will +you?" + +Later, when the leg was better, the poor boy's mental misery once +overpowered him, even in his mother's presence. Sitting with her and +his sister--"... He said, 'He did not know how he should bear his +misfortune. When he thought of the long, long days, and months, and +years, to the end of his life, and that he should never run and play, +and never be like other people, and never able to do the commonest +things without labor and trouble, he wished he was dead. He would +rather have died!' Agnes thought he must be miserable indeed if he +would venture to say this to his mother." Such was the idea that these +children had of maternal sympathy and love! So little did they look +upon their mother as the one person above all others to whom their +secret troubles should be opened! + +It is proper to observe that the mother came out of this test well. +There is no record that Mrs. Martineau was ever found wanting in due +care for her children when the pent-up agony of their bodies or spirits +became so violent as to burst the bonds of reserve that her general +demeanor and method of management imposed upon them. Her children's +misery (for Harriet was not the only one of the family whose childhood +was wretched) came not from any intentional neglect, or even from any +indifference on her part to their comfort and happiness, but solely, +let it be repeated, from her arbitrary manner and her quickness of +temper. It is worth repeating (if biography be of value for the lessons +which may be drawn from it for the conduct of other lives) that the +mother whose children were so spirit-tossed and desolate was, +nevertheless, one who gave herself up to their interests, and labored +incessantly and unselfishly for their welfare. It was not love that +really was wanting; far less was it faithfulness in the performance of +a mother's material duties to her children; all that was lacking was +the free play of the emotions on the surface, the kisses, the loving +phrases, the fond tones, which are assuredly neither weaknesses nor +works of supererogation in family life. By means of candid expression +alone can the emotions of one mind touch those of another; and from the +lack of such contact between a child and its mother there must come, in +so close a life relationship, misery to the younger and disappointment +to the elder of the two. + +"I really think," says Harriet, "if I had once conceived that anybody +cared for me, nearly all the sins and sorrows of my anxious childhood +would have been spared me." Yet, not only was she well fed, well +clothed, well educated, and sent to amusements to give her pleasure +(magic lanterns, parties and seaside trips are all mentioned); but +besides all this, when she did burst forth, like Hugh Proctor in the +book, with the expression of her suffering, she was soothed and cared +for. But this last happened so rarely--of course entirely because it +was made so difficult for her to express herself--that the occasions +lived in her memory all her life. + +The moral consequences of all this were naturally bad. Even with all +motherly sympathy and encouragement, so sickly a child would have been +likely to suffer from timidity, and to fall into occasional fits of +despondency and irritability; but, with fear continually excited in +her mind, and with an eternal storm of passionate opposition to +arbitrary authority raging in her soul, it is no wonder that the poor +child made for herself a character for willfulness and obstinacy, +while internally she suffered dreadfully from her conscience. "In my +childhood," she says, "I would assert or deny anything to my mother +that would bring me through most easily.... This was so exclusively +to one person that, though there was remonstrance and punishment, I +was never regarded as a liar in the family." Her strength of will +was very great; and when she had been placed in a false position by +her dread of rebuke, the powerful will came into play to maintain +a dogged, stubborn, indifferent appearance. Yet all the while her +conscientiousness--the strong convictions as to what was right, and +the ardent desire to do it, which marked her whole career--was at work +within her, causing a mental shame and distress which might have been +easily aided by gentle treatment to overcome the fear and the firmness +which were acting together to make her miserable and a sinner. + +It is altogether a sad story, but I have not told it at length without +reason. The fact that other children are suffering similarly every day +makes the record worth repeating. But, besides this, her vivid +remembrance of her childish pangs tends to show how warm and strong +were her natural affections. If Harriet Martineau's mind had not been +sensitive and emotional, and if her love for those united to her by +family ties had not been ardent, she would not have felt as she did in +her childhood, and she would not have remembered, all through her life, +how she had suffered in her early years from unsatisfied affection. +Now, this soft, loving, emotional side of her character must be +recognized before her life and her work can be properly appreciated. + +The intellectual influences of her home life were not more happy than +the moral ones. She was thought by her family anything but a clever +child. Indeed, Dr. James Martineau (whose recollections are peculiarly +valuable, both from his nearness to Harriet in age and from their great +attachment in early life) still thinks that she really was a dull +child. Her intelligence, he believes, awoke only in her later youth, +coincidentally with some improvement in health. It is hard to guess +what the impression of her childish intellectual powers might have been +under different conditions. She suggestively remarks[1]: "It should +never be forgotten that the happier a child is the cleverer he will be. +This is not only because in a state of happiness the mind is free, and +at liberty for the exercise of its faculties instead of spending its +thoughts and energy in brooding over troubles, but also because the +action of the brain is stronger when the frame is in a state of +hilarity; the ideas are more clear, impressions of outward objects are +more vivid, and the memory will not let them slip." Moreover, it is a +fact worthy of note that the recognition by her family of her mental +development followed upon her return home after she had been away for a +time, and had been learning at a boarding-school under "the first +person of whom she never felt afraid." Still, the fact remains that +Harriet was the ugly duckling of her family, and supposed to be the +most stupid of the group of Martineau children. + + [1] _Household Education_, p. 202. + +She was active-minded enough, however, to begin early that spontaneous +self-education which only intellects of real power undertake, either +in childhood or in later years. + +Milton was her master. When she was seven years old she came by +accident upon a copy of _Paradise Lost_ lying open upon a table. Taking +it up, she saw the heading "Argument," and in the text her eye caught +the word "Satan." Instantly the mind which her relations thought so +sluggish was fired by the desire to know how Satan could be argued +about. She sought the passage which tells how the arch-fiend was-- + + Hurled headlong flaming from the ethereal sky, + With hideous ruin and combustion, down + To bottomless perdition, there to dwell + In adamantine chains and penal fire. + +For the ensuing seven years her thoughts dwelt daily in the midst of +the solemn scenes, and moved to the sound of the sonorous music of +Milton's poetry. "I wonder how much of it I knew by heart--enough to +be always repeating it to myself with every change of light and +darkness, and sound, and silence, the moods of the day and the seasons +of the year." The dull child, who neglected her multiplication table, +did so because her mind was pre-occupied with thoughts of this grander +order. + +Her love of books increased, and her range of reading became wide. +Milton, although the favorite, was by no means her only beloved +author. She read rapidly, and, as clever children often do, +voraciously. Whole pages or scenes from Shakespeare, Goldsmith, +Thompson, and Milton she learned by heart, until she knew enough +poetry to have fitted her for the occupation of a wandering reciter. +In this way her self-education in the English classics, and in +literary style, went on at the same time with her daily education by +living teachers. + +Harriet's formal education was somewhat desultory; but it is a +noteworthy fact that it was, so far as it went, what would have been +called a "boy's education." In this respect the history of her mental +development is the same as that of many other illustrious women of +the past. Girls' High Schools, and University examinations for +young women, are products of the present day, and are rapidly +rendering obsolete the old ideas about the necessary differences and +distinctions between the education of boys and girls. But up to the +first quarter of this century, the minds of boys and of girls were +commonly submitted to entirely different courses of training. While +the boys learned precision in reasoning from mathematics, the girls +were considered sufficiently equipped for their lot in life by a +knowledge of the first three rules of arithmetic. While any faculty of +language that a lad possessed was trained and exercised by the study +of the classics, his sister was thought to require no more teaching in +composition and grammar than would enable her to write a letter. +Elaborate samplers, specimens of fine stitching, of hemming done by a +thread on the most delicate cambric, of marking in tiny stitches and +wonderful designs, and of lace more noticeable for difficulty in the +doing than for beauty, have come down to us from our grandmothers' +days, to show us how the school-time of the girls was being disposed +of, while the boys were studying Euclid, Virgil, and Homer. If we have +changed all that, and are now beginning to give a considerable +proportion of our girls the same mental diet for the growth and +sustenance of their minds with that which is supplied to boys, it is +largely owing to the direct efforts in favor of such a course put +forth by women such as Harriet Martineau, who had themselves been, at +least partially, educated "like boys," and were conscious that to such +education they owed much of their mental superiority over average +women. + +In her earlier years Harriet was taught at home by her elder brothers +and sisters, with the addition of lessons in some subjects from +masters. She was well grounded in this manner in Latin, French and the +ordinary elementary subjects. But her systematic education did not +begin until she was eleven, when she and her sister Rachel were sent +to a school kept by a good master, at which boys also were receiving +their education. + +The school-life was delectable to Harriet. Mr. Perry, the master, was +gentle in his manner, and methodical in his style of teaching; and +under his tuition the shy, nervous child felt for the first time +encouraged to do her best, and aided not merely to learn her lessons, +but also to expand her mental faculties. The two years that she +remained at Mr. Perry's school gave her a fair insight into Latin and +French, and enabled her to discover that arithmetic was to her mind a +delightful pastime rather than a difficult study. English composition +was formally and carefully taught. This was Harriet's favorite lesson; +but she would spend her playtime in covering a slate with sums for the +mere pleasure of the exercise. + +When Harriet had been at this school for about two years, Mr. Perry +left Norwich. The home system of education was then resumed. She had +visiting masters in Latin, French, and music. For the rest, Mrs. +Martineau selected a course of reading on history, biography, and +literature. One of the girls read aloud daily while the others did +needle-work. + +"The amount of time we spent in sewing now appears frightful; but it +was the way in those days among people like ourselves." Harriet became +a thoroughly accomplished needle-woman. She had, indeed, a liking for +the occupation, and continued to do much of it all through her life. +Many of her friends can show handsome pieces of fancy-work done by her +hands. Again and again she contributed to public objects by sending a +piece of her own beautiful needle-work to be sold for the benefit of a +society's funds. Not even in the busiest time of her literary life did +she ever entirely cease to exercise her skill in this feminine +occupation. In fact, she made wool-work her artistic recreation. + +But with all her liking for needle-work, and with all the use that she +made of her skill in the art, she did feel very keenly how much her +time and strength had been wasted in childhood upon the practice of +this mechanical occupation that should have been employed in the +cultivation of her mental powers. A girl then was required to become a +proficient in the making of every kind of garment. It was considered a +good test of her capacity to know at an early age how to cut out and +put together a shirt for her father; drawing threads to cut it by, and +drawing threads to do the rows of fine stitching by, and stitching +evenly and regularly, only two threads of the finest material being +taken for each stitch! The expenditure of time out of a girl's life, +involved in making her capable of doing all this, was something +shocking. In these days, when the development of the means of +communication has made division of labor more generally practicable +than of old, and when nearly all men and women, from the richest to +the artizan classes, wear garments made chiefly by machinery, I doubt +if many readers can be got to realize how much a girl's intellectual +training was diminished when Harriet Martineau was a child by the vast +amount of time consumed in training her as a seamstress. Harriet was +taught how to make all her own clothes, even to covering shoes with +silk for dancing, and to plaiting straw bonnets. It is as though every +boy were taught in his school-life to be a thorough carpenter, so as +to be able, in youth, to turn out, unaided, any article of furniture. +It is obvious how much time such technical training must swallow up. +To conceive how a girl was held back by it, we must ask ourselves: +What was her brother doing while she was learning needle-work? + +The matter did not end with the waste of time alone. Health, strength +and nerve-force--in a word, _power_--was squandered upon it to a +degree truly lamentable. Harriet Martineau's testimony[2] upon this +point may be taken, because of her real fondness for the employment +and the skill which she displayed in it: + + [2] _Household Education_, p. 286. + + "I believe it is now generally agreed among those who know best + that the practice of sewing has been carried much too far for + health, even in houses where there is no poverty or pressure of + any kind. No one can well be more fond of sewing than I am, and + few, except professional seamstresses, have done more of it, and + my testimony is that it is a most hurtful occupation, except where + great moderation is observed. I think it is not so much the + sitting and stooping posture as the incessant monotonous action + and position of the arms that causes such wear and tear. Whatever + it may be, there is something in prolonged sewing which is + remarkably exhausting to the strength, and irritating beyond + endurance to the nerves. The censorious gossip, during sewing, + which was the bane of our youth," she adds, "wasted more of our + precious youthful powers and dispositions than any repentance and + amendment in after life could repair." + +Harriet's reading for pleasure in childhood had mostly to be done by +snatches. She learned much poetry by keeping the book under her work, +on her lap, and glancing at a line now and another then. Shakespeare +she first enjoyed, while a child, by stealing away from table in the +evenings of one winter, and reading by the light of the drawing-room +fire, while the rest lingered over dessert in the dining-room. In this +way, too, she had to read the newspaper. + +The older she grew, the less time was afforded her from domestic +duties for study. She was sent, at the age of fourteen, to a +boarding-school near Bristol, kept by an aunt of her own, where she +stayed fifteen months, and on her return home her education was +considered finished. Thenceforth it was a struggle to obtain +permission to spend any time in reading or writing, and such +opportunities as she got, or could make, had to be taken advantage of +in secrecy. + +It is melancholy to read of her "spending a frightful amount of time +in sewing," and being "expected always to sit down in the parlor to +sew," instead of studying; of her being "at the work-table regularly +after breakfast, making my own clothes or the shirts of the household, +or about some fancy work, or if ever I shut myself into my own room +for an hour of solitude, I knew it was at the risk of being sent for +to join the sewing-circle;" and of the necessity that she lay under to +find time for study by stealing secret hours from sleep. But it is +needful to lay stress upon these hindrances through which the growing +girl fought her way to mental development. Wide though her knowledge +was, great though her mental powers became, who can tell how much was +taken from her possibilities (as from those of all other great women +of the past) by such waste of her powers in childhood and youth? + +It is distressing to think about. The only comfort is that it was +inevitable. Of all the causes that unite to make the women of the +present more favorably circumstanced than those of the past, none is +more potent than the progress of mechanical discovery having relieved +them from the necessity of making all the clothing of mankind with +their own hands. From the era when Errina, the Greek poetess, +mournfully lamented that her mother tied her to her distaff, down to +the days in which Harriet Martineau studied by snatches, and spent her +days in making shirts in the parlor, an enormous amount of feminine +power has been squandered wastefully in this direction. If women +hereafter draw out a Comtist calendar of days upon which to reverence +the memory of those who have helped them on in the scale of beings, +assuredly they must find places for the inventors of the +spinning-mule, the stocking-loom and the sewing-machine. + +Religion formed the chief source of happiness to Harriet Martineau in +childhood and early youth. Her parents were Unitarians, and their +child's theology was, therefore, of a mild type, lacking a hell, a +personal devil, a theory of original sin, and the like. She did not +fear God, while she feared almost all human beings, and her devotion +was thus a source of great joy and little misery. + +When she was at the Bristol boarding-school, she came under the +ministerial influence of the great Unitarian preacher, the Rev. Dr. +Carpenter. The power of his teaching increased the ardor of her +religious sentiments. She was just at an intense age--between +fourteen and sixteen. Dr. Carpenter's religious instructions made +the theism in which she had been educated become a firm personal +conviction, and caused the natural action of a sensitive conscience, +the self-devotion and humility of a deep power of veneration, and +the truthfulness and sincerity of a rare courage, to be blended +indistinguishably in their exercise with emotional outpourings of the +spirit in worship, and with attachment to certain theological tenets. + +Her younger sister well remembers that Harriet's fervent and +somewhat gloomy piety was the cause of a good deal of quizzing +amongst her elders, when she returned home from Bristol; their +amusement being mixed, however, with much respect for her sincerity +and conscientiousness. But, as her mind expanded, she thought as +well as felt about her theology, and her religious development did +not end with childhood. + + + + +CHAPTER II. + +EARLY WOMANHOOD: DEVELOPING INFLUENCES. + + +Old Norwich, in the early years of this century, was a somewhat +exceptional place. It so chanced that besides the exclusiveness +natural even now to the society of a cathedral town--besides the +insular tone of thought and manners which most towns possessed in +those pre-railway days, and while our continental wars were holding +our country-people isolated from foreign nations--besides all this, +Norwich then prided herself upon having produced a good deal of +literary ability. Her William Taylor was considered to be almost the +only German scholar in England, and other men, whose names are now +nearly forgotten, but who in their day were looked up to as lights of +learning and literature--Sayers, Smith, Enfield, Alderson, and +others,--gave a tone to the society of Norwich, which, if somewhat +pedantic, was, nevertheless, favorable to the intellectual life. It is +no small testimony to the healthy and stimulating mental atmosphere of +old Norwich that there successively came out from her, in an age when +individuality and intellect in woman were steadily repressed, three +women of such mark as Amelia Opie, Elizabeth Fry and Harriet +Martineau. + +But even in Norwich the repression just alluded to was felt by women. +Even there it was held, to say the least, peculiar and undesirable for +a girl to wish to study deep subjects. "When I was young," Miss +Martineau writes, "it was not thought proper for young ladies to study +very conspicuously; and especially with pen in hand." They were +required to be always ready "to receive callers, without any sign of +blue-stockingism which could be reported abroad. My first studies in +philosophy were carried on with great care and reserve.... I won time +for what my heart was set upon either in the early morning or late at +night." + +It was thus at unseasonable hours, and without the encouraging support +of that public feeling of the value and desirability of knowledge, and +the honorableness of its acquisition, by which a young man's studies +are unconsciously aided, that Harriet in her young womanhood continued +to learn. She read Latin with her brother James, and translated from +the classics by herself. Her cousin, Mr. Lee, read Italian with her +and her sister; and in course of time they undertook the translation +of Petrarch's sonnets into English verse. She read Blair's Rhetoric +repeatedly. Her Biblical studies were continued until she was in that +position which, according to Macaulay, is necessary "for a critic of +the niceties of the English language;" she had "the Bible at her +fingers' ends." + +But her solitary studies went also into heavier and less frequented +paths. Dr. Carpenter had taught her to interest herself in mental and +moral philosophy. She read about these subjects at first because he +had written upon them, and afterwards because she found them really +congenial to her mind. Locke and Hartley were the authors whom she +studied most closely. Then the works of Priestley, and the study of +his life and opinions--which she naturally undertook, because Dr. +Priestley was the great apostle and martyr of Unitarianism--led her to +make a very full acquaintance with the metaphysicians of the Scotch +school. + +To how much purpose she thus read the best books then available, upon +some of the highest topics that can engage the attention, soon became +apparent when she began to write; but of this I must speak in due +course later on. Two other of the most important events, or rather +trains of events, in the history of her young womanhood, must be +mentioned first. + +The earlier of these was the gradual oncoming and increase of her +deafness. She began to be slightly deaf while she was at Mr. Perry's +school, and the fact was there recognized so far as to cause her to be +placed next to her teacher in the class. How keenly she even then felt +this loss, she has in part revealed in the story of Hugh Procter; and +a few lines from an essay of hers on Scott may here be added: + +"Few have any idea of the all-powerful influence which the sense of +personal infirmity exerts over the mind of a child. If it were known, +its apparent disproportionateness to other influences would, to the +careless observer, appear absurd; to the thoughtful it would afford +new lights respecting the conduct of educational discipline; it would +also pierce the heart of many a parent who now believes that he knows +all, and who feels so tender a regret for what he knows that even the +sufferer wonders at its extent. But this is a species of suffering +which can never obtain sufficient sympathy, because the sufferer +himself is not aware, till he has made comparison of this with other +pains, how light all others are in comparison." + +As pathetically, but more briefly, she says about herself:--"My +deafness, when new, was the uppermost thing in my mind day and night." + +Her inability to hear continued to increase by slow degrees during the +next six years; and when she was eighteen "a sort of accident" +suddenly increased it. Music had, until then, been one of her great +delights, and it shows how gradual was the progress of her deafness, +that she found herself able to hear at an orchestral concert, provided +she could get a seat with a back against which she could press her +shoulder-blades, for a long time after the music had become inaudible +without this assistance. Such a gradual deprivation of a most +important sense is surely far more trying than a quick, unexpected, +and obviously irremediable loss would be. The alternations of hope and +despair, the difficulty of inducing the sufferer's friends to +recognize how serious the case is, the perhaps yet greater difficulty +to the patient to resolutely step out of the ranks of ordinary people +and take up the position of one deficient in a sense, the +mortifications which have to be endured again and again both from the +ignorance of strangers and the mistaken sympathy of friends--all these +make up the special trial of one who becomes by degrees the subject of +a chronic affliction. No sensitive person can possibly pass through +this fiery trial unchanged. Such an experience must either refine or +harden; must either strengthen the powers of endurance or break down +the mind to querulous ill-temper; must either make self the centre of +creation or greatly add to the power of putting personal interests +aside for the sake of wider and more unselfish thoughts and feelings. +Which class of influences Harriet Martineau accepted from her trial +the history of her courageous, resolute life-work, and her devotion to +truth and duty as she saw them, will sufficiently show. + +How much she suffered in mind was quite unknown to her family at the +time. She was always reserved in speaking about her own feelings and +emotions to her mother, and in this particular case Mrs. Martineau, +with the kindest intentions, discouraged, as far as possible, all +recognition of the growing infirmity. The society of Norwich had never +been very attractive to the young girl, who was above the average in +natural abilities, and still further removed from the petty and +frivolous gossip of the commonplace evening party, by the extensive +and elevating course of study through which her mind had passed. Had +she been well able to hear, she could have quietly accepted what such +intercourse could give her. This would have been much. Kindliness and +good feeling, common sense, and ideas about man and his circumstances, +are to be enjoyed and gained quite as much in ordinary as in what is +commonly called intellectual society. But in the freshness of her +sensitive suffering Harriet shrank from the Norwich evening parties. +Her mother, however, insisted upon her taking her full share of +visiting. + +The case was made worse by the customary errors in the treatment of +deaf persons; namely, the endeavoring to keep up the illusion that she +was not deaf, the occasional assurances that she could hear as well as +ever if it were not for her habits of abstraction, and so forth, and +the imploring her to always ask when she did not hear what was said, +followed by scoldings (kindly meant, but none the less irritating to +the object) when it was found that she had been silently losing the +larger part of a conversation. False pride, pretence, and selfish +exactions were thus sought to be nourished in her; while the blessings +of an open recognition of her trouble, and a full and free sympathy +with her pain and her difficulty in learning to bear it, were at the +same time withheld. + +I have spoken of this method of treatment of such a case as erroneous. +But in such a matter only those who have gone through the experience +and have come out of it at last, as she did, with the moral nature +strengthened, and the power of self-management increased, can be really +competent to express an opinion upon the proper method of behavior to +similar sufferers. I hasten to add, therefore, that in substance the +view that I have given is that expressed in Harriet Martineau's _Letter +to the Deaf_, published in 1834. In that remarkable fragment of +autobiography she appealed to the large number of people who suffered +like herself, to insist upon the frank recognition of their infirmity, +and to themselves acquiesce with patience in all the deprivations and +mortifications which the loss of a sense must bring. The revelation in +this essay of her own sufferings is most touching; and very noble and +beautiful is the way in which she urges that the misery must be met, +and the humiliation must be turned aside, by no other means than +courage, candor, patience, and an unselfish determination to consider +first the convenience and happiness of others instead of the sufferer's +own. + + "Instead of putting the singularity out of sight we should + acknowledge it in words, prepare for it in habits, and act upon it + in social intercourse. Thus only can we save others from being + uneasy in our presence, and sad when they think of us. That we can + thus alone make ourselves sought and beloved is an inferior + consideration, though an important one to us, to whom warmth and + kindness are as peculiarly animating as sunshine to the caged + bird. This frankness, simplicity, and cheerfulness can only grow + out of a perfect acquiescence in our circumstances. Submission is + not enough. Pride fails at the most critical moment. But hearty + acquiescence cannot fail to bring forth cheerfulness. The thrill + of delight which arises during the ready agreement to profit by + pain (emphatically the joy with which no stranger intermeddleth) + must subside like all other emotions; but it does not depart + without leaving the spirit lightened and cheered; and every + visitation leaves it in a more genial state than the last.... I + had infinitely rather bear the perpetual sense of privation than + become unaware of anything which is true--of my intellectual + deficiences, of my disqualifications for society, of my errors in + matter of fact, and of the burdens that I necessarily impose on + those who surround me. We can never get beyond the necessity of + keeping in full view the worst and the best that can be made of + our lot. The worst is either to sink under the trial or to be made + callous by it. The best is to be as wise as possible under a great + disability, and as happy as possible under a great privation." + +It is essential, for a correct understanding of her character, that +this great trial of her youth should be presented amidst the moulding +influences of that time with as much strength as it was experienced. +But it is difficult, within the necessary limits of quotation, to +convey an idea to the reader of either the intensity and bitterness of +the suffering revealed, or of the firmness and beauty of the spirit +with which the trial was met. Nor was the advice that she gave to +others mere talk, which she herself never put in practice. If her +family did not realize at the time how deeply she suffered, still less +could her friends in later life discover by anything in her manners +that her soul had been so searched and her spirits so tried. So +frankly and candidly, and with such an utter absence of affectation, +did she accept this condition of her life, that those around her +hardly realized that she felt it as a deprivation; and a few lines in +her autobiography, in which she mentions how conscious she was of +intellectual fatigue from the lack of those distractions to the mind +which enter continually through the normal ear, came like a painful +shock to her friends, making them feel that they had been unconscious +of a need ever present with her throughout life. + +For some time after the deafness began, she did not use an +ear-trumpet. Like many in a similar position, she persuaded herself +that her deafness was not sufficiently great to cause any considerable +inconvenience to others in conversation. At length, however, she was +enlightened upon this point. An account appeared in a Unitarian paper +of two remarkable cures of deafness by galvanism, and Harriet's +friends persuaded her to try this new remedy. For a brief while, hope +was revived in her; the treatment threw her into a state of nervous +fever, during which she regained considerable sensibility in the organ +of hearing. The improvement was very temporary, but it lasted +sufficiently long to let her know how much her friends had been +straining their throats for her sake. From that time she invariably +carried and used an ear-trumpet, commencing with an india-rubber tube, +with a cup at the end for the speaker to take into his hand, but +afterwards employing an ordinary stiff trumpet. + +Into this existence, which had hitherto been so full of sadness, there +came at length the bright-tinted and vivid shower of light, which +means so much to a woman. Love came to brighten the life so dark +hitherto for lack of that sunshine. Much as it is to any woman to know +herself beloved by the man whom she loves, to Harriet Martineau it was +even more than to most. It was not only that her character was a +strong one, and that to such a nature all influences that are accepted +become powerful forces, but besides this she had always loved more +than she had been loved; and her self-esteem had been systematically +suppressed by her mother's stern discipline, and afterwards injured by +the mortifications to which the on-coming of her deafness gave rise. +How much, in such a case, it must have been, when the hour at last +came for the history of the heart to be written! How delightful the +time when she could cherish in her thoughts a love which was at once +an equal friendship and a vivid passion! How great the revolution in +her mind when she found that the man whom she could love would choose +her from all the world of women to be his dearest, the partner of his +life! + +It would be a proof, if proof were needed at this time of day, that it +is well-nigh impossible for any person to give a candid, full and +unerring record of his own past, and the circumstances in it which +have most influenced his development, to turn from the brief and +cursory record which Harriet Martineau's autobiography gives of this +attachment, to the complete story as I have it to tell, here and in a +future chapter. + +The strongest of all the family affections of her childhood and youth +was that which she felt for her brother James. He was two years +younger than herself. They had been playmates in childhood, and +companions in study later on. Harriet's first attraction to Mr. +Worthington was that he was her brother's friend. The two young men +were fellow-students at college, preparing for the Unitarian ministry. +Worthington was already well known to Harriet from her brother's +letters before she saw him. He then went on a visit to Norwich, to +spend a part of the vacation with James, and the interest which the +friend and the sister already felt in each other, from their mutual +affection for the brother, soon ripened into love. This was, I +believe, in 1822, when she was twenty years old. + +Her father and mother looked not unkindly upon the dawning of this +affection. The brother, however, who knew the two so well, felt quite +certain that they were not suited for each other. Harriet was of a +strong, decided temper, even somewhat arbitrary and hasty, quick in +her judgments, and firm in her opinions. The temperament of +Worthington, on the other hand, was, I am told, gentle, impressionable +and sensitive in the extreme. He was highly conscientious, and +ultra-tender in his treatment of the characters and opinions of +others. The two seemed in many respects the antipodes of each other. +He who knew them both best was convinced that they would not be happy +together, and that opinion he has never changed. + +It is above all things difficult to predict beforehand whether two +apparently antagonistic characters will really clash and jar in the +close union of married life, or whether, on the contrary, the +deficiencies of the one will be supplemented by those opposite +tendencies which are rather in excess in the other. It is notorious +that marriages are seldom perfect matches in the view of outsiders; +the incongruities in the temperaments and the habits of life and +thought, are more easily discerned than the fusing influence of ardent +love can be measured. Nor, indeed, can the changes which will be +worked in the disposition by a surrender to the free play of emotion +be accurately foreseen. Considerations such as these, however, do not +have much weight in the mind of a young man whose experience of the +mysteries of the human heart is yet to come; and James Martineau was +strongly averse to the engagement of his sister and his friend. Their +attachment was not then permitted to become an engagement. Worthington +was poor--was still only a student--Harriet was supposed, at that +time, to be well portioned; the sensitive temperament of the young +lover felt the variety of discouragements placed in the path of his +affection, and so that affection which should have brought only joy +became, in fact, to Harriet the cause of sorrow, suspense and anxiety. +Yet its vivifying influence was felt, and the true happiness which is +inseparable from mutual love, however the emotion be checked and +denied its full expression, was not lacking. For some insight into +what Harriet Martineau knew and felt of love, we must look elsewhere +than in the formal record of the Autobiography.[3] But this, like all +the other chief events of her life, has found a place in her works +under a thin veiling of her personality. Let us see from one of her +early essays how Harriet Martineau learned to regard love. The essay +is called "In a Hermit's Cave." + + [3] Mr. H. G. Atkinson writes to me: "She had written much + more at length (than is published) in her Autobiography about + her courtship; but she consulted me about publishing it, and + I advised her not to do so--the matter counted for so little + in such a life as hers." The quotation which I give here + shows for what it did really count in the history of her + mental development. But so difficult must it needs be for the + writer of an autobiography to speak frankly of the more + sacred experiences of the life, that it is not surprising + that Harriet Martineau "destroyed what she had written," when + so advised by the friend whom she consulted. I need only add + that the many new details about the facts of this matter, + which I am able to give, I have received from two of her own + generation, both of whom were very intimate friends of hers + at the time when all this occurred. + + "The place was not ill-chosen by the holy man, if the + circumstances could but have been adapted to that highest + worship--the service of the life.... But there is yet wanting the + altar of the human heart, on which alone a fire is kindled from + above to shine in the faces of all true worshippers for ever. + Where this flame, the glow of human love, is burning, there is the + temple of worship, be it only beside the humblest village hearth: + where it has not been kindled there is no sanctuary; and the + loftiest amphitheatre of mountains, lighted up by the ever-burning + stars, is no more the dwelling-place of Jehovah than the Temple of + Solomon before it was filled with the glory of the Presence.... + + "Yes, Love is worship, authorized and approved.... Many are the + gradations through which this service rises until it has reached + that on which God has bestowed His most manifest benediction, on + which Jesus smiled at Cana, but which the devotee presumed to + decline. Not more express were the ordinances of Sinai than the + Divine provisions for wedded love; never was it more certain that + Jehovah benignantly regarded the festivals of His people than it + is daily that He has appointed those mutual rejoicings of the + affections, which need but to be referred to Him to become a holy + homage. Yet there have been many who pronounce common that which + God has purified, and reject or disdain that which He has + proffered and blest. How ignorant must such be of the growth of + that within! How unobservant of what passes without! Would that + all could know how from the first flow of the affections, until + they are shed abroad in their plentitude, the purposes of creation + become fulfilled. Would that all could know how, by this mighty + impulse, new strength is given to every power; how the intellect + is vivified and enlarged; how the spirit becomes bold to explore + the path of life, and clear-sighted to discern its issues.... For + that piety which has humanity for its object--must not that heart + feel most of which tenderness has become the element? Must not the + spirit which is most exercised in hope and fear be most familiar + with hope and fear wherever found? + + "How distinctly I saw all this in those who are now sanctifying + their first Sabbath of wedded love.... The one was at peace with + all that world which had appeared so long at war with him. He + feared nothing, he possessed all; and of the overflowings of his + love he could spare to every living thing. The other thought of no + world but the bright one above, and the quiet one before her, in + each of which dwelt one in whom she had perfect trust.... In her + the progression has been so regular, and the work so perfect, that + any return to the former perturbations of her spirit seems + impossible. She entered upon a new life when her love began; and + it is as easy to conceive that there is one Life Giver to the + body, and another to the spirit, as that this progression is not + the highest work of God on earth, and its results abounding to His + praise.... To those who know them as I know them, they appear + already possessed of an experience in comparison with which it + would appear little to have looked abroad from the Andes, or + explored the treasure-caves of the deep, or to have conversed with + every nation under the sun. If they could see all that the eyes of + the firmament look upon, and hear all the whispered secrets that + the roving winds bear in their bosoms, they could learn but little + new; for the deepest mysteries are those of human love, and the + vastest knowledge is that of the human heart." + +Even more vividly, at a later period, she told something of her +experiences in one of her fictions, under the guise of a conversation +between a young husband and wife:-- + + "Do you really think there are any people that have passed through + life without knowing what that moment was, that stir in one's + heart on being first sure that one is beloved? It is most like the + soul getting free of the body and rushing into Paradise, I should + think. Do you suppose anybody ever lived a life without having + felt this?" + + Walter feared it might be so; but, if so, a man missed the moment + that made a man of one that was but an unthinking creature before; + and a woman the moment best worth living for.... + + "It seems to me," said Effie, "that though God has kindly given + this token of blessedness to all--or to so many that we may nearly + say all--without distinction of great or humble, rich or poor, the + great and the lowly use themselves to the opposite faults. The + great do not seem to think it the most natural thing to marry + where they first love; and the lowly are too ready to love." + + "That is because the great have too many things to look to besides + love; and the lowly have too few. The rich have their lighted + palaces to bask in, as well as the sunshine; and they must have a + host of admirers, as well as one bosom friend. And when the poor + man finds that there is one bliss that no power on earth can shut + him out from, and one that drives out all evils for the time--one + that makes him forget the noon-day heats, and one that tempers the + keen north wind, and makes him walk at his full height when his + superiors lounge past him in the street--no wonder he is eager to + meet it, and jogs the time-glass to make it come at the soonest. + If such a man is imprudent, I had rather be he than one that first + lets it slip through cowardice, and would then bring it back to + gratify his low ambition!" + + "And for those who let it go by for conscience sake, and do not + ask for it again?" + + "Why, they are happy in having learned what _the one feeling is + that life is worth living for_. They may make themselves happy upon + it for ever, after that. Oh! Effie, you would not believe, nothing + could make you believe, what I was the day before and the day after + I saw that sudden change of look of yours that told me all. The one + day, I was shrinking inwardly from everything I had to do, and + every word of my father's, and everybody I met; and was always + trying to make myself happy in myself alone, with the sense of God + being near me and with me. The other day, I looked down upon + everybody, in a kindly way; and yet I looked up to them, too, for I + felt a respect that I never knew before for all that were suffering + and enjoying; and I felt as if I could have brought the whole world + nearer to God, if they would have listened to me. I shall never + forget the best moment of all--when my mind had suddenly ceased + being in a great tumult, which had as much pain as pleasure in it. + When I said distinctly to myself, 'She loves me,' Heaven came down + round about me that minute."[4] + + [4] _Illustrations of Political Economy_: "A Tale of the + Tyne," pp. 54, _et seq._ This passage is doubly interesting + from the fact that Mr. Malthus, the discoverer of the + Population Law, sent specially to thank her for having + written it. + +This tells how Harriet Martineau could love in her youth. Perhaps the +stream ran all the more powerfully for its course being checked; for +it was over three years after she met and became attached to Mr. +Worthington before their love was allowed to be declared, and their +engagement was permitted--a long period for hope and fear to do their +painful office in the soul, a long test of the reality of the love on +both sides. + +Her extensive and deep studies, her sufferings and inward strivings +from her deafness, and the joys and anxieties of her love, were the +chief moulding influences of her early womanhood. We shall soon see +how she came to seek expression for the results of all these in +literature. + + + + +CHAPTER III. + +EARLIEST WRITINGS. + + +Harriet Martineau's first attempt to write for publication was made in +the same year that her acquaintance with Mr. Worthington was formed; in +1822, when she was twenty years old. It was, apparently, at the close +of the vacation in which Worthington had visited his friend Martineau +at Norwich, that she commenced a paper with the design of offering it +to the Unitarian magazine, _The Monthly Repository_. She had told James +that when he had returned to college she should be miserable, and he +had, with equal kindness and sense, advised her to try to forget her +feelings about the parting by an attempt at authorship. On a bright +September morning, therefore, when she had seen him start by the early +coach, soon after six, she sat down in her own room with a supply of +foolscap paper before her to write her first article. + +The account which she--writing from memory--gives in her autobiography, +of this little transaction, is curiously inaccurate, as far as the +trifling details are concerned. Her own statement is that she took +the letter "V" for her signature, and that she found her paper +printed in the next number of the magazine, "and in the 'Notices to +Correspondents' a request to hear more from 'V' of Norwich." Her little +errors about these facts must be corrected, because the truth of the +matter is at once suggestive and amusing. + +The article may be found in the _Monthly Repository_ for October, 1822. +It is signed, not "V," but "Discipulus." This, it need hardly be +pointed out, is the _masculine_ form of the Latin for learner, or +apprentice. The note in the correspondents' column is not in that same +month's magazine; but in the number for the succeeding month, the +editor says in his answers to correspondents: "The continuation of +'Discipulus' has come to hand. _His_ other proposed communications will +probably be acceptable." If more proofs than these were required that +the youthful authoress had presented herself to her editor in a manly +disguise, it would be furnished by a passage in one of these +"Discipulus" articles, in which she definitely figures herself as a +masculine writer, speaking of "our sex" (_i.e._ the male sex) as a man +would do. The interesting fact is thus disclosed that Harriet Martineau +adds another to the group of the most eminent women writers of this +century who thought it necessary to assume the masculine sex in order +to obtain a fair hearing and an impartial judgment for their earliest +work. Surely, as our "Discipulus" takes her place in this list with +George Eliot, George Sand, and Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, a great +deal is disclosed to us about how women in the past have had to make +their way to recognition _against the tide_ of public opinion. + +That first printed essay is interesting because it was the precursor +of so long a course of literary work, rather than for itself. Yet it +is not without its own interest, and is very far indeed from being the +crude, imperfect performance of the ordinary amateur. The subject is +"Female Writers of Practical Divinity." Here are the first words that +Harriet Martineau uttered through the press: + +"I do not know whether it has been remarked by others as well as +myself, that some of the finest and most useful English works on the +subject of practical Divinity are by female authors. I suppose it is +owing to the peculiar susceptibility of the female mind, and its +consequent warmth of feeling, that its productions, when they are +really valuable, find a more ready way to the heart than those of the +other sex; and it gives me great pleasure to see women gifted with +superior talents applying those talents to promote the cause of +religion and virtue." + +There is nothing remarkable in the literary form of this first +article. How soon she came to have a style of her own, vivid, +stirring, and instinct with a powerful individuality, may have been +gathered already from the quotations given in our last chapter. But in +her first paper the style is coldly correct; imitative of good but +severe models, and displaying none of the writer's individuality. Two +points as regards the matter of the essay are of special interest, and +thoroughly characteristic. It is interesting, in the first place, to +know that she who was destined to do probably more than any other one +woman of her century for the enlargement of the sphere of her sex in +the field of letters, should have written her first article on the +subject of the capacity of women to teach through their writings. The +second point worth noticing is that her idea of "practical Divinity" +is simply, good conduct. Theological disputation and dogma do not +disturb her pages. Her view of practical Divinity is that it teaches +morals; and it is largely because the women to whose writings she +draws attention have occupied themselves with the attempt to trace out +rules of conduct, that she is interested in their writings, and +rejoices in their labors. Indeed, she only alludes once to the +opinions on dogmatic theology of the writers whom she quotes, and then +she does it only to put aside with scorn the idea that morality and +teaching should be rejected because of differences upon points of +theology. + +Encouraged by the few stately words with which the editor of the +_Repository_ had received the offer of more contributions, "Discipulus" +continued his literary labors, and the result appeared in a paper on +"Female Education," published in the _Monthly Repository_ of February, +1823. This is a noble and powerful appeal for the higher education of +girls and the full development of all the powers of our sex. It is +written with gentleness and tact, but it courageously asserts and +demands much that was strange indeed to the tone of that day, though it +has become quite commonplace in ours. + +The author (supposed to be a man, be it remembered,) disclaimed any +intention of proving that the minds of women were equal to those of +men, but only desired to show that what little powers the female +intellect might possess should be fully cultivated. Nevertheless, the +fact was pointed out that women had seldom had a chance of showing how +near they might be able to equal men intellectually, for while the lad +was at the higher school and college, preparing his mind for a future, +"the girl is probably confined to low pursuits, her aspirings after +knowledge are subdued, she is taught to believe that solid information +is unbecoming her sex; almost her whole time is expended on low +accomplishments, and thus, before she is sensible of her powers, they +are checked in their growth and chained down to mean objects, to rise +no more; and when the natural consequences of this mode of treatment +are seen, all mankind agree that the abilities of women are far +inferior to those of men." Having shown reasons to believe that women +would take advantage of higher opportunities if such were allowed +them, "Discipulus" maintained in detail that the cultivation of their +minds would improve them for all the accepted feminine duties of life, +charitable, domestic and social, and that the consequent elevation of +the female character would react beneficially on the male; cited the +works of a cluster of eminent authoresses, as showing that women could +think upon "the noblest subjects that can exercise the human mind;" +and closed with the following paragraph, wherein occurred the phrases +by which it is shown that our "Discipulus" of twenty is masquerading +as a man, more decisively even than by the termination of the Latin +_nom de guerre_: + +"I cannot better conclude than with the hope that these examples of +what may be done may excite a noble emulation in _their own_ sex, and +in _ours_ such a conviction of the value of the female mind, as shall +overcome _our_ long-cherished prejudices, and induce _us_ to give _our_ +earnest endeavors to the promotion of _women's_ best interests." + +It is most interesting to thus discover that Harriet Martineau's first +writings were upon that "woman question" which she lived to see make +such wonderful advances, and which she so much forwarded, both by her +direct advocacy, and by the indirect influence of the proof which she +afforded, that a woman may be a thinker upon high topics and a teacher +and leader of men in practical politics, and yet not only be +irreproachable in her private life, but even show herself throughout +it, in the best sense, truly feminine. + +Harriet contributed nothing more to the _Monthly Repository_ after this +(so far as can now be ascertained), for a considerable time. Encouraged +by the success of her first attempts with periodicals, she commenced a +book of a distinctly religious character, which was issued in the +autumn of the same year, 1823, by Hunter, of St. Paul's Churchyard. + +The little volume was published anonymously. Its title-page runs thus: +"_Devotional Exercises_; consisting of Reflections and Prayers for the +use of Young Persons. To which is added an Address on Baptism. By a +lady." + +The character of the work is perhaps sufficiently indicated by the +title. But it would be a mistake to suppose that the book is a +commonplace one. It contains a good deal of dogmatism and many +platitudes. It contains, likewise, however, many a noble thought and +many a high aspiration, expressed in words equally flowing and fervent. +A "Reflection" (something like a short sermon) and a prayer are +supplied for each morning and each evening of the seven days of the +week. She had already attained to such an insight into the human mind +as to recognize that religious devotion is an exercise of the emotions. +Proof, too, is given in this little work of the fullness with which she +realized that true religion must be expressed by service to mankind; to +those nearest to one first, and afterwards to others; and indeed, that +a high sense of social duty, with a fervent and unselfish devotion to +it, _is_ religion, rather than either the spiritual dram-drinking, or +the dogmatic irrationality to which that name of high import is +frequently applied. + +The prayers in this little volume differ much from the supplications +for personal benefits which are commonly called prayers. + +These are rather aspirations, or meditations. The highest moral +attributes, personified in God, are held up for the worship of the +imperfect human creature, with fervent aspiration to approach as +nearly as possible towards that light of unsullied goodness. + +The lack of petitions for material benefits which appears in these +"Devotions" was by no means unconscious, instinctive, or accidental. +She had deliberately given up the practice of praying for personal +benefits, partly because she held that, since it is impossible for us +to foresee how far our highest interests may be served or hindered by +changes in our external circumstances, it is not for us to attempt to +indicate, or even to form a desire, as to what those circumstances +shall be. As regarded the emotional side of her religion, she had come +to prefer to leave herself and her fate to the unquestioned direction +of a higher power. + +But there was more than this in it. In her philosophical studies, she +had, of course, met with the eternal debates of metaphysicians and +theologians on Foreknowledge, Fate, and Freedom of the Will. The +difficult question had, indeed, presented itself to her active and +acute young mind long before those studies began. She remembered that +when she was but eleven years old she found courage to offer her +questionings upon this point to her elder brother Thomas. She asked: +If God foreknew from eternity all the evil deeds that every one of us +should do in our lives, how can He justly punish us for those actions, +when the time comes that we are born, and in due course commit them? +Her brother replied merely that she was not yet old enough to +understand the point. The answer did not satisfy the child. She knew +that if she were old enough to feel the difficulty, she must also be +mentally fit to receive some kind of explanation. But under the +pastoral influence of Dr. Carpenter, the emotional side of her +religion was cultivated, and such doubts and difficulties of the +reason were put away for the time. + +Not for all time, however, could the problem be shirked by so active, +logical, and earnest a mind. It recurred to her when she was left to +her own spiritual guidance. Long before the date of these "Devotions" +she had fought out the battle in her own mind, and had reached the +standpoint from which her Prayers are written. She had convinced +herself of the truth of the Necessitarian doctrine, that we are what +we are, we do what we do, because of the impulses given by our +previous training and circumstances; and that the way to amend any +human beings or all mankind is to improve their education, and to give +them good surroundings and influences, and mental associations; in +short, that physical and psychological phenomena alike depend upon +antecedent phenomena, called causes. + +As soon as she had thus settled her mind in the doctrine of Necessity, +she perceived that prayer, in the ordinary sense of the term, had +become impossible. If it be believed that all that happens in the +world is the consequence of the course of the events which have +happened before, it is clear that no petitions can alter the state of +things at any given moment. A belief in the efficacy of "besieging +Heaven with prayers" implies a supposition that a Supreme Ruler of the +Universe interferes arbitrarily with the sequence of events. Those +whose minds are clear that no such arbitrary interference ever does +take place, but that, on the contrary, like events always and +invariably follow from like causes, cannot rationally ask for this +fundamental rule of the government of the universe to be set aside for +their behoof; even although they may believe in an all-powerful Divine +Ruler, who has appointed this sequence of events for the law under +which His creatures shall live and develop. + +Still, however, Harriet Martineau supplicated for spiritual benefits, +as we have seen in the little volume of _Devotional Exercises_. These +aspirations not only gave her an emotional satisfaction, but were, she +then thought, justifiable on necessitarian principles; for each time +that we place our minds in a certain attitude we increase their "set" +in the same direction; and she believed at that time that a holy life +was in this way aided by frequent reflections on and aspirations +towards the highest ideal of holiness personified in the name of God. + +Her religious belief was, then, pure Theism. To her, it was still very +good to be a worshipper of Jehovah, the Eternal Presence, the +Ever-living Supreme; and Jesus was His Messenger, the highest type +that He had ever permitted to be revealed to man of the excellencies +of the divine nature. But there was no Atonement, no personal Evil +One, no hell, no verbally-inspired revelation in her creed. + +It will be unnecessary to say more about her theological beliefs till +the next twenty years have been recorded, for in that period there was +substantially no change in her views. There did come, indeed, a change +in her method of self-management and in her opinions as to the way in +which religious feelings should affect daily life. She soon concluded +that we are best when least self-conscious about our own goodness, and +that, therefore, we should rely upon receiving inspiration to right +and elevated feelings from passing influences, and should refrain from +putting our minds, by a regular exercise of volition, into affected +postures in anticipation of those high emotions which we cannot +command. Under these beliefs she soon ceased all formal prayer. +Meantime she was still, at twenty-one years old, in the condition of +mind to write _Devotional Exercises_. + +The little book met with a favorable acceptance among the Unitarians, +and speedily went into the second edition. Thus encouraged, Harriet +began another volume of the same character. Such work could not +proceed very fast, however, for her domestic duties were not light, +and her writing was still looked upon in her family as a mere +recreation. She labored under all the disadvantages of the amateur. +But events soon began to crowd into her life to alter this view of the +case, and to prepare the way for her beginning to do the work of her +life in the only fashion in which such labor can be effectively +carried on--as a serious occupation, the principal feature of every +day's duties. + +After a long period of poverty and distress, caused by the Napoleonic +wars, England, in 1824, experienced the special dangers of a time of +rapidly increasing wealth. There was more real wealth in the country, +owing to the expansion of trade, which followed on the re-opening of +the continent to our commerce, but speculation made this development +appear far greater than it was in reality. + +There was, at that time, no sort of check upon the issue of paper +money. Not only did the Bank of England send out notes without limit; +not only could every established bank multiply its drafts recklessly; +but any small tradesman who pleased might embark in the same business, +and put forth paper money without check or control. Thus there was +money in abundance, the rate of interest was low, and prices rose. + +The natural and inevitable consequence of this state of things, at a +moment when trade was suddenly revived, was a rage for speculation. +Not only merchants and manufacturers were seized with this epidemic; +the desire for higher profits than could be obtained by quiet and +perfectly safe investments spread amongst every class. "As for what +the speculation was like, it can hardly be recorded on the open page +of history without a blush. Besides the joint-stock companies who +undertook baking, washing, baths, life insurance, brewing, +coal-portage, wool-growing, and the like, there was such a rage for +steam navigation, canals and railroads, that in the session of 1825, +438 petitions for private Bills were presented, and 286 private Acts +were passed.... It is on record that a single share of a mine on which +L70 had been paid, yielded 200 per cent, having risen speedily to a +premium of L1400 per share."[5] + + [5] Harriet Martineau's _History of the Peace_, book ii, + p. 8. + +Periods of such inflation invariably and necessarily close in scenes +of disaster. Gold becomes scarce; engagements that have been +recklessly entered into cannot be met; goods have been produced in +response to a speculative instead of a legitimate demand, and +therefore will not sell; the locked-up capital cannot be released, nor +can it be temporarily supplied, except upon ruinous terms. Panic +commences; it spreads over the business world like fire over the dry +prairies. The badly-managed banks and the most speculative business +houses begin to totter; the weakest of them fall, and the crash brings +down others like a house of cards; and in the depreciation of goods +and the disappearance of capital, the prudent, sagacious and honorable +merchant suffers for the folly, the recklessness, the avarice and the +dishonesty of others. + +Such a crash came, from such causes, in the early winter of 1825. +Harriet Martineau's father was one of those injured by the panic, +without having been a party to the errors which produced it. He had +resisted the speculative mania, and allowed it to sweep by him to its +flood. It was, therefore, by no fault of his own that he was caught by +the ebbing wave, and carried backwards, to be stranded in the +shallows. His house did not fail; but the struggle was a cruel one for +many months. How severe the crisis was may be judged from the fact +that between sixty and seventy banks stopped payment within six weeks. + +The strain of this business anxiety told heavily upon the already +delicate health of Mr. Thomas Martineau. In the early spring of 1826 +it became clear that his days were numbered. Up to the commencement of +that troubled winter it had been supposed that his daughters would be +amply provided for in the event of his death. But so much had been +lost in the crisis, that he found himself, in his last weeks, +compelled to alter his will, and was only able to leave to his wife +and daughters a bare maintenance. He lingered on till June, and in +that month he died. + +It was while Mr. Martineau lay ill, that Harriet's second book, +_Addresses, Prayers, and Hymns_, passed through the press, and the +dying father took great interest and found great comfort in his child's +work. Much of it he must have read with feelings rendered solemn by his +situation. + +This little volume so closely resembles the _Devotional Exercises_, +that it is unnecessary to refer to it at greater length. The hymns, +which are the special feature of this volume, do not call for much +notice. They are not quite commonplace; but verse was not Harriet's +natural medium of expression: she wrote a considerable quantity of it +in her early days, as most young authors do; but she soon came to see +for herself that her gift of expression in its most elevated form was +rather that which makes the orator than the poet. + +The comparative poverty to which the family were reduced on Mr. +Martineau's death at once freed Harriet, to a considerable extent, +from the obstacles which had previously been interposed to her +spending time in writing. It was still far from being recognized that +literature was to be her profession; but it was obvious that if her +pen could bring any small additions to her income they would be very +serviceable. A friend gave her an introduction to Mr. Houlston, then +publishing at Wellington, Shropshire; and a few little tales, which +she had lying by, were offered to him. He accepted them, issued them +in tiny volumes, and paid her five guineas for the copyright of each +story. This, then, was the beginning of Harriet Martineau's +professional authorship. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. + +GRIEF STRUGGLE AND PROGRESS. + + +The loss of pecuniary position did something more for Harriet +Martineau besides opening the way to work in literature. The knowledge +that she was now poor gave her lover courage to declare himself, and +to seek her for his wife. Poverty, therefore, brought her that +experience which is so much in a woman's mental history, however +little it, perhaps, goes for in a man's. A love in youth, fervent, +powerful, and pure; a love, happy and successful in the essential +point that it is reciprocated by its object, however fate may deny it +outward fruition; such a love once filling a woman's soul, sweetens it +and preserves it for her whole life through. Pity the shriveled and +decayed old hearts which were not thus embalmed in youth! Harriet +Martineau did have this precious experience; and her womanliness of +nature remained fresh and true and sweet to the end of her days +because of it. + +There may be many married women old maids in heart--to be so is the +punishment of those who marry without love; and there are many, like +Harriet Martineau, who are single in life, but whose hearts have been +mated, and so made alive. I do not know that she would have gained by +marriage, in any way, except in the chance of motherhood, a yet +greater fact than love itself to a woman. On the other hand, her work +must have been hindered by the duties of married life, even if her +marriage had been thoroughly happy, and her lot free from exceptional +material cares. Matronage is a profession in itself. The duties of a +wife and mother, as domestic life is at present arranged, absorb much +time and strength, and so diminish the possibilities of intellectual +labor. Moreover, the laws regulating marriage are still, and fifty +years ago were far more, in a very bad state; and, leaving a woman +wholly dependent for fair treatment, whether as a wife or mother, upon +the mercy and goodness of the man she marries, justify Harriet +Martineau's observation: "The older I have grown, the more serious +have seemed to me the evils and disadvantages of married life, as it +exists among us at this time." The wife who is beloved and treated as +an equal partner in life, the mother whose natural rights in the +guardianship of her family are respected, the mistress of a home in +which she is the sunshine of husband and children, must ever be the +happiest of women. But far better is it to be as Harriet Martineau +was--a widow of the heart by death--than to have the affections torn +through long years by neglect and cruelty, springing less from natural +badness than from the evil teaching of vile laws and customs. Fifty +years ago marriage was a dangerous step for a woman; and Harriet +Martineau had reason for saying at last: "Thus, I am not only entirely +satisfied with my lot, but think it the very best for me." + +For a while, however, the happy prospect of a beloved wifehood cheered +her struggling and anxious life. But it was not for long. Her actual +and acknowledged engagement lasted, I believe, only a few months. Mr. +Worthington had, at this time, but lately completed his course as a +Divinity student; and he had been appointed to the joint charge of a +very large Unitarian Church at Manchester. Conscientiousness was one +of the most marked features of his character, according to his college +friend; and Harriet herself declares that she "venerated his moral +nature." He had thrown himself into the very heavy pastoral work +committed to him with all the devotion of this high characteristic. +Moreover, the long doubt and suspense of his love for her before their +engagement, had, doubtless, worked unfavorably upon his nervous +system. The end of it was, that he was suddenly seized with a brain +fever, in which he became delirious. He was removed to his father's +home in Leicestershire, to be nursed; and in process of time, the +fever was subdued. But the mind did not regain its balance. He was +still, as she says, "insane"; but from one of her dear and early +friends, I hear that "his family did not call it insanity,"--only a +feeble and unhinged state, from which recovery might have been +expected hopefully. + +In this state of things it was thought desirable that the woman he +loved should be brought to see him. The beloved presence, his +physician believed, might revive old impressions and happy +anticipations, and might be the one thing needful to induce a +favorable change in his condition. His mother wrote to beg Harriet +Martineau to come to him; Harriet eagerly sought her mother's +permission to hasten to his side; and Mrs. Martineau forbade her +daughter to go. The old habit of obedience to her mother, and the +early implanted ideas of filial duty, were too strong for Harriet at +once to break through them; she did not defy her mother and go; and in +a few more weeks--terrible weeks of doubt and mental storm they must +have been, between her love and her obedience dragging her different +ways--Worthington died, and left her to her life of heart-widowhood, +darkened by this shadow of arbitrary separation to the last. "The +calamity was aggravated to me," she says, "by the unaccountable +insults I received from his family, whom I had never seen. Years +after, the mystery was explained. They had been given to understand, +by cautious insinuation, that I was actually engaged to another while +receiving my friend's addresses." They had not appreciated how +submissive she was as a daughter; and their belief that her love was +insincere was not an unnatural one in the circumstances. + +Had those relatives of the dead lover lived to read Harriet Martineau's +Autobiography, they would not have been made to think differently of +her feelings towards him; for there she goes calmly on, after the +passage above quoted, to say only: "Considering what I was in those +days, it was happiest for us both that our union was prevented." As we +have had to look outside the Autobiography for a record of what love +was to her, and what it did for her, so we must seek elsewhere for the +cry of agony which tells how she felt her loss. But the record exists; +it is found in an essay entitled _In a Death Chamber_, one of that +autobiographical series published in _The Monthly Repository_, from +which I have previously quoted. + +This beautiful piece of writing--far more of a poem in essence than +anything which she ever published in verse--is spoiled as a +composition by mutilation in quoting. But its length leaves me no +option but to select from it only a few of the more confessional +passages, to aid us in our psychological study: + + This weary watch! In watching by the couch of another there is no + weariness; but this lonely tending of one's own sick heart is more + than the worn-out spirit can bear. What an age of woe since the + midnight clock gave warning that my first day of loneliness was + beginning--to others a Sabbath, to me a day of expiation. + + All is dull, cold and dreary before me, until I also can escape to + the region where there is no bereavement, no blasting root and + branch, no rending of the heart-strings. What is aught to me, in + the midst of this all-pervading, thrilling torture, when all I + want is to be dead? The future is loathsome, and I will not look + upon it; the past, too, which it breaks my heart to think + about--what has it been? It might have been happy, if there is + such a thing as happiness; but I myself embittered it at the time, + and for ever. What a folly has mine been! Multitudes of sins now + rise up in the shape of besetting griefs. Looks of rebuke from + those now in the grave; thoughts which they would have rebuked if + they had known them; moments of anger, of coldness; sympathy + withheld when looked for; repression of its signs through selfish + pride; and worse, far worse even than this ... all comes over me + now. O! if there be pity, if there be pardon, let it come in the + form of insensibility; for these long echoes of condemnation will + make me desperate. + + But was there ever human love unwithered by crime--by crime of + which no human law takes cognizance, but the unwritten everlasting + laws of the affections? Many will call me thus innocent. The + departed breathed out thanks and blessing, and I felt them not + then as reproaches. If, indeed, I am only as others, shame, shame + on the impurity of human affections; or, rather, alas! for the + infirmity of the human heart! For I know not that I could love + more than I have loved. + + Since the love itself is wrecked, let me gather up its relics, and + guard them more tenderly, more steadily, more gratefully. This + seems to open up glimpses of peace. O grant me power to retain + them--the light and music of emotion, the flow of domestic wisdom + and chastened mirth, the life-long watchfulness of benevolence, + the thousand thoughts--are these gone in their reality? Must I + forget them as others forget? + + If I were to see _my_ departed one--that insensible, wasted + form--standing before me as it was wont to stand, with whom would + I exchange my joy?... But it is not possible to lose all. The + shadows of the past may have as great power as their substance + ever had, and the spirit of human love may ever be nigh, invested + with a majesty worthy to succeed the lustre of its mortal days. + +This is the poem of Harriet Martineau's love. This is what remains to +show that the girl whose intellect was so powerful, and who had +habitually and of choice exercised her mind upon the most abstruse +studies and the most difficult thoughts which can engage the +attention, could nevertheless feel at least as fervently, and deliver +herself up to her emotions at least as fully, as any feeble, ignorant, +or narrow-minded creature that ever lived. Surely, with the truth +emphasized by such an example, the common but stupid delusion that the +development of the intellect diminishes the capacity for passion and +tenderness, must fade away! This girl's mental power and her mental +culture were both unusually large; but here is the core of her heart, +and is it not verily womanly? + +This experience did more than give her hours of happiness; it did more +than bring to her that enlargement of the spirit which she so well +described; for it taught her to appreciate, and to properly value, the +influence of the emotions in life. Never in one of her works, never in +a single phrase, is she found guilty of that blasphemy against the +individual affections, into which some who have yet sought to pose as +high priests of the religion of humanity have fallen and lost +themselves. In all her writings one finds the continual recognition of +the great truth which was in the mind of him who said: "If a man love +not his brother whom he hath seen, how shall he love God whom he hath +not seen?"--a truth of the very first consequence to those who aim at +expressing their religion by service to the progress of mankind. + +The year 1826, to Harriet crowded so full of trouble, came to an end +soon after Mr. Worthington's death. In the following year, though she +was in very bad health, she wrote a vast quantity of manuscript. Some +of it was published at once. Other portions waited in her desk for a +couple of years, when her contributions to _The Monthly Repository_ +recommenced, after a change in its editorship. + +She wrote in the year 1827 various short stories, which were published +by Houlston, of Shrewsbury, without her name on their title-pages. +Their character may be guessed by the fact that they were circulated +as Mrs. Sherwood's writings! In tone, they resemble the ordinary +Sunday-school story-book; but there is a fire, an earnestness, and an +originality often discoverable in them which are enough to mark them +out from common hack-writing. Two of them, _The Rioters_ and _The Turn +Out_, deal with topics of political economy; but the questions were +thought out (very accurately) in her own mind, for at that time she +had never read a book upon the subject. + +These little stories were so successful that the publisher invited her +to write a longer one, which should have her name attached to it. She +went to work, accordingly, and produced a good little tale, of one +hundred and fifty pages of print, which she called _Principle and +Practice_. It recounts the struggles of an orphan family in their +efforts after independence. As in all her writings of this kind, her +own experience is interfused into the fiction. No part of this story +is so interesting as that where a young man who has met with an +accident has to reconcile his mind to the anticipation of life-long +lameness--as she to deafness. The sisters of this orphan family, too, +make money by a kind of fancy-work by which she herself was earning a +few guineas from the wealthier members of her family, namely, by +cutting bags and baskets out of pasteboard, fitting them together with +silk and gold braid, and painting plaques upon their sides. _Principle +and Practice_ was so warmly received in the circle to which it was +suited that the publisher called for a sequel, which was accordingly +written early in the following year. + +There was a vast quantity of writing in all these publications; and, +besides this, she was continually at work with her needle. Such +unremitting sedentary occupation, together with her sorrow, caused a +serious illness, from which she suffered during 1828. It was an +affection of the liver and stomach, for which she went to be treated +by her brother-in-law, Mr. Greenhow, a surgeon at Newcastle-on-Tyne. + +Her remarkable powers of steady application, and her untiring industry, +were always[6] amongst her most noteworthy characteristics--as, +indeed, is proved by the vast quantity of work she achieved. In each +of her various illnesses, friends who had watched with wonder and +alarm how much she wrote, and how unceasingly she worked, either with +pen, or book, or needle in hand, told her that her suffering was +caused by her merciless industry. Her "staying power" was great; she +rarely felt utterly exhausted, and therefore she was impatient of +being told that she had, in fact, over-exerted her strength. +Sometimes, indeed, she admitted that she worked too much, and pleaded +only that she could not help it--that the work needed doing, or that +the thoughts pressed for utterance, and she could not refuse the call +of duty. But more often she said, as in a letter to Mr. Atkinson, +which lies before me, "My best aid and support in the miseries of my +life has been in _work_--in the intellectual labor which I believe has +done me nothing but good." So her immense industry in 1827 may have +seemed to her a relief from her heart-sorrows at the moment; but none +the less it probably was the chief cause of her partial breakdown in +the next year. A blister relieves internal inflammation; but a +succession of such stimuli too long continued will exhaust the +strength, and render the condition more critical than it would have +been without such treatment. + + [6] "I should think there never was such an industrious + lady," said the maid who was with her for the last eleven + years of her life; "when I caught sight of her, just once, + leaning back in her chair, with her arms hanging down, and + looking as though she wasn't even thinking about anything, + it gave me quite a turn. I felt she _must_ be ill to sit + like that!" + +At Newcastle there was a brief cessation from work, under the doctor's +orders. But in the middle of 1828 Harriet began to write again for the +_Repository_, in response to an appeal put forth by the editor for +gratuitous literary aid. That editor was the well-known Unitarian +preacher, William Johnston Fox, of South Place Chapel. Mr. Fox became +Harriet Martineau's first literary friend. He had no money with which +to reward her work for his magazine; but he paid her amply in a course +of frank, full, and generous private criticism and encouragement. "His +correspondence with me," she says, "was unquestionably the occasion, +and, in great measure, the cause, of the greatest intellectual +progress I ever made before the age of thirty." Mr. Fox was so acute a +critic that he ere long predicted that "she would be one of the first +authors of the age if she continued to write;" while, at the same +time, he offered suggestions for improvement, and made corrections in +her work upon occasion. Her advance in literary capacity was now very +rapid. Her style went on improving, as it should do, till her latest +years; but it now first became an _individual_ one, easy, flowing, +forcible, and often most moving and eloquent. + +During the latter half of 1828 and the early part of the succeeding +year, she contributed, more or less, to nearly every monthly number of +the _Repository_, without receiving any payment. She wrote essays, +poems, and so-called reviews, which last, however, were really +thoughtful and original papers, suggested by the subject of a new +book. Some of these contributions were signed "V"; but others, +including all the reviews, were anonymous. + +Most of these articles are on philosophical subjects, and are written +with the calmness of style suitable to logical and argumentative +essays. In the _Repository_ for February, 1829, and the succeeding +month, for instance, there appeared two papers, headed, "On the Agency +of Feelings in the Formation of Habits," which are simply an accurate, +clear, and forcibly-reasoned statement of the philosophical doctrine +of Association, with which that of Necessity is inseparably connected. +These were, it has been already observed, the theories by which she +was learning both to guide her own action and to see that society is +moulded, however unconsciously, as regards most of the individuals +composing it. A clearer statement of the doctrines, or a more forcible +indication of how they can be made to serve as a moral impulse, cannot +be imagined. Here is very different work from _Devotional Exercises_, +or _Principle and Practice_. But it brought its author neither fame +nor money. + +Another piece of work done in 1828, or early in the following year, +was a _Life of Howard_, which was written on a positive commission +from a member of the Committee of Lord Brougham's "Society for the +Diffusion of Useful Knowledge," who promised her thirty pounds for it. +The MS. was at first said to be lost at the office; eventually she +found that its contents were liberally cribbed by the writer of the +_Life_ which was published; but she never received a penny of the +promised payment. These were her times of stress, and struggle, and +suffering, and disappointment, in literature as in ordinary life. Her +great success, when at last it did come, was so sudden that her +previous work was obscured and pushed out of sight in the blaze of +triumph. But these years of labor, unrecognized and almost unrewarded, +must not be left out of our view, if we would judge fairly of her +character. Courage, resolution, self-reliance, determination to +conquer in a field once entered upon, are displayed by her quiet +industrious perseverance through those laborious years. Harriet +Martineau did not make a sudden and easy rush far up the ladder of +fame all at once; her climb, like that of most great men and women, +was arduous and slow, and her final success proved not only that she +had literary ability, but also the strength of character which could +work on while waiting for recognition. + +Fresh trouble was yet impending. After Mr. Martineau's death, his son +Henry remained a partner in the weaving business which the father had +carried on so long; and the incomes (small, but sufficient for a +maintenance) of the widow and unmarried daughters had to be paid out +of the profits of the factory. Just three years after Mr. Martineau's +death, however, in June, 1829, the old house became bankrupt, with but +small assets. Mrs. Martineau and her daughters were thus deprived +suddenly of all means of support. + +The whole family met this final blow to their fortunes with calm +courage. It was soon settled that the two girls who possessed all +their senses should go out to teach; but Harriet could not be set to +work in the same way--for pupils could not easily be found who would +say their lessons into an ear-trumpet. The husband of the lady brought +up by Mrs. Martineau with her youngest daughter tells me that upon +this occasion Harriet's mother said to her adopted child, "I have no +fear for any of my daughters, except poor Harriet; the others can +work, but, with her deafness, I do not know how _she_ can ever earn +her own bread!" + +The first resource for Harriet was fancy work of different kinds. "I +could make shirts and puddings," she declares, "and iron, and mend, +and get my bread by my needle, if necessary--as it was necessary, for +a few months, before I won a better place and occupation with my pen." +During the winter which followed the failure of the old Norwich house, +she spent the entire daylight hours poring over fancy-work, by which +alone she could with certainty earn money. But she did not lay aside +the sterner implement of labor for that bright little bread-winner, +the needle. After dark she began a long day's literary labor in her +own room. + + Every night, I believe, I was writing till two, or even three, in + the morning, obeying always the rule of the house of being present + at the breakfast-table as the clock struck eight. Many a time I + was in such a state of nervous exhaustion and distress that I was + obliged to walk to and fro in the room before I could put on paper + the last line of a page, or the last half-sentence of an essay or + review. Yet was I very happy. The deep-felt sense of progress and + expansion was delightful; and so was the exertion of all my + faculties; and not least, that of Will to overcome my + obstructions, and force my way to that power of public speech of + which I believed myself more or less worthy. + +She offered the results of this nightly literary toil to a great +number of magazine editors and publishers, but without the slightest +success. Totally unknown in London society, having no literary friends +or connections beyond the editor of the obscure magazine of her sect, +her manuscripts were scarcely looked at. Everything that she wrote was +returned upon her hands, until she offered it in despair to the +_Monthly Repository_, where she was as invariably successful. Her +work, when published there, however, brought her not an atom of fame, +and only the most trifling pecuniary return. She wrote to Mr. Fox, +when she found herself penniless, to tell him that it would be +impossible for her to continue to render as much gratuitous service as +she had been doing to the _Repository_; but he could only reply that +the means at his disposal were very limited, and that the utmost he +could offer her was L15 a year, for which she was to write "as much as +she thought proper." With this letter he forwarded her a parcel of +nine books to review, as a commencement. A considerable portion of the +space in his magazine was filled by Miss Martineau for the next two +years on these terms. + +The essay previously referred to, on the "Agency of Feelings in the +Formation of Habits," which appeared in the _Repository_ for February +and March, 1829, was Harriet Martineau's first marked work. It was +followed up by a series, commencing in the August of the same year, of +"Essays on the Art of Thinking," which were continued in the magazine +until December, when two chapters were given in the one number, in +order, as the editor remarked, that his readers "might possess entire +in one volume this valuable manual of the Art of Thought." + +"V," the writer of these articles, was supposed to be of the superior +sex. In those days, Mr. Fox would have shown rare courage if he had +informed his readers that they were "receiving valuable instruction" +in how to exercise their ratiocinative faculties from the pen of a +woman. In the Index, I find the references run--"V.'s" "Ode to +Religious Liberty"; _his_ "Last Tree of the Forest"; _his_ "Essays +on the Art of Thinking," etc., etc. + +The "Essays on the Art of Thinking" are nothing less than an outline +of Logic. In substance, they present no great originality; but they +display full internal evidence that the thoughts presented were the +writer's own, and not merely copied from authority. It is really no +light test of clearness and depth of thought to write on an abstruse +science in lucid, perspicuous fashion, giving a brief but complete +view of all its parts in their true relations. Only an accurate +thinker, with a mind both capacious and orderly, can perform such a +task. The highest function of the human mind is, doubtless, that of +the discoverer. The original thinker, he who observes his facts from +nature at first hand, who compares them, and reasons about them, and +combines them, and generalizes a principle from them, is the one whom +posterity to all time must honor and reverence for his additions to +the store of human knowledge. But not far inferior in power, and equal +in immediate usefulness, is the disciple who can judge the +originator's work, and, finding it perfectly in accordance with facts +as known to him, can receive it into his mind, arrange it in order, +deck it with illustration, illuminate it with power of language, and +represent it in a form suitable for general comprehension. There is +originality of mind needed for such work; that which is done, the +adaptation of the truths to be received to the receptive powers of the +multitude, is an original work performed upon the truths, hardly +inferior in difficulty and utility to that of him who first discerns +them. This was the class of work which Harriet Martineau was beginning +to do, and to do well. But there was more than this in her purposes. + +As these articles, though vastly inferior in execution to what she +afterwards did, nevertheless show the essential characteristics of her +work, this seems to be the most favorable opportunity to pause to +inquire what was the special feature of her writings. For, various +though her subjects appear to be, ranging from the humblest topics, +such as the duties of maids-of-all-work, up to the highest themes of +mental and political philosophy, yet I find one informing idea, one +and the same moving impulse to the pen of the writer, throughout the +whole series. Let us see what it was that she really, though half +unconsciously perhaps, kept before her as her aim. + +It is obvious at once that her writings are all designed to _teach_. +A little closer consideration shows that what they seek to teach is +always _what is right conduct_. Abstract truth merely as such does not +content her. She seeks its practical concrete application to daily +life. Further, not merely has she the aim of teaching morals, but she +invariably makes _facts_ and _reasonings from facts the basis_ of her +moral teachings. In other words, she approaches morals from the +scientific instead of the intuitional side; and to thus influence +conduct is the invariable final object of her writings. + +It would sound simpler to say that she wrote on the science of morals. +But the term "moral science" has already been appropriated to a class +of writing than which nothing could, very often, less deserve the name +of science. The work which Harriet Martineau spent her whole life in +doing, was, however, true work in moral science. What she was ever +seeking to do was to find out how men should live from what men and +their surroundings are. She must be recognized as one of the first +thinkers to uniformly consider practical morals as derived from +reasoned science. + +Many of the articles contributed to the _Repository_ were naturally, +from the character of the publication, upon theology. Much that is +noticeable might be culled from amongst them; as, indeed, could be +inferred from the fact that an able leader of her religious body +allowed her to fill so very large a portion of the pages by which, +under his guidance, the Unitarian public were instructed. In all the +essays, a distinguishing feature is the earnestness of the effort put +forth to judge the questions at issue by reason, and not by prejudice. +It is true that the effort often fails. There comes the moment at +which faith in dogma intervenes, and submerges the pure argument; but +none the less do the spirit of justice and fairness, and the love of +truth, irradiate the whole of these compositions. + +Mr. Fox soon asked her if she thought that any of her ideas could be +expressed through the medium of fiction. It so happened that the +suggestion precisely fell in with a thought that had already occurred +to her that "of all delightful tasks, the most delightful would be to +describe, with all possible fidelity, the aspect of the life and land +of the Hebrews, at the critical period of the full expectation of +the Messiah." She wrote a story which she called _The Hope of the +Hebrews_, in which a company of young people, relatives and friends, +were shown as undergoing the alternations of doubt and hope about +whether this teacher was indeed Messiah, on the first appearance +of Jesus in Palestine. The day after this story appeared in the +_Repository_ Mr. Fox was at an anniversary dinner of the sect, where +so many persons spoke to him about the tale, that he wrote and +generously advised Harriet not to publish any more such stories in his +magazine, but to make a book of them. She adopted the suggestion; the +little volume was issued with her name, and proved her first decisive +success. Not only was it well circulated and highly appreciated in +England, but it was translated into French, under high ecclesiastical +sanction, and was also immediately reproduced in the United States. + +While this book was in the press, she went to stay for a short time in +London. Mr. Fox, hearing from her how anxious she was to earn her +livelihood by literature, succeeded in obtaining from a printer friend +of his an offer for her to do "proof correcting and other drudgery," +if she liked to remain in London for the work. This would have given +her a small but certain income, and there could be little doubt that, +if she stayed in London, she would gradually get into some +journalistic employment which would enable her to support herself +tolerably well. There were no great hopes in the matter. Mr. Fox told +her that "one hundred or one hundred and fifty pounds a year is as +much as our most successful writers usually make"--success here +meaning, of course, full employment in hackwork. It had not yet +occurred, even to Mr. Fox, that she was to be really a successful +author. But to do even this drudgery, and to take the poor chance now +offered to her, implied that she must make her home in London; and she +wrote to inform her mother of this fact. + +The same post which carried Harriet's letter to this effect, bore to +Mrs. Martineau a second missive, from the relative with whom her +daughter was staying, which strongly advised that Harriet should be +recalled home, there to pursue the needle-work by which she had proved +she could earn money. The good lady had been wont to ask Harriet day +by day "how much she would get" for the literary labor upon which she +had expended some hours; and the poor young author's reply not being +satisfactory or precise, her hostess looked upon the time spent at the +desk as so much wasted. She gave Harriet some pieces of silk, "lilac, +blue, and pink," and advised her to keep to making little bags and +baskets, which the kind friend generously promised to assist in +disposing of for good coin of the realm. + +The mother who had stood between her full-grown daughter and the bed +of a dying betrothed, now thought herself justified in interposing +between the woman of twenty-seven and the work which she desired to +undertake for her independence. Mrs. Martineau sent Harriet a stern +letter, peremptorily ordering her to return home forthwith. Bitterly +disappointed at seeing this chance of independence in the vocation she +loved thus snatched away, Harriet's sense of filial duty led her to +obey her mother's commands. She went home with a heavy heart; and with +equal sadness, her little sister of eighteen turned out of home, at +the same despotic bidding, to go a-governessing. "My mother received +me very tenderly. She had no other idea at the moment than that she +had been doing her best for my good." + +Harriet did not return to Norwich entirely discouraged. Resolution +such as hers was not easily broken down. The British and Foreign +Unitarian Association had advertised three prizes for the best essays +designed to convert Roman Catholics, Jews and Mohammedans respectively +to Unitarianism. The sum offered for each was but small: ten guineas +for the Catholic, fifteen for the Jewish, and twenty for the +Mohammedan essays. But it was less the money than interest in the +cause, and desire to see if she could succeed in competition with +others, that led Harriet to form the intention of trying for _all +three_ prizes. + +She went to work immediately upon the Catholic essay, which was to be +adjudicated upon six months earlier than the other two. When it was +finished, she paid a schoolboy, who wrote a good hand, a sovereign +that she could ill spare, for copying the essay, which was about +two-thirds the length of this volume. The essays were to be +superscribed, as usual in such competitions, with a motto, and the +writer's name and address had to be forwarded in a sealed envelope, +with the same motto outside. In September, 1830, she received the +gratifying news that the committee of adjudication had unanimously +awarded this prize to her. + +The other two essays were commenced with the spirit induced by this +success. One of them was copied out by a poor woman, the other by a +schoolmaster. Harriet was careful even to have the two essays written +upon different sorts of paper, to do them up in differently shaped +packages, and to use separate kinds of wax and seals. + +The sequel may be told, with all the freshness of the moment, in a +quotation from the _Monthly Repository_ for May, 1831: "We were about +to review it [_i.e._ the Catholic essay] when the somewhat startling +fact transpired of her having carried off the other premiums offered +by the Association's committee for tracts addressed to the Mohammedans +and the Jews. We shall not now stop to inquire how it has happened +that our ministers would not or could not prevent the honor of +championing the cause of pure Christianity against the whole +theological world from developing upon a young lady. However that +may be, she has won the honor and well deserves to wear it." + +The essays were published by the Unitarian Association. There can be +little doubt that, however many ministers may have competed, the +Committee did select the best papers offered to their choice. The +learning in all is remarkable; the freedom from sectarian bitterness, +from bigotry, and from the insolent assumption of moral and religious +superiority, is even more striking, in such proselytising +compositions. + +While waiting the result of the prize competition, Harriet wrote a +long story for young people, which she called _Five Years of Youth_. +It is one of the prettiest and most attractive of all her writings of +this class. It has a moral object, of course--a somewhat similar one +to that of Jane Austen's _Sense and Sensibility_; but the warning +against allowing sensitiveness to pass into sentimentality is here +directed to girls just budding into womanhood; and the punishment for +the error is not a love disappointment, but the diminution of the +power of domestic and social helpfulness. + +Harriet's work of this year, 1830, comprised the doing of much +fancy-work for sale, making and mending everything that she herself +wore, knitting stockings even while reading, studying a course of +German literature, and writing for the press the following quantity of +literary matter:--_Traditions of Palestine_, a duodecimo volume of 170 +printed pages; _Five Years of Youth_, 264 small octavo pages; three +theological essays, making a closely printed crown octavo volume of +300 pages; and fifty-two articles of various lengths in the twelve +numbers of the _Monthly Repository_. + +And now she had touched the highest point of sectarian fame. The +chosen expositor to the outer world of her form of religion, and the +writer of its favorite Sunday School story-book of the hour, she must +already have felt that her industrious, resolute labor through many +years had at last borne some fruit. + +But the moment for wider fame and a greater usefulness was now at +hand. In the autumn of 1827 she had read Mrs. Marcet's _Conversations +on Political Economy_, and had become aware that the subject which she +had thought out for herself, and treated in her little stories of _The +Rioters_, and _The Turn-Out_, was a recognized science. She followed +this up by a study of Adam Smith, and other economists, and the idea +then occurred to her that it might be possible to illustrate the whole +system of political economy by tales similar in style to those she had +already written. The thought had lain working in her mind for long, +and, in this autumn of 1831, the idea began to press upon her as a +duty. + +There were many reasons why it was especially necessary just then that +the people should be brought to think about Social Science. The times +were bitter with the evils arising from unwise laws. None knew better +than she did how largely the well-being of mankind depends upon causes +which cannot be affected by laws. It is individual conduct which must +make or mar the prosperity of the nation. But, on the other hand, laws +are potent, both as direct causes of evil conditions (and in a less +degree of good conditions), and from their educational influence upon +the people. Harriet Martineau felt that she had come to see more +clearly than the masses of her fellow-countrymen exactly how far the +miseries under which English society groaned were caused directly or +indirectly by mischievous legislative acts. Moreover, the +circumstances of the moment made the imparting of such knowledge not +only possible, but specially opportune. The Bishops had just thrown +out the Reform Bill; but no person who watched the temper of the time +could doubt that their feeble opposition would be speedily swept +aside, and that self-government was about to be extended to a new +class of the people. Most suitable was the occasion, then, for +offering information to these upon the science and art of society. +Harriet was right in her judgment when she started her project of a +series of tales illustrative of Political Economy, under a "thorough, +well-considered, steady conviction that the work was wanted, was even +craved for by the popular mind." + +She began to write the first of her stories. The next business was to +find a publisher to share her belief that the undertaking would be +acceptable to the public. She wrote to one after another of the great +London publishers, receiving instant refusal to undertake the series +from all but two; and even these two, after giving her a little of +that delusive hope which ends by plunging the mind into deeper +despair, joined with their brethren in declining to have anything to +do with the scheme. + +Finally, she went to London to try if personal interviews would bring +her any better success. She stayed in a house attached to a brewery +(Whitbread's), belonging to a cousin of hers, and situated near the +City Road. Thence, she tramped about through the mud and sleet of +December to the publishers' offices day after day for nearly three +weeks. The result was always failure. But though she returned to the +house worn-out and dispirited, her determination that the work should +be done never wavered, and night after night she sat up till long +after the brewery clock struck twelve, the pen pushing on in her +trembling hand, preparing the first two numbers of the series, to be +ready for publication when the means should be found. + +It was the kind friend who had helped her before who came to the +rescue at last at this crisis. Mr. W. J. Fox induced his brother +Charles to make her proposals for publishing her series. + +Mr. Charles Fox took care to offer only such arrangement as should +indemnify him from all risk in the undertaking. He required, first, +that five hundred subscribers should be obtained for the work; and +second, that he, the publisher, should receive about seventy-five per +cent of the possible profits. Hopeless of anything better, she +accepted these hard terms, and it was arranged that the first number +should appear with February, 1832. + +The original stipulation as to the time that this agreement should run +was that the engagement should be terminable by either party at the +end of every five numbers. But a few days afterwards, when Harriet +called upon Mr. W. J. Fox to show him her circular inviting +subscribers for the series, she found that Mr. Charles Fox had decided +to say that he would not publish more than two numbers, unless a +thousand copies of No. I were sold in the first fortnight! This +decision had been arrived at chiefly in consequence of a conversation +which W. J. Fox had held with James Mill, in which the distinguished +political economist had pronounced against the essential point of the +scheme--the narrative form--and had advised that, if the young lady +must try her hand at Political Economy, she should write it in the +orthodox didactic style. + +Mr. Fox lived at Dalston. When Harriet left his house, after receiving +this unreasonable and discouraging ultimatum, she "set out to walk the +four miles and a half to the Brewery. I could not afford to ride more +or less; but, weary already, I now felt almost too ill to walk at all. +On the road, not far from Shoreditch, I became too giddy to stand +without some support; and I leaned over some dirty palings, pretending +to look at a cabbage-bed, but saying to myself as I stood with closed +eyes, 'My book will do yet.'" + +That very night she wrote the long, thoughtful, and collected preface +to her work. After she had finished it she sat over the fire in her +bedroom, in the deepest depression; she cried, with her feet on the +fender, till four o'clock, and then she went to bed, and cried there +till six, when she fell asleep. But if any persons suppose that +because the feminine temperament finds a relief in tears, the fact +argues weakness, they will be instructed by hearing that she was up by +half-past eight, continuing her work as firmly resolved as ever that +it should be published. + + + + +CHAPTER V. + +THE GREAT SUCCESS. + + +The work which had struggled into printed existence with such extreme +difficulty raised its author at a bound to fame. Ten days after the +publication of the first number, Charles Fox sent Harriet word that +not only were the fifteen hundred copies which formed the first +edition all sold off, but he had such orders in hand that he proposed +to print another five thousand at once. The people had taken up the +work instantly. The press followed, instead of leading the public in +this instance; but it, too, was enthusiastic in praise, both of the +scheme and the execution of the stories. + +More than one publisher who had previously rejected the series made +overtures for it now. Its refusal, as they saw, had been one of those +striking blunders of which literary history has not a few to tell. But +there is no occasion to cry out about the stupidity of publishers. +They can judge well how far a work written on lines already popular +will meet the demand of the market; but an entirely original idea, or +the work of an original writer, is a mere lottery. There is no telling +how the public will take it until it has been tried. Publishers put +into a good many such lotteries, and often lose by them; then nothing +more is heard of the matter. But the cases where they decline a +speculation which afterwards turns out to have been a good one are +never forgotten. Still, the fact remains that it was Harriet Martineau +alone who saw that the people needed her work, and whose wonderful +courage and resolution brought it out for the public to accept. + +Her success grew, as an avalanche gains in volume, by its own +momentum. Besides the publishers' communications she had letters, and +pamphlets, and blue-books, and magazines forwarded to her in piles, in +order that she might include the advocacy of the senders' hobbies in +her series. One day the postmaster sent her a message that she must +let a barrow be fetched for her share of the mail, as it was too bulky +to come in any other way. Lord Brougham declared, that it made him +tear his hair to think that the Society for the Diffusion of +Knowledge, which he had instituted for the very purpose of doing such +work as she was undertaking, seemed not to have a man in it with as +much sense of what was wanted as this little deaf girl at Norwich. The +public interest in the work was, perhaps, heightened by the fact that +so ignorant was everybody of her personality, that this description of +Brougham's passed muster. But she was not little, and she was now +twenty-nine years of age. + +She stayed in Norwich, going on writing hard, until the November of +1832, by which time eight numbers of her series had appeared. Then she +went to London, taking lodgings with an old servant of Mrs. +Martineau's, who lived in Conduit street. In the course of a few +months, however, Mrs. Martineau settled herself in London, and her +daughter again resided with her, in a house in Fludyer street, +Westminster. + +The purely literary success which she had hitherto enjoyed was now +turned into a social triumph. However she might strive against being +lionized she could not avoid the attentions and honors that were +poured upon her. It is little to say that all the distinguished people +in town hastened to know her; it was even considered to give +distinction to a party if she could be secured to attend it. Literary +celebrities, titled people, and members of Parliament, competed for +the small space of time that she could spare for society. + +This was not very much, for the work she had undertaken was heavy +enough to absorb all her energies. She had engaged to produce one of +her stories every month. They were issued in small paper-covered +volumes of from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty pages +of print. She began publication with only two or three numbers ready +written. Thus, to keep on with her series, she had to write one whole +number every month. It would have been hard work had it been simple +story-telling, had she been merely imaginatively reproducing scenes +and characters from her past experience, or writing according to her +fancy. But it was, in fact, a much more difficult labor upon which she +was engaged. Her scheme required that she should embody every shade of +variety of the human character; that her scenes should be laid in +different parts of the world, with topography and surroundings +appropriate to the story; and that the governments and social state of +all these various places should be accurately represented. In addition +to all this she had to lay down for each tale the propositions which +had to be illustrated in it; to assure herself that she clearly saw +the truth and the bearings of every doctrine of political economy; and +then to work into a connected fiction in a concrete form the abstract +truths of the science--representing them as exemplified in the lives +of individuals. + +Political economy treats of the production, distribution and +consumption, or use, of all the material objects of human desire, +which are called by the general name of wealth. Thus, it is a subject +which concerns every one of us in our daily lives, and not merely a +matter belonging (as its name unfortunately leads many to suppose) +entirely to the province of the legislator. The great mass of mankind +are producers of wealth. All are necessarily consumers--for the bare +maintenance of existence demands the consumption of wealth. The +well-being of the community depends upon the industry and skill with +which wealth is produced; upon the distribution of it in such a manner +as to encourage future production; and upon the consumption of it with +due regard to the claims of the future. It is individuals who, as the +business of common life, produce, exchange, divide and consume wealth; +it is, therefore, each individual's business to comprehend the science +which treats of his daily life. A science is nothing but a collection +of facts, considered in their relationship to each other. Miss +Martineau's plan, in her series, was strictly what I have indicated as +being always her aim; namely, to deduce from an abstract science rules +for daily life--the secondary, practical or concrete science. It was +the union of a scientific basis with practical morals that made this +subject attractive to her mind, and led her (in the words of her +preface,) to "propose to convey the leading truths of political +economy, as soundly, as systematically, as clearly and faithfully, as +the utmost painstaking and the strongest attachment to the subject +will enable us to do." + +She did her work very methodically. Having first noted down her own +ideas on the branch of the subject before her, she read over the +chapters relating to it in the various standard works that she had at +hand, making references as she read. The next thing to do was to draw +out as clearly and concisely as possible the truths that she had to +illustrate; this "summary of principles," as she called it, was +affixed to each tale. By this time she would see in what part of the +world, and amongst what class of people, the principles in question +were operating most manifestly; and if this consideration dictated the +choice of a foreign background, the next thing to be done was to get +from a library works of travel and topography, and to glean hints from +them for local coloring. + +The material thus all before her in sheets of notes, she reduced it to +chapters; sketching out the characters of her _dramatis personae_, +their action, and the features of the scenes, and also the political +economy which they had to convey either by exemplification or by +conversation. Finally, she paged her paper. Then "the story went off +like a letter. I did it," she says, "as I write letters; never +altering the expression as it came fresh from my brain." + +I have seen the original manuscript of one of the Political Economy +Tales. It shows the statement just quoted to be entirely accurate. The +writing has evidently been done as rapidly as the hand could move; +every word that will admit of it is contracted, to save time. "Socy.," +"opporty.," "agst.," "abt.," "independce.," these were amongst the +abbreviations submitted to the printer's intelligence; not to mention +commoner and more simple words, such as wh., wd., and the like. The +calligraphy, though very readable, has a somewhat slipshod look. +Thus, there is every token of extremely rapid composition. Yet the +corrections on the MS. are few and trifling; the structure of a +sentence is never altered, and there are but seldom emendations even +of principal words. The manuscript is written (in defiance of law and +order) on both sides of the paper; the latter being quarto, of the +size now commonly called _sermon_ paper, but, in those pre-envelope +ages, it was letter paper. + +Her course of life in London was as follows: she wrote in the morning, +rising, and making her own coffee at seven, and going to work +immediately after breakfast until two. From two till four she saw +visitors. Having an immense acquaintance, she declined undertaking to +make morning calls; but people might call upon her any afternoon. She +was charged with vanity about this arrangement; but, with the work on +her hands and the competition for her company, she really could not do +differently. Still, Sydney Smith suggested a better plan; he told her +she should "hire a carriage, and engage an inferior authoress to go +round in it to drop the cards!" After any visitors left, she went out +for her daily "duty walk," and returned to glance over the newspapers, +and to dress for dinner. Almost invariably she dined out, her host's +or some other friend's carriage being commonly sent to fetch her. One +or two evening parties would conclude the day, unless the literary +pressure was extreme, in which case she would sometimes write letters +after returning home. During the whole time of writing her series, she +was satisfied with from five to six hours' sleep out of the +twenty-four; and though she was not a teetotaller, but drank wine at +dinner, still she took no sort of stimulant to help her in her work. + +This was the course of life that a woman, of no extraordinary physical +strength, was able to maintain with but little cessation or interval +for two years. When I look at the thirty-four little volumes which she +produced in less than as many months, and when I consider the +character of their contents, I am bound to say that I consider the +feat of mere industry unparalleled, within my knowledge. + +The _Illustrations of Political Economy_ are plainly and inevitably +damaged, as works of art, by the fact that they are written to convey +definite lessons. The fetters in which the story moves are necessarily +far closer than in the ordinary "novel with a purpose;" for here the +object is not merely to show the results, upon particular characters +or upon individual careers, of a certain course of conduct, and thence +to argue that in similar special circumstances all persons would +experience similar consequences: but the task here is to show in +operation those springs of the social machinery by which we are _all_, +generally quite unconsciously, guided in our _every-day_ actions, the +natural laws by which _all_ our lives are _inevitably_ governed. To do +this, the author was compelled to select scenes from common life, and +to eschew the striking and the unusual. Again, it was absolutely +necessary that much of the doctrine which had to be taught must be +conveyed by dialogue; not because it would not be possible to +exemplify in action every theory of political economy--for all those +theories have originally been derived from observation of the facts of +human history--but because no such a small group of persons and such a +limited space of time as must be taken to _tell a story about_, can +possibly display the whole consequences of many of the laws of social +science. The results of our daily actions as members of society are +not so easily visible as they would be if we could wholly trace them +out amongst our own acquaintances or in our own careers. The +consequences of our own conduct, good or bad, must _come round_ to us, +it is true, but often only as members of the body politic. Thus, they +are very often in a form as little distinguishable to the uninstructed +mind as we may suppose it would be comprehensible to the brain, if the +organs of the body had a separate consciousness, that it was +responsible for its own aches arising from the disturbance of the +liver consequent upon intemperance. But in a tale it is obviously +impossible to show _in action_ any more of the working of events than +can be exemplified in one or two groups of persons, all of whom must +be, however slightly, personally associated. The larger questions and +principles at issue must be expounded and argued out in conversations, +or else by means of an entire lapse from the illustrative to the +didactic method. Now, as ordinary people do not go about the world +holding long conversations or delivering themselves of dissertations +on political economy, it is clear that the introduction of such talks +and preachments detracts from the excellence of the story as a work of +art. Still less artistically admirable does the fiction become when a +lesson is introduced as a separate argument intruded into the course +of the tale. + +Political economy as a science was then but fifty years old. Adam +Smith had first promulgated its fundamental truths in his immortal +_Wealth of Nations_, in 1776. Malthus, Ricardo, and one or two others +had since added to the exposition of the facts and the relationship +between the facts (that is to say, the science) of social +arrangements. But it was not then--nor is it, indeed, yet, in an age +when the great rewards of physical research have attracted into that +field nearly all the best intellects for science of the time--a +complete body of reasoned truths. Some of the positions laid down by +all the earlier writers are now discredited; others are questioned. In +a few passages, accordingly, these tales teach theories which would +now require revision. It must be added at once that these instances +are few and far between. The reasoning, the grasp of the facts of +social life and the logical acumen with which they are dissected and +explained in these tales are, generally speaking, nearly perfect, and +therefore such as all competent students of the subject would at this +day indorse. The slips in exposition of the science as it was then +understood are _exceedingly_ rare. Greater clearness, and more +precision, and better arrangement could hardly have been attained had +years been spent upon the work, in revising, correcting, and +re-copying, instead of each "Illustration" being written in a month, +and sent to press with hardly a phrase amended. + +The accuracy and excellence in the presentation of the science were +admitted at once by the highest authorities. Mr. James Mill early made +honorable amends for his previous doubts as to the possibility of Miss +Martineau's success. Whately and Malthus expressed their admiration of +the work. Lord Brougham called upon her, and engaged her pen to +illustrate the necessity for reform in the treatment of the social +canker of pauperism. The Gurneys, and the rest of the Quaker members +of Parliament got Mrs. Fry to make an appointment to ask Miss +Martineau's advice as to their action in the House on the same +subject, when it was ripe for legislation. The Chancellor of the +Exchequer (Lord Althorp) even sent his private secretary (Mr. +Drummond, the author of the world-famous phrase "Property has its +duties as well as its rights") to supply Miss Martineau with +information to enable her to prepare the public for the forthcoming +Budget. The chairman of the Royal Commission on Excise Taxes gave her +the manuscript of the evidence taken, and the draft of the report of +the Commission, before they were formally presented to the Ministers +of the Crown (a thing without precedent!), in order that she might use +the facts to pave the way for the reception of the report in the House +and by the people. The whole public of male students of her science +paid her work what men consider in their unconscious insolence to be +the highest compliment that they _can_ pay a woman's work: the +milder-mannered ones said she had "a masculine intelligence"; the +stronger characters went further, and declared that the books were so +good that it was impossible to believe them to be written by a woman. +Newspaper critics not infrequently attributed them to Lord Brougham, +then Lord Chancellor; that versatile and (at the moment) most popular +politician was supposed either to write them all himself, or to supply +their main features for the inferior mind to throw into shape. + +While statesmen, politicians, thinkers, and students were thus +praising the clearness and appreciating the power of the work as +political economy, the general public eagerly bought and read the +books, both for their bearing on the legislative questions of the day +and for their vividness and interest as stories. And indeed, they +richly deserved to be read as works of fiction. Remembering the +limitations to their artistic excellence previously adverted to, they +may be with justice praised for most of the essential features of good +novel-writing. + +The characters are the strongest point. Clearly individualized, +consistently carried out, thinking, speaking, and acting in accordance +with their nature, the characters are always personages; and some of +them must live long in the memories of those who have made their +acquaintance. The sterner virtues in Cousin Marshall, in Lady F----, +in Ella of Garveloch, and in Mary Kay, are no less clearly and +attractively depicted than the milder and more passive ones in the +patience of Christian Vanderput, in the unconscious devotion to duty +of Nicholas, in the industry and hopefulness of Frank and Ellen +Castle, in the wifely love and agony of Hester Morrison, in the quiet +public spirit of Charles Guyon, in the proved patriotism of the Polish +exiles, and in a dozen other instances. Her feelings and her spirit +are at home in depicting these virtues of the character; but none the +less does she well succeed in realizing both vice and folly. Her real +insight into character was quite remarkable; as Dr. Martineau observed +to me, when he said, "My sister's powers of observation were +extraordinary." If, on the one hand, her deafness often prevented her +from appreciating the delicacies and the chances of verbal expression +(which really reveal so much of the nature) in those around her, so +that she was apt to draw sharper lines than most people do between the +sheep and the goats in her estimation; on the other hand, she saw more +than those whose minds are distracted by sounds, the light and play of +the countenance, and the indications of character in trivial actions. +The excellence of her character-drawing in these novels gives abundant +evidence that the disqualification was more than counterbalanced by +the cultivation of the other faculty. + +The unconsciousness of her mental analysis is at once its greatest +charm and the best token of its truthfulness. Florence Nightingale +realized how fully this was so with reference to the finer qualities +of morals. In her tribute to Harriet Martineau's memory Miss +Nightingale justly observes:-- + + In many parts of her _Illustrations of Political Economy_--for + example, the death of a poor drinking-woman, "Mrs. Kay,"--what + higher religious feeling (or _one should rather say instinct_) + could there be? To the last she had religious feeling--in the + sense of good working out of evil into a supreme wisdom + penetrating and moulding the whole universe; into the natural + subordination of intellect and intellectual purposes and of + intellectual self to purposes of good, even were these merely the + small purposes of social or domestic life. + +On the other side of the human character in her delineation of the bad +qualities, she as instinctively seeks and finds causes for the errors +and evils of the minds she displays. Foolishness, and ignorance, and +poverty are traced, entirely without affectation and "cant," in their +action as misleading influences in the lives of the poor sinners and +sufferers. + +The stories told in the _Illustrations_ are frequently very +interesting. In this respect, there is a notable advance in the course +of the series. The earlier tales, such as _Life in the Wilds_ and +_Brooke Farm_, are not to be compared, as mere stories, with even +those written later on by only eight or nine stirring eventful months, +such as _Ireland_ and _The Loom and the Lugger_. Still better are the +latest tales. The _Illustrations of Taxation_ and _Illustrations of +Poor-Laws and Paupers_ are, despite the unattractiveness of their +topics, of the highest interest. _The Parish_, _The Town_, _The +Jerseymen Meeting_, _The Jerseymen Parting_; and _The Scholars of +Arnside_, would assuredly be eagerly read by any lover of fiction +almost without consciousness that there was anything in the pages +except a deeply interesting story. + +Archbishop Whately pronounced _The Parish_ the best thing she had +done. _Vanderput and Snook_, the story dealing with bills of exchange, +was the favorite with Mr. Hallam. Lord Brougham, on whose engagement +she did the five "Poor-Law" stories, wrote most enthusiastically that +they surpassed all the expectations that her previous works had led +him to form. Coleridge told her that he "looked eagerly every month" +for the new number; and Lord Durham recounted to her how one evening +he was at Kensington Palace (where the widowed Duchess of Kent was +then residing, and devoting herself to that education which has made +her daughter the best sovereign of her dynasty), when the little +Princess Victoria came running from an inner room to show her mother, +with delight, the advertisement of the "Taxation" tales; for the young +Princess was being allowed to read the _Illustrations_, and found them +her most fascinating story-books. + +Harriet's experiences, however, were not all quite so agreeable. Mrs. +Marcet, who "had a great opinion of great people--of people great by +any distinction, ability, office, birth, and what not--and innocently +supposed her own taste to be universal," formed a warm and generous +friendship for Miss Martineau, and used to delight in carrying to her +the "homages" of the savants and the aristocratic readers of the +_Illustrations_ in France, where Mrs. Marcet's acquaintance was +extensive. She one day told Miss Martineau, with much delight, that +Louis Philippe, the then King of the French, had ordered a copy of the +series for each member of his family, and had also requested M. Guizot +to have the stories translated, and introduced into the French +national schools. This was presently confirmed by a large order from +France for copies, and by a note from the officially-appointed +translator requesting Harriet Martineau to favor him with some +particulars of her personal history, for introduction into a +periodical which was being issued by the Government for the promotion +of education amongst the French people. The writer added that M. +Guizot wished to have Miss Martineau's series specially noticed in +connection with her own personality, since she afforded the first +instance on record of a woman who was not born to sovereign station +affecting practical legislation otherwise than through a man. + +At the very time that she received this flattering note, Harriet was +engaged in writing her twelfth number, _French Wines and Politics_. +The topic treated in this story is that of value, with the subsidiary +questions relating to prices and their fluctuations. The tale takes up +the period of the great French Revolution, and shows how the fortunes +of certain wine-merchants near Bordeaux, and of the head of the Paris +house in connection, were affected by the course of that great social +convulsion. The scene was unquestionably happily chosen. The +circumstances were abnormal, it is true; but the causes which created +such vast fluctuations in prices, and such changes in the value of +goods, were, in fact, only the same fundamental causes as are always +at the basis of such alterations in price and value; it was merely the +rapidity and violence of the movement which were peculiar. The story +was well put together; and the "Illustration" was in every way +admirable for every possible desirable object, except only for the one +of being pleasant to the ruling powers in the France of 1833. + +Harriet Martineau's constant sympathy with democracy, her hatred of +oppression and tyranny, and her aversion to class government, all +became conspicuous in this story. "The greatest happiness of the +greatest number" of mankind was her ideal of the aim of legislation; +and she well knew, as Bentham saw, that only the democratic form of +government can produce a body of laws approximating to this ideal. Her +efforts were constant, therefore, to prepare the people to demand, and +to afterwards wisely use, the power of governing themselves. Now, +though Louis Philippe was the citizen-king, though he was the head of +a republican monarchy, though his legislative chamber rejected in that +same year a ministerial document because it spoke of the people as +"subjects," yet it may be easily understood that this king and his +ministers did not care to stimulate the democratic feeling of the +nation any more than they found inevitable. The whole tone of this +work would be objectionable to them; and a dozen passages might be +readily quoted to show why royal and aristocratic rulers were little +likely to aid its circulation amongst the people whom they governed. +Here, for instance, is a portion of the passage on the storming of the +Bastile:-- + + The spectacles of a life-time were indeed to be beheld within the + compass of this one scene.... Here were the terrors which sooner + or later chill the marrow of despotism, and the stern joy with + which its retribution fires the heart of the patriot. Here were + the servants of tyranny quailing before the glance of the + people.... The towers of palaces might be seen afar, where princes + were quaking at this final assurance of the downfall of their + despotic sway, knowing that the assumed sanctity of royalty was + being wafted away with every puff of smoke which spread itself + over the sky, and their irresponsibility melting in fires lighted + by the hands which they had vainly attempted to fetter, and blown + by the breath which they had imagined they could stifle. They had + denied the birth of that liberty whose baptism in fire and in + blood was now being celebrated in a many-voiced chant with which + the earth should ring for centuries. Some from other lands were + already present to hear and join in it; some free Britons to aid, + some wondering slaves of other despots to slink homewards with + whispered tidings of its import; for from that day to this, the + history of the fall of the Bastile has been told as a secret in + the vineyards of Portugal, and among the groves of Spain, and in + the patriotic conclaves of the youth of Italy, while it has been + loudly and joyfully proclaimed from one end to the other of Great + Britain, till her lisping children are familiar with the tale. + +Besides such passages as this, scarcely likely to please the French +king, there was the special ground for his objection that his +immediate ancestor, Egalite, was introduced into the story, and +depicted in no favorable light his efforts to inflame the popular +violence for his selfish ends, his hypocrisy, his cowardice, and so +on, being held up to contempt. Mrs. Marcet, when she read all this, +came breathless to Harriet Martineau to ask her how she could have +made such a blunder as to write a story that plainly would (and, of +course, in fact, did) put an end to the official patronage of her +series in France, and would destroy for ever any hopes that she might +have entertained of being received at the Court of Louis Philippe? +Greatly surprised was the good lady at finding Harriet's reverence for +that monarch so limited in extent. She replied to her kind friend that +she "wrote with a view to the people, and especially the most +suffering of them; and the crowned heads must for once take their +chance for their feelings." + +At the very moment that Mrs. Marcet's remonstrance was made, Miss +Martineau was writing a story of a character likely to be even more +distasteful to the Emperor of Russia than this one to the King of the +French. She had found it difficult to illustrate the theory of the +currency in a story treating of the existence of civilized people. The +only situation in which she could find persons, above the rank of +savages, transacting their exchanges by aid of a kind of money which +made the business only one remove from bartering, was amongst the +Polish exiles in Siberia. She therefore wrote _The Charmed Sea_, a +story founded upon the terrible facts of the lives of the exiled Poles +"in the depths of Eastern Siberia," working in "a silver-mine near the +western extremity of the Daourian Range, and within hearing of the +waters of the Baikal when its storms were fiercest." Had the +melancholy tale been written in the service of the Poles, it could not +have been more moving. So powerful, and interesting was it, indeed, +that the criticism of the _Edinburgh Review_ was that the fiction too +entirely overpowered the political economy. The arrival of _The +Charmed Sea_ in Russia changed the favorable opinion which the Czar +had previously been so kind as to express about the _Illustrations_. +He had been purchasing largely of the French translation of the series +for distribution amongst his people. But now he issued a proclamation +ordering every copy in Russia of every number to be immediately burnt, +and forbidding the author ever to set foot upon his soil. Austria, +equally concerned in the Polish business, followed this example, and a +description of Harriet Martineau's person was hung in the appointed +places, amidst the lists of the proscribed, all over Russia, Austria, +and Austrian-Italy. Despots, at least, had no admiration for her +politics. + +The only important adverse criticism in the press appeared in the +_Quarterly Review_.[7] The reviewer objected impartially to every +one of the twelve stories which had then appeared. Every circumstance +which could arouse prejudice against the series was taken advantage +of, from party political feeling and religious bigotry, down to the +weakness of fluid philanthropy, and "the prudery and timidity of the +middle-classes of England." The principal ground of attack was the +story which dealt with Malthusianism, _Weal and Woe in Garveloch_. + + [7] In the same number, by the way, appeared the notorious + biting and sarcastic notice of Tennyson's second volume. It + is a distinction, indeed, for a critical review, that one + number should have devoted half its space to violently + unfavorable criticisms of Alfred Tennyson's poetry and + Harriet Martineau's political economy. + + When the course of my exposition brought me to the population + subject, I, with my youthful and provincial mode of thought and + feeling--brought up, too, amidst the prudery which is found in its + great force in our middle class--could not but be sensible that I + risked much in writing and publishing on a subject which was not + universally treated in the pure, benevolent, and scientific spirit + of Malthus himself.... I said nothing to anybody; and, when the + number was finished, I read it aloud to my mother and aunt. If + there had been any opening whatever for doubt or dread, I was sure + that these two ladies would have given me abundant warning and + exhortation--both from their very keen sense of propriety and + their anxious affection for me. But they were as complacent and + easy as they had been interested and attentive. I saw that all + ought to be safe. + +The _Quarterly Review_ seized the opportunity of the appearance +of this number to make a vile attack upon the series and its writer. +Harriet suffered under it to a degree which seems almost excessive. +The review is so obviously full of fallacies, as regards its Political +Economy, that any person whose opinion was worth having could hardly +hesitate in deciding that she, and not her critic, was talking +common-sense and arguing logically. As to the personal part of the +article, it is, though scurrilous, and even indecent, so very funny +that the attacked might almost have forgotten the insult in the +amusement. Nevertheless, the writers, Croker and Lockhart, did their +worst. Croker openly said that he expected to lose his pension very +shortly, and, being wishful to make himself a literary position before +that event happened, he had begun by "tomahawking Miss Martineau." All +that could be painful to her as a woman, and injurious to her as a +writer, was said, or attempted to be conveyed, in this article. + +Let us see what it was all about. Garveloch, one of the Hebridean +islands, is seen in the "Illustration" rapidly multiplying its +population, both by early marriages and by immigration, under the +stimulus of a passing prosperity in the fishing industry. The influx +of capital and the increase of the demand for food, have led to such +an improvement in the cultivation of the land, that the food produce +of the island has been doubled in ten years. Ella, the heroine (a +fine, strong, self-contained, helpful woman--one of the noblest female +characters in these works), foresees that if the reckless increase of +population continues, the supply of food will by-and-by run short. Her +interlocutor asks how this will be the case, since the population will +surely not double again, as it has done already, in ten years? Then +the _Quarterly_ quotes Ella's reply, and comments on it:-- + + "Certainly not; but say twenty, thirty, fifty or any number of + years you choose; still, as the number of the people doubles + itself for ever, while the produce of the land does not, the + people must increase faster than the produce." + + This is rare logic and arithmetic, and not a little curious as + natural history. A plain person now would have supposed that if + the produce doubled itself in ten, and the people only in a + hundred years, the people would not increase _quite_ so fast + as the produce, seeing that at the end of the first century the + population would be multiplied but by two, the produce by one + thousand and twenty-four. But these are the discoveries of genius! + Why does Miss Martineau write, except to correct our mistaken + notions and to expound to us the mysteries of "the principle of + population." + +The reviewer goes on to suggest, in the broadest language, that she +has confounded the rate of the multiplication of the herring-fisher-women + with that of the herrings themselves; reproves her for writing on + "these ticklish topics" with so little physiological information; and + tells her that she, "poor innocent, has been puzzling over Mr. + Malthus's arithmetical and geometrical ratios for knowledge which she + should have obtained by a simple question or two of her mamma." In + one and the same paragraph, he tells her that he is "loth to bring a + blush unnecessarily upon the cheek of any woman," and asks her if she + picked up her information on the subject "in her conferences with the + Lord Chancellor?" + +This is enough to show to what a sensitive young lady was exposed in +illustrating "a principle as undeniable as the multiplication table," +and in stating the facts upon which hangs the explanation of the +poverty, and therefore of a large part of the vice and misery, of +mankind. Miss Martineau's exposition was, of course, entirely right, +and the fallacy in the review is obvious, one would suppose on the +surface. The reviewer's error consists in his assumption--the falsity +of which is at once apparent on the face of the statement--that land +can go on doubling its produce _every_ ten years, for an indefinite +period. So far from this being true, the fact is that the limit of +improving the cultivation of land is soon reached. + +Better agricultural treatment may easily make half-cultivated land +bring forth double its previous produce; but the highest pitch of +farming once reached--as it comparatively soon is--the produce cannot +be further increased; and even before this limit is reached, the +return for each additional application of capital and labor becomes +less and less proportionately bountiful. This is the truth known to +political economists as "the Law of the Diminishing Return of Land." +Taken in conjunction with the fact that the human race _can_ double +for ever, theoretically, and in reality _does_ multiply its numbers +with each generation, checked only by the forethought of the more +prudent and the operations of famine, war, crime, and the diseases +caused by poverty, this law explains why mankind does not more rapidly +improve its condition--why the poor have been always with us--and why +teaching such as Harriet Martineau here gave must be received into the +popular mind before the condition of society can be expected to be +improved in the only way possible, by the wisdom and prudence of its +members. + +Painful as was the attack she had undergone, intensely as she had +suffered from its character and nature, Miss Martineau did not allow +what she had felt of personal distress to have any influence on her +future writings. Her moral courage had been well trained and +exercised, first by the efforts that her mind had had to make in +following her conscience as a guide to the formation of opinions, in +opposition to the tendency implanted by her mother's treatment to bow +supinely before authority; secondly, by the lesson of endurance which +her deafness had brought to her. She had now to show, for the first, +but by no means the last time, that hers was one of those temperaments +which belong to all leaders of men, whether in physical or moral +warfare; that danger was to her a stimulus, and that her courage rose +the higher the greater the demand for its exercise. + +Praise and blame, appreciation and defamation, strengthened and +enlarged her mind during this period. But at the end of it, Sydney +Smith could say: "She has gone through such a season as no girl before +ever knew, and she has kept her own mind, her own manners, and her own +voice. She's safe." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. + +FIVE ACTIVE YEARS. + + +On the conclusion of the publication of the _Illustrations of +Political Economy_, Harriet went to the United States, and travelled +there for more than two years. Her fame had preceded her; and she +received the warm and gracious greeting from the generous people of +America that they are ever ready to give to distinguished guests from +their "little Mother-isle." She travelled not only in the Northern +States, but in the South and the West too, going in the one direction +from New York to New Orleans, and in the other to Chicago and +Michigan. Everywhere she was received with eager hospitality. Public +institutions were freely thrown open to her, and eminent citizens vied +with each other in showing her attention, publicly and privately. + +The most noteworthy incident in the course of the whole two years was +her public declaration of her anti-slavery principles. The +Anti-Slavery movement was in its beginning. The abolitionists were the +subjects of abuse and social persecution, and Miss Martineau was +quickly made aware that by a declaration in their favor she would risk +incurring odium, and might change her popularity in society into +disrepute and avoidance. It would have been perfectly easy for a less +active conscience and a less true moral sense to have evaded the +question, in such a manner that neither party could have upbraided her +for her action. She might simply have said that she was there as a +learner, not as a teacher; that her business was to survey American +society, and not to take any share in its party disputes, or to give +any opinion on the political questions of a strange land. Such +paltering with principle was impossible to Harriet Martineau. She did +not obtrude her utterances on the subject, but when asked in private +society what she thought, she frankly spoke out her utter abhorrence, +not merely of slavery in the abstract, but also of the state of the +Southern slave-holders and their human property. She could not help +seeing that this candor often gave offense; but that was not her +business when her opinion was sought on a moral question. + +The really searching test of her personal character did not come, +however, with regard to this matter, till she went to stay for a while +in Boston, the head-quarters of the abolitionists, fifteen months +after her arrival in America. It happened that she reached Boston the +very day a ladies' anti-slavery meeting was broken up by the violence +of a mob, and that Garrison, falling into the hands of the enraged +multitude, was half-murdered in the street. Harriet had given a +promise, long previously, to attend an abolitionists' meeting; and +though these occurrences showed her that there was actual personal +danger in keeping her word, she was not to be intimidated. She went to +the very next meeting of the ladies' society, which was held a month +after the one so violently disturbed, and there, being unexpectedly +begged to "give them the comfort" of a few words from her, she rose, +and as the official report says, "with great dignity and simplicity of +manner," declared her full sympathy with the principles of the +association. + +She knew well how grave would be the social consequences to her of +thus throwing in her lot with the despised and insulted abolitionists; +but she felt that "she never could be happy again" if she shrunk from +the duty of expression thrust upon her. The results to her were as +serious as she had apprehended. She received innumerable personal +insults and slights, public and private, where before all had been +homage; the Southern newspapers threatened her personal safety, +calling her a foreign "incendiary;" and, to crown all, she had to give +up an intended Ohio tour, on the information of an eminent Cincinnati +merchant that he had heard with his own ears the details of a plot to +hang her on the wharf at Louisville, before the respectable +inhabitants could intervene, in order to "warn all other meddlesome +foreigners." + +All this abuse and insult and threatening from the lower kind of +persons, interested for their purses, had, of course, no influence +upon the hundred private friendships that she had formed. Ardent and +deep was the affection with which many Americans came to regard her, +and with some of them her intimate friendship lasted through all the +succeeding forty years of her life. Emerson was one of these friends, +and Garrison another. It was her frequent correspondence with these +and many others that kept her interest in the affairs of the United +States so active, and made her so well-informed about them as to give +her the great authority that she had, both in England and America, +during the life and death struggle of the Union, so that at that time, +when she was writing leaders for the London _Daily News_, Mr. W. +E. Forster said that "it was Harriet Martineau alone who was keeping +English public opinion about America on the right side through the +press." + +Loath to leave such friendships behind, and yet longing for home, she +sailed from New York at the end of July, 1836, and reached Liverpool +on the 26th August. A parting act of American chivalry was that her +ship-passage was paid for her by some unknown friend. + +It was while she was in the United States that the first portrait of +her which I have seen was painted. She herself did not like it, +calling the attitude melodramatic; but her sister Rachel, I am told, +always declared that it was the only true portrait of Harriet that was +ever taken. At this point, then, some idea of her person may be given. + +She was somewhat above the middle height, and at this time had a +slender figure. The face in the portrait is oval; the forehead rather +broad, as well as high, but not either to a remarkable degree. The +most noticeable peculiarity of the face is found in a slight +projection of the under lip. The nose is straight, not at all turned +up at the end, but yet with a definite tip to it. The eyes are a clear +gray, with a calm, steadfast, yet sweet gaze; indeed there is an +almost appealing look in them. The hair is of so dark a brown as to +appear nearly black. A tress of it (cut off twenty years later than +this American visit, when it had turned snow-white) has been given +to me; and I find the treasured relic to be of exceptionally fine +texture--a sure sign of a delicate and sensitive nervous organization. +Her hands and feet were small. + +She was certainly not beautiful; besides the slight projection of the +lower lip the face has the defect of the cheeks sloping in too much +towards the chin. But she was not strikingly plain either. The +countenance in this picture has a look both of appealing sweetness +and of strength in reserve; and one feels that with such beauty of +expression it could not fail to be attractive to those who looked upon +it with sympathy. + +The competition amongst the publishers for Miss Martineau's book on +America was an amusing contrast to the scorn with which her proposals +for her _Political Economy_ had been received. Murray sent a message +through a friend, offering to undertake the American work; and letters +from two other publishers were awaiting her arrival in England. On the +day that the newspapers announced that she had reached town no fewer +than three of the chief London publishers called upon her with +proposals. She declined those of Bentley and Colburn, and accepted the +offer of Messrs. Saunders and Otley to pay her L300 per volume for the +first edition of three thousand copies. The book appeared in three +volumes, so that she received L900 for it. She completed the three +goodly volumes in six months. + +She had wished to call the book _Theory and Practice of Society in +America_, a title which would have exactly expressed the position that +she took up in it, viz., that the Americans should be judged by the +degree in which they approached, in their daily lives, to the standard +of the principles laid down in their Constitution. Her publishers so +strongly objected to this title, that she consented to call the work +simply _Society in America_. She held to her scheme none the less, and +the book proceeds upon it. She quotes the Declaration of Independence +that all men are created equal, with an inalienable right to life, +liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, and that Governments derive +their just powers from the consent of the governed. "Every true +citizen," she claims, "must necessarily be content to have his +self-government tried by the test of the principles to which, by his +citizenship, he has become a subscriber." She brings social life in +the United States of 1834-6 to this test accordingly. + +That method of approaching her subject had some advantages. It enabled +her to treat with peculiar force the topics of slavery, of the +exclusion of women from political affairs, and of the subservience to +the despotism of public opinion which she found to exist at that time +in America. + +But she herself came to see, in after times, that her _plan_ (leaving +the details aside) was radically faulty. She was, as she says, "at the +most metaphysical period" of her mental history. Thus, she failed at +the moment to perceive that she commenced her subject _at the wrong +end_ in taking a theory and judging the facts of American society by +their agreement or disagreement with that _a priori_ philosophy. It +was the theory that had to be judged by the way in which the people +lived under a government framed upon it, and not the people by the +degree in which they live up to the theory. The English public wanted +a book that would help them to know the American public and its ways; +the Americans required to see through the eyes of an observant, +cultivated foreigner, what they were being and doing. It is this which +a traveller has to do--to observe _facts_: to draw lessons from them, +if he will, but not to consider the facts in their relationship to a +pre-conceived theory. Human experience is perennially important and +eternally interesting; and this is what a traveller has to note and +record. Political philosophies must be gathered from experience +instead of (what she attempted) the real life being viewed only as +related to the philosophy. In fine, her error was in treating +abstractedly what was necessarily a concrete theme. + +With this objection to the scheme of the book, all criticism may end. +All criticism did not end (any more than it began) in this way in +1837. Speaking out so boldly as she did on a variety of the most +important social topics, she naturally aroused opposition, which the +power and eloquence of the style did not mitigate. + +The anti-slavery tone of the book alone would have ensured violent +attacks upon it and its author, as, after her ostracism because of her +anti-slavery declaration, she well knew would be the case. "This +subject haunts us on every page," distressfully wrote Margaret Fuller; +and greatly exaggerated though this statement was, it certainly is +true that there is hardly a chapter in which the reader is allowed to +forget that the curse of humanity made merchandise, shadowed life, +directly or indirectly, throughout the whole United States. Neither by +the holders of slaves in the South, nor by their accessories in the +North, was it possible that she could be regarded otherwise than as an +enemy, the more powerful, and therefore the more to be hated and +abused, because of her standing and her ability. In estimating the +courage and disinterestedness which she displayed in so decisively +bearing her witness against the state of American society under the +slave system, it must be remembered not only that she had many valued +personal friends in the South, and amongst the anti-abolitionists of +the North, but also that she knew that she was closing against herself +a wide avenue for the dissemination of her opinions upon any subject +whatsoever. No book written by an abolitionist would be admitted into +any one of thousands of American homes. The abolitionists reprinted +portions of _Society of America_, as a pamphlet, and distributed +it broadcast. The result was that, up to the time when slavery was +abolished Harriet Martineau was continually held up to scorn and +reprobation in Southern newspapers, "in the good company of Mrs. +Chapman and Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe." + +Even greater courage was displayed by Harriet Martineau in her +boldness of utterance upon some other points, about which freedom of +thought was as obnoxious in England as in America. When she maintained +that divorce should be permissible by mutual consent, provided only +that the interests of children and the distribution of property were +equitably arranged for; when she pleaded for the emancipation of +women; or when she devoted a chapter to showing the evils which spring +from the accumulation of enormous fortunes, and incidentally attacked +the laws and customs of primogeniture, of the transfer of land, and +the like, which are devised specially to facilitate and encourage such +accumulations: in these and other passages of an equally radical +nature, she braved a large body of opinion in English society, as +well as in the other country for which she wrote. She mentions +subsequently, that for many years she was occasionally startled by +finding herself regarded in various quarters as a free-thinker upon +dangerous subjects, and as something of a demagogue. I have little +doubt that the "advanced" political philosophy of _Society in America_ +did originate such suspicions in minds of the Conservative order, "the +timid party," as she described them in this same book. Yet she adds: + + I have never regretted its boldness of speech. I felt a relief in + having opened my mind which I would at no time have exchanged for + any gain of reputation or fortune. The time had come when, having + experienced what might be called the extremes of obscurity and + difficulty first, and influence and success afterwards, I could + pronounce that there was nothing for which it was worth + sacrificing freedom of thought and speech. + +There was but little in _Society in America_ of the ordinary book of +travels. As an account of the political condition and the social +arrangements of the American people it was of singular value. But +the personal incidents of travel, the descriptions of scenery, the +reminiscences of eminent persons, of all which Harriet Martineau +had gathered a store, were entirely omitted from this work. Messrs. +Saunders and Otley suggested to her that she should make a second +book out of this kind of material. She consented; and wrote her +_Retrospect of Western Travel_. She completed the manuscript of this +in December, 1837, and it was published soon afterwards in three +volumes. The publishers gave her six hundred pounds for it. + +The fifteen hundred pounds which she thus earned exceeded in amount +the whole of what she had then received for her _Illustrations of +Political Economy_. The last-named great work was nearly all published +upon the absurdly unequal terms which Charles Fox had secured from her +in the beginning. It was characteristic of her generosity in pecuniary +matters and her loyalty to her friends, that although her agreement +with Fox was dissoluble at the end of every five numbers, she +nevertheless allowed it to hold good, and permitted him to pocket a +very leonine share of her earnings throughout the whole publication of +the original series, only claiming a revision of the terms when she +commenced afresh, as it were, with the "Poor-Law," and "Taxation" +tales. Thus the immense popularity of the _Illustrations_ had not +greatly enriched her. A portion of her earnings by them was invested +in her American tour; and now that she received this return from her +books of travels she felt it her duty to make a provision for the +future. She purchased a deferred annuity of one hundred pounds to +begin in April, 1850. It displayed a characteristic calm confidence in +herself that she should thus have entirely locked up her earnings for +twelve years. She clearly felt a quiet assurance that her brain and +her hand would serve to maintain her, at least as long as she was in +the flower of her age. + +The six volumes about America were not the whole of her work during +the first eighteen months after her return to England. She wrote an +article on Miss Sedgwick's works for the _Westminster Review_, and +several other short papers for various magazines. The extraordinary +industry with which she returned to labor after her long rest requires +no comment. + +Early in 1838 she wrote a work called _How to Observe in Morals +and Manners_. It forms a crown octavo volume of two hundred and +thirty-eight pages, and was published by Mr. Charles Knight. The book +is an interesting one, both for the reflections which it contains upon +the subject of its title, and as indicating the method which she had +herself pursued in her study of the morals and manners of the country +in which she had been travelling. There is certainly no failure in the +courage with which she expresses her convictions. She admits elsewhere +that the abuse which she received from America had so acted upon her +mind that she had come to quail at the sight of letters addressed in a +strange handwriting, or of newspapers sent from the United States. But +there is no trace in this her next considerable work of any tendency +to follow rather than to lead the public opinion of her time. One +paragraph only may be quoted to indicate this fact: + + Persecution for opinion is always going on. It can be inflicted + out of the province of Law as well as through it.... Whatever a + nation may tell him of its love of liberty should go for little if + he sees a virtuous man's children taken from him on the ground of + his holding an unusual religious belief; or citizens mobbed for + asserting the rights of negroes; or moralists treated with public + scorn for carrying out allowed principles to their ultimate + issues; or scholars oppressed for throwing new light on the sacred + text; or philosophers denounced for bringing fresh facts to the + surface of human knowledge, whether they seem to agree or not with + long established suppositions.[8] + + [8] _How to Observe_, p. 204. + +The next piece of work that Harriet did in this spring of 1838 was of +a very different order. The Poor-Law Commissioners were desirous of +issuing a series of "Guides to Service," and application was made to +Miss Martineau to write some of these little books. She undertook +_The Maid of All Work_, _The Housemaid_, _The Lady's Maid_ and _The +Dress-maker_. These were issued without her name on the title-page, +but the authorship was an open secret. + +She was a thoroughly good housekeeper herself. Her conscience went +into this, as into all her other business. "Housewifery is supposed to +transact itself," she wrote; "but in reality it requires all the +faculties which can be brought to bear upon it, and all the good moral +habits which conscience can originate." It was in this spirit that +she wrote instructions for servants. The fine moral tone invariably +discoverable in her works, is as delightful here as elsewhere. But +the little "Guides to Service," contain also the most precise and +practical directions for the doing of the household duties and the +needlework which fall to the hands of the classes of servants for whom +she wrote. Practical hints are given from which the majority of these +classes of women-workers might learn much, for _brains tell_ in the +mean and dirty scrubbery of life as well as in pleasanter things, and +science is to be applied to common domestic duties as to bigger +undertakings. The heart and mind of Harriet Martineau were equal to +teaching upon matters such as these, as well as to studying the deeper +relations of mankind in political economy, or the state of society in +a foreign land. Her great power of sympathy enabled her to enter fully +into every human position. So well was the maid-of-all-work's station +described, and her duties indicated, and her trials pointed out, and +how she might solace herself under those troubles discovered, and the +way in which her work should be set about detailed, that the rumor +spread pretty widely that Harriet had once occupied such a situation +herself. She regarded this mistake with complacency, as a tribute to +the practical character of her little work. + +As a fact, she was herself a capable housewife. Her housekeeping was +always well done. Her own hands, indeed, as well as her head, were +employed in it on occasion. When in her home, she daily filled her +lamp herself. She dusted her own books, too, invariably. Sometimes she +did more. Soon after her establishment at the Lakes (an event which we +have not yet reached, but the anecdote is in place here), a lady who +greatly reverenced her for her writings called upon her in her new +home, accompanied by a gentleman friend. As the visitors approached +the house by the carriage-drive, they saw someone perched on a set of +kitchen steps, cleaning the drawing-room windows. It was the famous +authoress herself! She calmly went for her trumpet, to listen to their +business; and when they had introduced themselves, she asked them in, +and entered into an interesting conversation on various literary +topics. Before they left, she explained, with evident amusement at +having been caught at her housemaid's duties, that the workmen had +been long about the house; that this morning, when the dirty windows +might for the first time be cleaned, one of her servants had gone off +to marry a carpenter, and the other to see the ceremony; and so the +mistress, tired of the dirt, had set to work to wash and polish her +window for herself. + +An article on "Domestic Service," for the _Westminster Review_, was +written easily, while her mind was so full of the subject, in the +beginning of June, 1838. But a great enterprise was before her--a +novel; and at length she settled down to this, beginning it on her +thirty-sixth birthday, June 12th, 1838. The writing of this new book +was interrupted by a tour in Scotland during August and September, and +by writing a remarkable and eloquent article on slavery, "The Martyr +Age of the United States," which occupies' fifty-five pages of the +_Westminster Review_ in the January, 1839, number of that publication. +The novel got finished, however, in February of this latter year; and +it was published by Easter under the title of _Deerbrook_. + +Great expectations had been entertained by the literary public of +Harriet Martineau's first novel. The excellences of her _Illustrations_ +as works of fiction had been so marked and so many, that it was +anticipated that she might write a novel of the highest order when +released from the trammels under which she wrote those tales. To most +of those who had expected so much _Deerbrook_ was a complete +disappointment. I believe I may justly say that it is the weakest of +all Harriet Martineau's writings. It is, indeed, far superior in all +respects to nine hundred out of every thousand novels published. But +she is not judged by averages. A far higher standard of literary art +is that to which we expect Harriet Martineau's writings to conform. + +The book is deficient in story. Deerbrook is a country village, where +two sisters from Birmingham, Hester and Margaret Ibbotson, take up +their temporary abode. Mr. Hope, the village surgeon, falls in love +with Margaret; but being told that Hester loves him, while Margaret is +attached to Philip Enderby, Hope decides to propose to Hester; is +accepted, married to the sister he does not love, and sets up +housekeeping with the sister with whom he is in love as an inmate of +his home. The wife, moreover, is of a jealous, exacting disposition, +ever on the watch for some token of neglect of her feelings by her +friends, anxious, irritable, and hyper-sensitive. + +Here is a situation which, the characters being what they are +described to be, could in real life eventuate only in either violent +tragedy or long, slow heart-break. A woman of ultra-sensitive and +refined feelings could not live with a husband and a sister under such +circumstances without discovering the truth. A man of active +temperament and warm emotions, who declares to himself on the night of +his return from his wedding tour that his marriage "has been a +mistake, that he has desecrated his own home, and doomed to withering +the best affections of his nature,"--such a man, with the woman he +really loves living in his home, beside the unloved wife, could not +completely conceal his state of mind from everybody, and presently +find that after all he likes the one he has married best. Yet in the +impossible manner just indicated do all things end in _Deerbrook_. The +interest of the book is then suddenly shifted to Margaret and Enderby. +Hope and Hester become mere accessories. But the plot does not +improve. The Deerbrook people, hitherto adorers of their doctor, +suddenly take to throwing stones at him, and to mobbing his house, +because he votes for the Parliamentary candidate opposed by the great +man of the village, and because they take it into their heads (not a +particle of reason why they do so being shown,) that he anatomizes +bodies from the graveyard. We are invited to believe that though his +practice had been singularly successful, all his patients deserted +him; and notwithstanding that Hester and Margaret had each seventy +pounds a year of private income, the household was thus reduced to +such distress that they could not afford gloves, and had to part with +all their servants, and dined as a rule off potatoes and bread and +butter! Then Margaret's lover, Enderby, hears that she and Hope loved +each other before Hope married; and though he does not for a moment +suspect anything wrong in the present, and though he passionately +loves Margaret, this supposed discovery that he is not her first love +causes him to peremptorily and without explanation break off the +engagement. Presently, however, an epidemic comes and restores +confidence in Mr. Hope; and Enderby's sister, who had given him the +information on which he acted, confesses that she had exaggerated the +facts and invented part of her story; and so it all ends, and they +live happily ever after! + +Feeble and untrue as are plot and characters in this "poor novel" (as +Carlyle without injustice called it), yet many scenes are well +written, the details are truly colored, and every page is illuminated +with thought of so high an order and language so brilliant, so +flowing, so felicitous, that one forgives, for the sake of merits such +as these, the failure of the fiction to be either true or interesting. +This seemed to show, nevertheless, that Harriet could write essays, +and travels, and didactic and philosophical works, but could not write +a novel except "with a purpose," when the accomplishment of the +purpose might excuse any other shortcomings. But when one considers +the great excellence of many of the _Illustrations_, the decided +drawing of the characters, the truthful analysis of the springs of +human action, the manner in which the incidents are combined and +arranged to develop and display dispositions and histories, it becomes +clear that she _had_ great powers as an imaginative depicter of human +nature and social life, and that there must have been other causes +than sheer incapacity for the faults and the feebleness of +_Deerbrook_. + +The first cause was what seems to me a mistaken theory about plots in +fiction, which she had adopted since writing the _Illustrations_. She +now fancied that a perfect plot must be taken from life, forgetting +that we none of us know the whole plot of the existence of any other +creature than ourselves, and that the psychological insight of the +gifted novelist is displayed in arguing from what is known to what is +unknown, and in combining the primary elements of human character into +their necessary consequences in act and feeling. This error she would +have been cured from by experience had she gone on writing fiction. +She might have been aided in this by what she naively enough avows +about _Deerbrook_: that she supposed that she took the story of Hope's +marriage from the history of a friend of her family, and that she +afterwards found out that nothing of the sort had really happened to +him! She might then have asked herself whether the story as she had +told it was more possible than it was possible that gunpowder should +be put to flame without an explosion. A girl in her teens might have +been forgiven for playing with the history of the wildest passions of +the human heart; but Harriet Martineau erred because she tried to +enslave herself to fact in a matter in which she should have inferred, +judged from psychological principles, and trusted to the intuitions of +her own mind for the final working out of her problem. As it was, if +her "fact" had been a reality we should have been compelled to account +for the placid progress of events by the supposition that she had +utterly misrepresented the characters of the persons involved. + +This bondage to (supposed) fact was one cause of her failure. A +lesser, but still important reason for it, was that she tried to +imitate Jane Austen's style. Her admiration of the works of this +mistress of the art of depicting human nature was very great. +Harriet's diary of the period when she was preparing to write +_Deerbrook_, shows that she re-read Miss Austen's novels, and found +them "wonderfully beautiful." This judgment she annexed to _Emma_; +and again, after recording her new reading of _Pride and Prejudice_, +she added, "I think it as clever as before; but Miss Austen seems +wonderfully afraid of pathos. I long to try." When she did "try," she, +either intentionally or unconsciously, but very decidedly, modelled +her style on Miss Austen's. But the two women were essentially +different. Harriet Martineau had an original mind; she did wrong, and +prepared the retribution of failure for herself, in imitating at all; +and Jane Austen was one of the last persons she should have imitated. + +The principal reasons for the inferiority of _Deerbrook_, however, are +found in her personal history. Three months after its publication, she +was utterly prostrated by an illness which had undoubtedly been slowly +growing upon her for long before. Thus, she wrote her novel under the +depression and failure of strength caused by this malady. The illness +itself was partly the result of what further tended to make her work +poor in quality--the domestic anxieties, miseries and heart-burnings +of that period. + +The three anxious members of her family were at this time upon her +hands. That brother who had succeeded to the father's business, and in +whose charge it had failed, was at this time in London. Before the +weaving business stopped, Henry Martineau was engaged; but the girl +broke off the affair in consequence of the downfall of his pecuniary +prospects. Henry then undertook a wine-merchant's business, and +wretched with the mortification of his double failure in purse and in +heart, he yielded to the temptations of his new employment, and became +intemperate. During the time that _Deerbrook_ was being written, he +was living with his mother and sister in London. At the same time +Mrs. Martineau, now nearing seventy years old, was becoming blind. +The natural irritability of her temper was thus increased. The +heart-wearing trials of a home with two such inmates were made greater +to Harriet by the fact that an aged aunt also lived with them, who, +besides the many cares exacted for the well-being of age, added to +Harriet's troubles by the necessity of shielding her from the tempers +and depressions of the other two. + +It was in this home that Harriet Martineau did all the work that has +now been recorded after her return from America. No one who has the +least conception of how imperatively necessary domestic peace and +comfort are for the relief of the brain taxed with literary labor, +will be surprised to hear that Harriet's strength and spirits failed +during all that summer and winter in which she was writing +_Deerbrook_, and that presently her health completely broke down. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. + +FIVE YEARS OF ILLNESS AND THE MESMERIC RECOVERY. + + +Almost immediately after the publication of _Deerbrook_ Harriet +started for a Continental tour. She was to escort an invalid cousin to +Switzerland, and afterwards to travel through Italy with two other +friends. But her illness became so severe by the time that she reached +Venice that the remainder of the journey had to be abandoned. Under +medical advice, a couch was fitted up in the travelling carriage, and +upon it, lifted in and out at every stage, she returned to England and +was conveyed to her sister's at Newcastle-on-Tyne. In the autumn of +that same year (1839) she took up her abode in Front street, +Tynemouth, in order to remain under the medical care of her +brother-in-law, Mr. Greenhow of Newcastle. + +Her physical sufferings during the next five years were very severe, +and almost incessant. She could not go out of the house, and +alternated only between her bed in one room and her couch in another. +From her sick-room window she overlooked a narrow space of down, the +ruins of the priory, the harbor with its traffic, and the sea. On the +farther side of the harbor she could discern through the telescope a +railroad, a spreading heath, and, on the hills which bounded the view, +two or three farms. To this outlook she, whose life had been hitherto +spent so actively, and in the midst of such a throng of society, found +herself confined for a term of five years. At the same time her pain +was so great that she was compelled to take opiates daily. "I have +observed, with inexpressible shame, that with the newspaper in my +hand, no details of the peril of empires, or of the starving miseries +of thousands, could keep my eye from the watch before me, or detain my +attention one second beyond the time when I might have my opiate. For +two years, too, I wished and intended to dispense with my opiate for +once, to try how much there was to bear, and how I should bear it; but +I never did it, strong as was the shame of always yielding. I am +convinced that there is no more possibility of becoming inured to +acute agony of body, than to paroxysms of remorse--the severest of +moral pains. A familiar pain becomes more and more dreaded, instead of +becoming more lightly esteemed in proportion to its familiarity. The +pain itself becomes more odious, more oppressive, more feared in +proportion to the accumulation of experience of weary hours, in +proportion to the aggregate of painful associations which every +visitation revives."[9] + + [9] _Life in the Sick-Room._ + +Some indication of what she endured in those weary years is given in +this quotation. If we had to rely upon the inferences to be drawn from +the amount of work which she did in her sick-room, we should naturally +suppose the suffering not to have been very great; for she produced, +in the midst of her illness, as much and as noble work as we look for +from the most active persons in ordinary health. + +The first business of the sick-room life was to write both an article +for publication, and a number of letters of personal appeal to +friends, on behalf of Oberlin College, an institution which was being +founded in America for the education of persons of color of both +sexes, and of the students who had been turned out of Lane College for +their advocacy of anti-slavery principles. + +The next undertaking was another novel; or, rather, a history, +imaginatively treated, of the negro revolution in San Domingo. +Toussaint L'Ouverture, the leader of the revolution and the president +of the black Republic of Hayti, was the hero of this story. _The Hour +and the Man_, as a mere novel, is vastly superior to _Deerbrook_. +Harriet wrote it, however, rather as a contribution to the same +anti-slavery cause for which she had written her preceding article, +believing that it would be useful to that cause to show forth the +capacity and the high moral character which had been displayed by a +negro of the blackest shade when in possession of power. The work was +begun in May, 1840, and published in November of the same year. + +Lord Jeffrey, in a familiar private letter to Empson, his successor in +the editorship of the _Edinburgh Review_, wrote thus of _The Hour and +the Man_:-- + + I have read Harriet's first volume, and give in my adhesion to her + Black Prince with all my heart and soul. The book is really not + only beautiful and touching, but _noble_; and I do not recollect + when I have been more charmed, whether by very sweet and eloquent + writing and glowing description, or by elevated as well as tender + sentiments.... The book is calculated to make its readers better, + and does great honor to the heart as well as the talent and fancy + of the author. I would go a long way to kiss the hem of her + garment, or the hand that delineated this glowing and lofty + representation of purity and noble virtue. And she must not only + be rescued from all debasing anxieties about her subsistence, but + placed in a station of affluence and honor; though I believe she + truly cares for none of these things. It is sad to think that she + suffers so much, and may even be verging to dissolution. + +Even the morose and ungracious Carlyle, writing to Emerson of this +book, is obliged to say "It is beautiful as a child's heart; and in so +shrewd a brain!" While Florence Nightingale declares that she "can +scarcely refrain from thinking of it as the greatest of historical +romances." + +The allusion in the latter part of Lord Jeffrey's letter was to a +proposal just then made to give Harriet Martineau one of the Civil +List literary pensions. This idea had been mooted first during the +progress of her _Illustrations_, and again after her return from +America; but upon each occasion she had stated privately that she +would not be willing to accept it. She replied from Tynemouth to the +same effect to Mr. Hutton, who wrote to inquire if she would now be +thus assisted. Her objection was, in the first place, one of +principle; she disapproved of the money of the people being dispensed +in any pensions at the sole will of the Ministry, instead of being +conferred directly by the representatives of the people. Her second +reason was, that after accepting she would feel herself bound to the +Ministers, and would be understood by the public to be so bound, and +would thus suffer a loss of both freedom and usefulness during +whatever life might remain to her. Lord Melbourne, a few months later, +in July, 1841, made her an explicit offer of a pension of L150 per +annum, and her answer to the Minister was substantially the same as to +her friend. She said that while taxation was levied so unequally, and +while Parliament had no voice in the distribution of pensions, she +would rather receive public aid from the parish, if necessary, than as +a pensioner. She added an earnest plea that all influential persons +who held themselves indebted on public grounds to any writer, would +show that gratitude by endeavoring to make better copyright +arrangements and foreign treaties, so as to secure to authors the +full, due and independent reward of their efforts. + +The rare (perhaps mistaken) generosity of this refusal can only be +appreciated by bearing in mind that she had invested a large part of +her earnings a few years before in a form from which she was now +receiving no return. During her illness she was really in want of +money, so far as to have to accept assistance from relatives. For +her charities she partly provided by doing fancy-work, sending +subscriptions both in this form and in the shape of articles for +publication to the anti-slavery cause in America. + +In the early part of 1841 she began a series of four children's +stories, which were published under the general title of _The +Playfellow_. These admirable tales are still amongst the best-known +and most popular of her writings; simple, vivid and interesting, they +are really model children's stories, and it would have been quite +impossible for any reader to imagine that they were written by an +invalid, in constant suffering. _Settlers at Home_ was the first one +written, _The Prince and the Peasant_ came next; then _Feats on the +Fjord_; and, finally, that one from which I quoted largely in an early +chapter, _The Crofton Boys_. By the time the last-named was finished +she was very ill, and believed that she should never write another +book. + +Her interest in all public affairs continued, nevertheless, to be as +keen as ever. In 1841 she wrote for publication a long letter to +support the American Anti-Slavery Society under a secession from its +ranks of a number of persons, chiefly clerical, who objected, of all +things, to women being allowed to be members of the society! Another +piece of work which she did for the public benefit was by a course of +correspondence, full of delicate tact, to personally reconcile Sir +Robert Peel and Mr. Cobden, and so to pave the way for the amicable +work of the two statesmen in the repeal of the Corn Laws. + +In 1843, some of her friends who knew her circumstances, and that she +had refused a pension, collected money to present her with a +testimonial. L1,400, thus obtained, was invested for her benefit in +the Terminable Long Annuities, and a considerable sum besides was +expended in a present of plate. The Ladies Lambton (the eldest of +whom, as Countess of Elgin, was afterwards one of her warmest friends) +went over to Tynemouth to use the plate with her for the first time, +and "it was a testimonial fete." + +It was about this time, too, that the personal acquaintance, destined +to become an intimate association in work, between Harriet Martineau +and Florence Nightingale was commenced. Miss Martineau's younger +sister Ellen had been governess in Miss Nightingale's family. +Sick-nursing occupied Florence Nightingale's hands and heart long +before the Crimean War made her famous, and Harriet Martineau was one +of the sick to whom she ministered in those earlier days. + +Towards the end of 1843, Harriet's mind had accumulated a store of +thoughts and feelings which imperatively pressed to be poured forth. +She wrote then, in about six weeks, her volume of essays, _Life in +the Sick-Room_. The book was published under the pseudonym of "An +Invalid," but was immediately attributed to her on all hands. It is a +most interesting record of the high thoughts and feelings by which so +melancholy an experience as years of suffering, of an apparently +hopeless character, can be elevated, and made productive of benefit to +the sufferer's own nature. Incidentally there is much wise counsel in +the volume for those who have the care of invalids of this class. + +Amidst the many expressions of admiration and interest which this work +drew forth, the following is perhaps most worthy of preservation +because of the source whence it came. Mr. Quillinan, Wordsworth's +son-in-law, wrote as follows to his friend, Henry Crabbe Robinson, on +December 9, 1843:-- + + Mr. Wordsworth, Mrs. Wordsworth and Miss Fenwick have been quite + charmed, affected, and instructed by the invalid's volume.... + Mrs. Wordsworth, after a few pages were read, at once pronounced + it to be Miss Martineau's production, and concluded that you + knew all about it and caused it to be sent hither. In some of + the most eloquent parts it stops short of their wishes and + expectations: but they all agree that it is _a rare book_, doing + honor to the head and heart of your able and interesting friend. + Mr. Wordsworth praised it with more unreserve--I may say, with + more _earnestness_--than is usual with him. The serene and + heavenly-minded Miss Fenwick was prodigal of her admiration. But + Mrs. Wordsworth's was the crowning praise. She said--and you + know how she would say it--"I wish I had read exactly such a + book as that years ago!"... It is a _genuine_ and touching + series of meditations by an invalid not sick in mind or + heart.[10] + + [10] _Diary and Letters of H. C. Robinson_, vol. iii., + p. 235. + +From one of the letters with which Mr. Henry G. Atkinson has favored +me and my readers, I find that she wrote a chapter for that book, +which undoubtedly must have been of the deepest interest, but which +was not published. + + LETTER TO MR. ATKINSON. + + [Extract.] + November 19, 1872. + + DEAR FRIEND: + + ... You will feel at once how earnestly + I must be longing for death--I who never loved life, and who would + any day of my life have rather departed than stayed. Well! it can + hardly go on very much longer now. But I do wish it was permitted + to us to judge for ourselves a little how long we ought to carry + on the task which we never desired and could not refuse, and how + soon we may fairly relieve our comrades from the burden of taking + care of us. I wonder whether the chapter I wrote about this for + the "Sick-Room" book will ever see the light. I rather wish it + may, because I believe it utters what many people think and feel. + I let it be omitted from that book because it might perhaps injure + the impression of the rest of the volume; but, so far as I + remember it, it is worth considering, and therefore publishing. + +I have made such inquiries as I could (of one of Miss Martineau's +executors and others), but can get no tidings of this missing chapter +on Euthanasia. It was just such a subject--needing for its discussion, +courage, calmness, common sense, and logic, combined with sympathy, +and a high standard of moral beauty and goodness--as she would have +been sure to treat rarely well. There is one passage in _Life in the +Sick-Room_, bearing upon the question; she observes that the great +reason why hopeless invalids so commonly endure on when they are +longing for the rest of insensibility, is the uncertainty as to +whether they may not find themselves still conscious in another state. +Her own history was to supply a stronger reason still against the +irrevocable action being taken upon our rash assumptions that our work +and our usefulness in life are ended. As she truly observed: "No one +knows when the spirits of men begin to work, or when they leave off, +or whether they work best when their bodies are weak, or when they are +strong. Every human creature that has a spirit in him must therefore +be taken care of, and kept alive as long as possible, that his spirit +may do all it can in the world." So she wrote at that very +time--showing how her mind was pondering every view of the subject. + +The sentence just quoted is from _Dawn Island_, a little one-hundred +paged story which she wrote in the midst of her suffering, as her +contribution to the funds of the Anti-Corn Law League. It was printed +and sold for the benefit of that league, at the great bazaar of 1845. + +After the publication of the "Sick-Room" book, she commenced the +writing of her autobiography--not as it was published afterwards, be +it understood--for she was too ill to make much progress with it, and +soon stopped writing. But she _never_ became too ill to feel and +to show a vivid interest in every cause that had the happiness and +progress of mankind for its object. She kept up an extensive +correspondence with those engaged in the world's work, and such +personal efforts for public objects as those above mentioned she +frequently exerted--sometimes over-exerted--herself to make. Her body +was chained to two small rooms; but her mind, with all its powers and +affections, yet swept freely through the universe. No one would have +been more impatient than she herself of any pretence that she lived +incessantly on a high plane of lofty emotions, where pain ceased to be +felt, or that her care for others was so extraordinary that +self-regard was swallowed up in the depths of altruism. I have quoted +her candid revelations about her sufferings and her opiates, to avoid +the possibility of conveying an impression that she was thus guilty of +hypocrisy or affectation. But the wide interests and the sympathies +with mankind that were the solace of her sick life, and the +inspiration of the work which she did so heavily, and yet so +continuously, amidst her pain, assuredly shall be marked with the +reverence that they merit. + +In 1844 the long illness came to an end. Harriet Martineau was +restored to perfect health by means of mesmerism. Such a cure of such +a person could not fail to make a great sensation. Not only had she a +wide circle of personal acquaintances, but she had deeply impressed +the public at large with a sense of her perfect sanity, her calm +common-sense, and her practical wisdom, as well as with a conviction +of her truthfulness and accuracy. Accordingly, as the _Zoist_ +(Dr. Elliotson's mesmeric periodical) declared at the time:-- + + The subject which the critic, a few months since, would not + condescend to notice, has been elevated to a commanding position. + It is the topic with which the daily papers and the weekly + periodicals are filled; in fact, all classes are moved by one + common consent, and mesmerism, from the palace to the smallest + town in the United Kingdom, is the scientific question absorbing + public attention.... The immediate cause of all this activity, is + the publication of the case of Miss Martineau, who, after five + years' incessant suffering and confinement to her couch, is now + well. + +I have thought that what needs to be said here of the medical aspect +and course of this period of suffering, and of the final cure, will +best be said consecutively; and, therefore, we will look back briefly +over the five busy but suffering years, the work of which has now been +recorded, and see what were the physical conditions under which that +work was executed. + +Her health had been declining gradually from 1834 to 1839; there was a +slow but a marked deterioration in strength, and her spirits became +depressed. In April of the latter year, when she undertook a +continental journey the fatigue of travelling suddenly aggravated her +condition; and in Venice, early in June, she was compelled to consult +a physician, Dr. Nardo. She was found to be suffering from a tumor, +with enlargement and displacement of an important organ, all this +causing great internal pain, accompanied by frequent weakening +hemorrhages. She was carried back to England by easy stages, and lying +on a couch, and reached Newcastle-on-Tyne at the end of July, 1839. +She stayed for some time at the house in that town of her eldest +sister, and then was removed only nine miles off, in order that her +brother-in-law, Mr. T. M. Greenhow, F.R.C.S., might undertake the +medical care of her case. Until October, she persevered in taking +walking exercise; but the pain, sickness and breathlessness which +accompanied this were so distressing, that soon after her removal to +Tynemouth she ceased to go out of doors, or even to descend the +stairs. + +Mr. Greenhow's prescriptions were confined at first to opiates, and +other medicines to alleviate symptoms. The opiates were not taken in +excess--as, indeed, the books written in the period would conclusively +prove. The patient's suffering was so great, however, that extreme +recourse to such palliatives might have been forgiven. She could not +raise the right leg; and could neither sit up for the faintness which +then ensued, nor lie down with ease because of the pain in her back. +"She could not sleep at night till she devised a plan of sleeping +under a basket, for the purpose of keeping the weight of the +bed-clothes from her; and even then she was scared by horrors all +night, and reduced by sickness during the day. This sickness increased +to such a degree that for two years she was extremely low from want of +food." + +At the end of two years, that is to say, in September, 1841, Sir +Charles Clarke, M.D., was called in consultation; and he prescribed +iodine, remarking at the same time that, in his view, such a case as +hers was practically incurable, and admitting that he "had tried +iodine in an infinite number of such cases, and never knew it avail." +For the next _three years_ Miss Martineau took three grains per +diem of iodide of iron. It relieved the sickness; but up to April, +1844 (two and a half years from the commencement of its +administration), Mr. Greenhow did not pretend that any improvement in +the physical condition had taken place. In that month, as he +afterwards said, he believed he found a slight change, "but he was not +sure"; and, if any, it was very trifling. The patient, on her part, +was quite convinced that her state then was in no way altered. + +More than once different friends--amongst them Lord Lytton, Mr. +Hallam, and the Basil Montagus--had urged her to try mesmerism; but +she had thought it due to her relative to give his orthodox medicines +the fullest trial, before taking herself out of his hands in such a +way. In June, 1844, however, Mr. Greenhow himself suggested that she +should be mesmerized. Of course, so advised, she consented to make the +trial. A Mr. Hall, brought by Mr. Greenhow, accordingly mesmerized her +for the first time on June 22d, 1844, and again on the following day. + +The patient thought she experienced some relief, but did not feel +quite sure. "On occasion of a perfectly new experience, scepticism and +self-distrust are strong."[11] The next day, however, set her doubts at +rest. Mr. Hall was unable to come to her, and she asked her maid to +make the passes in his stead. + + [11] This and the succeeding quotations are from her "Letters + on Mesmerism," published in the _Athenaeum_, 1845. + + Within one minute, the twilight and phosphoric lights appeared; + and in two or three more a delicious sensation of ease spread + through me--a cool comfort, before which all pain and distress + gave way, oozing out, as it were, at the soles of my feet. During + that hour, and almost the whole evening, I could no more help + exclaiming with pleasure than a person in torture crying out with + pain. I became hungry, and ate with relish for the first time for + five years. There was no heat, oppression, or sickness during the + _seance_, nor any disorder afterwards. During the whole evening, + instead of the lazy, hot ease of opiates, under which pain is felt + to lie in wait, I experienced something of the indescribable + sensations of health, which I had quite lost and forgotten. + +Her dear friend during all the years that remained to her--Mr. Henry +G. Atkinson[12]--had just come into her life. His interest in her case +was enlisted by their mutual friend, Basil Montagu; and Mr. Atkinson +undertook to direct the mesmeric treatment by correspondence. +Margaret, the maid, continued the mesmerism till September, and then +Mr. Atkinson induced his friend Mrs. Montague Wynyard, the young widow +of a clergyman, to undertake the case. "In pure zeal and benevolence +this lady came to me, and has been with me ever since. When I found +myself able to repose on the knowledge and power (mental and moral) of +my mesmerist the last impediments to my progress were cleared away and +I improved accordingly." + + [12] As this friendship had a profound influence upon + Harriet's after thought and work, some description of Mr. + Atkinson seems in place; and I need offer that gentleman no + apology for merely quoting what has appeared in print before + about him. Margaret Fuller wrote thus of him in a private + letter, in 1846:-- + + "Mr. Atkinson is a man about thirty, in the fullness of + his powers, tall and finely formed, with a head for + Leonardo to paint; mild and composed, but powerful and + sagacious; he does not think, but perceives and acts. He + is intimate with artists, having studied architecture + himself as a profession; but has some fortune on which he + lives. Sometimes stationary and acting in the affairs of + other men; sometimes wandering about the world and + learning; he seems bound by no tie, yet looks as if he + had relatives in every place."--_Memoirs of Margaret + Fuller_, by Emerson. + +On December the 6th Mr. Greenhow found his patient quite well, and +about to leave the place of her imprisonment, and start on a series of +friendly visits. He declared, notwithstanding, that firstly, her +_physical condition_ was not essentially different from what it had +been all through; secondly, that the change in her _sensations_ arose +from the iodine suddenly and miraculously becoming more effective, and +not from mesmerism. + +Such is the medical history, so interesting to all physiological +students and to all sufferers of the same class, of Harriet +Martineau's five years' illness and recovery. My business is simply to +state facts, and I need not here undertake any dissertation upon +mesmerism. It is sufficient to add that only those who are unaware of +the profundity of our ignorance (up to the present day) about the +action of the nervous system, and still more about what _life_ +really is, can be excused for rash jeering and hasty incredulity in +such a case as this. + +Harriet Martineau knew that she was well again, and it seemed to her a +clear duty to make as public as possible the history of how her +recovery had been brought about. She did so by six letters to the +_Athenaeum_; and these were reprinted in pamphlet form. Mr. Greenhow +was thereupon guilty of one of the most serious professional faults +possible. He also published an account of _The Case of Miss H. M._, in +a shilling pamphlet, giving the most minute and painful details of her +illness, and respecting no confidence that had been reposed in his +medical integrity. The result of this conduct on his part was that his +patient felt herself compelled to break off all future intercourse +with a man capable of such objectionable action. + +It may be added here that the cure was a permanent one.[13] She enjoyed +ten years of health so good that she declared it taught her that in no +previous period of her life had she ever been well. It may be as well +to say that she never wavered in her assurance that her cure was +worked by mesmerism, and that the cure was complete. All dispute about +her firm conviction on this point may be set at rest by the following +extracts from + + LETTERS TO MR. ATKINSON. + + [Extract.] + July 6, 1874. + + Notices of my mesmeric experience in illness have revived an + anxiety of mine about what may happen when I am gone, if certain + parties should bring up the old falsehoods again, when I am not + here to assert and prove the truth. I don't in the least suppose + you can help me, any more than Mrs. Chapman, whom I have got to + look over a box of papers of mine deposited with her. But I had + rather tell you what is on my mind about it. + + I wrote, at Tynemouth, a diary of my case and experience under + the mesmeric experiment (experiment desired and proposed by Mr. + Greenhow himself). _He_ read it when finished, and so did several + of my friends. There are two copies somewhere, for, not wishing to + show certain passages, rather saucy, about the Greenhow prejudices + and behavior, I accepted Mrs. Wynyard's kind offer to copy the + MS., omitting those remarks. Now where are those MSS? I cannot + find them, nor say what I did with them, beyond having a dim + notion that they (or at least Mrs. Wynyard's copy) were put away + into some safe place, to await future chances. I perfectly + remember the look of the packet, and the label on it, etc. When I + remember what was said after reading it, by one of the wisest + people I have known, I am _shocked_ at our inability to find + it. "One must dispute anything being the cause of anything, if one + disputes after reading this statement, that your recovery is due + to mesmerism." And now, while I see false statements of the + "facts," and false references circulating, as at present, I cannot + find my own narrative, written from day to day, and do not know + where to turn next! If I had strength I would turn out all the + papers in my possession, and make sure for myself. Now, dear + friend, do you think you ever saw that statement? + + + [Extract.] + September 18, 1874. + + My malady was absolutely unlike cancer, and it never had any sort + of relation to "malignant" disease. The doctors called it + "indolent tumor--most probably polypus." Don't you remember how, + at that very time, the great dispute on Elliotson's hands was + whether any instance could be adduced of cure of organic disease + by mesmerism? Elliotson was nearly certain, but not quite, of the + cure of a cancer case in his own practice. The doctors were full + of the controversy, and some of them wrote both to me and to Mr. + Greenhow to inquire the nature of my case, whether malignant or + not. Of course we both replied "No." It would be a dreadful + misfortune if now anybody concerned should tell a different story. + Greenhow is still living (aged 82) and all alive; and he would + like nothing better than to get hold of it, and bring out another + indecent pamphlet. If I could but lay hands on the diary of the + case, written at the time, what a security it would be? But I can + nowhere find it. The next best security is turning back to the + statement, "Letters" in the _Athenaeum_ of the autumn of 1844. + Those "Letters" went through two editions when reprinted, after + having carried those numbers of the _Athenaeum_ through three + editions. One would think the narrative must be accessible enough. + Above all things, let there be no mistake in our statements. + + It ought to be enough for observers that I had ten years of robust + health after that recovery, walking from sixteen to twenty miles + in a day, on occasion, and riding a camel in the heart of Nubia, + and hundreds of miles on horseback, through Palestine to Damascus, + and back to the Levant. + + I have written so much because I could not help it. I shall hardly + do it again. I will add only that the mesmerizing began in June, + 1844, and the cure was effected before the following Christmas. + + Dear friend, + + I am yours ever, + + H. M. + + [13] I find there is a widespread impression that she + eventually died of the same tumor that she supposed to have + been cured at this time. It should be distinctly stated, + however, that if this were the case, Mr. Greenhow and Sir C. + Clarke were both _utterly_ wrong in their diagnosis in + 1840. I have read Mr. Greenhow's _Report of the Case of + Miss H. M._, and the notes of the post-mortem lie before + me--kindly lent me by the surgeon, Mr. King, now of Bedford + Park, who made the autopsy. I find that the organ which Mr. + Greenhow and his consultant both stated to be the seat of the + disease, enlargement and tumor, in 1840, is described as + being found "particularly small and unaffected" after death. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. + +THE HOME LIFE. + + +At forty-two years old, Harriet Martineau found herself free for the +first time to form and take possession of a _home of her own_. Now, +for the first time, she could have the luxury which many girls obtain +by marriage so young that they spoil it to themselves and others, and +which it is as natural for each grown woman to desire, irrespective of +marriage, as it is for a fledged bird to leave the old nest--a house +and a domestic circle in which she could be the organizing spirit, +where the home arrangements should be of her own ordering, and where +she could have the privacy and self-management which can no otherwise +be enjoyed, in combination with the exercise of that housewifely skill +to which all women more or less incline. + +The beauty of the scenery led her to fix upon the English lakes for +the locality in which to make her home, and, finding no suitable house +vacant, she resolved to build one for herself. She purchased two acres +of land, within half-a-mile of the village of Ambleside; borrowed some +money on mortgage from a well-to-do cousin; had the plans drawn out +under her own instructions, and watched the house being built so that +it should suit her own tastes. + +It is a pretty little gabled house, built of gray stone, and stands +upon a small rocky eminence--whence its name "the Knoll." There is +enough rock to hold the house, and to allow the formation of a terrace +about twenty feet wide in front of the windows; then there comes the +descent of the face of the rock. At the foot of the rock is the +garden. Narrow flights of steps at either end of the terrace lead down +to the greensward and the flower-beds; in the centre of these is a +gray granite sun-dial, with the characteristic motto around it--"Come +Light! Visit me!" To the left is the gardener's cottage, with the +cow-house, pig-stye and root-shed. The front of the house looks across +the garden, and over the valley to Loughrigg. Its back is turned to +the road, and concealed from passers-by, partly by the growth of +greenery, and partly by the Methodist Chapel. A winding path leads up +from the road to the house, and a small path forking off from this +goes round past the cottage to the field where the cows used to graze, +and to the piece of land that was appropriated to growing the roots +for the cows and the household fruit and vegetables. + +Within, "The Knoll" is just a nice little residence for a maiden lady, +with her small household, and room for an occasional guest. You enter +by a covered porch, and find the drawing-room on the right hand of the +hall. It is a fairly large room, and remarkably well-lighted; there +was a window-tax when she built, but she showed her faith in the +growth of political common-sense abrogating so mischievous an impost, +by building in anticipation of freedom of light and air from taxation. +The drawing-room has two large windows, one of which descends quite to +the floor, and is provided with two or three stone steps outside, so +that the inmates may readily step forth on to the terrace. This +window, by the way, exposed her to another tax than the Government +one. Hunters of celebrities were wont, in the tourist season, not +merely to walk round her garden and terrace without leave, but even to +mount these steps and flatten the tips of their noses against her +window. Objectionable as the liability to this friendly attention +would be felt by most of us, it was doubly so to Miss Martineau +because of her deafness, which precluded her from receiving warning of +her admirers' approaches from the crunching of their footsteps on the +gravel--so that the first intimation that she would receive of their +presence would be to turn her head by chance and find the flattened +nose and the peering eyes against the window-pane. There is a special +record of one occasion, when her bell rang in an agitated fashion, and +the maid, on going, found her mistress much disturbed. "There is a +_big_ woman, with a _big_ pattern on her dress, beckoning to me to +come to the window--go, and tell her to go away." But similar +incidents were manifold, and her servants had to be trained to guard +their mistress as if she were the golden apples of the Hesperides. +Indeed, for several years (till she became too ill to travel) she used +to leave her lake-side home altogether during the tourist season. + +In her latest years she commonly wrote in the drawing-room, as the +sunniest and most cheerful apartment, and where, too, she could sit by +the fire, and yet get plenty of daylight. Her proper study, however, +was the room on the opposite side of the hall. This is a long room +with a bay window at the other end of the fire-place, and the door in +the centre. Book-cases lined the whole of these walls; but her library +was an extensive one, and there were books all over the house. This +room served as dining-room and study, both; the writing table was near +the window, the dining-table further towards the fire. + +The only other room on the ground floor is the kitchen, which runs +parallel with the drawing-room. Her principles and her practice went +hand-in-hand in her domestic arrangements as in her life generally; +and her kitchen was as airy, light and comfortable for her maids as +her drawing-room was for herself. The kitchen, too, was provided with +a book-case for a servants' library. A scullery, dairy, etc., are +annexed to the kitchen, and the entrance to the cellars below is also +found through the green baize door which shuts off the cooking region +from the front of the house. + +Up-stairs, that which was her own room is large and cheerful, and +provided with two windows, a big hanging cupboard, and a good sized +dressing-room--the latter indeed, fully large enough for a maid to +sleep in. The next was the spare-room; and there lingers no small +interest about the guest-chamber, where Harriet Martineau received +such guests as Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot, Emerson, and Douglas +Jerrold. A small servants' room is next to this, and a larger one is +over the kitchen, so that it comes just at the head of the stairs. +Such is the size and arrangement of Harriet Martineau's home. + +Climbing plants soon covered "The Knoll" on every side. The ivy kept +it green through all the year; the porch was embowered in honeysuckle, +clematis, passion-flower, and Virginia creeper. Wordsworth, Macready, +and other friends of note, planted trees for Harriet below the +terrace. The making of all these arrangements was a source of +satisfaction and delight to her such as can only be imagined by those +who have felt what it is to come abroad after a long and painful +confinement from illness, and to find life and usefulness freely open +again under agreeable conditions and prospects. + +While her house was being built, she lodged in Ambleside; and in that +time, during the autumn and winter of 1845-6, she wrote her _Forest +and Game Law Tales_, with the object of showing how mischievous the +game laws were in their operation upon society at large, and more +particularly upon the fortunes of individual farmers, and upon the +laborers who were led into poaching. These tales occupy three volumes +of the ordinary novel size. They had a sale which would have been very +good for a novel; two thousand copies were disposed of, and doubtless +did some service for the cause for which she had worked. So far as her +own pecuniary interests were concerned, however, these tales made her +first failure. It was the only work which never returned her any +remuneration. The publisher had reckoned on a very large circulation, +and so had put out too much capital in stock, stereotypes, and the +like, to leave any profit on the sale that actually took place; and +the publication unfortunately coincided with the agitation of the +political world about the repeal of the corn laws. But one pleasing +incident arose out of them for her personally. She had been in +difficulties as to how to obtain turf to lay down upon the land under +her terrace. One fine morning, soon after her entrance on her home, +her maid found a great heap of sods under the window, when she opened +the shutters in the morning. A dirty note, closed with a wafer, was +stuck upon the pile, and this was found to state that the sods were "a +token of gratitude for the _Game Law Tales_, from a Poacher." Harriet +never discovered from whom this tribute came. + +She took possession of her home on April 7th, 1846. During the summer +she wrote another story for young people--one of her most interesting +tales, and instructive in its moral bearing--_The Billow and the +Rock_. It must here be noted, in passing, that this is the last of +her works in which the theism that she had, up to this time, held for +religious truth, makes itself visible. A new experience was about to +lead her to think afresh upon the theological subjects, and to revise +her opinions about the genesis of faiths, and their influence upon +morals. + +In the autumn of 1846, she accepted an invitation from her friends, +Mr. and Mrs. R. V. Yates, of Liverpool, to join them in a journey to +the East, they bearing the expense. The party left England in October, +and were met at Malta by Mr. J. C. Ewart, afterwards M.P. for +Liverpool. Together, these four travellers sailed up the Nile to the +second cataract, studied Thebes and Philae, went up and into the Great +Pyramid, visited bazaars, mosques and (the ladies) harems, in Cairo. +Then they travelled in the track of Moses in the desert, passing Sinai +and reaching Petra. Next, they completely traversed Palestine; and +finally, passed through Syria to Beyrout, where they took ship again +for home. This journey occupied eight months. + +In October, 1847, Harriet reached "The Knoll" again, and settled +herself in her permanent course of home life. As the same habits were +continued, with only the interruptions of occasional visits to other +parts of the country, day by day, for many years, I may as well +mention what was the course of that daily home life. + +She rose very early: not infrequently, in the winter, before daylight; +and immediately set out for a good, long walk. Sometimes, I am told, +she would appear at a farm-house, four miles off, before the cows were +milked. The old post-mistress recollects how, when she was making up +her early letter-bags, in the gray of the morning mists, Miss +Martineau would come down with her large bundle of correspondence, and +never failed to have a pleasant nod and smile, or a few kindly +inquiries, for her humble friend. "I always go out before it is quite +light," writes Miss Martineau to Mr. Atkinson, in November, 1847; "and +in the fine mornings I go up the hill behind the church--the Kirkstone +road--where I reach a great height, and see from half way along +Windermere to Rydal. When the little shred of moon that is left and +the morning star hang over Wansfell, among the amber clouds of the +approaching sunrise, it is delicious. On the positively rainy +mornings, my walk is to Pelter Bridge and back. Sometimes it is round +the south end of the valley. These early walks (I sit down to my +breakfast at half-past seven) are good, among other things, in +preparing me in mind for my work." + +Returning home, she breakfasted at half-past seven; filled her lamp +ready for the evening, and arranged all household matters; and by +half-past eight was at her desk, where she worked undisturbed till +two, the early dinner-time. These business hours were sacred, whether +there were visitors in the house or not. After dinner, however, she +devoted herself to guests, if there were any; if not, she took another +walk, or in bad weather, did wool-work--"many a square yard of which," +she says, she "all invisibly embossed with thoughts and feelings +worked in." Tea and the newspaper came together, after which she +either read, wrote letters, or conversed for the rest of the evening, +ending her day always, whatever the weather, by a few moments of +silent meditation in the porch or on the terrace without. + +She was not one of those mistresses who cannot talk to their servants, +any more than she was one to indulge them in idle and familiar gossip. +If there were any special news of the day, she would invite the maids +into her sitting-room for half an hour in the evening, to tell them +about it. During the Crimean War, and again during the American +struggle, in particular, the servants had the frequent privilege of +tracing with her on the map the position of the battles, and learning +with her aid to understand the great questions that were at stake. + +The servants thus trained and considered[14] were not, certainly, +common domestics. She kept two girls in the house, besides the +laboring man and his wife at the cottage; and, as the place was small, +and her way of living simple, the work did not require that she should +choose rough women for servants merely because of their strength. On +the contrary, she made special efforts to secure young girls of a +somewhat superior order, whom she might train and attach to herself. +She got servants whom she had to dismiss now and again, of course; but +the time that most of her maids stopped with her and the warm feelings +that they showed towards her, are a high testimony to the domestic +character of their "strong minded" mistress. At the time of which we +are now speaking, her maids were "Jane," who had been cured from +chronic illness by Miss Martineau's mesmerizing, and who was in her +service for seven years, when the girl emigrated; and "Martha," who +had been trained for teaching, and had to resign it from ill-health, +but who later on married the master of Miss Carpenter's Bristol Ragged +Schools, and returned to teaching, after serving Miss Martineau for +some eight years. + + [14] Henry Crabbe Robinson writes to Miss Fenwick on January + 15, 1849:-- + + "Miss Martineau makes herself an object of envy by the + success of her domestic arrangements.... Mrs. Wordsworth + declares she is a model in her household economy, making + her servants happy, and setting an example of activity to + her neighbors." + +Of the servants who came after this, "Caroline" was there twenty +years, till she was removed by death; and "Mary Anne" served Miss +Martineau eleven years, till the mistress's death closed the long term +of attendance and almost filial love. + +Indications of how different the relationship was in this home from +what it only too often is, are found in many of Miss Martineau's +letters. When "Martha" married, she had the rare honor of having +Harriet Martineau and Mary Carpenter for her bridesmaids. The mistress +gave the wedding breakfast, and partook of it, too, in company with +the bride and bridegroom and their friends; and when she had seen them +all off, she sat down to write to her family about her loss "with a +bursting heart." References to her feelings for her "dear friend, +Caroline," will be seen presently in her letters to Mr. Atkinson; and +her care and affection for this valued servant are expressed yet more +frequently in letters which I may not quote, to more domestic friends. +As to "Mary Anne," she has travelled a long way while in delicate +health, to see me, to tell me all she could of her mistress, and to +express how glad she was "to know of anything being done to make Miss +Martineau's goodness better understood." "Mary Anne" is now a married +woman. She was engaged for three or four years before Miss Martineau's +death, but would not leave her mistress in her old age and her +ill-health. That mistress, on her part, when told of the engagement, +not only admitted the lover to an interview with herself, but even +generously urged that the wedding should not be delayed for her sake, +although at this time she had an almost morbid shrinking from +strangers, and the loss of the personal attendant who knew her ways, +would have been one of the greatest calamities of the commoner order +that could have befallen her. But "Mary Anne" did not leave her; and +when, at last, it became quite certain that death was at hand, the +generous lady said to a relative that it made her "so glad to think +that, when it was over, there could be nothing to stand in the way of +Mary Anne's marriage." I have thus anticipated in order to show that +the domestic peace which existed under her household rule was no +special thing dependent upon the character of a single servant, but +was maintained through all the years of her home life, and therefore +unquestionably was the result of the mistress's qualities of heart and +mind. + +What may be called her external home-life--that is to say, what she +was to her poorer neighbors--during that ten years of activity, may +also be best noticed before the mental progress and literary work of +the period come under further review. + +Every winter, for several years, she gave a course of lectures to the +working-people and tradesfolk of the place, in the Methodist +school-room at the back of her house. Many of the gentry desired to +attend, but she would have none of them, on the double ground that +there was no room for them, and that the lectures were designed for +people who had little access to books or other educational resources. +The subjects that she treated were as various as those of her books, +but all chosen with what I have previously observed seems to me to +have been the object of all her works--to influence conduct through +knowledge and reasoning. There was a course on sanitary matters, +others on her travels (and we know from her books on the same topics +from what point of view these were treated), some on the history of +England, another on the history and constitution of the United States; +and, finally, the last course for which she had health and strength +was given in November and December, 1854, and was on the Crimean War +and the character of the government of Russia. + +I have seen some of the older inhabitants of Ambleside who attended +these lectures, and who now speak of them in the warmest terms of +admiration. "They were so clear; and she never stopped for a word; and +so interesting!--one could have listened to them over and over again." +But there is no one who could tell, with the aid of a cultivated +taste, what she was as a public speaker. So eloquent is some of her +writing that one holds one's breath as one reads it; and the evident +rapidity of the penmanship of her MS.[15] shows that such passages were +produced with all the improvisatory impulse and flow of the orator. +If, besides this, her delivery was fervent and impressive, one cannot +but think how great a statesman and parliamentary leader she might +have been, with these essential qualifications for modern public life +added to all that knowledge, judgment, strength of principle, and +political capacity which made men willing (as we shall see soon) to +accept her as their political teacher in the daily and quarterly +press. That she had the orator's stirring gifts, the personal +magnetism which compels the minds of a mass to move with the words of +a speaker, and the reciprocal power of receiving stimulus from an +audience, when + + The hearts of many fires the lips of one, + +there is one shadowy incident left to show, besides the testimony of +her local hearers who survive. It is this: in 1849 Charlotte Bronte, +then in the first flush of her fame, sought Harriet Martineau's +acquaintance, saying that she desired "to see one whose works have so +often made her the subject of my thoughts." In the following year +Charlotte visited Harriet at "The Knoll," and heard one of the English +History lectures. Her bright eyes were fixed on the lecturer all +through; and as Harriet stood on her low platform, while the audience +dispersed, she heard Charlotte say, in the very voice of the lecturer, +what Edward said in the wind-mill at Cressy: "Is my son dead?" They +walked silently to the house together--about three hundred paces--and +when Harriet turned up her lamp in the drawing-room, the first thing +she saw was Charlotte looking at her with wide, shining eyes, and +repeating, in the same tone, "Is my son dead?" To those who know the +dramatic quality of Charlotte Bronte's imagination, there is a beam of +light reflected from this trifling anecdote upon the force and the +manner of the speaker who had so impressed her. + + [15] In speaking of her eloquent writings I refer specially + to the _History of the Peace_; and I have seen the + manuscript of this, bearing evidence that the hand could not + keep pace with the flow of words and thoughts. + +The opinion which this keenly observant and candid woman formed of +Harriet Martineau is of peculiar interest, and, as it specially refers +to the period and the relations of which we are now treating, I quote +it from Mrs. Gaskell's _Life of Charlotte Bronte_. It is given in +some private letters, written from "The Knoll" (not, as Mrs. Chapman +absurdly says, to Emily Bronte, who was dead, but) to Charlotte's +life-long and most confidential friend, Miss Ellen Nussey:-- + + "I am at Miss Martineau's for a week. Her house is very pleasant + both within and without; arranged at all points with admirable + neatness and comfort. Her visitors enjoy the most perfect liberty; + what she claims for herself she allows them.... She is a great and + good woman.... The manner in which she combines the highest mental + culture with the nicest discharge of feminine duties filled me + with admiration; while her affectionate kindness earned my + gratitude. I think her good and noble qualities far outweigh her + defects. It is my habit to consider the individual apart from his + (or her) reputation, practice independent of theory, natural + disposition isolated from acquired opinion. Harriet Martineau's + person, practice, and character inspire me with the truest + affection and respect. + + "I find a worth and greatness in herself, and a consistency and + benevolence and perseverance in her practice, such as win the + sincerest esteem and affection. She is not a person to be judged + by her writings alone, but rather by her own deeds and life, than + which nothing can be more exemplary or nobler. She seems to me the + benefactress of Ambleside, yet takes no sort of credit to herself + for her active and indefatigable philanthropy. The government of + her household is admirably administered; all she does is well + done, from the writing of a history down to the quietest feminine + occupation. No sort of carelessness or neglect is allowed under + her rule, and yet she is not over-strict, or too rigidly exacting; + her servants and her poor neighbors love as well as respect her. + + "I must not, however, fall into the error of talking too much + about her, merely because my mind is just now deeply impressed + with what I have seen of her intellectual power and moral worth." + +Some of her lectures were given with the express object of inducing +the people to form a building society. Rents were excessively high for +the working classes from the scarcity of cottages; and therefore they +lived and slept crowded together, while the open country extended all +around them. The moral screw was turned upon them, too, about politics +and religion, by the threat of the landlord that, if they offended +him, he would turn them out of the only cottages they could get. With +that true philanthropy which her studies in political economy had +taught, Miss Martineau went to work to aid the people to improve their +own condition. She obtained a loan of L500 from her old friend, Mrs. +Reid, of London (to whom the foundation of Bedford college is mainly +due), with which she purchased a field just above the village at +Ellercross, and parcelled it out, drained it, and made the road. Then, +by her lectures, she showed the people how they could "buy a house +with its rent"; and she undertook all the infinite trouble that +devolved upon her when the society was formed, as the only member of +it with legal and general knowledge, and, therefore, the only one able +to guide its affairs. Before me there lies a package of the notes that +she sent at different times on this business to Mr. Bell, the +Ambleside chemist, who was the nominal chairman--though she was the +real one--of the society. "Jealousy and ridicule went to work against +the scheme"; but her philanthropic energy and wisdom were fully +successful. The cottages are healthily planned and well built, and +remain there as a monument to the efforts which she made for the good +of her poor neighbors. + +Besides these more general undertakings for their benefit, there yet +live many amongst them who are grateful to her for personal kindness +and assistance. While her strength lasted, she was ever ready to try +to relieve others from illness by the means which she believed to have +cured herself; and seven mesmerized patients were sometimes asleep at +one time in her drawing-room. She was a powerful mesmerist. Most of +her patients were at least relieved--some cured. A present resident of +Ambleside, who owes his success in business life to her kindness, told +me how she mesmerized him for nearly an hour every day for a year; and +to show that she did not do this without very decided results to +herself, he remembers that her fingers used to swell during the +process, so as to almost hide her rings, if she forgot to take them +off before beginning. + +Again, her library was placed freely at the service of deserving young +men in the village, and only book-lovers will be able to appreciate +the generosity of this neighborly kindness. Old Miss Nicholson tells +me of Miss Martineau's kindness to her invalid sister; sharing with +her the luxuries which were not to be bought in Ambleside, but which +the famous writer frequently received from some of her many friends. +Nor was the mere personal human sympathy wanting in her; those who +needed no gifts or material aid from her knew her as a kind friend, +ready to think for them and advise with them in their troubles or +perplexities. + +In mentioning her activities other than literary, during those ten +busy and healthy years of home life, I must not omit her +"farming"--her farm of two acres. She had no intention, at first, of +embarking in such an enterprise. She let on hire that portion of her +land which she did not wish to have in her garden, and her maids and +herself, with the occasional help of a man, kept the garden in order. +But this plan did not answer well. The tenant allowed the grass to get +untidy, and his sheep broke into the garden to eat the cabbages. +Neither the vegetable nor the flower garden could be kept so nicely as +might be wished. Milk, butter, eggs, and hams, all had to be bought at +high prices; and so small was the supply at times that these articles +of country produce were actually unattainable by purchase. + +The energetic lady of the small domain was profoundly dissatisfied +with this state of affairs. So to work she went to study the science +of agriculture and practical farming; and soon a Norfolk laborer was +established on her land, and this small farm was under her own +management. She set up a cross-pole fence around her estate, the first +one ever seen in the Lake District; and, like a true woman, she +planted roses all along the fence, to wreathe and decorate it in +summer. Then she initiated her fellow-farmers into the mysteries of +high farming, and stall feeding. "A cow to three acres" was the Lake +rule; but she hired another half-acre of land, to add to her own, and +showed that upon this total of two acres she could _almost_ keep two +cows. Fowls and pigs were, of course, kept also; and all the household +comforts which cows, hens, and pigs supply were obtained from her land +at, practically, no cost at all. The subsistence of the laborer and +his wife was created out of the soil; and the house had a constant +supply of vegetables, milk, eggs, and hams, at a less expense than +buying had previously been, and with a much nicer and always certain +supply. + +The experiment became famous in a small way. "People came to see how +we arranged our ground, so as to get such crops out of it,"[16] and one +of the Poor-Law Commissioners, having asked her for a private account +of how she had managed her little farm, printed her letter in the +_Times_, without asking her consent. This brought such a flood of +correspondence on her that she was compelled to write on the subject +for publication, and so the farm superintendence resulted in a piece +of literary work for the mistress. + + [16] _Health, Husbandry and Handicraft_, p. 269, "Our + Farm of Two Acres." + +Now we will see what her pen was doing while all these activities were +helping to fill her days. + + + + +CHAPTER IX. + +IN THE MATURITY OF HER POWERS. + + +The book, published early in 1848, in which Harriet described her +Egyptian, Desert and Palestine travels, was entitled _Eastern Life, +Past and Present_. If I were required to give from some one only of +her works a series of extracts which should illustrate the special +powers of her mind and the finest features of her style, it would be +this book that I should choose. I do not mean to say that the most +eloquent and vivid passage that I might find in all her writings is +here; nor that her deepest and noblest qualities as a thinker are more +forcibly displayed here than elsewhere. But I mean that in _Eastern +Life, Past and Present_, all her best moral and intellectual +faculties were exerted, and their action becomes visible, at one page +or another, in reading the book from the first to the last chapters. +The keen observation, the active thought, the vigorous memory, the +power of deep and sustained study, the mastery of language, giving the +ability to depict in words and to arouse the reader's imagination to +mental vision--all these requisites for the writing of a good book of +travel she showed that she possessed. But there is even more than all +this in _Eastern Life_. There is the feeling for humanity in all +its circumstances, which can sympathize no less with the slave of the +harem at this moment alive in degradation, than with the highest +intelligences that ceased from existence unnumbered thousands of years +ago. The most interesting and characteristic feature distinguishing +this work is, however, the openness and freedom of its thought +combined with the profound reverence that it shows for all that is +venerable. + +It was _Eastern Life_ which first declared to the world that Harriet +Martineau had ceased to have a theology. She had learned in travelling +through Egypt, how much of what Moses taught was derived from the +ancient mythology of Egypt. Passing afterwards through the lands where +the Hebrew, the Christian, and the Mohammedan faiths in turn arose, +observing, thinking, and studying, the conclusion at which she arrived +at last was, in brief, this: That men have ever constructed the image +of a Ruler of the Universe out of their own minds; that all successive +ideas about the Supreme Power have been originated from within, and +modified by the surrounding circumstances; and that all theologies, +therefore, are baseless productions of the human imagination, and have +no essential connection with those great religious ideas and emotions +by which men are constrained to live nobly, to do justly, and to love +what they see to be the true and the right. + +Her conviction that the highest moral conduct, and the most unselfish +goodness, and the noblest aspirations, are in no degree connected with +any kind of creed, was aided and supported, no doubt, by her warm +personal affection for Mr. Atkinson, and some other of her friends of +his way of thinking, in whom she found aspirations as lofty and +feelings as admirable as ever she had enjoyed communion with, together +with a complete rejection, on scientific grounds, of all theology. Her +belief now was that-- + + The best state of mind was to be found, however it might be + accounted for, in those who were called philosophical atheists.... + I knew several of that class--some avowed, and some not; and I had + for several years felt that they were among my most honored + acquaintances and friends; and now I knew them more deeply and + thoroughly, I must say that, for conscientiousness, sincerity, + integrity, seriousness, effective intellect, _and the true + religious spirit_, I knew nothing like them. + +Her own "true religious" earnestness was unabated. _Eastern Life_ +contains abundance of evidence that the spirit in which she now wrote +against all theological systems was exactly at one with that in which +she had twenty years before written _Addresses, Prayers and Hymns_. +Her intellectual range had become far wider; her knowledge of human +nature and of the history and conditions of mankind had vastly +increased; but her religious earnestness--that is to say, her devotion +to truth, and her emotional reverence for her highest conceptions of +goodness and duty--was as fervent as ever. + +Notwithstanding the boldness and heterodoxy of _Eastern Life_, it did +not cause much outcry; and her two next books were amongst the most +successful of all her works. The first of these was _Household +Education_; the second, _A History of the Thirty Years' Peace_. + +The former was partly written for periodical publication during 1847 +in the _People's Journal_, for which magazine she wrote also a few +desultory articles. + +The _History of the Peace_ was a voluminous work of the first order of +importance. Its execution is in most respects entirely admirable. Her +task of writing the history of the time in which she had herself lived +was one of extreme delicacy. Honest contemporary judgments about +still-living or lately-dead persons, and about actions which have been +observed with all the freshness of feeling of the passing moment, must +often seem unduly stern to those who look back through the softening +veil of the past, and to whom the actors have always been purely +historic personages. Moreover, I have before mentioned her tendency, +which seems to me to have arisen from her deafness, to give +insufficient _shading off_ in depicting character. But wonderfully +little allowance is, after all, required on such grounds from the +reader at the present day of Harriet Martineau's history of the years +between 1815 and 1845. The view taken by her of O'Connell, Brougham, +and some others is perhaps too stern; the picture has too many dark +shades, and not a due proportion of light tints; but it can scarcely +be questioned that the outline is accurate, and the whole drawing +substantially correct. The earnest endeavor after impartiality, and +the success with which the judicial attitude of the historian is on +the whole maintained, are very remarkable. + +This appears so to one who looks upon the book with the eyes of the +present generation; but the recognition of the fact at the moment when +she wrote is perhaps more conclusive, and the following quotation may +serve to show the opinion of those who (with her) had lived through +the time of which she treats. + + Miss Martineau has been able to discuss events which may almost be + called contemporary as calmly as if she were examining a remote + period of antiquity. She has written the history of a rather + undignified reign with a dignity that raises even the strifes of + forgotten and exploded parties into philosophic importance. She + exhibits warm sympathies for all that is noble, honorable, or + exalted--and a thorough disdain of every paltry contrivance + devised to serve a temporary purpose, or gain an unworthy end. The + principles which she enunciates are based on eternal truths, and + evolved with a logical precision that admits rhetorical ornament + without becoming obscure or confused. There are few living authors + who may be so implicitly trusted with the task of writing + contemporary history as Miss Martineau. She has spared no pains in + investigating the truth, and allowed no fears to prevent her from + stating it.[17] + + [17] _Athenaeum_, March, 31st, 1849. + +Though all her other books should die, and be buried utterly under the +dust of time, this one will never be entirely lost. It is as accurate +and as careful in its facts as the driest compendium, while yet its +pages glow with eloquence, and are instinct with political wisdom. She +really did here what she had designed to do in _Society in America_; +but here she did it in the right method, there in a wrong one. The +great growth of her mind in twelve years of maturity could not be +better gauged than by a comparison of these two works. Her political +principles did not change in the time; she was a true believer in +popular government all her life--her love of justice caused her to be +a hater of class rule, and of every kind of privilege; her sympathies +were boundless, and made her in earnest for the freedom and progress +of the democracy; her conscience was active so that she loved truth +for its own sake; and her sense of duty never failed to keep alive in +her large mind a feeling of personal concern in the progress of public +affairs. All this was true of her when she wrote her American book; it +was equally true when she treated the history of her own land and her +own times. But in the latter case, she writes on political philosophy +like a statesman--in the former there is much of the doctrinaire. In +the latter work, principles underlie the whole fabric; but the actions +of politicians are made the means of judging their own professed +creeds, the value of those creeds being easily appraised by the +results seen to follow on actions in conformity with them. In the +earlier work, as we saw, the theories were postulated first, and the +actions were measured against those self-derived standards of right +and wrong. For political sagacity, for nobility of public spirit, for +effective thought, for knowledge of facts, for clear presentation of +them, for accuracy in judging of their permanent importance, for +candor, and impartiality, for insight into character, and for vivid +and glowing eloquence, _The History of the Thirty Years' Peace_ stands +forth unmatched amongst books of its class. This, I take it, will be +the most enduring and valuable of all her works, and the one by which +chiefly posterity will learn what were her powers and how estimable +was her character. + +In the two works last mentioned, _Eastern Life_ and _The Thirty +Years' Peace_, it seems to me that she touched the high-water mark +of her permanent achievements. We have nearly reached the end of the +long catalogue of her books, though by no means the end of her +writings. Very much more work she did in her life, as will presently +be told, but it was that kind of work which is (with the single +exception of oratory) the most powerful at the moment, but the most +evanescent--journalism. She was soon to begin to apply her ripe wisdom +and her life-long study of the theory of government to the concrete +problems of practical politics. The influence of an active and +powerful journalist cannot be measured; the work itself cannot be +adequately surveyed and criticized; and thus what is, perhaps, the +most useful, capable and important work which Harriet Martineau did, +eludes our detailed survey. We can best judge what was her power as a +leader-writer and review and magazine essayist by noting how +progressively her mind improved, and to what a high moral and +intellectual standpoint she had attained in her latest volumes, just +before she exchanged such sustained labors for the briefer though not +less arduous efforts of leading and teaching through the periodical +press. + +_The History of the Peace_ was completed in 1850, and was so +immediately successful that the publisher asked Miss Martineau to +write an introductory volume on the history of the first fifteen years +of this century. While at work upon this "Introduction" she did also +some short articles on various subjects for Charles Dickens' +periodical, _Household Words_, and was likewise proceeding with the +preparation of another volume of a very different kind. This last was +published in January, 1851 (before the introductory volume of the +_History_), under the title of _Letters on the Laws of Man's Nature +and Development_, by Henry George Atkinson, F.G.S., and Harriet +Martineau. + +The contents of the book were actual letters which had passed between +the friends. It will be remembered that Harriet did not meet Mr. +Atkinson during the progress of her mesmeric treatment and recovery +from illness under his written advice. But soon after she got better, +they were visiting together at the house of a cousin of hers, and +during the six years or so which had since then passed, they had often +met, and their correspondence had grown to be very frequent. Mr. +Atkinson had gradually become the friend dearest to Harriet Martineau +in all the world. He gained her affection (I use the word advisedly) +by entirely honorable roads--by the delight which she took in +observing his scientific knowledge, his originality of thought and his +elevated tone of mind. But I cannot doubt that long before this volume +of _Letters_ was published, he had become dear to her by virtue +of that personal attraction which is not altogether dependent upon +merit, but which enhances such merits as may be possessed by the +object of the attachment, and somewhat confuses the relationship on +the intellectual side. This condition of things is in no way +especially feminine; John Stuart Mill bowed down to Mrs. Taylor, and +Comte erected his admiration of Clotilde into a _culte_. Mr. +Atkinson was many years younger than his friend, and very likely she +never fully realized the depth of her own feelings towards him. But +still the attraction had its influence, though unacknowledged in +words, and unreciprocated in kind. + +Miss Martineau was really taught by Mr. Atkinson much of science that +she had not previously studied; but yet it was an error, from every +point of view, for her to present to the world a book in which she +avowed herself his pupil. Her letters are mainly composed of +questions, upon which she seeks enlightenment. The answers cannot, in +the nature of the case, give forth a connected system of thought upon +"Man's Nature and Development." No one was more ready than she herself +to recognize that, as she says, "in literature, no mind can work well +upon the lines laid down by another"; yet this was what she required +Mr. Atkinson to do in replying to her questions and taking up her +points. The errors that one would expect are found in the results of +this mistaken form; the facts and the inferences are neither +sufficiently separated, nor properly connected; and the real value +which the book had as a contribution to science and philosophy is lost +sight of in the disorder. In fact, no form could be less suitable than +the epistolary for such work--either for the writers to arrange and +analyze what they were doing, or for the reader to see and understand +what they have done. Besides this, the public had long consented to +learn from Harriet Martineau; but Mr. Atkinson, though highly +respected by his own circle, was not known to the general public, and +it was therefore an error in policy for Miss Martineau to show herself +sitting as a pupil at his feet, and to call on those who believed in +her to believe in him as her teacher and guide. Her fine tact and long +experience must have led her to perceive all this in an ordinary case; +and only the personal reason of a desire to win for her friend the +recognition from the public which she herself had already given him so +fully in her own head and heart, could have led an experienced and +able woman of letters to so blunder in her selection of the literary +form of the book. + +As to the substance of the _Letters_, but little need be said, because +the bulk of the volume is not her writing, but Mr. Atkinson's. The +ideas which she had then accepted, however, were those by which she +lived the rest of her life, and must have their due share of notice +for that reason. + +The fundamental point in the book is its insistance on the Baconian, +or experiential, or scientific, method of inquiry being adopted in +studying man and his mental constitution, just as much as in studying +inanimate nature. A great First Cause of all things is not denied, but +declared unknown and unknowable, as necessarily beyond the +comprehension of the senses of man. Supernatural revelation is, of +course, entirely rejected; indeed, the very word supernatural is held +to involve a fallacy, for only natural things can be known. Mr. +Atkinson pointed out that the whole of the facts which are around us +can be observed, analyzed, and found to occur in an invariable +sequence of causes and effects, which form natural laws; and that the +mind of man is no exception to this general truth, that all events +spring from causes, and are themselves in turn causes of other +effects. It follows from these conclusions that the "First Cause" +(which, as Miss Martineau said, the constitution of the human mind +requires it to suppose) never intervenes in the world as an errant +influence, disturbing natural law; and all speculations about its +nature, character, and purposes are put aside as out of the field of +inquiry. + +Passing on from method to results, Mr. Atkinson gave the first hints +of many doctrines now fully accepted: as that of unconscious +cerebration, or that of more senses than five, for instance; and many +others (based mainly on phrenology and mesmerism) not held, up to the +present time, even by the scientists of his own school. For the rest +the book has much that is interesting; it has much that is true; but +it has, also, much that might well have been put forward as +speculation, but should not have been stated so dogmatically as it was +on the evidence available.[18] + + [18] It is right that I should say that I alone am + responsible for the above (necessarily imperfect) digest of + the contents of the book. I at first thought of asking Mr. + Atkinson to do me the favor of reading my account of his work + in proof; but I ultimately concluded that it would be better + that in this instance, as in the case of all Harriet + Martineau's other books, I myself should be wholly + responsible to the public for my own substantial accuracy + and fairness. + +It was received in 1851 with a howl from the orthodox press which +would seem strange indeed in these days. But of competent criticism it +had very little. Miss Martineau's name, of course, secured attention +for it; and small though her share in the book was, it was quite +enough to make the fact perfectly clear that she was henceforth to be +looked upon as a "materialist" and a "philosophical atheist," and the +rest of the names by which it was customary to stigmatize any person +who rejected supernaturalism and revelation. + +The motives with which this book was written and published could +hardly be misunderstood. There could be no idea of making money out of +a work on philosophy--even if either of the authors had been in the +habit of writing merely to make money; while as to fame and applause, +everyone is more or less acquainted with the history of the reception +given in all ages to those who have questioned the popular beliefs of +their time! The sole motive with which Harriet Martineau wrote and +issued this book was the same that impelled her to do all her +work--the desire to teach that which she believed to be true, and to +be valuable in its influence upon conduct. With regard to the latter +point, it seemed to her that one great cause for the slow advance of +civilization is the degree to which good men and women have occupied +themselves with supernatural concerns, neglecting for these the actual +world, its conditions, and its wants, and giving themselves over to +the guidance of a spiritual hierarchy instead of exercising all their +own powers in freedom. She struck at this error in publishing the +_Letters_. At the same time she felt doubtful if her future writings +would ever be read after her bold utterances, and even, as the +following letter shows, whether she might not find herself the +occupant of a felon's dock for the crime of which Socrates, and Jesus, +and Galileo were each in turn accused--blasphemy: + + LETTER TO MR. ATKINSON. + + [Extract.] + August 10, 1874. + + One thing more is worth saying. Do you remember how, when we were + bringing out our "Letters," I directed your attention to our + Blasphemy Law, and the trial of Moxon, under that law, for + publishing Shelley's "Queen Mab" among his _Poems_? You ridiculed + my statement, and said Mr. Procter[19] denied there being such a + law, or Moxon having been tried, in the face of the fact that I + had corresponded with Moxon on the occasion, on the part of + certain personal friends. The fact appeared afterwards in the + _Annual Register_, but it seemed to produce no effect. Well, now + you can know the truth by looking at the _Life of Denman_, by Sir + Joseph Arnould. If you can lay your hands on the book, please look + at vol. ii. p. 129, where there is an account of the trial, Judge + Denman being the judge who tried the case. The narrative ends + thus:--"The verdict was for the Crown" (conviction for blasphemy), + "but Mr. Moxon was never called up for sentence." It is too late + for Mr. Procter to learn the truth, but it is surely always well + for us, while still engaged in the work of life, to be accurately + informed on such matters as the laws we live under, and our + consequent responsibilities. Is it not so? + + [19] "Barry Cornwall." + +It was, then, with the full anticipation, not only of social obloquy, +but also of legal penalty, that the brave thinker fulfilled (to quote +her own words in the preface to the _Letters_) "that great social +duty, to impart what we believe, and what we think we have learned. +Among the few things of which we can pronounce ourselves certain is +the obligation of inquirers after truth to communicate what they +obtain." The heroic soul fulfilled now, as before and afterwards, what +she held to be her duty, as simply and unwaveringly as ever a soldier +on the battlefield charged the cannon's mouth. + +Five times in her life did Harriet Martineau write and publish that +which she believed would ruin her prospects, silence her voice for +ever, and close her career. Far from her was that common paltering +with the conscience by which so many men confuse their minds--the poor +pretence that truth must not be spoken for fear that the speaker's +influence for future worthy work may be injured by his boldness. This +is how the devil tempts, saying, "Fall down, and worship me, and I +will give thee all the kingdoms of the earth and the glory of them." +Harriet Martineau never worshipped evil even by silence, when silence +was sin, playing fast and loose with her conscience by a promise to +use the power so obtained for higher objects hereafter. The truth that +appeared to her mind she spoke frankly; the work that was placed for +her to do she did simply; and so the quagmire of the expedient never +engulfed her reputation, her self-respect and her usefulness, as it +has done that of so many who have been lured into it from the straight +path of right action and truthful speech in public life, by +will-o'-the-wisp hopes of greater power and glory for themselves in +the future--which they hope they may use for good when they shall be +smothered in cowardice and lies. She had much to suffer, and did +suffer. Martyrs are not honored because they are insensate, but +because they defy their natural human weaknesses in maintaining that +which they believe to be true. Probably the keenest grief which she +experienced on the occasion now before us came from the complete +separation which took place between her and the dearest friend of her +youth, her brother James. Dr. Martineau was, at that time, one of the +editors of the _Prospective Review_. Philosophy was his department, +and in the natural order the _Letters_ came to him for review. He +reviewed the book accordingly and in such terms that all intercourse +between him and his sister was thenceforward at an end. They had long +before drifted apart in thought; but this final separation was none +the less felt as a wrench. Dr. Martineau's attack was almost +exclusively aimed against Mr. Atkinson. But with Harriet's loyalty of +nature she was more impelled to resent what was said about her friend +and colleague than if it had been directed against herself. The +brother and sister never met or communicated with each other again. + +The introductory volume of the _History of the Peace_ was published +soon after the Atkinson _Letters_. The next work which she undertook +was a great labor--the rendering into English of Comte's _Positive +Philosophy_. + +What she accomplished with this book was not a mere translation, nor +could it be precisely described as a condensation; it was both these +and more. Comte had propounded his groundwork of philosophy and his +outline of all the sciences in six bulky volumes, full of repetitions, +and written in an imperfect French style. Harriet Martineau rendered +the whole substance of these six volumes into two of clear English, +orderly, consecutive, and scientific in method as in substance. So +well was her work accomplished that Comte himself adopted it for his +students' use, removing from his list of books for Positivists his own +edition of his course, and recommending instead the English version by +Miss Martineau. It thus by-and-bye came to pass that Comte's own work +fell entirely out of use, and his complete teachings became +inaccessible to the French people in their own tongue; so that twenty +years afterwards, when one of his disciples wished to call public +attention to the master's work as teaching the method of social +science by which the French nation must find its way back to +prosperity after the great war, he was constrained to ask Harriet +Martineau's permission to re-translate her version. + +Comte wrote her the warmest expressions of his gratitude; but this he +owed her on another ground besides the one of the value of her labors +in popularizing his work so ably. While she was laboring at her task, +Mr. Lombe, then High Sheriff of Norfolk, sent her a cheque for L500, +which he begged her to accept, since she was doing a work which he had +long desired to see accomplished, but which he knew could not possibly +be remunerative to her. She accepted the money, but with her customary +generosity in pecuniary affairs, she employed more than half of it in +paying the whole expenses of publication, and arranged that the +proceeds of the sale, whatever they might be, should be shared with M. +Comte. + +There was a considerable demand for the work on its first appearance; +and up to this present date a fair number of copies is annually +disposed of. It came out in November, 1853, having partly occupied her +time during the preceding two years. Only partly, however; for, +besides all the efforts for her neighborhood previously referred to +(the building society was in progress during those years, and gave her +much thought, as her business notes are in evidence), and besides her +farming, she was now writing largely for periodicals and newspapers. +These are the pulpits from which our modern preachers are most widely +and effectively heard, and the right tone of which is, therefore, of +the first consequence to society. For every hundred persons who listen +to the priest, the journalist (including in this term writers for all +periodicals) speaks to a thousand; and while the words of the one are +often heard merely as a formality, those of the other, dealing with +the matters at the moment most near and interesting to his audience, +may effectively influence the thoughts and consciences and actions of +thousands in the near future. Shallow, indeed, would be the mind which +undervalued the power of the journalist, or underrated the seriousness +of his vocation. + +Harriet Martineau saw the scope which journalism afforded for the kind +of work which she had all her life been doing--the influencing of +conduct by considering practical affairs in the light of principle. +Her periodical writing being, according to our mistaken English +custom, anonymous, neither brought her any increase of fame nor +carried with it the influence which her personality as a teacher would +have contributed to the weight of what she wrote. Nevertheless, she +repeatedly in her letters, speaks of her journalism as the most +delightful work of her life, and that which she believed had been +perhaps the most useful of all her efforts. + +Some stories with sanitary morals, which she now contributed to +_Household Words_, were admirably written. "The People of Bleaburn" is +the true story of what was done by a grand American woman, Mary Ware, +when she happened to go into an isolated village at the very time +that half its inhabitants were lying stricken down by an epidemic. +"Woodruffe, the Gardener," was a presentation of the evils of living +in low-lying damp countries. "The Marsh Fog and the Sea Breeze" is +perhaps the most interesting of all her stories since the Political +Economy tales, which it much resembles in lightness of touch and in +practical utility. + +A series of slight stories under the general title of "Sketches from +Life," was also contributed at this time to the _Leader_; they +were all of them true tales and, like most real life stories, +extremely pathetic. The most touching is one called "The Old +Governess," describing the feelings with which an educated elderly +woman, past her work, and with an injured hand, sought refuge in the +workhouse; and how she conducted herself there. These stories were +republished in a volume in 1856. + +A series of descriptive accounts of manufactures, some of which +contain most graphic writing, were also done in this time. These +papers, with others written between 1845-55, were re-published in a +volume in 1861.[20] There are some passages which I am greatly tempted +to quote, merely as specimens of the perfection to which her literary +style had at this time arrived. It is now a style of that clear +simplicity which seems so easy to the reader, but which is in reality +the highest triumph of the literary artist. The inexperienced reader +is apt to suppose that anybody could write thus, until perhaps he +gains some glimpse of the truth by finding the powerful effect which +it is producing upon his thoughts and imagination. The practiced +writer knows meanwhile that, simple though the vocabulary appears, he +could not change a word for the better; and easily though the +sentences swing, the rounding of their rhythm is an achievement to +admire. I may not pause to quote, but I may especially refer to the +paper on "The Life of a Salmon," in illustration of this eloquence of +style. + + [20] _Health, Husbandry and Handicraft._ + +Early in 1852, Harriet Martineau received an invitation from the +_Daily News_ to send a "leader" occasionally. Busily engaged as she +was with Comte, and with work for other periodicals, she yet gladly +accepted this proposition; and thus began her connection with that +paper (then newly started) which was so valuable both to her and the +proprietors of the _Daily News_. During the early summer of 1852, she +wrote two "leaders" each week, and, before she had finished Comte, the +regular contributions to the newspaper had grown to three a week. + +In the autumn of 1852 she made a two months' tour through Ireland; and +at the request of the editor she wrote thence a descriptive letter for +publication in the _Daily News_, almost every other day. The letters +described the state of Ireland at the moment, with observations such +as few were so well qualified as she to make upon the facts. She did +now what Daniel O'Connell had entreated her to do years before. In +1839 the Liberator begged her to travel through his country, and +without bias or favor represent calmly what really was the political +and social condition of Ireland.[21] The "Letters from Ireland" +attracted immediate attention as they appeared in the _Daily News_; +and before the end of the year they were re-published in a volume. At +the same time some of her "leaders" secured much attention, and the +editor pressed her to write even more frequently. During 1853 she +wrote on an average four articles a week, and shortly afterwards the +number rose to six--one in each day's paper. + + [21] It may be mentioned that a similar plea was made to her + by the Crown Prince Oscar of Sweden, who desired her aid in + preparing his people for constitutional reform; and again, at + a later date, by Count Porro, of Milan, who begged that she + would let the world know what was the condition of Italy + under Austrian rule. + +The tale of the journalistic work of these busy two years is not yet +complete. There is a long article of hers in the _Westminster Review_ +for January, 1853; the subject is, "The Condition and Prospects of +Ireland." + +All this journalism was done at the same time that the heavy sustained +task of the condensation of Comte's abstruse and bulky work was +proceeding. When to all this we add in our recollection her home +duties, and when the fact is borne in mind that it was her common +practice to take immense walks, not infrequently covering from twelve +to fifteen miles in the day, it will be seen that the mere industry +and energy that she showed were most extraordinary. But, besides this, +her work was of a high order of literary excellence, and full of +intellectual power. + +Such incessant labor is not to be held up as altogether an example to +be imitated. There are some few whose duty it is to consciously +moderate the amount of labor to which their mental activity impels +them; and no one ought to allow the imperative brain to overtax the +rest of the system. During the Irish journey, Harriet began to be +aware of experiencing unusual fatigue. She gave herself no sufficient +pause, however, either then or afterwards, until she could not help +doing so. + +After the publication of Comte she wrote a remarkable article for the +_Westminster Review_ (anonymous of course) on "England's Foreign +policy." This appeared in the number for January, 1854. It dealt +largely with the impending struggle between England and Russia. True +Liberal as Harriet Martineau was, she hated with all her soul, not the +Russian people, but the hideous despotism, the Asiatic and barbarian +and brutal government of that empire. She foresaw a probable great +struggle in the future between tyranny and freedom, in which Russia, +by virtue of all her circumstances, will be the power against which +the free peoples of the earth will have to fight. Not only, then, did +she fully recognize the necessity for the immediate resistance, which +the Crimean war was, to the encroachments on Europe of the Czar, but +her article also included a powerful plea for the abolition of that +system of secrecy of English diplomacy, by which it is rendered quite +possible for our ministry to covertly injure our liberties, and to +take action behind our backs in our names in opposition to our warmest +wishes. The article, as a whole, is one of her most powerful pieces of +writing, and had it been delivered as a speech in parliament, it would +undoubtedly have produced a great effect, and have placed her high +amongst the statesmen of that critical time. + +In the April (1854) number of the same _Review_, there appeared an +article from her pen upon "The Census of 1851." This paper was not a +mere comment upon the census return, but an historical review of the +progress of the English people from barbarism to the civilization of +our century. + +In the spring of this year she made a careful survey of the beautiful +district around her home, in order to write a _Complete Guide to the +Lakes_ for a local publisher. She was already thoroughly acquainted +with the neighborhood by means of her long and frequent pedestrian +excursions, and reminiscences of these abound in this "Guide." The +vivid description of a storm on Blake Fell, for instance, is a +faithful account of an occurrence during a visit which a niece and +nephew from Birmingham paid to her soon after her settlement at the +lakes. The word-paintings of the scenery, too, were drawn, not from +what she saw on one set visit only, but were the results of her many +and frequent pilgrimages to those beauties of nature which she so +highly appreciated. But still she would not write her "Guide" without +revisiting the whole of the district. + +The most interesting point about this book is that it reveals one +feature of her character that all who knew her mention, but that very +rarely appears in her writings. This is, her keen sense of humor. She +dearly loved a good story, and could tell one herself with pith and +point. Her laugh is said to have been very hearty and ready. Even when +she was old and ill, she was always amusable, and her laughter at any +little bit of fun would even then ring through her house as gaily as +though the outburst had been that of a child's frank merriment. It is +surprising that this sense of and enjoyment in the ludicrous so rarely +appears in her writings. But I think it was because her authorship was +to her too serious a vocation for fun to come into it often. She felt +it almost as the exercise of a priestly function. It was earnest and +almost solemn work for her to write what might be multiplied through +the printing-press many thousand times over, and so uttered to all who +had ears to hear. She showed that this was so by the greater +deliberateness with which she expressed judgments of persons and +pronounced opinions of any kind in her writings than in conversation. +Similarly she showed it by the abeyance of her humor in writing; it +was no more possible for her to crack jokes when seated at her desk +than it would have been for a priestess when standing by her tripod. +But this particular book, this "Guide, written for neighborly +reasons," did not admit of the seriousness of her intellect being +called into action, and the result is that it is full of good stories +and lighted up with fun. Her enjoyment in such stories reveals that +sense of humor which, however strongly visible in daily intercourse, +rarely appears in her books in any other form than in her perfect +appreciation of the line between the sublime and the ludicrous. + +This summer brought her much annoyance of a pecuniary kind. Her +generosity about money matters were repeatedly shown, from the time +when she left her "_Illustrations_" in the hands of Mr. C. Fox, +onwards; and she had now given what was for her means an extravagant +contribution to the maintenance of the _Westminster Review_, taking a +mortgage on the proprietorship for her only security. In the summer of +1854, Dr. Chapman, its publisher and editor, failed; and an attempt +was made to upset the mortgage. Harriet Martineau gave Chapman the +most kindly assistance and sympathy in his affairs at this juncture; +not only overlooking the probable loss to herself, but exerting +herself to write two long articles for the next number of the _Review_ +(October, 1854). + +One of these essays is on "Rajah Brooke;" a name that has half faded +out of the knowledge of the present generation, but which well +deserves memory from the heroic devotedness, and courage, and +governing faculty of the man. His qualities were those most congenial +to Harriet Martineau; and, finding his enemies active and potent, she +made a complete study of his case and represented it in full in an +article which (like her previous one on "Foreign Policy") was so +statesman-like and so wise, so calm and yet so eloquent, that it would +have made her famous amongst the politicians of the day had it been +delivered as a speech in the House, instead of being printed +anonymously in a review with too small a circulation to pay its way. + +Nor did generous aid to Dr. Chapman end here. He was disappointed of +some expected contributions, and Miss Martineau wrote him a second +long article for the same number--the one on "The Crystal Palace," +which concludes the _Westminster_ for October, 1854. Her two +contributions amounted to fifty-four pages of print--truly a generous +gift to an impecunious magazine editor. + +It was now precisely ten years since her recovery from her long +illness. The work done in that time shows how complete the recovery +had been. Those ten happy years of vigor and of labor were, she was +wont to say, Mr. Atkinson's gift to her. Well had she used these last +years of her strength. + + + + +CHAPTER X. + +IN RETREAT; JOURNALISM. + + +Miss Martineau's health failed towards the end of 1854; and early in +1855, symptoms of a disorganized circulation became so serious that +she went up to London to consult physicians. Dr. Latham and Sir Thomas +Watson both came to the conclusion that she was suffering from +enlargement and enfeeblement of the heart; and, in accordance with her +wish to hear a candid statement of her case, they told her that her +life would probably not be much prolonged. In short they gave her to +understand that she was dying; and her own sensations confirmed the +impression. She had frequent sinking fits; and every night when she +lay down, a struggle for breath began, which lasted sometimes for +hours. She received her death sentence then, and began a course of +life as trying to the nerves and as searching a test of character as +could well be imagined. That trial she bore nobly for twenty-one long +suffering years. She was carefully carried home, and at once occupied +herself with making every preparation for the departure from earth +which she supposed to be impending. The first business was to make a +new will; and this was a characteristic document. After ordering that +her funeral should be conducted in the plainest manner, and at the +least possible cost, she continued thus:--"It is my desire, from an +interest in the progress of scientific investigation, that my skull +should be given to Henry George Atkinson, of Upper Gloucester Place, +and also my brain, if my death take place within such distance of the +said Henry George Atkinson's then present abode as to enable him to +have it for purposes of scientific investigation." Her property was +then ordered to bear various small charges, including one of L200 to +Mrs. Chapman for writing a conclusion to the testator's autobiography, +over and above a fourth share of the profits on the sale of the whole +work after the first edition. "The Knoll" was bequeathed to her +favorite "little sister," Ellen. The remainder of her possessions were +divided amongst all her brothers and sisters, or their heirs, with as +much impartiality as though she held, with Maggie Tulliver's aunt +Glegg, that "in the matter of wills, personal qualities were +subordinate to the great fundamental fact of blood." Although +mesmerism had estranged her from a sister, and theology from a +brother, she made no display of bitter feelings towards them and +theirs in her last will. + +All her personal affairs being made as orderly as possible, she +proceeded to write her _Autobiography_. Readers of that interesting +but misleading work must bear in mind that it was a very hasty +production. The two large volumes were written in a few months; the +MS. was sent to the printer as it was produced, the sheets for the +first edition were printed off, then the matter was stereotyped, and +the sheets and plates were packed up in the office of the printer, +duly insured, and held ready for immediate publication after her +death. She wrote in this hot haste with "the shadow cloaked from head +to foot" at her right hand. So much reason had she to believe that her +very days were numbered, that she wrote the latter part of her +_Autobiography_ before the first portion. She had already given forth, +in _Household Education_ and _The Crofton Boys_, the results of her +childish experiences of life; and she was now specially anxious not to +die without leaving behind her a definite account of the later course +of her intellectual history. + +No one who knew her considers that she did herself justice in the +_Autobiography_. It is hard and censorious; it displays vanity, +both in its depreciation of her own work, and in its recital of the +petty slights and insults which had been offered to her from time to +time; it is aggressive, as though replying to enemies rather than +appealing to friends; and no one of either the finer or the softer +qualities of her nature is at all adequately indicated. It is, in +short, the least worthy of her true self of all the writings of her +life. + +The reasons of this unfortunate fact was not far to seek. Her +rationalism, and the abuse and moral ill-usage which she had incurred +by her avowal of her anti-theological opinions, were still new to her. +Her very thoughts, replacing as they did the ideas which she held +without examination for some twenty years (the time which intervened +between her devotional writings and her _Eastern Life_) were still so +far new that they had not the unconsciousness and the quiet placidity +which habit alone gives; for new ideas, like new clothes, sit +uneasily, and are noticeable to their wearer, however carefully they +may have been fitted before adoption. Again, the announcement in the +press that her illness was fatal revived the discussion of her +infidelity, and brought down upon her a whole avalanche of signed and +anonymous letters, of little tracts, awe-inspiring hymns, and manuals +of divinity. The letters were controversial, admonishing, minatory, or +entreating; but whatever their character they were all agreed upon one +point, viz., that her unbelief in Christianity was a frightful sin, of +which she had been willfully guilty. They all agreed in supposing that +it was within her own volition to resume her previous faith, and that +she would not only go to eternal perdition if she did not put on again +her old beliefs, but that she would richly deserve to do so for her +willful wickedness. + +Thus, as Miss Arnold remarked to me, the moment at which she wrote +the _Autobiography_ was the most aggressive and unpleasant of her +whole life. Conscious as she was of the purity of her motives in +uttering her philosophical opinions, she found herself suddenly spoken +to by a multitude, whom she could not but know were mentally and +morally incapable of judging her, as a sinner, worthy of their pity +and reprobation. Knowing that she had long been recognized as a +teacher, in advance of the mass of society in knowledge and power of +thought, here was a crowd of people talking to her in the tones which +they might have adopted towards some ignorant inmate of a prison. What +wonder that her wounded self-esteem seemed for a little while to pass +into vanity, when she had to remind the world, from which such insults +were pouring in, of all that she had done for its instruction in the +past? What wonder that the strength which was summed up to bear with +fortitude this species of modern martyrdom, seemed to give a tone of +coldness and hardness to writing of so personal a kind? Then the +extreme haste with which the writing and printing were done gave no +time for the subsidence of such painful impressions; and great +physical suffering and weakness, together with the powerful depressing +medicines which were being employed, added to the difficulty of +writing with calmness, and with a full possession of the sufferer's +whole nature. In short, an autobiography could not have been written +under less favorable conditions. All things taken into account, it is +no wonder that those who knew and loved her whole personality were +shocked and amazed at the inadequate presentation given of it in those +volumes. The sensitive, unselfish, loving, domestic woman, and the +just, careful, disinterested, conscientious and logical author, were +alike obscured rather than revealed; and the biographer whom she chose +to complete the work had neither the intimate personal knowledge, the +mental faculty which might have supplied its place, nor the literary +skill requisite to present a truer picture. + +Her _Autobiography_ completed, the plates engraved, and all publishing +arrangements made, she might, had she been an ordinary invalid, have +settled down into quiet after so hard-working a life. Harriet +Martineau could not do this. Her labors continued uninterruptedly, and +were pursued to the utmost limit which her illness would allow. She +did not cease (except during the few months that the _Autobiography_ +was in hand) writing her "leaders" for the _Daily News_. Every week it +contained articles by her, instructing thousands of readers. Yet she +was _very_ ill. She never left her home again, after that journey to +London early in 1855. Sometimes she was well enough to go out upon her +terrace; and she frequently sat in her porch, which was a bower, in +the summer time, of clematis, honeysuckle, and passion-flowers, +intermingled with ivy; but she could do no more. She was given, as +soon as she became ill, the daughterly care of her niece, Maria, the +daughter of her elder brother, Robert Martineau, of Birmingham; and no +mother ever received tenderer care or more valuable assistance from +her own child than Harriet Martineau did from the sensible and +affectionate girl whose life was thenceforth devoted to her service. +Maria once tried if her aunt could be taken out of her own grounds in +a bath-chair; but before they reached the gates a fainting fit came +on, with such appalling symptoms of stoppage of the heart that the +experiment was never repeated. Sometimes Miss Martineau would be well +enough to see visitors; more frequently, however, those whom she would +most have liked to talk with had to be sent away by the doctor's +orders. But, through it all, her work continued. + +Soon after the _Autobiography_ was finished, she wrote a long paper +upon a most important subject, and one which she felt to be a source +of the gravest anxiety for the future of English politics--the true +sphere of State interference with daily life. The common ignorance and +carelessness upon this point she believed to be the most painful and +perilous feature of our present situation. + + It has been brought to light by beneficent action which is, in + another view, altogether encouraging. Our benevolence towards the + helpless, and our interest in personal morality, have grown into a + sort of public pursuit; and they have taken such a hold on us that + we may fairly hope that the wretched and the wronged will never + more be thrust out of sight. But, in the pursuit of our new + objects, we have fallen back--far further than 1688--in the + principle of our legislative proposals--undertaking to provide by + law against personal vices, and certain special social contracts. + +Her devotion to freedom, and her belief in personal liberty, led her +to write an article on "Meddlesome Legislation" for the _Westminster +Review_. + +Her pecuniary sacrifices for the _Review_ had been made because she +looked upon it as an organ for free speech. Her feelings may be +imagined when the editor refused to insert this article, not on any +ground of principle, but merely because it spoke too freely of some of +the advocates of meddlesome factory laws. The essay was published +however, as a pamphlet, and had such influence upon a bill then before +Parliament that the Association of Factory Occupiers requested to be +allowed to signalize their appreciation of it by giving one hundred +guineas in her name to a charity. A somewhat similar piece of work +followed in the next year, a rather lengthy pamphlet _On Corporate +Traditions and National Rights_. She offered nothing more to the +_Westminster Review_, however, for some time; not, indeed, until that +subject in which she took so profound an interest, the welfare of the +United States, and the progress of the anti-slavery cause, seemed to +require of her that she should avail herself of every possible means +of addressing the public upon it. Then, in 1857, she wrote an article +on _The Manifest Destiny of the American Union_, which appeared in the +_Westminster_ for July of that year. + +Having thus signalized her forgiveness of that _Review_, she went on +writing again for it for a little while. In the October number of +the same year there was a paper by her on _Female Dress_ in 1857. +Crinoline had then lately been introduced by the Empress of the +French. If one good, rousing argument could have stood in the path of +fashion, this amusing and vigorous paper from Harriet Martineau's +sick-room might have answered the purpose. But, alas! crinoline +flourished; and five whole years later on was still so enormous that +she took up her parable against it once more, in _Once a Week_, as +the cause of "willful murder." + +About this time she determined to assume the prefix of "Mrs." "There +were so many Misses Martineau," she said; and, besides, she felt the +absurdity of a woman of mature years bearing only the same complimentary +title as is accorded to a little girl in short frocks at school. Her +cards and the envelopes of her friends bore thenceforward the +inscription, "Mrs. Harriet Martineau." + +Although she continued to write, contributing almost every day to the +_Daily News_, as well as to these larger periodicals, she was, it +must be remembered, an invalid. Her health fluctuated from day to day; +but it may as well be explicitly stated that she was more or less ill +during the whole of the rest of her life. She suffered a considerable +amount daily of actual pain, which was partly the consequence of the +medicines prescribed for her, and partly the result of the +displacement of the internal organs arising, as her doctors led her to +suppose, from the enlargement of the heart; but in reality, as was +afterwards discovered, from the growth of a tumor. Her most constant +afflictions were the difficulty of breathing, dizziness, and dimness +of sight, resulting from disturbed circulation. At irregular, but not +infrequent, intervals she was seized with fainting-fits, in which her +heart appeared to entirely cease beating for a minute or two; and it +was not certain from day to day but that she might die in one of these +attacks. + +Not only did she continue her work under these conditions, but her +interest in her poor neighbors remained unabated. There is more than +one man now living in Ambleside who traces a part of his prosperity to +the interest which she from her sick-room displayed in his progress. A +photograph of her, still sold in Ambleside, was taken in her own +drawing-room by a young beginner whom she allowed thus to benefit +himself. He and several others were given free access to her library. +A sickly young woman in the village was made a regular sharer in the +good things--the wine, the turtle soup, the game and the +flowers--which devoted friends sent frequently to cheer Harriet +Martineau's retirement. Every Christmas, there was a party of the +oldest inhabitants of Ambleside invited to spend a long day in the +kitchen of the "Knoll." The residents in her own cottages looked upon +her less as a landlady than as a friend to whom to send in every +difficulty. + +Nor did she cease to do whatever was possible to her in the local +public life. The question of Church Rates was approaching a crisis +when she was taken ill; and when the Ambleside Quakers resolved to +organize resistance to payment of these rates, they found Harriet +Martineau ready to help. The householders who refused to pay were +summoned before the local bench; and it was Harriet Martineau whom the +justices selected to be distrained upon; but events marched rapidly, +and the distraint was not made. + +The next article that she contributed to the _Westminster Review_ +appeared in the July (1858) number, and, under the title of _The +Last Days of Church Rates_, gave an account of the efforts by which +Non-conformists in all parts of the country were rendering this impost +impossible. + +In October, 1858, there was another long article in the _Westminster_, +entitled _Travel during the Last Half-Century_. She was now, however, +growing tired of wasting her work in that quarter, and, as we shall +presently see, she sought a more influential and appreciative medium +for her longer communications with the public. + +Subjects which could be treated briefly were always taken up as +"leaders" for the _Daily News_. Lengthier topics, too, were +occasionally dealt with in those columns in the form of serial +articles. One set of papers on _The Endowed Schools of Ireland_, were +contributed in this manner, in 1857, to the _Daily News_, and +afterwards reprinted in a small volume. In that same year occurred +the terrible Indian crisis which compelled the people of this country +to give, for a time, the attention which they so begrudge to their +great dependency. Miss Martineau then wrote a series of articles, +under the title of _The History of British Rule in India_, for the +_Daily News_, and this most useful work was immediately re-published +in a volume. Alas! even she could not make so involved and distant a +story interesting; but her book was clear and vivid, and whenever it +dealt with the practical problem of the moment, it was full of wisdom +and conscientiousness. This volume was immediately followed by +_Suggestions towards the Future Government of India_. The preface of +the first is dated October, 1857; and that of the second, January, +1858. The key-note of these books is a plea for the government of +India according to Indian ideas; and, as a natural consequence, its +government with the assistance of its natives. Courage as well as +insight were required at that particular moment of popular passion to +put forward these calm, statesman-like ideas. The wisdom and the +practical value of the books cannot be shown by extracts; but one +paragraph may be given as a faint indication of the tone: "If instead +of attempting to hold India as a preserve of English destinies, a +nursery of British fortunes, we throw it open with the aim of +developing India for the Indians, by means of British knowledge and +equity, we shall find our own highest advantage, political and +material, and may possibly recognize brethren and comrades at length, +where we have hitherto perceived only savages, innocents, or +foes."[22] Such was the spirit to which the _Daily News_, under +Harriet Martineau's hand, led the people at a moment of great +political excitement. The amplest testimony to the practical wisdom +of the suggestions that she made was borne by those Anglo-Indians who +were qualified to judge. + + [22] _Future Government of India_, p. 94. + +In June, 1858, she wrote the first letter, which lies before me, to +her relative, Mr. Henry Reeve, the editor of the _Edinburgh Review_. +In this, after telling him that she never before has offered or wished +to write for that _Review_, because in politics she had generally +disagreed with it (to her, it may be remarked in passing, Toryism was +less odious than official Whigism), she says that she has now a +subject in view which she thinks would be suitable for the pages of +the good old Whig organ. Before entering into details, she begs him to +tell her frankly if any article will be refused merely because it +comes from her. She adds that her health is so sunk and her life so +precarious, that all her engagements have to be made with an +explanation of the chances against their fulfillment; still she _does_ +write a good deal, and with higher success than in her younger days. + +Mr. Reeve replied cordially inviting her contributions, and the result +was the establishment both of an intimate correspondence with him, and +of a relationship with the _Review_ under his charge, which lasted +until she could write no more. + +The particular subject which she offered Mr. Reeve at first did not +seem to him a suitable one. The title of it was to have been _French +Invasion Panics_; but as Mr. Reeve did not like the idea, the paper +was not written. But for the _Edinburgh_ of April, 1859, she wrote a +long article on _Female Industry_, which attracted much attention. Its +purpose was to show how greatly the conditions of women's lives are +altered in this century from what they were of old. "A very large +proportion of the women of England earn their own bread; and there is +no saying how much good may be done by a timely recognition of this +simple truth. A social organization framed for a community of which +half stayed at home while the other half went out to work, cannot +answer the purposes of a society of which a quarter remains at home +while three-quarters go out to work." After considering in detail, +with equal benevolence and wisdom, the condition of the various +classes of women workers--those employed in agriculture, mines, +fishing, domestic service, needlework, and shop-keeping, and +suggesting, in passing, the schools of cookery which have since become +established facts, the article concludes: "The tale is plain enough. +So far from our countrywomen being all maintained as a matter of fact +by us, the 'bread-winners,' three millions out of six of adult English +women work for subsistence, and two out of the three in independence. +With this new condition of affairs new duties and new views must be +adopted. Old obstructions must be removed; and the aim must be set +before us, as a nation as well as in private life, to provide for the +free development and full use of the powers of every member of the +community." It scarcely needs to be pointed out that here she went +quietly but surely to the foundation of that whole class of new claims +and demands on behalf of the women of our modern world, of which she +was so valuable an advocate, and for the granting of which her life +was so excellent a plea. In these few sentences she at one time +displayed the character of the changes required, and the reasons why +it is now necessary, as it did not use to be, that women should be +completely enfranchised, industrially and otherwise. + +The year 1859 was a very busy one. Besides the long article just +mentioned, she published in April of that year quite a large volume on +_England and her Soldiers_. The book was written to aid the work +which her beloved friend Florence Nightingale, had in hand for the +benefit of the army. It was, in effect, a popularization of all that +had come out before the Royal Commission on the sanitary condition of +the army; with the additional advantage of the views and opinions of +Florence Nightingale, studied at first hand. One of the most beautiful +features of the book is the hearty and generous delight with which the +one illustrious lady recounts the efforts, the sacrifices, and the +triumphs of the other. + +In 1859, also, Mrs. Martineau began to write frequent letters for +publication to the American _Anti-Slavery Standard_. The affairs +of the Republic were plainly approaching a crisis; and those in +America who knew how well-informed she was on the politics of both +countries, and on political principles, were anxious to have the +guidance that only she could give in the difficult time that was +approaching. During the three years, 1859 to 1861, she sent over +ninety long articles for publication in America. + +An article on _Trades Unions_, denouncing the tyranny of men in +fustian coats sitting round a beer-shop table, as to the full as +mischievous as that of crowned and titled despots, appeared in the +_Edinburgh Review_ for October, 1859. In the July (1860) issue of the +same _Review_ she wrote on _Russia_, and in October of that year on +_The American Union_. + +Besides these large undertakings, she was writing during these years +almost weekly articles, on one topic or another, for the illustrated +periodical _Once a Week_; whilst the _Daily News_ "leaders" continued +without intermission during the whole time. As regards these latter, I +shall presently mention when she entirely ceased to write; but in the +meanwhile I do not attempt to follow them in detail. Nothing that I +could say would give any adequate impression of their quality. _That_ +may be sufficiently judged by the fact that the newspaper in which +they were issued was one of the best of the great London dailies; and +that, during her time, it touched the highest point of influence and +circulation, as the organ of no clique, but the consistent advocate of +high principles, and just, consistent, sound (not mere "Liberal +Party") political action. As to the subjects of the _Daily News_ +articles, they range over the whole field of public interests, +excepting only those "hot and hot" topics which had to be treated +immediately that fresh news about them reached London. Those who were +with Mrs. Martineau tell me that the only difficulty with her was to +choose what subject she would treat each day, out of the many that +offered. She kept up an extensive correspondence, and read +continually; and her fertile mind, highly cultivated as it was by her +life-long studies, had some original and valuable contribution to make +upon the vast variety of the topics of which each day brought +suggestions. + +The marvel that a sick lady, shut up in her house in a remote village, +could thus keep touch with and take an active part in all the +interests and movements of the great world, increases the more it is +considered. The very correspondence by which she was aided in knowing +and feeling what the public mind was stirred about, was in itself a +heavy labor, and a great tax upon such feeble strength as she +possessed. The letters with which Mr. Reeve has favored me give +glimpses of how ideas and calls came to her sometimes. Here is a +graphic account, for instance, of a man riding up with a telegram from +Miss Nightingale--"Agitate! agitate! for Lord de Grey in place of Sir +G. Cornewall Lewis"--which gives the first intimation in Ambleside +that the post of War Minister is vacant. The newspaper arrives later, +and Lewis' death is learned; so a "leader" is written early next +morning, to catch the coach, and appears in the following morning's +_Daily News_. Presently Lord de Grey is appointed, and then the +two women friends rejoice together in the chance of getting army +reforms made by a minister who, they hope, will not be a slave to +royal influences. Another time she tells Mr. Reeve how she is treating +the _Reversion of Mysore_ in the _Daily News_, on the suggestion of a +man learned in Indian affairs; and again, that she is reviewing a book +of Eastern travel at the request of a friend. In fine, there were +constant letters seeking to engage her interest and aid in every +description of reforms, and for all kinds of movements in public +affairs. + +But with all the wide circle of suggesting correspondents, the wonder +of the prolific mind working so actively from the Ambleside hermitage +remains untouched. Perhaps I cannot better show how much she did, and +how wide a range she covered, in _Daily News_ "leaders," than by +giving a list of the articles of a single year. I take 1861, really at +random. It was simply the page at which the office ledger happened to +be open before me. + +Here are the subjects of her _Daily News_ "leaders" in 1861: + + The American Union; The King of Prussia; Arterial Drainage; Sidney + Herbert; The Secession of South Carolina; Cotton Supply; Laborers' + Dwellings; The American Difficulty (two days); Destitution and its + Remedy; The American Revolution; Cotton Culture; The American + Union; Indian Affairs; America; North and South; American Politics; + Agricultural Labor; The London Bakers; President Buchanan; The + Southern Confederacy; United States Population; The Duchess of + Kent; Indian Famines; Agricultural Statistics; President Lincoln's + Address; Indian Currency; American Census; The Southern + Confederacy; The Action of the South; The Census; America and + Cotton; The American Envoy; Lord Canning's Address; The American + Crisis; Spain and San Domingo; East Indian Irrigation; Water-mills; + Hayti and San Domingo; The Conflict in America; American Movements; + The Secession Party; The American Contest; The Literary Fund; + Working-men's Visit to Paris; Mr. Clay's Letter; The American + Contest; Money's "Java" (four articles); Mr. Douglas; Our American + Relations; Lord Campbell; Results of American Strife; Our Cotton + Supply; American Union; Soldiers' Homes; Indian Irrigation; San + Domingo; American Movements; Slavery in America; The Morrill + Tariff; Drainage in Agriculture; Neutrality with America; The + Builders' Strike; Lord Herbert; Lord Elgin's Government; The + Builders' Dispute; The Strike; The American Contest; Indian + Famines; Syrian Improvement; Affairs of Hayti; Cotton Supply; The + American War and Slavery; Mr. Cameron and General Butler; + Post-office Robberies; The American Press; Mrs. Stowe; The Morrill + Tariff; American Affairs; Domestic Servants; The Education Minutes; + The Georgian Circular; French Free Trade; The Fremont Resolution; + Laborers' Improvidence; American Humiliation; The Education Code; A + Real Social Evil; Captain Jervis in America; The American Contest; + Indian Cotton; Slaves in America; The Prince of Wales; American + Movements; Lancashire Cotton Trade; India and Cotton; Cotton + Growing; The Herbert Testimonial; Captain Wilkes' Antecedents; + Arterial Drainage; The American Controversy; Land in India; Slaves + in America; Death of Prince Albert; Slavery; Loyalty in Canada; + Review of the Year, five columns long. + +This gives a total of one hundred and nine leading articles, in that +one year, on political and social affairs. In the same year she wrote +to the Boston _Anti-Slavery Standard_ as much matter as would have +made about forty-five "leaders;" and during the same period she +regularly contributed to _Once a Week_[23] a fortnightly article on +some current topic, and also a series of biographical sketches +entitled "Representative Men." These _Once a Week_ articles were all +much longer than "leaders;" the year's aggregate of space filled, in +1861, is two hundred and eighty-one of the closely printed columns of +_Once a Week_; and this would be equivalent to at least one hundred +and forty leading articles in the usual "leaded" type. I need not give +a complete list of titles of the year's _Once a Week_ articles; but a +few may be cited to show what class of subjects she selected: "Our +Peasantry in Progress," "Ireland and her Queen," "The Harvest," "The +Domestic Service Question," "What Women are Educated for," "American +Soldiering," "Deaths by Fire," "The Sheffield Outrages," "Education +and the Racing Season." + + [23] Most of these papers are signed "From the Mountain." + +Such was Harriet Martineau's work for the year 1861; and thus could +she, confined to her house, comprehend and care for the condition of +mankind. + +It will be noticed that she had written on Domestic Servants both in +the _Daily News_ and _Once a Week_; but still she had not said all +that she wished to say about the subject, and early in the next year +she wrote a long article on it, which appeared in the _Edinburgh_ +for April, 1862. It is a capital article, distinguished alike by +common-sense, and by wide-reaching sympathy; _womanly_ in the best +sense--in its domestic knowledge, and its feeling for women in their +perplexities and troubles, whether as servants or mistresses,--and yet +philosophical in its calmness, its power of tracing from causes to +effects, and its practical wisdom in forestalling future difficulties. + +In this year she began to write historical stories, "Historiettes," as +she called them, for _Once a Week_. As fictions, they are not equal to +her best productions of that class; but their special value was less +in this direction, or even in the detailed historical knowledge that +they displayed, than in the insight into the philosophy of political +history which the reader gained. They were illustrated by Millais, and +proved so attractive that they were continued during the next two +years. One, dealing with the constitutional struggle in the reign of +Charles I., and called "The Hampdens," has been re-published so +recently as 1880. + +A large portion of her time and thought was absorbed, in these years, +by the American struggle and its consequences. Loving the United States +and their people as she did, the interest and anxiety with which she +watched their progress were extreme. She was no coward--as it is, no +doubt, hardly necessary to remark on this page--and though she grieved +deeply for the sufferings both of personal friends and of the whole +country, yet her soul rose up in noble exultation over the courage, the +resolution, and the high-mindedness of the bulk of the American nation. +Over here, she threw herself with warm eagerness into the effort to +support those Lancashire workers upon whom fell so heavy a tax of +deprivation in the cotton famine. The patience, the quietness, the +heroism with which our North-Country workers bore all that they had to +suffer, supported as they were by the sympathy of the mass of their +fellow-countrymen, and by their own intelligent convictions that they +were aiding a good cause by remaining peaceful and quiet--this was just +the sort of thing to arouse all Harriet Martineau's loving sympathies. +"Her face would all light up and the tears would rush to her eyes +whenever she was told of a noble deed," says Miss Arnold; "no matter +how humble the doer, or how small the matter might seem, you could see +the delight it gave her to know that a fine, brave, or unselfish act +had been done." Animated by such respectful joy in the attitude of the +Lancashire workers, she threw herself into their service; and her +correspondence on this topic during 1861, when she used all her public +and private influence on their behalf, and employed her best energies +in aiding and advising the relief committees, would fill a large +volume. + +In the midst of her labors for America, she could not but be gratified +by the testimonies which constantly reached her from that country to +the appreciation of the work which she had done and was doing. + +_The History of the Peace_ was reprinted in Boston in the very midst +of the civil war, "at the instance of men of business throughout the +country, who believe it will do great good from its political and yet +more economical lessons, which are so much wanted." The publishers of +the _Atlantic Monthly_ appealed to her to write them a series of +articles on "Military Hygiene;" and, over-pressed as she was, she +could not refuse a request which enabled her to do much good service +for the soldiers of the North, for whom she felt so deeply. Nor were +more private tributes to the value of her efforts lacking. A set of +the _Rebellion Record_, published by Putnam, was sent to her with the +cover stamped under the title with these words: "Presented by citizens +of New York to Harriet Martineau;" and innumerable books came with +testimonies inscribed by the writers, such as that in Henry Wilson's +_Slave Power in America_, which was as follows: "Mrs. Harriet +Martineau; with the gratitude of the author for her friendship for his +country, and her devotion to freedom."[24] + + [24] The highest honor yet done to her memory is the work of + our sisters and brothers across the Atlantic. A public + subscription has raised funds for a statue of Harriet + Martineau, which has been executed by Anne Whitney, in white + marble. The statue represents Mrs. Martineau seated, with her + hands folded over a manuscript on her knees. The head is + raised, and has a light veil thrown over the back of it and + falling down upon the shoulders, while a shawl is draped + partially over the figure. The eyes are looking forth, as + though in that thoughtful questioning of the future to which + she often gave herself. The statue was unveiled in the Old + South Hall, Boston, December 26th, 1883, in the presence of + many notable personages. Mrs. Mary Livermore presided, and + speeches were made by William Lloyd Garrison, Jun., and + Wendell Phillips, in the case of the last-named it was his + final speech, for he, too, six weeks after, was numbered + amongst those who are at rest. "The audience sat in silence + for a moment as the white vision was unveiled; then went up + such applause as stirred the echoes of the historic interior + in which the ceremony took place." + +In the latter part of the year 1862, Harriet Martineau wrote a paper +on "Our Convict System," which appeared in the following January +number of the _Edinburgh_. It will be noted that she never wrote on +the politics of the day--the action of the Government and Opposition +of the moment--in this _Review_; her political principles were too +democratic for the great Whig organ. + +In _Once a Week_, however, her articles became more decisively +political year by year. Some of her best political papers are in that +magazine for 1863. The most noteworthy feature in them are their +basis of principles and not of party, and their practical wisdom. +When I speak of her devotion to principles, in politics, I half fear +that I may be misunderstood--for so shockingly does Cant spawn its +loathsomeness over every holy phrase, that such expressions come to +us "defamed by every charlatan," and doubtful in their use. But she +was neither doctrinaire, nor blind, nor pig-headed, nor pharisaic, +nor jealous, nor scheming; but wise, brave, truthful, upright, and +independent. Love of justice and truthfulness of speech were as much +to her in public affairs as they are to any high-minded person in +private. Her desire in her thoughts and utterances on politics was +simply to secure "the greatest happiness for the greatest number" +of the people; and the spirit in which she worked was correctly +appraised by the then editor of the _Daily News_, William Weir, when +he wrote to her in these terms, in 1856:-- + + I have never before met--I do not hope again to meet--one so + earnest (as you) to promote progress, so practical in the means by + which to arrive at it. My aim in life is to be able to say, when + it is closing, "I, too, have done somewhat, though little, to + benefit my kind;" and there are so few who do not regard this as + Quixotism or hypocrisy, that I shrink even from confessing it. + +He so well recognized that as truly _her_ aim also that he did not +fear to utter to her his high aspiration. It is in this spirit that +her political articles are written, and the result of the constant +reference to principles is that her essays are almost as instructive +reading now as they were when first published; _then_, their interest +and their importance were both incalculable. + +Of such articles Harriet Martineau wrote in the _Daily News_, from +first to last, _sixteen hundred and forty-two_: besides the great +number that I have referred to, which appeared in other journals. I +wonder how many of the men who have presumed to say that the women are +"incapable of understanding politics," or of "sympathizing in great +causes," received a large part of their political education, and of +rousing stimulus to public-spirited action, from those journalistic +writings by Harriet Martineau? + +An instructive article on "The Progress of the Negro Race" was +prepared for the _Edinburgh_ of January, 1864. Only a few weeks after +the appearance of this, there fell upon her the greatest blow of her +old age. Her beloved niece Maria, who had for so long filled the place +of a daughter to her, was taken ill with typhoid fever, and died after +a three weeks' illness. Maria Martineau's active disposition, and her +intellectual power (which was far above the average) had made her an +ideal companion for her aunt, and the blow to _her_ was a terrible +one. Ill and suffering as she was before, this shock completed the +wreck of Harriet Martineau's health. She had a dreary time of illness +immediately after her niece's death; and although she went on writing +for some time longer, it was always with the feeling that the end of +her long life's industry was near at hand. + +She was not left alone; for Maria's youngest sister, Jane, presently +offered voluntarily to fill, as far as she could, the vacant place at +"The Knoll." The family from which these sisters came was one in which +kindliness and generosity were (and are to this day, with its younger +members who remain) distinguishing features. It was no light matter for +Mr. and Mrs. Robert Martineau to part with a second daughter to their +sister; but, as it was Jane's own wish to try to be to that beloved and +honored relative what Maria had been, the parents would not refuse +their permission. Harriet wrote of this to Mr. Reeve with her heart +full; telling him how "humbly grateful" she felt for what was so +generously offered to her, and with what thankfulness she accepted the +blessing. Even in such circumstances, she could note what a delight it +was to find that Maria's own spirit of devotedness prevailed amongst +them all--for nothing could be nobler and sweeter than the conduct of +everyone. + +By June of that same year, 1864, Mrs. Martineau was ready to undertake +another article on a topic which pressed upon her mind, "Co-operative +Societies," which was published in the _Edinburgh_ for October +following. + +She went on writing for the _Daily News_, through that year and the +next, though the effort came to be constantly more and more laborious. +Her interest in public affairs did not flag; nor is there the least +sign of failure of power in her letters; but she became increasingly +conscious that it was a strain upon her to write under the +responsibility of addressing the public. + +Early in 1865 she wrote some articles on "The Scarcity of Nurses," +"poked up to do it," as she said, by Florence Nightingale. In the +April of the same year was prepared an article on "Female Convicts," +which was published in the _Edinburgh_ for October. In sending this +she intimated to the editor that it would be her last contribution, +as she felt the strain of such writing too great for her strength. +After all she did prepare one more article for the _Edinburgh_, +though it was as long afterwards as 1868. This was the paper on +"Salem Witchcraft," which will be found in the number of that +_Review_ for July. It formed Harriet Martineau's last contribution of +any length to literature; and she wrote it with some reluctance, +after having suggested the subject to Mr. Reeve, and he having +replied that he could find no one suitable to undertake it but +herself. + +She was very loath to cease her writing for the _Daily News_, and +continued it until the spring of 1866. It was a great trial when at +last the moment came that she felt she absolutely _must_ be freed from +the obligation and the temptation to frequent work. But the spring was +always her worst time as to health; and during this customary vernal +exacerbation of illness, in April, 1866, she found herself obliged at +last, after fourteen years' service, to send in her resignation to the +_Daily News_. + +When she thus terminated her connection with the paper through whose +columns she had spoken so long, she practically concluded her literary +life. Neither her intellectual powers, nor her interest in public +affairs, were perceptibly diminished; as will presently be seen, these +continued to the end of her life all but unabated. Her regular +literary exertions were now, however, at an end; and she was ill +enough by this time, her niece tells me, to feel only relief at being +freed from the constant pressure of the duty of thought and speech. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. + +THE LAST YEARS. + + +Harriet Martineau had never gone the right way to work to become rich +by literature. She had not chosen her subjects with a view to the mere +monetary success she might attain, and, not infrequently, she had +displayed a rare generosity in her pecuniary affairs. In April, 1867, +she was plunged into perplexity about the means of living, by the +temporary failure of the Brighton Railway to pay its dividends. After +all her work, she had but little to lose. She had from investments in +the preference stock of that railway L230 per annum, and she had only +L150 yearly from all other sources. Such was the fortune saved, after +labors such as hers, through a long life of industry and thrift. There +was a beautiful contest between the inmates of that home, when the +trouble came, as to which of them should begin to make the necessary +sacrifices involved in economizing. Miss Jane Martineau and the maid +Caroline were each ready with their offers, and the invalid mistress +of the house was with difficulty induced to continue her wine and +dinner ale, while she declared, with a brave assumption of +carelessness, that she should be rather glad than otherwise to be rid +of seeing the _Times_ daily and getting the periodic box of books from +"Mudie's." It is touching to note how she tried to lightly pass off +this sacrifice of current literature, when one knows that reading was +the chief solace of her lonely and suffering days. Her family +intervened, however, to prevent any such deprivations, and by-and-by +the company resumed payment of its dividends. + +In 1868, she received a generous offer, which touched her very deeply. +Mr. J. R. Robinson, of the _Daily News_, proposed to her that there +should be a reprint of the several biographical sketches which she had +contributed to the paper during her connection with it; and he offered +to take all the trouble and responsibility of putting the volume +through the press, while leaving to her the whole of the profits. She +had not even supposed that the copyright in the biographies which she +had written for the paper from time to time, upon the occasions of the +deaths of eminent persons, remained her property. Mr. Robinson had the +satisfaction of assuring her that the proprietors held her at liberty +to reproduce these writings, and, with that comrade's generosity which +is not altogether rare among journalists, her kind friend devoted +himself to securing her a good publisher, and editing the volume, +_Biographical Sketches_, for her benefit. These vignettes well +deserved re-production. She had had more or less personal acquaintance +with nearly every one of the forty-six eminent persons of whom she +treated; and the portraits which she sketched were equally vivid and +impartial. The work was received by the public with an enthusiasm +which repaid Mr. Robinson for his generous efforts. It was reprinted +in America; and it is now in its fourth English edition. + +The last occasion upon which she was to give her powers and her +influence to a difficult but great public work must now be mentioned. +It was the final effort of her career. Marked as that life had been +all through by devotedness to public duty, she never before was +engaged in a task so painful and difficult, or one which, upon mere +personal grounds, she might more strongly have desired to evade. But +at near seventy years old, and so enfeebled that she had thought her +work quite finished, she no more hesitated to come to the front under +fire when it became necessary, than she had done in those active +younger days when combat may have had its own delights. + +The subject was an Act of Parliament passed in 1869, having reference +to certain police powers over women in various large towns. "In our +time, or in any other," wrote Mrs. Martineau, "there never was a +graver question." It was clear to her that if women "did not insist +upon the restoration of the most sacred liberties of half the people +of England, men alone would never do it;" and she wrote four letters +on the subject to the _Daily News_, as powerful, as sensible, as free +from cant of any kind, as clear in the appreciation of facts, and as +definite and able in the presentation of them, as anything she had +ever written. She wrote, also, and signed an "Appeal to the Women of +England" upon the subject, where her name headed the list of signers, +whilst that of Florence Nightingale came next. Two such women, +venerated not less for the intellectual capacity and practical wisdom +than for the devoted benevolence that they had shown in their long +lives, were well able to arouse and lead the moral sense of the +womanhood of England in this crisis. Other respected names were soon +added to theirs, but it would not be easy to over-estimate the value +of the self-sacrificing, brave action, at the most critical moment, of +these two great and honorable women. + +Besides writing articles, and appeals, and signing documents which +were placarded as election posters in some great towns, Mrs. Martineau +helped that cause in the way told in the following letter to Mr. +Atkinson: + + May 21st, 1871. + + One pleasant thing has happened lately. I _longed_ for money for a + public object [repeal of the acts in question], and, unable to do + better, worked a chair, and had it beautifully made up. It was + produced at a great evening party in, London, and seized upon and + vehemently competed for, and it has actually brought fifty + guineas! In the middle of the night it occurs to me what a thing + it is to give fifty guineas--so much as I had longed for money to + give that fund. I was asked for a letter of explanation and + statement to go with the chair, and, of course, did it by that + post. + +Work for this cause formed the most keen and active interest of her +latest years. In this she thought and labored constantly. She gave her +name and support to other objects, but only quietly. Amongst other +things she was a member of the Women's Suffrage Society; and she was a +subscriber to the movement for the medical education of women. + +In all public affairs, indeed, her interest remained keen and unabated +to the very last, as the letters for which I am indebted to Mr. +Atkinson, and which I am to quote, will abundantly show. These letters +will indicate, too, something of the quiet course of her now uneventful +daily life. Sick and weary as she was, it will be seen that literature +and politics, the public welfare, and the concerns of her household's +inmates, still occupied her thoughts and her pen. + + LETTERS TO MR. ATKINSON. + + August 24, 1870. + + ... I am as careful as possible to prevent anyone losing sleep on + my account, and being disturbed at meals, or failing in air, + exercise and pleasure. If these regular healthy habits of my + household become difficult, we are to have a trained nurse at once. + This is settled. I am disposed to think, myself, that the last + stage will be short, probably the end sudden. + +The tone of this last sentence is no affectation. "She used to talk +about her death as if it meant no more than going into the next room," +said one who knew her in these years. + + September 10, 1870. + + ... I am not sure whether you have read Dr. Bence Jones's _Life + and Letters of Faraday_. I have been thankful, this last week, + for the strong interest of that book, which puts Continental + affairs out of my head for hours together. The first half volume + is rather tiresome--giving us four times as much as necessary of + the uncultivated youth's early prosing on crude moralities, etc. + It is quite right to give us _some_ of this, to show from how low + a point of thought and style he rose up to his perfection of + expression as a lecturer and writer; but a quarter of the early + stuff would have been enough for that. The succeeding part, for + hundreds of pages, is the richest treat I have had for many a + day. I can only distantly and dimly follow the scientific + lectures and writings; but I understand enough of sympathy; and + the disclosures of the moral nature of the man is perfectly + exquisite. I have never known, and have scarcely dreamed of, a + spirit and temper so thoroughly uniting the best attributes of + the sage and the child. + + + October 18, 1870. + + I had my envelope directed yesterday, but was prevented writing, + and in the evening came your welcome letter. I am glad to know + _when_ you mean to leave your quarters; and every line from + France is interesting. + + I wonder whether you remember a night in London when dear Mrs. + Reid and you and I were returning in her carriage from Exeter + Hall and the _Messiah_. I was saying that that sacred drama + reminded me of Holy Philae, and the apotheosis of Osiris, and how + the one was as true as the other, with its "Peace on earth, and + good-will to men," so false a prophesy, etc., etc. Whereupon Mrs. + Reid said, plaintively (of the _Messiah_), "I believe it all at + the time," but she did not set up any pretense of the promises + having been fulfilled. It does not seem as if Christendom had got + on very much since the world said, "See how these Christians love + one another!" I seem to have got to a new state of mind about + war, or I may perhaps forget the emotions of youth; but I seem + never before to have felt the horror, disgust, shame--in short, + misery--that the spectacle of this war creates now. I am reading + less and less in the newspapers; for the truth is, I cannot + endure it. There is no good in any _hopeless_ spectacle; and for + France, I am, like, most people, utterly hopeless.... By selling + themselves for twenty years to the worst and meanest man in + Europe, the people of France have incurred destruction; and + though most of us knew this all the time, we do not suffer the + less from the spectacle now.... I suppose the French will have no + alternative but peace in a little while; but, when all that is + settled, internal strife and domestic ruin will remain ahead. The + truth is, the _morale_ of the French is corrupted to the core. + All habit of integrity and sincerity is apparently lost; and when + a people prefers deception to truth, vain-glory to honor, passion + to reason--all is over. I will leave it, for it is a terrible + subject. I must just say that I believe and know that there _are_ + French citizens--a very few--who understand the case, but they + are as wretched as they necessarily must be. But "the gay, + licentious, proud," the pleasure-loving, self-seeking + aristocracy, and the brutally ignorant rural population, must + entirely paralyze the intelligent, an honest few scattered in + their midst. But I must leave all this. + + The only news we have is of the royal marriage (Princess Louise) + which pleases everybody. It is a really great event--as a sign + politically, and as a fact socially and morally. After the + Queen's marriage, I wrote repeatedly on behalf of repealing the + Royal Marriage Act _then_, while there could be no invidious + appearance in it. The present chaotic condition of Protestant + princedoms in Germany may answer the purpose almost as well as a + period of abeyance. Any way, the relaxation seems a wise and + happy one. + + My items of news are small in comparison, but not small to me; + especially that a happy idea struck me lately, of trying a spring + mattress as a means of obtaining sleep of some continuance. I + have ventured upon getting one; and, after four nights, there is + no doubt of my being able to sleep longer, and with more loss of + consciousness than for a very long time. Last night I once slept + three hours with only one break. Otherwise, I go on much the + same. There is one objection to these beds which healthy people + are unaware of--that so much more strength is required to move in + bed, from want of _purchase_. This is a trouble, but the + advantages far outweigh it. + + Dear Jenny comes home to-morrow evening, all the better, I am + assured, for three weeks at the sea, in breeze and sun, and all + manner of beauty of land and sea (at Barmouth, and with a merry + party of young people). And here is a game basket, arrived from + parts unknown, with a fine hare, two brace of partridges, and a + pheasant. A savory welcome for Jenny! Cousin Mary has been more + good and kind than I can say. She stays for Jenny, and leaves us + on Friday. I must not begin upon Huxley, Tyndall, and Evans, whom + I have been reading. Much pleasure to you, dear friend, in your + closing weeks. + + Yours ever, + + H. MARTINEAU. + +The sleepless nights repeatedly mentioned in these letters were a +source of great suffering to her in these latest years; under medical +advice she tried smoking as a means of procuring better rest, with +some success. She smoked usually through the chiboque which she had +brought home with her from the East, and which she had there learned +to use, as she relates with her customary simplicity and directness +in the appendix to _Eastern Life_: "I found it good for my health," +she says there, "and I saw no more reason why I should not take it +than why English ladies should not take their glass of sherry at +home--an indulgence which I do not need. I continued the use of my +chiboque for some weeks after my return, and then only left it off +because of the inconvenience." When health and comfort were to be +promoted by it, she resumed it. Her nights were, nevertheless, very +broken, and frequent allusions occur in her letters to the suffering +of sleeplessness, with its concomitant of drowsiness in the day-time. + +The next letter is on trivial topics, truly; but is none the less +valuable for the unconscious record which it affords of her domestic +character. The anxiety for her household companion's enjoyment, the +delight in the kindness that the young folk had shown to each other +and to the poor Christmas guests, the pleasure in the happiness of +other people, are all characteristic features which are of _no +trivial_ consequence. + + AMBLESIDE, Jan. 2, '71. + + I am so sorry for the way you are passing from the old year to + the new that I cannot help saying so. I ought to be anything but + sorry, considering what good you are doing--essential, + indispensable good; but you must be so longing for your own + quiet, warm home, and the friends around it, that I heartily wish + you were there.... As for me, my business is to promote, as far + as possible, the cheerfulness of my household. There really has + been much fun,--and yet more sober enjoyment, throughout this + particular Christmas. In my secret mind I am nervously anxious + about Jenny to whom cold is a sort of poison; but, when she had + once observed that there was much less cold here than at home, or + anywhere else that she could be, I determined to say no more, and + to make the best of it. She said it for my sake, I know (the only + reason for her ever speaking of herself), and I frankly received + it as a comfortable saying. She is getting on better than any of + us expected, and she has been thoroughly happy in exercising our + hospitalities.... Jenny's brother Frank came for three days at + Christmas; and Harriet made herself housekeeper and secretary, + and made Jenny the guest, to set her wholly at liberty for her + brother. It was quite a pretty sight--they were all so happy! + There was a kitchen party on Christmas Day; by far the best we + ever had; for Frank did the thing thoroughly--read a comic tale, + taught the folk games, played off the snapdragons, and finally + produced boxes of new and strange crackers, which spat forth the + most extraordinary presents! All the guests and the servants were + in raptures with him. The oldest widow but one vowed that "she + did not know _when_ she had seen such a gentleman"--which I think + very probable. They came to dinner at noon, and stayed till past + 10 P.M. Think of spending those ten hours entirely in the two + kitchens, and having four meals, in the time! My nieces, _and + nephews were_ tired! So was I, though I had only the + consciousness of the occasion.... All this is so good for Jenny! + and she will like the quiet and leisure that will follow.... + + I am more alive and far less suffering than in the great heats of + autumn. Your slips and cuttings are very interesting, and I am + very thankful for them. More of them when (or if) my head is + worth more. Of course we shall hear when you get home. May it be + soon! + + Yours ever, dear friend, + + H. MARTINEAU. + + + AMBLESIDE, March 6, '71. + + _We_ are in a queer state just now. Gladstone turns out _exactly_ + as I expected. I once told some, who are his colleagues now, that + he would do some very fine deeds--give us some separate measures + of very great value, and would do it in an admirable manner; but + that he would show himself incapable of governing the country. + For two years he did the first thing; and now, this third year, + he is showing the expected incapacity. Were there ever such means + thrown away as we see this session? Probably you are out of the + way of hearing the whole truth of the situation, and I cannot go + into it here. Suffice it, that Gladstone totters (and three or + four more), and that several departments are in such a mess and + muddle that one hardly sees how they are to be brought straight + again; and all this without the least occasion! One matter, in + which I feel deep interest, and on which I have acted, is + prospering, and we have the Government at our disposal; so that + we hope they will remain in office till we have secured what we + want; but the more we have to do with Ministers, the weaker we + find them. And Gladstone is not only weak as a reasoner (with all + his hair-splitting), but ignorant in matters of political + principle. + +The next letter is very characteristic and perfectly true to her +state of mind with regard to flatterers: + + May 21, '71. + + And now you will want to know how Miss ---- and we fared this day + week. We (she and I) were together only three-quarters of an + hour; and for part of that time I was too much exhausted to + benefit much. My impression is that she is not exactly the person + for the invalid room. But I may be utterly wrong in this. I might + be misled by the fatiguing sort of annoyance of overpraise--of + worship in fact. I don't want to be ungracious about what my + books were to her in her childhood and youth; I am quite ready to + believe her sincere in what she said. But not the less is it bad + taste. It must be bad taste to expatiate on that one topic which + it is most certain that the hearer cannot sympathize in. Also, I + have much doubt of her being accurate in her talk. There is a + random air about her statements, and she said two or three things + that certainly were mistakes, more or less. These things, and a + general smoothness in her talk, while she was harsh about some of + the ---- were what I did not quite like. As for the rest, she was + as kind as possible; and not only kind to me, but evidently with + a turn that way, and a habit of it in regard to children and + friends.... + + + June 11, '71. + + ... Of all odd things, Dean Stanley and Lady Augusta have been, + by way of a trip, to Paris, from last Monday to Saturday. How + _can_ they! One would think nothing could take one there but some + strong call of duty. The least that one must read and hear is + enough to make one's heart ache, and to spoil one's sleep, and to + disfigure life till one does not wish to look at it any more. I + do long to have done with it. I believe it is the first occasion + in my life of my having felt hopeless of any destiny, individual + or national.... How badly our public affairs are going! Gladstone + & Co, are turning out exactly as many of us foresaw. The thing + nearest my heart (repeal of the acts above alluded to), and more + important than all other public questions, will do well. It is, I + believe, secure, in virtue of an amount of effort and devotedness + never surpassed. You know what I mean. I rest upon that + achievement--a vital aim with me and others for many years--with + satisfaction and entire hopefulness, but in all other directions + the prospect is simply dreary. In that one case, we, who shall + have achieved the object, have saved Ministers from themselves, + and from evil councillors. Wherever they have, this year, trusted + their own wisdom and resources, they have failed, or see that + they must fail. They would have been _out_ since early in April, + but for want of a leader on the Conservative side; and they still + make their party dwindle till there will be no heart or energy + left in the Liberal ranks--lately so strong and ardent! They may + be individually clever; but they cannot govern the country. This + is eminently the case with Gladstone; and it may serve as the + description of the group. I shall not dare to ask the Arnolds + about such matters--so thoroughly did they assume, when they went + away, that all must be right with "William" and Co. in the + Cabinet. + + + Nov. 5, '71. + + ... Mrs. Grote seems to like to open her feelings to me, as a + very old friend of hers and her husband's. Did I tell you that + she sent me--to put me in possession of her state--her private + diary, from the first day of her alarm about her husband's health + to the day she sent it? It was more interesting than I can say; + but it brought after it something more striking still. Some + half-century ago, Jeremy Bentham threw upon paper some thoughts + on the operation of natural religion on human welfare, or + _ill-fare_. His MSS. were left to Mrs. Grote (or portions of + them), and those papers were issued by the Grotes under the + title, "_Analysis of the Influence of Natural Religion_, etc. + etc., by Philip Beauchamp." It is a tract of 142 pp. It is the + boldest conceivable effort at fair play; and in this particular + effect, it is most striking. At the outset, all attempts to + divide the "abuses" of religion from other modes of operation are + repudiated at once; and the claim is so evidently sound that the + effect of the exposure is singular. Well! of course the tendency + of the exposition is to show that the absolute darkness of the + Unseen Life supposed must produce a demoralizing effect, and + destroy ease of mind. There is something almost appalling in the + unflinching representation of the mischief of the spirit of fear, + of its torment, and of its damaging effects in creating a habit + of adulation, in perverting the direction of our desires, in + corrupting our estimate of good and evil, in leaving us, in + short, no chance of living a healthy and natural life, but + rather, making cowards, liars, and selfish rascals of us all. I + can't go on, being tired; and you will be thinking, as you read, + that this is only the old story--of the mischiefs and miseries of + superstition. But there is something impressive in the cheerful + simplicity with which Bentham tells us his opinion of the sort of + person recommended to us for a master under the name of God, and + with which he warns us all of the impossibility of our being good + or happy under such a Supreme Being. In looking at the table of + contents, and seeing the catalogue he gives of evil effects of + belief in the barest scheme of Natural Religion, one becomes + aware, as if for the first time, of the atmosphere of falsehood + against which we ought to have recoiled all our lives since + becoming capable of thought. + + + Dec. 30, '71. + + ... I go off rapidly as a correspondent; there is no use blinking + the fact. I am so slow and write so badly! and leave off _too_ + tired. Oddly enough, this very week one of the _Daily News_ + authorities has been uttering a groaning longing for my pen in + the service of that paper, as of old. The occasion is a short + letter of mine in last Thursday's paper, which you may have + seen.[25] If so, you will see that I had no choice. W. E. Forster + was at Fox How; and I got Jenny to carry the volume of Brougham + (vol. iii. p. 302) to consult Forster and Arnolds about what I + should do, W. E. Forster being in the same line of business with + my father, and a public man--man of the world. He was clear: it + was impossible to leave my father under a false imputation of + having failed. And when my letter appeared, he was delighted with + it; so are those of my family that I have heard from; and, above + all, _Daily News_ editors. They hope and believe it will excite + due distrust of Brougham's representations, and encourage others + to expose his falsehoods. His suppressions are as wonderful as + his disclosures; _e.g._ the very important crisis in his career, + known by the name of the "Grey Banquet" at Edinburgh, he cuts + completely out of the history of the time--perverting Lord + Durham's story as well as his own. I can see how the false story + of me and mine got made; but enough of that--especially if you + have _not_ seen the letter in the _Daily News_. Forster is kindly + and quiet, but he is altered. He is now--the Courtier!--and odd + sort of one, with much Quaker innocence and prudence in it; but + of a sort which leaves me no hope of _his_ handling of his + Education measure. There will be such a fight! and the + Nonconformists are right, and know that they are. You will + probably see _that_ achieved--a real National Education + established, secular and compulsory. + + [25] Refuting a statement made in Lord Brougham's + _Autobiography_ that her father had failed in business. + +The Ambleside surgeon, who had undertaken, in acccordance with Harriet +Martineau's will, to prepare and transmit her skull and brain to Mr. +Atkinson, died in the year 1872. The following letter shows that the +progress of time had in no way diminished her willingness to leave her +head for scientific investigation: + + AMBLESIDE, April 23, '72. + + (Shakespere's birthday and Wordsworth's death-day.) + + DEAR FRIEND, + + I am not writing about poets to-day, nor about any "play" topic, + nor anything gay, or pretty, or amusing. I write on business only. + + When you heard of Mr. Shepherd's death, you must, I should think, + have considered what was to be done in regard to fulfilling the + provision of my will about skull and brain. It is to inform you + of this that I write. + + Mr. Shepherd's assistant and successor is _Mr. William Moore + King_, a young man who is considered very clever, and is + certainly very kind, gentlemanly, simple in mind and manners, + and married to a charming girl (grand-daughter of Martin, the + artist). Jenny has known them for two years, having called on + their arrival. I had seen him twice before this last week. I + wrote to him the other day, to ask him to give me half an hour + for confidential conversation; and he came when I was quite alone + for the morning. + + I told him the whole matter of the provision in my will, and of + Mr. Shepherd's engagement, in case of his surviving me in + sufficient vigor to keep his word. Mr. King listened anxiously, + made himself master of the arrangement, and distinctly engaged to + do what we ask, saying that it was so completely clear between us + that we need never speak of it again. + +I may add that Mr. King has shown me the letters in which Mrs. +Martineau made the necessary arrangements with him for his task. Mr. +Atkinson was, however, now residing out of England, and not in a +position to usefully accept the bequest, so he intimated his desire +to be freed from his promise to undertake the examination of his +friend's brain. A codicil was added to Harriet Martineau's will, +therefore, revoking the provision about this matter. + +The next quotation shows how little the long prospect of death had +changed her expectations and desires about things supernatural:-- + + November 19, '72. + + I mean to try to do justice to what I think and believe, by + avowing the satisfaction I truly feel with my release from + selfish superstition and trumpery self-regards, and with the calm + conclusions of my reason about what to desire and expect in the + position in which each one of us mysterious human beings finds + him or herself. It is all we have to do now (such as you and I), + to be satisfied with the conditions of the life we have left + behind us, and fearless of the death which lies before us. Nobody + will ever find me craving the "glory and bliss" which the + preachers set before us, and pray that we may obtain. Some of + them are very good and kind, I know; but they will never create + any longing of the sort in me. But why should I scribble on in + this way to you? Perhaps because our new Evangelical curate has + written me almost the worst and silliest letter of this sort that + I ever saw. Enough of him then! But I have left myself no room or + strength for other matters this time. I wanted to tell you about + the effect--according to my experience--of a second reading of + _Adam Bede_, Miss Evans' first great novel. A singular mind is + hers, I should think, and truly wonderful in power and scope. Her + intellectual power and grace attract and win people of very high + intellectual quality. + +Miss Jane Martineau was at this time in very delicate health, and, +after long fluctuations of hope and fear, was compelled to leave her +aunt for the winter and go to a warmer climate. Mrs. Martineau's +letters show how cruel was her anxiety for "my precious Jenny," and +are filled with expressions of her feelings about the state of her +beloved young companion. All this is, of course, too personal for +quotation, but a perusal of it amply confirms the accounts of her +domestic affection, and the warmth and sensitiveness of her heart. + +The loss of her niece from her side ultimately compelled the +engagement of a companion, Miss Goodwin, a young lady who became as +much attached to Harriet Martineau as did all others who came in +close relationship with her in those years. + + May 10th, '73. + + ... The great event to me and my household is, that Caroline--my + dear maid and nurse--has seen Jenny.... It was such a pouring out + on both sides. It would have almost broken Jenny's heart not to + have seen this very dear friend of ours, when only half an hour + off. All her longing is to be by my side again. I never + discourage this; but I don't believe it can come to pass.... + Everybody is kind and helpful; and our admiration of Miss Goodwin + ever increases. + + + AMBLESIDE, Sept. 7th, '73. + + DEAR FRIEND, + + I am not ungrateful nor insensible about your treating me with + letters, whether I reply or not. You may be sure I _would_ write + if I could. But you know I cannot, and why. At times I really + indulge in the hope and belief that the end is drawing near, and + then again, if I compare the present day with a year ago, it + seems as if there was no very great change. I still do not make + mistakes--or only in trifling slips of memory common enough at + seventy. Still I have no haunting ideas, no delusions, no + fears,--except that vague sort of misgiving that occurs when it + becomes a fatigue to talk, and to move about, and to plan the + duties of the day. Yet aware as I am of the character of the + change in me, and confident as I still am of not making a fool of + myself till I alter further, I now seldom or never (almost never) + feel _quite_ myself. I have told you this often lately; but I + feel as if it would not be quite honest to omit saying it while + feeling it to be the most prominent experience of my life at this + time. It is not always easy to draw the line as to what one + should tell in such a case. On the one hand, I desire to avoid + all appearance of weak and tiresome complaining of what cannot be + helped; and on the other, I do wish not to appear unaware of my + failures. I am sure you understand this, and can sympathize in + the anxiety about keeping the balance honest. There have been + heart-attacks now and then lately, which have caused digitalis + and belladonna to be prescribed for me; and this creates a hope + that the general bodily condition is declining in good proportion + to the brain weakening.... Miss ---- and her naval partner remind + me of the pair in the novel that I have read eleven times--Miss + Austen's _Persuasion_--unequalled in interest, charm and truth + (to my mind). There is a hint there of the drawback of + separation; but yet,--who would have desired anything for Anne + Elliot and her Captain Wentworth but that they should marry? I am + now in the middle of Miss Thackeray's _Old Kensington_--reading + it with much keen pleasure, and some satisfaction and surprise. + There are exquisite touches in it; and there is a further + disclosure of power, of genuine, substantial, vital power; but + her mannerism grows on her deplorably, it seems to me. The amount + and the mode of analysis of minds and characters are too far + disproportioned to the other elements to be accepted without + regret, and, perhaps, some fear for the future. But I have not + read half the book yet; and I hope I may have to recall all + fault-finding, and to dwell only on the singular value and beauty + of the picture-gallery she has given us. + +An incident of this year's (1873) story, which must not be +overlooked, was an offer of a pension made to Harriet Martineau by +Mr. Gladstone. She had written sadly of her own sufferings in a +letter to Mrs. Grote, which referred also to Mr. Grote's life, and +that lady had published the letter. Mr. Gladstone, in delicate and +friendly terms, intimated to Mrs. Martineau that if pecuniary anxiety +in any way added to her troubles, he would recommend the Queen to +give her one of the literary pensions of the Civil List. She declined +it with real gratitude, partly upon the same grounds which had before +led her to refuse a similar offer, but with the additional reason now +that she would not expose the Queen and the Premier to insult for +showing friendliness to "an infidel." + +The next letter is mainly domestic, but I am sure that those spoken +of by name in it will not object to publication of references in +order to show Harriet Martineau in her amiable, considerate household +character:-- + + December 6, 1873. + + DEAR FRIEND, + + I will not trouble and pain you by a long story about the cares + and anxieties which make the last stage of my long life hard to + manage and to bear. If I could be quite sure of the end being as + near as one would suppose, I could bear my own share quietly + enough; but it is a different thing watching a younger life going + out prematurely. My beloved Jenny will die, after all, we think, + bravely as she has borne up for two years. The terrible East + winds again got hold of her before she went (so early as + October!) to her winter quarters; and there are sudden and grave + symptoms of dropsy. The old dread of the post has returned upon + me; and I am amazed to find how I can still suffer from fear. I + am quite unfit to live alone--even for a week; yet I mean to + venture it, if necessary. Miss Goodwin _shall_ go (to Leeds) for + Christmas Day, on which the family have always hitherto + assembled. I will not prevent their doing so now. My niece + Harriet (Higginson) was to come, as usual, for a month's holiday + at Christmas; but her mother has lamed herself by a fall, and it + must be doubtful whether she can be left. Parents protest the + dear girl shall come, but she and I wait to see. There is nobody + else; for there is illness in all families, or anxiety about + illness elsewhere. "Well! we shall be on the other side of it + somehow," as people say, and it won't matter much then. My young + cook is wanted on Christmas Day to be a bridesmaid, at + Nottingham. So I have a real reason for giving up the great + Christmas party I have given (in the kitchen) every year till + now. It will be costly giving the people handsome dinners in + their own homes; but the house will be quiet, and to me the day + will be like any other day. It is not now a time for much mirth; + the Arnolds meeting at their mother's grave, my Jenny absent, + from perilous illness, my brain failing, so that I can do nothing + for anybody but by money (and not very much in that way). We are + all disposed to keep quiet--wishing the outside world a "Merry + Christmas." + + + April 15th, 1874. + + I am reading again that marvellous _Middlemarch_, finding I did + not half value it before. It is not a book to issue as a serial. + Yet, read _en suite_, I find it almost more (greater) than I can + bear. The Casaubons set me dreaming all night. Do you ever hear + _any_-thing of Lewes and Miss Evans? + +During the whole of the time over which these letters extend Mrs. +Martineau was subject to fainting fits, in any one of which her life +might have ended. It was thus necessary for her to have her maid +sleeping in her bed-room. Caroline, the "dear friend and servant" for +twenty-one years, died early in 1875. Her place was filled by the +younger maid, Mary Anne, whom Caroline had trained. The maid has told +me of her mistress's kindness and readiness to be amused; of the +gentleness of her manner, and the gratitude which she seemed to feel +for all loving tendance. The next letter gives a glimpse of the daily +life from the mistress' pen:-- + + Dec. 8, '75. + + East winds have been abundantly bitter; but this house is + sheltered from the east and north. We do pity the babes and their + mothers in the cottages below; and there is no denying that I am + painfully stupefied by such cold as we have; but my _aides_ and + my maids are all as well and as happy as if we had the making of + the season. It is a daily surprise to me to see how Jenny holds + _out_ and on, without any sort of relapse; yet I _cannot_ rise + above the anxiety which haunts me in the midst of every night and + early morning--dread of hearing that she and Miss Goodwin are ill + with the cold which makes _me_ so ill. By six o'clock I can stay + in bed no longer. My maid and I (in the same room) turn out of + our beds as the clock strikes; she puts a match to the fire, and + goes for my special cup of tea (needed after my bad nights), + while I brush my hair. I take the tea to the window, and look out + for the lights (Fox How usually the first) as they kindle and + twinkle throughout the valley--Orion going down behind Loughrigg + as day is breaking. Then I get on the bed for half an hour's + reading, till the hot water comes up. By that time I am in a + panic about my _aides_; but as soon as I am seated at my little + table ready for breakfast, in come the dear creatures, as gay as + larks, with news how the glass stands, out-door and in. Out-door + (not on the ground) it is somewhere between 32 deg. and 40 deg. at + present; and in my room (before the fire has got up), from 50 deg. to + 57 deg.. So now you know what our present life and climate are like. + + After dinner--I must end almost before I have begun! But, have + you seen, in any newspaper, the address presented to Carlyle on + his 80th birthday? I had no doubt about subscribing, and my name + is there. I feel great deference for Masson, who asked me; and + though I do not agree with all the ascriptions of the address, + there is enough in which I do heartily agree to enable me to + sign; so I send my sovereign with satisfaction. I shall not see + the medal, not even a bronze one (you know Carlyle's is gold). My + expenses are considerable _at present_ (not always), and I must + not spend on such an object. The way in which the thing was done + is delicate. Instead of overwhelming the old man with a + deputation, the promoters had the packet quietly left at his + door. It would set him weeping for his loneliness,--that his + long-suffering, faithful wife did not witness this crowning + glory. He does love fame (or _did_), and no man would despise + such a tribute as this; but I think he will find it oppressive. + What a change since the day when the _Edinburgh Review_ was + obliged, as Jeffrey said, to decline articles from Carlyle--much + as he wished to aid him--because the readers could not tolerate + C.'s writings! And that was after his now famous "Burns" article + had appeared, and founded his fame in America! + + Did you see that the _Times_ death-list showed, in two days last + week, thirty-three deaths of persons over 70, eleven of whom were + over 80? The effect of the cold! + + ... The sick and aged will die off fast this winter. May I be + one! + + + January 25, '76. + + DEAR OLD FRIEND, + + It is time that you were hearing from us of the marked increase + in my illness within the few days since I last reported of + matters of mutual interest. I will not trouble you with + disagreeable descriptions of ailments which admit of no + advantageous treatment. Last week there was, as twice before (and + now again twice), a copious hemorrhage from some interior part, + by which I am much weakened. The cause is not understood; and + what does it matter? I neither know nor much care how it happens + that I find myself sinking more rapidly than hitherto. All I know + is that I am fully satisfied with my share of the interest and + amusement of life, and of the value of the knowledge which has + come to me by means of the brain, which is worth all the rest of + us. + + I have not much pain, none very severe, but much discomfort. At + times I _see_ very badly, and _hear_ almost nothing; and then I + recover more or less of both powers. There is so much cramp in + the hands, and elsewhere, that it seems very doubtful whether you + and other friends will hear much from me during the (supposed) + short time that I shall be living. But I do hope you will let me + hear, to the last, of your interests and pursuits, your + friendships and companionships, and prospects of increasing + wisdom. I cannot write more to-day. Perhaps I may become able + another day. My beloved niece Jenny is well; better here than she + would be anywhere else, and more happy in her restoration to her + home with me than I can describe. I could easily show you how and + why my death within a short time may be for the happiness of some + whom I love, and who love me; and if it should be the severest + trial to this most dear helper of my latter days, I am sure she + will bear it wisely and well. It cannot but be the happiest + thought in her mind and heart--what a blessing she has been to my + old age! What have not _you_ been, dear friend! I must not enter + on that now. Jenny observed this morning that old or delicate + people live wonderfully long. True! but I hope my term will be + short, if I am to continue as ill as at present. + +The end was, indeed, approaching; and now, when at the worst of her +illness, it so came about that she was asked and consented to do one +last piece of writing for publication. Her young companion, Miss +Goodwin, had translated Pauli's _Simon de Montfort_, and Mr. Truebner, +unaware of course, how ill Mrs. Martineau was, offered to publish the +translation on the condition that she would write an introduction. +She would not refuse this favor to Miss Goodwin, and did the work +with great difficulty. It was characteristic that she should think it +necessary to take the trouble to _read_ the whole MS. before writing +her few pages of introduction. + +She was now nearing her seventy-fourth birthday; and the strong +constitution which had worn through so much pain and labor had almost +exhausted its vitality. + +Even in these last weeks she could not be idle. Her hands were +cramped, her eyes weak, her sensations of fatigue very hard to bear; +still, she not only continued her correspondence with one or two of +her dearest friends, but also went on with her fancy work. The latter +was now of that easiest kind, requiring least effort of eye and +thought--knitting. She occupied herself with making cot blankets, in +double knitting, for the babies of her young friends; some of them +among her poorer neighbors, whom she had known when they were little +children themselves and she came first to Ambleside, others among +more distant and wealthier couples. She finished one blanket early in +the year 1876, for a baby born in Ambleside in the January, and she +left a second one unfinished when she died. + +Babies were an unfailing delight to her, to the end. Her maids knew +that even if she were too ill to see grown-up visitors, a little +child was always a welcome guest, for at least a few moments. Her +letters to children were altogether charming, and so were her ways +with them, and children always loved her with all their wise little +hearts. She was a pleasant old lady, even for them to look at. The +expression of the countenance became very gentle and motherly, when +the strife of working life was laid aside; the eyes were ever kind; +and the mouth loved to laugh, sternly and firmly though it could at +times be compressed. She wore a large cap of delicate lace, and was +dainty about her person, as regarded the fairest cleanliness. Plain +in her youth and middle life, she had now grown into a beautiful old +age--beauty of the kind which such years can gain from the impress on +the features of the high thoughts and elevated emotions of the past, +with patience, lovingness, and serenity in the present. + +Patient, loving, and serene the last years of Harriet Martineau were. +Those who lived with her knew less than her correspondents of what +she suffered; for she felt it a duty to tell the absent what they +could not see for themselves of her state; but to her household she +spoke but seldom, comparatively, of her painful sensations, leaving +the matter to their own observation. She could be absorbed to the +last in all that concerned the world and mankind; and she was equally +accessible to the smaller and more homely interests of the quiet +daily life of her inmates. The incidents which go to show what she +was in her domestic circle are but trifling; but what is it that +makes the difference between an intolerable and a venerable old age +(or youth, for the matter of that, in domestic life) except its +conduct about trifles? One who was with her tells of her delight when +a basket of newly-fledged ducklings was brought to her bedside, +before she was up, on St. Valentine's Day in the year of her death, +offering her a doggerel tribute as follows:-- + + St. Valentine hopes you will not scorn + This little gift on St. Valentine's morn. + We'd have come with the chime of last evening's bells, + But, alas! we could not break our shells! + +Then another remembers her amusement when one of her nephews had just +started to go to the coach for London, and the doctor, coming in +unannounced, left his hat on the hall table, which the active servant +seeing, and jumping to the conclusion that Mr. Martineau (travelling +in a felt) had left his high hat behind him, rushed off with it to +the coach-office, half a mile away; so that when the doctor wanted to +go, his hat was off to the coach; and "the old lady did laugh so." +Only a week or two before her death, she was merry enough to ask her +doctor that dreadful punning conundrum about the resemblance between +an ice-cream vender, and an hydrophobic patient--the answer turning +on the legend "Water ices and ice creams" (water I sees, and I +screams)--telling him that it was a _professional_ conundrum. At the +same time she was kind enough to repeat to him the compliments which +a visitor of hers had been paying his baby. This was the lighter side +of the aged woman's life, the more serious aspect of which is shown +in some of her letters to Mr. Atkinson. The last of these letters +must now be given:-- + + AMBLESIDE, May 19, 1876. + + DEAR FRIEND, + + Jenny, and also my sister, have been observing that you ought to + be hearing from us, and have offered to write to you. You will + see at once what this means; and it is quite true that I have + become so much worse lately that we ought to guard against your + being surprised, some day soon, by news of my life being closed. + I feel uncertain about how long I _may_ live in my present state. + I can only follow the judgment of unprejudiced observers; and I + see that my household believe the end to be not far off. I will + not trouble you with disagreeable details. It is enough to say + that I am in no respect better, while all the ailments are on the + increase. The imperfect heart-action immediately affects the + brain, causing the suffering which is worse than all other evils + together,--the horrid sensation of not being quite myself. This + strange, dreamy _non-recognition of myself_ comes on every + evening, and all else is a trifle in comparison. But there is a + good deal more. Cramps in the hands prevent writing, and most + other employment, except at intervals. Indications of dropsy have + lately appeared: and after this, I need not again tell you that I + see how fully my household believe that the end is not far off. + Meantime I have no cares or troubles beyond the bodily uneasiness + (which, however, I don't deny to be an evil). I cannot think of + any future as at all probable, except the "annihilation" from + which some people recoil with so much horror. I find myself here + in the universe,--I know not how, whence, or why. I see + everything in the universe go out and disappear, and I see no + reason for supposing that it is not an actual and entire death. + And for _my_ part, I have no objection to such an extinction. I + well remember the passion with which W. E. Forster said to me, "I + had rather be damned than annihilated." If he once felt five + minutes' damnation, he would be thankful for extinction in + preference. The truth is, I care little about it any way. Now + that the event draws near, and that I see how fully my household + expects my death, pretty soon, the universe opens so widely + before my view, and I see the old notions of death and scenes to + follow to be so merely human--so impossible to be true, when one + glances through the range of science--that I see nothing to be + done but to wait without fear or hope, or ignorant prejudice, for + the expiration of life. I have no wish for further experience, + nor have I any fear of it. Under the weariness of illness I long + to be asleep; but I have not set my mind in any state. I wonder + if all this represents your notions at all. I should think it + does, while yet we are fully aware how mere a glimpse we have of + the universe and the life it contains. + + Above all, I wish to escape from the narrowness of taking a mere + human view of things, from the absurdity of making God after + man's own image, etc. + + But I will leave this, begging your pardon for what may be so + unworthy to be dwelt on. However, you _may_ like to know how the + case looks to a friend under the clear knowledge of death being + so near at hand. My hands are cramped and I must stop. My sister + is here for the whole of May, and she and Jenny are most happy + together. Many affectionate relations and friends are willing to + come if needed (the Browns among others), if I live beyond July. + You were not among the Boulogne theological petitioners, I + suppose. I don't know whether you can _use_----there? I was very + thankful for your last, though I have said nothing about its + contents. If I began _that_, I should not know how to stop. + + So good-bye for to-day, dear friend! + + Yours ever, + + H. M. + +The internal tumor which was the prime cause of her malady (an +entirely different kind of thing, however, from that which she +suffered from at Tynemouth), had long been the source of great +inconvenience, compelling her to descend the stairs backwards, and to +spend much time in a recumbent position. The post mortem examination +made by her medical attendant, at the request of her executors, two +days after she died, revealed the fact that this tumor was the true +cause of her sufferings. She never knew it herself. Relying on the +statement of the eminent men whom she consulted in 1855, that it was +the heart that was affected, she accepted that as her fate. It was, +however, the slow growth of a "dermoid cyst" which made her linger +till such an age, through the constant suffering of twenty-one +preceding years. + +In the early part of June, 1876, she had an attack of bronchitis, and +though medical treatment subdued this speedily, it exhausted her +strength greatly. From about the 14th of that month--two days after +her seventy-fourth birthday--she was confined to her room, but still +rose from bed. On the 24th she was too ill to get up. Then drowsiness +gradually increased and in a little while she sank quietly into a +dreamy state, in which she seemed to retain consciousness when +aroused, but was too weak to either take food or to speak. At last, +on the 27th of June, 1876, just as the summer sunset was gilding the +hills that she knew and loved so well, she quietly and peacefully +drew her last breath, and entered into eternal rest. + +Truly her death--not only the last moments, but the long +ordeal--might stand for an illustration of the saying of the wise men +of old--"Keep innocency, and take heed unto the thing that is right, +for _that_ shall bring a man peace at the last." + +She was buried amidst her kindred, in the old cemetery of Birmingham; +and upon the tombstone, where it stands amidst the smoke, there is no +inscription beyond her name and age, and the places of birth and death. + +More was, perhaps, needless. Her works, and a yet more precious +possession, her character remain. Faults she had, of course--the +necessary defects of her virtues. Let it be said that she held her own +opinions too confidently--the uncertain cannot be teachers. Let it be +said that her personal dislikes were many and strong--it is the +necessary antithesis of powerful attachments. Let it be said that her +powers of antagonism at times were not sufficiently restrained--how, +without such oppugnancy, could she have stood forth for unpopular +truths? Let all that detractors can say be said, and how much remains +untouched! + +In the paths where Harriet Martineau trod at first almost alone, many +women are now following. Serious studies, political activity, a share +in social reforms, an independent, self-supporting career, and freedom +of thought and expression, are by the conditions of our age, becoming +open to the thousands of women who would never have dared to claim them +in the circumstances in which she first did so. In a yet earlier age +such a life, even to such powers as hers, would have been impossible. +As it was, she was only a pioneer of the new order of things inevitable +under the advance of civilization and knowledge. The printing-press, +which multiplies the words of the thinker; the steam-engine, which both +feeds the press and rushes off with its product, and the electric +telegraph, which carries thought around the globe, make this an age in +which mental force assumes an importance which it never had before in +the history of mankind. Mind will be more and more valued and +cultivated, and will grow more and more influential; and the condition +and status of women must alter accordingly. Some people do not like +this fact; and no one can safely attempt to foresee all its +consequences; but we can no more prevent it than we can return to +hornbooks, or to trial by ordeal, or to the feudal tenure of land, or +to any other bygone state of social affairs. More and more it will grow +customary for women to study such subjects as Harriet Martineau +studied; more commonplace will it constantly become for women to use +all their mental faculties, and to exert every one of their powers to +the fullest extent in the highest freedom. What, then, have we to wish +about that which is inevitable, except that the old high womanly +standard of moral excellence may be no whit lowered, but may simply be +carried into the wider sphere of thought and action? + +It may do much, indeed, for us that we have had such a pioneer as +Harriet Martineau. It is not only that she lived so that all worthy +people, however differing from her in opinion, respected and honored +her--though that is much. It is not only that she has settled, once for +all, that a woman can be a political thinker and a teacher from whom +men may gladly receive guidance--though that is much. But the great +value of her life to us is as a splendid example of the moral qualities +which we should carry into our widest sphere, and which we should +display in our public exertions. + +She cared for nothing before the truth; her efforts to discover it were +earnest and sincere, for she spared no pains in study and no labor in +thought in the attempt to form her opinions correctly. Having found +what she must believe to be a right cause to uphold, or a true word to +speak, no selfish consideration intruded between her and her duty. She +could risk fame, and position, and means of livelihood, when necessary, +to unselfishly support and promulgate what she believed it to be +important for mankind to do and believe. She longed for the well-being +of her kind; and so unaffectedly and honestly that men who came under +her influence were stimulated and encouraged by her to share and avow +similar high aims. Withal, those who lived with her loved her; she was +a kind mistress, a good friend, and tender to little children; she was +truly helpful to the poor at her gates, and her life was spotlessly +pure. + +Is not this what we should all strive to be? Shall we not love +knowledge, and use it to find out truth; and place outspoken fidelity +to conscience foremost amongst our duties; and care for the progress of +our race rather than for our own fame; shall we not be truthful, and +honest, and upright--and, to this end, brave--in public as in private +life; and shall we not seek so to bear ourselves that men shall shrink +from owning their ignobler thoughts and baser shifts to us, but shall +never fear to avow high aims and pure deeds, while yet we retain our +womanly kindness and all our domestic virtues unchanged? All this we +may know that we can be and do, if we will; for we have seen it +exemplified in the life of Harriet Martineau. + + + + +_Messrs. Roberts Brothers' Publications._ + +_Famous Women Series._ + + +MARY WOLLSTONECRAFT. + +BY + +ELIZABETH ROBINS PENNELL. + +One volume. 16mo. Cloth. Price $1.00. + + +"So far as it has been published, and it has now reached its ninth +volume, the Famous Women Series is rather better on the whole than the +English Men of Letters Series. One had but to recall the names and +characteristics of some of the women with whom it deals,--literary +women, like Maria Edgeworth, Margaret Fuller, Mary Lamb, Emily Bronte, +George Eliot, and George Sand; women of the world (not to mention the +other parties in that well-known Scriptural firm), like the naughty +but fascinating Countess of Albany; and women of philanthropy, of +which the only example given here so far is Mrs. Elizabeth Fry,--one +has but to compare the intellectual qualities of the majority of +English men of letters to perceive that the former are the most +difficult to handle, and that a series of which they are the heroines +is, if successful, a remarkable collection of biographies. We thought +so as we read Miss Blind's study of George Sand, and Vernon Lee's +study of the Countess of Albany, and we think so now that we have read +Mrs. Elizabeth Robins Pennell's study of Mary Wollstonecraft, who, +with all her faults, was an honor to her sex. She was not so +considered while she lived, except by those who knew her well, nor for +years after her death; but she is so considered now, even by the +granddaughters of the good ladies who so bitterly condemned her when +the century was new. She was notable for the sacrifices that she made +for her worthless father and her weak, inefficient sisters, for her +dogged persistence and untiring industry, and for her independence and +her courage. The soul of goodness was in her, though she would be +herself and go on her own way; and if she loved not wisely, according +to the world's creed, she loved too well for her own happiness, and +paid the penalty of suffering. What she might have been if she had not +met Capt. Gilbert Imlay, who was a scoundrel, and William Godwin, who +was a philosopher, can only be conjectured. She was a force in +literature and in the enfranchisement of her sisterhood, and as such +was worthy of the remembrance which she will long retain through Mrs. +Pennell's able memoir."--_R. H. Stoddard, in the Mail and Express._ + + +_Sold by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price by +the publishers_, + +ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON + + + + +HARRIET MARTINEAU. + +BY MRS. F. FENWICK MILLER. + +16mo. Cloth. Price $1.00. + + +"The almost uniform excellence of the 'Famous Women' series is well +sustained in Mrs. Fenwick Miller's life of Harriet Martineau, the +latest addition to this little library of biography. Indeed, we are +disposed to rank it as the best of the lot. The subject is an +entertaining one, and Mrs. Miller has done her work admirably. Miss +Martineau was a remarkable woman, in a century that has not been +deficient in notable characters. Her native genius, and her +perseverance in developing it; her trials and afflictions, and the +determination with which she rose superior to them; her conscientious +adherence to principle, and the important place which her writings +hold in the political and educational literature of her day,--all +combine to make the story of her life one of exceptional interest.... +With the exception, possibly, of George Eliot, Harriet Martineau was +the greatest of English women. She was a poet and a novelist, but not +as such did she make good her title to distinction. Much more +noteworthy were her achievements in other lines of thought, not +usually essayed by women. She was eminent as a political economist, a +theologian, a journalist, and a historian.... But to attempt a mere +outline of her life and works is out of the question in our limited +space. Her biography should be read by all in search of +entertainment."--_Professor Woods in Saturday Mirror._ + +"The present volume has already shared the fate of several of the +recent biographies of the distinguished dead, and has been well +advertised by the public contradiction of more or less important +points in the relation by the living friends of the dead genius. One +of Mrs. Miller's chief concerns in writing this life seems to have +been to redeem the character of Harriet Martineau from the appearance +of hardness and unamiability with which her own autobiography +impresses the reader.... Mrs. Miller, however, succeeds in this volume +in showing us an altogether different side to her character,--a +home-loving, neighborly, bright-natured, tender-hearted, witty, +lovable, and altogether womanly woman, as well as the clear thinker, +the philosophical reasoner, and comprehensive writer whom we already +knew."--_The Index._ + +"Already ten volumes in this library are published; namely, George +Eliot, Emily Bronte, George Sand, Mary Lamb, Margaret Fuller, Maria +Edgeworth, Elizabeth Fry, The Countess of Albany, Mary Wollstonecraft, +and the present volume. Surely a galaxy of wit and wealth of no mean +order! Miss M. will rank with any of them in womanliness or gifts or +grace. At home or abroad, in public or private. She was noble and +true, and her life stands confessed a success. True, she was literary, +but she was a home lover and home builder. She never lost the higher +aims and ends of life, no matter how flattering her success. This +whole series ought to be read by the young ladies of to-day. More of +such biography would prove highly beneficial."--_Troy Telegram._ + + +_Our publications are for sale by all booksellers, or will be mailed, +post-paid, on receipt of price._ + +ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. + + + + +RACHEL. + +By Mrs. NINA H. KENNARD. + +One Volume. 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00. + + +"_Rachel_, by Nina H. Kennard, is an interesting sketch of the famous +woman whose passion and genius won for her an almost unrivalled fame +as an actress. The story of Rachel's career is of the most brilliant +success in art and of the most pathetic failure in character. Her +faults, many and grievous, are overlooked in this volume, and the +better aspects of her nature and history are recorded."--_Hartford +Courant._ + +"The book is well planned, has been carefully constructed, and is +pleasantly written."--_The Critic._ + +"The life of Mlle. Elisa Rachel Felix has never been adequately told, +and the appearance of her biography in the 'Famous Women Series' of +Messrs. Roberts Brothers will be welcomed.... Yet we must be glad the +book is written, and welcome it to a place among the minor +biographies; and because there is nothing else so good, the volume is +indispensable to library and study."--_Boston Evening Traveller._ + +"Another life of the great actress Rachel has been written. It forms +part of the 'Famous Women Series,' which that firm is now bringing +out, and which already includes eleven volumes. Mrs. Kennard deals +with her subject much more amiably than one or two of the other +biographers have done. She has none of those vindictive feelings which +are so obvious in Madame B.'s narrative of the great tragedienne. On +the contrary, she wants to be fair, and she probably is as fair as the +materials which came into her possession enabled her to be. The +endeavor has been made to show us Rachel as she really was, by relying +to a great extent upon her letters.... A good many stories that we are +familiar with are repeated, and some are contradicted. From first to +last, however, the sympathy of the author is ardent, whether she +recounts the misery of Rachel's childhood, or the splendid altitude to +which she climbed when her name echoed through the world and the great +ones of the earth vied in doing her homage. On this account Mrs. +Kennard's book is a welcome addition to the pre-existing biographies +of one of the greatest actresses the world ever saw."--_N.Y. Evening +Telegram._ + + +_Sold everywhere. Mailed postpaid, by the Publishers_, + +ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. + + + + +MADAME ROLAND. + +BY MATHILDE BLIND, + +AUTHOR OF "GEORGE ELIOT'S LIFE." + +One volume. 16mo. Cloth. Price, $1.00. + + +"Of all the interesting biographies published in the Famous Women +Series, Mathilde Blind's life of Mme. Roland is by far the most +fascinating.... But no one can read Mme. Roland's thrilling story, and +no one can study the character of this noble, heroic woman without +feeling certain that it is good for the world to have every incident +of her life brought again before the public eye. Among the famous +women who have been enjoying a new birth through this set of short +biographies, no single one has been worthy of the adjective _great_ +until we come to Mme. Roland.... + +"We see a brilliant intellectual woman in Mme. Roland; we see a +dutiful daughter and devoted wife; we see a woman going forth bravely +to place her neck under the guillotine,--a woman who had been known as +the 'Soul of the Girondins;' and we see a woman struggling with and +not being overcome by an intense and passionate love. Has history a +more heroic picture to present us with? Is there any woman more +deserving of the adjective 'great'? + +"Mathilde Blind has had rich materials from which to draw for Mme. +Roland's biography. She writes graphically, and describes some of the +terrible scenes in the French Revolution with great picturesqueness. +The writer's sympathy with Mme. Roland and her enthusiasm is very +contagious; and we follow her record almost breathlessly, and with +intense feeling turn over the last few pages of this little volume. No +one can doubt that this life was worth the writing, and even earnest +students of the French Revolution will be glad to refresh their +memories of Lamartine's 'History of the Girondins,' and again have +brought vividly before them the terrible tragedy of Mme. Roland's life +and death."--_Boston Evening Transcript._ + +"The thrilling story of Madame Roland's genius, nobility, +self-sacrifice, and death loses nothing in its retelling here. The +material has been collected and arranged in an unbroken and skilfully +narrated sketch, each picturesque or exciting incident being brought +out into a strong light The book is one of the best in an excellent +series."--_Christian Union._ + + +_For sale by all booksellers. Mailed, post-paid, on receipt of price +by the publishers_, + +ROBERTS BROTHERS, BOSTON. + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's Harriet Martineau, by Florence Fenwick Miller + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HARRIET MARTINEAU *** + +***** This file should be named 36965.txt or 36965.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/3/6/9/6/36965/ + +Produced by Delphine Lettau and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +http://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH 1.F.3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need, are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at http://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +http://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at http://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit http://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including checks, online payments and credit card donations. +To donate, please visit: http://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart is the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |