Harriet Martineaus Autobiography

Harriet Martineau's Autobiography
by Harriet Martineau
Edited by Maria Weston Chapman
J.R. Osgood and Company
Boston
1877

"Etiam capillus unus habet umbram suam."--Proverb.
"And this dear freedom hath begotten me this peace, that I mourn not
that end which must be, nor spend one wish to have one minute added
to the uncertain date of my years."
--BACON.
EDITED BY MARIA WESTON CHAPMAN.
VOLUME ONE.
BOSTON: JAMES R. OSGOOD AND COMPANY,
LATE TICKNER & FIELDS, AND FIELDS, OSGOOD & CO.
1877.
Copyright, 1877. By JAMES R. OSGOOD & CO. UNIVERSITY
PRESS: WELCH, BIGELOW, & CO., CAMBRIDGE.

PREFATORY NOTE.
IN making arrangements for the issue of this Autobiography presently
after my decease, one important point is its publication in the United
States.
It is my wish, and that of my Executors, that it should be published by
our friends, MESSRS. FIELDS, OSGOOD, & CO., of Boston; and
every requisite has been provided for their edition being of a similar
character and quality with the English. Theirs is therefore the edition
authorized by me and my Executors.
HARRIET MARTINEAU. AMBLESIDE, July 22d, 1869.

CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
INTRODUCTION 1
PERIOD I. TO EIGHT YEARS OLD.
SECTION I.--
Ill health and terrors. Fragments of recollection. Early piety. Early
politics. Early social morals. Love of money and management of it.
Sewing.
SECTION II.--
Journey to Newcastle. A sun-dial. A falling star. Religious progress.
PERIOD II. TO SEVENTEEN YEARS OLD.
SECTION I.--
Tabulating Bible morals. Unitarianism and Christianity. Milton.
Opening speculation. Vain-glorious visions. Training in self-denial.
Absence from home. Birth and infancy of a sister. Schooling at home.

Fear. Laziness. Notions of death. Seeing the sea. Not seeing objects.
SECTION II.--
School life. Home life. Reading. Deafness. Politics and foreigners.
SECTION III.--
Faults and misery. Going to Bristol.
PERIOD III. TO THIRTY YEARS OLD.
SECTION I.--
Family relations. Studies. Fundamental conviction. Effect on religious
belief.
SECTION II.--
First appearance in print. Method of composition.
SECTION III.--
Calamities. Deafness. Death of brother and his child. Of father. Of
betrothed. Bad health. More authorship. The Houlstons. Mr. Fox.
Diffusion Society. Loss of property. Efforts. Disappointment. Prize
essays. Close of my Unitarian period.
SECTION IV.--
Scheme of the Political Economy Series. Unsuccessful negotiations.
Arrangements. Success. Removal to London.
PERIOD IV. TO THIRTY-SEVEN YEARS OLD.
SECTION I.--
London lodgings. Life there. Amount of work. Times of work. Methods
of work. Materials. Anecdote of Mr. Cropper. The Population question

and the Quarterly Review. Mr. Malthus. The Edinburgh Review. Mr.
Empson. Poor-law Series. Lord Brougham. Poor-law reform and the
Times. Collins and Wilkie. Miss Berry. Mrs. Fry. Robert Owen. Mrs.
Marcet. My political disgraces abroad. Plot in fiction. Dutch detail.
Beachy Head. Protection doctrine. Sir Alexander Johnstone. Mother
and Aunt come to me. Publisher's encroachment. "Briery Creek." "The
Three Ages." "The Farrers of Budge Row." Illness. Co-operation with
government. Conclusion of the work. Money matters. Why I went to
America.
SECTION II.--
"Literary Lionism." Norwich at the beginning of the century. William
Taylor. Mrs. Barbauld. Miss Aikin. Mr. Hallam. Moore. Lord
Brougham. Lord Durham. Lord Jeffrey. Dean Milman. Lord Murray.
Sydney Smith. Malthus. Mr. Whishaw and the Romillys. The Hallams.
Mr. Roger's breakfasts. Mr. Harness. Whig literary parties. Lord
Campbell. Archbishop Whately. Bishops Stanley, Lonsdale, and Otter.
Charles Buller. Milnes. Mr. Grote. Mr. Roebuck. Mr. Macaulay. Vanity
in men. Campbell. Babbage. Sir E. Landseer. Dr. Whewell. Bulwer.
Campbell. Babbage. Admiral Beaufort. Sir C. and Lady Lyell. Charles
Darwin. Dr. Dalton.
Page ix
Mrs. Somerville. Joanna Baillie. Political and scientific men. Sir C.
Bell and others. The Artists. Sir A. Callcott. Chantrey. Allan
Cunningham. Westmacott. Phillips. Macready. The Kembles. Sir C.
Eastlake. Other artists. Blue-stocking parties. Miss Berry's. Lady Mary
Shepherd's. Lady Stepney. My own soirées. Intimate friends. Mrs.
Marsh's first novel. The Carlyles. Mazzini. John Sterling. Leigh Hunt.
Thomas Carlyle. Occasional mornings. Sitting for portraits and casts.
Mr. Warburton's Dissection Bill. Mr. Toynbee's request. Professional
phrenologists' judgments on me. Coleridge. Godwin. Condition of
Woman. Basil Montagu. Morning visitors. Dr. Chalmers. Mr.
Chadwick. Rowland Hill. Lord Monteagle. Mr. G.R. Porter. Mr.
Urquhart. Other morning visitors. Capel Lofft, junior. The Brownings.
Miss Mitford. Talfourd. Mr. H.F. Chorley. Miss Landon.

Correspondents. Miss Edgeworth. Fraser's hoax. Miss Kelty. Miss
Bremer. Modes of authorship among my acquaintance.
SECTION III.--
Mr. Mill on national character. My objects in travelling. My companion.
Anti-slavery experience. Dr. Julius. Our pilot. New York riots. Three
parties. Alarms at Philadelphia and elsewhere. Establishing an
understanding. Hearing all sides. Crisis at Boston. Invitation to an
Anti-slavery meeting. Consequences to myself. Other results. Last trial
for Blasphemy. Censure from friends. Virtual treachery from friends.
Personal danger. The journey. The Texas question. Scepticism and
apathy of the citizen majority. Change in the times. The English in
America. Americans of note. The Emersons. Mr. Everett. The
Sedgwicks. Statesmen. Calhoun. Clay. Webster. Deterioration in public
men. Margaret Fuller. Mad