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 soir��es. 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 people. N.P. Willis. Curious incident. Parable. Depth of American impression. Safety of travel. Judge Marshall's letter. Mysterious valediction. Voyage home.
SECTION IV.--
Booksellers' proffers and methods. "Society in America." "Retrospect of Western Travel." Proposed Scheme of a new periodical. First novel. "Deerbrook." Remarkable suggestion. "How to Observe," and smaller pieces.