The International Magazine, Volume 4, No. 5, December 1851Various
History
The International Magazine, Volume 4, No. 5, December 1851
Various
Art, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Literature, Modern -- 19th century -- Periodicals; Science -- History -- Periodicals
EMMA MARTIN, a woman well known as a writer, and as an exemplar of
Socialism, died on the 8th of October, at Finchley Common, near London,
in the 39th year of her age. The London _Leader_, the organ of the
British Socialists, says, that, "allied to a husband (found in the
religious circle in which she was reared in Bristol) whose company it
was a humiliation to endure, she ultimately, even when she was the
mother of three children, refused to continue to submit to it. This,
though afterwards made a reproach to her, was so justifiable, that even
her religious friends found no fault with it. After much struggling
to support her children unaided, she was united to another husband
(Mr. Joshua Hopkins), her former one yet living. Though no marriage
ceremony was performed, or could be performed (such is the moral state
of our law, which denies divorce to all who are wronged, if they happen
to be also indigent), yet no affection was ever purer, no union ever
more honorable to both parties, and the whole range of priest-made
marriages never included one to which happiness belonged more surely,
and upon which respect could dwell more truly. Our first knowledge of
Mrs. Martin," continues the _Leader_, "was as an opponent of Socialism,
against which she delivered public lectures. But as soon as she saw
intellectual truth in it, she paused in her opposition to it. Long and
serious was the conflict the change in her convictions caused her; but
her native love of truth prevailed, and she came over to the advocacy
of that she had so resolutely and ably assailed. And none who ever
offered us alliance, rendered us greater service, or did it at greater
cost. Beautiful in expression, quick in wit, strong in will, eloquent
in speech, coherent in conviction, and of stainless character, she
was incomparable among public women. She was one of the few among the
early advocates of English Socialism who saw _that the conflict against
religion_ could not be confined to an attack on forms of faith--to a
mere comparison of creeds; and she attached only secondary importance
to the _abuses_ of Christianity, where she saw that _the whole_ was
an abuse of history, of reason, and of morality. Thus she was cut off
from all hope or sympathy from her former connections, and she met
with but limited friendships among her new allies. She saw further
than any around her what the new communism would end in. She saw that
it would establish the healthy despotism of the affections, in lieu of
the factitious tyrannies of custom and Parliament. The nature of her
opinions, which arose in conviction and not in antagonism, will best be
seen in two passages from her writings, at two remarkable periods of
her life. In 1835, she wrote in the _Bristol Literary Magazine_, which
she edited:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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