Miss Martineau's second novel, _The Hour and the Man_, grew out of her sympathy and belief in the coloured race. Toussaint de L'Ouverture, the devoted slave, soldier, liberator, and martyr, is the hero. Every scene in which this wonderful black figures is vividly written. Many of the minor incidents are but slightly sketched, and many of the minor characters elude the reader's grasp. How far this book is a truthful portrayal of the negro cannot be judged until the "race problem" is surveyed with unprejudiced eyes. Then and not until then will its place in literature be assigned. She gives the same characterisation of this hero of St. Domingo as does Wendell Phillips in his wonderful speech of which the following is the peroration: "But fifty years hence, when Truth gets a hearing, the Muse of History will put Phocian for the Greek, Brutus for the Roman, Hampden for England, Fayette for France, choose Washington as the bright, consummate flower of our earlier civilisation, then, dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of the soldier, the statesman, the martyr, TOUSSAINT L'OUVERTURE." _The Hour and the Man_ was published in 1840, and was warmly received by the Abolitionists. William Lloyd Garrison, after reading it, wrote the following sonnet to the author: England! I grant that thou dost justly boast Of splendid geniuses beyond compare; Men great and gallant,--women good and fair,-- Skilled in all arts, and filling every post Of learning, science, fame,--a mighty host! Poets divine, and benefactors rare,-- Statesmen,--philosophers,--and they who dare Boldly to explore heaven's vast and boundless coast, To one alone I dedicate this rhyme, Whose virtues with a starry lustre glow, Whose heart is large, whose spirit is sublime, The friend of liberty, of wrong the Foe: Long be inscribed upon the roll of time The name, the worth, the works of HARRIET MARTINEAU. Miss Martineau wrote on a variety of subjects, and generally held a view contrary to the accepted one. She wrote upon mesmerism, positivism, atheism, which she professed, and after each book warriors armed with pens sprang up to assail the author. But she had many friends, even among those who were most bitter against her doctrines. One wrote of her, "There is the fine, honest, solid, North-country element in her." R. Brimley Johnson in _English Prose_, edited by Craik in 1896, said of her writings: "Her gift to literature was for her own generation. She is the exponent of the infant century in many branches of thought:--its eager and sanguine philanthropy, its awakening interest in history and science, its rigid and prosaic philosophy. But her genuine humanity and real moral earnestness give a value to her more personal utterances, which do not lose their charm with the lapse of time." Harriet Martineau's name and personality will be remembered in history after her books have been forgotten. CHAPTER XV