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,