I have been permitted, also, to read a vast number of Harriet Martineau's letters addressed to other friends besides Mr. Atkinson, and how much they have aided me in the following work and in appreciating her personality, may easily be guessed; but, of course, I may not publish these letters. Amongst many persons to whom I am indebted for helping me to "get touch" with my subject in this way, I must specially thank two. Mr. Henry Reeve, the editor of the _Edinburgh Review_, was a relative and intimate friend of Harriet Martineau; and her correspondence with so distinguished a man of letters was, naturally, peculiarly interesting--not the less so because they differed altogether on many matters of opinion. Her letters, which Mr. Reeve has kindly allowed me to see, have been of very great service to me. Miss F. Arnold, of Fox How, (the youngest daughter of Dr. Arnold, of Rugby,) is the second to whom like particular acknowledgments is due. She was young enough to have been Harriet Martineau's daughter; but she was also a beloved friend, and was almost a daily visitor at "The Knoll" during the later years of Miss Martineau's life. The letters which Miss Arnold, during occasional absences from home, received from her old friend, are very domestic, lively, and characteristic of the writer. It has been of great value to me to have seen all the letters that have been lent me, but especially these two sets, so different and yet so similar as I have found them to be. I have visited Norwich, and seen the house where Harriet Martineau was born; Tynemouth, where she lay ill; Ambleside, where she lived so long and died at last; and Birmingham, to see my valued friends, her nieces and nephew. If I should thank by name all with whom I have talked of her, and from whom I have learned something about her, the list would grow over-long; and so I must content myself with thus comprehensively expressing my sense of individual obligations to all who have laid even a small stone to this little memorial cairn. F. F. M. CONTENTS. PAGE. CHAPTER I. THE CHILD AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL 1 CHAPTER II. EARLY WOMANHOOD; DEVELOPING INFLUENCES 29 CHAPTER III. EARLIEST WRITINGS 49 CHAPTER IV. GRIEF STRUGGLE, AND PROGRESS 67 CHAPTER V. THE GREAT SUCCESS 100 CHAPTER VI. FIVE ACTIVE YEARS 130 CHAPTER VII. FIVE YEARS OF ILLNESS, AND THE MESMERIC RECOVERY 155 CHAPTER VIII. THE HOME LIFE 178 CHAPTER IX. IN THE MATURITY OF HER POWERS 200 CHAPTER X. IN RETREAT; JOURNALISM 231 CHAPTER XI. THE LAST YEARS 264 HARRIET MARTINEAU. CHAPTER I. THE CHILD AT HOME AND AT SCHOOL.