and gratitude, and entered the dark valley of the shadow of death with hymns of victory and triumph. She died on the 15th. of October, 1843, aged fifty-two years.
Sarah Martin is one of the noblest of the Christian heroines the nineteenth century has produced. The two predominant qualities of her soul were love, or "the charity which hopeth all things," and moral courage; both eminently feminine endowments. She performed her wonderful works with true womanly discretion. She is, therefore, an example of excellence of whom her sex should be—more than proud—they should be thankful for this light of moral loveliness enshrined in a female form. "Her gentle dispositon," says one of her biographers, "never irritated by disappointment, nor her charity straitened by ingratitude, present a combination of qualities which imagination sometimes portrays as the ideal of what is pure and beautiful, but which are rarely found embodied with humanity. She was no titular Sister of Charity, but was silently felt and acknowledged to be one, by the many outcast and destitute persons who received encouragement from her lips, and relief from her hands, and by the few who were witnesses of her good works.
MARTINEAU, HARRIET,
Was born in 1802; she was one of the youngest of a family of eight children. Her father was proprietor of a manufactory of Norwich, in which place his family, originally of French origin, had resided since the revocation of the edict of Nantes. Miss Martineau has herself ascribed her taste for literary pursuits to the delicacy of her health in childhood, and to her deafness, which, without being complete, has obliged her to seek occupations and pleasures within herself; and also to the affection which subsisted between her and her brother, the Rev. James Martineau. When her family became unfortunate in worldly affairs, she was able, by her writings, to relieve them entirely from the burden of her support, and she has since realized "an elegant sufficiency" from the same source.
Her first work, "Devotional Exercises, for the use of Young Persons," was published in 1823. The following year, appeared "Christmas Day;" and in 1825, "The Friends," being a sequel to the last named. In 1826, she wrote "Principle and Practice," a tale, "The Rioters," and "Original Hymns." In 1827, "Mary Campbell" and "The Turnout" were published; and in 1829, "Sequel to Principle and Practice," "Tracts for Houlston," and "My Servant Rachel." In 1830, appeared her best work, because evincing more tenderness of feeling and faith in religion than any other she has written,—this was "Traditions of Palestine;" also a prize essay, "The Essential Faith of the Universal Church," and "Five Years of Youth." In the following year, 1831, she obtained prizes for two essays, "The Faith, as unfolded by Many Prophets," and "Providence, as manifest through Israel."
Miss Martineau seems here to have reached her culminating point in religious sentiment; her faith never rose above sentiment, except in the "Traditions of Palestine," which has passages of, seemingly, true and holy fervour of spirit. In 1832. she commenced her series of tales, as "Illustrations of Political Economy," "Illustrations of
