Page:Heroines of freethought (IA cu31924031228699).pdf/172

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164
HARRIET MARTINEAU

these subjects, who otherwise would never have given any attention whatever to them. “Independent of their value as expositions of great principles,” writes a reviewer, “some of these tales will always be read for their truthful pictures of life, and the ingenious construction of a story limited by its special purpose.” There are very few reforms of any prominence whatever which have not found in Harriet Martineau a powerful pleader and effective ally. Slavery found in her "The Hour and the Man" a bitter denunciation and a vivid portrayal; and during the American Slaveholders’ Rebellion Miss Martineau’s pen supplied on the other side of the water the warmest, friendliest, and most earnest articles in behalf of the Union written by any one not a native-born American.

In every department of life, however high or humble, her searching mind, fertile brain, and ready pen have done good and effective service. She has written on the forest and game laws, on household edu-