Harriet Martineau
difficult question had, indeed, presented itself to her active and
acute young mind long before those studies began. She remembered that
when she was but eleven years old she found courage to offer her
questionings upon this point to her elder brother Thomas. She asked:
If God foreknew from eternity all the evil deeds that every one of us
should do in our lives, how can He justly punish us for those actions,
when the time comes that we are born, and in due course commit them?
Her brother replied merely that she was not yet old enough to
understand the point. The answer did not satisfy the child. She knew
that if she were old enough to feel the difficulty, she must also be
mentally fit to receive some kind of explanation. But under the
pastoral influence of Dr. Carpenter, the emotional side of her
religion was cultivated, and such doubts and difficulties of the
reason were put away for the time.
Not for all time, however, could the problem be shirked by so active,
logical, and earnest a mind. It recurred to her when she was left to
her own spiritual guidance. Long before the date of these "Devotions"
she had fought out the battle in her own mind, and had reached the
standpoint from which her Prayers are written. She had convinced
herself of the truth of the Necessitarian doctrine, that we are what
we are, we do what we do, because of the impulses given by our
previous training and circumstances; and that the way to amend any
human beings or all mankind is to improve their education, and to give
them good surroundings and influences, and mental associations; in
short, that physical and psychological phenomena alike depend upon
antecedent phenomena, called causes.
As soon as she had thus settled her mind in the doctrine of Necessity,
she perceived that prayer, in the ordinary sense of the term, had
become impossible. If it be believed that all that happens in the
world is the consequence of the course of the events which have
happened before, it is clear that no petitions can alter the state of
things at any given moment. A belief in the efficacy of "besieging
Heaven with prayers" implies a supposition that a Supreme Ruler of the
Universe interferes arbitrarily with the sequence of events. Those
whose minds are clear that no such arbitrary interference ever does
take place, but that, on the contrary, like events always and
invariably follow from like causes, cannot rationally ask for this
fundamental rule of the government of the universe to be set aside for
their behoof; even although they may believe in an all-powerful Divine
Ruler, who has appointed this sequence of events for the law under
which His creatures shall live and develop.
Still, however, Harriet Martineau supplicated for spiritual benefits,
as we have seen in the little volume of _Devotional Exercises_. These
aspirations not only gave her an emotional satisfaction, but were, she
then thought, justifiable on necessitarian principles; for each time
that we place our minds in a certain attitude we increase their "set"
in the same direction; and she believed at that time that a holy life
was in this way aided by frequent reflections on and aspirations
towards the highest ideal of holiness personified in the name of God.
Her religious belief was, then, pure Theism. To her, it was still very
good to be a worshipper of Jehovah, the Eternal Presence, the
Ever-living Supreme; and Jesus was His Messenger, the highest type
that He had ever permitted to be revealed to man of the excellencies
of the divine nature. But there was no Atonement, no personal Evil
One, no hell, no verbally-inspired revelation in her creed.
It will be unnecessary to say more about her theological beliefs till
the next twenty years have been recorded, for in that period there was
substantially no change in her views. There did come, indeed, a change
in her method of self-management and in her opinions as to the way in
which religious feelings should affect daily life. She soon concluded
that we are best when least self-conscious about our own goodness, and
that, therefore, we should rely upon receiving inspiration to right
and elevated feelings from passing influences, and should refrain from
putting our minds, by a regular exercise of volition, into affected
postures in anticipation of those high emotions which we cannot
command. Under these beliefs she soon ceased all formal prayer.
Meantime she was still, at twenty-one years old, in the condition of
mind to write _Devotional Exercises_.
The little book met with a favorable acceptance among the Unitarians,
and speedily went into the second edition. Thus encouraged, Harriet
began another volume of the same character. Such work could not
proceed very fast, however, for her domestic duties were not light,
and her writing was still looked upon in her family as a mere
recreation. She labored under all the disadvantages of the amateur.
But events soon began to crowd into her life to alter this view of the
case, and to prepare the way for her beginning to do the work of her
life in the only fashion in which such labor can be effectively
carried on--as a serious occupation, the principal feature of every
day's duties.
After a long period of poverty and distress, caused by the Napoleonic
wars, England, in 1824, experienced the special dangers of a time of
rapidly increasing wealth. There was more real wealth in the country,
owing to the expansion of trade, which followed on the re-opening of
the continent to our commerce, but speculation made this development
appear far greater than it was in reality.
There was, at that time, no sort of check upon the issue of paper
money. Not only did the Bank of England send out notes without limit;
not only could every established bank multiply its drafts recklessly;
but any small tradesman who pleased might embark in the same business,
and put forth paper money without check or control. Thus there was
money in abundance, the rate of interest was low, and prices rose.
The natural and inevitable consequence of this state of things, at a
moment when trade was suddenly revived, was a rage for speculation.
Not only merchants and manufacturers were seized with this epidemic;
the desire for higher profits than could be obtained by quiet and
perfectly safe investments spread amongst every class. "As for what
the speculation was like, it can hardly be recorded on the open page
of history without a blush. Besides the joint-stock companies who
undertook baking, washing, baths, life insurance, brewing,
coal-portage, wool-growing, and the like, there was such a rage for
steam navigation, canals and railroads, that in the session of 1825,
438 petitions for private Bills were presented, and 286 private Acts
were passed.... It is on record that a single share of a mine on which
L70 had been paid, yielded 200 per cent, having risen speedily to a
premium of L1400 per share."[5]
[5] Harriet Martineau's _History of the Peace_, book ii,
p. 8.
Periods of such inflation invariably and necessarily close in scenes
of disaster. Gold becomes scarce; engagements that have been
recklessly entered into cannot be met; goods have been produced in
response to a speculative instead of a legitimate demand, and
therefore will not sell; the locked-up capital cannot be released, nor
can it be temporarily supplied, except upon ruinous terms. Panic
commences; it spreads over the business world like fire over the dry
prairies. The badly-managed banks and the most speculative business
houses begin to totter; the weakest of them fall, and the crash brings
down others like a house of cards; and in the depreciation of goods
and the disappearance of capital, the prudent, sagacious and honorable
merchant suffers for the folly, the recklessness, the avarice and the
dishonesty of others.
Such a crash came, from such causes, in the early winter of 1825.
Harriet Martineau's father was one of those injured by the panic,
without having been a party to the errors which produced it. He had
resisted the speculative mania, and allowed it to sweep by him to its
flood. It was, therefore, by no fault of his own that he was caught by
the ebbing wave, and carried backwards, to be stranded in the
shallows. His house did not fail; but the struggle was a cruel one for
many months. How severe the crisis was may be judged from the fact
that between sixty and seventy banks stopped payment within six weeks.
The strain of this business anxiety told heavily upon the already
delicate health of Mr. Thomas Martineau. In the early spring of 1826
it became clear that his days were numbered. Up to the commencement of
that troubled winter it had been supposed that his daughters would be
amply provided for in the event of his death. But so much had been
lost in the crisis, that he found himself, in his last weeks,
compelled to alter his will, and was only able to leave to his wife
and daughters a bare maintenance. He lingered on till June, and in
that month he died.
It was while Mr. Martineau lay ill, that Harriet's second book,
_Addresses, Prayers, and Hymns_, passed through the press, and the
dying father took great interest and found great comfort in his child's
work. Much of it he must have read with feelings rendered solemn by his
situation.
This little volume so closely resembles the _Devotional Exercises_,
that it is unnecessary to refer to it at greater length. The hymns,
which are the special feature of this volume, do not call for much
notice. They are not quite commonplace; but verse was not Harriet's
natural medium of expression: she wrote a considerable quantity of it
in her early days, as most young authors do; but she soon came to see
for herself that her gift of expression in its most elevated form was
rather that which makes the orator than the poet.
The comparative poverty to which the family were reduced on Mr.
Martineau's death at once freed Harriet, to a considerable extent,
from the obstacles which had previously been interposed to her
spending time in writing. It was still far from being recognized that
literature was to be her profession; but it was obvious that if her
pen could bring any small additions to her income they would be very
serviceable. A friend gave her an introduction to Mr. Houlston, then
publishing at Wellington, Shropshire; and a few little tales, which
she had lying by, were offered to him. He accepted them, issued them
in tiny volumes, and paid her five guineas for the copyright of each
story. This, then, was the beginning of Harriet Martineau's
professional authorship.
CHAPTER IV.
GRIEF STRUGGLE AND PROGRESS.
The loss of pecuniary position did something more for Harriet
Martineau besides opening the way to work in literature. The knowledge
that she was now poor gave her lover courage to declare himself, and
to seek her for his wife. Poverty, therefore, brought her that
experience which is so much in a woman's mental history, however
little it, perhaps, goes for in a man's. A love in youth, fervent,
powerful, and pure; a love, happy and successful in the essential
point that it is reciprocated by its object, however fate may deny it
outward fruition; such a love once filling a woman's soul, sweetens it
and preserves it for her whole life through. Pity the shriveled and
decayed old hearts which were not thus embalmed in youth! Harriet
Martineau did have this precious experience; and her womanliness of
nature remained fresh and true and sweet to the end of her days
because of it.
There may be many married women old maids in heart--to be so is the
punishment of those who marry without love; and there are many, like
Harriet Martineau, who are single in life, but whose hearts have been
mated, and so made alive. I do not know that she would have gained by