e no civil rights?

The following interesting letter from Harriet Martineau was then read,
which we give in full, that the reader may see how clearly defined was
her position at that early day:

CROMER, ENGLAND, _Aug. 3, 1851_.

PAULINA WRIGHT DAVIS:

DEAR MADAM:--I beg to thank you heartily for your kindness in
sending me the Report of the Proceedings of your Woman's Rights
Convention. I had gathered what I could from the newspapers
concerning it, but I was gratified at being able to read, in a
collected form, addresses so full of earnestness and sound truth,
as I found most of the speeches to be. I hope you are aware of
the interest excited in this country by that Convention, the
strongest, proof of which is the appearance of an article on the
subject in _The Westminster Review_ (for July), as thorough-going
as any of your own addresses, and from the pen (at least as it is
understood here) of one of our very first men, Mr. John S. Mill.
I am not without hope that this article will materially
strengthen your hands, and I am sure it can not but cheer your
hearts.

Ever since I became capable of thinking for myself, I have
clearly seen, and I have said it till my listeners and readers
are probably tired of hearing it, that there can be but one true
method in the treatment of each human being, of either sex, of
any color, and under any outward circumstances, to ascertain what
are the powers of that being, to cultivate them to the utmost,
and _then_ to see what action they will find for themselves. This
has probably never been done for men, unless in some rare
individual cases. It has certainly never been done for women,
and, till it is done, all debating about what woman's intellect
is, all speculation, or laying down the law, as to what is
woman's sphere, is a mere beating of the air. _A priori_
conceptions have long been worthless in physical science, and
nothing was really effected till the experimental method was
clearly made out and strictly applied in practice, and the same
principle holds most certainly through the whole range of moral
science.

Whether we regard the physical fact of what women are able to do,
or the moral fact of what women ought to do, it is equally
necessary to abstain from making