alone. A real interest in the sciences and true learning in some of
them made Martineau able to write that wonderful chapter in his _Seat of
Authority_, which he entitled 'God in Nature.' Newman could see in
nature, at most a sacramental suggestion, a symbol of transcendental
truth.

The Martineaus came of old Huguenot stock, which in England belonged to
the liberal Presbyterianism out of which much of British Unitarianism
came. The righteousness of a persecuted race had left an austere impress
upon their domestic and social life. Intellectually they inherited the
advanced liberalism of their day. Harriet Martineau's earlier piety had
been of the most fervent sort. She reacted violently against it in later
years. She had little of the politic temper and gentleness of her
brother. She described one of her own later works as the last word of
philosophic atheism. James was, and always remained, of deepest
sensitiveness and reverence and of a gentleness which stood in high
contrast with his powers of conflict, if necessity arose. Out of
Martineau's years as preacher in Liverpool and London came two books of
rare devotional quality, _Endeavours after the Christian Life_, 1843 and
1847, and _Hours of Thought on Sacred Things_, 1873 and 1879. Almost all
his life he was identified with Manchester College, as a student when
the college was located at York, as a teacher when it returned to
Manchester and again when it was removed to London. With its removal to
Oxford, accomplished in 1889, he had not fully sympathised. He believed
that the university itself must some day do justice to the education of
men for the ministry in other churches than the Anglican. He was eighty
years old when he published his _Types of Ethical Theory_, eighty-two
when he gave to the world his _Study of Religion_, eighty-five when his
_Seat of Authority_ saw the light. The effect of this postponement of
publication was not wholly good. The books represented marvellous
learning and ripeness of reflection. But they belong to a period
anterior to the dates they bear upon their title-pages. Martineau's
education and his early professional experience put him in touch with
the advancing sciences. In the days when most men of progressive spirit
were carried off their feet, when materialism was flaunted in men's
faces and the defence of religion was largely in the hands of those who
knew nothing of the sciences, Martineau was not moved. He saw the end
from the