undred dollars. With this she
purchased an insurance policy in the form of a deferred annuity, providing
that from her fiftieth year to her death she should receive the annual sum
of five hundred dollars. Nowhere in all the realm of Grub Street do we
find a man who set such an example of cool wisdom for this crippled woman.
At this time she was supporting her mother, who had become blind, and also
a brother, who was a slave to drink.

Twenty-five years after the first offer of pension, the Government renewed
the proposition. But Harriet said that her needs were few and her wants
simple; that she had enough anyway, and besides, she could not consent to
the policy of pensioning one class of persons for well-doing and
forgetting all the toilers who have worked just as conscientiously, but
along lowly lines; if she ever did need aid, she would do as other old
women were obliged to do, that is, apply to the parish.

Miss Martineau wrote for the "Daily London News" alone, sixteen hundred
forty-two editorials. She also wrote more than two hundred magazine
articles, and published upwards of fifty books. Her work was not classic,
for it was written for the times. That her influence for good on the
thought of the times was wide and far-reaching, all thoughtful men agree.
And he who influences the thought of his times influences all the times
that follow. He has made his impress on eternity.

* * * * *

Opinions may differ as to what constitutes Harriet Martineau's best work,
but my view is that her translation and condensation of Auguste Comte's
six volumes into two will live when all her other work is forgotten.
Comte's own writings were filled with many repetitions and rhetorical
flounderings. He was more of a philosopher than a writer. He had an idea
too big for him to express, but he expressed at it right bravely. Miss
Martineau, trained writer and thinker, did not translate verbally: she
caught the idea, and translated the thought rather than the language. And
so it has come about that her work has been literally translated back into
French and is accepted as a textbook of Positivism, while the original
books of the philosopher are merely collected by museums and bibliophiles
as curiosities.

Comte taught that man passes through three distinct mental stages in his
development: First, man attributes all phenomena to a "Personal God," and
to this God he servilely prays. Second, he believes in