Harriet Martineau's Autobiography, Volume 1 |
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acquaintance afterwards Allan Cunningham amidst amused appeared asked aunt authorship believe blue-stocking body brother Brougham called Carlyle certainly charming considered conversation course deaf dinner doctrine doubt dreaded Edinburgh Review enjoyed fame father fear feel felt friends gave Hallam hand happy HARRIET MARTINEAU hear heard heart honour Houlston hour intellectual Jeffrey knew lady Lady Mary Shepherd letters literary London looked Lord Lord Althorp Lord Brougham Lord Durham Lord Lansdowne manner matter mind mob cap moral morning mother never night Norwich once pain party Perry persons Petrarch pleasure political Rachel regard remember reply seemed sense sent sister society sort speak story suffering Sydney Smith sympathy talk tell temper thing thought tion told took Tynemouth Unitarian vanity walk Whig whole William Taylor wonder word write wrote young
Popular passages
Page 119 - He made no reply ; read on in silence, and spoke no more till I was on my feet to come away. He then laid his hand...
Page 19 - It is evident enough that my temper must have been very bad. It seems to me now that it was downright devilish, except for a placability which used to annoy me sadly. My temper might have been early made a thoroughly good one, by the slightest indulgence shown to my natural affections, and any rational dealing with my faults: but I was almost the youngest of a large family, and subject, not only to the rule of severity to which all were liable, but also to the rough and contemptuous treatment of...
Page 300 - ... defences of suicide, avowals that snuff alone had rescued him from it : information given as certain that
Page 146 - Tales,'— the first of Mrs. Marsh's novels : but, from the time of my own success to this hour, every other attempt, of the scores I have made, to get a hearing for young or new aspirants has failed. My own heart was often very near sinking, — as were my Ixulily forces ; and with reason.
Page 42 - Argument,' which I took to mean a dispute, and supposed to be stupid enough : but there was something about Satan cleaving Chaos, which made me turn to the poetry ; and my mental destiny was fixed for the next seven years* That volume was henceforth never to be found but by asking me for it, till a young acquaintance made me a present of a little Milton of my own. In a few months, I believe there was hardly a line in Paradise Lost that I could not have instantly turned to. I sent myself to sleep...
Page 142 - I began to feel the blessing of a wholly new freedom. I, who had been obliged to write before breakfast, or in some private way, had henceforth liberty to do my own work in my own way ; for we had lost our gentility.
Page 358 - young lady of Hampstead whom I visited, and who came to Mr. Barbauld's meeting, all the while with as innocent a face as if she had never written a line.
Page 178 - The entire periodical press, daily, weekly, and, as soon as possible, monthly, came out in my favour ; and I was overwhelmed with newspapers and letters, containing every sort of flattery. The Diffusion Society wanted to have the Series now ; and Mr. Hume offered, on behalf of a new society of which he was the head, any price I would name for the purchase of the whole. I cannot precisely answer for the date of these and other applications ; but, as far as I remember, there was, from the middle of...
Page 382 - ... characteristic of this singular man is, in my opinion, a mere expression of his intolerable sympathy with the suffering. He cannot express his love and pity in natural acts, like other people; and it shows itself too often in unnatural speech. But to those who understand his eyes, his shy manner, his changing colour, his sigh, and the constitutional pudeur which renders him silent about every thing that he feels the most deeply, his wild speech and abrupt manner are perfectly intelligible. I...
Page 301 - ... ignorant and conceited young men, who thought they could set the world right by their destructive propensities. One of his chief favourites was George Borrow, as George Borrow has himself given the world to understand. When this polyglot gentleman appeared before the public as a devout agent of the Bible Society in foreign parts, there was one burst of laughter from all who remembered the old Norwich days.