HARRIET MARTINEAU was one of the most noted of the intellectual women of England who flourished during the first half of the nineteenth century. She was one of the first English women to attempt the career of a professional writer on political and economic subjects,—a field in which she became noted both in England and America at the too heavy expense of losing the permanent popularity she might have won had she devoted her really remarkable intellect to subjects which would not have tended so strongly to develop her aggressiveness at the expense of her amiability. She was born at Norwich, England, June 12th, 1802. In her youth she was greatly influenced by the writings of Dr. Priestley, and later on she came within the sphere of Malthus, Ricardo, and Mill, whose theories she illustrated in a series of tales. As she entitled these, “Illustrations of Political Economy,” they were naturally viewed with distrust by publishers, but when finally she secured a publisher on terms very disadvantageous to herself, the sale of her stories is described as having been “enormous.” This success encouraged a new series as, “Illustrations of Taxation.” In 1834 she visited the United States, and after her return published two books on the subject of American manners, which did not increase her popularity in this country. One of her critics, speaking with much reserve, says that in these books she does not show “her usual calmness and judicial common sense.” No such reserve was shown in contemporaneous American resentment of her opinions of Americans as she saw them. She wrote a number of novels and a considerable number of essays, besides translating and condensing the “Philosophy” of Comte. She died in Westmoreland, June 27th, 1876,—her celebrated brother, Rev. James Martineau, who was only three years her junior, surviving her until the very close of the century (1900). Miss Martineau’s ability is unquestionable, and perhaps her severity, when it grows excessive, is to be accounted for by the subconsciousness of her physical infirmities. She never possessed the senses of taste and smell, and as she became very deaf at the age of sixteen, she was compelled to depend on her single sense of sight in the exercise of her human sympathies.