Page:Cousins's Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.djvu/273

 Dictionary of English Literature 261

their popularity; originally contributed to a magazine, they ap peared in book form in 1855. His translations include Dante.' s Vita Nuova, (Ehlenschlager's Correggio and Aladdin, Heine's Poems and Ballads, Schiller's Song of the Bell, and Hertz's King Rent's Daughter. He also pub. a complete translation of Horace with a Life, and one of Catullus. He is, however, perhaps best known for his Life of the Prince Consort (1874-80), the writing of which was committed to him by Queen Victoria, a work which he executed with such ability and tact as to win for him her lifelong friendship. He also wrote Lives of Prof. Aytoun and Lord Lyndhurst. He m. in 1851 Miss Helen Faucit (d. 1898), the well-known actress, and authoress of studies on Shakespeare's Female Characters, whose Life he pub. in 1901. M cept up his intellectual activity into old age, pub. in 1905 a transla-
 * ion of Leopardi's poems, and Monographs (1906). He was Lord

Rector of St. Andrews 1881, LL.D. of Edin. 1875, and K.C.B. 1880.

MARTINEAU, HARRIET (1802-1876). Novelist and econo mist, b. at Norwich, where her /., descended from a French family, was a manufacturer. From her earliest years she was delicate and very deaf, and took to literary pursuits as an amusement. After wards, when her /. had fallen into difficulties, they became her means of support. Her first publication was Devotional Exercises for Young Persons (1823). Becoming interested in political economy, she endeavoured to illustrate the subject by tales, of which two were The Rioters and The Turn-out. Later she pub. a more serious treat ment of it in Illustrations of Political Economy (1832-4), Poor Law and Paupers (1833), and Illustrations of Taxation (1834). About this time she went to London, and was regarded as an authority on economic questions, being occasionally consulted by Cabinet Ministers. Among her books of travel are Society in America [1837), and Eastern Life, Present and Past (1848), which she con sidered her best book: in it she declared herself no longer a be liever in revelation. She also wrote two novels, Deerbrook (1839), and The Hour and the Man (1840), also a number of books for children. Perhaps her most important work is her History of England during the Thirty Years' Peace, 1816-46, which appeared in 1849. She translated Comte's Philosophy (1853), and pub. a collection of letters between herself and Mr. H. G. Atkinson On the Laws of Man's Nature and Development, which encountered severe criticism. In addition to her separate publications she wrote in numerable articles for newspapers, specially the Daily News, and for periodicals. In 1845 she settled in the Lake District, where she died.

MARTINEAU, JAMES (1805-1900). Unitarian theologian,

younger brother of the above, was b. at Norwich. Possessed of con siderable inventive and mathematical talents, he was originally in tended for engineering, but studied for the Unitarian ministry, to which he was ordained in 1828. After serving as pastor in various places he became in 1840 Prof, of Mental and Moral Philosophy in the Manchester New Coll. (subsequently removed to London), and Principal 1 869-8 5. Among his writings, which were very influential, are Rationale of Religious Inquiry (1836), Ideal Substitutes for God (1879), Study of Spinoza (1882), Types of Ethical Theory (1885), Study of Religion (1888), Seat of Authority in Religion (1890), and religious