Page:Daughters of Genius.djvu/502

 490 HARRIET MARTINEAU. the objects of this meeting. I had supposed that my presence here would be understood as showing my sym- pathy with you. But as I am requested to speak, I will say what I have said through the whole South, in every family where I have been ; that I consider slavery as inconsistent with the law of God and as incompatible with the law of his Providence. I should certainly say no less at the North than at the South concerning this utter abomination, and I now declare that in your princi- ples I fully agree.' " " As I concluded, Mrs. Chapman bowed down her glow- ing head on her folded arms, and there was a murmur of satisfaction through the room, while, outside, the growing crowd (which did not, however, become large) was hoot- ing and yelling, and throwing mud and dust against the windows." It was bravely done. Happily, the present generation can form but an imperfect idea of the sacrifice she made in taking sides with a party then held in equal abhorrence and contempt. Several days passed before this action of Miss Martineau was known to the public. Gradually, however, it circulated, and, at length, the little speech itself was printed verbatim in a report of the Anti- Slavery Society. Precisely that happened which Miss Martineau had anticipated. Every door was closed against her, except those of the Abolitionists. No more invitations littered her table. She was a lion no longer. Houses where she was known to be staying were avoided, as though they had shown to the passer-by the warning signal of contagion. The Boston Advertiser opened upon her its provincial thunder, and Boston society shuddered at the awful fate which the brave woman had brought upon herself. The press in general denounced her, and even some of the Abolitionists felt that, being a stranger, she need not have incurred this obloquy. Miss Martineau's tranquility was not for a moment