Page:Heroines of freethought (IA cu31924031228699).pdf/196

188 shiped, by the great as well as the small. No woman has ever, perhaps, received so rich a recompense of reward; and why? I think because her spirit and influence have been in harmony with the spirit of the age. Miss Martineau, with a single eye to the general good, has devoted herself, not to the intellectual amusement or advancement of the gifted and educated, but to make bread more plentiful in the husbandman’s dwelling, and to still the cry of hunger forever in the poor man’s cottage.” "Her dress is simple, inexpensive, and appropriate. Her voice is too low-toned, but agreeable, the suitable organ of a refined spirit. Her manners, without any elegance, are pleasing, natural, and kind. She seldom speaks unless addressed, but in reply to a single touch she pours out a rich stream. She is never brilliant, never says a thing that is engraven or cut in to your memory, but she talks on a greater variety of topics than any one I ever heard—agreeably, most agreeably, and with sense and information. She is womanly,