truly and purely a piece of art; yet we are conscious of the serious
spirit of the social reformer as haunting the background, and only
surrendering the scene for reasons of its own. On the other hand, there
is in _Deerbrook_ a gravity of moral reflection that Jane Austen,
whether wisely or unwisely, seldom or never attempts. In this respect
_Deerbrook_ is the distant forerunner of some of George Eliot's most
characteristic work. Distant, because George Eliot's moralising is
constantly suffused by the broad light of a highly poetic imagination,
and this was in no degree among Miss Martineau's gifts. Still there is
something above the flat touch of the common didactic in such a page as
that in which (chapter xix.) she describes the case of 'the
unamiable--the only order of evil ones who suffer hell without seeing
and knowing that it is hell: nay, they are under a heavier curse than
even this, they inflict torments second only to their own, with an
unconsciousness worthy of spirits of light.' However, when all is said,
we may agree that this is one of the books that give a rational person
pleasure once, but which we hardly look forward to reading again.

Shortly after the publication of her first novel, Miss Martineau was
seized by a serious internal malady, from which recovery seemed
hopeless. According to her usual practice of taking her life
deliberately in her hands, and settling its conditions for herself,
instead of letting things drift as they might, she insisted on declining
the hospitable shelter pressed upon her by a near relative, on the
excellent ground that it is wrong for an invalid to impose restraints
upon a healthy household. She proceeded to establish herself in lodgings
at Tynemouth, on the coast of Northumberland. Here she lay on a couch
for nearly five years, seeing as few persons as might be, and working at
such literary matters as came into her head with steadfast industry and
fortitude. The ordeal was hard, but the little book that came of it,
_Life in a Sickroom_, remains to show the moods in which the ordeal was
borne.

At length Miss Martineau was induced to try mesmerism as a possible cure
for her disease, and what is certain is, that after trying mesmeric
treatment, the invalid whom the doctors had declared incurable shortly
recovered as perfect health as she had ever known. A virulent
controversy arose upon the case, for, by some curious law, physicians
are apt to import into professional di