John Morley

The division which Miss Brontë thus makes between opinions and character, and again between literary production and character, is at the root of any just criticism of the two volumes of autobiography which have just been given to the public. Of the third volume, The Memorials, by Mrs. Chapman, it is impossible to say anything serious. Mrs. Chapman fought an admirable fight in the dark times of American history for the abolition of slavery, but unhappily she is without literary gifts; and this third volume is one more illustration of the folly of entrusting the composition of biography to persons who have only[Pg 176] the wholly irrelevant claim of intimate friendship, or kinship, or sympathy in public causes.

Critical Miscellanies (Vol. 3 of 3), Essay 6: Harriet Martineau