Page:Heroines of freethought (IA cu31924031228699).pdf/178

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170
HARRIET MARTINEAU

slavery abolished, and English women, under certain restrictions, entitled to vote. Let us dare also to hope that, old as she is, she may yet live to see American women entitled to the same privilege.

I cannot forbear quoting from "Society in America” the following exquisite description of American forests, as a specimen of Miss Martineau's delicacy of expression, and her skill in word-painting:

“The English traveler finds himself never weary by day of prying into the forest from beneath its canopy; or from a distance drinking in its exquisite hues; and his dreams for months or years will be of the mossy roots, the black pine, and silvery birch stems, the translucent green shades of the beech, and the slender creeper. He will dream of the march of hours through the forest, the deep blackness of night broken by the dun forest fires. He will hear again the shrill piping of the whippoorwill, and the multitudinous din from the occasional swamp. He will dream of