Harriet Martineau

Thinking that she would not live much longer Harriet wrote her own obituary in 1855; however she lived for another 20 years.

Her original power was nothing more than was due to earnestness and intellectual clearness within a certain range. With small imaginative and suggestive powers, and therefore nothing approaching to genius, she could see clearly what she did see, and give a clear expression to what she had to say. In short, she could popularize while she could neither discover nor invent.