Harriet Martineau on the inspirations for her project of translating Comte: 'I obtained something like a clear preparatory view, at second-hand, from a friend [...] What I learned then [...] impelled me to study the great book for myself; and in the spring of 1851 [...] I got the book, and set to work. I had meantime looked at Lewes's chapter on Comte in Mr. Knight's Weekly Volume, and at Littre's epitome'.