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    NOTICES OF BOOKS. 349

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    ¦ ^* Reprin Sail Ts . . B Mrs Y Acton . ...

    eontemptibilities of Huntingdon are those of something- less than a man ( and yet Sterne and Russian Peter III . boasted their amours

    to their wives ); but no one will put the book aside without feeling the power of it , and confessing that it Is in the main true . One

    thing * we observe Is that Ann is destitute of humour , which her sisters are not ; witness the character of Joseph and . some

    earlyparts of " Wuthering Heights , " and many a passage and character in Charlotte ' s works .

    Mrs . Gaskell says of the portraits of the three sisters , " Emily ' s countenance struck me as full of power ; Charlotte ' s of solicitude ;

    Ann ' s of tenderness . " This pet youngest seems to have been a most amiable person , docile and shy , in much the exact opposite of

    Emily . Her shyness was excessive . Charlotte writes of her when she was absent from home as governess , You would be astonished

    what a sensible , clever letter she writes ; It is only the talking part that I fear . But I do seriously apprehend that Mrs . will

    sometimes conclude that she has a natural Impediment in her speech . '*' And again , " She is more lonely , less gifted with the power of making

    friends , even than I am . " This shyness was as different to the dumb reserve of Emily as was its accompanying docility to her tenacity of

    will . The last illnesses of these two were analogous to their lives . Emily sank rapidly ( " she made haste to leave us , " ) combating step

    , by step , and gaining ever more mental energy as she grew physically weaker . Ann faded gradually away , not fearing death , "but

    wishing she might live longer , enduring pain not stoically but very patiently . " Her life was calm , quiet , spiritual : such was her end . "

    Those last words of hers , " Take courage , Charlotte , take courage /' show something of her character—strong for others rather than

    for herself . Her temperament was pensive and dejected , her habits sedentary , her demeanor passive . Her whole life was shadowed

    by religious melancholy , akin to that of Cowper . She sings of him

    'f And Sweet oft are , in th childhood y strains ' , s celestial years , bard ; With I ' ve read floods them of silent o ' er an tears d o ' . er again

    " I The traced language in of my line inmost soul , My sins every sorrowshopes ; and fears

    Were there , my — and onl , y mine , . ' " , From this religious melancholy she never achieved freedom . During

    a part of Charlotte ' s life these same sombre mists had darkened her sky , "but clear sun-light had dissipated them ; Emily had passed

    through storms and thick darkness , and mounted to regions above the tempest-rock ; but Ann sojourned her life long under these twilight

    vapors . These tender consciences are not few in this world , and , if not among the strongest , are among the best . Docile and

    tractable as she was , her patience was heroic , and her endurance

    martyrlike . Beyond this , she had a clear sense of duty , a heart-

    Notices Of Books. 349

    NOTICES OF BOOKS . 349

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Jan. 1, 1860, page 349, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01011860/page/61/