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    NOTICES OF BOOKS. 421

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    ^».Reprints Hall. . B Mrs Y Ac . Graskel...

    home " . I have always been glad before , except once , even then I was cheered . But this time joy was not to be the sensation . I felt that

    the house was all silent , the rooms were all empty . I renieinbered where the three were laid , in what narrow dark dwellings , never

    more to reappear on earth . So the sense of desolation and bitterness took possession of me . The agony that was to be undergone , and

    _tvas not to be avoided , came on . * * _** * I do not know how life will passbut I certainly do feel confidence in Him who has upheld

    , me hitherto . Solitude may be cheered , and made endurable beyond what I can believe . The great trial is when evening- closes and night

    approaches . At that hour we used to assemble in the dining-room , we used to talk . Now I sit by myself , necessarily I am silent . I

    cannot lielp thinking of their last days , remembering their _sufferings , and what they said and did , and how they looked in mortal affliction .

    Perhaps all this will become less poignant in time . " We may imagine with what feelings slie resumed the " sorrow-broken " thread

    of her story ; the pathos of the " Valley of the Shadow of Death _" chapter is explained now . We may imagine with what feelings she

    turned again to the portrait of the dead Emily in her heroine , relaced it on the easel , and put the finishing touches to that dim record

    of p the lost . Very mournful to think of are her lonely pacing to and fro in the little Haworth parlor .

    When Mr . Bronte made that eccentric trial of his children ' s knowledgeputting a mask on each in turn and bidding them speak

    , boldly from What under is the cover best book of it , in the the question _world ? " which i ( The he Bible asked " answered Charlotte was

    Charlotte , . " And what is the next best ? " asked Mr . Bronte , . " The book of nature / ' said Charlotte . These two best books she never

    ceased to study . " Elle _Stait nourrie cle la Bible" said M . Heger of her . Tlie book of nature she read and understood as few have the

    gift of reading and understanding it . One of the points which the critics fixed on for praise in " Jane Eyre , " was the " singular felicity

    in the description of natural scenery" which its writer possessed . For truthof detail in descriptions of nature , Miss Bronte is

    unri-, valled : she has inaugurated a new school in that way . Her wordpainting too is perfect : she analyses a landscape as she analyses

    people , ( or engravings or whatever came within her reach , ) discovers the particular points which give it its character , and then clearly and

    definitely describes these points in the only words -which can describe them . She paints with equal truth the fiat swampy Belgian

    lowlands and her own hilly moors . This power is derived firstly from her ift of analysisand secondly from her felicitous choice of

    language g . But besides , this truth of description we find in her "books another manner of dealing with nature . This latter is not

    new : most writers , whether expressly or by implication , have connected the elementary powers of nature sympathetically with ,

    hube manit innat y . e in man idea . Hence this sympathetic arose in . par connection t the systems , would in appear nature -

    Notices Of Books. 421

    NOTICES OF BOOKS . 421

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Feb. 1, 1860, page 421, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01021860/page/61/