also, a remarkable fact, that she fails in the forcible portrayal of these sentiments, unless the character in which they are displayed is so situated, that she can project into it the life of her own passionate heart. Again she displays great power of imagination. Its force is second only to her clear intellectual insight. It seems, also, her constant purpose to subordinate its action to the dictates of clear, calm thought. Occasionally it lifts the writer into a vein of harmonious eloquence again it displays passages of wild splendor of exceeding power. The influence of the imagination upon the intellect, is shown in her works in a striking manner. This quality in conjunction with the thinking faculty, lifts the vision from mere matter of fact views, to large, philosophic insight. It makes thought incisive. It enables the mind to pierce the superficial and perceive the central. This was a part of the work of imagination in Miss Brontë. It gave her intellectual qualities a philosophic scope. It endowed her characters with the massiveness of representatives of classes. Through the influence of this force, she wrought out with perfect clearness the most hidden workings of the soul. This ideal insight enabled her to completely merge her own individuality in the character which she was portraying. Through this quality, also, her views of life acquired a profound wisdom and a delicate adjustment to man's essential requisitions. Thus her ideality intensified every quality which she employed in the production of her works. Every thing she touched was wrought with delicate care. Her characters seem not only real, but are exquisitely drawn and highly finished. The commanding magnetism of genius gives every page a singular fascination. In her purely imaginative efforts, she displays surpassing power. The strength of pinion, the commanding grace of movement, are seldom equalled. Again, she displays the force of this quality by the skill with which she invests ordinary phenomena and trite conceptions with a fresh, poetic life. This creative power, that breathes a glorious life into every day thoughts, is the strongest evidence of an affluence of imagination. By her transforming touch, the wind becomes an intelligence. In her ear, its voice sounds prophetic. It becomes the herald of calamity. In "its restless, hopeless cry," sounds the warning of coming pestilence and impending death. In reproducing the aspects of nature, she, also, evinces her genius. Only the eye quick to detect the poetic element in her ever varying phases, could thus invest her with such grand beauty. Here, also, she displays how largely her individual experiences control her constructive processes. A deep gloom was the prevailing mood of her mind. Hence, with a sable tint 21* VOL. XXXI. she colored her reproductions of nature. Rarely in her representations is nature robed in her joyful and radiant attire. Nearly always, she chooses to paint her when most gloomy and terrible. Indeed, the whole atmosphere of the shadowy realm over which she reigns is stifling with the presence of unutterable woe. Creations of awful grandeur, and shapes as if born of darkness, stalk abroad in these mighty confines. Of her profound imaginative insight, the description of Lucy Snowe's sensations when under the influence of a drug, is a striking example. It is said to be a perfectly correct representation of the influence of opium. As it is known that she never had any experience of its influence, it seems that only a keenness of vision almost preternatural, could thus search into the mysterious workings of the inner life. Again, her partial belief in supernatural phenomena strongly attests to the intensity of her imagination. This is a trait which usually distinguishes the most finely organized minds. Hawthorne, Mrs. Stowe and Sir Walter Scott employ this power with marked effect. The most prominent example in which it is displayed, occurs in "Jane Eyre." The preternatural voice that penetrated the stillness of the night, inspiring with fresh courage its struggling, almost conquered heroine, well exemplifies this characteristic. Finally, in considering the main features of Miss Brontë's works, her style would seem to demand especial attention. Hardly too much can be said in its praise. It possesses astonishing force. Flexibility, also, is a distinguishing excellence. With remarkable ease, it subdues its rugged strength into the tenderest pathos. It becomes terse in argument, graphic in description. In the denunciation of wrong, it rises to overwhelming power. With all its energy, however, it is quite unpretending. She was exceedingly critical in the choice of words. She labored assiduously to find the precise expression that mirrored her thought. When this was found, she never hesitated to make use of it, whatever the source from which it was derived. On rare occasions, there is a kind of rudeness in its wild power. By constant freshness, however, it more than atones for occasional lapses of this kind. There are gems, also, of thrilling eloquence that no language can surpass. Another remarkable feature of her style is the sweet sense of harmony which very many of her phrases convey. Sometimes her winged words, as some soft musical vibrations, thrill the soul with strange delight. The spirit enchanted with melodious utterance, seems to float away in an atmosphere flooded with celestial song. Such are the prominent qualities which her literary works display. Yet in regard to their value there is much dispute. All concede to her, however, very great original gifts. There are some, indeed, who are disposed to stigmatize her works as immoral in their tendency. Nevertheless, it seems not too much to say that her powers entitle her to a place among the very first writers of fiction in the English language. I would, also, add that she seems to me to merit a place high among that corps of earnest souls whose lofty duty it is to regenerate social life. She had the strength of pinion that would enable her to soar to heights unheard of in the realms of fiction. Death, however, smote her while her powers were yet immature. fascinating spirit with which every page of her writings is impressed, in grandeur of imagination, in a mighty force of insight into the soul, in heavy denunciation of evil, in tender pathos, in originality, in the high spiritual tone of her works, in the air of reality which pervades all her writings, she is not surpassed in the whole realm of fiction. Yet, in a tremendous, MELIBOEUS. STREPHON. CORYDON. Ah me! Woe's me! alack! incessant plained; She grieves not me as doth Scarbrina you." "Come now!" said Corydon, "along yon walk With stately tread see Meliboeus stalk; Knows each strange wrought machine and eke the crank, Hath turned the laws of grav'ty inside out, And, as we twain alternate praise our fair, I'll wager this my faithful meerschaum pipe "See here," returned the younger swain, "a hat, As good a tile as e'er upon was set; I pledge it tall, and sleek, and leather-lined, I take the trust and go so far as say Sweet is the brook goes bounding o'er the lea; Nor cream, nor pie, nor sea, nor limpid brook, Divine long draughts of thick molasses are; |