Taking up the study of Charlotte's letters written to M. Heger after her
return to Haworth, and reading them in the light of what we know of the
circumstances and emotions that have formed the feelings, and decided
the tone and attitude of the writer, what do we find to be the sentiment
they reveal to us?
Is it the 'enthusiasm for a great man,' and the desire (for the sake of
vanity, or of amusement) to keep up a correspondence with him?
Or is it the intellectual need of this teacher's instructions and
advice, as a means of mental improvement?
Or is it the want of a companion to exchange ideas with, who is a
brighter and more cultivated being than the Nusseys, Taylors, Woolers,
and the others?
Or is it the pleasure of having a man friend, in the case of a woman who
is neither pretty, nor young, nor silly, enough to indulge in an
ordinary flirtation?
Or is it none amongst these several forms of desire, or want, that seeks
its own good?
Is it love?--a love so exalted, so passionate, so personal, so distinct
from any other instinct or interest, physical, social or intellectual,
that this sentiment stands out, in the order of human feelings, as
honourable not only to the heart that feels it, but to human nature: so
that brought into touch with it, one's own heart is uplifted above the
common world, and gladdened '_by the sense_,' as Byron said,[2] '_of the
existence of Love in its most extended and sublime capacity and of our
own participation of its good and of its glory._[3]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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