3481. EBB to Mary Russell Mitford
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 329–331.
Florence.
Oct. 19 [1854] [1]
I will try not to be overjoyed my dear dearest Miss Mitford, but indeed it is difficult to refrain from catching at hope with both hands. If the general health will but rally, there is nothing fatal about a spine disease– May God bless you—give you the best blessing in earth & heaven, as the God of the living in both places. We ought not to be selfish, nor stupid, so as to be afraid of leaving you in His hands. What is beautiful & joyful to observe, is, the patience & selfpossession with which you endure even the most painful manifestation of His will, & that while you lose none of that interest in the things of our mortal life which is characteristic of your sympathetic nature, you are content, just as if you felt none, to let the world go, according to the decision of God. May you be more & more confirmed & elevated & at rest—being the Lord’s, whether absent from the body or present in it. [2] For my own part I have been long convinced that what we call death is a mere incident in life—perhaps scarcely a greater one than the occurrence of puberty, or the revolution which comes with any new emotion or influx of new knowledge. I am heterodox about sepulchres & believe that no part of us will ever lie in a grave. I dont think much of my nail-parings .. do you?—not even of the nail of my thumb when I cut off what Penini calls the “gift-mark” on it. I believe that the body of flesh is a mere husk which drops off at death, while the spiritual body (see St Paul) [3] emerges in glorious resurrection at once. Swedenborg says, some persons do not immediately realize that they have passed death [4] —& this seems to me highly probable. It is curious that Maurice, Mr Kingsley’s friend [5] about whom so much lately has been written & quarrelled (& who has made certain great mistakes I think) takes this precise view of the resurrection, [6] with an apparent unconsciousness of what Swedenborg has stated upon the subject, & that I, too, long before I knew Swedenborg, or heard the name of Maurice, came to the same conclusions. I wonder if Mr King[s]ley agrees with us—I dare say he does, upon the whole—for the ordinary doctrine seems to me as little taught by Scripture as it can be reconciled to philosophical probabilities. I believe in an active, human life, beyond death as before it, an uninterrupted human life. I believe in no waiting in the grave, & in no vague effluence of spirit in a formless vapour. But you’ll be tired with “what I believe.”
I have been to the other side of Florence to call on Mrs Trollope on purpose that I might talk to her of you, but she was not at home though she has returned from the Baths of Lucca. From what I hear, she appears to be well, & has recommenced her “public mornings” which we shrink away from. She ‘receives’ every saturday morning in the most heterogeneous way possible. It must be amusing to anybody not overwhelmed <by> it, & people say that she snatches up ‘characters’ for her “so many volumes a year” out of the diversities of masks presented to her on these occasions. Oh—our Florence! In vain do I cry out for “Atherton”. The most active circulating library [7] has’nt “got it yet,” they say. I must still wait. Meanwhile of course I am delighted with all your successes—and your books wont spoil by keeping like certain other books. So I may wait.
How young children unfold like flowers, & how pleasant it is to watch them! I congratulate you upon yours—your baby-girl must be a dear forward little thing. [8] But I wish I could show you my Penini with his drooping golden ringlets & seraphic smile, and his talk about angels—you would like him I know. Your girl-baby has avenged my name for me [9] .. and now, if you heard my Penini say in the midst of a coaxing fit .. “O my sweetest little mama—my darling, dearlest little Ba,” you would admit that “Ba” must have a music in it, to my ears at least. The love of two generations is poured out to me in that name—and the stream seems to run (in one instance) when alas! the fountain is dry– [10] I do not refer to the Dead, who love still.
Ah—dearest friend, you feel how I must have felt about the accident in Wimpole Street. [11] I can scarcely talk to you about it. There will be permanent lameness, Arabel says, according to the medical opinion, though the general health was not for a moment affected. But .. permanent lameness! That is sad, for a person of active habits. I ventured to write a little note .. which was not returned .. I thank God—or read .. I dare say!—but of course there was no result– I never even expected it as matters have been.
I must tell you that our pecuniary affairs are promising better results for next year, & that we shall not in all probability be tied up from going to England. For the rest .. if I understand you … Oh no—! My husband has a family likeness to Lucifer in being proud. Besides it’s not necessary. When literary people are treated in England as in some other countries .. in that case & that time, we may come in for our share in the pensions given by the people, without holding out our hands. [12] Now .. think of Carlyle, unpensioned!!!—— Why, if we sate here in rags, we would’nt press in for an obolus before Belisarius—! [13] ——
Mrs Sartoris has been here on her way to Rome, spending most of her time with us—singing passionately & talking eloquently. She is really charming. May God bless you, keep you, & love you, beloved friend.
Love your ever affecte
Ba!
May it be? Robert’s love.
Address, on integral page: Miss Mitford / Swallowfield / near Reading.
Publication: EBB-MRM, III, 419–422.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. Year provided by postmark.
2. Cf. II Corinthians 12:2.
3. In I Corinthians 15:42–44.
4. In A Treatise Concerning Heaven and … Hell; see letter 3190, note 22.
5. Charles Kingsley had become friends with F.D. Maurice in the mid-1840’s and was influenced by the latter’s Christian socialist views. “In 1847 Maurice stood godfather to the Kingsleys’ second child, a son who was named after him” (ODNB).
6. See letter 3428, note 8.
7. Vieusseux’s reading rooms and circulating library.
8. Mary Mitford Sweetman; see letter 3167, note 4.
9. The Sweetmans’ little girl had taken to calling Miss Mitford “Ba” (see SD1761). Miss Mitford considered the name “hideous” and doubtless never addressed EBB so, despite the latter’s numerous entreaties.
10. EBB alludes to her father.
11. Apparently, Miss Mitford had heard of the accident from someone other than EBB. The editors of EBB-MRM suggest that her source was Sophia Dupuy, who lived opposite 50 Wimpole Street and who may have told Miss Mitford that Edward Moulton-Barrett was “getting out of an omnibus” when the accident occurred (see SD1775).
12. See letter 3456, note 10.
13. See letter 2055, note 2.
___________________
