1693. Harriet Martineau to EBB
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 9, 105–107.
Tynemouth
August 22d [sic, for 21] [1844] [1]
Dear Miss Barrett
Here are your vols! I have looked into them; & I repent with shame of my promise to find fault. I did promise it,—& I will try to be faithful,—for your sake:—I mean, because it wd be a hardship on you to have to feel that you cd not obtain truth where you really & earnestly wish for it. But it causes me painful humiliation to think of entering upon such an office, on such materials. It will be some time now before you hear from me, [2] because I am not alone, & I mean to give my sincere mind & soul to the reading. But I will willfully, when I do it. —I now tell you that what I already see excites emotions wh must be somewhat familiarized to me before I can speak in any order to you: & I never can tell you what I most want to say of the sort of response you awaken in me.
Of our mutual relation, I have a few words to say. At first, I own, & up to your last long letter, I did recoil from one thing in your utterance to me. Your estimate of me seemed almost absurd,—& your expression of it such as never ought to pass between sincere & humble Christians. I once before met with the same thing from one whom I was disposed to love & honour; & it separated us. That was Miss Sedgwick. [3] In her, I have since found—what I shall never find with you—that flattery was no security for common justice. She has since been as little just to me as she was once extravagant in her estimate of me. She cannot help it. It is a constitutional weakness in her, wh I lament, but can hardly blame. —Before she began to think I cd have a failing, I remonstrated against the gross praises of her letters,—wh made me really afraid to open them. She said, of course, that all was sincere. I admitted this; but I pleaded the uneasiness to myself, & very gently indicated the bad taste. She again declared she cd not help it: & on that account we amicably agreed not to correspond. After that, she changed towards me: & I rather believe changed back again during the last summer of dear Dr Channing’s life,—his opinions being all-powerful with her, & he being more & more my loving friend to the last.
You are in a wholly different case from her. I never quite classed your praises with hers; & I never, for one moment, questioned their entire sincerity. But they were painful to me.– Now I think I see how it is with us, & how we ought to conduct ourselves. We are very unlike in our powers. Each sees in the other powers of wh the possessor is not half conscious. We must look with reverence upon each other. We cannot help it,—while each is blind to the ground of the other’s reverence. I cannot conceive how or why you think of me as you do.– At the same time, we are ordinary women in our need & power of affection. Let us then treat each other with the simplicity & affecte fidelity required by our feminine make & our Christian profession,—carefully avoiding to tamper with one another’s simplicity & self-estimate. —This is what I think, dear friend; & this is the spirit in wh I shall wish to speak to you henceforth. I put entire faith in your desire to hear none but inevitable praise: & I will endeavour to respect it. —Do you do the same by me. Our objects & occupations, &, through them, our relations to each other, are very serious affairs: & our mind & manners to each other must be religious accordingly. Your Preface assures me of your heartfelt agreement with me in this practical part of what I have said.
Poor Mr Langtree’s case is declared not desperate. He is to be moved to the Sanatorium as soon as he can bear it: & I have got a little money together for his first maintenance. By the time it is done, I must get more. —I am shocked to find that “heavy medical expences” have been incurred, as he lay helpless & penniless. Surely Dr Tweedie [4] (whom they called in) cannot have taken fees, with any knowledge of his patient’s condition. These expences are now put an end to: but the little raised was never meant to go in regular fees into a physician’s pocket. I dare say Dr T. did not know.
Farewell now, affecly & gratefully. —I am in no respect worse than usual.
Yours ever
H. Martineau.
P.S. Yours now received. Many thanks. Indeed, every shilling will be welcome, being much needed. I have told you above our plans thus far. Two letters now come with yours say that he is to be moved today to the Hospital,—for wh I am sorry, but hope the Sanatorium will yet be the place. I covet its quiet & comfort for him– Farewell, with love & thanks.
He is comfortable, I know, at No 10; [5] but the cost! He is to be admitted at one guinea a week (!) at the S. There are no funds to support him at No 10. —My best thanks to Mr Kenyon.
Address: Miss Barrett / 50. Wimpole St / London.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Wellesley College.
1. The envelope bears a North Shields postmark of 21 August 1844 and a London receiving stamp of 22 August.
2. See letter 1717 for Miss Martineau’s more complete comments on Poems (1844).
3. EBB’s reaction to this is given in detail in letter 1724.
4. Probably Alexander Tweedie, M.D. (1794–1884), who was a fellow of the Edinburgh College of Surgeons, a fellow of the Royal Society, and author of numerous medical books.
5. 10 Egremont Place was Mr. Langtree’s address; see letter 1691.
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