1894. EBB to Henry Fothergill Chorley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 10, 175–177.
50, Wimpole Street,
April 28th. 1845.
Dear Mr. Chorley,–
I felt quite sure that you would take my postscript for a womanish thing, [1] and a little doubtful whether you wd not take the whole allusion (in or out of a postscript) for an impertinent thing; but the impulse to speak—was stronger than the fear of speaking; and from the peculiarities of my position, I have come to write by impulses, just as other people talk by them. Still, if I had known that the subject was so painful to you, I certainly wd not have touched on it, strong as my feeling has been about it, and full and undeniable as is my sympathy with our noble-minded friend, both as a woman and a thinker. Not that I consider (of course I cannot) that she has made out anything like a “fact,” in the Tynemouth story—not that I think the evidence offered, in any sort of sufficient; take it as it was in the beginning and unimpugned—not that I have been otherwise than of opinion throughout, that she was precipitate and indiscreet .. however generously so, .. in her mode and time of advocating the mesmeric question—: but that she is at liberty, as a thinking being (in my mind) to hold an opinion, the grounds of which she cannot yet justify to the world. Do you not think she may be? Have you not opinions yourself beyond what you can prove to others? Have we not all? And because some of the links of the outer chain of a logical argument fail or seem to fail, are we therefore to have our “honours” questioned, because we do not yield what is suspended to an inner uninjured chain of at once subtler and stronger formation. For what I venture to object to in the argument of the Athenæum is the making a moral obligation of an intellectual act; which is the first step and gesture (is it not?) in all persecution for opinion; and the involving of the honour of an opponent in the motion of recantation she is invited to. This I do venture to exclaim against– I do cry aloud against this—and I do say of this, that when we call it ‘hard,’ we are speaking of it softly. Why consider how it is!– The Athenæum has done quite enough to disprove the proving of the wreck story [2] —and no more at all. The disproving of the proof of the wreck story, is indeed enough to disprove the wreck story and to disprove mesmerism itself (as far as the proof of mesmerism depends on the proof of the wreck story .. and no farther) with all doubters and undetermined inquirers—but with the very large class of previous believers, this disproof of a proof is a mere accident, and cannot be expected to have much logical consequence. Believing that such things may be as this revelation of a wreck, they naturally are less exacting of the stabilities of the proving process. What we think probable we do not call severely for the proof of. —Moreover Miss Martineau is not only a believer in the mysteries of Mesmerism, (and she wrote to me the other day, [3] that, in Birmingham where she is, she has present cognizance of three cases of clairvoyance) but she is a believer in the personal integrity of her witnesses. She has what she has well called, an “incommunicable confidence.” And this, however incommunicable, is sufficiently comprehensible to all persons who know what personal faith is, to place her “honour,” I do maintain, high above any suspicion, any charge with the breath of man’s lips. I am sure you agree with me dear Mr. Chorley—ah! it will be a comfort and joy together. Dear Miss Mitford and I often quarrel softly about literary life and its toils and sorrows .. she against and I in favour of: but we never could differ about the worth and comfort of domestic affection.
Ever sincerely yours,
Elizabeth B. Barrett.
I am delighted to hear of the novel. And the comedy? [4]
Publication: LEBB, I, 255–257.
Source: Kenyon Typescript, British Library.
1. Taken to be a reference to something EBB must have said about Harriet Martineau; EBB’s postscript has not survived.
2. In the issue for 12 April 1845.
4. The comedy is presumably Old Love and New Fortune (see letters 1634 and 1648); the novel is probably Pomfret which was published in November 1845.
___________________
