3218. EBB to Sarianna Browning
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 19, 139–141.
[Florence]
[ca. 1 July 1853] [1]
<***> called an American medium “impudent,” because she professed herself irresponsible for the veracity of the spirits who spoke through her—for which courtesy Madme Pulsky [2] must be simply called most ignorant & uncomprehending. Some of these spirits if spirits they be, lie & are foolish—some are acute & far-seeing—many are tender & veracious– I never heard of any being malignant beyond the breaking of a little crockery. Miss Clark [3] had lived in the heart of all these things, & she was deeply impressed & persuaded—she told me, with eyes overflowing, details which drew the tears from mine. Robert was moved at the time—but after a few days he relapses into incredulity always.
Tell me if you hear anything striking. I used to know quantities of spiritualists in Paris, but you are out of that magic circle, & nobody else writes to me. Whittier the American poet, is one of the believers. [4] A table at his house enacted just such a scene as you witnessed, only much more information was elicited. An old woman who had been heart-broken for a year on the death of her husband, was addressed by his spirit (so supposed) & reproached bitterly yet tenderly for her “rebellion against God.” “Why do you go to a grave, & think I am in it? I am not in it. I am not dead. I am alive .. I am here– We are about to be together always”. All that & much more, enunciated by the motions of the table. Mr Whittier wrote the word ‘truth’ & put it on the table under the hand of the Medium .. first putting the paper into reduplicated envelopes—nobody in the room except himself knowing what the word was. The table (at his request) spelled out the word instantly.
Robert will have told you that we are going to fly into the mountains from the heat—for suddenly it is hot—we are suffocating. Till within these two days, the weather has been most exceptional—weather unknown in Italy for thirty years back. Floods of rain, and a coolness almost cold .. requiring blankets for instance .. in a Florentine June! Still, I have not complained—we have had some most enjoyable days (barring the plague of fleas!) & the atmosphere under such variations does not affect me here as it would in the north under like circumstances. There has been another touch of earthquake. Now the natural heat has come at last,—& Penini revolts .. “O mate me tool, Lily! All mine sings are stitting.” all his things are sticking––not a supernatural consummation.
He is charmed with the dear Nonno’s pretty drawing & poem, but the letter cant be written today. It must be for next time. Such treasures of drawings he has in his album! Thanks & love to dear Nonno from us all.
Dearest Sarianna, why dont you take in a Galignani? Now, that, I do consider a necessity of life. Robert & I are in harmony upon politics just now .. I who loathe war too!!– But honour & righteousness is in this cause—& the public safety besides—there is no choice for us. Louis Napoleon stands higher with the English press, I observe, than he has done yet. In this matter he has acted, in fact, with an undeniable moderation & integrity. [5]
Yes—as an artist I would rather have written Villette without the fame, than Uncle Tom with it. Yet I dont undervalue the fame & the amount of generous sympathy excited.
Penini ended his prayers last night (which he improvises, you know) thus—“Tate tare of us all, bless us all, and when we all dead, tate we up there to live, and send me down anoller day. Amen.” He seldom forgets to pray for you & Nonno. Indeed he is a darling.
I write with a poker for a pen. God bless you my best dearest Sarianna! Be as happy, dear, as you can, & love us! We love you & think of you–
your Ba.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Lilly Library.
1. Approximate dating suggested by EBB’s mention of flying “into the mountains from the heat.” She makes a similar comment in the third paragraph of letter 3220.
2. Theresa Pulszky (1819–66), wife of Ferenc Pulszky (1814–97), Hungarian archaeologist and patriot who fled to England in 1848, was the author of Memoirs of a Hungarian Lady (1850). An account by the Pulszkys of their travels in America with Lajos Kossuth was published in March as White Red and Black, Sketches of Society in The United States During the Visit of Their Guest (3 vols., 1853), in which there is a section describing their encounters with “Spiritual Rappings and Mesmerism” (II, 117–133). EBB may have in mind a passage containing Mme. Pulszky’s description of a séance in Cincinnati with the Miss Foxes, of Rochester, New York, to whom the origin of the modern spiritualist movement is generally attributed. When some of the spirits’ pronouncements were shown to be inaccurate, “Miss Fox coolly replied that she and her sister were not responsible for anything the spirits said, as they, in fact, could not tell whether the spirits who manifested themselves were veracious or lying spirits” (II, 124–125).
3. Sara Jane Clarke.
4. In his biography, John Greenleaf Whittier (New York, 1902), Thomas Wentworth Higginson quoted a mutual friend regarding Whittier’s view of spiritualism: “I think it can be truly said that Mr. Whittier was not a believer in spiritualism, but he acknowledged that there was something about it which he could not explain and did not understand. … He always spoke of spiritualism as something to be explained, while in his religious life he was indefinite about embracing any particular tenet outside of the Friends” (p. 127).
5. The Times of 13 June 1853 ran an editorial declaring that Russia had no legitimate reason for its demands (see letter 3193, note 5): “The only argument put forward by Russia with any degree of plausibility … is the fact that France had recently asserted her right to the protectorate of the Latin churches in the East, under the treaty of 1740, and that the Cabinet of St. Petersburgh thought itself entitled to complain that France had enjoyed a privilege by treaty for 112 years, which Russia had as yet failed to obtain. The French, however, have employed all their dexterity to escape from the isolated position of antagonism to Russia in which they stood, and for this purpose Louis Napoleon has not scrupled to abandon the ground he had before taken up” (p. 4).
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