3348. EBB to Mary Brotherton
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 20, 119–120.
[Rome]
[ca. 27 February 1854] [1]
My dear Mrs Brotherton I return to you Mr Tennyson’s letter which Miss Blagden sent me by your desire. It was very kind of you to desire that my husband & I should have as much pleasure as this letter has given us. How pleasant to hear such good talking from a friend we value so! Cant you persuade him to come to Rome & delight us all? and then he might analyze the oracles & judge the familiars .. to say nothing of the advantage of seeing the Sybil face to face, which he would be the last to undervalue, I know.
Dear Mrs Brotherton, I have been wishing to hear from you & to have some further information on the subject of the spirits. Mr Tennyson observes very justly, in respect of them, that there is seldom much conveyed, worth stretching into a spiritual world to reach– At the same time we should remember that the fact of communication implies the most valuable of all truths to this natural world of ours. Also, we have no right perhaps, because we have intercourse, to expect revelation– On the earth, for instance, we have incessant intercourse one with another, and we get an apocalypse very seldom indeed. “Three poets in three distant ages born” [2] &c– For the rest, it is a mistake to suppose that mere inanities & stupidities are given by the spirits, though some of the communications are certainly inane & stupid enough.
What is wanted is a persistent assembling together of intelligent & devout minds– Then we should have intenser responses, I think. The mediumship of insulated individuals seems as if it could not bear the strain of continuous & logical communication– The sentences break into fragments, .. the thought does not cohere: the medium gives back short breathings from the spirit-world .. gasps of half-articulated significances, .. & fails in anything beyond– It’s an imperfect echo repeating faintly the last syllable of a full utterance. We have not learnt how to deal with this power; & it’s our business to learn .. that’s certain.
Will you tell me what he means by your “being requested by them (the spirits) to subscribe to what is utterly incredible”—that is, will you tell me, if it is lawful for me to ask?
I cant write yet, though I have persisted in trying, & though the force is always sufficient with me to make marks. My maid writes as she did—there’s no advance in power. “All Europe in a state of war” was announced the other day—but we scarcely wanted one to rise from the Dead to tell us so .. did we? The “spirits” adjure you to write, (whether you can or not) in the most urgent way, & they tell you that their power will increase (as the times advance) until they shall be recognized generally.
How are you? will you say? I have not even had a rag of the carnival—and really it seems to be chiefly rags. Perhaps that’s what a cat says when she looks at a king [3] … & the king kicks her.
Most truly yours
Elizabeth Barrett Browning
Think of my not having seen Miss Blagden for above a fortnight. Is’nt it sad that she shd have suffered so? [4]
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: University of Texas.
1. Approximate dating based on EBB’s reference to the Carnival, implying that it is ongoing but near the end, the last day being 28 February.
2. John Dryden, “Lines on Milton” (1688), line 1.
3. From the English proverb: “A cat may look at a king,” meaning that anyone, no matter how grand, is subject to observation by his or her supposed inferiors.
4. From recent medical treatment performed on her knee; see letter 3344.
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