3606. RB to Maria Angélique de Gaudrion
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 21, 237–238.
13 Dorset St Baker St
Aug. <30> [1] ’55
Mr Browning presents his compliments to Miss de Gaudrion, & feels it his duty to say a word for himself in reply to her note—though he has to overcome a real repugnance at recurring to the subject of it.
Mr Browning did, in company with his wife, witness Mr. Hume’s performances at Ealing on the night Miss de Gaudrion alludes to—and he is hardly able to account for the fact that there can be another opinion than his own on the matter—that being, that the whole display of “hands”,—“spirit-utterances,” &c were a cheat and imposture. Mr Browning believes in the sincerity and good faith of the Rymer family, and regrets proportionably that benevolent and worthy people should be subjected to the consequences of those admirable qualities of benevolence & worth when unaccompanied by a grain of worldly wisdom—or indeed, divine wisdom,—either of which would dispose of all this melancholy stuff in a minute. Mr Browning has however abundant experience that the best & rarest of natures may begin by the proper mistrust of the more ordinary results of reasoning when employed in such investigations as these; go on to an abnegation of the regular tests of truth & rationality in favour of these particular experiments,—and end in a voluntary prostration of the whole intelligence before what is assumed to transcend all intelligence. Once arrived at this point, no trick is too gross; absurdities are referred to “low spirits”, falsehoods to “personating spirits”,—and the one, terribly apparent spirit—the Father of Lies,—has it all his own way. Mr Browning had some difficulty in keeping from an offensive expression of his feelings at Mr Rymer’s—he has since seen Mr Hume and relieved himself. [2] Mr Browning recommends leaving this business to its natural termination, and will console himself for any pain to the dupes by supposing that their eventual profit in improved intelligence would be no otherwise procurable.
Publication: The Times Literary Supplement, 28 November 1902, p. 356.
Manuscript: University of London Library.
1. Altered by RB from “29.”
2. According to two separate accounts of this confrontation—one in William Allingham: A Diary, ed. H. Allingham and D. Radford (1907, pp. 101–102) and the other in Home’s Incidents in My Life (2nd series, New York, 1872, pp. 105–108)—it took place when Home called at the Brownings’ apartment in Dorset Street. Although both accounts include Home’s offer of a handshake and RB’s refusal of it, in Allingham’s record of what RB told him (some nine years after the fact), the refusal also included a threat: “If you are not out of that door in half a minute I’ll fling you down the stairs” (William Allingham, p. 101). In Home’s version, he visited the Brownings accompanied by Mrs. Rymer and her son. When all had taken their seats, a brief, unpleasant discussion ensued, after which RB is described as “pallid with rage, and his movements, as he swayed backwards and forwards on his chair, were like those of a maniac. At this moment I rose to leave the room, and, passing him, shook hands with Mrs. Browning, who was nearly ready to faint” (Incidents in My Life, pp. 107–108). Evidently referring to Home’s visit to Dorset Street, Mrs. Kinney remarked in her journal that RB “insulted Mr Home in presence of others, & called him ‘an impostor!’ Dear Mrs Browning cried when he did so; for she believes in all these things” (Mrs. Kinney’s Journal, 24 November 1855, ms at Columbia).
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