4494. EBB to Sophia Eckley
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 26, 309–312.
Villa Alberti. Siena.
Tuesday [27 September 1859] [1]
I am very very sorry dearest Sophie, to hear of your being unwell, .. & of poor little Do being unwell too. These colds are sad fore-thoughts of winter & terribly out of place. Courage. By the time this pity of mine reaches you, there will no evil more be left to pity, I do hope– May you be all well, and dry & warm in the sun, .. which blazes somewhat too hotly with us today, whatever it may do with you.
And Mrs Bruen who writes to me by this same post, talks of not removing to the house they have taken in Florence, because of the delicious air of the Baths being good for the children. She sees things somewhat differently from you—but then she had not caught cold .. which makes a great difference. In fact, I hear today from Hatty Hosmer who came down by train to give us greeting before she passed to Rome, that Florence is very hot still .. so that we may linger a little where we are– Shall you go to the piazza Carmine [2] before October really?——
I am much better, but have not ceased yet to be an invalid– My strength has come back very slowly, and I remain so thin .. such a mere bundle of sticks—that Mr Powers might have put me into his great work, .. the statue of Webster,—as a symbol of the “States” many & indivisible. [3] Still, people begin to say, I look well—and certainly I do grow better & stronger every day. Only I cant talk, I observe, or make much exertion–
My dear Sophie, as I told you before I believe in the spirits—nor do I mean to express or doubt that spirits have written through you and me– On several occasions also, words have apparently been written in reply to mental questions of mine, and names been given, which could not have been in your mind. But then, observe, they were in my mind—and they were only apparently written as I say: I mean they were legible rather to me than to you .. which means very faintly legible. But in all cases in which long messages were written distinctly from spirits pretending to belong to me, the form of expression was distinctly unlike those beings—in fact, I should say, impossible to them! Again & again, for instance, there have been slight Americanisms,—turns of phrases, which are not usual among the English: which proves nothing whatever against the medium, observe, .. throws not a shadow of suspicion on the medium’s “integrity,” (need I say that?) but was & is an indication to me that my particular spirits were not present or speaking. Certainly, when you have wished to leave off the writing, I have sometimes urged the continuance of the experiments. That is perfectly true. I wished to push the experiments to the utmost extent of the power we had. But you must be aware that beyond a certain line, there was nothing. I had no personal proof of anything but some involuntary writing … which never of itself & without distinct characteristics could satisfy me .. The sounds are twenty times more satisfactory to me, as I have often told you—but the sounds never occurred with us—never; though, with you alone, you said they were always occurring.
You tell me you are sure of my having had communication with spirits belonging to me. How can you possibly be sure, if I am not sure? There has been no testimony worth a straw to me—though I kept my mind open & ready for the possibility to ripen into a certainty– Sometimes for a moment it touched a probability—but never beyond. Do you really think I should have been no more deeply moved than you saw me, if I had believed in the certainty of such presences?– My husband is my witness that I told him at the time, when he asked me the question “whether I believed in certain identities,” .. that “I kept my belief in a balance,—believing in the class of facts, & in the possibility of getting identities proved,—but not considering them proved in my case, so far.”
Always I shall be eager to hear any experience on this subject, which is & must remain one of deep interest to me. But the writing seems to me of no practical use,—at least such writing as you and I produce—and I have made up my mind to try it no more– I think there are spirits who communicate—nay, I believe there are: but the question of identity is quite different, & there is no sort of proof that any spirit connected with myself ever intimated his or her presence through your mediumship, either to you or to me. In fact, I grieve to say that the proof is the other way, as I apprehend it. It is my great loss– Too happy I should be to believe otherwise– For minutes together I have struggled to believe it—but thought has always been too strong for belief & desire.
So much I have said, dearest Sophie, that you may understand where & how the question rests with me. There is nothing to regret in having tried a long series of experiments,—but there would be, if ever I began it over again, after once seeing them to an end.
I think dear Mr Eckley & yourself are quite wise in settling at Florence for the winter– The probabilities of disturbances farther south are obvious, & without some good reason heads of families will not venture to Rome even– I hear that Florence will be full this winter– Only the English are not likely to trust Italy at all– The Cartwrights however are at Siena on their way to Rome, where Mrs Cartwright is to be confined in December I think. [4] Our plans are scarcely fixed. Robert has had a leaning towards being massacred quietly at Palermo, with the English fleet in the offing, to exact satisfactory “compensation” in favor of our remote relatives—but I unreasonably object to this scheme.
I am hungry & thirsty for a revolution in Naples & Sicily—& surely it must come– May God bless you & keep you my dearest Sophie, says Ba.
Robert’s love with mine to dear Mr Eckley & Fanny & Do—to whom Peni’s love goes warmly. How right you are to keep on Miss Verini.
Publication: None traced.
Manuscript: Berg Collection.
1. Dated by EBB’s reference to the Cartwrights in Siena. In letter 4503, RB writes that they arrived a fortnight earlier; that is, 25 September 1859, a Sunday.
2. On 10 October 1859 David Eckley subscribed to Vieusseux’s reading rooms, listing his place of residence as “Casa Bartolini, Carmine.”
3. Hiram Powers’s bronze statue of Daniel Webster (1782–1852) was completed in 1858 and installed the following year on 27 September at the front of the Massachusetts State House in Boston. The statue depicts a standing Webster with his left hand resting on fasces (a bundle of rods—minus the axe), in this case symbolizing the union of individual states.
4. Adelaide Frances Roma (1859–1907), daughter of William Cornwallis Cartwright and his wife, Clementine, was born at Rome on 22 December 1859.
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