4663. EBB to Arabella Moulton-Barrett
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 27, 310–314.
[Rome]
May 7– [1860] [1]
My dearest dear Arabel I shall begin a letter to you. I am going soon to write to my dearest George whose secession from the communion of Lawyers has struck me with astonishment, & some .. what shall I say?—not grief, if the over-work is bad for his health,—(my dear George!.) but with sadness at least, that his health should be found not strong enough for the work– [2] If he had fallen on his feet into some good office, to which a law education & antecedents are necessary, .. I should not be sorry, or at any rate not so sorry. Well—that may come. Meanwhile, I am afraid that fishing wont be found enough occupation to retire comfortably upon– You had better take him, my darling, and carry him off here,––only the summer might be over-hot for both of you– I fear to press it– You, too, seem to me retiring from public life, under pressure of dear Mr Stratten’s wrongs [3] —& I agree with you, Arabel, that they are wrongs, that it is very ungrateful, very hard, and that your indignation is no more than natural & righteous. When I wondered at your leaving the chapel, it was in ignorance of certain facts– Much of disagreement arises from ignorance on one side. Now I dont wonder any more. Also I agree with you on the prevalence of hypocrisy. That, with self-complacency & selfishness, make up your national sins in England. Other countries have plenty of their own, but these in a much less degree, be certain.
You will tell me how Mr Stratten [is] & where he will establish himself. Wont this make a certain difference in your plans?– You catch me up too seriously when you understand me to mean that ecclesiastical vexations in Paddington were likely to pitch you forward into Swedenborgianism or any other ism– I dont consider so insultingly concerning any grave thoughts of yours; & I spoke quite playfully, pray believe. As to me, if I were in London & Mr Stratten preached anywhere, I would willingly go with you to sit at his feet,—and yet with any church of which he would be pastor, I should not certainly be agreed on all points– It is true. Moreover I fancy, fancy, fancy, that Mr Stratten himself has certain ideas which he would not dare express from the pulpit, & in which I might sympathize. I say this because he has thought & felt much & does not receive all from tradition in or out of a dissenting church.
In fact, you know what my impression is, that, ecclesiastically speaking, the world is living just now upon eggshells & nutshells,—the scholastic crusts of dogmas, out of which the essential life has departed. I would as soon worship God in one visible church as another, .. and sooner in ‘that mountain!’—and He may be worshipped in spirit & in truth everywhere. [4] As for the visible churches, each of them gains something & loses something. The worst of the church of Rome is, that it feeds its sucking souls with oil of poppies, to prevent their crying or … growing. But all of you swaddle tightly, & are afraid of too much healthy movement– And I believe you to be very greatly wrong in much. For my part, & with all my strong feeling against Romanism, I would rather believe in seven sacraments (or seventy seven) than in the doctrine of election as expounded in Protestant churches,—or in that other doctrine, equally received by Romanist & protestant, of arbitrary punishment by eternal torture .. You know how I feel in respect to that.
But I do want to set you right about poor Mrs Stowe—for, in my haste that day, I gave you a very false impression. Whoever is a hypocrite, she is not– Have you read her last book the “Minister’s Wooing.”? [5] But that is a transcript of American society & religious opinions—& you can see in the book itself that she does not hold for herself what she sees & presents. A woman of a deep Christian experience, she appears to me, & without bands in her life. That she holds passionately by Christ the Head, you feel in her– She is simple & undemonstrative, but earnest, very– As she left this room for Naples, she quoted to me the phrase of a Christian woman—(the sister of the emperor of Austria) [6] to a friend … “Those who love the Lord Jesus Christ never part for the last time”– She quoted it earnestly, & kissed me. I should be sorry to be the cause of your mistrusting her. She is very little bound by church-traditions. She told me that her husband [7] called her half a catholic & half a Fourierist– Half is not whole. Half it was her husband’s jest, too. When we compared notes I found that while we agreed much she went farther in some points than I did, on some, not quite so far. She felt inclined to believe for instance that at the end of things, there would be a restitution of the literal body. She believes that regeneration from first to last may take place after death (an opinion neither catholic nor protestant.) and she believes I think in universal salvation after time. These two last points may be true, but they dont seem to be revealed in any reliable degree. I confine myself to the belief that a moment’s turning of the soul is enough for a beginning, here, & that the whole of a saint’s regeneration may be developped out of that seed hereafter. The intermediate state, you see, is held by us both,—& therefore the need of prayer for the dead is. You dont pray for the dead, simply because you believe death to be final for each individual,—otherwise, according to your own principles, you wd pray. We agreed that it was monstrous to suppose that the removal of a friend into the next room (& to us death is scarcely more) was either to suppress the communion of saints, if our friend loved the Lord with us, or deprive him of our prayers, if he did not– Consider this, Arabel!– What, if all the constituted churches of protestant Christendom by refusing to pray with & for the dead should be schismatic from the great Invisible Church outside of this natural plane? The Communion of saints [8] is not recognized by any of you .. except among embodied saints: & Who taught you to make that schism between the living & the dead? & how is it to be justified?
The church of Rome holds the truth & corrupts it .. as is her usual way with truths! Protestantism, to get away from the corruption, gets away from the truth too–
I have had a very kind letter from Mr Forster [9] —did I tell you? about my book. I should be astonished, he says, if I could feel how much he agrees with me in the book .. though he differs about Napoleon– He praises poetry & preface, & swears that his hand should have dropped off rather than have written against such a book such things as have been written in England.– As to Mr Chorley, after rifle-firing on both sides, I wrote to forgive him [10] —but Robert is furious still, & comforts himself over what he calls my “cheap magnanimity” by fancying that it will vex poor Chorley more than if I had been worse-tempered. “Coals of fire,” [11] thinks Robert chuckling. You see Robert has in his head that it was a complex piece of malignity on Chorley’s part—that he had been vexed by something I had said of a book of his, [12] & avenged himself by an invention. Not a word of which do I believe—— Except that certainly I was unfortunate enough to make some observations which did not please him, on the book he dedicated to me, even while I thanked him affectionately for that compliment. But he is absolutely incapable of an untruth. Of that I am sure. Nor do I doubt his having felt much pain through the mistake about the ‘Curse’ poem– “Greater pain” he says, “than from any event in his literary life.” Also, the correction [13] (which annoyed me much more than the original sin) was not his doing & shaping. So it was not hard for me to be friends–
From America, arrives just now a review which I must send you [14] —and I want you to let George see it– Yes—they are very generous, that people!—it is a pity that in reading my verses they should do it through their noses .. as in Mrs Inglis’s case, [15] by your account– See how different in generosity is the bearing of the American public, though they are accused of being “thin-skinned.”! I hear on all sides that my book is received with warm applause, .. to say nothing of literary propositions in consequence of it– I send off today to America two new poems, (one .. “Victor Emmanuel entering Florence” ..) [16] from seven to eight stanzas each of them,—for which two lyrics .. I mean, for their merely passing through a periodical into my next edition [17] .. for a few days use of them therefore, .. some forty five pounds English money, are to be paid down to me.
But the best set-off to my miss of the English Championship (I wish Tom Sayers joy of the Belt, & you all of Tom Sayers) [18] is the following extract from an American paper which reached us yesterday. We hear that it has gone like wild-fire “from Georgia to Maine”– And now read & judge. Its an extract from an “Our correspondent’s” letter from Rome. [19]
“What a contrast to old Beppo* is another figure one is almost sure to meet on his little pony at four or five in the afternoon in the same vicinity, the Pincian! With his long light curls, and his gay little cap with a red feather stuck in the side, I do not know a more interesting sight or a more lovely boy. As he trots up the avenue with his father, or followed by his groom, all who know him delight to greet him– His mother wrote ‘Aurora Leigh’ and his father is the author of ‘Paracelsus,’ but no one could meet young Browning as an entire stranger, without recognizing in him a boy of fine manners and most gentle breeding. His musical skill is certainly very remarkable, playing as he does, the piano forte at the age of ten, with great taste & accuracy– Those who know him best, love him most, not only for his parents’ sake but for his own admirable qualities. A charming portrait of the little fellow on his favorite pony has just been painted by Hamilton Wild, who has done it exquisitely, as he does everything he puts upon canvas.”
*Old Beppo is a famous beggar at Rome.
Is’nt that a set off for me against twenty Saturday Reviewers, & a hundred & twenty Blackwoods?– I think so, indeed. In fact it has made me preposterously conceited–
Tell me, darling Arabel, if I make you pay double
<…> [20]
excommunicate me, dear. Think of Pen daring to say to the Abbé when a week ago the weather was wet, “I suppose its the excommunications. [21] The prophet says that a curse begins, at the Curser’s own house.” Was’nt that clever & impertinent? But our abbé is very good—. How is dear Minny? My love to her. Be strong & happy & love me–
Your own Ba.
Best love to the Hedleys– Tell me of them.
Publication: EBB-AB, II, 460–465.
Manuscript: Gordon E. Moulton-Barrett.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to the “correction” published in The Athenæum; see letter 4645, note 2.
2. According to Henrietta’s daughter, Mary Altham (née Cook), George left the legal profession because of deafness: “His career was sadly hampered by his tendency to deafness, which at last compelled him to withdraw altogether from the bar (“I Remember: Recollections of Mary Altham,” ms in private collection).
4. Cf. John 4:21–23.
6. Unidentified. Franz Josef, Emperor of Austria, had no living sisters. Perhaps, EBB refers to one of his many sisters-in-law.
7. Calvin Ellis Stowe (see letter 4642, note 24).
8. The phrases “communion of saints” and “the living and the dead” are taken from the Apostles’ Creed.
11. Proverbs 25:22.
12. Roccabella; see letter 4524.
15. Bessie Inglis (née English, afterwards Young, 1818–1903), a lecturer on women’s and literary subjects. Arabella may have heard Mrs. Inglis read EBB's poetry the previous month. The Athenæum of 14 April 1860 ran the following advertisement: “Readings from Mrs. E. B. Browning’s Poems, at Willis’s Rooms, St. James’s—On Saturday Morning, April 21. Mrs. Bessie Inglis will give Readings from the Works of Mrs. Browning, including her new poem ‘Napoleon III. in Italy’” (no. 1694, p. 489). Mrs. Inglis was born at Portsea, Hampshire, and died at Exmouth, Devonshire. Her obituary in The Englishwoman’s Review of 15 January 1904 stated that she was “an early pioneer in women’s work, and one of the first lady lecturers” (p. 65).
17. i.e., a second edition of Poems Before Congress, which was never issued.
19. EBB has transcribed in full a paragraph from a report headed “[Foreign Correspondence of the Transcript.] Rome, Monday, March 19” in the Boston Daily Evening Transcript of 20 April 1860, p. 2.
20. The remainder of the manuscript is missing, except for the following text written along the edges and top of the first page.
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