4721. EBB to Susan Howard
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 96–97.
Villa Alberti, Siena–
August 14– [1860] [1]
My dear Mrs Howard, [2]
I receive your letter, read it, hold it in my hands, with a sympathy deeply moved. No, we had not heard of your loss [3] —yes, we well remember that lovely & radiant creature, “called up higher” so early in the day—yes, yes, yes, I understand dimly what it must be for you to stand below & see her go, & feel the place where you stand, for ever after sadder– Hearing of such things makes us silent before God. What must it be to experience them?– I have suffered myself very heavy afflictions, but the affliction of the mother I have not suffered, & I shut my eyes to the image of it—.
Only, where Christ brings His cross He brings his presence—& where He is, none are desolate—& there is no room for despair. At the darkest you have felt a Hand through the Dark –– closer perhaps, & tenderer, than any touch dreamt of at noon. As He knows His own, [4] so He knows how to comfort them—using sometimes the very grief itself, & straining it to the sweetness of a peace unattainable to those ignorant of any grief–
Also, it seems to me that a nearer insight into the spiritual world has been granted to this generation, .. so that (by whatever process we have got our conviction) we no longer deal with vague abstractions, half closed half shadows in thinking of departed souls. There is now something warm & still familiar in those Beloveds of ours, to whom we yearn out past the grave—not cold & ghostly as they seemed once, –– but human, sympathetic, with well-known faces– They are not lost utterly to us even on earth– A little farther off—and that is all. Farther off too, in a very low sense–
Quite apart from all foolish “spiritual” (so-called) literature, we find these impressions very generally diffused among theological thinkers of the most calmly reasoning order– The unconscious influence of Swedenborg is certainly to be taken into account. Perhaps something else.
Dear Mrs Howard, how I thank you & how my husband thanks you for your valuable gifts, “crumbs from the table”, [5] thoughts from the teaching of Mr Beecher– [6] We will read them faithfully, & keep them in remembrance of you and .. yours .. as we saw you in Rome. In opening the volumes, [7] I already fall upon fine & thrilling things. They will help me to live, I dare say—and perhaps they will help me, too, to suffer– I am very sad even now—in great anxiety about the illness of a beloved sister in England, and feeling it hard to be patient & trust God from post to post. So foolish am I, you see, of whom you say (how it moves me that you should say it!) that my poems have been worth a little to you at your need.
For Mr Beecher, I have often thought gladly of what you told me (surely it was yourself who told me) that he had expressed some sympathy with me. If you ever hear him express it again, ask him to pray for me.
Of dear Mrs Stowe I have not heard since we parted at Rome & I was over shy to say “Write.”
Dear Mrs Howard, believe how we both deeply thank you for remembering us, & remembering us so—& how we write in most affectionate sympathy with you .. & your husband, .. may I add, while I sign this letter as your true friend
Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
We are at a villa near Siena for the summer heats, but shall return to our Florence home at the close of september–
Publication: Last Poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning, with a Memorial by Theodore Tilton (New York, 1862), pp. 67–69 (in part).
Manuscript: Armstrong Browning Library.
1. Year provided by EBB’s reference to Annie Howard’s death (see note 3 below).
2. Susan Taylor Howard (née Raymond, 1812–1906), wife of John Tasker Howard (1808–88), an American financier.
3. Anstiss (“Annie”) Smith Howard (1839–60), second daughter of John and Susan Howard, died on 6 June at Milan.
4. Cf. John 10:14.
5. Cf. Matthew 15:27.
6. The Howards were members of Henry Ward Beecher’s Congregational church in Brooklyn.
7. Perhaps his Sermons (4 vols., 1859).
___________________
