4876. EBB to James Jackson Jarves
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 80–83.
Rome. 126 Via Felice.
April 20. [1861] [1]
My dear Mr Jarves, I hear from Villa Bricchieri that you are a little vexed with me for the ingratitude of my silence towards your kind & welcome letter– Do forgive me, & understand how this has happened. When I ought to have written at first, I was very unwell & depressed,—under the influence of a great affliction, [2] —& feeling no courage to write at all except where the necessity was strong– And afterwards, just as the inclination came, I heard that you were to be in Florence in April—in order to which, you might leave the United States in march & miss any word from hence– As soon as I hear that you stay on for the present in America, behold me writing!—and pray, pray put out of your head that I am capable of being unthankful for a letter of yours, past, present or to come–
I send you one of the photographs you asked for. [3] Mine were long ago given away, and through a destructive mistake, we are not able to get a repetition of them– I have been a good deal shut up this winter—out, only twice—but we mean to try the photographer here again before leaving Rome,—and if there is a success, I will remember your wish, be certain. [4] Meanwhile, I think you will be satisfied with this transcript of my husband, I like it myself so very much.
Your letter was most interesting to me. What are these new drawings, produced in a moment, after certain washings in wine & mystical breathings? in New York, I think? Of course I hear suggestions about chemical preparations favorable to juggleries—but an impartial committee seems to have taken account of the matter in a believing sense. I read of it in the English “Spiritual Magazine” [5] .. By the way, the subject makes wind in England. Think of Thackeray admitting an article written in the faith, by Robert Bell, and answering for the writer’s honesty “after an acquaintance of twenty years”–! [6] Thackeray’s courage deserves much honor, I consider. He has been blamed for improper tolerance. Dickens treats the subject safely from the height of a jest, of course– But I observe generally that the English press, though sceptical & negative, no longer ventures to ignore the whole movement– Hume seems to have settled in London. Is it true, do you fancy, that he fell into suspicion & disgrace at the Tuilleries? The story is told in Paris—and also that one of his shoes (full of machinery!) was found, after he had been kicked out– I dont ask you if that’s true—because it cant be. Of Squires [7] we hear unsatisfactory accounts, also from Paris,––that for a certain number of years he has performed only one trick with a table!! The trick’s a good one: and he thought it worth while to “concentrate himself”: but he can do it with only one table … which he proposes carrying to the Tuilleries, if the Emperor should enquire after him—! Now these things are so highly unsatisfactory, that I suspect the enemy of the invention of them. A medium whose powers are confined to one trick & one table, I should always be ready <tabula rasà> [8] to deliver over to my husband’s tender mercies– Would’nt you?
Our Italy, dear Mr Jarves, is nearly made—though I fear we shall have a struggle for Venetia before we end. As to Rome, my information as well as my instincts make me hopeful & trustful. There have been great difficulties,—and even now there are dangers– But the intentions of LN. have been always true to Italy—& the more we touch facts, the more we get proofs of this. There are troubles blown in the eyes of us from Naples: the populations there, are less intelligent than elsewhere: but many of the statements are over-statements, and I believe in ultimate union & agreement even in the south of our peninsula–
Do you think that these political anxieties have not, in my mind, been mixed with others about America?– My only fears .. not my only sadness .. but my only fear for you has been of an unworthy compromise on the part of the north. If the north stands firm & keeps the high moral ground, the best men of the world will give you their best honor, .. though half your states seceded as a consequence. [9] God will not secede—nor will the sympathy of such human creatures as believe in God and virtue– I hope there may be such even in corrupted Europe—men who look more eagerly into the conscience than into the tariff [10] for their motives of judgement.
Judge Edmonds in a late letter in the Eng Spiritual Mag. claims for spiritualism the increase among you of anti-slavery feeling. [11] Is it true, do you think?
I am glad & interested about your pictures. May your expectations be all realized–! How dreadful this news is of poor Mr Clark! [12] — Mr Story has finished a very fine statue of the Nubian Sybil. It is considered by far his greatest work. I see praises of your book even in the cynical Saturday Review [13] .. Saturday Reviler, as people call it. Isa Blagden has printed a novel, which is much commended, & which I have not yet had the good luck to read. Books are slow in getting to Rome. One pays the price of the mild climate–
We remain here till somewhat late in May & then we return to Florence for a few weeks on our way for a visit of three months to Paris or its neighbourhood. Pray dont desert Italy. It would be hard on us. Write to Florence. If you don’t I shall set you down as unforgiving. Nay, there would be time for a reply to this even at Rome, supposing you were generous.
Publication: Francis Steegmuller, The Two Lives of James Jackson Jarves (New Haven, Connecticut, 1951), pp. 196–197 (in part).
Manuscript: Yale University.
1. Year provided by reference to the return address; 1861 was the only year the Brownings resided at 126 Via Felice in April.
2. The death of Henrietta Cook on 23 November 1860.
3. Preserved at Yale with this letter are two photographs: one of EBB with Pen standing at her right side (variant B), which is reproduced in vol. 28, facing p. 48; and the other of RB standing with his right hand on a table, reproduced in vol. 28, facing p. 304. We have been unable to identify the photograph lost “through a destructive mistake.” In letter 4892, EBB tells Arabella that the photograph’s negative was “destroyed.”
4. Also at Yale is Jarves’s copy of a photograph of EBB taken in Rome on 27 May 1861 (variant A). A copy of this photograph is reproduced facing p. 176.
5. EBB refers to an article in The Spiritual Magazine for April 1861 (pp. 177–180), reprinted from the Herald of Progress (New York), that discusses “mysterious drawings” made “through the mediumship of Mrs. French. … In a fully-lighted room, in the presence of many observers, common drawing-paper has been handed to the medium, cut in such a manner as to give a large sheet with a counterpart check. The checks being given to the company, the several sheets have been taken by the medium, openly washed in some acid liquid, dried by rolling, wiping, and breathing upon them; and, by holding pencils over them, or by inserting in them, when rolled, bits of paper blackened with crayons, pictures have been produced of exquisite taste and delicacy” (p. 177). The incredulous suppose that “the pictures, being sketched by the medium in some invisible chemical, previous to the sitting, were brought out by washing the paper in acid liquids” (pp. 177–178). To counter this charge a public demonstration was arranged for the evening of 23 January 1861. There were 74 ladies and gentlemen present. “A committee of three was appointed by the audience to go out into the street and purchase [drawing] paper,” and instead of an acid liquid, water, “drawn from the hydrant in the corner of the room,” was used to wash the paper. The demonstration was carried out successfully, the pictures produced being “mostly admirable as artistic efforts” (p. 178–179).
7. John Rollin M. Squire (1836–99); see letter 4809, note 11.
8. Interpolated above the line.
9. Eight of the eleven states of the Confederacy had seceded by the date of this letter, Virginia being the latest on 17 April. Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina seceded the following month.
11. In a letter dated 30 December 1860, John Worth Edmonds (1799–1874), former New York Supreme Court Justice, wrote: “We number two or three millions of Spiritualists in the United States; and I suppose, without an exception, every elector among us has quietly gone into the Anti-Slavery ranks, whatever may have been his previous party attachments. It required no organization to do this; there was no necessity for making a formal appeal to them: the principles of our faith did the work in each man’s heart” (The Spiritual Magazine, March 1861, pp. 106–107).
12. Unidentified.
13. Jarves’s Art Studies: The “Old Masters” of Italy; Painting (New York, 1861) was reviewed in The Saturday Review of 30 March 1861 (pp. 321–323). Although the reviewer thought that Jarves followed a well-worn path, “there are many proofs of an independent and generally sound judgment; and his views of art, though eclectic, are such as we can generally endorse.”
___________________
