4888. EBB to John Ruskin
As published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 29, 107–108.
Rome. 126. Via Felice
[ca. 7] May 1861 [1]
So much for the book as a gift [2] —as a book you will be thanked for it by voices out of number besides mine and my husbands though none are likely to recognize with a more susceptible admiration than we do, the beauty, the truth, the combination of tenderness of detail and height of soul everywhere observable in this as in other works of yours—and what exquisite drawings. You are sad here, very, perhaps when all’s tried the deepest men must be sad or bitter– That touch of divine music to which Artistic natures have access spoils the Street ballad to them at best. T’is hard at best to listen to two tunes at once—and at worst, there’s a dreary, a scarcely tolerable sense of discord between that and this– Sad you may well be sometimes, but hopeless, my dear Friend, you have no need to be, you ought not to be, you must not be. God over all is Hope over all– He holds the worlds in the hollow of His hand– Nothing of the handfull hangs without, not one of your “leaves.” I believe in the existence of a grand comprehensive harmony– (Surely the permission to evil is a condition of human liberty). What grows more and more distinct to me is that what men call “analogy” (between the Natural and the Spiritual) is a real connection and correspondence. “What if earth be but the shadow of heaven” [3] —as Milton wrote? what if every blade of grass have a special & eternal significance? Earth then is full of profound intentions, and such expositers of visible beauty as yourself stand still higher than they know.
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Italy will do well, notwithstanding some troubles at Naples and poor, noble, passionate Garibaldi’s want of large intelligence. My hopes continue strong and reasonable I think—the question of Rome is a question of time merely, not of intention on the part of the Emperor—and Cavour knows this perfectly. Let France go and another door is open to Austria—therefore it is supposed that Europe will be relieved from the actual state of suspense as to war or no war before a French evacuation of Rome takes place. Is it possible that war can be avoided between Italy and Austria for a year? Reasons of finance as well as of passion seem against it–
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I drop Italian lyrics out of my vial drop by drop still for America, who has sympathies for Italy notwithstanding her own crisis which might well be absorbing. I look for good from it, I– Do you call me a “Hopeful”?—by a female branch? I saw the other day a private letter from Francis Newman, in which he said a thing which struck me– He had tried in vain, he said, to see the hand of God in the fate of nations only within the last two years he had actually seen it. Coming from such a man, it struck me.
Publication: DeLaura, 341–342.
Source: Copy in unidentified hand at Pierpont Morgan Library.
1. Approximate date based on Ruskin’s reply in letter 4895, where he writes: “I have your letter this morning.”
2. Modern Painters, Vol. 5 (see letter 4866, note 12).
3. Cf. Paradise Lost, V, 574–575.
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