SD2393. Euphrasia Fanny Haworth to Editor of The Spiritual Magazine
Published in The Brownings’ Correspondence, 28, 355–356.
[?Paris]
[August 1860]
Sir,
I cannot resist saying a word in defence of my admired and beloved friend, Mrs. Browning, who is selected by Mr. Howitt in his able and brilliant essay, as an example of the earth-plane in modern poetry.
Although in a foot-note Mr. Howitt acknowledges the mistake of having taken the Curse for a Nation to mean England, not America, he does not appear cognisant of the fact that this poem was written several years ago for an anti-slavery association, and was without further explanation placed in this collection.
As to Mrs. Browning’s admiration of Louis Napoleon, it is founded on a generous and noble enthusiasm, even if a mistaken one; she believes his policy to mean what she makes him say in her Tale of Villa Franca—
“The world is many, I am one,
My great deed was too great;
God’s fruit of justice ripens slow,
Men’s souls are narrow, let them grow,
My brothers, we must wait.”
When Mr. Howitt says that Mrs. Browning has changed and lowered her style since her earlier poems, he surely cannot include in this criticism Aurora Leigh as a proof of the change. He has not indeed named it; but surely such passages as those to which I would call his attention, do not emanate from the inspiration from below. I quote almost at hazard; for one cannot open a page of this truly great work, without opening up some stream of the fulness of intellect and poesy within,
“Without the spiritual, observe,
The natural’s impossible;—no form,
No motion! Without sensuous, spiritual
Is inappreciable;—no beauty or power!
And in this twofold sphere the twofold man
(And still the artist is intensely a man)
Holds firmly by the natural, to reach
The spiritual beyond it,—fixes still
The type with mortal vision, to pierce through,
With eyes immortal, to the antitype
Some call the ideal,—better called the real,
And certain to be called so presently
When things shall have their names.”
Again:—
“For we stand here, we,
If genuine artists, witnessing for God’s
Complete, consummate, undivided work:
—That not a natural flower can grow on earth,
Without a flower upon the spiritual side,
Substantial, archetypal, all a-glow
With blossoming causes.”
But I refrain from further observations at present, and would only remind Mr. Howitt, that Elizabeth Barrett Browning is not only a decided believer in Spiritualism from the very earliest manifestations, but she is so, under circumstances adverse to belief, in contradiction to the opinions of those around her.
As to her earlier poems, beautiful as they are, and full of spirituality—The Drama of Exile, Isobel’s Child, The Romaunt of Margaret especially so—I believe they were all written long before her belief in Spiritualism was formed.
I feel that I have expressed very inadequately my impression, and offer these remarks very diffidently to one in every way so complete an adept both in the subject he advocates, and in poetry, as Mr. Howitt.
I beg to remain,
dear Sir,
sincerely yours,
ruth.
Text: The Spiritual Magazine, September 1860, pp. 404–405.
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