CHAPTER XIII.

Harrison,

1866.

I HAVE had it in my mind to write to you for many Letter to days, wanting to tell you, yet feeling there might be Frederic some impertinence in doing so, of the delight and 5th Jan. gratitude I felt in reading your article on "Industrial Co-operation." Certain points admirably brought out in that article would, I think, be worth the labor of a life if one could help in winning them thorough recognition. I don't mean that my thinking so is of any consequence, but simply that it is of consequence to me when I find your energetic writing confirm my own faith.

It would be fortunate for us if you had nothing better to do than look in on us on Tuesday evening. Professor Huxley will be with us, and one or two others whom you know, and your presence would make us all the brighter.

1866.

Jan. 9.-Professors Huxley and Beesley, Mr. Bur-Journal, ton, and Mr. Spencer dined with us. Mr. Harrison in the evening.

The ample and clear statement you have sent me Letter to with kind promptness has put me in high spirits-as Harrison, high spirits as can belong to an unhopeful author. 1866. Your hypothetical case of a settlement suits my needs surprisingly well. I shall be thankful to let Sugden alone, and throw myself entirely on your goodness, especially as what I want is simply a basis of legal possibilities and not any command of details. I want to be sure that my chords will not offend a critic accom

304

Mr. Harrison's Legal Help. [THE PRIORY,

Letter to plished in thorough bass-not at all to present an ex

Frederic

Harrison, ercise in thorough bass. 12th Jan.

1866.

Journal,

1866

Letter to
Frederic

22d Jan.

I was going to write you a long story, but, on consideration, it seems to me that I should tax your time less, and arrive more readily at a resolution of my doubts on various points not yet mentioned to you, if you could let me speak instead of writing to you.

On Wednesday afternoons I am always at home; but on any day when I could be sure of your coming I would set everything aside for the sake of a consultation so valuable to me.

Jan. 20. For the last fortnight I have been unusually disabled by ill-health. I have been consulting Mr. Harrison about the law in my book, with satisfactory result.

I had not any opportunity, or not enough presence Harrison, of mind, to tell you yesterday how much I felt your 1866. kindness in writing me that last little note of sympathy.

In proportion as compliments (always beside the mark) are discouraging and nauseating, at least to a writer who has any serious aims, genuine words from one capable of understanding one's conceptions are precious and strengthening.

Yet I have no confidence that the book will ever be worthily written. And now I have something else to ask. It is that if anything strikes you as untrue in cases where my drama has a bearing on momentous questions, especially of a public nature, you will do me the great kindness to tell me of your doubts.

On a few moral points, which have been made clear to me by my experience, I feel sufficiently confidentwithout such confidence I could not write at all. But in every other direction I am so much in need of fuller

1866.]

Reading Comte's "Synthèse."

305

instruction as to be constantly under the sense that I Letter to am more likely to be wrong than right.

Frederic Harrison, 22d Jan.

Hitherto I have read my MS. (I mean of my previ- 1866.

ous books) to Mr. Lewes, by forty or fifty pages at a time, and he has told me if he felt an objection to anything. No one else has had any knowledge of my writings before their publication. (I except, of course, the publishers.)

But now that you are good enough to incur the trouble of reading my MS., I am anxious to get the full benefit of your participation.

Mrs. Con

We arrived here on Tuesday, and have been walk- Letter to ing about four hours each day, and the walks are so greve, 28th Jan. 1866. various that each time we have turned out we have found a new one. George is already much the better for the perfect rest, quiet, and fresh air. Will you give my thanks to Mr. Congreve for the "Synthèse" which I have brought with me and am reading? I expect to understand three chapters well enough to get some edification.

George had talked of our taking the train to Dover to pay you a "morning call." He observes that it would have been a "dreadful sell" if we had done so. Your letter, therefore, was providential-and without doubt it came from a dear little Providence of mine that sits in your heart.

Frederic

31st Jan.

I have received both your precious letters-the sec- Letter to ond edition of the case, and the subsequent note. The Harrison, story is sufficiently in the track of ordinary probability: 1866. and the careful trouble you have so generously given to it has enabled me to feel a satisfaction in my plot which beforehand I had sighed for as unattainable.

There is still a question or two which I shall want to ask you, but I am afraid of taxing your time and

306

[THE PRIORY,

Low Health. Letter to patience in an unconscionable manner. So, since we

Frederic

Harrison, expect to return to town at the end of next week, I 31st Jan.

1866. think I will reserve my questions until I have the

pleasure and advantage of an interview with you, in which pros and cons can be more rapidly determined than by letter. It seems to me that you have fitted my phenomena with a rationale quite beautifully. If there is any one who could have done it better, I am sure I know of no man who would. Please to put your help of me among your good deeds for this year of 1866.

To-day we have resolute rain, for the first time since we came down. You don't yet know what it is to be a sickly wretch, dependent on these skyey influences. But Heine says illness "spiritualizes the members." It had need do some good in return for one's misery. Thanks for your kind letter. Alas! we had chiefly Hennell, bad weather in the country. George was a little benefited, but only a little. He is too far " run down" to be wound up in a very short time. We enjoyed our return to our comfortable house, and, perhaps, that freshness of home was the chief gain from our absence.

Letter to
Miss Sara

12th Feb. 1866.

Journal, 1866.

You see, to counterbalance all the great and good things that life has given us beyond what our fellows have, we hardly know now what it is to be free from bodily malaise.

After the notion I have given you of my health you will not wonder if I say that I don't know when anything of mine will appear. I can never reckon on myself.

March 7.-I am reading Mill's "Logic" again. Theocritus still, and English History and Law.

March 17.-To St. James's Hall hearing Joachim, Piatti, and Hallé in glorious Beethoven music.

1866.]

Writing under Difficulties.

307

Just Letter to

Miss Sara 9th April,

Don't think any evil of me for not writing. now the days are short, and art is long to artists with Hennell, feeble bodies. If people don't say expressly that they 1866. want anything from me, I easily conclude that they will do better without me, and have a good weight of idleness, or, rather, bodily fatigue, which puts itself into the scale of modesty. I torment myself less with fruitless regrets that my particular life has not been more perfect. The young things are growing, and to me it is not melancholy but joyous that the world will be brighter after I am gone than it has been in the brief time of my existence. You see my pen runs into very old reflections. The fact is, I have no details to tell that would much interest you. It is true that I am going to bring out another book, but just when is not certain.

Madame

The happiness in your letter was delightful to me, Letter to as you guessed it would be. See how much better Bodichon, 10th April, things may turn out for all mankind, since they mend 1866. for single mortals even in this confused state of the bodies social and politic.

As soon as we can leave we shall go away, probably to Germany, for six weeks or so. But that will not be till June. I am finishing a book which has been growing slowly, like a sickly child, because of my own ailments; but now I am in the later acts of it I can't move till it is done.

You know all the news, public and private - all about the sad cattle plague, and the reform bill, and who is going to be married and who is dead - so I need tell you nothing. You will find the English world extremely like what it was when you left it-conversation more or less trivial and insincere, literature just now not much better, and politics worse than either.