VIII. To Jane Austen

Madame,--If to the enjoyments of your present state be lacking a view of the
minor infirmities or foibles of men, I cannot but think (were the thought
permitted) that your pleasures are yet incomplete. Moreover, it is certain
that a woman of parts who has once meddled with literature will never wholly
lose her love for the discussion of that delicious topic, nor cease to relish
what (in the cant of our new age) is styled 'literary shop.' For these reasons
I attempt to convey to you some inkling of the present state of that agreeable
art which you, madam, raised to its highest pitch of perfection.

As to your own works (immortal, as I believe), I have but little that is
wholly cheering to tell one who, among women of letters, was almost alone in
her freedom from a lettered vanity. You are not a very popular author: your
volumes are not found in gaudy covers on every bookstall; or, if found, are
not perused with avidity by the Emmas and Catherines of our generation. 'Tis
not long since a blow was dealt (in the estimation of the unreasoning) at your
character as an author by the publication of your familiar letters. The editor
of these epistles, unfortunately, did not always take your witticisms, and he
added others which were too unmistakably his own. While the injudicious were
disap-pointed by the absence of your exquisite style and humour, the wiser
sort were the more convinced of your wisdom. In your letters (knowing your
correspondents) you gave but the small personal talk of the hour, for them
sufficient; for your books you reserved matter and expression which are
imperishable. Your admirers, if not very numerous, include all persons of
taste, who, in your favour, are apt somewhat to abate the rule, or shake off
the habit, which commonly confines them to but temperate laudation.

'T is the fault of all art to seem antiquated and faded in the eyes of the
succeeding generation. The manners of your age were not the manners of to-day,
and young gentlemen and ladies who think Scott 'slow,' think Miss Austen
'prim' and 'dreary.' Yet, even could you return among us, I scarcely believe
that, speaking the language of the hour, as you might, and versed in its
habits, you would win the general admiration. For how tame, madam, are your
characters, especially your favourite heroines! how limited the life which you
knew and described! how narrow the range of your incidents! how correct your
grammar!

As heroines, for example, you chose ladies like Emma, and Elizabeth, and
Catherine: women remarkable neither for the brilliance nor for the degradation
of their birth; women wrapped up in their own and the parish's concerns,
ignorant of evil, as it seems, and unacquainted with vain yearnings and
interesting doubts. Who can engage