Part 7 (1/2)

The following gracious ansas returned by Mr Clarke, together with a suggestion which must have been received with some surprise:--

'Carlton House, Nov 16, 1815

'DEAR MADAM,--It is certainly not _incumbent_ on you to dedicate your work now in the press to His Royal Highness; but if you wish to do the Regent that honour either now or at any future period I am happy to send you that permission, which need not require any more trouble or solicitation on your part

'Your late works, Madahest honour on your genius and your principles In every neork your y and power of discrient has read and admired all your publications

'Accept iven reat inclination to write and say so

And I also, dear Madam, wished to be allowed to ask you to delineate in some future work the habits of life, and character, and enthusiasyman, who should pass his time between thelike Beattie's Minstrel--

Silent when glad, affectionate tho' shy, And in his looks was hed aloud, yet none knehy

Neither Goldsmith, nor La Fontaine in his ”Tableau de Fayed in literature, no man's enes

'Believe me at all tied servant, 'J S CLARKE, Librarian'

The following letter, written in reply, will sho unequal the author of 'Pride and Prejudice' felt herself to delineating an enthusiastic clergyman of the present day, who should resemble Beattie's Minstrel:--

'Dec 11

'DEAR SIR,--My ”Eht to assure you of otten your kind recommendation of an early copy for Carlton House, and that I have Mr Murray's prohness, under cover to you, three days previous to the work being really out I must make use of this opportunity to thank you, dear Sir, for the very high praise you bestow on my other novels I am too vain to wish to convince you that you have praised thereatest anxiety at present is that this fourth work should not disgrace as good in the others But on this point I will do myself the justice to declare that, whatever ly haunted with the idea that to those readers who have preferred ”Pride and Prejudice” it will appear inferior in wit, and to those who have preferred ”Mansfield Park” inferior in good sense Such as it is, however, I hope you will doa copy Mr

Murray will have directions for sending one I a such a clergyave the sketch of in your note of Nov 16th But I assure you I aht be equal to, but not the good, the enthusiastic, the literary Such a man's conversation must at times be on subjects of science and philosophy, of which I know nothing; or at least be occasionally abundant in quotations and allusions which a woue, and has read little in that, would be totally without the power of giving A classical education, or at any rate a very extensive acquaintance with English literature, ancient and modern, appears to me quite indispensable for the person ould do any justice to your clergyman; and I think I may boast myself to be, with all possible vanity, the most unlearned and uninformed female who ever dared to be an authoress

'Believe ed and faithful humbl Sert

'JANE AUSTEN' {122}

Mr Clarke, however, was not to be discouraged fro another subject He had recently been appointed chaplain and private English secretary to Prince Leopold, as then about to be united to the Princess Charlotte; and when he again wrote to express the gracious thanks of the Prince Regent for the copy of 'Eests that 'an historical ro would just now be very interesting,' and ht very properly be dedicated to Prince Leopold This was reat battle-piece; and it is arave civility she declined a proposal whichletter:--

'MY DEAR SIR,--I aed to yourself for the kind manner in which you e a former letter forwarded to rateful for the friendly tenor of it, and hope my silence will have been considered, as it was truly ness to tax your ti circumstance which your own talents and literary labours have placed you in, or the favour of the Regent bestowed, you have my best wishes Your recent appoint still better In my opinion, the service of a court can hardly be too well paid, for i required by it

'You are very kind in your hints as to the sort of coht recommend me at present, and I am fully sensible that an historical roht be much more to the purpose of profit or popularity than such pictures of does as I deal in But I could no more write a romance than an epic poem I could not sit seriously down to write a serious romance under any other motive than to save my life; and if it were indispensable foratbefore I had finished the first chapter No, I h I ain in that, I am convinced that I should totally fail in any other

'I reed, and sincere friend, 'J AUSTEN

'Chawton, near Alton, April 1, 1816'

Mr Clarke should have recollected the warning of the wise man, 'Force not the course of the river' If you divert it froht it to flow, and force it into one arbitrarily cut by yourself, you will lose its grace and beauty

But when his free course is not hindered, He entle kiss to every sedge He overtaketh in his pilgri sport

All writers of fiction, who have genius strong enough to work out a course of their own, resist every attempt to interfere with its direction No triters could be more unlike each other than Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte; so much so that the latter was unable to understand why the former was admired, and confessed that she herself 'should hardly like to live with her ladies and gentleant but confined houses;' but each writer equally resisted interference with her own natural style of composition Miss Bronte, in reply to a friendly critic, who had warned her against being too melodramatic, and had ventured to propose Miss Austen's works to her as a study, writes thus:--

'Whenever I _do_ write another book, I think I will have nothing of what you call ”melodrama” I _think_ so, but I am not sure I _think_, too, I will endeavour to follow the counsel which shi+nes out of Miss Austen's ”mild eyes,” to finish more, and be more subdued; but neither am I sure of that When authors write best, or, at least, when they write most fluently, an influence seems to waken in the out of view all behests but its own, dictating certain words, and insisting on their being used, whether veheiving unthought of turns to incidents, rejecting carefully elaborated old ideas, and suddenly creating and adopting new ones Is it not so? And should we try to counteract this influence?

Can we indeed counteract it?' {126}