stow on it also a few words of remark.

'The_ Critic_ and the _Athenaeum_ also gave comments on the work I
allude to. The review in the first-mentioned paper was unexpectedly
and generously eulogistic, that in the _Athenaeum_ more qualified,
but still not discouraging. I mention these circumstances and leave
it to you to judge whether any advantage is derivable from them.

'You dispensed me from the duty of answering your last letter, but my
sense of the justness of the views it expresses will not permit me to
neglect this opportunity both of acknowledging it and thanking you
for it.--Yours sincerely,

'C. BELL.'

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'HAWORTH, _December_ 13_th_, 1847.

'DEAR SIR,--Your advice merits and shall have my most serious
attention. I feel the force of your reasoning. It is my wish to do
my best in the career on which I have entered. So I shall study and
strive; and by dint of time, thought, and effort, I hope yet to
deserve in part the encouragement you and others have so generously
accorded me. But time will be necessary--that I feel more than ever.
In case of _Jane Eyre_ reaching a second edition, I should wish some
few corrections to be made, and will prepare an errata. How would
the accompanying preface do? I thought it better to be brief.

'The _Observer_ has just reached me. I always compel myself to read
the analysis in every newspaper-notice. It is a just punishment, a
due though severe humiliation for faults of plan and construction. I
wonder if the analysis of other fictions read as absurdly as that of
_Jane Eyre_ always does.--I am, dear sir, yours respectfully,

'C. BELL.'

The following letter is interesting because it discusses the rejected
novel, and refers to the project of recasting it, which ended in the
writing of _Villette_. {335}

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'_December_ 14_th_, 1847.

'DEAR SIR,--I have just received your kind and welcome letter of the
11th. I shall proceed at once to discuss the principal subject of
it.

'Of course a second work has occupied my thoughts much. I think it
would