anguine hopes disappointed. Excuse me if I again remark
that I fear they are rather _too_ sanguine; it would be better to
moderate them. What will the critics of the monthly reviews and
magazines be likely to see in _Jane Eyre_ (if indeed they deign to
read it), which will win from them even a stinted modicum of
approbation? It has no learning, no research, it discusses no
subject of public interest. A mere domestic novel will, I fear, seem
trivial to men of large views and solid attainments.

'Still, efforts so energetic and indefatigable as yours ought to
realise a result in some degree favourable, and I trust they will.--I
remain, dear sir, yours respectfully,

'C. BELL.

'_October_ 28_th_, 1847.

'I have just received the _Tablet_ and the _Morning Advertiser_.
Neither paper seems inimical to the book, but I see it produces a
very different effect on different natures. I was amused at the
analysis in the _Tablet_, it is oddly expressed in some parts. I
think the critic did not always seize my meaning; he speaks, for
instance, of "Jane's inconceivable alarm at Mr. Rochester's repelling
manner." I do not remember that.'

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'_December_ 11_th_, 1847.

'DEAR SIR,--I have delayed writing to you in the hope that the parcel
you sent would reach me; but after making due inquiries at the
Keighley, Bradford, and Leeds Stations and obtaining no news of it, I
must conclude that it has been lost.

'However, I have contrived to get a sight of _Fraser's Magazine_ from
another quarter, so that I have only to regret Mr. Home's kind
present. Will you thank that gentleman for me when you see him, and
tell him that the railroad is to blame for my not having acknowledged
his courtesy before?

'Mr. Lewes is very lenient: I anticipated a degree of severity which
he has spared me. This notice differs from all the other notices.
He must be a man of no ordinary mind: there is a strange sagacity
evinced in some of his remarks; yet he is not always right. I am
afraid if he knew how much I write from intuition, how little from
actual knowledge, he would think me presumptuous ever to have written