later to Scotland, where she found Edinburgh "compared to London
like a vivid page of history compared to a dull treatise on political
economy; as a lyric, brief, bright, clean, and vital as a flash of
lightning, compared to a great rumbling, rambling, heavy epic."

She was in London again in 1851, and was dismayed by the attempts to
lionise her. "Villette," written in a constant fight against ill-health,
was published in 1853, and was received with one burst of acclamation.
This brought to a close the publication of Charlotte's life-time.

The personal interest of the two last years of Charlotte Bronte's life
centres on her relations with her father's curate, the Rev. A.B.
Nicholls. In 1853, he asked her hand in marriage. He was the fourth man
who had ventured on the same proposal. Her father disapproved, and Mr.
Nicholls resigned his curacy. Next year, however, her father relented.
Mr. Nicholls again took up the curacy, and the marriage was celebrated
on June 29, 1854. Henceforward the doors of home are closed upon her
married life.

On March 31, 1855, she died before she had attained to motherhood, her
last recorded words to her husband being: "We have been so happy." Her
life appeals to that large and solemn public who know how to admire
generously extraordinary genius, and how to reverence all noble virtue.

* * * * *

EDWARD GIBBON

Memoirs

Gibbon's autobiography was published in 1796, two years after
his death, by his friend, Lord Sheffield, under the title
"Miscellaneous Works of Edward Gibbon, Esq., with Memoirs of
His Life and Writings, Composed by Himself." "After completing
his history," says Mr. Birrell, "Gibbon had but one thing left
him to do in order to discharge his duty to the universe. He
had written a magnificent history of the Roman Empire; it
remained to write the history of the historian. It is a most
studied performance, and may be boldly pronounced perfect. It
is our best, and best known, autobiography." That the writing
was studied is shown by the fact that six different sketches
were left in Gibbon's handwriting, and from all these the
published memoirs were selected and put together. The memoir
was briefly completed by Lord Sheffield. Bagehot described the
book as "the most imposing of domestic narratives." Truly, it
was impossible for Gibbon to doff his dignity, b