eriodicals she first mentioned will be
sufficient for advertising in at present, as the authors do not wish to
lay out a larger sum than two pounds in advertising, esteeming the
success of a work dependent more on the notice it receives from
periodicals than on the quantity of advertisements. In case of any
notice of the poems appearing, whether favourable or otherwise, Messrs.
Aylott and Co. are requested to send her the name and number of those
periodicals in which such notices appear; as otherwise, since she has not
the opportunity of seeing periodicals regularly, she may miss reading the
critique. "Should the poems be remarked upon favourably, it is my
intention to appropriate a further sum for advertisements. If, on the
other hand, they should pass unnoticed or be condemned, I consider it
would be quite useless to advertise, as there is nothing, either in the
title of the work, or the names of the authors, to attract attention from
a single individual."

I suppose the little volume of poems was published some time about the
end of May, 1846. It stole into life; some weeks passed over, without
the mighty murmuring public discovering that three more voices were
uttering their speech. And, meanwhile, the course of existence moved
drearily along from day to day with the anxious sisters, who must have
forgotten their sense of authorship in the vital care gnawing at their
hearts. On June 17th, Charlotte writes:--

"Branwell declares that he neither can nor will do anything for himself;
good situations have been offered him, for which, by a fortnight's work,
he might have qualified himself, but he will do nothing except drink and
make us all wretched."

In the "Athenaeum" of July 4th, under the head of poetry for the million,
came a short review of the poems of C., E., and A. Bell. The reviewer
assigns to Ellis the highest rank of the three "brothers," as he supposes
them to be; he calls Ellis "a fine, quaint spirit;" and speaks of "an
evident power of wing that may reach heights not here attempted." Again,
with some degree of penetration, the reviewer says, that the poems of
Ellis "convey an impression of originality beyond what his contributions
to these volumes embody." Currer is placed midway between Ellis and
Acton. But there is little in the review to strain out, at this distance
of time, as worth preserving. Still, we can fancy with what interest it
was read at Haworth Parsonage, and how the sisters wo