The Nevada journal., 1856-03-28
Female !Literature.- Jane Eyre.
A sketch of lecture delivered before
the Lowell Institute, Boston, by G. w.
Curtis. author of the Potinhar Paners


the Lowell Institute, Boston, by G. w
Curtis, author of the Potiphar Papers
We must have read to little purpose, il
we had not seen that woman in modern
society who has a strong character, fine
and fastidious taste, nature that demands
scope, and heart capable of making the
love OF woman become poetry and the
substance of history-feels the want of a
career. Most women married, and sought
it there. Other women took to literature
and called upon the world to ssstand and
deliver" sympathy, as reduced gentlemen
in old time took to the road, and deman-
ded our money. Many pined in apathy
and yet this great sadness, this tragedy of
the female heart did not get into literature
till lately, and that was the greatest won
der of all. Did we suppose it was only
benevolenee sent Florence Nightingale TO
the Crimea ? She was chafng with unoc-
cupied powers, till this opportunity was
presented to her yearning heart. Mr..
Curtis paid an eloquent tribute to her hu-
manity, mentioning also in phrase of high
est compliment Margaret Fuller.
He was fully aware of the Mrs. Grundy
view of this. He knew that anxious lady
wished to know if we would wish our Sis
ters and mothers to do those things. No.
Mrs. Grundy would like our sisters to
wear their bonnets low in the neck, and a
large hoop in the skirt to say 'who are
those people ?'-she would like them to
cpaok EroDob ord Ito1;o,, o,,l
ing of life-would think it wrong to be
absent from church because it was respec-
table to attend-to make sensible, not ro-
mantle marriages-to live in house more
splendid than our neighbors be very cross
to the servants, and sing sweetly at charity
concerts behind the curtains. Laughter
and applause.) That, we thought, would
be lady-like and feminine. That was our
ideal of character for our sisters; and as
forpoor Florence Nightingale, Evangeline,
and Ossoli, they were only ladies for
knights like Sir Philip Sidney and the
Chevalier Bayard to love, and bards like
Shakespeare and Milton to sing. The re-
ligious democracy which claims that a wo-
man shall be honored as woman, even as
as man is as man, found its development
in the most searching novel ever written,
the "Jane Eyre" of Charlotte Bronte, or
Currer Bell.
Is woman the most beautiful creation.
and is genius the most dazzling power in
the world !; and when they are united.
could we fail to- bow and do homage? Had
we not tear for this woman, as well as
crown for this author? Should that sad
short, solitary life end so soon, and the
promise and hope of great performance
end suddenly forever and we fling no
flower upon the grave? Who had read
Jane Eyre, who had not and should that
eye be closed and we not feel the dark
ness
Nearly forty years ago an Irish clergy
man married a girl against the will of her
relations and took curacy in solitary
mountainous district in Yorkshire. The
Rev. Patrick Bronte led a solitary life,
and was great student. His wife died
early, and left him six children. Two of
them died, but two sisters and a brother
remained. The daughters went to school
for the daughters of poor clergymen, a
kind of Do.the-girls hall, and there suffered
as Smike did under Squeers. They long
ed for food which the physicians who test
ed it threw away as unfit to eat; and the
youngest child was dwarfed by severe pri-
walton. From school they returned home.
The Reverend Patrick Bronte still kept in
his study, and did not even eat with the
family, Gndeed, the food was hardly worth
coming down stairs for.) At the age of
nineteen, Charlotte says she would have
been content with penny week but on
one occasion, when she asked her father
for small sum, he looked at her with
great astonishment, and asked what wo-
man wanted with money. Oaughter.)
Charlotte and her sisters became COVER
nesses. The three afterwards lived to-
gether. "You cannot have heroine in
teresting, ifshe is not beautiful - said two
of the pale, pining sisters. 81 will make
a small pale woman an interesting hero
inc, said the smallest, youngest sister OF
all. So they agreed they would each
write story; and they read and talked
them over with each other. Charlotte
was near-sighted, and wrote in small
square paper book, which she held near
to her eyes. The fire of feeling consumed
her, and, hurried on by the interest of the
story, she fell into fever.
The Rev. Patrick Bronte knew nothing
of the literary revolution that was going
on in his front entry! He worshipped
books, and had moderate respect for
women. He did not know that his dargh.
ter was writing one ofthe most remarka-
BILE books of the age. The three books
were published. They were all in the
same strain, and dealt with English coun-
try life. When these novels were an
nounced, the fact was beginning to be sur
missed that English rural life was not all
lawns, and picturesque mansions; all these
books, more clearly than any English sto-
ries ever written. clearly revealed the deep
shade to the otherwise lovely picture of