The times., 1899-11-26
4 study in Personality.

S150)
4 study in Personality.
"A Study of Elizabeth Barrett Brown
ing, by Lillian Whiting, viii Immediately
suggest the thought-eyeu before it is read
that here is a book which it is eminent
fitting should be given to the world by the
author from whose hand it comes. Miss
Whiting has one particularly good qcah-
fcation for the work which she has un-
deTtakCn she is temperamentally in sym
pathy with her subject. She has mang
mental traits in common with that fra
extraordinary, pheromenally gifted woman
who startled the world Of the ffties into
the realization that a post need not neces-
sarily be a man. Another qua ihcation
which Miss Whiting has for the treatmen-
of this particular subject comes thIoIgh
her intimacy with Kate Field, who kne
Mrs Browning well There is almost as
much of Miss Field as Of the poet in this
little book, but that Will not make II the
less interesting, especially TO Americans.
There is considerable mysticism in tae
writer's view, but that viii not surpris
the readers of THE World Beautiful,
and other books by her, nor is it out OF
place in a study of woman so thoroughly
spirituele-the French word seems more
fitting than the maltreated English adie2-
tive-as Elizabeth Barrett Browning.
An example of the way in which wO
man of intense imaginative and emotional
nature understands another woman of like
temperament may be found very early in
this little work. The author says:
It was this high and intense spiritual quality
that saved Elizabeth Barrett from ever relapslng
into nervous, eNacting, selfish invaidism. She
lived in the air OF high harmonles; and because
Of this, determined and made possible by tins
fact alone, came that beautiful opening OF her
secluded life into the regions OF infinite enchant-
ment where love was to lead her She was IN
terested in everything that made for the progress
OF humanity.
That is one of the compensations-al
most the only compensation-fOT an in
tensely nervous and sensitive nature; the
power to rise above the sordid walls which
shut in less imaginative natures, and make
a world ones own. But it takes person
who has some of that quality to see how
this is possible. 1t was possible to Mrs.
Browning; and therefore she became
poet instead of nervous, fanciful invalid.
Again the biographer says
There is vein OF psychical interest in the uni
versal testimony TO her girlish appearance IN
the decade OF her thirties She had lived simply
the life Of a spirit-the life of intellectual work,
of artistic achievement OF uplitted thought OF
noble and generous feeling-and the ordinary Jar
and fret Of human life had not touched her with
its impress. The friend and lover whose
life was TO complete hers had not yet dawned on
her horizon. But the divine power that formed
her to be his lyric love- bringing them
both nearer 10 each other.
Men speak of the spiritual world as if it
were the realm that lies beyond that change we
call death. But the present too, Is the spiritual
world, and all men and women are spiritual be
ings, here and now, who may live the high life
of the spirit in whatever degree they will
Whether Of the bpdV what does
matter2 For the life of the spirit is largely in
elusive, and comprohends all the intellectual
well as the moral power; all literary achievement
all artistic expression. whether through painting,
sculpture. music, literature; all the goodness
and greatness that lends glory to lie: all the
tenderness and the thoughtful consideration, all
the sympathy and the love. that redeem hu
manity. This. too, Is the spiritual world, and
spirit TO spirit oerleaps the bound OF physical
space and flashes its swift recognition even
star 10 star vihrgtes light
Among the "reminiscences of Mrs. Brown
ing to be found in these pages is quota
tion from one of her letters which Is pos
sibly the best definition OF Bohemiansm
of the highest type, ever made. She said;
There is something fascinating to me in the
Bohemian way Of doing things; all the conven-
lions Of society cut SO thin that the soul can see
through.
Possibly. until the publication of the
Browning letters, few realized what a ge-
MUS this gifted woman had for epigram.
This faculty Of hers is brought out in Miss
Writings study of her. Another thing is
apparent, both in the letters and in this
bOok-her wonderfully broad and practical
grasp of matters which she might easily
have ignored. Her keen intuition went to
the heart of things in affairs public and
private. 1t is acknowledged now, as never
in her lifetime, that her husbands poetry
is far superior TO hers in depth, power, and
insight; but. after all, it was the mystic
TiOus intuition of the woman which in
spired the man, with his surer and more
experienced handling of the idea. With
out his wife, Robert Browning would not
have been the man he was She was alb
soIuteIy true in her intutions She touched
the fundamental laws of things. He with
his wider experience OF life, could go on
from that basis and complete his work.
But without her he might have missed the
deeper meanings. All this, however, is
only idle speculation, for one feels in
reading Miss Writings little book that
these two marvellous souls could not have
missed each other They We're bound to
meet, il only late in life. The book Will
be valuable addition to the library of
most students of the more mystical phases
of English literature; and it viii certainly
interest people concerned to any extent in
psychical research. (BostOn: Little Brown
& Coz