is no prop
withdrawn, no consolation torn away, no dear companion lost--but for
the wreck of talent, the ruin of promise, the untimely dreary
extinction of what might have been a burning and a shining light. My
brother was a year my junior. I had aspirations and ambitions for
him once, long ago--they have perished mournfully. Nothing remains
of him but a memory of errors and sufferings. There is such a
bitterness of pity for his life and death, such a yearning for the
emptiness of his whole existence as I cannot describe. I trust time
will allay these feelings.

'My poor father naturally thought more of his _only_ son than of his
daughters, and, much and long as he had suffered on his account, he
cried out for his loss like David for that of Absalom--my son my
son!--and refused at first to be comforted. And then when I ought to
have been able to collect my strength and be at hand to support him,
I fell ill with an illness whose approaches I had felt for some time
previously, and of which the crisis was hastened by the awe and
trouble of the death-scene--the first I had ever witnessed. The past
has seemed to me a strange week. Thank God, for my father's sake, I
am better now, though still feeble. I wish indeed I had more general
physical strength--the want of it is sadly in my way. I cannot do
what I would do for want of sustained animal spirits and efficient
bodily vigour.

'My unhappy brother never knew what his sisters had done in
literature--he was not aware that they had ever published a line. We
could not tell him of our efforts for fear of causing him too deep a
pang of remorse for his own time mis-spent, and talents misapplied.
Now he will _never_ know. I cannot dwell longer on the subject at
present--it is too painful.

'I thank you for your kind sympathy, and pray earnestly that your
sons may all do well, and that you may be spared the sufferings my
father has gone through.--Yours sincerely,

'C. BRONTE.'

TO W. S. WILLIAMS

'HAWORTH, _October_ 6_th_, 1848.

'MY DEAR SIR,--I thank you for your last truly friendly letter, and
for the number of _Blackwood_ which accompanied it. Both arrived at
a time when a relapse of illness ha