glad to know whether your anxiety on this subject is relieved. I was
truly glad to learn through Ellen that Ilkley still continued to
agree with your health. Earnestly trusting that the New Year may
prove to you a happy and tranquil time,--I am, my dear Miss Wooler,
sincerely and affectionately yours,

'C. BRONTE.'

TO MISS WOOLER

'_January_ 27_th_, 1853.

'MY DEAR MISS WOOLER,--I received your letter here in London where I
have been staying about three weeks, and shall probably remain a few
days longer. _Villette_ is to be published to-morrow. Its
appearance has been purposely delayed hitherto, to avoid discourteous
clashing with Mrs. Gaskell's new work. Your name was one of the
first on the list of presentees, and directed to the Parsonage, where
I shall also send this letter, as you mention that you are to leave
Halifax at the close of this week. I will bear in mind what you say
about Mrs. Morgan; and should I ever have an opportunity of serving
her, will not omit to do so. I only wish my chance of being useful
were greater. Schools seem to be considered almost obsolete in
London. Ladies' colleges, with professors for every branch of
instruction, are superseding the old-fashioned seminary. How the
system will work I can't tell. I think the college classes might be
very useful for finishing the education of ladies intended to go out
as governesses, but what progress little girls will make in them
seems to me another question.

'My dear Miss Wooler, I read attentively all you say about Miss
Martineau; the sincerity and constancy of your solicitude touches me
very much. I should grieve to neglect or oppose your advice, and yet
I do not feel that it would be right to give Miss Martineau up
entirely. There is in her nature much that is very noble. Hundreds
have forsaken her, more, I fear, in the apprehension that their fair
names may suffer if seen in connection with hers, than from any pure
convictions, such as you suggest, of harm consequent on her fatal
tenets. With these fair-weather friends I cannot bear to rank. And
for her sin, is it not one of those which God and not man must judge?

'To speak the truth, my dear Miss Wooler, I