her.

But see the just and admirable sense with which she can treat a subject
of which she is able to overlook all the bearings.

"Haworth, July 4th, 1834.

"In your last, you request me to tell you of your faults. Now,
really, how can you be so foolish! I _won't_ tell you of your faults,
because I don't know them. What a creature would that be, who, after
receiving an affectionate and kind letter from a beloved friend,
should sit down and write a catalogue of defects by way of answer!
Imagine me doing so, and then consider what epithets you would bestow
on me. Conceited, dogmatical, hypocritical, little humbug, I should
think, would be the mildest. Why, child! I've neither time nor
inclination to reflect on your _faults_ when you are so far from me,
and when, besides, kind letters and presents, and so forth, are
continually bringing forth your goodness in the most prominent light.
Then, too, there are judicious relations always round you, who can
much better discharge that unpleasant office. I have no doubt their
advice is completely at your service; why then should I intrude mine?
If you will not hear them, it will be vain though one should rise from
the dead to instruct you. Let us have no more nonsense, if you love
me. Mr. --- is going to be married, is he? Well, his wife elect
appeared to me to be a clever and amiable lady, as far as I could
judge from the little I saw of her, and from your account. Now to that
flattering sentence must I tack on a list of her faults? You say it
is in contemplation for you to leave ---. I am sorry for it. --- is
a pleasant spot, one of the old family halls of England, surrounded by
lawn and woodland, speaking of past times, and suggesting (to me at
least) happy feelings. M. thought you grown less, did she? I am not
grown a bit, but as short and dumpy as ever. You ask me to recommend
you some books for your perusal. I will do so in as few words as I
can. If you like poetry, let it be first-rate; Milton, Shakspeare,
Thomson, Goldsmith, Pope (if you will, though I don't admire him),
Scott, Byron, Campbell, Wordsworth, and Southey. Now don't be
startled at the names of Shakspeare and Byron. Both these were great
men, and their works are like themselves. You will know how to choose
the good, and to avoid the evil; the finest passages are always the
purest, the bad