What was the topic to be?
Chemistry? or astronomy? or mechanics? or conchology? or entomology?
or what other ology? I know nothing at all about any of these. I am
not scientific; I am not a linguist. You think me far more learned
than I am. If I told you all my ignorance, I am afraid you would be
shocked; however, as I wish still to retain a little corner in your
good opinion, I will hold my tongue.--Believe me, yours respectfully,
'C. BRONTE.'
TO REV. HENRY NUSSEY
'_January_ 11th, 1841.
'DEAR SIR,--It is time I should reply to your last, as I shall fail
in fulfilling my promise of not being so dilatory as on a former
occasion.
'I shall be glad to receive the poetry which you offer to send me.
You ask me to return the gift in kind. How do you know that I have
it in my power to comply with that request? Once indeed I was very
poetical, when I was sixteen, seventeen, eighteen, and nineteen years
old, but I am now twenty-four, approaching twenty-five, and the
intermediate years are those which begin to rob life of some of its
superfluous colouring. At this age it is time that the imagination
should be pruned and trimmed, that the judgment should be cultivated,
and a few, at least, of the countless illusions of early youth should
be cleared away.
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