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her mind to the unnatural alliance between Mr. Knightley

and Harriet Smith. It was the spirit of the age, and

perhaps one not to be unenvied. It was not that Jane

Austen herself was incapable of understanding a deeper

feeling. In the last written page of her last written book

there is an expression of the deepest and truest experi-

ence. Anne Elliot's talk with Captain Harville is the touch-

ing utterance of a good woman's feelings. They are speak-

ing of men and women's affections. "You are always labor-

ing and toiling," she says, "exposed to every risk and hard-

ship. Your home, country, friends, all united; neither time

nor life to call your own. It would be hard indeed (with

a faltering voice) if a woman's feelings were to be added

to all this."

Farther on she says eagerly: "I hope I do justice to all

that is felt by you, and by those who resemble you. God

forbid that I should undervalue the warm and faithful

feelings of any of my fellow-creatures. I should deserve

utter contempt if I dared to suppose that true attach-

ment and constancy were known only by woman. No!

I believe you capable of everything great and good in your

married lives. I believe you equal to every important exer-

tion, and to every domestic forbearance, so long as -- if I

may be allowed the expression -- so long as you have an

object; I mean while the woman you love lives, and lives

for you. _All_ _the_ _privilege_ _I_ _claim_ _for_ _my_ _own_ _(it_ _is_ _not_

_a_ _very_ _enviable_ _one,_ _you_ _need_ _not_ _court_ _it)_ _is_ _that_ _of_ _loving_

_longest_ _when_ _existence_ _or_ _when_ _hope_ _is_ _gone."_

She could not immediately have uttered another sen-

tence -- her heart was too full, her breath too much op-

pressed.

Dear Anne Elliot! sweet, impulsive, womanly, tender-

hearted! -- one can almost hear her voice pleading the cause

of all true women. In those days, when perhaps people's

nerves were stronger than they are now, sentiment may

have existed in a less degree, or have been more ruled

by judgment; it may have been calmer and more matter-~

of-fact; and yet Jane Austen, at the very end of her life,

wrote thus. Her words seem to ring in our ears after

they have been spoken. Anne Elliot must have been Jane

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