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against want. This preservative she had now obtained; and at the age

of twentyscven, without having ever been handsome, she felt all the

good luck of it.'

If any one can miss the hidden sting in this masterly analysis of female

prudence, and still support Scott's charge against Jane Austen of holding

mercenary views on marriage, they must be blind to any subtlety in the

English language. We are, moreover, expressly told that:

'Elizabeth had always felt that Charlotte's opinion of Matrimony was

not exactly like her own, but she could not have supposed it possible

that, when called into action, she could have sacrificed every better feeling to

worldly advantage, and to the pang of a friend disgracing herself and sunk in

her esteem, was added the distressing conviction that it was impossible for

that friend to be tolerably happy in the lot she bad chosen.'

Elizabeth's own choice 'was not the work of a day but had stood the

test of many months' suspense': and she 'was the happiest creature in

the world.' Jane Austen loved to satirize romance, but her ideal of

love was fundamentally romantic.

Though completely isolated from literary friendships, and never in

touch with professional writers or critics, Jane Austen's compensations

were almost unique. Inheriting the culture of the classics and a respect

for style from generations of distinguished university men, she grew up

in the midst of her father's pupils and a family who all loved books, some

of whom were fluent penmen, sharing her thoughts, her interests, and

ambitions, above all blessed with a sense of humour and the love of life.

The Rev. George Austen, sometime the handsome proctor of St.

John's, Oxford, and Cassandra, his wife, brought up five sons and two

daughters in the country rectory of Steventon, Hants, with its 'terrace

of finest turf' and beautiful hedgerows. James (1765-1819), his father's

curate and successor, who was largely responsible for the formation of

Jane's literary tastes, and remained, through life, a kindly and excellent

parish priest. Edward (1767-1852), a country gentleman of the best

type, who took the name of Knight with the estates left him by his

father's cousin and patron, and liked nothing better than filling his

house with young people. Henry (1771-1851), captain of militia,

army banker, and 'earnest evangelical,' who was the only Austen to

settle in London, continually busied himself about Jane's affairs, and

remained always 'an extraordinarily dear person.' Cassandra (1773-

1845), who had never 'a thought concealed from Jane' through life;

and at her death felt 'as if she had lost a part of herself.' Frank (1774-

 [[xi]]