_Louisa Clifton to Coke Clifton_
_Rose-Bank_
I write, dear brother, in answer to your last, that I may not by any
neglect of mine contribute to the mistake in which you are at present.
Your letter shews that you suppose your sister to be vain,
presumptuous, and rude; and, such being your feelings, I am far from
blaming you for having expressed them.
Still, brother, I must be sincere, and I would by no means have it
understood that I think you have chosen the best manner of expressing
them; for it is not the manner which, if I have such faults, would be
most likely to produce reformation. But your intention has been to
humble me; and, desiring to be sarcastic, you have not failed in
producing your intended effect. I am sincerely glad of it: had you
shewn that desire without the power, I should have been as sincerely
sorry. But where there is mind there is the material from which every
thing is to be hoped.
I suppose I shall again incur chastisement, for rising thus as you call
it to the sublime. But I will write my thoughts without fear, and I
hope will patiently listen should they deserve reproach. If I have
sinned, it is in most fervently wishing to find my brother one of the
brightest and the best of men; and I have received more pleasure from
the powers he has displayed, in reproving me, than I could have done by
any dull expression of kindness; in which, though there might have been
words, there would neither have been feeling, sentiment, nor soul.
The concluding sentence of your letter warns me not to defame you with
my friend. I must speak without disguise, brother. You feel that, had
you received such a letter, revenge would have been the first emotion
of your mind. I hope its duration would have been short. I will most
readily and warmly repeat all the good of my brother that I know: but I
will neither conceal what ought to be said, nor say what I do not know.
I take it for granted that he would not have me guilty of duplicity.