THE KEY TO THE PROBLEM
The common saying, that 'people must be just before they are generous,'
becomes at once less common and more correct when it is formulated
differently. '_One needs to be very generous before one can be really
just_' is Jean-Jacques Rousseau's way of stating the proposition. And
one calls this sentence to remembrance when recognising how much
generosity is revealed in the act of justice recently performed by Dr.
Paul Heger in his gift to the British Museum (that is to say to English
readers throughout the world) of the four tragical, but incomparably
beautiful, Letters written by Charlotte Brontë to his father, the late
Professor Constantin Heger, within two years of her return to England.
No doubt this gift _was_ an act of justice. Without the conclusive
evidence these Letters afford, there would have been no means of
rectifying the arbitrary, false, and inadequate criticism of the
personality, and thus, indirectly, of the writings, of a great novelist
misjudged especially in her own country.
But whilst, for these reasons, the publication of these Letters was a
duty to English literature, the son of the late Director and Directress
of the Bruxelles Pensionnat--unwarrantably supposed to have their
literal counterparts in the interesting Professor Paul Emanuel, and in
the abominable Madame Beck--might well, in view of the unintelligent and
ungenerous criticism of his parents by English readers, have refused to
recognise any obligation on his side to concern himself with the
rectification of the dull laudatory, or the malicious condemnatory,
judgments passed, from a false standpoint, on the authoress of
_Villette._
We find Dr. Paul Heger able to rise entirely above all personal rancour,
and to recognise that Charlotte Brontë herself is not to be made
responsible because a good many of her critics have blundered. Indeed,
the conduct of the whole Heger family since the publication of
_Villette_, and the death of Charlotte Brontë, has been distinguished by
this fine spirit of disinterestedness; and by a dignified indifference
to undeserved reproaches. The answer to all charges, of unkindness to
Charlotte on Madame Heger's part, or of injudicious kindness first,
followed by heartless indifference, on M. Heger's side, was in their
hands; and they had only to publish the present Letters to establish the
facts as they really were. But this could not have been done in the time
when _Villette_ appeared, nor even immediately after Charlotte's death,
without wounding others. _Villette_ appeared in 1853. In 1854 Charlotte,
then in her fortieth year, married the Rev. A.B. Nicholls; and she died
less than a year after this marriage. Mr. Nicholls survived her more
than forty years. No doubt he would have been wounded in his
sensibilities by the disclosure of his late wife's entirely honourable,
but very romantic and passionate earlier attachment to somebody else.
Intimate personal friends of Charlotte, also, would have been afflicted,
not by her revelations, but by the commentaries upon them that a
certain type of critic would have infallibly indulged in. Whilst these
conditions lasted, the Heger family scrupulously refrained from
publishing these documents. Twenty years ago, when I was collecting the
materials for my article published in the _Woman at Home_, and when, in
the light of my own recollection of M. and Madame Heger, as their former
pupil, I endeavoured to rectify, what _I knew to be_, false impressions
about their relationships with Charlotte Brontë, I was told by my
honoured and dearly loved friend, Mademoiselle Louise Heger, about the
existence of these Letters; _but they were not shown me._ And I was
further assured that, whilst they would be carefully preserved, they
would not be published, until every one had disappeared who could in any
way be offended by their disclosure. After the lapse of more than half a
century since Charlotte's death, these conditions have now been reached.
And in his admirable Letter to the Principal Librarian of the British
Museum, Dr. Paul Heger explains his reasons for making this present to
the English people of documents entirely honourable to the character of
one of our great writers, and that explain the emotions and experiences
that formed her genius:
'Sir,--In the name of my sisters and myself' (thus runs the opening
sentence of the Letter reprinted in the _Times_), 'as the
representatives of the late M. Constantin Heger, I beg leave to offer to
the British Museum, as the official custodian on behalf of the British
People, the Letters of Charlotte Brontë, which the great Novelist
addressed to our Father. These four important Letters, which have been
religiously preserved, may be accepted as revealing the soul of the
gifted author whose genius is the pride of England. We have hesitated
long as to whether these documents, so private, so intimate, should be
scanned by the public eye. We have been deterred from offering them
sooner, by the thought that, perhaps, the publicity involved in the gift
might be considered incompatible with the sensitive nature of the artist
herself. But we offer them the more readily, as they lay open the true
significance of what has hitherto been spoken of as the "Secret of
Charlotte Brontë," and show how groundless is the suspicion which has
resulted from the natural speculations of critics and biographers; to
the disadvantage of both parties to the one-sided correspondence. We
then, admirers of her genius and personality, venture to propose that we
may have the honour of placing these Letters in your hands; making only
the condition that they may be preserved for the use of the nation.'
'Doubtless,' continues Dr. Paul Heger, when dealing with the actual
relations between Charlotte and the Director and Directress of the
school in the Rue d'Isabelle, 'Doubtless, my parents played an important
part in the life of Charlotte Brontë: but she did not enter into their
lives as one would imagine from what passes current to-day. That is
evident enough from the very circumstances of life, so different for
her, and for them. There is nothing in these Letters that is not
entirely honourable to their author, as to him to whom they are
addressed. It is better to lay bare the very innocent mystery, than to
let it be supposed that there is anything to hide. I hope that the
publication of these Letters will bring to an end a legend which has
never had any real existence in fact. I hope so: _but legends are more
tenacious of life than sober reality_.'
The last observation shows that Dr. Paul Heger, an experienced
_littérateur_, foresaw what has actually happened, and that the
defenders of the two 'legends' of Charlotte Brontë, patronised by
writers who derive the authority for their opinions about her, not from
the study of the facts of her life and character, but from their own
impressions and convictions, are not going to admit that the legends are
overthrown, simply because it has been proved that they are founded upon
mistakes. At the same time, no statement can be more true than that
'facts are stubborn things,' and that, when these 'stubborn things' are
found arrayed in stern and uncompromising opposition to the impressions
and convictions of the most accomplished psychological theorists--well,
it is the psychological theorists who must give way.
And this is the situation that has to be faced to-day by critics of
Charlotte Brontë, who have either formed their opinions about her in the
light of their impression that _Villette_ represents an autobiographical
study, or else who have founded their judgments of her personality and
genius as a writer upon their conviction that it is a '_silly and
offensive imputation_' to suppose that her sentiment for M. Heger was a
warmer feeling than the esteem and gratitude a clever pupil owes an
accomplished professor.
In connection with the tenacity of life of this last theory (after the
publication of the evidence which proves it is a mistake), we have to
consider with serious attention the account rendered in the _Times_ of
the 30th July 1913, of an interview with Mr. Clement Shorter, known to
be the most distinguished supporter, in the past, of the doctrine that
Charlotte's sentiment for Professor Heger was 'literary enthusiasm,' and
nothing more. And this serious attention is needed, because, in Mr.
Clement Shorter's case, it is not allowable to dismiss lightly the
judgment of a critic who (after Mrs. Gaskell) has done more than
any one else to throw light upon the family history of the Brontës,
and also upon and around those three interesting and touching
personalities--Emily, Anne, and, the greatest of them all, Charlotte,
amongst the familiar scenes and personages of their environment at
Haworth, both before and after they had conquered their unique place in
English literature. One cannot for a moment suppose that Mr. Clement
Shorter wilfully refuses to see things as they really are, simply
because it pleases him to see them differently? No! One realises
perfectly that, as with Mrs. Gaskell fifty-seven years ago, _so_ with
this modern conscientious and generous critic to-day there exists an
entirely noble, and, _from a given point of view_, justifiable reason,
for refusing to handle or examine a matter with which (so it is alleged)
historical and literary criticism has no concern--a purely personal, and
intimate secret sorrow, in the life of an admirable woman of genius; the
sanctuary of whose inner feelings it is by no means necessary to
explore: and still less necessary to throw open to the vulgar curiosity
and malevolent insinuations of a generation of critics, infected with
hero-phobia, and the unwholesome delight of discovering '_a good deal to
reprobate and even more to laugh at_,' in the sensibility of men and
women of genius, who have honoured the human race, and enriched the
world, _because_ they have possessed through power of feeling, power
also of doing fine work, that the critics who find much in them 'to
reprobate and more to laugh at' have not the power even to appreciate.
Now, _if_ the point of view of Mrs. Gaskell and Mr. Clement Shorter were
a correct one, with all my heart and soul I, for my part, should approve
of their action in slamming the door in the face of invading facts that
threatened to leave the way open for scandal-hunters and hero-phobists
to enter with them, and to deal with the honoured reputation of
Charlotte Brontë in the same way that--more to the discredit of English
letters than to that of two French writers of genius--recent critics
have dealt with the love-letters of Madame de Staël and George Sand.
This point of view, however, is a mistaken one in the present case,
because, to commence with, Charlotte Brontë's romantic love for M. Heger
affords no game to the scandal-hunter; but, on the contrary, it is
serviceable to the just appreciation of her character, as well as of her
genius, that her true sentiment for her Professor--_that explains her
attitude of mind when writing 'Villette'_--should be rightly understood.
Then also, whilst Madame de Staël's infatuation for Benjamin Constant
neither adds to nor diminishes her claims, as the authoress of _Corinne_
and _de l'Allemagne_, to the rank of a fine writer and a great critic,
and while George Sand's tormenting and tormented love for the ill-fated,
irresistible, unstable 'child of his century,' de Musset, is a poignant
revelation of the passing weakness (through immense tenderness) of a
splendidly strong and independent spirit, that one is almost ashamed to
be made the spectator of, Charlotte Brontë's valorous martyrdom,
undergone secretly and silently, and 'rewarded openly,' fills one with
an extraordinary sentiment of respect for her: and justifies Mr. Clement
Shorter's own fine and generous utterances upon the impression that the
Letters that betray the anguish she endured, and overcame, alone,
produces upon him.
'_Charlotte Brontë_,' said Mr. Clement Shorter, by the report of an
interviewer who recorded his opinions in the _Times_, 30th July,
immediately after the publication of these Letters, '_is one of the
noblest figures in life as well as in literature; and these Letters
place her on a higher pedestal than ever_.'
Let me quote from the same report in the _Times_ the further statement
of his opinions given by this well-known critic, as to the sentiments
revealed in these Letters:
'Mr. Shorter,' affirmed the interviewer, 'welcomed the
publication of the letters in the _Times_ "as giving the
last and final word on an old and needless controversy."
"Personally," he said, "I have always held the view that
those letters were actuated only by the immense enthusiasm
of a woman desiring comradeship and sympathy with a man of
the character of Professor Heger. There was no sort of
great sorrow on her part because Professor Heger was a
married man, and it is plain in her letters that she merely
desired comradeship with a great man. When Charlotte Brontë
made her name famous with her best-known novel, she
experienced much the same adulation from admirers of both
sexes as she had already poured upon her teacher. She found
that literary comradeship she desired in half a dozen male
correspondents to whom she addressed letters in every way as
interesting as those written by her to Professor Heger.
There is nothing in those letters of hers, published now for
the first time, that any enthusiastic woman might not write
to a man double her age, who was a married man with a
family, and who had been her teacher. When one considers
that half a dozen writers have, in the past, declared that
Charlotte Brontë was in love with Professor Heger, it is a
surprising thing that Dr. Heger did not years ago publish
the letters. They are a complete vindication both of her and
of his father, and, as such, I welcome them, as I am sure
must all lovers of the Brontës."'
In his first contention Mr. Clement Shorter is undeniably right: it _is_
quite true that '_the publication of these Letters places Charlotte
Brontë on a higher pedestal than ever_.' But why is this true? _Because
these are love-letters of a very rare and wonderful character_; because
the passionate tragical emotion that throbs through them is a love that,
recognised as hopeless, as unrequited, makes only one claim; that,
_precisely because it makes no other_, it has a right to be accepted and
to live. Now this sort of love is a _very rare and wonderful emotion,
that only a noble being can feel; and that although it is hopeless,
tragical, is nevertheless a splendid fact, that renders it absurd to
deny that sublime unselfishness is a capacity of human nature_. And,
again, these letters place Charlotte Brontë 'on a higher pedestal than
ever,' because in them her vocation and gift of expressing her own
emotions in a way that makes them 'vibrate' in us like living feelings
is here carried to its height. So that these personal letters, more even
than the pictured emotions of Lucy Snowe, stand out as a record of
romantic love that (in so far as I know) has never before been rivalled.
It is true we have the romantic love-letters of Abelard and Héloïse, and
the letters in the _New Héloïse_ of Saint-Preux to Julie, and of Julie
to Saint-Preux, after their separation, as beautiful examples of love
surviving hope of happiness; and Sainte-Beuve has quoted, as examples of
the tragical disinterested passion of a love that claims no return, but
only the right to exist, the letters of some eighteenth-century women:
Mademoiselle de l'Espinasse, Madame de la Popelinière, and Mademoiselle
d'Aissé. But in none of these historic love-letters (so, at least, it
seems to me) does one feel, with the same truth and strength as in these
recently published letters of Charlotte Brontë to M. Heger, the
'vibration' of this tragical, hopeless, romantic love, that asks for
nothing but acceptance, that does not 'seek its own'--the love that only
asks to give, compared with which all other sorts of love, that _do_
seek their own and claim return, are as sounding brass and a tinkling
cymbal.
But now, if we were to accept the view of these letters, that they do
not express love at all, but merely the writer's '_desire of comradeship
with a great man_': and that '_after she had become famous "she found
that literary comradeship she desired, in half a dozen male
correspondents, to whom she addressed letters in every way as
interesting as those written by her to M. Heger_"'; and that '_there is
nothing in these letters that any enthusiastic woman might not write to
a man double her age, who was a married man with a family, and who had
been her teacher_'--if we could accept all these views, could we _then_
hold the opinion that 'the publication of these letters places Charlotte
on a higher pedestal than ever'?
It seems to me, on the contrary, that _then_ we should find ourselves
compelled to admit that Charlotte Brontë had fallen very much in our
esteem as a result of the publication of these Letters. For whilst
romantic love is a noble sentiment that does honour to the heart that
feels it, an '_immense enthusiasm for literary comradeship with great
men_' is not _necessarily_, nor generally even, a commendable sentiment.
It is very often merely a rather vulgar and selfish persistency in
claiming the time and attention of busy people who don't want the
comradeship; and I suppose there are very few people in the least degree
famous who have not been rightly harassed by the 'enthusiasm' of
professing admirers who have nothing to do themselves, and who want
busy men or women of letters to correspond with them. And if a desire of
comradeship with M. Heger had really been the sentiment and motive of
Charlotte's letters to him, after she left Bruxelles, then the fact that
she continued to write to him although he did not answer her letters
would prove that she was insisting upon being the 'comrade' of some one
who did not want her. Again, if the tone and terms of these Letters to
M. Heger in 1845 were the same that she employed with '_half a dozen
other male correspondents_,' after she became a famous writer, well
Charlotte _would_ fall in our estimation, both as a writer, who ought to
know how to avoid extravagant language, and as a self-respecting woman
who should not have allowed her enthusiasm for literary comradeship to
induce her to repeat experiences that, without loss of dignity, one
cannot pass through more than once in a lifetime.
Happily, however, attention to facts proves that none of the conditions
that, if they had existed, would have rendered the writing of these
Letters discreditable to Charlotte's reputation, can be accepted as in
the least credible. It is not credible that her sentiment for M. Heger
was that of intellectual enthusiasm for a great man double her age;
because, to begin with, M, Heger was _not_ double Charlotte Brontë's
age, but only seven years her senior. About this question there can be
no dispute. M. Heger was born in 1809; and Charlotte Brontë in 1816. In
1844 Charlotte then was twenty-eight, and M. Heger thirty-five years of
age, and given the fact that women lose their youth first, M. Heger had
precisely the age that would render him most sympathetic to a woman who
was still young but who had left girlhood behind her. Again, M. Heger
was not a '_Great Man_,' in the sense of being either a celebrity, or an
original genius with gifts or qualities of an order calculated to kindle
intellectual hero-worship; and he was further a dictatorial and
ingrained Professor, the very last person on earth to offer literary
comradeship to a former pupil. The Director of the Pensionnat in the Rue
d'Isabelle, and the former _Préfet des Études_ at the Brussels
_Athénée_ (who had resigned this post when religious instruction, made a
free subject, was excluded, as a compulsory Catholic training from the
college curriculum) was a man of talent, who had weight in Catholic
circles, and was recognised in his character of a Professor as one with
an admirable gift for teaching, even by the enemies of his religious
convictions; but he was not in any way, save as a teacher, a
distinguished or famous personage; and in all probability if this
English writer of genius had not immortalised him in the character of
'Paul Emanuel,' M. Heger would not have outlived the affectionate and
respectful remembrance of his family and personal friends.
The method of testing the question of whether intellectual enthusiasm,
or tragical romantic love is the sentiment revealed in these Letters is
_to read the Letters themselves--in the light of a true impression of
the real relationships (when they were written) between Charlotte Brontë
and M. Heger_, that is to say in the first twelve months that followed
Charlotte's farewell to the Director and the Directress of the
Pensionnat in the Rue d'Isabelle, in January 1844. And to obtain this
right impression, we have to see what had taken place, to alter the
original entirely friendly terms between Madame Heger and the English
under-mistress, who during the first year of her stay in Brussels had
been a parlour-boarder:--for the story told in _Villette_ of Lucy
Snowe's arrival at the Pensionnat in the Rue d'Isabelle late at night,
and with no place of shelter, having lost her box and been robbed of her
purse on the voyage, is, to start with, an incident that has no place in
the true history.