BRONTE LETTERS.

Dominion, Volume 7, Issue 1866, 27 September 1913, Page 5

BRONTE LETTERS.

PRINTED TO SILENCE GOSSIP. Among the holiday books this season tho "Letters of Charlotte Bronte" have revived- in interest "Villette," whoso hero is tho -Professor Hegar (Professor Constantiri Hegar); who, as everybody knows,' .was ' the original of' M. Paul Emanuel of'the novel, and about whose friendship and that of Charlotte Bronto there has been much mystery and much speculation (writes "Alien" from London)'. To clear this up entirely and for always, Dr. Paul Hcgar, the son of tho late professor, presented to tho British Museum the originals of the only four letters written by Charlotte Bronto to her old master and friend, whoso pupil she was in Brussels. And with the viow of silencing gossip, which increased rather than diminished with tho course of time, at tho request of Dr. Paul Kegar, these letters have been printed' in their entirety by tho "Times," and thus bccome accessible to whole world. They prove beyond all doubt that not onlv was this friendship as pure and exalted as tho ideals of Charlotte Bronto, but it was .very much one-sided. To the idealist temperament of the young girl, whose genius and affections were alike starved in the isolated and austere environment of Harworth—her father's home in Yorkshire—the interest taken by her Brussels master in her talents (although she had not yet declared her genius), and the kindness shown the charming girl, not bnly by the professor, but by his wife and children, singled out the Brussels as an oasis in tho dreary, drab desert of her young life, and invested tho central figure of this spot of brightness and refreshment with an exaggerated significance. That Professor Hegar did nothing to encourage this hero-worship of himself, but much to discourage it. these letters give abundant proof. Ho prohibited Chaflotto Bronto from writing to him more than once in six months, and even these letters 110 left unanswered for twice as long, and the last remained unanswered. It is with mingled feelings one peruses these outpourings of a lonely, adoring soul, which wore never meant for 'the critical eyes of a cold public. One thinks of the overcharged heart giving vent in torrential words by the lonely woman in the isolated parsonage shut off by grim hills from the world. Her genius has done so much to delight, iind one wonders whether Charlotte Bronte, shrinking, reserved, and sensitive, would not rather have none misunderstood, and even suspected, than bare her soul and its pure secret -to the world. And, although Professor Hegar acted with wisdom and honour in evidently trying to divert from himself an adoration for which he had 110 wish 01; use, there is something profoundly stirring to nit.v in the thought that her longing for just his written word of kindness should go nnnppeased. t