Had we been of that party at the English country-house, we should have written, “The last novel by Miss Austen which we have read”; yet, forced to a selection, we should have named “Persuasion.”  But we withdraw our private preference, and, yielding to the decision of seven wise men, place “Mansfield Park” at the head of the list, and leave it there without further comment.

“Persuasion” was her latest work, and bears the impress of a matured mind and perfected style.  The language of Miss Austen is, in all her pages, drawn from the “wells of English undefiled.”  Concise and clear, simple and vigorous, no word can be omitted that she puts down, and none can be added to heighten the effect of her sentences.  In “Persuasion” there are passages whose depth and tenderness, welling up from deep fountains of feeling, impress us with the conviction that the angel of sorrow or suffering had troubled the waters, yet had left in them a healing influence, which is felt rather than revealed.  Of all the heroines we have known through a long and somewhat varied experience, there is not one whose life-companionship we should so desire to secure as that of Anne Elliot.  Ah! could she also forgive our faults and bear with our weaknesses, while we were animated by her sweet and noble example, existence would be, under any aspect, a blessing.  This felicity was reserved for Captain Wentworth.  Happy man!  In “Persuasion” we also find the subtle Mr. Elliot.  Here, as with Mr. Crawford in “Mansfield Park,” Miss Austen deals dexterously with the character of a man of the world, and uses a nicer discernment than is often found in the writings of women, even those who assume masculine names.

“Emma” we know to have been a favorite with the author.  “I have drawn a character full of faults,” said she, “nevertheless I like her.”  In Emma’s company we meet Mr. Knightley, Harriet Smith, and Frank Churchill.  We sit beside good old Mr. Woodhouse, and please him by tasting his gruel.  We walk through Highbury, we are patronized by Mrs. Elton, listen forbearingly to the indefatigable Miss Bates, and take an early walk to the post-office with Jane Fairfax.  Once we found ourselves actually on “Box Hill,” but it did not seem half so real as when we “explored” there with the party from Highbury.

“Pride and Prejudice” is piquant In style and masterly in portraiture.  We make perhaps too many disagreeable acquaintances to enjoy ourselves entirely; yet who would forego Mr. Collins, or forget Lady Catherine de Bourgh, though each in their way is more stupid and odious than any one but Miss Austen could induce us to endure.  Mr. Darcy’s character is ably given; a very difficult one to sustain under all the circumstances in which he is placed.  It is no small tribute to the power of the author to concede that she has so managed the workings of his real nature as to make it possible, and even probable, that a high-born, high-bred Englishman of Mr. Darcy’s stamp could become the son-in-law of Mrs. Bennet.  The scene of Darcy’s declaration of love to Elizabeth, at the Hunsford Parsonage, is one of the most remarkable passages in Miss Austen’s writings, and, indeed, we remember nothing equal to it among the many writers of fiction who have endeavored to describe that culminating point of human destiny.