probable we do not call severely for the proof of.  Moreover Miss Martineau is not only a believer in the mysteries of mesmerism (and she wrote to me the other day that in Birmingham, where she is, she has present cognisance of three cases of clairvoyance), but she is a believer in the personal integrity of her witnesses.  She has what she has well called an ’incommunicable confidence.’  And this, however incommunicable, is sufficiently comprehensible to all persons who know what personal faith is, to place her ‘honour,’ I do maintain, high above any suspicion, any charge with the breath of man’s lips.  I am sure you agree with me, dear Mr. Chorley—­ah! it will be a comfort and joy together.  Dear Miss Mitford and I often quarrel softly about literary life and its toils and sorrows, she against and I in favour of; but we never could differ about the worth and comfort of domestic affection.

Ever sincerely yours,
ELIZABETH B. BARRETT.

I am delighted to hear of the novel.  And the comedy?

[Footnote 135:  One of the visions of Miss Martineau’s ’apocalyptic housemaid’ related to the wreck of a vessel in which the Tynemouth people were much interested.  Unfortunately it appeared that news of the wreck had reached the town shortly before her vision, and that she had been out of doors immediately before submitting to the mesmeric trance.]

To Mr. Chorley 50 Wimpole Street:  April 28, 1845.

Dear Mr. Chorley,—...  For Miss Martineau, is it not true that she has admitted her wreck story to have no proof?  Surely she has.  Surely she said that the evidence was incapable, at this point of time, of justification to the exoteric, and that the question had sunk now to one of character, to which her opponent answered that it had always been one of character.  And you must admit that the direct and unmitigated manner of depreciating the reputation, not merely of Jane Arrowsmith, but of Mrs. Wynyard, a personal friend of Miss Martineau’s to whom she professes great obligations, could not be otherwise than exasperating to a woman of her generous temper, and this just in the crisis of her gratitude for her restoration to life and enjoyment by the means (as she considers it) of this friend.  Not that I feel at all convinced of her having been cured by mesmerism; I have told her openly that I doubt it a little, and she is not angry with me for saying so.  Also, the wreck story, and (as you suggest) the three new cases of clairvoyance; why, one cannot, you know, give one’s specific convictions to general sweeping testimonies, with a mist all round them.  Still, I do lean to believing this class of mysteries, and I see nothing more incredible in the apocalypse of the wreck and other marvels of clairvoyance, than in that singular adaptation of another person’s senses, which is a common phenomenon of the simple forms of mesmerism.  If it is credible that a person