Page:A note on Charlotte Brontë (IA note00swinoncharlottebrich).pdf/39

---

the pitiful and unseemly spectacle of an Amazon thrown sprawling over the crupper of her spavined and spur-galled Pegasus. It is on ground proper to either or common to both that we will compare the pace and action, the blood and the wind and the staying power, of either steed entered for this race. And first we will examine, dropping our equine metaphor before we have ridden it to death, what may be the very gravest flaws or shortcomings perceptible in the work of Charlotte Brontë. So doing, I believe that any loyal and capable critic will as surely find as he will joyfully admit that her failures never affect the central and radical quality, of that work. The heart of it is always whole; its outskirts or extremities alone, perhaps only its dress and decorations, are