Page:A note on Charlotte Brontë (IA note00swinoncharlottebrich).pdf/78

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own creation. There is or should be for all men such consecration in a great man's tears as cannot but glorify the source and embalm the subject of their flow. We may even, and not unreasonably, suspect and fear that it must be through some defect or default in ourselves if we cannot feel as they do the force or charm of that which touches others, and these our betters as often as our equals, so nearly; if we cannot, for example,—as I may regretfully confess that I never could—feel adequately or in full the bitter sweetness that so many thousands—and most notably among them all a better man by far and a far worthier judge than I—have tasted in those pages of Dickens which hold the story of Little Nell; a story in which all the elaborate accumulation of pathetic incident and