![]() Thackeray, because to him if he wil l accept the tribute of a total stranger I have dedicated this second edition of Ja ne Eyre. His wit is bright, his humour attractive, but both b ear the same relation to his serious genius that the mere lambent sheet-lightnin g playing under the edge of the summer-cloud does to the electric death-spark hi d in its womb. He resembles Fielding as an eagle does a vulture: Fielding could stoop on carrion, but Thackeray never does. They say he is like Fielding: they talk of his wit, humour, comic powers. Why have I alluded to this man? I have alluded to him, Reader, because I think I see in him an intellect profounder and more unique than his contemporaries hav e yet recognised because I regard him as the first social regenerator of the da y as the very master of that working corps who would restore to rectitude the warp ed system of things because I think no commentator on his writings has yet foun d the comparison that suits him, the terms which rightly characterise his talent. Is the satirist of Vanity Fair admired in high places? I cannot tell but I think if some of those amongst whom he hurls the Greek fire of his sarcasm, and over whom he flashes the levin-brand of his denunciation, were to take his warn ings in time they or their seed might yet escape a fatal Rimoth-Gilead. Of Imlah came before the throned Kings of Judah and Israel and who speaks truth as deep, with a power as prophet-like and as vital a mien as dauntless and as dar ing. There is a man in our own days whose words are not framed to tickle delicate ear s: who, to my thinking, comes before the great ones of society, much as the son Ahab did not like Micaiah, because he never prophesied good concerning him, but evil probably he liked the sycophant son of Chenaannah better yet might Ahab h ave escaped a bloody death, had he but stopped his ears to flattery, and opened them to faithful counsel. It may hate him who dares to scrutinise and expose to rase the gilding, and show base metal under it to penetr ate the sepulchre, and reveal charnel relics: but hate as it will, it is indebte d to him. The world may not like to see these ideas dissevered, for it has been accustomed to blend them finding it convenient to make external show pass for sterling wo rth to let white-washed walls vouch for clean shrines. There is I repeat it a difference and it is a good, and not a bad a ction to mark broadly and clearly the line of separation between them. Men too often confound them: they should not be confounded: appe arance should not be mistaken for truth narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming cr eed of Christ. ![]() These things and deeds are diametrically opposed: they are as distinct as is vic e from virtue. To pluck the mask from the face of the Ph arisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns. To attack the first is not to assail the last. I would suggest to such doubters certain obvious distinctions I w ould remind them of certain simple truths. I mean the timorous or carping few who doubt the tendency of such books as Jane Eyre: in whose eyes whatever is unusual is wrong whose ears detect in ea ch protest against bigotry that parent of crime an insult to piety, that regent of G od on earth. Having thus acknowledged what I owe those who have aided and approved me, I turn to another class a small one, so far as I know, but not, therefore, to be over looked. The Press and the Public are but vague personifications for me, and I must thank them in vague terms but my Publishers are definite: so are certain generous cr itics who have encouraged me as only large-hearted and high-minded men know how to encourage a struggling stranger to them, i.e., to my Publishers and the sele ct Reviewers, I say cordially, Gentlemen, I thank you from my heart. To my Publishers, for the aid their tact, their energy, their practical sense an d frank liberality have afforded an unknown and unrecommended Author. To the Press, for the fair field its honest suffrage has opened to an obscure as pirant. To the Public, for the indulgent ear it has inclined to a plain tale with few pr etensions. JANE EYRE by Charlotte Bronte PREFACE A preface to the first edition of Jane Eyre being unnecessary, I gave none: this s econd edition demands a few words both of acknowledgment and miscellaneous remar k.
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