sense; but expected to like 'Mansfield Park' better, and having finished the first volume, hoped that she had got through the worst.
Another did not like 'Mansfield Park.' Nothing interesting in the characters. Language poor.
One gentleman read the first and last chapters of 'Emma,' but did not look at the rest, because he had been told that it was not interesting.
The opinions of another gentleman about 'Emma' were so bad that they could not be reported to the author.
'Quot homines, tot sententiæ.'
Thirty-five years after her death there came also a voice of praise from across the Atlantic. In 1852 the following letter was received by her brother Sir Francis Austen :-
6th Jan, 1852.
'Since high critical authority has pronounced the delineations of character in the works of Jane Austen second only to those of Shakspeare, transatlantic admiration appears superfluous; yet it may not be uninteresting to her family to receive an assurance that the influence of her genius is extensively recognised in the American Republic, even by the highest judicial authorities. The late Mr. Chief Justice Marshall, of the supreme Court of the United States, and his associate Mr. Justice Story, highly estimated and admired Miss Austen, and to them we owe our introduction to her society. For many years her talents have brightened our daily path, and her name and
