OFFICE OF HOUSEHOLD WORDS,
Monday, June 1, 1857.

MY DEAR STONE:

I know that what I am going to say will not be agreeable; but I rely on
the authoress's good sense; and say it knowing it to be the truth.

These "Notes" are destroyed by too much smartness. It gives the
appearance of perpetual effort, stabs to the heart the nature that is
in them, and wearies by the manner and not by the matter. It is the
commonest fault in the world (as I have constant occasion to observe
here) but it is a very great one. Just as you couldn't bear to have an
épergne or a candlestick on your table, supported by a light figure
always on tip-toe and evidently in an impossible attitude for the
sustainment of its weight, so all readers would be more or less
oppressed and worried by this presentation of everything in one smart
point of view, when they know it must have other, and weightier, and
more solid properties. Airiness and good spirits are always
delightful, and are inseparable from notes of a cheerful trip; but they
should sympathize with many things as well as see them in a lively way.
It is but a word or a touch that expresses this humanity, but without
that little embellishment of good nature there is no such thing as
humour. In this little MS. everything is too much patronized and
condescended to, whereas the slightest touch of feeling for the rustic
who is of the earth earthy, or of sisterhood with the homely servant
who has made her face shine in her desire to please, would make a
difference that the writer can scarcely imagine without trying it. The
only relief in the twenty-one slips is the little bit about the chimes.
It is a relief, simply because it is an indication of some kind of