A Memoir of Jane Austen

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50 Death of Mrs. Lefroy
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Hers is the energy of soul sincere;
Her Christian spirit, ignorant to feign,
Seeks but to comfort, heal, enlighten, cheer,
Confer a pleasure or prevent a pain.
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Can aught enhance such goodness? yes, to me
Her partial favour from my earliest years
Consummates all: ah! give me but to see
Her smile of love! The vision disappears.
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’Tis past and gone. We meet no more below.
Short is the cheat of Fancy o’er the tomb.
Oh! might I hope to equal bliss to go,
To meet thee, angel, in thy future home.
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Fain would I feel an union with thy fate:
Fain would I seek to draw an omen fair
From this connection in our earthly date.
Indulge the harmless weakness. Reason, spare.
The loss of their first home is generally a great grief to young
persons of strong feeling and lively imagination; and Jane was
exceedingly unhappy when she was told that her father, now
seventy years of age, had determined to resign his duties to his
eldest son, who was to be his successor in the Rectory of Steventon,
and to remove with his wife and daughters to Bath. Jane had
been absent from home when this resolution was taken; and, as
her father was always rapid both in forming his resolutions and in
acting on them, she had little time to reconcile herself to the
change.°
A wish has sometimes been expressed that some of Jane
Austen’s letters should be published. Some entire letters, and
many extracts, will be given in this memoir; but the reader must
be warned not to expect too much from them.° With regard to
accuracy of language indeed every word of them might be printed
without correction. The style is always clear, and generally ani-