My sister Emily first declined.The details of her illness are deep-branded in my memory, but to dwell on them, either in thought or narrative, is not in my power.Never in all her life had she lingered over any task that lay before her, and she did not linger now.She sank rapidly.She made haste to leave us.Yet, while physically she perished, mentally she grew stronger than we had yet known her.Day by day, when I saw with what a front she met suffering, I looked on her with an anguish of wonder and love.Ihave seen nothing like it; but, indeed, I have never seen her parallel in anything.Stronger than a man, simpler than a child, her nature stood alone.The awful point was, that while full of ruth for others, on herself she had no pity; the spirit was inexorable to the flesh; from the trembling hand, the unnerved limbs, the faded eyes, the same service was exacted as they had rendered in health.To stand by and witness this, and not dare to remonstrate, was a pain no words can render.
Two cruel months of hope and fear passed painfully by, and the day came at last when the terrors and pains of death were to be undergone by this treasure, which had grown dearer and dearer to our hearts as it wasted before our eyes.Towards the decline of that day, we had nothing of Emily but her mortal remains as consumption left them.She died December 19, 1848.
We thought this enough: but we were utterly and presumptuously wrong.She was not buried ere Anne fell ill.She had not been committed to the grave a fortnight, before we received distinct intimation that it was necessary to prepare our minds to see the younger sister go after the elder.Accordingly, she followed in the same path with slower step, and with a patience that equalled the other's fortitude.I have said that she was religious, and it was by leaning on those Christian doctrines in which she firmly believed, that she found support through her most painful journey.
I witnessed their efficacy in her latest hour and greatest trial, and must bear my testimony to the calm triumph with which they brought her through.She died May 28, 1849.
What more shall I say about them? I cannot and need not say much more.In externals, they were two unobtrusive women; a perfectly secluded life gave them retiring manners and habits.In Emily's nature the extremes of vigour and simplicity seemed to meet.Under an unsophisticated culture, inartificial tastes, and an unpretending outside, lay a secret power and fire that might have informed the brain and kindled the veins of a hero; but she had no worldly wisdom; her powers were unadapted to the practical business of life; she would fail to defend her most manifest rights, to consult her most legitimate advantage.An interpreter ought always to have stood between her and the world.Her will was not very flexible, and it generally opposed her interest.Her temper was magnanimous, but warm and sudden; her spirit altogether unbending.
Anne's character was milder and more subdued; she wanted the power, the fire, the originality of her sister, but was well endowed with quiet virtues of her own.Long-suffering, self-denying, reflective, and intelligent, a constitutional reserve and taciturnity placed and kept her in the shade, and covered her mind, and especially her feelings, with a sort of nun-like veil, which was rarely lifted.Neither Emily nor Anne was learned; they had no thought of filling their pitchers at the well-spring of other minds; they always wrote from the impulse of nature, the dictates of intuition, and from such stores of observation as their limited experience had enabled them to amass.I may sum up all by saying, that for strangers they were nothing, for superficial observers less than nothing; but for those who had known them all their lives in the intimacy of close relationship, they were genuinely good and truly great.
This notice has been written because I felt it a sacred duty to wipe the dust off their gravestones, and leave their dear names free from soil.
CURRER BELL
SEPTEMBER 19, 1850.
EDITOR'S PREFACE TO THE NEW EDITION OF 'WUTHERING HEIGHTS'
I HAVE just read over 'Wuthering Heights,' and, for the first time, have obtained a clear glimpse of what are termed (and, perhaps, really are) its faults; have gained a definite notion of how it appears to other people - to strangers who knew nothing of the author; who are unacquainted with the locality where the scenes of the story are laid; to whom the inhabitants, the customs, the natural characteristics of the outlying hills and hamlets in the West Riding of Yorkshire are things alien and unfamiliar.