MS Charlotte Mitchell
My dear Miss Jacob
Excuse the blunder of the date there is one of those revolutions going on caused by whitewash and new carpetting which drive oneself to holes and corners and one’s senses no where. It began suddenly on Saturday, or I would then have sent you Gerontius, thinking he might be a pleasant companion in your Oxford week. I hope it is successful, though Mr Wither says the Dean of Emly1 failed you.
How I wish we were near enough to read Dante together – not that I really understand him but I should like to have to go through him again. When you do read him, after the first two or three cantos, when he is fairly over the Styx, I think you should go on at once to Purgatorio. I think one rather wastes time & patience in working through the political people in all the circles below – and the classical fiends are provoking, while everything in Purgatorio seems in a hopeful dewy sadness.
I suppose in reality, nobody does know the meaning of ‘He was heard in that He feared’.2 The Divine and Human Wills were certainly at issue at that dreadful moment there seems no doubt, but the very words offered up Himself almost signify the readiness to be a sacrifice. But in the main, I think it may be safe to call that prayer unanswered in the same sense as so many of our own prayers are – ie – that though the cup – the event itself – may not pass from us yet that the very thing in it, that one has most feared, may have been averted or softened in some wonderful manner. I am not looking at any authorities as this domestic revolution makes books hard to come by
yours very sincerely
C M Yonge