‘ ... The lakes are more beautiful and lovable than I had imagined. There is a singular charm in the hills round Ambleside, they ripple like the sea.
‘You must not “feel” while you are so weak, just lie, as it were, in the sepulchre, and then come out as Browning’s Lazarus.’
To the same:—
‘July 1897.
‘I got home from London late last night, and it troubled me, and you were much in my mind when I went to church; and in the service it seemed to me that it must be your energies were to be used to the full, and yet your married life, to which you have now been called, does in some degree restrain you. Hitherto I have thought you wanted, like an electric eel, to recuperate; you have gone through too much lately. To-day, it seemed to me as if you should still speak, but in writing; you have the power of writing well. I think I speak better than I write; I don’t know how you speak, but you can write. Now see if speaking is not to be your work whether writing is. How I feel I need solitude, and can’t write for want of it; but you have solitude enough to enable you to write. A little later, as I waited for a message, which sometimes comes at the quiet times, the words came: “I became dumb, and opened not my mouth, for it was Thy doing.” I thought it was to be sent on to you, so there it is; not with your mouth, but with your hand, and perhaps to a larger audience. I think the solitude of the cycle will help you too....’
There was one friend and old pupil, a writer for whose philosophical and poetical work in particular Miss Beale had a great admiration, who received many letters from her. A few extracts from these are given. To Miss ——:—
‘December 1886.
‘I don’t think you will get any food in Spinoza. You say, may we not adopt Agnosticism and say of these problems honestly, “I will give it up”? But you cannot. We may try to, but it is not human to be content to be caged in by this little world of time and space. That restless discontent reaching out to wider knowledge, to the infinite, is surely its own witness. If not, Man, the crown of all things on earth, is the only irrational creature upon it. You will not be able to give up philosophy.
‘I quite agree that we are not to be allowed here so to “make up our minds.” That spirit ever open to receive more light, is what our Master spoke of as the childlike spirit.
‘Have you seen a little sixpenny book by Armstrong of Leeds? He is a Unitarian, so I do not agree with the end; but all the early chapters on the Belief in God are very good, and I think you would like it. There are also some very satisfactory sermons by Professor Momerie on the existence of the soul. I read a great deal of philosophy when I get time. Have you read Martineau’s Types of Ethical History? If not, do. Also Green’s Prolegomena to Ethics. Last summer I read Lotze’s Microcosmus, but I should recommend the two others rather.