The world may not like to see these ideas dissevered, for it has been accustomed to blend them finding it convenient to make external show pass for sterling worth - to let white-washed walls vouch for clean shrines. There is - I repeat it - a difference and it is a good, and not a bad action to mark broadly and clearly the line of separation between them. Men too often confound them: they should not be confounded: appearance should not be mistaken for truth narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify a few, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed of Christ. These things and deeds are diametrically opposed: they are as distinct as is vice from virtue. To pluck the mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impious hand to the Crown of Thorns. To attack the first is not to assail the last. I would suggest to such doubters certain obvious distinctions I would remind them of certain simple truths.Ĭonventionality is not morality. I mean the timorous or carping few who doubt the tendency of such books as “Jane Eyre:” in whose eyes whatever is unusual is wrong whose ears detect in each protest against bigotry - that parent of crime - an insult to piety, that regent of God on earth. Having thus acknowledged what I owe those who have aided and approved me, I turn to another class a small one, so far as I know, but not, therefore, to be overlooked. The Press and the Public are but vague personifications for me, and I must thank them in vague terms but my Publishers are definite: so are certain generous critics who have encouraged me as only large-hearted and high-minded men know how to encourage a struggling stranger to them, i.e., to my Publishers and the select Reviewers, I say cordially, Gentlemen, I thank you from my heart. To my Publishers, for the aid their tact, their energy, their practical sense and frank liberality have afforded an unknown and unrecommended Author. To the Press, for the fair field its honest suffrage has opened to an obscure aspirant. To the Public, for the indulgent ear it has inclined to a plain tale with few pretensions. A preface to the first edition of “Jane Eyre” being unnecessary, I gave none: this second edition demands a few words both of acknowledgment and miscellaneous remark.
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