“Do you think I can stay to become nothing to you'
Do you think I am an automation?-a machine
without feelings?
and can bear to have my morsel of bread snatched
from my lips,
and my drop of living water dashed from my cup?
Do you think, because I am poor, obscure, plain, an
little, I am soulless and heartless?
You think wrong!-I have as much soul as you,-and
full of as much heart!
And if G-d had gifted me with some beauty and
much wealth,
I should have made it as hard for you to leave me, a
it is now for me to leave you.
I am not talking to you now through the medium o
custom, conventionalities, nor even of mortal flesh:
it is my spirit that addresses your spirit;
just as if both had passed through the grave,
and we stood at G-d's feet, equal,-as we are!”
―
Charlotte Brontë,
Jane Eyre: The Original 1847 Edition With Illustrations
