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ambition, books, Jane Austen, Jane Austen's death, Jane Austen's Letters, lilac, literature, syringa
“We must think the best & hope the best & do the best.” Jane Austen wrote this line in a letter to her sister Cassandra on November 26, 1815, when their brother Henry was very ill, and I’ve returned to it many times over the years that I’ve been studying her life and letters. Henry has been hoping he’ll be able to travel to Oxford for a few days, but although he “gets out in his Garden every day … at present his inclination for doing more seems over” and “his feelings are for continuing where he is, through the next two months.” “One knows the uncertainty of all this,” Jane acknowledges, “but should it be so, we must think the best & hope the best & do the best.”
This is not the “syringa, iv’ry pure” of Cowper’s line, but I thought it was pretty anyway. “I could not do without a Syringa, for the sake of Cowper’s Line” (Jane to Cassandra, February 8 and 9, 1807)
She tells Cassandra that “Henry calls himself stronger every day & Mr. H. keeps on approving his Pulse – which seems generally better than ever – but still they will not let him be well. – The fever is not yet quite removed. – The Medicine he takes (the same as before you went) is cheifly to improve his Stomach, & only a little aperient. He is so well, that I cannot think why he is not perfectly well.”
She was determined to be optimistic in the face of death, just as she was eighteen months later after Henry had recovered and she herself was ill. She wrote to her friend Anne Sharp on May 22, 1817 that while “inspite of my hopes & promises when I wrote to you I have since been very ill indeed,” “Now, I am getting well again, & indeed have been gradually tho’ slowly recovering my strength for the last three weeks. I can sit up in my bed & employ myself, … & really am equal to being out of bed, but that the posture is thought good for me.” She was so well, it seems, that she could not think why she was not perfectly well.
Later in that same letter to Miss Sharp there’s another example of her “thinking the best.” She’s grateful for the kindness of those who are caring for her, and she concludes, “In short, if I live to be an old Woman I must expect to wish I had died now, blessed in the tenderness of such a family, & before I had survived either them or their affection.”
Jane Austen died 198 years ago today, on July 18, 1817.
I mentioned a few weeks ago that I was entertained by the only line in her letters in which she explicitly mentions her ambition: “I wore my Aunt’s gown & handkercheif, & my hair was at least tidy, which was all my ambition” (from a letter she wrote to Cassandra on November 20 and 21, 1800). I like the idea of putting this ironic line together with her more serious ambition to “think the best & hope the best & do the best.” What should we aim for, in ordinary life or under extraordinary duress? “The best.”
Quotations are from the fourth edition of Jane Austen’s Letters, edited by Deirdre Le Faye (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011).
Sarah Emsley 
Sarah, what a wonderful, thoughtful set of remarks about that gentle hopefulness which she obviously admired but which, I think, didn’t come easy to her. A wonderful companion piece to the ‘ambition’ comments, also. Like that one, it is about to make me drop what I am doing and go back to her letters.
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Thanks so much, Nora. I think you’re right that it didn’t come easy to her. I love what Marsha Huff said about the letters (in the JASNA Newsletter a few years ago), about the pleasure of becoming “fluent” in the letters. She writes that “the events described by Austen seemed contemporaneous and vital, as though they had just happened and I was the first to hear her account of them.” Happy reading!
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Sarah,
I had never researched syringa before. I have heard Jane’s quote so many times that I am surprised that I have been ignorant about syringa for so long. Your photo, while not syringa, prompted me to google it. I was very surprised to find it is in the lilac family! I have always loved lilacs! What a pleasant surprise!
Thanks, Sarah, for giving me the push I needed to check this out!
Joan
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My pleasure, Joan! Perhaps someday I’ll find the perfect “iv’ry pure” syringa and take a picture. I love the idea that literary references inspired Jane Austen’s plans for her garden.
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Reblogged this on Caffeine Epiphanies and commented:
Jane Austen died 198 years ago today, on July 18, 1817.
Sarah Emsley shares some of Jane’s words of hope on her blog today.
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Thanks, Mary, for sharing this piece with your own readers. I appreciate it.
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There is a certain irony in Jane Austen having used that very same phrase, “hope the best”, a year earlier, in a very different context involving another Henry:
“Sir Thomas promised that it should be so. Edmund’s account of Fanny’s disposition he could believe to be just; he supposed she had all those feelings, but he must consider it as very unfortunate that she had; for, less willing than his son to trust to the future, he could not help fearing that if such very long allowances of time and habit were necessary for her, she might not have persuaded herself into receiving his addresses properly before the young man’s inclination for paying them were over. There was nothing to be done, however, but to submit quietly and hope the best.”
The irony of course is that “the best” hoped for is that Fanny will accept Henry’s proposal.
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Very interesting indeed, Arnie. Thanks for drawing attention to the phrase in MP. I suppose we “have all a better guide in ourselves” that will tell us what “the best” is.
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Thanks, Sarah. I had a chance to go back this morning and read that passage in the context of the whole letter— I think you have taken the passage out of context–there is no real worry at all about Henry’s being ill — what Jane is doing, in an entirely ironic tone (very similar to her ironical reference in an 1813 letter to Alexander Pope’s ironic line “Whatever is, is best”) is mocking Henry’s hypochondria, and the way that niece Fanny, among others, is enabling his hypochondria the way Mr. Woodhouse’s hypochondria is not challenged..
Henry is thinking of taking a trip to Oxford for a few days–how sick can he be? And there is further irony in Jane’s saying “but still they will not let him be well. Perhaps when Fanny is gone he will be allowed to recover faster.”
And…most telling of all is the overall intense happiness that suffuses the rest of the letter–this is one of the Haden letters,when Jane is deriving great pleasure from the stimulating company of Mr. Haden. If Henry were really ill, would Jane be mentioning his “illness” as an afterthought? And…recall finally that this letter is coinciding with the completion of the writing of Emma, and the great anticipation that Jane is experiencing re its imminent publication, and her enjoyment of London.
So, without my realizing it yesterday, I see now that the echo of the ironic statement in MP about “hope for the best” is entirely intentional on JA’s part!
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Oh, I don’t mean she’s become an earnest moralist in this letter. She’s also dealing with the uncertainty of her own plans, as they’re affected by Henry’s health, and I think she sounds both resigned and hopeful about making the best of whatever happens. But I don’t think she’s simply making fun of Henry here. While he was no longer as ill as he had been, as she says, “the fever is not yet quite removed.”
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Sarah, I love this post and this tribute to Austen on the anniversary of her death. Beautifully written, my friend.
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Thanks, Renée. I know how much you appreciate optimism!
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Dear Sarah,
What a beautiful tribute to Jane Austen. The intertwining quotes….just brilliant.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts.
Cheryl
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Thanks very much, Cheryl.
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Yes, this is beautiful, and so beautifully done. What could be better than to reflect on these thoughts, on this day. And out of the commonplace of her letters (in which it is an almost lifetime effort to become fluent!), you gently and skilfully excise a devastating line that is something one could live by: “we must think the best & hope the best & do the best.” Thank you Sarah – and Jane! All the best.
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Thank you for your kind words, Diana. I agree with you that it’s a devastating line. All the best to you as well.
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Thank you, Sarah, for this lovely post and tribute to Jane. It is especially meaningful to me as my father-in-law passed away this week.
I love Jane’s quote “we must think the best, hope the best and do the best.” It’s a good one to tack on my quote wall to help me think more positively. It reminds me of another favorite quote from Philippians 4:8.
I just looked up syringa. Gorgeous! I wish the screen could transmit smell! No wonder Austen could not live with out them. Wikipedia says that lilacs are often considered to symbolize love. Sweet. And in Greece, Lebanon and Cyprus they are associated with Easter.
thanks again
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I’m sad to hear about your father-in-law, Sharon. My sympathies to you and your family.
Thanks very much for making the connection with Philippians 4:8. I wonder if Jane Austen’s words were inspired by those lines. The first part of that verse is particularly memorable for me because it’s the motto of the University of Alberta, where I was an undergraduate: “Quaecumque vera” (“whatsoever things are true”). It is indeed inspiring to think about what is true, honest, just, pure, lovely, and “of good report.”
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thank you Sarah
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A lovely way to mark her death.
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Thank you!
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Thank you, Sarah, for a truly inspirational post. Since JA was correcting the proofs sent by the printers, I associate this positive thinking with the publication of Emma and the optimism that runs through the book. Lovely syringas!
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I’m happy to hear that you liked it, Monica. Thanks for making the connection with the tone and the publication history of Emma.
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“Oh, I don’t mean she’s become an earnest moralist in this letter. She’s also dealing with the uncertainty of her own plans, as they’re affected by Henry’s health, and I think she sounds both resigned and hopeful about making the best of whatever happens. But I don’t think she’s simply making fun of Henry here. While he was no longer as ill as he had been, as she says, “the fever is not yet quite removed.”
Sarah, I am glad to hear your clarification of your initial post, but i still do disagree with you–your post prompted me to write a whole blog post of my own on this interesting point of interpretation, including a satirical allusion to 1 Corinthians, and here is the link:
http://sharpelvessociety.blogspot.com/2015/07/we-must-think-best-hope-best-do-best.html
And, for what it is worth, two other Janeites responded to me in the Janeites and Austen L group and agreed with me that Jane was being ironic.
It’s always fun tossing ideas back and forth with you!
ARNIE
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