A preface to the first edition of "Jane Eyre" being unnecessary,I gave none: this second edition demands a few words both ofacknowledgment and miscellaneous remark.

My thanks are due in three quarters.

To the Public, for the indulgent ear it has inclined to a plain talewith few pretensions.

To the Press, for the fair field its honest suffrage has opened toan obscure aspirant.

To my Publishers, for the aid their tact, their energy, theirpractical sense and frank liberality have afforded an unknown andunrecommended Author.

The Press and the Public are but vague personifications for me, andI must thank them in vague terms; but my Publishers are definite:so are certain generous critics who have encouraged me as onlylarge-hearted and high-minded men know how to encourage a strugglingstranger; to them, i.e., to my Publishers and the select Reviewers,I say cordially, Gentlemen, I thank you from my heart.

Having thus acknowledged what I owe those who have aided andapproved me, I turn to another class; a small one, so far as I know,but not, therefore, to be overlooked. I mean the timorous orcarping few who doubt the tendency of such books as "Jane Eyre:" inwhose eyes whatever is unusual is wrong; whose ears detect in eachprotest against bigotry--that parent of crime--an insult to piety,that regent of God on earth. I would suggest to such doubterscertain obvious distinctions; I would remind them of certain simpletruths.

Conventionality is not morality. Self-righteousness is notreligion. To attack the first is not to assail the last. To pluckthe mask from the face of the Pharisee, is not to lift an impioushand to the Crown of Thorns.

These things and deeds are diametrically opposed: they are asdistinct as is vice from virtue. Men too often confound them: theyshould not be confounded: appearance should not be mistaken fortruth; narrow human doctrines, that only tend to elate and magnify afew, should not be substituted for the world-redeeming creed ofChrist. There is--I repeat it--a difference; and it is a good, andnot a bad action to mark broadly and clearly the line of separationbetween them.

The world may not like to see these ideas dissevered, for it hasbeen accustomed to blend them; finding it convenient to makeexternal show pass for sterling worth--to let white-washed wallsvouch for clean shrines. It may hate him who dares to scrutiniseand expose--to rase the gilding, and show base metal under it--topenetrate the sepulchre, and reveal charnel relics: but hate as itwill, it is indebted to him.

Ahab did not like Micaiah, because he never prophesied goodconcerning him, but evil; probably he liked the sycophant son ofChenaannah better; yet might Ahab have escaped a bloody death, hadhe but stopped his ears to flattery, and opened them to faithfulcounsel.

There is a man in our own days whose words are not framed to tickledelicate ears: who, to my thinking, comes before the great ones ofsociety, much as the son of Imlah came before the throned Kings ofJudah and Israel; and who speaks truth as deep, with a power asprophet-like and as vital--a mien as dauntless and as daring. Isthe satirist of "Vanity Fair" admired in high places? I cannottell; but I think if some of those amongst whom he hurls the Greekfire of his sarcasm, and over whom he flashes the levin-brand of hisdenunciation, were to take his warnings in time--they or their seedmight yet escape a fatal Rimoth-Gilead.

Why have I alluded to this man? I have alluded to him, Reader,because I think I see in him an intellect profounder and more uniquethan his contemporaries have yet recognised; because I regard him asthe first social regenerator of the day--as the very master of thatworking corps who would restore to rectitude the warped system ofthings; because I think no commentator on his writings has yet foundthe comparison that suits him, the terms which rightly characterisehis talent. They say he is like Fielding: they talk of his wit,humour, comic powers. He resembles Fielding as an eagle does avulture: Fielding could stoop on carrion, but Thackeray never does.His wit is bright, his humour attractive, but both bear the samerelation to his serious genius that the mere lambent sheet-lightningplaying under the edge of the summer-cloud does to the electricdeath-spark hid in its womb. Finally, I have alluded to Mr.Thackeray, because to him--if he will accept the tribute of a totalstranger--I have dedicated this second edition of "JANE EYRE."

CURRER BELL.

December 21st, 1847.

NOTE TO THE THIRD EDITION

I avail myself of the opportunity which a third edition of "JaneEyre" affords me, of again addressing a word to the Public, toexplain that my claim to the title of novelist rests on this onework alone. If, therefore, the authorship of other works of fictionhas been attributed to me, an honour is awarded where it is notmerited; and consequently, denied where it is justly due.

This explanation will serve to rectify mistakes which may alreadyhave been made, and to prevent future errors.

CURRER BELL.

April 13th, 1848.