One should be a brute not to feel for the distress they are in
 Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (1814). copy citation

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Author Jane Austen
Source Mansfield Park
Topic distress feeling
Date 1814
Language English
Reference
Note
Weblink http://www.gutenberg.org/files/141/141-h/141-h.htm

Context

“This is my modest request and expectation, for you are so good, that I depend upon being treated better than I deserve, and I write now to beg an immediate answer. I want to know the state of things at Mansfield Park, and you, no doubt, are perfectly able to give it. One should be a brute not to feel for the distress they are in; and from what I hear, poor Mr. Bertram has a bad chance of ultimate recovery. I thought little of his illness at first. I looked upon him as the sort of person to be made a fuss with, and to make a fuss himself in any trifling disorder, and was chiefly concerned for those who had to nurse him;” source