“ Your lively mind can hardly be serious even on serious subjects. ”
Jane Austen, Mansfield Park (1814). copy citation
| Author | Jane Austen |
|---|---|
| Source | Mansfield Park |
| Topic | mind subject |
| Date | 1814 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/141/141-h/141-h.htm |
Context
“Bridgets—starched up into seeming piety, but with heads full of something very different—especially if the poor chaplain were not worth looking at—and, in those days, I fancy parsons were very inferior even to what they are now.”
For a few moments she was unanswered. Fanny coloured and looked at Edmund, but felt too angry for speech; and he needed a little recollection before he could say, “Your lively mind can hardly be serious even on serious subjects. You have given us an amusing sketch, and human nature cannot say it was not so. We must all feel at times the difficulty of fixing our thoughts as we could wish; but if you are supposing it a frequent thing, that is to say, a weakness grown into a habit from neglect, what could be expected from the private devotions of such persons?”
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