But Shakespeare one gets acquainted with without knowing how. It is a part of an Englishman's constitution. His thoughts and beauties are so spread abroad that one touches them everywhere; one is intimate with him by instinct.

More from Jane Austen

• A lady's imagination is very rapid; it jumps from admiration to love, from love to matrimony in a moment.
• A man would always wish to give a woman a better home than the one he takes her from; and he who can do it, where there is no doubt of her regard, must, I think, be the happiest of mortals.
• A mind lively and at ease, can do with seeing nothing, and can see nothing that does not answer.
• A Mr. (save, perhaps, some half dozen in the nation,) always needs a note of explanation.
• An artist cannot do anything slovenly.
• An engaged woman is always more agreeable than a disengaged. She is satisfied with herself. Her cares are over, and she feels that she may exert all her powers of pleasing without suspicion. All is safe with a lady engaged; no harm can be done.