Sir…a wanderer’s repose or a sinner’s reformation should never depend on a fellow-creature. Men and women die; philosophers falter in their wisdom, and Christians in goodness: if any one you know has suffered and erred, let him look higher than his equals for strength to amend, and solace to heal.
– Charlotte Bronte
Jane Eyre, Chapter 20. Jane echoes Helen Burns’s philososphy when she tells Rochester that a person’s redemption should never depend on a fellow human being. She is responding to Rochester’s story about a man who lived a sinful life then wished to begin a pure life with a virtuous stranger, but a “conventional impediment” stood in his way. Rochester posed her the question: “Is the wandering and sinful, but now rest-seeking and repentant, man justified in daring the world’s opinion, in order to attach to him for ever this gentle, gracious, genial stranger, thereby securing his own peace of mind and regeneration of life?”