ABSTRACT
William Blake's encounter with Isaiah in The Marriage of Heaven and Hell alerts us to one of the many meanings ofthe word 'persuasion' in the Romantic period, that of firm inner conviction or religious belief2 The prophet suggests that to perceive through all the senses (not just the finite, organical ones), is to discover the infinite and that poets share this ability to create by belief. We know that Jane Austen's Christianity was extremely important to her (' I am by no means convinced that we ought not all to be Evangelicals, & am at least persuaded that they who are so from Reason & Feeling, must be happiest & safest.').3 In her last completed novel, Austen explores the imaginative and religious dynamics of persuasion both in the unfolding plot and the texture of her narrative.
