Knowing and Feeling: a Contribution to Psychology
Title
Knowing and Feeling: a Contribution to Psychology
Text Read
Knowing and Feeling: a Contribution to Psychology
Author
Smith, William. ed. Lucy Caroline Smith
Original Source
Edinburgh: Constable, 1874
Digitized by
Internet Archive
Publication Date
1874
Date(s) of Reading
- 1873-03-01
- 1874-02-12
Evidence
1873-03-01: George Eliot to Mrs. William Smith, 1 March 1873. “If I had been quite sure of your address, I should have written to you even before receiving your dear letter, over which I have been crying this morning. The prompting to write to you came from my having ten days ago read your Memoir -- brief yet full -- of the precious last months before the parting. Mrs P. Taylor brought me her copy as a loan. But may I not beg to have a copy of my own? It is to me an invaluable bit of writing, -- the inspiration of a great sorrow, born of a great love, has made it perfect; and ever since I read it, I have felt a strengthening companionship from it. You will perhaps think it strange when I tell you that I have been more cheerful since I read the record of his sweet mild heroism, which threw emphasis on every blessing left in his waning life, and was silent over its pangs. I have even ventured to lend this copy, which is not my own, to a young married woman of whom I am very fond, because I think it is an unforgettable picture of that union which is the ideal of marriage, and which I desire young people to have in their minds as a goal.” GEL 5: 381
1874-02-12: George Eliot to Mrs. William Smith, 12 February 1874. “We have received the volume -- your kind and valuable gift -- and I have read it aloud with Mr Lewes, all except the later pages, which we both feel too much to bear reading them in common. You have given a deeply interesting and, we think, instructive picture, and Mr Lewes has expressed his wish that it had not been restricted to a private circulation. But I understand your shrinking from indiscriminate publicity, at least in the first instance. Perhaps, if many judges on whom you rely concur with Mr Lewes, you will be induced to extend the possible benefit of the volume. I care so much for the demonstration of an intense joy in life on the basis of "plain living and high thinking," in this time of more and more eager scrambling after wealth and show. And then there are exquisite bits which you have rescued from that darkness to which his self-depreciation condemned them. I think I never read a more exquisite little poem than the one called "Christian Resignation"; and Mr Lewes, when I read it aloud, at once exclaimed, "How very fine. Read it again!" I am also much impressed with the wise mingling of moderation with sympathy in that passage, given in a note, from the article on Greg's ‘Political Essays.’ What must have been the effort which the writing cost you I can – not fully but – almost imagine. But believe, dear friend, that in our judgment you have not poured out these recollections in a cry of anguish all in vain. I feel roused and admonished by what you have told, and if I -- then others.” GEL 6: 17
1874-02-12: George Eliot to Mrs. William Smith, 12 February 1874. “We have received the volume -- your kind and valuable gift -- and I have read it aloud with Mr Lewes, all except the later pages, which we both feel too much to bear reading them in common. You have given a deeply interesting and, we think, instructive picture, and Mr Lewes has expressed his wish that it had not been restricted to a private circulation. But I understand your shrinking from indiscriminate publicity, at least in the first instance. Perhaps, if many judges on whom you rely concur with Mr Lewes, you will be induced to extend the possible benefit of the volume. I care so much for the demonstration of an intense joy in life on the basis of "plain living and high thinking," in this time of more and more eager scrambling after wealth and show. And then there are exquisite bits which you have rescued from that darkness to which his self-depreciation condemned them. I think I never read a more exquisite little poem than the one called "Christian Resignation"; and Mr Lewes, when I read it aloud, at once exclaimed, "How very fine. Read it again!" I am also much impressed with the wise mingling of moderation with sympathy in that passage, given in a note, from the article on Greg's ‘Political Essays.’ What must have been the effort which the writing cost you I can – not fully but – almost imagine. But believe, dear friend, that in our judgment you have not poured out these recollections in a cry of anguish all in vain. I feel roused and admonished by what you have told, and if I -- then others.” GEL 6: 17
Citation
Smith, William. ed. Lucy Caroline Smith, Knowing and Feeling: a Contribution to Psychology, George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/57292