Charles Bray to George Combe, Coventry, 19 November 1854
Title
Charles Bray to George Combe, Coventry, 19 November 1854
Title
Charles Bray to George Combe, Coventry, 19 November 1854
Sender
Charles Bray
Recipient
George Combe
Date(s)
- 1854-11-19
Place
Coventry
Letter Content
Charles Bray to George Combe, Coventry, 19 November 1854
MS: National Library of Scotland. Endorsed: Chas. Bray @ Miss Evans.
Rosehill November 19/54.
My dear Mr. Combe
Thank you for your kind letter -- I quite agree with you in every word. The cause of religious freedom has suffered lately in more ways than one -- this scandal -- Chapman's failure etc. Still a cause is not to be judged by its professors. Unfortunately those who throw up the religious sanction to marriage, and who despise conventional law, do not always recognize and admit a natural law. We have still got to fight for this recognition. There is much to be said against the working of present law; there is a wide field of opinion on the Continent on the subject and I am not prepared to put down every one as wicked who may not agree with me upon the subject. We want a good book or article on the subject of marriage and divorce. Could not you write one for the Westminster? it would do great good just now. Treat it physiologically, phrenologically, morally, socially, practically.
I do not think that Miss Evans would admit that Lewes had a wife now, or has had for some years, and they may both of them intend to fulfil all the conditions that belong naturally to the marriage state. Mind I have no wish to defend the part she is taking -- only I do not judge her. I don't think she is mad. She had organically, all the &unknown;str&unknown; intellectual strength of a man and &unknown;all&unknown; in feeling all the peculiar weaknesses of woman. I know she would prefer the close and devoted affection of one mind, to the ordinary and customary attentions of all the world besides i.e. if she were called on to make her choice. In alluding to her friends however before (which I quoted) I must do her the justice to say that she did not mean you or me -- but her own relations who have never noticed her -- never appreciated her. Perhaps, poor thing, from her own experience, we may still have heard the powerful advocate and expounder of our views. Excuse this hasty and ill-expressed note and believe me always
Very sincerely yours
Charles Bray.
Mr. T. Hunt does not now edit the Leader. Mr. Whitty 236 does -- in a letter received from him today he calls upon me not to believe the things I may hear of him and says hold up till we see personally.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Endorsed: Chas. Bray @ Miss Evans.
Rosehill November 19/54.
My dear Mr. Combe
Thank you for your kind letter -- I quite agree with you in every word. The cause of religious freedom has suffered lately in more ways than one -- this scandal -- Chapman's failure etc. Still a cause is not to be judged by its professors. Unfortunately those who throw up the religious sanction to marriage, and who despise conventional law, do not always recognize and admit a natural law. We have still got to fight for this recognition. There is much to be said against the working of present law; there is a wide field of opinion on the Continent on the subject and I am not prepared to put down every one as wicked who may not agree with me upon the subject. We want a good book or article on the subject of marriage and divorce. Could not you write one for the Westminster? it would do great good just now. Treat it physiologically, phrenologically, morally, socially, practically.
I do not think that Miss Evans would admit that Lewes had a wife now, or has had for some years, and they may both of them intend to fulfil all the conditions that belong naturally to the marriage state. Mind I have no wish to defend the part she is taking -- only I do not judge her. I don't think she is mad. She had organically, all the &unknown;str&unknown; intellectual strength of a man and &unknown;all&unknown; in feeling all the peculiar weaknesses of woman. I know she would prefer the close and devoted affection of one mind, to the ordinary and customary attentions of all the world besides i.e. if she were called on to make her choice. In alluding to her friends however before (which I quoted) I must do her the justice to say that she did not mean you or me -- but her own relations who have never noticed her -- never appreciated her. Perhaps, poor thing, from her own experience, we may still have heard the powerful advocate and expounder of our views. Excuse this hasty and ill-expressed note and believe me always
Very sincerely yours
Charles Bray.
Mr. T. Hunt does not now edit the Leader. Mr. Whitty 236 does -- in a letter received from him today he calls upon me not to believe the things I may hear of him and says hold up till we see personally.
Signature
Charles Bray.
Citation
Charles Bray, Charles Bray to George Combe, Coventry, 19 November 1854, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/91733