GE to Asher Isaac Myers, London, 18 January 1879
Title
GE to Asher Isaac Myers, London, 18 January 1879
Title
GE to Asher Isaac Myers, London, 18 January 1879
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Asher Isaac Myers
Date(s)
- 1879-01-18
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Asher Isaac Myers, London, 18 January 1879
MS: The Jewish Museum, London. Published: Pall Mall Gazette, 1 January 1881.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
January 18. 1879.
Pray let this letter be strictly private.
Dear Sir
I have but lately begun to read letters and have not answered them unless duty demanded it. But I answer yours because the anxiety you express lest I should feel your writing to me an intrusion should lead you to misinterpret my silence.
What you say of Dr. Benisch has reminded me of a brief memoir of another remarkable Jew, 168 which was sent to me long after the publication of [Daniel Deronda,] by a correspondent not otherwise known to me. I feel sure that you will like to read this newspaper slip, which I enclose, and am sorry to be obliged to ask that you will return it. The career it describes is deeply interesting -- but it may possibly be already known to you.
I am not in the habit of reading printed observations on my writings, but my husband informed me that various excellent persons had (with the best intention) repeated the mistaken statement that the Jew named Cohn, of whom he gave some recollections in the Fortnightly
Review ten or twelve years ago, 169 bore a resemblance to Mordecai, and was thus a guarantee that the character was not an impossible ideal. Mr. Lewes took several opportunities (in conversation) of pointing out that no such resemblance existed, Cohn being a keen dialectician and a highly impressive man, but without any specifically Jewish enthusiasm. His type was rather that of Spinoza whose metaphysical system attracted his subtle intellect, and in relation to Judaism Spinoza was in contrast with my conception of Mordecai.
Such misunderstandings continually arise, and are hardly worth notice. But I mention the subject on this occasion because I believe that my husband would have written this letter for me and would have said nearly what I have said.
Yours very sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
MS: The Jewish Museum, London. Published: Pall Mall Gazette, 1 January 1881.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
January 18. 1879.
Pray let this letter be strictly private.
Dear Sir
I have but lately begun to read letters and have not answered them unless duty demanded it. But I answer yours because the anxiety you express lest I should feel your writing to me an intrusion should lead you to misinterpret my silence.
What you say of Dr. Benisch has reminded me of a brief memoir of another remarkable Jew, 168 which was sent to me long after the publication of [Daniel Deronda,] by a correspondent not otherwise known to me. I feel sure that you will like to read this newspaper slip, which I enclose, and am sorry to be obliged to ask that you will return it. The career it describes is deeply interesting -- but it may possibly be already known to you.
I am not in the habit of reading printed observations on my writings, but my husband informed me that various excellent persons had (with the best intention) repeated the mistaken statement that the Jew named Cohn, of whom he gave some recollections in the Fortnightly
Review ten or twelve years ago, 169 bore a resemblance to Mordecai, and was thus a guarantee that the character was not an impossible ideal. Mr. Lewes took several opportunities (in conversation) of pointing out that no such resemblance existed, Cohn being a keen dialectician and a highly impressive man, but without any specifically Jewish enthusiasm. His type was rather that of Spinoza whose metaphysical system attracted his subtle intellect, and in relation to Judaism Spinoza was in contrast with my conception of Mordecai.
Such misunderstandings continually arise, and are hardly worth notice. But I mention the subject on this occasion because I believe that my husband would have written this letter for me and would have said nearly what I have said.
Yours very sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Asher Isaac Myers, London, 18 January 1879, 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/92022