GE to Charles Bray, London, 4 December 1880
Title
GE to Charles Bray, London, 4 December 1880
Title
GE to Charles Bray, London, 4 December 1880
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Bray
Date(s)
- 1880-12-04
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Charles Bray, London, 4 December 1880
MS: Coventry and Warwickshire Collection, Coventry City Libraries. Envelope: Charles Bray Esq. | 3 Barrs Hill Terrace | Coventry. Postmark: CHELSEA S.W | 4 | DE 4 | 80. Endorsed: Dec. 5th. The last. 1880. Hitherto unpublished.
Cheyne Walk, | Chelsea, S.W.
November 497 4. 1880.
Dear Mr. Bray
Most certainly you shall have the remaining two volumes of [Problems.] I had not failed to think of you in connection with them, but I was not at all sure that you would like to have them, and in such cases questions defeat their proposed end. But will you excuse a delay of a few days in your getting them from the Publisher? For I am overwhelmed with details just now. We only got into this house to dinner yesterday evening, and notwithstanding the much that is done, chaos still prevails behind the surface. This morning I find myself with the usual penance on my hands for neglecting letters -- the feeling of hurry in making up for the neglect.
As to your other request, Mr. Cross has no photograph of himself. But I think you would be satisfied with his coronal arch which finishes a figure six feet high. If his head does not indicate fine moral qualities, it must be phrenology that is in fault. He is exceedingly acute, accustomed to deal with men in matters where their characters are inevitably betrayed, well aware of all our human humbug but charitable towards it withal as a quality or manifestation in which we have everyone of us some brother -- or -- sisterhood. All this is more than you would learn from a carte de visite of the photographic kind, even if he could give it you.
I suppose we may consider 70 -- not the normal length of human life according to the mistaken view of the Psalmist 498 but -- a comparatively youthful epoch, since we have our Prime Minister on the one hand doing more work than he is obliged to do, and Dean Close on the other marrying at 84. 499
I am writing to Sara this morning.
Yours very sincerely
M. A. Cross.
MS: Coventry and Warwickshire Collection, Coventry City Libraries. Envelope: Charles Bray Esq. | 3 Barrs Hill Terrace | Coventry. Postmark: CHELSEA S.W | 4 | DE 4 | 80. Endorsed: Dec. 5th. The last. 1880. Hitherto unpublished.
Cheyne Walk, | Chelsea, S.W.
November 497 4. 1880.
Dear Mr. Bray
Most certainly you shall have the remaining two volumes of [Problems.] I had not failed to think of you in connection with them, but I was not at all sure that you would like to have them, and in such cases questions defeat their proposed end. But will you excuse a delay of a few days in your getting them from the Publisher? For I am overwhelmed with details just now. We only got into this house to dinner yesterday evening, and notwithstanding the much that is done, chaos still prevails behind the surface. This morning I find myself with the usual penance on my hands for neglecting letters -- the feeling of hurry in making up for the neglect.
As to your other request, Mr. Cross has no photograph of himself. But I think you would be satisfied with his coronal arch which finishes a figure six feet high. If his head does not indicate fine moral qualities, it must be phrenology that is in fault. He is exceedingly acute, accustomed to deal with men in matters where their characters are inevitably betrayed, well aware of all our human humbug but charitable towards it withal as a quality or manifestation in which we have everyone of us some brother -- or -- sisterhood. All this is more than you would learn from a carte de visite of the photographic kind, even if he could give it you.
I suppose we may consider 70 -- not the normal length of human life according to the mistaken view of the Psalmist 498 but -- a comparatively youthful epoch, since we have our Prime Minister on the one hand doing more work than he is obliged to do, and Dean Close on the other marrying at 84. 499
I am writing to Sara this morning.
Yours very sincerely
M. A. Cross.
Signature
M. A. Cross.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Bray, London, 4 December 1880, 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/92149