GE to Charles Bray, St. Leondard's, [11 JUNE 1848]
Title
GE to Charles Bray, St. Leondard's, [11 JUNE 1848]
Title
GE to Charles Bray, St. Leondard's, [11 JUNE 1848]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
CHARLES BRAY
Date(s)
- 1848-06-11
Place
St. Leondard's
Letter Content
GE to Charles Bray, St. Leondard's, [11 JUNE 1848]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1848. Brief extract published: Cross, I, 191.
Marina | St. Leonard's | Sunday.
Alas! mon ami, Father is not better as you imagine -- on the contrary all his worst symptoms have returned -- a bad cough, shortness of breath, languor and aching of the limbs. I fear I shall have to take him home as great an invalid as ever. I thought you went to London last Thursday, and wrote a letter for the community there, supposing you to be a part of it. It is very charming to hear of all Cara's pleasures past and to come, 749 and it will be still better to think of them when you are sharing them. Her letter was as exhilarating to me as anything could be when Father's pale haggard looking face was opposite to me.
Thank you for your goodness in writing to me -- I take crumbs with gratitude, though I should be glad of a thorough meal of news about you. The kind words and thoughts of my beloved ones are so many little gauze wings which were of no avail to me when I had not inward strength to fly withal -- but now my native vigour is come again I flutter them joyously and soar with them into the Empyrean [in spite of sorrow.] 750 So give me more and more of these little wings, and judge of me as men judge of their divinities -- what you feel in your little half-drained puddle of a soul, I feel in my great Atlantic. There -- you see I have not kept your company in vain -- I am beginning to understand your doctrine of faith -- that it should be in inverse proportion to evidence.
Persevere in the Devonshire plan pray. 751 I think we shall surely have fine weather now. Today is crowned with the most beautiful of skies, light floating clouds setting off that perfect azure which must ever stand for hope in the language of colours.
I have read Jane Eyre, 752 mon ami, and shall be glad to know what you admire in it. All self-sacrifice is good -- but one would like it to be in a somewhat nobler cause than that of a diabolical law which chains a man soul and body to a putrefying carcase. However the book is interesting -- only I wish the characters would talk a little less like the heroes and heroines of police reports.
Do not curse my pale ink and send me an answer in the style of the Duke of Wellington to Mrs. M. 753
Yours in secula seculorum
Mary Ann.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1848. Brief extract published: Cross, I, 191.
Marina | St. Leonard's | Sunday.
Alas! mon ami, Father is not better as you imagine -- on the contrary all his worst symptoms have returned -- a bad cough, shortness of breath, languor and aching of the limbs. I fear I shall have to take him home as great an invalid as ever. I thought you went to London last Thursday, and wrote a letter for the community there, supposing you to be a part of it. It is very charming to hear of all Cara's pleasures past and to come, 749 and it will be still better to think of them when you are sharing them. Her letter was as exhilarating to me as anything could be when Father's pale haggard looking face was opposite to me.
Thank you for your goodness in writing to me -- I take crumbs with gratitude, though I should be glad of a thorough meal of news about you. The kind words and thoughts of my beloved ones are so many little gauze wings which were of no avail to me when I had not inward strength to fly withal -- but now my native vigour is come again I flutter them joyously and soar with them into the Empyrean [in spite of sorrow.] 750 So give me more and more of these little wings, and judge of me as men judge of their divinities -- what you feel in your little half-drained puddle of a soul, I feel in my great Atlantic. There -- you see I have not kept your company in vain -- I am beginning to understand your doctrine of faith -- that it should be in inverse proportion to evidence.
Persevere in the Devonshire plan pray. 751 I think we shall surely have fine weather now. Today is crowned with the most beautiful of skies, light floating clouds setting off that perfect azure which must ever stand for hope in the language of colours.
I have read Jane Eyre, 752 mon ami, and shall be glad to know what you admire in it. All self-sacrifice is good -- but one would like it to be in a somewhat nobler cause than that of a diabolical law which chains a man soul and body to a putrefying carcase. However the book is interesting -- only I wish the characters would talk a little less like the heroes and heroines of police reports.
Do not curse my pale ink and send me an answer in the style of the Duke of Wellington to Mrs. M. 753
Yours in secula seculorum
Mary Ann.
Signature
Mary Ann.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Bray, St. Leondard's, [11 JUNE 1848], 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/92171