GE to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, 18 September 1859
Title
GE to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, 18 September 1859
Title
GE to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, 18 September 1859
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Bray
Date(s)
- 1859-09-18
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, 18 September 1859
MS: Yale. Envelope: Charles Bray Esq. | Ivy Cottage | Radford Road | Coventry. Postmarks: LONDON-S.W | 12 | SP 19 | 59; COVENTRY | SP 20 | 59. Hitherto unpublished.
Holly Lodge | September 18. 59.
Dear Friend
If you should see Mr. Herbert Spencer in his way from the North, 303 pray do not allow a word to escape you that would imply your knowledge of our having been wounded by his change of manner towards us. There has been a little explanatory correspondence between him and Mr. Lewes, 304 and I am anxious that the subject should now be left alone. He is unconscious of the change, and it is folly for people who differ widely in their susceptibilities, to raise questions concerning mutual feeling.
Please to mention my wish to Sara. I make no apology for not presupposing your silence, for I have ceased to believe in human discretion, and am obliged to include you in that wide generalization. I begin to think silence the only good thing -- at least if the inevitable result of free speech is, that one must fall, in spite of one's resolutions, into complaint and accusation.
You will be glad to hear that Mr. Quirk has made the amends of writing his thanks to Mr. Lewes, and has renounced Liggins. I am bound to tell you this, as a nullification of my prophecy.
A good authoress -- the writer of "Visiting my relations etc." 305 and other nice books -- sent me a volume of hers this morning with an admonitory "hope -- a fervent hope, that the eagerness for gain which marks most of the novelists of the present day, and which soon swamps the nobility of talent etc. -- may never tempt the author of Adam Bede to so fatal and degrading a desecration of the gifts of God." She says in her preface that she is approaching old age -- so the admonitory tone is not unfitting. It is curious that the very first letter I had about the Clerical Scenes when they were appearing in Blackwood contained the same, or a similar admonition. "You are natural and truthful now -- will you always keep so?" 306
Have you noticed that article about the "Infant Seamstresses" in the English Woman's Journal? Deeply, deeply touching, and beautifully done.
Ever yours faithfully
Marian.
MS: Yale. Envelope: Charles Bray Esq. | Ivy Cottage | Radford Road | Coventry. Postmarks: LONDON-S.W | 12 | SP 19 | 59; COVENTRY | SP 20 | 59. Hitherto unpublished.
Holly Lodge | September 18. 59.
Dear Friend
If you should see Mr. Herbert Spencer in his way from the North, 303 pray do not allow a word to escape you that would imply your knowledge of our having been wounded by his change of manner towards us. There has been a little explanatory correspondence between him and Mr. Lewes, 304 and I am anxious that the subject should now be left alone. He is unconscious of the change, and it is folly for people who differ widely in their susceptibilities, to raise questions concerning mutual feeling.
Please to mention my wish to Sara. I make no apology for not presupposing your silence, for I have ceased to believe in human discretion, and am obliged to include you in that wide generalization. I begin to think silence the only good thing -- at least if the inevitable result of free speech is, that one must fall, in spite of one's resolutions, into complaint and accusation.
You will be glad to hear that Mr. Quirk has made the amends of writing his thanks to Mr. Lewes, and has renounced Liggins. I am bound to tell you this, as a nullification of my prophecy.
A good authoress -- the writer of "Visiting my relations etc." 305 and other nice books -- sent me a volume of hers this morning with an admonitory "hope -- a fervent hope, that the eagerness for gain which marks most of the novelists of the present day, and which soon swamps the nobility of talent etc. -- may never tempt the author of Adam Bede to so fatal and degrading a desecration of the gifts of God." She says in her preface that she is approaching old age -- so the admonitory tone is not unfitting. It is curious that the very first letter I had about the Clerical Scenes when they were appearing in Blackwood contained the same, or a similar admonition. "You are natural and truthful now -- will you always keep so?" 306
Have you noticed that article about the "Infant Seamstresses" in the English Woman's Journal? Deeply, deeply touching, and beautifully done.
Ever yours faithfully
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Bray, Wandsworth, 18 September 1859, 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/92185