GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Witley, 10 June 1879
Title
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Witley, 10 June 1879
Title
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Witley, 10 June 1879
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Lee Lewes
Date(s)
- 1879-06-10
Place
Witley
Letter Content
GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Witley, 10 June 1879
MS: Yale. Published: Paterson, 186-188.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
June 10. 79.
Dearest Boy
Thanks for your letter and fulfilment of my requests. You will like to know that Mr. Harrison has sent me a brief paper which is to be read today at the Metaphysical Soc[iet]y on the Social Factor in Psychol[og]y? -- opening with a quotation from [The Study of Psych[ology]] and marking throughout his high appreciation of your Father's work. -- Also, the Rector of Linc[oln] Coll[ege] kindly sent (with his initials only) to
Tr'fcbner, four errata which he had found in reading the Study of Ps[ychology]. Two of them are my fault alone, for they are capital ph instead of ps at the beginning of the Motto from Plato, and 'f4 instead of o in archon. 264 But the two others I shall lay at your door, you rascal, for they are aptitude instead of attitude and allusion instead of illusion.
Tr'fcbner did not know who was the kind corrector and very properly sent the paper to me, offering to have the corrections made on the plates if I wished it. I said, [By all means,] and have written to thank the Rector. What a blessing to find a man who really reads a book!
T. has sent me the number sold, 265 apparently in consequence of a letter from you which he calls my letter.
I have received the enclosed letter with other papers (about Country Lodgings at Sevenoaks for poor children). Will you some time when you can do it without inconvenience look out from the cupboard in the dining room a single copy of as many of my books, poems included, as you can find there, and send them in a parcel to Mr. Rossiter 266 saying that they come from me for the Free Library? I hardly think there is a Spanish Gypsy -- and mind, you must not send any but an English (not American) edition, and that in the smaller format with the red cover. I cannot send them a Theophrastus at present. Please not to mind this trouble as it is for the impecunious readers. (You know I am nothing if not [sesquipedalian] and scientific, and a word of 5 syllables will do for both qualities).
How could you form so wild a supposition as that I had Alkie to stay with me? Mary brought him for the day, and the Halls would have shuddered at the proposition that I should be asked to have him longer. He is a little man now, nearly 5 feet and splendidly healthy. No! if I could have any children to stay with me they would be the grand-children -- I am not likely to go into "fancy work" of that kind when "plain work" is too much for me.
I wish you could see Coquelin in Tabarin. 267 He is a wonderful actor when he gets the right part for him -- he has a penetrating personality, that one cannot be indifferent to, though possibly it may be unpleasant to some people.
I was delighted to get the letter from Eliza proposing to send Marian to school. Some stimulus of that sort is sadly needed for her, and I trust it will be managed.
Should you like to come to dinner on Saturday next and stay till Monday 8.34 train? Send me word whether you will by return of post, because things for Saturday must be ordered on Friday.
Love to all from
Your loving
Mutter.
Fancy! Mrs. Pattison has sent me word of a picture by a Fr[ench] artist in the Salon of this year, taken from [The Lifted Veil] -- the moment when the resuscitated woman reveals her mistress's crime. 268 Perhaps that hits the dominant French taste more than anything else of mine!
MS: Yale. Published: Paterson, 186-188.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
June 10. 79.
Dearest Boy
Thanks for your letter and fulfilment of my requests. You will like to know that Mr. Harrison has sent me a brief paper which is to be read today at the Metaphysical Soc[iet]y on the Social Factor in Psychol[og]y? -- opening with a quotation from [The Study of Psych[ology]] and marking throughout his high appreciation of your Father's work. -- Also, the Rector of Linc[oln] Coll[ege] kindly sent (with his initials only) to
Tr'fcbner, four errata which he had found in reading the Study of Ps[ychology]. Two of them are my fault alone, for they are capital ph instead of ps at the beginning of the Motto from Plato, and 'f4 instead of o in archon. 264 But the two others I shall lay at your door, you rascal, for they are aptitude instead of attitude and allusion instead of illusion.
Tr'fcbner did not know who was the kind corrector and very properly sent the paper to me, offering to have the corrections made on the plates if I wished it. I said, [By all means,] and have written to thank the Rector. What a blessing to find a man who really reads a book!
T. has sent me the number sold, 265 apparently in consequence of a letter from you which he calls my letter.
I have received the enclosed letter with other papers (about Country Lodgings at Sevenoaks for poor children). Will you some time when you can do it without inconvenience look out from the cupboard in the dining room a single copy of as many of my books, poems included, as you can find there, and send them in a parcel to Mr. Rossiter 266 saying that they come from me for the Free Library? I hardly think there is a Spanish Gypsy -- and mind, you must not send any but an English (not American) edition, and that in the smaller format with the red cover. I cannot send them a Theophrastus at present. Please not to mind this trouble as it is for the impecunious readers. (You know I am nothing if not [sesquipedalian] and scientific, and a word of 5 syllables will do for both qualities).
How could you form so wild a supposition as that I had Alkie to stay with me? Mary brought him for the day, and the Halls would have shuddered at the proposition that I should be asked to have him longer. He is a little man now, nearly 5 feet and splendidly healthy. No! if I could have any children to stay with me they would be the grand-children -- I am not likely to go into "fancy work" of that kind when "plain work" is too much for me.
I wish you could see Coquelin in Tabarin. 267 He is a wonderful actor when he gets the right part for him -- he has a penetrating personality, that one cannot be indifferent to, though possibly it may be unpleasant to some people.
I was delighted to get the letter from Eliza proposing to send Marian to school. Some stimulus of that sort is sadly needed for her, and I trust it will be managed.
Should you like to come to dinner on Saturday next and stay till Monday 8.34 train? Send me word whether you will by return of post, because things for Saturday must be ordered on Friday.
Love to all from
Your loving
Mutter.
Fancy! Mrs. Pattison has sent me word of a picture by a Fr[ench] artist in the Salon of this year, taken from [The Lifted Veil] -- the moment when the resuscitated woman reveals her mistress's crime. 268 Perhaps that hits the dominant French taste more than anything else of mine!
Signature
Mutter.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Lee Lewes, Witley, 10 June 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/92234