GE to Dr. Joseph Frank Payne, London, 25 January 1876
Title
GE to Dr. Joseph Frank Payne, London, 25 January 1876
Title
GE to Dr. Joseph Frank Payne, London, 25 January 1876
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Dr. Joseph Frank Payne
Date(s)
- 1876-01-25
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Dr. Joseph Frank Payne, London, 25 January 1876
MS: Mrs. Evelyn Payne Murphy. Envelope: Dr. Payne | 6 Savile Row | W. Postmark: LONDON-N.W | 7 L | JA 31 | 76. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
January 25. 76.
My dear Dr. Payne
No word of your unspeakable loss had reached me. 388 But of your Father's illness I heard quite lately after I had written a letter of introduction to him which happily there proved to be no need of sending. Your words about him let me hope that your care will end in his restoration.
You could have done nothing to touch me with more keenness -- to move me more deeply, than your writing that letter to me in October. I say so at once on reading it, that you may know I am bearing it in mind even if I keep silence for the present in relation to that supreme subject -- how far the religion of the future must be one that enables us to do without consolation, instead of being what religion has been (I think pervertingly) held -- chiefly precious as a source of consolation. 389
Your letter will have associated you with questions which are the most frequently in my thoughts -- questions which are my chief prompters to write anything at all. But my writing is simply a set of experiments in life -- an endeavour to see what our thought and emotion may be capable of -- what stores of motive, actual or hinted as possible, give promise of a better after which we may strive -- what gains from past revelations and discipline we must strive to keep hold of as something more sure than shifting theory. I become more and more timid -- with less daring to adopt any formula which does not get itself clothed for me in some human figure and individual experience, and perhaps that is a sign that if I help others to see at all it must be through that medium of art.
It is true that I am not very well, and I am just now liable to feel my weakness the more because I am haunted by the fear that everything is done worse in consequence.
That is why I write this note at once. I dare not promise myself to answer your letter as I should like to do for the next month or two, and pray trust in me so far as to believe that my silence however protracted will not be one of forgetfulness.
Please offer my sympathy to Mr. Payne, if there happens a suitable occasion. It will be a joy to us if you can before long come again and tell us that he is better. 390
Most sincerely yours
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Mrs. Evelyn Payne Murphy. Envelope: Dr. Payne | 6 Savile Row | W. Postmark: LONDON-N.W | 7 L | JA 31 | 76. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
January 25. 76.
My dear Dr. Payne
No word of your unspeakable loss had reached me. 388 But of your Father's illness I heard quite lately after I had written a letter of introduction to him which happily there proved to be no need of sending. Your words about him let me hope that your care will end in his restoration.
You could have done nothing to touch me with more keenness -- to move me more deeply, than your writing that letter to me in October. I say so at once on reading it, that you may know I am bearing it in mind even if I keep silence for the present in relation to that supreme subject -- how far the religion of the future must be one that enables us to do without consolation, instead of being what religion has been (I think pervertingly) held -- chiefly precious as a source of consolation. 389
Your letter will have associated you with questions which are the most frequently in my thoughts -- questions which are my chief prompters to write anything at all. But my writing is simply a set of experiments in life -- an endeavour to see what our thought and emotion may be capable of -- what stores of motive, actual or hinted as possible, give promise of a better after which we may strive -- what gains from past revelations and discipline we must strive to keep hold of as something more sure than shifting theory. I become more and more timid -- with less daring to adopt any formula which does not get itself clothed for me in some human figure and individual experience, and perhaps that is a sign that if I help others to see at all it must be through that medium of art.
It is true that I am not very well, and I am just now liable to feel my weakness the more because I am haunted by the fear that everything is done worse in consequence.
That is why I write this note at once. I dare not promise myself to answer your letter as I should like to do for the next month or two, and pray trust in me so far as to believe that my silence however protracted will not be one of forgetfulness.
Please offer my sympathy to Mr. Payne, if there happens a suitable occasion. It will be a joy to us if you can before long come again and tell us that he is better. 390
Most sincerely yours
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Dr. Joseph Frank Payne, London, 25 January 1876, 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/92270