GE to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Rickmansworth, 13 August 1875
Title
GE to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Rickmansworth, 13 August 1875
Title
GE to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Rickmansworth, 13 August 1875
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Elizabeth Stuart Phelps
Date(s)
- 1875-08-13
Place
Rickmansworth
Letter Content
GE to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Rickmansworth, 13 August 1875
Text: Copy found among Mr. Cross's papers, Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
The Elms | Rickmansworth | Herts. August 13. 75.
My dear Madame
I am happy to be able to remedy the little accident to your paper by copying the passages you have extracted from my former letter. 303
"I certainly feel a strong disgust for any readiness to satisfy that idle curiosity which, caring little for the study of an author's works, is pleased with low gossip about his private life and personal appearance. Of every writer worth reading it may be said
"He gave the people of his best; His worst he kept; his best he gave." 304
Can we be too severe on the spirit which neglects the "best," and eagerly accepts details called biographical, which would be worthless even if they were accurate?
Every sentence of your letter assures me that you are at one with me on this point. . . .
It is interesting, I think, to know whether a writer was born in a central or border district -- a condition which always has a strongly determining influence. I was born in Warwickshire, but certain family traditions connected with more northerly districts, made those districts a region of poetry to me in my early childhood.
I was brought up in the Church of England, and have never joined any other religious society, but I have had close acquaintance 305 with many dissenters of various sects, from Calvinists and Baptists to Unitarians.
I never -- to answer one of your questions quite directly -- I never had any personal acquaintance with J. S. Mill -- never saw him, to my knowledge, except in the House of Commons; and though I have studied his books, especially his Logic and Political Economy, with much benefit, I have no consciousness of their having made any marked epoch in my life.
Of Mr. Herbert Spencer's friendship I have had the honour and advantage for twenty years, but I believe that every main bias of my mind had been taken before I knew him. Like the rest of his readers, I am of course indebted to him for much enlargement and clarifying of thought." 306
Let me add to this transcription that I felt no offense from your second letter to me. As far as I can recall the circumstances, I think I remained silent from a want of health and leisure which obliges me to restrict my correspondence. I can sympathize from experience with the cause which has hindered you from working as you wished to do, and I should rejoice to know that your physical delicacy is of a kind from which you may be completely restored.
We are in a country house for the summer, and for that reason I have not seen the poems you have kindly sent us, most packets for us being allowed to remain in town.
I see that I wrote (automatically) [dear Madame] at the beginning of my letter. If that looks chill and formal to you, believe that it does not represent my feeling which is that of sympathetic as well as respectful regard.
Yours, dear Miss Phelps, sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Text: Copy found among Mr. Cross's papers, Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
The Elms | Rickmansworth | Herts. August 13. 75.
My dear Madame
I am happy to be able to remedy the little accident to your paper by copying the passages you have extracted from my former letter. 303
"I certainly feel a strong disgust for any readiness to satisfy that idle curiosity which, caring little for the study of an author's works, is pleased with low gossip about his private life and personal appearance. Of every writer worth reading it may be said
"He gave the people of his best; His worst he kept; his best he gave." 304
Can we be too severe on the spirit which neglects the "best," and eagerly accepts details called biographical, which would be worthless even if they were accurate?
Every sentence of your letter assures me that you are at one with me on this point. . . .
It is interesting, I think, to know whether a writer was born in a central or border district -- a condition which always has a strongly determining influence. I was born in Warwickshire, but certain family traditions connected with more northerly districts, made those districts a region of poetry to me in my early childhood.
I was brought up in the Church of England, and have never joined any other religious society, but I have had close acquaintance 305 with many dissenters of various sects, from Calvinists and Baptists to Unitarians.
I never -- to answer one of your questions quite directly -- I never had any personal acquaintance with J. S. Mill -- never saw him, to my knowledge, except in the House of Commons; and though I have studied his books, especially his Logic and Political Economy, with much benefit, I have no consciousness of their having made any marked epoch in my life.
Of Mr. Herbert Spencer's friendship I have had the honour and advantage for twenty years, but I believe that every main bias of my mind had been taken before I knew him. Like the rest of his readers, I am of course indebted to him for much enlargement and clarifying of thought." 306
Let me add to this transcription that I felt no offense from your second letter to me. As far as I can recall the circumstances, I think I remained silent from a want of health and leisure which obliges me to restrict my correspondence. I can sympathize from experience with the cause which has hindered you from working as you wished to do, and I should rejoice to know that your physical delicacy is of a kind from which you may be completely restored.
We are in a country house for the summer, and for that reason I have not seen the poems you have kindly sent us, most packets for us being allowed to remain in town.
I see that I wrote (automatically) [dear Madame] at the beginning of my letter. If that looks chill and formal to you, believe that it does not represent my feeling which is that of sympathetic as well as respectful regard.
Yours, dear Miss Phelps, sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Elizabeth Stuart Phelps, Rickmansworth, 13 August 1875, 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/92296