GE to Frederic Harrison, Tunbridge Wells, 31 January 1866
Title
GE to Frederic Harrison, Tunbridge Wells, 31 January 1866
Title
GE to Frederic Harrison, Tunbridge Wells, 31 January 1866
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Frederic Harrison
Date(s)
- 1866-01-31
Place
Tunbridge Wells
Letter Content
GE to Frederic Harrison, Tunbridge Wells, 31 January 1866
MS: Tinker Collection, Yale. Envelope: Frederic Harrison Esq | 7 New Square | Lincolns Inn | London W.C. Postmarks: TUNBRIDGE-WELLS | C | JA 31 | 66; LONDON-W.C | 7 F | FE 1 | 66. Extracts published: Cross, II, 422-423.
Fernhill | Tunbridge Wells | January 31. 66.
My dear Mr. Harrison
I have received both your precious letters -- the 2d edition of the case, and the subsequent note. I don't finally reject the notion of making Esther a Transome. I retain the point for consideration. But I have mentioned the matter to Mr. Lewes this morning, and he concurs in my present reasons for disinclination to adopt this additional coincidence. Setting it aside, the story is sufficiently in the track of ordinary probability, and the careful trouble you have so generously given to it has enabled me to feel a satisfaction in my plot which beforehand I had sighed for as unattainable.
There is still a question or two which I shall want to ask you, but I am afraid of taxing your time and patience in an unconscionable manner. So, since we expect to return to town at the end of next week 413 I think I will reserve my questions until I have the pleasure and advantage of an interview with you, in which pros and cons can be more rapidly determined than by letter. It seems to me that you have fitted my phenomena with a rationale quite beautifully. If there is any one who could have done it better, I am sure I know of no man who would. Please to put your help of me among your good deeds for this year of 1866.
I must tell you, for your amusement, that in a copy of Mill's "Representation" 414 which I have down here from the London Library, some reader has thought it worth-while to put as an annotation -- "Beesly 415 and F. Harrison refuted." I fail to see the 'e0propos. It is affixed to a passage about the lasting influence occasionally produced by the work of one powerful monarch e.g. Charlemagne.
Today we have resolute rain, for the first time since we came down. You don't yet know what it is to be a sickly wretch, dependent on these skiey influences. But Heine says illness "spiritualizes the members." 416 It had need do some good in return for one's misery.
Yours sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Tinker Collection, Yale. Envelope: Frederic Harrison Esq | 7 New Square | Lincolns Inn | London W.C. Postmarks: TUNBRIDGE-WELLS | C | JA 31 | 66; LONDON-W.C | 7 F | FE 1 | 66. Extracts published: Cross, II, 422-423.
Fernhill | Tunbridge Wells | January 31. 66.
My dear Mr. Harrison
I have received both your precious letters -- the 2d edition of the case, and the subsequent note. I don't finally reject the notion of making Esther a Transome. I retain the point for consideration. But I have mentioned the matter to Mr. Lewes this morning, and he concurs in my present reasons for disinclination to adopt this additional coincidence. Setting it aside, the story is sufficiently in the track of ordinary probability, and the careful trouble you have so generously given to it has enabled me to feel a satisfaction in my plot which beforehand I had sighed for as unattainable.
There is still a question or two which I shall want to ask you, but I am afraid of taxing your time and patience in an unconscionable manner. So, since we expect to return to town at the end of next week 413 I think I will reserve my questions until I have the pleasure and advantage of an interview with you, in which pros and cons can be more rapidly determined than by letter. It seems to me that you have fitted my phenomena with a rationale quite beautifully. If there is any one who could have done it better, I am sure I know of no man who would. Please to put your help of me among your good deeds for this year of 1866.
I must tell you, for your amusement, that in a copy of Mill's "Representation" 414 which I have down here from the London Library, some reader has thought it worth-while to put as an annotation -- "Beesly 415 and F. Harrison refuted." I fail to see the 'e0propos. It is affixed to a passage about the lasting influence occasionally produced by the work of one powerful monarch e.g. Charlemagne.
Today we have resolute rain, for the first time since we came down. You don't yet know what it is to be a sickly wretch, dependent on these skiey influences. But Heine says illness "spiritualizes the members." 416 It had need do some good in return for one's misery.
Yours sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Frederic Harrison, Tunbridge Wells, 31 January 1866, 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/92424