GE to Herbert Spencer, Broadstairs, [29? July 1852]
Title
GE to Herbert Spencer, Broadstairs, [29? July 1852]
Title
GE to Herbert Spencer, Broadstairs, [29? July 1852]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Herbert Spencer
Date(s)
- 1852-07-29
Place
Broadstairs
Letter Content
GE to Herbert Spencer, Broadstairs, [29? July 1852]
MS: British Museum. Published with several misreadings: Bulletin of the New York Public Library, 79 (Spring 1976), 368-369.
Broadstairs | Thursday Evening.
Dear Mr. Spencer 129
It would be ungenerous in me to allow you to suffer even a slight uneasiness on my account which I am able to remove. I ought at once to tell you, since I can do so with truth, that I am not unhappy. The fact is, all sorrows sink into insignificance before the one great sorrow -- my own miserable imperfections, and any outward hap is welcome if it will only serve to rouse my energies and make me less unworthy of my better self. I have good hope that it will be so now, and I wish you to share this hope if it will give you any satisfaction.
If, as you intimated in your last letter, you feel that my friendship is of value to you for its own sake -- mind on no other ground -- it is yours. Let us, if you will, forget the past, except in so far as it may have brought us to trust in and feel for each other, and let us help to make life beautiful to each other as far as fate and the world will permit us. Whenever you like to come to me again, to see the golden corn before it is reaped, 130 I can promise you such companionship as there is in me, untroubled by painful emotions. I meant to write you a long letter and tell you a great deal about my thoughts and feelings since we parted -- but I have been ill for the last three days and everything is an effort to me.
Ever yours faithfully
Marian Evans.
MS: British Museum. Published with several misreadings: Bulletin of the New York Public Library, 79 (Spring 1976), 368-369.
Broadstairs | Thursday Evening.
Dear Mr. Spencer 129
It would be ungenerous in me to allow you to suffer even a slight uneasiness on my account which I am able to remove. I ought at once to tell you, since I can do so with truth, that I am not unhappy. The fact is, all sorrows sink into insignificance before the one great sorrow -- my own miserable imperfections, and any outward hap is welcome if it will only serve to rouse my energies and make me less unworthy of my better self. I have good hope that it will be so now, and I wish you to share this hope if it will give you any satisfaction.
If, as you intimated in your last letter, you feel that my friendship is of value to you for its own sake -- mind on no other ground -- it is yours. Let us, if you will, forget the past, except in so far as it may have brought us to trust in and feel for each other, and let us help to make life beautiful to each other as far as fate and the world will permit us. Whenever you like to come to me again, to see the golden corn before it is reaped, 130 I can promise you such companionship as there is in me, untroubled by painful emotions. I meant to write you a long letter and tell you a great deal about my thoughts and feelings since we parted -- but I have been ill for the last three days and everything is an effort to me.
Ever yours faithfully
Marian Evans.
Signature
Marian Evans.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Herbert Spencer, Broadstairs, [29? July 1852], 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/92526