GE to John Blackwood, London, 12 December 1867
Title
GE to John Blackwood, London, 12 December 1867
Title
GE to John Blackwood, London, 12 December 1867
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1867-12-12
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, London, 12 December 1867
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, III, 27-28.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
December 12. 67.
My dear Sir
I am very grateful to you for your generous words about my work. That you not only feel so much sympathy, but are moved to express it so fully, is a real help to me.
I am very glad to have had the revise of the "Address." Mr. Lewes agrees with you that it will be well to leave out the words "delivered to a meeting" -- the reason I put them was to give a less assuming attitude to my spokesman. I feel the danger of not being understood. Perhaps by a good deal longer consideration and gradual shaping, I might have put the ideas into a more concrete easy form.
Mr. Lewes begs me to thank you for the books which came duly with the six proofs. I think he will run over to Germany just after Christmas, for ten days or a fortnight, to see some professors of physiology at Bonn and Heidelberg who can help him in his present inquiries. If the weather is tolerable, I hope the run may do him good.
He read the proof of the poem all through to himself for the first time, last night, and expressed great satisfaction in the impression it produced. Your suggestion of having it put into type is a benefit for which we have reason to be obliged to you.
Unhappily I have been and am rather an invalid this week, 708 and Mr. Lewes scoldingly desires me not to write anything unnecessary. Yet I cannot help saying again that it is a strong cordial to me to have such letters as yours, and to know that I have such a first reader as you.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
John Blackwood Esq.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Extracts published: Cross, III, 27-28.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
December 12. 67.
My dear Sir
I am very grateful to you for your generous words about my work. That you not only feel so much sympathy, but are moved to express it so fully, is a real help to me.
I am very glad to have had the revise of the "Address." Mr. Lewes agrees with you that it will be well to leave out the words "delivered to a meeting" -- the reason I put them was to give a less assuming attitude to my spokesman. I feel the danger of not being understood. Perhaps by a good deal longer consideration and gradual shaping, I might have put the ideas into a more concrete easy form.
Mr. Lewes begs me to thank you for the books which came duly with the six proofs. I think he will run over to Germany just after Christmas, for ten days or a fortnight, to see some professors of physiology at Bonn and Heidelberg who can help him in his present inquiries. If the weather is tolerable, I hope the run may do him good.
He read the proof of the poem all through to himself for the first time, last night, and expressed great satisfaction in the impression it produced. Your suggestion of having it put into type is a benefit for which we have reason to be obliged to you.
Unhappily I have been and am rather an invalid this week, 708 and Mr. Lewes scoldingly desires me not to write anything unnecessary. Yet I cannot help saying again that it is a strong cordial to me to have such letters as yours, and to know that I have such a first reader as you.
Always yours truly
M. E. Lewes.
John Blackwood Esq.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, London, 12 December 1867, 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/92602