GE to John Stuart Blackie, [Wandsworth], 7 January 1860
Title
GE to John Stuart Blackie, [Wandsworth], 7 January 1860
Title
GE to John Stuart Blackie, [Wandsworth], 7 January 1860
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Stuart Blackie
Date(s)
- 1860-01-07
Place
[Wandsworth]
Letter Content
GE to John Stuart Blackie, [Wandsworth], 7 January 1860
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
January 7. 60.
My dear Sir
For the last few days I have been interesting myself in the Poems 453 you have been so good as to send me, and the sense they have given me of our agreement in many points of opinion and feeling has heightened the value which your words of sympathy already had for me when I first read them on New Year's morning.
That generous prompting which made you write the words will make you glad to know that they were like a draught of courage and strength to me. It is not so with all praise, but only with that which shews that one's intention has been thoroughly understood and your praise is of this kind.
Without such encouragement now and then, it would be a much harder task to keep oneself clear of the petty influences that come from the echoes of journalistic and club life -- nay, even from the reflection that popular success is hardly a test until the second generation.
To have helped me in this way will, I know, be a satisfaction to the writer of that golden "Advice to a favourite Student," and it will not less be a remembered ground of deep obligation by
The author of "Adam Bede."
Professor Blackie.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
January 7. 60.
My dear Sir
For the last few days I have been interesting myself in the Poems 453 you have been so good as to send me, and the sense they have given me of our agreement in many points of opinion and feeling has heightened the value which your words of sympathy already had for me when I first read them on New Year's morning.
That generous prompting which made you write the words will make you glad to know that they were like a draught of courage and strength to me. It is not so with all praise, but only with that which shews that one's intention has been thoroughly understood and your praise is of this kind.
Without such encouragement now and then, it would be a much harder task to keep oneself clear of the petty influences that come from the echoes of journalistic and club life -- nay, even from the reflection that popular success is hardly a test until the second generation.
To have helped me in this way will, I know, be a satisfaction to the writer of that golden "Advice to a favourite Student," and it will not less be a remembered ground of deep obligation by
The author of "Adam Bede."
Professor Blackie.
Signature
The author of "Adam Bede."
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Stuart Blackie, [Wandsworth], 7 January 1860, 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/92819