GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [20 May 1841]
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [20 May 1841]
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [20 May 1841]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria Lewis
Date(s)
- 1841-05-20
Place
FOLESHILL
Letter Content
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [20 May 1841]
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | The Revd L. Harper's | Burton Latimer | near Kettering. Postmark: COVENTRY | MA 20 | 1841. One sentence published: Cross, 1, 85.
Foleshill Road | Coventry | Thursday.
[Is there no quiet lane in my Clematis's vicinity whose banks rival the intensest sapphire of the firmament from the luxuriance of my emblems, admonishing her to emulate the fidelity of which their name and colour are the representatives?] Yes, my Veronica, there is such a lane, and I have not only gazed at and gathered your bewitching namesakes, but I have talked of you more than, considering one's friends are multiplicands of self, an honest eschewing of egotism would allow. Last evening I mentioned you to my neighbour 309 who is growing into the more precious character of a friend, and she told me that Mrs. Sibley Whittem 310 wanted some little time ago a governess -- I presume for her whole family, consisting, I believe, of 3 or 4 boys and girls. She is not certain that such is the case now but that can be ascertained. The said lady is one of no common intellectual and moral worth. I should say the prima donna of Coventry in these respects, and I believe, a Christian, but -- O this ill-omened precursor, portending more disastrous facts than ever did croak and screech of owl or raven -- her husband is an ultra-liberal, a man who has never kept rank and file, a lecturer for the Mechanics' Institute, an ardent lover of science, an amiable being as to his fellowmen, the frequent description, strange to say, of one who, from orthodox profession, has apostatized, first to Socinianism, next to an ism that assumes itself competent and commissioned to supply the deficiencies of the Bible if not to supersede it. The whole family are dissenters -- Mr. Whittem's father, a holy man. Of course in
Mr. W's family perfect freedom of thought and action in religious matters would be understood as an unquestioned right, but as education, to be such, implies aggression on supposed error of every kind and incubation of truth it is probable you would not choose to put yourself in a position apparently requiring the anomalous conditions of neutrality and command. It is folly to talk of educating children without giving their opinions a bias. This is always given whether weak or strong, not always nor perhaps in a large proportion of cases, a permanent one, but one instrumental in determining their point of repose. So much on this head which I fear I am dilating unnecessarily.
With respect to your idea of putting on the responsibilities and anxieties of an independent housekeeper, I confess, little able as I am to judge on the subject I cannot consent to put it in the balance -- I feel utterly averse to it. It is invariably our feeling that precisely those things we have not are the very desiderata for our happiness, and I can fully understand your yearning for divi foci of your own, but just imagine an inventory of concomitants that might be drawn up -- rent, taxes, bad debts, servants untrustworthy, scarlet fever, panic of parents, imposing tradesmen, mortifying conjunctions with et ceteras all at present experimentally unknown to you. I have been let into a few secrets as to the trials of schoolkeeping of late and my inference is that it is one of the most fluctuating, dubious occupations beneath the changing moon.
I have not received a call from any of Mr. Stephenson's family, 311 though we have met and spoken on our way from church, when they have expressed the hope of seeing me often, whence I infer that they expect me to invert the common order of things and call on them. This I did not intend, young ladies being the animals that would possess the minimum of attraction for me in a menagerie of the varieties of the human race, and you know there are two in their family -- were there none but the two senior members I should certainly preserve their acquaintance, but if I can satisfy the coolest wish you possess by talking to them concerning Coventry openings, why, "my dearest dear, therefore it shall be done." 312 I spoke of you as a dear friend whom I was anxious to see comfortably situated to Mr. Brezzi and he in the tantalizing mode of words and things here below, immediately said that he had known shortly before of a situation just -- Alas whither shall I go to scribble further? crossing 313 would be death to the sense or nonsense of my letter and with this half sheet I shall make the packet heavy. Well Mr. B. had heard of a situation just suitable for you but in ignorance of your existence he had obtained it for another. He has kindly promised to bear you in mind, I hope to some purpose. But you have many more efficient friends than I or any one to whom I can apply. Mr. and Mrs. Henslowe I should think are likely to be serviceable.
I do not say come hither at Midsummer; you know that my bosom shall always be a leaning place for you while the heart beneath it beats. I can only say in accordance with your own view, go in the most useful direction. I have a world more to say, and am very fertile in thoughts that like many greater productions are born to die in unregretted obscurity, but I really think even your affection will not make the task of deciphering my letter easy. How is it that Erasmus could write volumes on volumes and multitudinous letters besides, while I whose labours hold about the same relation to his as an anthill to a pyramid or a drop of dew to the ocean seem too busy to write a few? A most posing query! Solved, after due thought by the very recondite fact that your poor friend is considerably inferior in mental profundity, power and fertility to the said Erasmus.
Adieu my dear Veronica. Write me a scrap when you have time and then you shall hear again from your
Clematis.
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | The Revd L. Harper's | Burton Latimer | near Kettering. Postmark: COVENTRY | MA 20 | 1841. One sentence published: Cross, 1, 85.
Foleshill Road | Coventry | Thursday.
[Is there no quiet lane in my Clematis's vicinity whose banks rival the intensest sapphire of the firmament from the luxuriance of my emblems, admonishing her to emulate the fidelity of which their name and colour are the representatives?] Yes, my Veronica, there is such a lane, and I have not only gazed at and gathered your bewitching namesakes, but I have talked of you more than, considering one's friends are multiplicands of self, an honest eschewing of egotism would allow. Last evening I mentioned you to my neighbour 309 who is growing into the more precious character of a friend, and she told me that Mrs. Sibley Whittem 310 wanted some little time ago a governess -- I presume for her whole family, consisting, I believe, of 3 or 4 boys and girls. She is not certain that such is the case now but that can be ascertained. The said lady is one of no common intellectual and moral worth. I should say the prima donna of Coventry in these respects, and I believe, a Christian, but -- O this ill-omened precursor, portending more disastrous facts than ever did croak and screech of owl or raven -- her husband is an ultra-liberal, a man who has never kept rank and file, a lecturer for the Mechanics' Institute, an ardent lover of science, an amiable being as to his fellowmen, the frequent description, strange to say, of one who, from orthodox profession, has apostatized, first to Socinianism, next to an ism that assumes itself competent and commissioned to supply the deficiencies of the Bible if not to supersede it. The whole family are dissenters -- Mr. Whittem's father, a holy man. Of course in
Mr. W's family perfect freedom of thought and action in religious matters would be understood as an unquestioned right, but as education, to be such, implies aggression on supposed error of every kind and incubation of truth it is probable you would not choose to put yourself in a position apparently requiring the anomalous conditions of neutrality and command. It is folly to talk of educating children without giving their opinions a bias. This is always given whether weak or strong, not always nor perhaps in a large proportion of cases, a permanent one, but one instrumental in determining their point of repose. So much on this head which I fear I am dilating unnecessarily.
With respect to your idea of putting on the responsibilities and anxieties of an independent housekeeper, I confess, little able as I am to judge on the subject I cannot consent to put it in the balance -- I feel utterly averse to it. It is invariably our feeling that precisely those things we have not are the very desiderata for our happiness, and I can fully understand your yearning for divi foci of your own, but just imagine an inventory of concomitants that might be drawn up -- rent, taxes, bad debts, servants untrustworthy, scarlet fever, panic of parents, imposing tradesmen, mortifying conjunctions with et ceteras all at present experimentally unknown to you. I have been let into a few secrets as to the trials of schoolkeeping of late and my inference is that it is one of the most fluctuating, dubious occupations beneath the changing moon.
I have not received a call from any of Mr. Stephenson's family, 311 though we have met and spoken on our way from church, when they have expressed the hope of seeing me often, whence I infer that they expect me to invert the common order of things and call on them. This I did not intend, young ladies being the animals that would possess the minimum of attraction for me in a menagerie of the varieties of the human race, and you know there are two in their family -- were there none but the two senior members I should certainly preserve their acquaintance, but if I can satisfy the coolest wish you possess by talking to them concerning Coventry openings, why, "my dearest dear, therefore it shall be done." 312 I spoke of you as a dear friend whom I was anxious to see comfortably situated to Mr. Brezzi and he in the tantalizing mode of words and things here below, immediately said that he had known shortly before of a situation just -- Alas whither shall I go to scribble further? crossing 313 would be death to the sense or nonsense of my letter and with this half sheet I shall make the packet heavy. Well Mr. B. had heard of a situation just suitable for you but in ignorance of your existence he had obtained it for another. He has kindly promised to bear you in mind, I hope to some purpose. But you have many more efficient friends than I or any one to whom I can apply. Mr. and Mrs. Henslowe I should think are likely to be serviceable.
I do not say come hither at Midsummer; you know that my bosom shall always be a leaning place for you while the heart beneath it beats. I can only say in accordance with your own view, go in the most useful direction. I have a world more to say, and am very fertile in thoughts that like many greater productions are born to die in unregretted obscurity, but I really think even your affection will not make the task of deciphering my letter easy. How is it that Erasmus could write volumes on volumes and multitudinous letters besides, while I whose labours hold about the same relation to his as an anthill to a pyramid or a drop of dew to the ocean seem too busy to write a few? A most posing query! Solved, after due thought by the very recondite fact that your poor friend is considerably inferior in mental profundity, power and fertility to the said Erasmus.
Adieu my dear Veronica. Write me a scrap when you have time and then you shall hear again from your
Clematis.
Signature
Clematis.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [20 May 1841], 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/92872