GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [4 June 1841]
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [4 June 1841]
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [4 June 1841]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria Lewis
Date(s)
- 1841-06-04
Place
FOLESHILL
Letter Content
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [4 June 1841]
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, I, 86-87.
Foleshill Road | Friday Morning.
My very dear Veronica,
The whole of last week was devoted to a bridesmaid's duties, and each day of this has been partially occupied in paying or receiving visits. 318 Hence I have been unable earlier to acknowledge your affectionate attention, and even now I must write to you immediately after a meal with a hurry that my feelings towards you would always lead me, if possible, to avoid. I am inclined in my ignorance and impatience to grieve that want of health and other causes have detained you at Burton so long after the usual commencement of your holidays, but I doubt not that there is a wise purpose to be effected by the continued discipline through which you are passing. I hope to pray earnestly for you not only that your worldly prospects may assume a definite and promising shape but that as [the fining pot is to silver and the furnace to gold,] 319 even so may your trials be to you, that you may be more evidently a vessel fit for your Master's use. 320 I have no doubt that you have taken the wisest course that presented itself, and indeed you could hardly have chosen one that so united the means of bodily renovation with probabilities of profiting by the assistance of able and extensively connected persons.
Believe me my Veronica that prolonged separation from you will not diminish my love, which I trust will rather grow in intensity of colour than fade, as long as this tabernacle confines its exercise and limits its activity, and I beg you to pray with me that it may be purified and established in a world where kindred spirits will communicate without misunderstanding, and associate only to further their eternal progress in the knowledge adoration and performance of the will works and attributes of their common Father. 321
My dear Sister is tried even more than yourself -- her domestic life is one continued endurance. You remember Charles Clarke -- he is in a rapid consumption which seems to have reached a late stage and is under Edward's care, in his house. His father has not yet visited him. This is just now almost my only external trouble. I have a calm in sea and sky that I doubt not will ere long be interrupted. This is not our rest, if we are among those for whom there [remaineth one,] and to pass through life without tribulation, or as Jeremy Taylor beautifully says with only such a measure of it as may be compared to an artificial discord in music which nurses the ear for the returning harmony, would leave us destitute of one of the marks that invariably accompany salvation, and of that fellowship in the sufferings of the Redeemer which can alone work in us a resemblance to one of the most prominent parts of His Divinely perfect character, and enable us to obey the injunction, [In patience possess your souls.] 322 I have often observed how in secular things active occupation in procuring the necessaries of life renders the character indifferent to trials not affecting that one object. There is an analogous influence produced in the Christian by a vigorous pursuit of duty, a determination to work while it is day. Write my dear Veronica when you reach Margate and you shall hear again if she still live from
Your faithful and affectionate
Clematis.
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, I, 86-87.
Foleshill Road | Friday Morning.
My very dear Veronica,
The whole of last week was devoted to a bridesmaid's duties, and each day of this has been partially occupied in paying or receiving visits. 318 Hence I have been unable earlier to acknowledge your affectionate attention, and even now I must write to you immediately after a meal with a hurry that my feelings towards you would always lead me, if possible, to avoid. I am inclined in my ignorance and impatience to grieve that want of health and other causes have detained you at Burton so long after the usual commencement of your holidays, but I doubt not that there is a wise purpose to be effected by the continued discipline through which you are passing. I hope to pray earnestly for you not only that your worldly prospects may assume a definite and promising shape but that as [the fining pot is to silver and the furnace to gold,] 319 even so may your trials be to you, that you may be more evidently a vessel fit for your Master's use. 320 I have no doubt that you have taken the wisest course that presented itself, and indeed you could hardly have chosen one that so united the means of bodily renovation with probabilities of profiting by the assistance of able and extensively connected persons.
Believe me my Veronica that prolonged separation from you will not diminish my love, which I trust will rather grow in intensity of colour than fade, as long as this tabernacle confines its exercise and limits its activity, and I beg you to pray with me that it may be purified and established in a world where kindred spirits will communicate without misunderstanding, and associate only to further their eternal progress in the knowledge adoration and performance of the will works and attributes of their common Father. 321
My dear Sister is tried even more than yourself -- her domestic life is one continued endurance. You remember Charles Clarke -- he is in a rapid consumption which seems to have reached a late stage and is under Edward's care, in his house. His father has not yet visited him. This is just now almost my only external trouble. I have a calm in sea and sky that I doubt not will ere long be interrupted. This is not our rest, if we are among those for whom there [remaineth one,] and to pass through life without tribulation, or as Jeremy Taylor beautifully says with only such a measure of it as may be compared to an artificial discord in music which nurses the ear for the returning harmony, would leave us destitute of one of the marks that invariably accompany salvation, and of that fellowship in the sufferings of the Redeemer which can alone work in us a resemblance to one of the most prominent parts of His Divinely perfect character, and enable us to obey the injunction, [In patience possess your souls.] 322 I have often observed how in secular things active occupation in procuring the necessaries of life renders the character indifferent to trials not affecting that one object. There is an analogous influence produced in the Christian by a vigorous pursuit of duty, a determination to work while it is day. Write my dear Veronica when you reach Margate and you shall hear again if she still live from
Your faithful and affectionate
Clematis.
Signature
Clematis.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [4 June 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/92878