GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 16 October 1841
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 16 October 1841
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 16 October 1841
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria Lewis
Date(s)
- 1841-10-16
Place
FOLESHILL
Letter Content
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 16 October 1841
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | The Revd L. Harper's | Burton Latimer | near Kettering. Postmark: COVENTRY | OC | 1841. Hitherto unpublished.
Foleshill October 16th 1841.
My very dear Veronica,
The exhaustion following last night's unusually severe headache, renders writing to you a very pleasant remove from [rien faire,] and I am glad of the incitement Mrs. Pears has just given me to do so. She has forwarded my deposition concerning you to Miss Crump, who writes in return that she should be very happy to use her interest on your behalf. This interest, however, though unexceptionable in other respects to the most fastidious, lies among dissenters, and she is just now aware of a desirable situation in a family, which was vacant about a week ago, and for which she appears to think you suitable. But she proposes the question whether liberal spirited nonconformity would be an obstacle to your approval. I had mentioned that you were an attached member of the Establishment. Will you send me the reply by return of post?
I was very glad of your last little note -- only remember it was a little one. Mr. C[raig]'s expressions surpass in grossness all the conceptions my severity had formed about them. Why such behaviour in the days of chivalry would have been enough to bring upon him all the valour of all the Knights errant in existence. Whatever might be his opinion respecting you, the fact that this rendered him unable to accede to your request ought to have called up every particle of delicacy and tenderness he possessed to frame a reply not calculated to wound. But we must forgive and pity him. The immense superiority that endurance gives over the inflicter of a wound makes the sufferer well afford to pardon. But this is the heathen's motive -- the Christian's is far higher. I am strongly of opinion that a family in the most cultivated class of middle life would be the one where you would find most comfort (for a Governess among the aristocracy there is none) and the most profitable circulation of intelligence. Salary is the only thing that would be inferior. How large a one should you expect? These are all ugly accompaniments of our mundane existence, the very dross of life, but without this dross the gold of moral discipline is not to be found.
The prevalence of misery and want in this boasted nation of prosperity and glory is appalling, and really seems to call us away from mental luxury. O to be doing some little toward the regeneration of this groaning travailing creation! 379 I am supine and stupid, overfed with favours, while the haggard looks and piercing glance of want and conscious hopelessness are to be seen in the streets. Goodbye, dear Veronica. I fear this is almost unreadable. (I am tired of illegible). Write on Monday and believe me ever
Your true
Clematis.
May I call you Maria? I feel our friendship too serious a thing to endure even an artificial name. And restore to me Mary Ann.
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | The Revd L. Harper's | Burton Latimer | near Kettering. Postmark: COVENTRY | OC | 1841. Hitherto unpublished.
Foleshill October 16th 1841.
My very dear Veronica,
The exhaustion following last night's unusually severe headache, renders writing to you a very pleasant remove from [rien faire,] and I am glad of the incitement Mrs. Pears has just given me to do so. She has forwarded my deposition concerning you to Miss Crump, who writes in return that she should be very happy to use her interest on your behalf. This interest, however, though unexceptionable in other respects to the most fastidious, lies among dissenters, and she is just now aware of a desirable situation in a family, which was vacant about a week ago, and for which she appears to think you suitable. But she proposes the question whether liberal spirited nonconformity would be an obstacle to your approval. I had mentioned that you were an attached member of the Establishment. Will you send me the reply by return of post?
I was very glad of your last little note -- only remember it was a little one. Mr. C[raig]'s expressions surpass in grossness all the conceptions my severity had formed about them. Why such behaviour in the days of chivalry would have been enough to bring upon him all the valour of all the Knights errant in existence. Whatever might be his opinion respecting you, the fact that this rendered him unable to accede to your request ought to have called up every particle of delicacy and tenderness he possessed to frame a reply not calculated to wound. But we must forgive and pity him. The immense superiority that endurance gives over the inflicter of a wound makes the sufferer well afford to pardon. But this is the heathen's motive -- the Christian's is far higher. I am strongly of opinion that a family in the most cultivated class of middle life would be the one where you would find most comfort (for a Governess among the aristocracy there is none) and the most profitable circulation of intelligence. Salary is the only thing that would be inferior. How large a one should you expect? These are all ugly accompaniments of our mundane existence, the very dross of life, but without this dross the gold of moral discipline is not to be found.
The prevalence of misery and want in this boasted nation of prosperity and glory is appalling, and really seems to call us away from mental luxury. O to be doing some little toward the regeneration of this groaning travailing creation! 379 I am supine and stupid, overfed with favours, while the haggard looks and piercing glance of want and conscious hopelessness are to be seen in the streets. Goodbye, dear Veronica. I fear this is almost unreadable. (I am tired of illegible). Write on Monday and believe me ever
Your true
Clematis.
May I call you Maria? I feel our friendship too serious a thing to endure even an artificial name. And restore to me Mary Ann.
Signature
Clematis.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 16 October 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/92880