GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 3[-4] September 1841
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 3[-4] September 1841
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 3[-4] September 1841
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria Lewis
Date(s)
- 1841-09-03–<br /> 1841-09-04
Place
FOLESHILL
Letter Content
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 3[-4] September 1841
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | The Revd L. Harper's | Burton Latimer | near Kettering. Postmark: COVENTRY | SE 4 | 1841. Extracts published: Cross, I, 89-92.
Foleshill | September 3d 1841.
My beloved Veronica,
I have had many compunctious visitings for the reiteration of the word [write] in my last contribution to the revenue in the shape of a note to you. I was tickled the other day by a witty account of a statesman's and general's efforts to convince others that he was undismayed by certain untoward events. Since says the writer, to say [I am fearless] was equivalent to nothing he set about teaching the fact by way of induction, putting on airs of determination and authority, and a corresponding fierceness of action. Now I suppose I am in a similar situation as to the question of my selfishness and inconsideration. To say [I am really generous and would not have my Veronica spend her precious moments of leisure on me] is of little avail, so I must prove all this "per modo d'induzione." There is another truth I would have you enter on your creed which does not seem yet to be there -- viz. that to receive the mere outpouring of feeling from you is my chief consolation under inability to assist you more validly. Ergo never apologize for details about yourself, they being the gold dust for which I barter my large sheet of rag. And, anah, 349 my honey, why talk you in voice as hollow as that of a half-starved hermit, about plans for the future, their deceptiveness, impossibility etc. etc.? Know you not, you recreant daughter of the green isle, that you owe a debt to a friend who will not allow you to have the benefit of [habeas corpus] for next Christmas? Here you have infamously put off payment for a year and presume to have other thoughts in your head than that of honestly bringing her principal and interest when you will really have the means! I vow I will change your name for some brand of treachery, 350 if you do not quickly impetrate my mercy. I must now happily for you go to pay a morning visit to my poor dear neighbor 351 who has long been seriously ill. Of course my mood will be set to a different key when I begin to write again. -- --
I thought the other day that a mode of studying Scripture very beneficial to adults might be made equally so to your pupils. It is that of taking the parables or other portions of the New Testament for analyzation -- writing in words other than those of Scripture the general truths contained or implied in the passage. For a hasty example, the familiar but impressive parable of the Sower 352 might yield the following heads for reflection and perhaps many more. 1. Satan is watchfully active in counteracting the effects of the preached word. 2. A semblance of conversion is frequently produced under the means of grace which has not its foundation in principle. 3. The cares, pleasures, and riches of the world are essentially opposed to the heavenward progress of the soul. 4. There is a connection between the affections and the understanding causing the corruption of the one to issue in the perversion of the other. They who understand the word are said to receive it into an honest and good heart. 5. The saving reception of the word is invariably marked by strong effort on the part of the recipient to [hold fast] what he has heard. "Having heard the word, keep it." 6. There are different degrees of holiness even among those born again of the incorruptible seed. 7. The obedience of Christ involves circumstances calling for patience. The frequent and indeed constant use of this plan would I am convinced give a clearness and comprehensiveness to our knowledge of Scripture truths that I have not found common, and the lack of which I am earnestly desirous to supply in myself. Perhaps you have already used this or a superior method, but if I were conversing with you viv'e2 voce I should say all this, and you know my rule for letterwriting.
I have been revelling in Nichol's Architecture of the heavens and
Phenomena of the Solar system 353 and have been in imagination winging my flight from system to system, from universe to universe, trying to conceive myself in such a position and with such a visual faculty as would enable me to enjoy what Young enumerates among the novelties of the [stranger] man when he burst the shell, to Behold an infinite of floating worlds Divide the crystal waves of ether pure, In endless voyage without port. 354 "Hospitable infinity"! Nichol beautifully says. 355 How should I love to have a thoroughgoing student with me that we might read together! We might each alternately employ the voice and the fingers and thus achieve just twice as much as a poor solitary. I am more impressed than ever with a truth beautifully expressed in [Woman's Mission.] "Learning is only so far valuable as it serves to enlarge and enlighten the bounds of conscience." 356 This I believe it eminently does when pursued humbly and piously and from a belief that it is a solemn duty to cultivate every faculty of our nature so far as primary obligations allow. There is an exhortation of St. Paul's that I should love to take as my motto. Finally my brethren whatsoever things are honest (you know the continuation) -- if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things. 357
I have had to lament lately my Veronica that mine is not a hard working mind -- that it requires frequent rests. How has your body served you in this particular? Have you been pretty well at Burton? I am violently in love with the Italian fashion of repeating an adjective or adverb and even noun to give force to expression. There is so much more fire in it than in our circumlocutory phrases, our dull verys and exceedinglys and extremelys. I strongly recommend Hallam 358 to you. I shall read it again if I live. When a sort of haziness comes over the mind making one feel weary of articulated or written signs of ideas does not the notion of a less laborious mode of communication, of a perception approaching more nearly to intuition seem attractive? Nathless I love words; they are the quoits, the bows, the staves that furnish the gymnasium of the mind. Without them in our present condition, our intellectual strength would have no implements. I have been rather humbled in thinking that if I were thrown on an uncivilised island and had to form a literature for its inhabitants from my own mental stock how very fragmentary would be the information with which I could furnish them. It would be a good mode of testing one's knowledge, to set one's self the task of writing sketches of all subjects that have entered into one's studies, entirely from the chronicles of memory.
I shall weary you out of your last infinites[i]mal of patience my Veronica, and I can fancy you shaking your head and saying to yourself [This poor girl's brain is fast losing its little specific gravity and is flying off to Milton's Limbo to keep company with all "the unaccomplished works of Nature's hand, abortive monstrous or unkindly mixed." ] 359 Well, my own I will spare you all further ground for solicitude, the rather as my father is just come in. Indeed dear Veronica my affections are not so easily evaporated as my wits, and my love to you grows by accretion not by expansion.
Ever your true
Clematis.
I have reopened my letter, my dear friend, conscious that it was written in an evening's delirium to which I am subject, and which this [sober-suited morn] 360 has dissipated. Indeed it is not a representative of the serious, earnest sympathy with which I think of you, nor do I attach more importance to my own vagaries than to the labouring yet onward steps of your pilgrimage.
I believe however that there is not at present reason for discouragement -- I feel assured that you will be guided towards some suitable provision. I perceive a reason for all this discipline when I read the sweet expression of your trust and submission. Once again let me thank you for all the trouble you have taken so generously for my sake. When you think of me remember Solomon's mode of characterizing a true friend, [born for adversity.] 361 Yes, I firmly believe our love is of a nature not to be changed by place or time, and though my path on earth should lie between the tropics and yours should still remain among these bleak latitudes, I humbly hope and pray that when the poor modicum of three score years and ten or far less is consumed we shall enter on a condition whose moral elements are all congenial to love, when having left all the reptile behind us, we shall mount up with wings like eagles, we shall run and not be weary, we shall walk and not faint. Glorious prospect of activity! In the meanwhile we will be mindful that this is promised to those "who wait on the Lord." 362
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | The Revd L. Harper's | Burton Latimer | near Kettering. Postmark: COVENTRY | SE 4 | 1841. Extracts published: Cross, I, 89-92.
Foleshill | September 3d 1841.
My beloved Veronica,
I have had many compunctious visitings for the reiteration of the word [write] in my last contribution to the revenue in the shape of a note to you. I was tickled the other day by a witty account of a statesman's and general's efforts to convince others that he was undismayed by certain untoward events. Since says the writer, to say [I am fearless] was equivalent to nothing he set about teaching the fact by way of induction, putting on airs of determination and authority, and a corresponding fierceness of action. Now I suppose I am in a similar situation as to the question of my selfishness and inconsideration. To say [I am really generous and would not have my Veronica spend her precious moments of leisure on me] is of little avail, so I must prove all this "per modo d'induzione." There is another truth I would have you enter on your creed which does not seem yet to be there -- viz. that to receive the mere outpouring of feeling from you is my chief consolation under inability to assist you more validly. Ergo never apologize for details about yourself, they being the gold dust for which I barter my large sheet of rag. And, anah, 349 my honey, why talk you in voice as hollow as that of a half-starved hermit, about plans for the future, their deceptiveness, impossibility etc. etc.? Know you not, you recreant daughter of the green isle, that you owe a debt to a friend who will not allow you to have the benefit of [habeas corpus] for next Christmas? Here you have infamously put off payment for a year and presume to have other thoughts in your head than that of honestly bringing her principal and interest when you will really have the means! I vow I will change your name for some brand of treachery, 350 if you do not quickly impetrate my mercy. I must now happily for you go to pay a morning visit to my poor dear neighbor 351 who has long been seriously ill. Of course my mood will be set to a different key when I begin to write again. -- --
I thought the other day that a mode of studying Scripture very beneficial to adults might be made equally so to your pupils. It is that of taking the parables or other portions of the New Testament for analyzation -- writing in words other than those of Scripture the general truths contained or implied in the passage. For a hasty example, the familiar but impressive parable of the Sower 352 might yield the following heads for reflection and perhaps many more. 1. Satan is watchfully active in counteracting the effects of the preached word. 2. A semblance of conversion is frequently produced under the means of grace which has not its foundation in principle. 3. The cares, pleasures, and riches of the world are essentially opposed to the heavenward progress of the soul. 4. There is a connection between the affections and the understanding causing the corruption of the one to issue in the perversion of the other. They who understand the word are said to receive it into an honest and good heart. 5. The saving reception of the word is invariably marked by strong effort on the part of the recipient to [hold fast] what he has heard. "Having heard the word, keep it." 6. There are different degrees of holiness even among those born again of the incorruptible seed. 7. The obedience of Christ involves circumstances calling for patience. The frequent and indeed constant use of this plan would I am convinced give a clearness and comprehensiveness to our knowledge of Scripture truths that I have not found common, and the lack of which I am earnestly desirous to supply in myself. Perhaps you have already used this or a superior method, but if I were conversing with you viv'e2 voce I should say all this, and you know my rule for letterwriting.
I have been revelling in Nichol's Architecture of the heavens and
Phenomena of the Solar system 353 and have been in imagination winging my flight from system to system, from universe to universe, trying to conceive myself in such a position and with such a visual faculty as would enable me to enjoy what Young enumerates among the novelties of the [stranger] man when he burst the shell, to Behold an infinite of floating worlds Divide the crystal waves of ether pure, In endless voyage without port. 354 "Hospitable infinity"! Nichol beautifully says. 355 How should I love to have a thoroughgoing student with me that we might read together! We might each alternately employ the voice and the fingers and thus achieve just twice as much as a poor solitary. I am more impressed than ever with a truth beautifully expressed in [Woman's Mission.] "Learning is only so far valuable as it serves to enlarge and enlighten the bounds of conscience." 356 This I believe it eminently does when pursued humbly and piously and from a belief that it is a solemn duty to cultivate every faculty of our nature so far as primary obligations allow. There is an exhortation of St. Paul's that I should love to take as my motto. Finally my brethren whatsoever things are honest (you know the continuation) -- if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things. 357
I have had to lament lately my Veronica that mine is not a hard working mind -- that it requires frequent rests. How has your body served you in this particular? Have you been pretty well at Burton? I am violently in love with the Italian fashion of repeating an adjective or adverb and even noun to give force to expression. There is so much more fire in it than in our circumlocutory phrases, our dull verys and exceedinglys and extremelys. I strongly recommend Hallam 358 to you. I shall read it again if I live. When a sort of haziness comes over the mind making one feel weary of articulated or written signs of ideas does not the notion of a less laborious mode of communication, of a perception approaching more nearly to intuition seem attractive? Nathless I love words; they are the quoits, the bows, the staves that furnish the gymnasium of the mind. Without them in our present condition, our intellectual strength would have no implements. I have been rather humbled in thinking that if I were thrown on an uncivilised island and had to form a literature for its inhabitants from my own mental stock how very fragmentary would be the information with which I could furnish them. It would be a good mode of testing one's knowledge, to set one's self the task of writing sketches of all subjects that have entered into one's studies, entirely from the chronicles of memory.
I shall weary you out of your last infinites[i]mal of patience my Veronica, and I can fancy you shaking your head and saying to yourself [This poor girl's brain is fast losing its little specific gravity and is flying off to Milton's Limbo to keep company with all "the unaccomplished works of Nature's hand, abortive monstrous or unkindly mixed." ] 359 Well, my own I will spare you all further ground for solicitude, the rather as my father is just come in. Indeed dear Veronica my affections are not so easily evaporated as my wits, and my love to you grows by accretion not by expansion.
Ever your true
Clematis.
I have reopened my letter, my dear friend, conscious that it was written in an evening's delirium to which I am subject, and which this [sober-suited morn] 360 has dissipated. Indeed it is not a representative of the serious, earnest sympathy with which I think of you, nor do I attach more importance to my own vagaries than to the labouring yet onward steps of your pilgrimage.
I believe however that there is not at present reason for discouragement -- I feel assured that you will be guided towards some suitable provision. I perceive a reason for all this discipline when I read the sweet expression of your trust and submission. Once again let me thank you for all the trouble you have taken so generously for my sake. When you think of me remember Solomon's mode of characterizing a true friend, [born for adversity.] 361 Yes, I firmly believe our love is of a nature not to be changed by place or time, and though my path on earth should lie between the tropics and yours should still remain among these bleak latitudes, I humbly hope and pray that when the poor modicum of three score years and ten or far less is consumed we shall enter on a condition whose moral elements are all congenial to love, when having left all the reptile behind us, we shall mount up with wings like eagles, we shall run and not be weary, we shall walk and not faint. Glorious prospect of activity! In the meanwhile we will be mindful that this is promised to those "who wait on the Lord." 362
Signature
Clematis.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 3[-4] September 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/92885