GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 4 October 1841
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 4 October 1841
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 4 October 1841
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria Lewis
Date(s)
- 1841-10-04
Place
FOLESHILL
Letter Content
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 4 October 1841
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | The Revd L. Harper's | Burton Latimer | near Kettering. Postmark: CONVENTRY | OC 4 | 1841. Hitherto unpublished.
Foleshill | October 4th 1841.
My beloved Friend,
To me, who am continually having to fear that I live in vain it was no [meagre] comfort to receive an assurance that with respect to you at least this is not the case. But my pleasure in this thought is much tarnished by the recollection of the silly nothings I sent you the other day when you must have been ill prepared to overlook their worthlessness. The use of the pen is even a more responsible possession than that of the tongue and I ought to blush when I remember my own defalcations as a steward of both these trusts.
Thank you for the real treat Mr. Henslowe's letters have given me. They deserve transcription, and have won for him my love and respect maugre a pre-existing distaste. The introduction to Mrs. Sumner 372 is a promising boon and such a person is likely to seize indications of integral character in your letter that will render the paucity of adjuncts a minor consideration. What has that coarse man of books 373 done to wound you? I have never liked that you should put yourself in the position of a recipient of favours from him, and quite agree with you that the absence of his testimony is a "breach" more honourable than an "observance" 374 at least to you. I shall this morning take an opportunity of lodging in my dear Friend Mrs. Pears's hands as good a description of your Gouvernante character as I am capable of giving (I hope you will not be angry with me for venturing to do so) that she may forward it to Miss Crump 375 of London, who has a flourishing school and has often been successful in obtaining situations for others.
You are not the only dear friend who is suffering. The Miss Franklins have been and are enduring a complication of trials. The refiner and purifier of silver 376 must see His own likeness in the metal ere he ceases the purging process. He will then make you glad according to the years wherein you have known adversity. 377 You will think it is a strange application of a text when I tell you that I have often used for comfort a passage in Joel when conscious of the desolating effects of back-sliding on my heart. "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker worm, the caterpillar and the palmer-worm." 378 It will be a less strained interpretation of the words to make them symbolic of the power and intention (as I think we generally see it to be) of God to make the tearful sowing a prelude even to a rich harvest of peace and comfort on earth.
How joyful will it be to put my arms round you at Christmas! let us pray that our meeting may be fraught with much profit. I fear you will have some difficulty in reading this letter, but I know you will have none in believing that I am still though an unworthy yet a sincere, loving and I trust constant friend. If you can do so I should be glad if you would send me a few lines when you hear from Mrs. Sumner.
Your
Clematis.
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | The Revd L. Harper's | Burton Latimer | near Kettering. Postmark: CONVENTRY | OC 4 | 1841. Hitherto unpublished.
Foleshill | October 4th 1841.
My beloved Friend,
To me, who am continually having to fear that I live in vain it was no [meagre] comfort to receive an assurance that with respect to you at least this is not the case. But my pleasure in this thought is much tarnished by the recollection of the silly nothings I sent you the other day when you must have been ill prepared to overlook their worthlessness. The use of the pen is even a more responsible possession than that of the tongue and I ought to blush when I remember my own defalcations as a steward of both these trusts.
Thank you for the real treat Mr. Henslowe's letters have given me. They deserve transcription, and have won for him my love and respect maugre a pre-existing distaste. The introduction to Mrs. Sumner 372 is a promising boon and such a person is likely to seize indications of integral character in your letter that will render the paucity of adjuncts a minor consideration. What has that coarse man of books 373 done to wound you? I have never liked that you should put yourself in the position of a recipient of favours from him, and quite agree with you that the absence of his testimony is a "breach" more honourable than an "observance" 374 at least to you. I shall this morning take an opportunity of lodging in my dear Friend Mrs. Pears's hands as good a description of your Gouvernante character as I am capable of giving (I hope you will not be angry with me for venturing to do so) that she may forward it to Miss Crump 375 of London, who has a flourishing school and has often been successful in obtaining situations for others.
You are not the only dear friend who is suffering. The Miss Franklins have been and are enduring a complication of trials. The refiner and purifier of silver 376 must see His own likeness in the metal ere he ceases the purging process. He will then make you glad according to the years wherein you have known adversity. 377 You will think it is a strange application of a text when I tell you that I have often used for comfort a passage in Joel when conscious of the desolating effects of back-sliding on my heart. "I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the canker worm, the caterpillar and the palmer-worm." 378 It will be a less strained interpretation of the words to make them symbolic of the power and intention (as I think we generally see it to be) of God to make the tearful sowing a prelude even to a rich harvest of peace and comfort on earth.
How joyful will it be to put my arms round you at Christmas! let us pray that our meeting may be fraught with much profit. I fear you will have some difficulty in reading this letter, but I know you will have none in believing that I am still though an unworthy yet a sincere, loving and I trust constant friend. If you can do so I should be glad if you would send me a few lines when you hear from Mrs. Sumner.
Your
Clematis.
Signature
Clematis.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, 4 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/92887