GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, [17 July 1839]
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, [17 July 1839]
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, [17 July 1839]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria Lewis
Date(s)
- 1839-07-17
Place
GRIFF
Letter Content
GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, [17 July 1839]
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | at Mr. Burbage's | Kenilworth. Postmark: COVENTRY | JY 17 | 1839. Extracts published: Cross, 1, 57-59.
Griff Wednesday Morning.
My dear Friend,
I thank you very heartily for your kind note, and I send you in return some doggrel lines, the crude fruit of a lonely walk last evening, when the words of one of our martyrs occurred to me. You must be acquainted with the idiosyncrasy of my authorship, which is that my effusions, once committed to paper, are like the laws of the Medes and Persians that alter not. 135 My attempt at poetry will serve to amuse you, if no more, and you love a laugh so well that it would be ungenerous to withhold the occasion of one.
I have a second little nephew! 136 A new call to thankfulness. Had Mr. Bull 137 gone to Kenilworth again before your departure I would have sent your book, which had my blood a "moral flow" I could not mention without blushing. May health and peace, the only earthly image of heaven, attend you wherever you may go! With much love,
Your sincere
Mary Ann Evans
"Knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle" -- 2 Pet. 1. 16. 138 As o'er the fields by evening's light I stray, I hear a still, small whisper -- "Come away! Thou must to this bright, lovely world soon say Farewell!" The mandate I'd obey, my lamp prepare, Gird up my garments, give my soul to pray'r, And say to earth and all that breathe earth's air Farewell!
Thou sun, to whose parental beam I owe All that has gladden'd me while here below, -- Moon, stars, and covenant confirming bow, Farewell! Ye verdant meads, fair blossoms, stately trees, Sweet song of birds, and soothing hum of bees, Refreshing odours, wafted on the breeze, Farewell! Ye patient servants of creation's lord Whose mighty strength is govern'd by his word, Who raiment, food and help in toil afford, Farewell! Ye feebler, freer tribes, that people air, Fairy like insects, making buds your lair, Ye that in water shine, and frolic there, Farewell! Books that have been to me as chests of gold, Which, miser like, I secretly have told, And for them love, health, friendship, peace have sold, Farewell! Blest volume! whose clear truth-writ page, once known, Fades not before heaven's sunshine or hell's moan, To thee I say not, of earth's gifts alone, Farewell! 139 Dear kindred, whom the Lord to me has given, Must the dear tie that binds us, now be riven? No! say I only till we meet in heaven, Farewell! There shall my newborn senses find new joy, New sounds, new sights my eyes and ears employ, Nor fear that word that here brings sad alloy, Farewell!
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | at Mr. Burbage's | Kenilworth. Postmark: COVENTRY | JY 17 | 1839. Extracts published: Cross, 1, 57-59.
Griff Wednesday Morning.
My dear Friend,
I thank you very heartily for your kind note, and I send you in return some doggrel lines, the crude fruit of a lonely walk last evening, when the words of one of our martyrs occurred to me. You must be acquainted with the idiosyncrasy of my authorship, which is that my effusions, once committed to paper, are like the laws of the Medes and Persians that alter not. 135 My attempt at poetry will serve to amuse you, if no more, and you love a laugh so well that it would be ungenerous to withhold the occasion of one.
I have a second little nephew! 136 A new call to thankfulness. Had Mr. Bull 137 gone to Kenilworth again before your departure I would have sent your book, which had my blood a "moral flow" I could not mention without blushing. May health and peace, the only earthly image of heaven, attend you wherever you may go! With much love,
Your sincere
Mary Ann Evans
"Knowing that shortly I must put off this tabernacle" -- 2 Pet. 1. 16. 138 As o'er the fields by evening's light I stray, I hear a still, small whisper -- "Come away! Thou must to this bright, lovely world soon say Farewell!" The mandate I'd obey, my lamp prepare, Gird up my garments, give my soul to pray'r, And say to earth and all that breathe earth's air Farewell!
Thou sun, to whose parental beam I owe All that has gladden'd me while here below, -- Moon, stars, and covenant confirming bow, Farewell! Ye verdant meads, fair blossoms, stately trees, Sweet song of birds, and soothing hum of bees, Refreshing odours, wafted on the breeze, Farewell! Ye patient servants of creation's lord Whose mighty strength is govern'd by his word, Who raiment, food and help in toil afford, Farewell! Ye feebler, freer tribes, that people air, Fairy like insects, making buds your lair, Ye that in water shine, and frolic there, Farewell! Books that have been to me as chests of gold, Which, miser like, I secretly have told, And for them love, health, friendship, peace have sold, Farewell! Blest volume! whose clear truth-writ page, once known, Fades not before heaven's sunshine or hell's moan, To thee I say not, of earth's gifts alone, Farewell! 139 Dear kindred, whom the Lord to me has given, Must the dear tie that binds us, now be riven? No! say I only till we meet in heaven, Farewell! There shall my newborn senses find new joy, New sounds, new sights my eyes and ears employ, Nor fear that word that here brings sad alloy, Farewell!
Signature
Mary Ann Evans
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, [17 July 1839], 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/92890