GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, 20 May [1839]
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, 20 May [1839]
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, 20 May [1839]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria Lewis
Date(s)
- 1839-05-20
Place
GRIFF
Letter Content
GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, 20 May [1839]
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | The Revd L. Harper's | Burton Latimer | North-amptonshire. Postmark: COVENTRY | MY 21 | 1839. Extracts published: Cross, 1, 54-57.
Griff May 20.
My dear Friend,
The self-deceptive practice of substituting confession for amendment is not peculiar to the disciples of the Pope -- I am continually detecting myself in its commission, and even now, I am doing something very like it when I tell you that my writing to you just now is an act of unmixed selfishness, undertaken as a délassement after a day of disagreeable bustle in preparing for a party met to celebrate Isaac's twenty third birthday. There is a species of frankness and candor very inconsiderately lauded, which often has its source in either a proud indifference to censure, a deadness to moral distinctions, or still more frequently an ostentatious affectation of humility. This for myself. No one ought to wince more under the application of that probe than myself. While I think of it I must advise you that I do not write on this shabby paper out of economy as the poet Pope 126 would have done, but because my own store is exhausted and I am reduced to pilfer from another's.
You allude to the religious or rather irreligious contentions that form so prominent a feature in the aspect of public affairs, 127 a subject, you will perhaps be surprised to hear me say, full of interest to me, and on which I am unable to shape an opinion for the satisfaction of my mind. I think no one feels more difficulty in coming to a decision on controverted matters than myself. I do not mean that I have not preferences, but however congruous a theory may be with my notions, I cannot find that comfortable repose that others appear to possess after having made their election of a class of sentiments. The other day Montaigne's motto came to my mind (it is mentioned by Pascal) 128 as an appropriate one for me: "Que sais je?" beneath a pair of balances -- though by the bye it is an ambiguous one, and may be taken in a sense that I desire to reprobate, as well as in a Scriptural one to which I do not refer -- I use it in a limited sense, as a representation of my oscillating judgment. On no subject do I veer to all points of the compass more frequently than on the nature of the visible church. I am powerfully attracted in a certain direction but when I am about to settle there, counter assertions shake me from my position. I cannot enter into details but when we are together I will tell you all my difficulties, that is if you will be kind enough to listen.
I have been reading the new prize essay on Schism by Professor Hoppus, 129 and Milner's Church History 130 since I last wrote to you. The former ably expresses the tenets of those who deny that any form of Church government is so clearly dictated in Scripture as to possess a Divine right, and consequently to be binding on Christians. The latter you know exhibits the views of a moderate evangelical episcopalian on the inferences to be drawn from ecclesiastical remains; he equally repudiates the loud assertion of a jus divinum, to the exclusion of all separatists from the visible church, though he calmly maintains the superiority of the evidence in favour of episcopacy of a moderate kind both in power and extent of diocese, as well as the benefit of a national establishment. I have been skimming the "Portrait of an English Churchman" by the Rev. W. Gresley. 131 This contains an outline of the system of those who exclaim of the Anglican church as the Jews did of their sacred building, (that they do it in as reprehensible a spirit, I will not be the judge) "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are exclusively these," 132 while the authors of the Oxford Tracts go a step farther and evince by their compliments to Rome, as a dear though erring Sister, and their attempts to give a romish colour to our ordinances, with a very confused and unscriptural statement of the great doctrine of justification, a disposition rather to fraternize with the members of a church carrying on her brow the prophetical epithets applied by St. John to the Scarlet beast, the Mystery of iniquity, 133 than with pious non-conformists. It is true they disclaim all this, and that their opinions are seconded by the extensive learning, the laborious zeal, and the deep devotion of those who propagate them, but a reference to facts will convince us that such has generally been the character of heretical teachers. Satan is too crafty to commit his cause into the hands of those who have nothing to recommend them to approbation. According to their dogmas the Scotch church and the foreign Protestant churches as well as the non-episcopalians of our own land are wanting in the essentials of existence as part of the Church.
But I am scribbling very unprofitably, forgetting that I want room to ask you when I shall see you. I beg you will not keep this letter longer than will suffice you to read it, for it has been written without much though[t] and is very open to quizzism if you were inclined to make use of it. I hope I shall hear that your health is as good as you can expect after six months' confinement to teaching.
With sincere love I am your unworthy friend,
Polly.
Mrs. B. 134 told me you intended to spend some time with Mrs. Farebrother, at which I was selfish enough to be disappointed for I hoped to have you for a longer time this year than last; but I have no doubt you will enjoy such a change. Do if possible scribble a few lines to me before your holidays begin, that I may not miss you by ignorance of your intentions.
From what I see of a certain person, I fear evil habits are too rooted for marriage to cause their permanent disappearance.
MS: Yale. Address: Miss Lewis | The Revd L. Harper's | Burton Latimer | North-amptonshire. Postmark: COVENTRY | MY 21 | 1839. Extracts published: Cross, 1, 54-57.
Griff May 20.
My dear Friend,
The self-deceptive practice of substituting confession for amendment is not peculiar to the disciples of the Pope -- I am continually detecting myself in its commission, and even now, I am doing something very like it when I tell you that my writing to you just now is an act of unmixed selfishness, undertaken as a délassement after a day of disagreeable bustle in preparing for a party met to celebrate Isaac's twenty third birthday. There is a species of frankness and candor very inconsiderately lauded, which often has its source in either a proud indifference to censure, a deadness to moral distinctions, or still more frequently an ostentatious affectation of humility. This for myself. No one ought to wince more under the application of that probe than myself. While I think of it I must advise you that I do not write on this shabby paper out of economy as the poet Pope 126 would have done, but because my own store is exhausted and I am reduced to pilfer from another's.
You allude to the religious or rather irreligious contentions that form so prominent a feature in the aspect of public affairs, 127 a subject, you will perhaps be surprised to hear me say, full of interest to me, and on which I am unable to shape an opinion for the satisfaction of my mind. I think no one feels more difficulty in coming to a decision on controverted matters than myself. I do not mean that I have not preferences, but however congruous a theory may be with my notions, I cannot find that comfortable repose that others appear to possess after having made their election of a class of sentiments. The other day Montaigne's motto came to my mind (it is mentioned by Pascal) 128 as an appropriate one for me: "Que sais je?" beneath a pair of balances -- though by the bye it is an ambiguous one, and may be taken in a sense that I desire to reprobate, as well as in a Scriptural one to which I do not refer -- I use it in a limited sense, as a representation of my oscillating judgment. On no subject do I veer to all points of the compass more frequently than on the nature of the visible church. I am powerfully attracted in a certain direction but when I am about to settle there, counter assertions shake me from my position. I cannot enter into details but when we are together I will tell you all my difficulties, that is if you will be kind enough to listen.
I have been reading the new prize essay on Schism by Professor Hoppus, 129 and Milner's Church History 130 since I last wrote to you. The former ably expresses the tenets of those who deny that any form of Church government is so clearly dictated in Scripture as to possess a Divine right, and consequently to be binding on Christians. The latter you know exhibits the views of a moderate evangelical episcopalian on the inferences to be drawn from ecclesiastical remains; he equally repudiates the loud assertion of a jus divinum, to the exclusion of all separatists from the visible church, though he calmly maintains the superiority of the evidence in favour of episcopacy of a moderate kind both in power and extent of diocese, as well as the benefit of a national establishment. I have been skimming the "Portrait of an English Churchman" by the Rev. W. Gresley. 131 This contains an outline of the system of those who exclaim of the Anglican church as the Jews did of their sacred building, (that they do it in as reprehensible a spirit, I will not be the judge) "The temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord, the temple of the Lord are exclusively these," 132 while the authors of the Oxford Tracts go a step farther and evince by their compliments to Rome, as a dear though erring Sister, and their attempts to give a romish colour to our ordinances, with a very confused and unscriptural statement of the great doctrine of justification, a disposition rather to fraternize with the members of a church carrying on her brow the prophetical epithets applied by St. John to the Scarlet beast, the Mystery of iniquity, 133 than with pious non-conformists. It is true they disclaim all this, and that their opinions are seconded by the extensive learning, the laborious zeal, and the deep devotion of those who propagate them, but a reference to facts will convince us that such has generally been the character of heretical teachers. Satan is too crafty to commit his cause into the hands of those who have nothing to recommend them to approbation. According to their dogmas the Scotch church and the foreign Protestant churches as well as the non-episcopalians of our own land are wanting in the essentials of existence as part of the Church.
But I am scribbling very unprofitably, forgetting that I want room to ask you when I shall see you. I beg you will not keep this letter longer than will suffice you to read it, for it has been written without much though[t] and is very open to quizzism if you were inclined to make use of it. I hope I shall hear that your health is as good as you can expect after six months' confinement to teaching.
With sincere love I am your unworthy friend,
Polly.
Mrs. B. 134 told me you intended to spend some time with Mrs. Farebrother, at which I was selfish enough to be disappointed for I hoped to have you for a longer time this year than last; but I have no doubt you will enjoy such a change. Do if possible scribble a few lines to me before your holidays begin, that I may not miss you by ignorance of your intentions.
From what I see of a certain person, I fear evil habits are too rooted for marriage to cause their permanent disappearance.
Signature
Polly.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, 20 May [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/92904