GE to Martha Jackson, Foleshill, [September 1841]
Title
GE to Martha Jackson, Foleshill, [September 1841]
Title
GE to Martha Jackson, Foleshill, [September 1841]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Martha Jackson
Date(s)
- 1841-09
Place
FOLESHILL
Letter Content
GE to Martha Jackson, Foleshill, [September 1841]
Text: Poet-Lore, 6 (February 1894), 58-59.
Foleshill Road, Coventry, 1841.
My dear Ivy,
. . . And now, child of life's sunny clime that you are, . . . shall I begin after Dr. Young's fashion "Thou happy wretch, by kindness thou art blest" 363 etc., etc., and as many others have done clothe envy in a garb of philosophy? No, my Patty, I delight in your happiness, and am more than all rejoiced to believe that you can make our sweet Mrs. Hemans' language your own. "Blessed God of love! I thank Thee for these gifts, the precious links Whereby my spirit unto Thee is drawn. I thank thee that the loveliness of earth Higher than earth can raise me." 364
I too have many such blessings to acknowledge: Leisure and self-direction to an extent that involves fearful responsibility, and health in general such as enables me actively to employ these advantages. May I be daily progressing in the wisdom that discerns the right and the expedient, and in the dispositions that render them the will's election. Here are the main objects of life, and that they are attainable should furnish a fund of adoring gratitude to Him who is the Donor of the dignifying faculties that discover and appropriate Truth, and of that spiritual influence that turneth the affections as rivers of water are turned.
Thank you, dear Ivy, for inquiring about me: That touching monosyllable -- which by the bye a process of logic like the Eton youth's might demonstrate a Polly's-syllable. . . . In these school days of ours even our holidays must only be times of preparation for return to duty -- enjoyment beyond that obtained in active service must be reserved for the period of our establishment at home. But am I not implying a false estimate of that home? I firmly believe that activity in obedience, even attended with a degree of arduousness in the exercise of virtue will be among the circumstancials of future bliss. Rest there will be -- but it will be rest from the assaults and tyrannizing efforts of inherent sin, not the rest of indolence; and the idea is a powerful incentive to the forming rigorously holy habits of feeling and action. Do you know Nichol's works on astronomy? if not you would find them a rich treat. I have just read Dr. P. Smith's work on the connexion between Scripture and Geology; 365 there is very much that is valuable in it, and the main subject of the work, the interpretation of the Mosaic records, is fully satisfactory to me: but the author is much too encyclopaedic in his matter; he touches on too great a variety of topics. . . .
Ever your affectionate
Clematis.
Text: Poet-Lore, 6 (February 1894), 58-59.
Foleshill Road, Coventry, 1841.
My dear Ivy,
. . . And now, child of life's sunny clime that you are, . . . shall I begin after Dr. Young's fashion "Thou happy wretch, by kindness thou art blest" 363 etc., etc., and as many others have done clothe envy in a garb of philosophy? No, my Patty, I delight in your happiness, and am more than all rejoiced to believe that you can make our sweet Mrs. Hemans' language your own. "Blessed God of love! I thank Thee for these gifts, the precious links Whereby my spirit unto Thee is drawn. I thank thee that the loveliness of earth Higher than earth can raise me." 364
I too have many such blessings to acknowledge: Leisure and self-direction to an extent that involves fearful responsibility, and health in general such as enables me actively to employ these advantages. May I be daily progressing in the wisdom that discerns the right and the expedient, and in the dispositions that render them the will's election. Here are the main objects of life, and that they are attainable should furnish a fund of adoring gratitude to Him who is the Donor of the dignifying faculties that discover and appropriate Truth, and of that spiritual influence that turneth the affections as rivers of water are turned.
Thank you, dear Ivy, for inquiring about me: That touching monosyllable -- which by the bye a process of logic like the Eton youth's might demonstrate a Polly's-syllable. . . . In these school days of ours even our holidays must only be times of preparation for return to duty -- enjoyment beyond that obtained in active service must be reserved for the period of our establishment at home. But am I not implying a false estimate of that home? I firmly believe that activity in obedience, even attended with a degree of arduousness in the exercise of virtue will be among the circumstancials of future bliss. Rest there will be -- but it will be rest from the assaults and tyrannizing efforts of inherent sin, not the rest of indolence; and the idea is a powerful incentive to the forming rigorously holy habits of feeling and action. Do you know Nichol's works on astronomy? if not you would find them a rich treat. I have just read Dr. P. Smith's work on the connexion between Scripture and Geology; 365 there is very much that is valuable in it, and the main subject of the work, the interpretation of the Mosaic records, is fully satisfactory to me: but the author is much too encyclopaedic in his matter; he touches on too great a variety of topics. . . .
Ever your affectionate
Clematis.
Signature
Clematis.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Martha Jackson, Foleshill, [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/92923