GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Geneva, [4 December 1849]
Title
GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Geneva, [4 December 1849]
Title
GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Geneva, [4 December 1849]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1849-12-04
Place
Geneva
Letter Content
GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Geneva, [4 December 1849]
MS: Yale. Address: C. Bray Esq | Rosehill | Coventry | Angleterre. Postmarks: GENEVE | 4 | DECE | 49 | 8'bds; COVENTRY | DE 9 | 1849. Mostly published: Cross, I, 238-240.
Rue des Chanoines.
Dear Mr. Bray
I write at once to answer your questions about business. Spinoza and I have been divorced for several months. My want of health has obliged me to renounce all application. I take walks, play on the piano, read Voltaire, talk to my friends, and just take a dose of mathematics every day to prevent my brain from becoming quite soft. Therefore I am by no means eager to supersede any other person's labours, and Mr. Chapman is absolved from observing any delicacy towards me about Spinoza or his translators. 870 If you are anxious to publish the translation in question I could, after a few months, finish the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus to keep it company -- but I confess to you, that I think you would do better to abstain from printing a translation. What is wanted in English is not a translation of Spinoza's works, but a true estimate of his life and system. After one has rendered his Latin faithfully into English, one feels that there is another yet more difficult process of translation for the reader to effect, and that the only mode of making Spinoza accessible to a larger number is to study his books, then shut them and give an analysis. For those who read the very words Spinoza wrote, there is the same sort of interest in his style as in the conversation of a person of great capacity who has led a solitary life, and who says from his own soul what all the world is saying by rote, but this interest hardly belongs to a translation.
I am sorry to say that with a very great inclination to swear in your favour about the rent, I have not the slightest recollection of what you have paid or not paid. Dear Cara also. Your letter is very sweet to me, giving me a picture of your quiet life. How shall I enable you to imagine mine, since you know nothing of the localities? My good friends here only change for the better. Mde. D'Albert is all affection, M. D'Albert all delicacy and intelligence, the friends to whom they have introduced me very kind in their attentions. In fact I want nothing but a little more money to feel more at ease about my fires etc. etc. I am in an atmosphere of love and refinement -- even the little servant Jeanie seems to love me and does me good every time she comes into the room. I can say anything to M. and Mde. D'Albert. M. D'A. understands everything and if Madame does not understand she believes -- that is she seems always sure that I mean something edifying. She kisses me like a mother, and I am baby enough to find that a great addition to my happiness. Au reste, I am careful for nothing. I am a sort of supernumerary spoon, and there will be no damage to the set if I am lost. It is different with you, and I cannot help being saddened by the idea of losses and possible renunciations that may be required of you. My heart ties are not loosened by distance -- it is not in the nature of ties to be so -- and when I think of my loved ones as those to whom I can be a comfort or a help I long to be with them again. Otherwise I can only think with a shudder of returning to England. It looks to me like a land of gloom, of ennui, of platitude, but in the midst of all this it is the land of duty and affection, and the only ardent hope I have for my future life is to have given to me some woman's duty, some possibility of devoting myself where I may see a daily result of pure calm blessedness in the life of another.
Dear Cara -- carry my kindest remembrances to Clapton and Woodford. May you find our precious Mr. Hennell well enough to enjoy your visit thoroughly. 871 We have had some severe weather here but not more so than I have often felt in England. At present it is much milder. All possible Christmas pleasures and comforts to you all.
Your affectionate
Mary Ann.
MS: Yale. Address: C. Bray Esq | Rosehill | Coventry | Angleterre. Postmarks: GENEVE | 4 | DECE | 49 | 8'bds; COVENTRY | DE 9 | 1849. Mostly published: Cross, I, 238-240.
Rue des Chanoines.
Dear Mr. Bray
I write at once to answer your questions about business. Spinoza and I have been divorced for several months. My want of health has obliged me to renounce all application. I take walks, play on the piano, read Voltaire, talk to my friends, and just take a dose of mathematics every day to prevent my brain from becoming quite soft. Therefore I am by no means eager to supersede any other person's labours, and Mr. Chapman is absolved from observing any delicacy towards me about Spinoza or his translators. 870 If you are anxious to publish the translation in question I could, after a few months, finish the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus to keep it company -- but I confess to you, that I think you would do better to abstain from printing a translation. What is wanted in English is not a translation of Spinoza's works, but a true estimate of his life and system. After one has rendered his Latin faithfully into English, one feels that there is another yet more difficult process of translation for the reader to effect, and that the only mode of making Spinoza accessible to a larger number is to study his books, then shut them and give an analysis. For those who read the very words Spinoza wrote, there is the same sort of interest in his style as in the conversation of a person of great capacity who has led a solitary life, and who says from his own soul what all the world is saying by rote, but this interest hardly belongs to a translation.
I am sorry to say that with a very great inclination to swear in your favour about the rent, I have not the slightest recollection of what you have paid or not paid. Dear Cara also. Your letter is very sweet to me, giving me a picture of your quiet life. How shall I enable you to imagine mine, since you know nothing of the localities? My good friends here only change for the better. Mde. D'Albert is all affection, M. D'Albert all delicacy and intelligence, the friends to whom they have introduced me very kind in their attentions. In fact I want nothing but a little more money to feel more at ease about my fires etc. etc. I am in an atmosphere of love and refinement -- even the little servant Jeanie seems to love me and does me good every time she comes into the room. I can say anything to M. and Mde. D'Albert. M. D'A. understands everything and if Madame does not understand she believes -- that is she seems always sure that I mean something edifying. She kisses me like a mother, and I am baby enough to find that a great addition to my happiness. Au reste, I am careful for nothing. I am a sort of supernumerary spoon, and there will be no damage to the set if I am lost. It is different with you, and I cannot help being saddened by the idea of losses and possible renunciations that may be required of you. My heart ties are not loosened by distance -- it is not in the nature of ties to be so -- and when I think of my loved ones as those to whom I can be a comfort or a help I long to be with them again. Otherwise I can only think with a shudder of returning to England. It looks to me like a land of gloom, of ennui, of platitude, but in the midst of all this it is the land of duty and affection, and the only ardent hope I have for my future life is to have given to me some woman's duty, some possibility of devoting myself where I may see a daily result of pure calm blessedness in the life of another.
Dear Cara -- carry my kindest remembrances to Clapton and Woodford. May you find our precious Mr. Hennell well enough to enjoy your visit thoroughly. 871 We have had some severe weather here but not more so than I have often felt in England. At present it is much milder. All possible Christmas pleasures and comforts to you all.
Your affectionate
Mary Ann.
Signature
Mary Ann.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mr. Charles Bray and Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Geneva, [4 December 1849], 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/93159