GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 2 December 1853
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 2 December 1853
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 2 December 1853
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1853-12-02
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 2 December 1853
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, I, 318-319.
Cambridge Street | December 2. 1853.
Dear Cara
So you suspect me of benevolent hypocrisy. "Ut tute es, ita cense[a]s omnes esse," saith the Latin grammar. To prove to you that you are unjust, I am going to detail all my troubles to you. In the first place, the door of my sitting-room doesn't quite fit, and a draught is the consequence. Secondly, there is a piano in the house, which has decidedly entered on its second childhood, and this piano is occasionally played on by Miss Pitt with a really enviable aplomb. Thirdly, the knocks at the door startle me -- an annoyance inseparable from a ground-floor room. Fourthly, Mrs. Pitt 411 scolds the servants, stringendo e fortissimo, while I am dressing in a morning. Fifthly, -- there is no fifthly. I really have not another discomfort when I am well, which, alas, I have not been for the last ten days. Liver or stomach or some other agglomeration of cells has been "striking" like all other employ'e9s and has deranged everything else. So while I have been up to the chin in possibilities of enjoyment I have been too sick and headachy to use them. "One thing is needful" 412 -- a good digestion.
That quotation reminds me to tell Sara that if she feels inclined to abuse James Martineau I wish she would write me the worst she can say of him, for I am just now thoroughly disgusted with his article in the Prospective in reply to F. Newman's chapter on the Perfection of Jesus. 413 I am angry with Mr. Lewes for having said a word of compliment about it. 414 Love to all.
Your ever affectionate
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, I, 318-319.
Cambridge Street | December 2. 1853.
Dear Cara
So you suspect me of benevolent hypocrisy. "Ut tute es, ita cense[a]s omnes esse," saith the Latin grammar. To prove to you that you are unjust, I am going to detail all my troubles to you. In the first place, the door of my sitting-room doesn't quite fit, and a draught is the consequence. Secondly, there is a piano in the house, which has decidedly entered on its second childhood, and this piano is occasionally played on by Miss Pitt with a really enviable aplomb. Thirdly, the knocks at the door startle me -- an annoyance inseparable from a ground-floor room. Fourthly, Mrs. Pitt 411 scolds the servants, stringendo e fortissimo, while I am dressing in a morning. Fifthly, -- there is no fifthly. I really have not another discomfort when I am well, which, alas, I have not been for the last ten days. Liver or stomach or some other agglomeration of cells has been "striking" like all other employ'e9s and has deranged everything else. So while I have been up to the chin in possibilities of enjoyment I have been too sick and headachy to use them. "One thing is needful" 412 -- a good digestion.
That quotation reminds me to tell Sara that if she feels inclined to abuse James Martineau I wish she would write me the worst she can say of him, for I am just now thoroughly disgusted with his article in the Prospective in reply to F. Newman's chapter on the Perfection of Jesus. 413 I am angry with Mr. Lewes for having said a word of compliment about it. 414 Love to all.
Your ever affectionate
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 2 December 1853, 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/93277