GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 20 March 1873
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 20 March 1873
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 20 March 1873
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1873-03-20
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 20 March 1873
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1873. My little book. Marian's suggestion for story about animals. Published: Mathilde Blind, George Eliot, 1883, pp. 28-30.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
March 20. 73.
My dear Cara
Many thanks for the helpful things you have sent me. "The Wounded Bird" 754 is charming. But now something very much larger of the same kind must be written, and you are the person to write it -- something that will bring the emotions, sufferings, and possible consolations of the dear brutes vividly home to the imaginations of children: fitted for children of all countries, as Reineke Fuchs is comprehensible to all nations. A rough notion came to me the other day of supposing a House of Refuge, not only for dogs but for all distressed animals: the keeper of this Refuge understands the language of the brutes which includes differences only of dialect not hindering communication even between birds and dogs, by the help of some Ulysses among them who is versed in the various tongues and puts in the needed explanations. Said keeper overhears his refugees solacing their evenings by telling the story of their experiences, and finally acts as editor of their Autobiographies. I imagine my long-loved fellow-creature, the Ugly Dog, telling the sorrows and the tender emotions of gratitude which have wrought him into a sensitive soul. The Donkey is another cosmopolitan sufferer and a greater martyr than Saint Lawrence -- if one only knew what fine motives he has for his meek endurance and how he loves a friend who will scratch his nose.
All this is not worth anything except to make you feel how much better a plan you can think of. Only you must positively write this book which everybody wants -- this book which will do justice to the share our "worthy fellow-labourers" have had in the groaning and travailing of the world towards the birth of the right and fair.
But you must not do it without the "sustenance of labour" -- I don't say "pay," since there is no pay for good work. Let Mr. Smithers be -- blest with the blessing of the unscrupulous. I want to contribute something towards helping brutes and helping the children, especially the southern children, to be good to the creatures who are continually at their mercy. I can't write the needed book myself, but I feel sure that you can, and that you will not refuse the duty.
The cheque for £50 enclosed is only a necessary condition to your setting about a work which will for a time exclude other undertakings. Do not consider that it is my money; 755 it is money already devoted to the purpose which I plead with you that you may carry out.
Always your affectionate
Marian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1873. My little book. Marian's suggestion for story about animals. Published: Mathilde Blind, George Eliot, 1883, pp. 28-30.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
March 20. 73.
My dear Cara
Many thanks for the helpful things you have sent me. "The Wounded Bird" 754 is charming. But now something very much larger of the same kind must be written, and you are the person to write it -- something that will bring the emotions, sufferings, and possible consolations of the dear brutes vividly home to the imaginations of children: fitted for children of all countries, as Reineke Fuchs is comprehensible to all nations. A rough notion came to me the other day of supposing a House of Refuge, not only for dogs but for all distressed animals: the keeper of this Refuge understands the language of the brutes which includes differences only of dialect not hindering communication even between birds and dogs, by the help of some Ulysses among them who is versed in the various tongues and puts in the needed explanations. Said keeper overhears his refugees solacing their evenings by telling the story of their experiences, and finally acts as editor of their Autobiographies. I imagine my long-loved fellow-creature, the Ugly Dog, telling the sorrows and the tender emotions of gratitude which have wrought him into a sensitive soul. The Donkey is another cosmopolitan sufferer and a greater martyr than Saint Lawrence -- if one only knew what fine motives he has for his meek endurance and how he loves a friend who will scratch his nose.
All this is not worth anything except to make you feel how much better a plan you can think of. Only you must positively write this book which everybody wants -- this book which will do justice to the share our "worthy fellow-labourers" have had in the groaning and travailing of the world towards the birth of the right and fair.
But you must not do it without the "sustenance of labour" -- I don't say "pay," since there is no pay for good work. Let Mr. Smithers be -- blest with the blessing of the unscrupulous. I want to contribute something towards helping brutes and helping the children, especially the southern children, to be good to the creatures who are continually at their mercy. I can't write the needed book myself, but I feel sure that you can, and that you will not refuse the duty.
The cheque for £50 enclosed is only a necessary condition to your setting about a work which will for a time exclude other undertakings. Do not consider that it is my money; 755 it is money already devoted to the purpose which I plead with you that you may carry out.
Always your affectionate
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 20 March 1873, 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/93281