GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 23 November 1877
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 23 November 1877
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 23 November 1877
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1877-11-23
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 23 November 1877
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
November 23. 77.
My dear Cara
About Nelson's intention to [burke] your [Morals,] Mr. Lewes is incredulous. He thinks it does not lie in the sane publisher's nature to waste material in that way, after he has paid for it. But who shall say what does or does not lie in human stupidity, whether well or ill-intentioned?
Thank you very much for the accounts you have sent me of Mr. Bray's state of health and our friends Mrs. Pears and Mrs. Cash. I long that we may have a mild winter to save Mr. Bray and you from an increase of his bronchial trouble. But the prospect for poor Mrs. Pears seems to me more dismal than it can ever be for your husband with his mental activity and cheerfulness. 777
Please give my love to dear Mrs. Cash. I think one may reasonably hope that her constitution will surmount the present symptoms about the heart. Our landlady (for three years at Richmond) had a severe attack of angina pectoris and her physician said to me in a solemn tone -- "Ah, poor Mrs. Croft will not last long -- she has organic disease". But she did last long and in very comfortable health.
When I had read your letter to Mr. Lewes, he said, "What a pretty picture that is of Cara playing the Messiah every Sunday for forty years!" I see the picture as it used to be, in the dear old drawing-room at Rosehill.
Tell Mr. Bray he has not seized the drift of Mr. Lewes's chapter on Motion. 778 But we get along mainly by a pathway of misunderstandings -- proving good cases against somebody who has never questioned them.
Mrs. Merridew I think must be a very beautiful sight in her old age -- there was a nobleness of type in her face that years would not spoil. Yours always lovingly
M. E. L.
I enclose a note to Sara.
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
November 23. 77.
My dear Cara
About Nelson's intention to [burke] your [Morals,] Mr. Lewes is incredulous. He thinks it does not lie in the sane publisher's nature to waste material in that way, after he has paid for it. But who shall say what does or does not lie in human stupidity, whether well or ill-intentioned?
Thank you very much for the accounts you have sent me of Mr. Bray's state of health and our friends Mrs. Pears and Mrs. Cash. I long that we may have a mild winter to save Mr. Bray and you from an increase of his bronchial trouble. But the prospect for poor Mrs. Pears seems to me more dismal than it can ever be for your husband with his mental activity and cheerfulness. 777
Please give my love to dear Mrs. Cash. I think one may reasonably hope that her constitution will surmount the present symptoms about the heart. Our landlady (for three years at Richmond) had a severe attack of angina pectoris and her physician said to me in a solemn tone -- "Ah, poor Mrs. Croft will not last long -- she has organic disease". But she did last long and in very comfortable health.
When I had read your letter to Mr. Lewes, he said, "What a pretty picture that is of Cara playing the Messiah every Sunday for forty years!" I see the picture as it used to be, in the dear old drawing-room at Rosehill.
Tell Mr. Bray he has not seized the drift of Mr. Lewes's chapter on Motion. 778 But we get along mainly by a pathway of misunderstandings -- proving good cases against somebody who has never questioned them.
Mrs. Merridew I think must be a very beautiful sight in her old age -- there was a nobleness of type in her face that years would not spoil. Yours always lovingly
M. E. L.
I enclose a note to Sara.
Signature
M. E. L.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, London, 23 November 1877, 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/93291