GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Shottermill, 3 August 1871
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Shottermill, 3 August 1871
Title
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Shottermill, 3 August 1871
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray
Date(s)
- 1871-08-03
Place
Shottermill
Letter Content
GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Shottermill, 3 August 1871
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1871. Extracts published: Cross, III, 140-141.
Cherrimans | Shottermill | Petersfield | August 3. 71
My dear Cara
Thanks for your little picture of things -- eminently acceptable in place of vague conjectures. I am a bitter enemy of make-believe about the human lot, but I think there is a true alleviation of distress in thinking of the intense enjoyment which accompanies a spontaneous, confident, intellectual activity. This may not be a counterpoise to the existing evils, but it is at least a share of mortal good, and good of an exquisite kind.
You write of the Whittem family as if they were living now in agreeable ease. I am glad to think of that, after the sorrows about Albert. Did you notice that effort to bring the question of Asylums for the discipline of drunkards before Parliament? The plan has long been at work in the United States, and poor Mrs. Stowe has gone through the misery of having a son who needed that discipline. 341 But the English are not likely yet to tolerate such an infringement of the drunkard's liberty.
Are you not happy in the long-wished-for sunshine? I have a pretty lawn before me, with hills in the background. The train rushes by every now and then to make one more glad of the usual silence.
A good man writes to me from Scotland this morning asking me if he is not right in pronouncing Romola, in defiance of the world around him (not a large world, I hope) who will say Romola. Such is correspondence in these days, so that quantity is magnificent en gros but shabby en d'e9tail -- i.e. in single letters like this. Always
Your loving
Marian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 1871. Extracts published: Cross, III, 140-141.
Cherrimans | Shottermill | Petersfield | August 3. 71
My dear Cara
Thanks for your little picture of things -- eminently acceptable in place of vague conjectures. I am a bitter enemy of make-believe about the human lot, but I think there is a true alleviation of distress in thinking of the intense enjoyment which accompanies a spontaneous, confident, intellectual activity. This may not be a counterpoise to the existing evils, but it is at least a share of mortal good, and good of an exquisite kind.
You write of the Whittem family as if they were living now in agreeable ease. I am glad to think of that, after the sorrows about Albert. Did you notice that effort to bring the question of Asylums for the discipline of drunkards before Parliament? The plan has long been at work in the United States, and poor Mrs. Stowe has gone through the misery of having a son who needed that discipline. 341 But the English are not likely yet to tolerate such an infringement of the drunkard's liberty.
Are you not happy in the long-wished-for sunshine? I have a pretty lawn before me, with hills in the background. The train rushes by every now and then to make one more glad of the usual silence.
A good man writes to me from Scotland this morning asking me if he is not right in pronouncing Romola, in defiance of the world around him (not a large world, I hope) who will say Romola. Such is correspondence in these days, so that quantity is magnificent en gros but shabby en d'e9tail -- i.e. in single letters like this. Always
Your loving
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Caroline [Mrs. Charles] Bray, Shottermill, 3 August 1871, 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/93321