GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 1 January 1877
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 1 January 1877
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 1 January 1877
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Elma Stuart
Date(s)
- 1877-01-01
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 1 January 1877
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 70-73.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
New Year's Day, 1877.
Dearest Elma
Your dear letter telling us how you have had the blessedness to be an angel of mercy to one in the last great need, 590 is the most precious thing the Christmas week brought me -- better than winter roses which came with fresh white petals all the way from Wales. 591 The old, old poet says that the lingering years bring each something in their hand to every mortal 592 -- having in his mind perhaps the something good rather than the many things evil. To me it seems that a year could never bring any one a more substantial good than the certitude of having helped another to bear some heavy burthen -- of having lessened pain and given the sweetness of fellowship in sorrow. That is just the one good which seems the more worth having, the more our own life is encompassed with shadows.
Does this sentence sound like a moan -- as if I were thinking myself an object for pity? I should deserve an extra whipping for such ingratitude. I have no sorrows of my own beyond a rickety body and the prospect of the great parting. But the ruinously rainy weather, and the threat that mortals may make fresh miseries for each other by rushing into war, 593 are a dark curtain round us all at this ending and beginning of times.
I have been pleasantly interrupted in my writing by a box -- imagine what box! -- the sacred bon-bons, which we will deliver, unviolated even by our eyes, to the little ones at Hampstead the next time that the weather lets us drive up the hill.
You know all the news about us from my [corresponding partner.] We have only seen our new country house once, and that by the finest weather, so that I rather tremble to take another view. And we both of us like to live undisturbedly in our ideal world, where furniture and tradespeople are an inexpensive comedy -- rather than to see about our own wants and give orders. In fact, we don't like our own business, in the external sense. But these are the grievances of people who have more than their share in the world.
You, dear, are greatly blessed in having a friend 594 to your share, who is of one mind with you in your best wishes and deeds. Please ask her to accept my love and to think of me as one who would like to know her better. I hope also that Roland's memory will grow with his legs and that he will not get strange to the friends who knew him first when he was a small fellow.
I have several letters to answer this morning, so do not think me quite gratuitously shabby that, writing so seldom, I write so little. I am not in good condition just now, and seem to be keeping my head above a slough with some difficulty. But doubtless a crisp frost will do me good along with the country in general. Always, dearest Elma,
Your anxiously affectionate
Mother.
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 70-73.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
New Year's Day, 1877.
Dearest Elma
Your dear letter telling us how you have had the blessedness to be an angel of mercy to one in the last great need, 590 is the most precious thing the Christmas week brought me -- better than winter roses which came with fresh white petals all the way from Wales. 591 The old, old poet says that the lingering years bring each something in their hand to every mortal 592 -- having in his mind perhaps the something good rather than the many things evil. To me it seems that a year could never bring any one a more substantial good than the certitude of having helped another to bear some heavy burthen -- of having lessened pain and given the sweetness of fellowship in sorrow. That is just the one good which seems the more worth having, the more our own life is encompassed with shadows.
Does this sentence sound like a moan -- as if I were thinking myself an object for pity? I should deserve an extra whipping for such ingratitude. I have no sorrows of my own beyond a rickety body and the prospect of the great parting. But the ruinously rainy weather, and the threat that mortals may make fresh miseries for each other by rushing into war, 593 are a dark curtain round us all at this ending and beginning of times.
I have been pleasantly interrupted in my writing by a box -- imagine what box! -- the sacred bon-bons, which we will deliver, unviolated even by our eyes, to the little ones at Hampstead the next time that the weather lets us drive up the hill.
You know all the news about us from my [corresponding partner.] We have only seen our new country house once, and that by the finest weather, so that I rather tremble to take another view. And we both of us like to live undisturbedly in our ideal world, where furniture and tradespeople are an inexpensive comedy -- rather than to see about our own wants and give orders. In fact, we don't like our own business, in the external sense. But these are the grievances of people who have more than their share in the world.
You, dear, are greatly blessed in having a friend 594 to your share, who is of one mind with you in your best wishes and deeds. Please ask her to accept my love and to think of me as one who would like to know her better. I hope also that Roland's memory will grow with his legs and that he will not get strange to the friends who knew him first when he was a small fellow.
I have several letters to answer this morning, so do not think me quite gratuitously shabby that, writing so seldom, I write so little. I am not in good condition just now, and seem to be keeping my head above a slough with some difficulty. But doubtless a crisp frost will do me good along with the country in general. Always, dearest Elma,
Your anxiously affectionate
Mother.
Signature
Mother.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 1 January 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/93389