GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 10 January 1875
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 10 January 1875
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 10 January 1875
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Elma Stuart
Date(s)
- 1875-01-10
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 10 January 1875
MS: British Museum. Published with incomplete facsimile: Stuart, pp. 36-40.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
January 10. 1875.
Dearest Elma
Your letter made the best part of my breakfast this morning. I was sorry that you had to keep your bed (though I am not consciously open to the accusation of having sent you there). But now the sorrow seems like a dispersed but once clinging mist, which has given way to the usual warm sunshine surrounding my idea of you. It is really a cordial to me to know that you are well again. And you will be good and careful henceforth, won't you? -- keeping a spiritual scourge for that naughty spiritual self which afflicts its fleshly yoke-fellow. It is of no use asking advice against your sins if you don't take care of your body, and let it get distempered by fitful habits which are the makers of new sins. But I am not writing for the sake of this lecture, being inclined to believe you blameless until I have evidence of the contrary.
As to your intolerance, dear child, I like a little unselfish indignation, and think one's soul can hardly be healthy without it. Only, of course it needs constant checking by a vision of life in that other aspect -- that he who hates vices too much hates men, or is in danger of it, and also may have no blame to spare for himself. If moral indignation can be well tempered with self-blame, surely it is a good thing. I am very fond of that old Greek saying that the best state is that in which every man feels a wrong done to another as if it were done to himself. 187 Better have an ideal of right-doing that makes you by chance flog a cruel Frenchman, 188 than have no ideal at all. Caring for the just and loving deed of every day in your part of Dinan carries your heart strongly to every other part of the world which in its need of love and justice is just in the same predicament, and in this way you get a religion which is at once universal and private. So I should not like to see you quite dispassionate in the presence of ugly conduct.
But your trouble about your mother 189 touches me more nearly. The parting will have to come -- I have known twice over at widely different ages and in quite a different way, what the final parting with a parent is. But now I imagine from your description of your mother that the solemn trial may be deferred for years: you spoke of her, I think, as having a fine strong physique, and I remember her photograph.
As for the news of us on which you insist, it is altogether good. We have both been exceptionally well this winter, and have quite escaped colds, until this morning that Mr. Lewes complains of slight sore throat. He has nearly done correcting the proofs of his second volume, and is already happy amidst the manuscript for a third. I am busy -- which means not that I am doing much but that I am always doing. Small claims multiply; and that is the reason why I am obliged to restrict letter-writing as much as possible, because the various divisions of my day are so filled that the absolutely necessary answers to correspondents are all my feebleness can manage without infringing on my morning hours from 9 to 1, which are my only hours for writing. And I am writing a book -- since you wish to know that, I tell it you. But I am not fond of announcing that fact, because I never feel any confidence that I can do anything until it is ready for the word, Finis. Always there is the possibility of breaking down, or of doing what is too poor to afflict the world with. For our world is already sufficiently afflicted with needless books, and I count it a social offence to add to them.
My best love to Roly. And I say [Amen] to the answer you gave him about the orchard-robbing. Ask him whether he intends to steal venison because Shakspeare did? If so we will only forgive him on condition that he writes Hamlets, Macbeths, Lears and [As-you-like-its.] I sympathize with the love of a foray, but the lads should properly have to go through a skirmish, and not carry off their spoil quite easily.
Once more, dearest daughter, keep well. And be sure always that you come to my thoughts among the blessings which life has given me -- that I am
Your always mindful and loving spiritual Mother,
M. E. Lewes
Please not to let anyone read my letters except yourself. 190
MS: British Museum. Published with incomplete facsimile: Stuart, pp. 36-40.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
January 10. 1875.
Dearest Elma
Your letter made the best part of my breakfast this morning. I was sorry that you had to keep your bed (though I am not consciously open to the accusation of having sent you there). But now the sorrow seems like a dispersed but once clinging mist, which has given way to the usual warm sunshine surrounding my idea of you. It is really a cordial to me to know that you are well again. And you will be good and careful henceforth, won't you? -- keeping a spiritual scourge for that naughty spiritual self which afflicts its fleshly yoke-fellow. It is of no use asking advice against your sins if you don't take care of your body, and let it get distempered by fitful habits which are the makers of new sins. But I am not writing for the sake of this lecture, being inclined to believe you blameless until I have evidence of the contrary.
As to your intolerance, dear child, I like a little unselfish indignation, and think one's soul can hardly be healthy without it. Only, of course it needs constant checking by a vision of life in that other aspect -- that he who hates vices too much hates men, or is in danger of it, and also may have no blame to spare for himself. If moral indignation can be well tempered with self-blame, surely it is a good thing. I am very fond of that old Greek saying that the best state is that in which every man feels a wrong done to another as if it were done to himself. 187 Better have an ideal of right-doing that makes you by chance flog a cruel Frenchman, 188 than have no ideal at all. Caring for the just and loving deed of every day in your part of Dinan carries your heart strongly to every other part of the world which in its need of love and justice is just in the same predicament, and in this way you get a religion which is at once universal and private. So I should not like to see you quite dispassionate in the presence of ugly conduct.
But your trouble about your mother 189 touches me more nearly. The parting will have to come -- I have known twice over at widely different ages and in quite a different way, what the final parting with a parent is. But now I imagine from your description of your mother that the solemn trial may be deferred for years: you spoke of her, I think, as having a fine strong physique, and I remember her photograph.
As for the news of us on which you insist, it is altogether good. We have both been exceptionally well this winter, and have quite escaped colds, until this morning that Mr. Lewes complains of slight sore throat. He has nearly done correcting the proofs of his second volume, and is already happy amidst the manuscript for a third. I am busy -- which means not that I am doing much but that I am always doing. Small claims multiply; and that is the reason why I am obliged to restrict letter-writing as much as possible, because the various divisions of my day are so filled that the absolutely necessary answers to correspondents are all my feebleness can manage without infringing on my morning hours from 9 to 1, which are my only hours for writing. And I am writing a book -- since you wish to know that, I tell it you. But I am not fond of announcing that fact, because I never feel any confidence that I can do anything until it is ready for the word, Finis. Always there is the possibility of breaking down, or of doing what is too poor to afflict the world with. For our world is already sufficiently afflicted with needless books, and I count it a social offence to add to them.
My best love to Roly. And I say [Amen] to the answer you gave him about the orchard-robbing. Ask him whether he intends to steal venison because Shakspeare did? If so we will only forgive him on condition that he writes Hamlets, Macbeths, Lears and [As-you-like-its.] I sympathize with the love of a foray, but the lads should properly have to go through a skirmish, and not carry off their spoil quite easily.
Once more, dearest daughter, keep well. And be sure always that you come to my thoughts among the blessings which life has given me -- that I am
Your always mindful and loving spiritual Mother,
M. E. Lewes
Please not to let anyone read my letters except yourself. 190
Signature
M. E. Lewes
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, London, 10 January 1875, 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/93390