GE to Richard Owen, London, 22 January [1861]
Title
GE to Richard Owen, London, 22 January [1861]
Title
GE to Richard Owen, London, 22 January [1861]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Richard Owen
Date(s)
- 1861-01-22
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Richard Owen, London, 22 January [1861]
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Hitherto unpublished.
Blandford Square, | N.W.
January 22. 1860. 688
My dear Sir
I have seldom in my life had a kind attention that has caused me keener pleasure than your gift of the "Memoir on the Megatherium," 689 sent through Mr. Lewes the other day, as a sign of the pleasure you had had in "The Mill on the Floss." One likes to be read by the many, for strong reasons, impersonal as well as personal, but there is another sort of encouragement in the sympathy of the few, which is very much needed as an assurance that one has not been writing down to the many.
And if I had been allowed to choose my "few," since I should have chosen them among the most accomplished minds I know of, I should certainly have chosen the giver of the Memoir -- which, besides, though my scientific ignorance is by no means insignificant, I am not quite too ignorant to value for its own sake.
It is a very good and graceful thing for the greater worker to help the less in this way, and you will not be surprized that I wanted to tell you, I am grateful.
Yours faithfully
George Eliot.
(Marian Evans Lewes)
Professor Owen.
MS: Berg Collection, New York Public Library. Hitherto unpublished.
Blandford Square, | N.W.
January 22. 1860. 688
My dear Sir
I have seldom in my life had a kind attention that has caused me keener pleasure than your gift of the "Memoir on the Megatherium," 689 sent through Mr. Lewes the other day, as a sign of the pleasure you had had in "The Mill on the Floss." One likes to be read by the many, for strong reasons, impersonal as well as personal, but there is another sort of encouragement in the sympathy of the few, which is very much needed as an assurance that one has not been writing down to the many.
And if I had been allowed to choose my "few," since I should have chosen them among the most accomplished minds I know of, I should certainly have chosen the giver of the Memoir -- which, besides, though my scientific ignorance is by no means insignificant, I am not quite too ignorant to value for its own sake.
It is a very good and graceful thing for the greater worker to help the less in this way, and you will not be surprized that I wanted to tell you, I am grateful.
Yours faithfully
George Eliot.
(Marian Evans Lewes)
Professor Owen.
Signature
(Marian Evans Lewes)
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Richard Owen, London, 22 January [1861], 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/93774