GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [2 November 1851]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [2 November 1851]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [2 November 1851]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1851-11-02
Place
LONDON
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [2 November 1851]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Nov. 3. 1851. Extracts published: Cross, I, 264-265.
Strand.
Dear Sara
I have been quite laid up for the last day or two or I should have written you a word or two yesterday.
I must tell you a good story Miss Bremer got from Emerson. Carlyle was very angry with him for not believing in a devil and to convert him took him amongst all the horrors of London -- the gin-shops etc. and finally to the House of Commons plying him at every turn with the question "Do you believe in a devil noo?" Miss Bremer left this morning. She is to have £300 for the English edition of her book on America and Mary Howitt £150 for translating it! 1046
There is a severe attack on Carlyle's Life of Sterling in yesterday's Times 1047 -- unfair as an account of the book but with some truth in its general remarks about Carlyle. Perhaps Mrs. Hennell has her copy of the Life with her and so you may see it.
Mr. Chapman had the heartiest, most friendly letter possible from Geo. Combe yesterday -- he will write for the April number. 1048 There is an article evidently by James Martineau in the Prospective which you must read -- [On the Unity of the Logical and Intuitive in the ultimate grounds of religious belief.] 1049 I rather think the article on Polemical Fictions, with [Yeast] at the head, must be John Sibree's -- ask his sister. 1050
I am reading with great amusement (!) J. H. Newman's Lectures on the Position of Catholics. 1051 They are full of clever satire and description. My table is groaning with books and I have done very little with them yet -- but I trust in my star which has hitherto helped me to do all I have engaged to do. Pray remember to send by Mrs. C.H. (since she has been kind enough to say she will bring it) the M.S. translation of Schleiermacher's little book and also the book itself. 1052
I suppose I shall see Mr. Noel on his way southward in a day or two. I have no news worth telling -- and you don't want any -- having such a party.
Love to all -- to thee especially this week, dear Sara.
Tell Mr. Bray this story. When Bentley gave a dinner to the writers in his Miscellany on its first being started, there was a discussion about the title. [Let it be the Wits' Miscellany,] said one. [But if it were not witty?] said another. [Then,] said Bentley, [suppose we call it Bentley's Miscellany.] [No, d -- it,] said Douglas Jerrold. [Don't go to the other extreme.] 1053
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Nov. 3. 1851. Extracts published: Cross, I, 264-265.
Strand.
Dear Sara
I have been quite laid up for the last day or two or I should have written you a word or two yesterday.
I must tell you a good story Miss Bremer got from Emerson. Carlyle was very angry with him for not believing in a devil and to convert him took him amongst all the horrors of London -- the gin-shops etc. and finally to the House of Commons plying him at every turn with the question "Do you believe in a devil noo?" Miss Bremer left this morning. She is to have £300 for the English edition of her book on America and Mary Howitt £150 for translating it! 1046
There is a severe attack on Carlyle's Life of Sterling in yesterday's Times 1047 -- unfair as an account of the book but with some truth in its general remarks about Carlyle. Perhaps Mrs. Hennell has her copy of the Life with her and so you may see it.
Mr. Chapman had the heartiest, most friendly letter possible from Geo. Combe yesterday -- he will write for the April number. 1048 There is an article evidently by James Martineau in the Prospective which you must read -- [On the Unity of the Logical and Intuitive in the ultimate grounds of religious belief.] 1049 I rather think the article on Polemical Fictions, with [Yeast] at the head, must be John Sibree's -- ask his sister. 1050
I am reading with great amusement (!) J. H. Newman's Lectures on the Position of Catholics. 1051 They are full of clever satire and description. My table is groaning with books and I have done very little with them yet -- but I trust in my star which has hitherto helped me to do all I have engaged to do. Pray remember to send by Mrs. C.H. (since she has been kind enough to say she will bring it) the M.S. translation of Schleiermacher's little book and also the book itself. 1052
I suppose I shall see Mr. Noel on his way southward in a day or two. I have no news worth telling -- and you don't want any -- having such a party.
Love to all -- to thee especially this week, dear Sara.
Tell Mr. Bray this story. When Bentley gave a dinner to the writers in his Miscellany on its first being started, there was a discussion about the title. [Let it be the Wits' Miscellany,] said one. [But if it were not witty?] said another. [Then,] said Bentley, [suppose we call it Bentley's Miscellany.] [No, d -- it,] said Douglas Jerrold. [Don't go to the other extreme.] 1053
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [2 November 1851], 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/93949