GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [21 January 1852]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [21 January 1852]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [21 January 1852]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1852-01-21
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [21 January 1852]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Jan. 21. 1852. Extracts published: Cross, 1, 268-270.
Strand | Wednesday.
Many thanks, dear Sara for the critique. 2 It is amusing enough to compare the diverse and contradictory opinions given by people and journals on every single article in the Review. Mr. Johnson 3 agrees with you in having an antipathy to James Martineau -- therefore won't read the article. Herbert Spencer has tried and can't. Crabbe Robinson thinks it splendid -- is shocked that the article on France should be in the same cover, 4 whereas Mr. Hodgkin 5 of the Economist -- a great man though you may not know it -- thinks the [Ethics] good for nothing, and the article on France the best of all.
I have brought the James Martineau affair 6 to a satisfactory termination. I convinced Mr. C. that he had expressed himself in a way calculated to mislead and that he owed an admission of this to J. M. He got up early one morning to write this with a renewed request that J. M. would accept the supplementary cheque which had been refused -- was taken ill, unable to write, and finally asked me to write for him, he signing the letter. Yesterday came a very kind reply, accepting the cheque, which I had requested him to do in justice to Mr. C., and very graciously acknowledging Froude's compliment which I had sent him. Of course, there was the quotation "Laudari a laudato viro." 7 So ends the affair, Mr. C. having saved his colours. "C''e9tait une grande affaire, ce crise drole."
Harriet Martineau called on Monday morning, with Mr. Atkinson -- very kind and cordial, but unhappily not able to stay long enough to dispel the repulsion excited by the vulgarity (I use the word in a moral sense) of her looks and gestures. Mr. Atkinson wrinkles up his forehead horizontally and draws in his lips -- has a good anterior lobe, but I should think it is not well fed with blood. I honour Harriet Martineau for her powers and industry and should be glad to think highly of her. I have no doubt that she is fascinating when there is time for talk.
We have had two agreeable soir'e9es. Last Monday, I was talking and listening for two hours to Pierre Leroux 8 -- a dreamy genius. He was expounding to me his ideas. He belongs neither to the school of Proudhon which represents Liberty only, nor to that of Louis Blanc which represents Equality only, nor to that of Cabet which represents Fraternity. Pierre Leroux' syst'e8me is the "synth'e8se" which combines all three. He has found the true [pont] which is to unite the love of self with the love of one's neighbour. He is, you know a very voluminous writer. George Sand has dedicated some of her books to him. He dilated on his views of the origin of Christianity -- Strauss deficient because he has not shewn the identity of the teaching of Jesus with that of the Essenes. This is Leroux' favourite idea. I told him of your brother. 9 He moreover traces Essenism back to Egypt and thence to India, the cradle of all religions etc. etc. with much more which he uttered with an unction rather amusing in a soir'e9e t'eate-'e0-t'eate. "Est-ce-que nous sommes faits pour chercher le bonheur? Est-ce l'e0 votre id'e9e, d'eetes moi." "Mais non -- nous sommes faites, je pense, pour nous d'e9velopper le plus que possible." "Ah! c'est 'e7a." He is in utter poverty -- going to lecture -- autrement il faut mourir -- has a wife and children with him. He came to London in his early days, when he was 25, to find work as a printer -- all the world was in mourning for the Princess Charlotte, "et moi, je me trouvais avoir un habit pomme-vert." So he got no work, went back to Paris, by hook or by crook founded the "Globe" journal, knew St. Simon, disagrees with him entirely as with all other theorists except Pierre Leroux.
We are trying Mazzini to write on Freedom v. Despotism. 10 Don't tell, of course. Froude is too busy translating the "Wahlverwandschaften" for Bohn 11 to do anything for us worth having. We have received an admirable article on "The New Puritanism" i.e. physical puritanism, from Dr. Browne the chemist of Edinburgh which I think will go in the next number. 12
I am afraid there is nothing to interest you much in this hasty scribble, but somehow the scum on the surface is all I can give anyone this morning. I have a sore finger which makes it a bore to write.
Thine
Pollian.
Love to Cara. I hope to hear from her on Monday morning.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Jan. 21. 1852. Extracts published: Cross, 1, 268-270.
Strand | Wednesday.
Many thanks, dear Sara for the critique. 2 It is amusing enough to compare the diverse and contradictory opinions given by people and journals on every single article in the Review. Mr. Johnson 3 agrees with you in having an antipathy to James Martineau -- therefore won't read the article. Herbert Spencer has tried and can't. Crabbe Robinson thinks it splendid -- is shocked that the article on France should be in the same cover, 4 whereas Mr. Hodgkin 5 of the Economist -- a great man though you may not know it -- thinks the [Ethics] good for nothing, and the article on France the best of all.
I have brought the James Martineau affair 6 to a satisfactory termination. I convinced Mr. C. that he had expressed himself in a way calculated to mislead and that he owed an admission of this to J. M. He got up early one morning to write this with a renewed request that J. M. would accept the supplementary cheque which had been refused -- was taken ill, unable to write, and finally asked me to write for him, he signing the letter. Yesterday came a very kind reply, accepting the cheque, which I had requested him to do in justice to Mr. C., and very graciously acknowledging Froude's compliment which I had sent him. Of course, there was the quotation "Laudari a laudato viro." 7 So ends the affair, Mr. C. having saved his colours. "C''e9tait une grande affaire, ce crise drole."
Harriet Martineau called on Monday morning, with Mr. Atkinson -- very kind and cordial, but unhappily not able to stay long enough to dispel the repulsion excited by the vulgarity (I use the word in a moral sense) of her looks and gestures. Mr. Atkinson wrinkles up his forehead horizontally and draws in his lips -- has a good anterior lobe, but I should think it is not well fed with blood. I honour Harriet Martineau for her powers and industry and should be glad to think highly of her. I have no doubt that she is fascinating when there is time for talk.
We have had two agreeable soir'e9es. Last Monday, I was talking and listening for two hours to Pierre Leroux 8 -- a dreamy genius. He was expounding to me his ideas. He belongs neither to the school of Proudhon which represents Liberty only, nor to that of Louis Blanc which represents Equality only, nor to that of Cabet which represents Fraternity. Pierre Leroux' syst'e8me is the "synth'e8se" which combines all three. He has found the true [pont] which is to unite the love of self with the love of one's neighbour. He is, you know a very voluminous writer. George Sand has dedicated some of her books to him. He dilated on his views of the origin of Christianity -- Strauss deficient because he has not shewn the identity of the teaching of Jesus with that of the Essenes. This is Leroux' favourite idea. I told him of your brother. 9 He moreover traces Essenism back to Egypt and thence to India, the cradle of all religions etc. etc. with much more which he uttered with an unction rather amusing in a soir'e9e t'eate-'e0-t'eate. "Est-ce-que nous sommes faits pour chercher le bonheur? Est-ce l'e0 votre id'e9e, d'eetes moi." "Mais non -- nous sommes faites, je pense, pour nous d'e9velopper le plus que possible." "Ah! c'est 'e7a." He is in utter poverty -- going to lecture -- autrement il faut mourir -- has a wife and children with him. He came to London in his early days, when he was 25, to find work as a printer -- all the world was in mourning for the Princess Charlotte, "et moi, je me trouvais avoir un habit pomme-vert." So he got no work, went back to Paris, by hook or by crook founded the "Globe" journal, knew St. Simon, disagrees with him entirely as with all other theorists except Pierre Leroux.
We are trying Mazzini to write on Freedom v. Despotism. 10 Don't tell, of course. Froude is too busy translating the "Wahlverwandschaften" for Bohn 11 to do anything for us worth having. We have received an admirable article on "The New Puritanism" i.e. physical puritanism, from Dr. Browne the chemist of Edinburgh which I think will go in the next number. 12
I am afraid there is nothing to interest you much in this hasty scribble, but somehow the scum on the surface is all I can give anyone this morning. I have a sore finger which makes it a bore to write.
Thine
Pollian.
Love to Cara. I hope to hear from her on Monday morning.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, [21 January 1852], 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/93953