GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 2 September [1852]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 2 September [1852]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 2 September [1852]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1852-09-02
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 2 September [1852]
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, 1, 289-290; George Eliot and John Chapman, p. 63.
Strand | September 2.
Dear Sara
Somehow my letters -- except those which come under the inexorable imperative must (the [ought] I manage well enough to shirk) -- will not get written. The fact is, I am in a croaking mood and I am waiting and waiting for it to pass by. But in the meantime the week is passing by, and I shall break my promise. So if my pen croaks in spite of my resolutions to the contrary, please to take no notice of it, but set it all down to disordered eingeweide.
To tell you editorial secrets -- the articles are raining in. Froude 174 is good -- writes very judiciously and pleasantly, except that at the end he brings on Bengal lights and goes off in a Carlylian flourish. Forbes 175 too is come -- but is poor -- (on Botany). Herbert Spencer says his article 176 will have a "light appearance" by reason of its quotations which break the page but I suspect it will be like those stone sweet-meats which cheat the children. Altogether this number is not likely to be anywhere near the last.
Mr. Chapman says he wrote to Mr. Bray last night, so you know the last of his affairs. It seems that he is to go on. He makes a great point of my remaining here till Christmas, at all events, and I cannot under present "cums" say no. But ever since I came back I have felt something like the madness which imagines that the four walls are contracting and going to crush one.
No sooner did I get in on Saturday than Mr. Atkinson called, and talked for 2 hours. He is very pleasant and intelligent and one can't help liking him. He shewed me a letter of Harriet Martineau's, in which she complains that she is overdone in her Irish peregrinations 177 and in which she, with incomprehensible ignorance, jeers at Lewes for "introducing Psychology as a science in his Comte papers." 178 Why Comte himself holds Psychology to be a necessary link in the chain of science -- Lewes only suggests a change in its relations. Entre nous she writes very sillily on the subject. But I am frightened to have told you this, for everything I say to any one at Rosehill gets around by some incomprehensible means to Lewes -- Lewes can tell you the whole state of your domestic affairs, if you like, of course with additions, if not emendations, by the editor or editors. I have heard nothing of the Combes yet.
There is a great, dreary article on the Colonies 179 by my side asking for reading and abridgement, so I can't go on scribbling -- indeed my hands are so hot and tremulous this morning that it will be better for you if I leave off.
Dearest Sara, your little loving notes are very precious to me, but I say nothing about matters of feeling till my good genius has returned from his excursions -- the evil one has possession just now. Love to all.
Your
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, 1, 289-290; George Eliot and John Chapman, p. 63.
Strand | September 2.
Dear Sara
Somehow my letters -- except those which come under the inexorable imperative must (the [ought] I manage well enough to shirk) -- will not get written. The fact is, I am in a croaking mood and I am waiting and waiting for it to pass by. But in the meantime the week is passing by, and I shall break my promise. So if my pen croaks in spite of my resolutions to the contrary, please to take no notice of it, but set it all down to disordered eingeweide.
To tell you editorial secrets -- the articles are raining in. Froude 174 is good -- writes very judiciously and pleasantly, except that at the end he brings on Bengal lights and goes off in a Carlylian flourish. Forbes 175 too is come -- but is poor -- (on Botany). Herbert Spencer says his article 176 will have a "light appearance" by reason of its quotations which break the page but I suspect it will be like those stone sweet-meats which cheat the children. Altogether this number is not likely to be anywhere near the last.
Mr. Chapman says he wrote to Mr. Bray last night, so you know the last of his affairs. It seems that he is to go on. He makes a great point of my remaining here till Christmas, at all events, and I cannot under present "cums" say no. But ever since I came back I have felt something like the madness which imagines that the four walls are contracting and going to crush one.
No sooner did I get in on Saturday than Mr. Atkinson called, and talked for 2 hours. He is very pleasant and intelligent and one can't help liking him. He shewed me a letter of Harriet Martineau's, in which she complains that she is overdone in her Irish peregrinations 177 and in which she, with incomprehensible ignorance, jeers at Lewes for "introducing Psychology as a science in his Comte papers." 178 Why Comte himself holds Psychology to be a necessary link in the chain of science -- Lewes only suggests a change in its relations. Entre nous she writes very sillily on the subject. But I am frightened to have told you this, for everything I say to any one at Rosehill gets around by some incomprehensible means to Lewes -- Lewes can tell you the whole state of your domestic affairs, if you like, of course with additions, if not emendations, by the editor or editors. I have heard nothing of the Combes yet.
There is a great, dreary article on the Colonies 179 by my side asking for reading and abridgement, so I can't go on scribbling -- indeed my hands are so hot and tremulous this morning that it will be better for you if I leave off.
Dearest Sara, your little loving notes are very precious to me, but I say nothing about matters of feeling till my good genius has returned from his excursions -- the evil one has possession just now. Love to all.
Your
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 2 September [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/94013