GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 26 November 1862
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 26 November 1862
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 26 November 1862
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1862-11-26
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 26 November 1862
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, II, 342-343.
Blandford Sq. | November 26. 62.
Dear Sara
I was very glad to have your letter lying ready for me when I went down to lunch. I wanted to know what it tells me -- that you are feeling comfort in being settled at home again. But I can't help regretting that your visit to London was not made in a brighter time and that you had not more variety. You must come again the sooner, when I hope I shall be less pre-occupied, and better able to make little plans for your being with us under more comfortable circumstances than those of eating a miserable make-shift dinner of our poor luncheon and then trotting off immediately.
I too thought of our twin birthdays, and remembered with much gratefulness the pretty letters I have had from you at those epochs. I wish I knew that this birthday has found you happier than any that went before. There are so many things -- best things that only come when youth is past, that it may well happen to many of us to find ourselves happier and happier to the last. -- I almost believed you would be gone to Miss Julia Smith, but I dare say you will be glad to have an interval between visits.
You will be interested to know that there is a new muster of scientific and philosophic men lately established, for the sake of bringing people who care to know and speak the truth as well as they can, into regular communication. Mr. Lewes was at the first meeting at Clunn's Hotel on Friday last. The plan is to meet, and dine moderately and cheaply; and no one is to be admitted who is not "Thorough" in the sense of being free from the suspicion of temporizing and professing opinions on official grounds. The plan was started at Cambridge: Mr. Huxley is president, and Charles Kingsley is vice. If they are sufficiently rigid about admissions the club may come to good 117 -- bringing together men who think variously, but have more hearty feelings in common than they give each other credit for. Mr. Robert Chambers (who lives in London now) is very warm about the matter. Mr. Spencer too is a member.
That look which you interpreted into an expression of a "shock" at your words in relation to the last named philosopher, 118 must really have expressed a stomach ache; for I remember I was in a state of malaise that morning, and I am sure I was not "shocked" at you. The impression left on me after our conversation was not that you had said anything unbecoming, but rather that I, as usual had been too ready to find fault with the excellent champion of heterogeneity. I get a little impatient sometimes with his contentment in abstractions, and allow myself to look at the seamy side of an old friend's mind more than is kind or right. On those great, great subjects that your letter refers to, it is more likely that a short conversation will darken than clarify mutual understanding, when meetings are rare, and the memory of the past is constantly thrusting itself forward as knowledge of the present. But I should think we are very near to each other in our sense of needs, and also in our enjoyment of certain sympathies.
Mr. Congreve came to have a long chat the other day, and I was pleased to find that he had been for a week to Oxford, where he was very cordially received by the men of the liberal party, in spite of his heresy. <I should think> Few people outside the University can imagine how much an Oxford man gives up when he leaves an Oxford clique for conscience's sake. 119
Mr. Lewes sent your "Buddhism" today by post. Thanks for it. If I had not been dull of sense, I might have found it on the table, when you wanted it. We <went> have been to a "Monday Pop" this week, to hear Beethoven's Septett, and an amazing thing of Bach's played by the amazing Joachim. But there is too much "Pop" for the thorough enjoyment of the chamber music they give. With love generally,
Yours ever
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, II, 342-343.
Blandford Sq. | November 26. 62.
Dear Sara
I was very glad to have your letter lying ready for me when I went down to lunch. I wanted to know what it tells me -- that you are feeling comfort in being settled at home again. But I can't help regretting that your visit to London was not made in a brighter time and that you had not more variety. You must come again the sooner, when I hope I shall be less pre-occupied, and better able to make little plans for your being with us under more comfortable circumstances than those of eating a miserable make-shift dinner of our poor luncheon and then trotting off immediately.
I too thought of our twin birthdays, and remembered with much gratefulness the pretty letters I have had from you at those epochs. I wish I knew that this birthday has found you happier than any that went before. There are so many things -- best things that only come when youth is past, that it may well happen to many of us to find ourselves happier and happier to the last. -- I almost believed you would be gone to Miss Julia Smith, but I dare say you will be glad to have an interval between visits.
You will be interested to know that there is a new muster of scientific and philosophic men lately established, for the sake of bringing people who care to know and speak the truth as well as they can, into regular communication. Mr. Lewes was at the first meeting at Clunn's Hotel on Friday last. The plan is to meet, and dine moderately and cheaply; and no one is to be admitted who is not "Thorough" in the sense of being free from the suspicion of temporizing and professing opinions on official grounds. The plan was started at Cambridge: Mr. Huxley is president, and Charles Kingsley is vice. If they are sufficiently rigid about admissions the club may come to good 117 -- bringing together men who think variously, but have more hearty feelings in common than they give each other credit for. Mr. Robert Chambers (who lives in London now) is very warm about the matter. Mr. Spencer too is a member.
That look which you interpreted into an expression of a "shock" at your words in relation to the last named philosopher, 118 must really have expressed a stomach ache; for I remember I was in a state of malaise that morning, and I am sure I was not "shocked" at you. The impression left on me after our conversation was not that you had said anything unbecoming, but rather that I, as usual had been too ready to find fault with the excellent champion of heterogeneity. I get a little impatient sometimes with his contentment in abstractions, and allow myself to look at the seamy side of an old friend's mind more than is kind or right. On those great, great subjects that your letter refers to, it is more likely that a short conversation will darken than clarify mutual understanding, when meetings are rare, and the memory of the past is constantly thrusting itself forward as knowledge of the present. But I should think we are very near to each other in our sense of needs, and also in our enjoyment of certain sympathies.
Mr. Congreve came to have a long chat the other day, and I was pleased to find that he had been for a week to Oxford, where he was very cordially received by the men of the liberal party, in spite of his heresy. <I should think> Few people outside the University can imagine how much an Oxford man gives up when he leaves an Oxford clique for conscience's sake. 119
Mr. Lewes sent your "Buddhism" today by post. Thanks for it. If I had not been dull of sense, I might have found it on the table, when you wanted it. We <went> have been to a "Monday Pop" this week, to hear Beethoven's Septett, and an amazing thing of Bach's played by the amazing Joachim. But there is too much "Pop" for the thorough enjoyment of the chamber music they give. With love generally,
Yours ever
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 26 November 1862, 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/94039