GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 27 March 1874
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 27 March 1874
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 27 March 1874
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1874-03-27
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 27 March 1874
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, III, 229-230.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
March 27. 74.
My dear Sara
I can imagine how great an encouragement you feel from the enthusiasm generously expressed in Mr. Cupples' 62 letter. It is always an admirable impulse, to express a deeply felt admiration, but it is also possible that you have some grateful readers who do not write to you. I have heard men whose greatest delight is literature, say that they should never dream of writing to an author on the ground of his books alone. 63 I don't remember that I have ever heard where Mr. Cupples lives or other particulars about him, unless indeed I am right in conjecturing that he is the friend of Stirling, the polemical meta-physician. 64
Poor Mr. Francis Newman must be aged now and rather weary of the world and explanations of the world. He can hardly be expected to take in much novelty. I have a sort of affectionate sadness in thinking of the interest which in far-off-days I felt in his "Soul" and Phases of Faith, and of the awe I had of him as a lecturer on mathematics at the Ladies' College. How much work he has done in the world, which has left no deep, conspicuous mark, but has probably entered beneficently into many lives!
I think, from your first prompting to ask me to return the copy of Mr. Cupples' letter, that it may probably be of use to you, so I return it, for I habitually think of death as so near that I see all documents in the light of things left behind for others, rather than kept for myself.
I hope you are well, and not yet exhausted of the refreshment you got from your visit to Ravensbourne.
Your affectionate
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, III, 229-230.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
March 27. 74.
My dear Sara
I can imagine how great an encouragement you feel from the enthusiasm generously expressed in Mr. Cupples' 62 letter. It is always an admirable impulse, to express a deeply felt admiration, but it is also possible that you have some grateful readers who do not write to you. I have heard men whose greatest delight is literature, say that they should never dream of writing to an author on the ground of his books alone. 63 I don't remember that I have ever heard where Mr. Cupples lives or other particulars about him, unless indeed I am right in conjecturing that he is the friend of Stirling, the polemical meta-physician. 64
Poor Mr. Francis Newman must be aged now and rather weary of the world and explanations of the world. He can hardly be expected to take in much novelty. I have a sort of affectionate sadness in thinking of the interest which in far-off-days I felt in his "Soul" and Phases of Faith, and of the awe I had of him as a lecturer on mathematics at the Ladies' College. How much work he has done in the world, which has left no deep, conspicuous mark, but has probably entered beneficently into many lives!
I think, from your first prompting to ask me to return the copy of Mr. Cupples' letter, that it may probably be of use to you, so I return it, for I habitually think of death as so near that I see all documents in the light of things left behind for others, rather than kept for myself.
I hope you are well, and not yet exhausted of the refreshment you got from your visit to Ravensbourne.
Your affectionate
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 27 March 1874, 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/94041