GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, [24 February 1857]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, [24 February 1857]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, [24 February 1857]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1857-02-24
Place
Richmond
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, [24 February 1857]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Feb. 24. 1857. Extract published: Cross, I, 432.
Richmond, Tuesday.
Dear Sara
The two copies of the book arrived this morning. Many loving thanks for my peculiar copy. We are delighted with the appearance and getting up of the volume -- so much more imposing and dignified than Mr. Bray's intimations led us to expect.
You will at least have a candid critic in Mr. Lewes 804 who is one of that minority amongst mankind that find it impossible to say or write what they do not believe, either for a friend or against an enemy. I am the more inclined to think that I shall admire the book, because you are suspected of having given undue preponderance to the Christian argument, for I have a growing conviction that we may measure true moral and intellectual culture by the comprehension and veneration given to all forms of thought and feeling which have influenced large masses of mankind -- and of all intolerance, the intolerance calling itself philosophical is the most odious to me.
We shall not be able to move until the end of the first or second week in March, when we start for the Scilly Isles to proceed from thence to Guernsey and from Guernsey to Brittany -- to be away probably till after the beginning of July. Don't you envy us the sight of romantic Brittany? No you don't -- you are only glad that two fellow-sinners can have the pleasure.
We saw Ira Aldridge 805 at Worthing in some scenes of Shylock, Macbeth, and Othello, and we cannot help marvelling at your admiration. He seemed to us pitiably bad. But Shakspeare moves one through the worst actor that can pronounce English.
I rejoice to hear of the prospective happiness of two such excellent people as Kate Martineau and Elinor Cash. 806 I have seen hardly anything of Miss Cash, so of her I speak by faith and not by sight, but in Kate Martineau I have felt the presence of genuine good-will and feminine gentleness.
What weather! if it would but continue. 807 But
"How sad a sight is British sunshine To him whose thought can pierce beyond an hour."
I shall have many thoughts of the migration you will be accomplishing at the same time that we are accomplishing ours. 808 Those thoughts can hardly be without a pang of regret, for I have not yet reconciled myself to imagining you all in the cottage, instead of in the pretty green drawing room and comfortable red dining room. But Mr. Bray's face looked so happy and sunshiny in the prospect of the change, that one feels sure he will be a great centre of content radiating cheerfulness to all the planets that around him shine. 809
How is Cara through all the vicissitudes? My best love to her and to the radiating centre. Ever dear Sara,
Your affectionate
Marian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Feb. 24. 1857. Extract published: Cross, I, 432.
Richmond, Tuesday.
Dear Sara
The two copies of the book arrived this morning. Many loving thanks for my peculiar copy. We are delighted with the appearance and getting up of the volume -- so much more imposing and dignified than Mr. Bray's intimations led us to expect.
You will at least have a candid critic in Mr. Lewes 804 who is one of that minority amongst mankind that find it impossible to say or write what they do not believe, either for a friend or against an enemy. I am the more inclined to think that I shall admire the book, because you are suspected of having given undue preponderance to the Christian argument, for I have a growing conviction that we may measure true moral and intellectual culture by the comprehension and veneration given to all forms of thought and feeling which have influenced large masses of mankind -- and of all intolerance, the intolerance calling itself philosophical is the most odious to me.
We shall not be able to move until the end of the first or second week in March, when we start for the Scilly Isles to proceed from thence to Guernsey and from Guernsey to Brittany -- to be away probably till after the beginning of July. Don't you envy us the sight of romantic Brittany? No you don't -- you are only glad that two fellow-sinners can have the pleasure.
We saw Ira Aldridge 805 at Worthing in some scenes of Shylock, Macbeth, and Othello, and we cannot help marvelling at your admiration. He seemed to us pitiably bad. But Shakspeare moves one through the worst actor that can pronounce English.
I rejoice to hear of the prospective happiness of two such excellent people as Kate Martineau and Elinor Cash. 806 I have seen hardly anything of Miss Cash, so of her I speak by faith and not by sight, but in Kate Martineau I have felt the presence of genuine good-will and feminine gentleness.
What weather! if it would but continue. 807 But
"How sad a sight is British sunshine To him whose thought can pierce beyond an hour."
I shall have many thoughts of the migration you will be accomplishing at the same time that we are accomplishing ours. 808 Those thoughts can hardly be without a pang of regret, for I have not yet reconciled myself to imagining you all in the cottage, instead of in the pretty green drawing room and comfortable red dining room. But Mr. Bray's face looked so happy and sunshiny in the prospect of the change, that one feels sure he will be a great centre of content radiating cheerfulness to all the planets that around him shine. 809
How is Cara through all the vicissitudes? My best love to her and to the radiating centre. Ever dear Sara,
Your affectionate
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, [24 February 1857], 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/94078