GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 17 January 1858
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 17 January 1858
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 17 January 1858
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1858-01-17
Place
Richmond
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 17 January 1858
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, II, 6-7.
Richmond | January 17. 58.
Dear Sara
Your letters are always seasonable whether it is the new year or the old or the middle-aged. "A pretty letter," Mr. Lewes said, when I read it to him. We can sympathize as to the sore throat having had colds ourselves the last few days, but being otherwise in good condition.
I fear many people will share your opinion about the article on the Religious Weakness of Prot[estantis]m; I don't know who wrote it. I confess it is very repugnant to me, though I abstained from saying so to Mr. Chapman, because I pity the sorrows of an editor. I have long ceased to feel any sympathy with mere antagonism and destruction, and all crudity of expression marks, I think, a deficiency in subtlety of thought as well as in breadth of moral and poetic feeling. The article on Shelley 1060 is a perfect puddle for an unfortunate editor to have fallen into. Can anything be more feebly foolish or foolishly feeble than that stuff about the [blood-red hand of the baronet covering up atheism] and that false sarcasm on the same page about a m'e9salliance? I have not, of course read the article -- I have only dipped in here and there, but a mere taste of an undone cake made with rancid butter is enough.
Mr. William Smith, the author of "Thorndale," is an old acquaintance of Mr. Lewes's -- I should say an old friend, only I don't like the too ready use of that word. Mr. Lewes admires and esteems him very highly. 1061 He is a very accomplished man, a bachelor, with a small independent income -- used to write very effective articles on miscellaneous subjects in [Blackwood.] I shall like to know what you think of [Thorndale.]
How could you waste your pretty eyes in reading [White Lies]? 1062 Surely they are too precious to be spent on the inflated plagiarisms of a man gone mad with restless vanity and unveracity.
Herbert Spencer dined with us last week, and I had a talk with him about his monetary article, 1063 which interests me strongly. It is better written than his things have been of late, probably because it was written more rapidly. He cleared up several questions for me, and inclined me to think that he must be in the right. But I have not time at present to think of the subject except in a scrambling way. Apropos, I don't know whether you look out for Ruskin's books whenever they appear. His little book on the Political Economy of Art 1064 contains some magnificent passages, mixed up with stupendous specimens of arrogant absurdity on some economical points. But I venerate him as one of the great Teachers of the day -- his absurdities on practical points do no harm, but the grand doctrines of truth and sincerity in art, and the nobleness and solemnity of our human life, which he teaches with the inspiration of a Hebrew prophet, must be stirring up young minds in a promising way. Mr. Lewes has been enjoying a week's holiday at Vernon Hill, and was very pleased to find Alice Helps 1065 the eldest daughter there, a girl of seventeen, become an enthusiastic student of painting under Ruskin, and stoutly battling against the falsity that paints what the painter does not see. The two last volumes of Modern Painters 1066 contain, I think, some of the finest writing of this age. He is strongly akin to the sublimest part of Wordsworth, whom, by the bye, we are reading now with fresh admiration for his beauties and tolerance for his faults.
I hope we shall see Mr. and Mrs. Call again before we leave -- we shall certainly make an effort to do so.
Couldn't you write a much better article for the Westminster than most of the contributors? Why don't you? Though, indeed, I think I should rather urge you to rest and take life easily.
Our present plans are: -- to remain here till about the end of March, then to go to Munich, which I long to see. We shall live there several months, seeing the wonderful galleries in leisure moments. Our living here is so much more expensive than living abroad that we save more than the expenses of our journeying, and as our work can be as well done there as here for some months, we lay in much more capital in the shape of knowledge and experience by going abroad.
I have nothing else to say, except love to Cara and Mr. Bray. When you write again, tell me how poor Annie Whittem is -- also if Mrs. John Cash has more than one child. If you can remember that I have asked the questions, which I confess it is unreasonable to expect.
Ever your loving
Marian.
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, II, 6-7.
Richmond | January 17. 58.
Dear Sara
Your letters are always seasonable whether it is the new year or the old or the middle-aged. "A pretty letter," Mr. Lewes said, when I read it to him. We can sympathize as to the sore throat having had colds ourselves the last few days, but being otherwise in good condition.
I fear many people will share your opinion about the article on the Religious Weakness of Prot[estantis]m; I don't know who wrote it. I confess it is very repugnant to me, though I abstained from saying so to Mr. Chapman, because I pity the sorrows of an editor. I have long ceased to feel any sympathy with mere antagonism and destruction, and all crudity of expression marks, I think, a deficiency in subtlety of thought as well as in breadth of moral and poetic feeling. The article on Shelley 1060 is a perfect puddle for an unfortunate editor to have fallen into. Can anything be more feebly foolish or foolishly feeble than that stuff about the [blood-red hand of the baronet covering up atheism] and that false sarcasm on the same page about a m'e9salliance? I have not, of course read the article -- I have only dipped in here and there, but a mere taste of an undone cake made with rancid butter is enough.
Mr. William Smith, the author of "Thorndale," is an old acquaintance of Mr. Lewes's -- I should say an old friend, only I don't like the too ready use of that word. Mr. Lewes admires and esteems him very highly. 1061 He is a very accomplished man, a bachelor, with a small independent income -- used to write very effective articles on miscellaneous subjects in [Blackwood.] I shall like to know what you think of [Thorndale.]
How could you waste your pretty eyes in reading [White Lies]? 1062 Surely they are too precious to be spent on the inflated plagiarisms of a man gone mad with restless vanity and unveracity.
Herbert Spencer dined with us last week, and I had a talk with him about his monetary article, 1063 which interests me strongly. It is better written than his things have been of late, probably because it was written more rapidly. He cleared up several questions for me, and inclined me to think that he must be in the right. But I have not time at present to think of the subject except in a scrambling way. Apropos, I don't know whether you look out for Ruskin's books whenever they appear. His little book on the Political Economy of Art 1064 contains some magnificent passages, mixed up with stupendous specimens of arrogant absurdity on some economical points. But I venerate him as one of the great Teachers of the day -- his absurdities on practical points do no harm, but the grand doctrines of truth and sincerity in art, and the nobleness and solemnity of our human life, which he teaches with the inspiration of a Hebrew prophet, must be stirring up young minds in a promising way. Mr. Lewes has been enjoying a week's holiday at Vernon Hill, and was very pleased to find Alice Helps 1065 the eldest daughter there, a girl of seventeen, become an enthusiastic student of painting under Ruskin, and stoutly battling against the falsity that paints what the painter does not see. The two last volumes of Modern Painters 1066 contain, I think, some of the finest writing of this age. He is strongly akin to the sublimest part of Wordsworth, whom, by the bye, we are reading now with fresh admiration for his beauties and tolerance for his faults.
I hope we shall see Mr. and Mrs. Call again before we leave -- we shall certainly make an effort to do so.
Couldn't you write a much better article for the Westminster than most of the contributors? Why don't you? Though, indeed, I think I should rather urge you to rest and take life easily.
Our present plans are: -- to remain here till about the end of March, then to go to Munich, which I long to see. We shall live there several months, seeing the wonderful galleries in leisure moments. Our living here is so much more expensive than living abroad that we save more than the expenses of our journeying, and as our work can be as well done there as here for some months, we lay in much more capital in the shape of knowledge and experience by going abroad.
I have nothing else to say, except love to Cara and Mr. Bray. When you write again, tell me how poor Annie Whittem is -- also if Mrs. John Cash has more than one child. If you can remember that I have asked the questions, which I confess it is unreasonable to expect.
Ever your loving
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 17 January 1858, 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/94089