GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 21 September 1857
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 21 September 1857
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 21 September 1857
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1857-09-21
Place
Richmond
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 21 September 1857
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, I, 464-465.
Park Shot, Richmond | September 21. 57.
Dear Sara
Mr. Rands 966 writes like a sensible tasteful man, whose good opinion must be valuable to you, such a man as one might expect in the author of the "Reading Raids" and "Tangled Talk." We are quite glad to know who wrote those pleasant papers, the solitary things one could read in Tait. Mr. Lewes used to notice them with admiration in old days, when he wrote the Literary Summary for the Leader. But Mr. Rands must be grateful to some other critic for revising his "Chain of Lilies," for Mr. Lewes hardly writes one article in three months for the Leader, and particularly wishes its literature may not be imputed to him. He seems to have forgotten all about Cronippus, and unfortunately has not by him the numbers of the Leader in which his letters on Butler appeared. 967
I hope you are not reading the old edition of the Hist[ory] of Phil[osophy], for it is not at all a fair representation of the author now, and it is really cruel, after all the trouble he has had in castigating and completing it, that any reader should not have the benefit of his work or not give him the benefit of judging him by his latest revision. I wish we could send you our copy, but he can't spare it. I'm sorry, too, that we have either sold or mislaid the last edition of Baden Powell, 968 so that I can't tell you what he says of Feuerbach.
We have not seen Mr. and Mrs. Call 969 yet, but we are going to dine with them by invitation on Wednesday. We didn't know they were come home until we received a pleasant note from Mrs. Call; and Mr. Chapman, who came to see us a week ago, was also in the dark on that subject. He is grown so stout, that he looks like an elder and coarser brother of his former self.
Mr. Lewes was only absent ten days, and came back greatly comforted to have found the boys more improved than he had ventured to hope in one year. They can speak German quite well, and, what is better, their dispositions seem to be under a favourable influence. They are happy and ruddy, and picking up all sorts of practical knowledge as well as school learning. Altogether, we are very thankful for Hofwyl.
The days are very peaceful -- peacefully busy. One always feels a deeper calm as autumn comes on. I should be satisfied to look forward to a heaven made up of long autumn afternoon walks, quite delivered from any necessity of giving a judgment on the Woman Question or of reading newspapers about Indian Mutinies. 970 I am so glad there are thousands of good people in the world who have very decided opinions and are fond of working hard to enforce them -- I like to feel and think everything and do nothing, a pool of the "deep contemplative" 971 kind.
Tell Cara she little thinks what success some of her witticisms have in my keeping. Do you remember her joke about "the Egyptians talking in beetles"? I told it Mr. Lewes, and we often recur to it with a hearty laugh. I like to think of the journey to Stratford in this nice weather, and of the Flowers 972 rich and content. Some people do prosper -- that is a comfort. The rest of us must fall back on the beatitudes -- "Blessed are the poor." That is Luke's version, you know, and it is really on the whole more comforting than Matthew's. 973 I'm afraid there are few of us who can appropriate the blessings of the poor [in spirit.]
Mr. Bray, I suppose, is going to take the field against the "Working Women," 974 if I am right in my inference from the letter he wrote to Mrs. Bodichon. Something will come out of the battle, whoever is right.
We are reading one of the most wonderful books in French, or any other literature -- Monteil's [Histoire des Fran'e7ais des divers 'c9tats] 975 -- a history written on an original plan. If you see any account of it, read that account.
I must go. It is feeding time.
Ever thine
Marian.
Mr. Lewes desires me to say that he particularly begs you will not quote the old edition of his History of Philosophy, when you bring out a new edition of your book. He repudiates that old edition. He suggests, by the way, that you can probably procure the new edition at the Library of the Mechanics' Institute in Coventry. The "Sea-Side Studies" are to come out in the course of a month or two. 976
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, I, 464-465.
Park Shot, Richmond | September 21. 57.
Dear Sara
Mr. Rands 966 writes like a sensible tasteful man, whose good opinion must be valuable to you, such a man as one might expect in the author of the "Reading Raids" and "Tangled Talk." We are quite glad to know who wrote those pleasant papers, the solitary things one could read in Tait. Mr. Lewes used to notice them with admiration in old days, when he wrote the Literary Summary for the Leader. But Mr. Rands must be grateful to some other critic for revising his "Chain of Lilies," for Mr. Lewes hardly writes one article in three months for the Leader, and particularly wishes its literature may not be imputed to him. He seems to have forgotten all about Cronippus, and unfortunately has not by him the numbers of the Leader in which his letters on Butler appeared. 967
I hope you are not reading the old edition of the Hist[ory] of Phil[osophy], for it is not at all a fair representation of the author now, and it is really cruel, after all the trouble he has had in castigating and completing it, that any reader should not have the benefit of his work or not give him the benefit of judging him by his latest revision. I wish we could send you our copy, but he can't spare it. I'm sorry, too, that we have either sold or mislaid the last edition of Baden Powell, 968 so that I can't tell you what he says of Feuerbach.
We have not seen Mr. and Mrs. Call 969 yet, but we are going to dine with them by invitation on Wednesday. We didn't know they were come home until we received a pleasant note from Mrs. Call; and Mr. Chapman, who came to see us a week ago, was also in the dark on that subject. He is grown so stout, that he looks like an elder and coarser brother of his former self.
Mr. Lewes was only absent ten days, and came back greatly comforted to have found the boys more improved than he had ventured to hope in one year. They can speak German quite well, and, what is better, their dispositions seem to be under a favourable influence. They are happy and ruddy, and picking up all sorts of practical knowledge as well as school learning. Altogether, we are very thankful for Hofwyl.
The days are very peaceful -- peacefully busy. One always feels a deeper calm as autumn comes on. I should be satisfied to look forward to a heaven made up of long autumn afternoon walks, quite delivered from any necessity of giving a judgment on the Woman Question or of reading newspapers about Indian Mutinies. 970 I am so glad there are thousands of good people in the world who have very decided opinions and are fond of working hard to enforce them -- I like to feel and think everything and do nothing, a pool of the "deep contemplative" 971 kind.
Tell Cara she little thinks what success some of her witticisms have in my keeping. Do you remember her joke about "the Egyptians talking in beetles"? I told it Mr. Lewes, and we often recur to it with a hearty laugh. I like to think of the journey to Stratford in this nice weather, and of the Flowers 972 rich and content. Some people do prosper -- that is a comfort. The rest of us must fall back on the beatitudes -- "Blessed are the poor." That is Luke's version, you know, and it is really on the whole more comforting than Matthew's. 973 I'm afraid there are few of us who can appropriate the blessings of the poor [in spirit.]
Mr. Bray, I suppose, is going to take the field against the "Working Women," 974 if I am right in my inference from the letter he wrote to Mrs. Bodichon. Something will come out of the battle, whoever is right.
We are reading one of the most wonderful books in French, or any other literature -- Monteil's [Histoire des Fran'e7ais des divers 'c9tats] 975 -- a history written on an original plan. If you see any account of it, read that account.
I must go. It is feeding time.
Ever thine
Marian.
Mr. Lewes desires me to say that he particularly begs you will not quote the old edition of his History of Philosophy, when you bring out a new edition of your book. He repudiates that old edition. He suggests, by the way, that you can probably procure the new edition at the Library of the Mechanics' Institute in Coventry. The "Sea-Side Studies" are to come out in the course of a month or two. 976
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Richmond, 21 September 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/94096