GE to Alexander Main, London, 28 December 1871
Title
GE to Alexander Main, London, 28 December 1871
Title
GE to Alexander Main, London, 28 December 1871
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
M
Date(s)
- 1871-12-28
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Alexander Main, London, 28 December 1871
Text: Main's copy owned by Mr. John R. Sprunt. Mostly published: Cross, New Edition, pp. 480-481.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
December 28. 71.
Dear Mr. Main
Your gift -- what gift can be more precious than the patient care which helps to save the seed of one's soul from perishing? -- has come 428 to brighten a Christmas in which my large share of good has been somewhat dimmed by bad health. One of the memorable events of this closing year to me will always be the acquisition of you as a known friend -- a friend of the only sort I now desire much to acquire: one who takes into his own life the spiritual outcome of mine. Let it be a memorable year to you in this light -- that you have given me a lasting source of encouragement in those often-recurring hours of despondency which, after cramping my activity ever since I began to write, continue still to beset me with, I fear, a malign influence on my writing. I don't suppose I could assure you of anything better for you to know, than that you have planted something to be a sweet shade and fruit for your elder fellow-traveller.
I have been looking through the [Sayings] with that sort of delight which comes from seeing that another mind underlines the words one has most cared for in writing them.
In one sense the book is marvellously new to me -- since I had forgotten the greater part of what I had written. In another sense it is rather startlingly familiar -- namely, that I find my old self (meaning my past self) very much like my present self. If there is any progress, I fear it is downhill.
I think that I have not yet seen any passage which I am sorry not to have had left out, and I have confidence that I shall not be less completely satisfied with the selecting mind when I have made further acquaintance with the work. Always with gratitude
Yours most sincerely,
M. E. Lewes.
Text: Main's copy owned by Mr. John R. Sprunt. Mostly published: Cross, New Edition, pp. 480-481.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
December 28. 71.
Dear Mr. Main
Your gift -- what gift can be more precious than the patient care which helps to save the seed of one's soul from perishing? -- has come 428 to brighten a Christmas in which my large share of good has been somewhat dimmed by bad health. One of the memorable events of this closing year to me will always be the acquisition of you as a known friend -- a friend of the only sort I now desire much to acquire: one who takes into his own life the spiritual outcome of mine. Let it be a memorable year to you in this light -- that you have given me a lasting source of encouragement in those often-recurring hours of despondency which, after cramping my activity ever since I began to write, continue still to beset me with, I fear, a malign influence on my writing. I don't suppose I could assure you of anything better for you to know, than that you have planted something to be a sweet shade and fruit for your elder fellow-traveller.
I have been looking through the [Sayings] with that sort of delight which comes from seeing that another mind underlines the words one has most cared for in writing them.
In one sense the book is marvellously new to me -- since I had forgotten the greater part of what I had written. In another sense it is rather startlingly familiar -- namely, that I find my old self (meaning my past self) very much like my present self. If there is any progress, I fear it is downhill.
I think that I have not yet seen any passage which I am sorry not to have had left out, and I have confidence that I shall not be less completely satisfied with the selecting mind when I have made further acquaintance with the work. Always with gratitude
Yours most sincerely,
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Alexander Main, London, 28 December 1871, 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/94233