GHL to John Blackwood, Dresden, 16 August 1858
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, Dresden, 16 August 1858
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, Dresden, 16 August 1858
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1858-08-16
Place
Dresden
Letter Content
GHL to John Blackwood, Dresden, 16 August 1858
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Waisenhaus Gasse | Dresden 16 August 58.
My dear Blackwood
By this post the proof goes to Edinburgh. The following is the list of subjects for the Physiology:
*1 Hunger and Thirst
*2 The Food we eat
Digestion and Indigestion
*4 The Blood and its Circulation
*5 Respiration and Suffocation
Why we are warm and how we keep so
Feeling and Thinking in relation to the Nervous System
Sleep and Dreams
The qualities we inherit from our Parents
Life and Death
Those marked * have already been printed; 3, 6, and 7 are written; and 8, 9, and 10 I never contemplated publishing in Maga.
Perhaps, however, Maga has already had enough of physiology and we may cry Hold! 1175 -- Even those that are printed will have to be enlarged on republication, and by enlarging them I shall be able to make them more readable to "those that run." The necessities of space hampered me in Maga: each subject was really too much for an article and could only be got into one by compression. Moreover in republication there will be the advantage of illustrations (most of which by the way can be repeated from Johnston).
Have you heard any grumbling or yawning remarks about those which have already appeared? and did the yawners specify what parts were tiresome? Tell me any thing of this kind, that I may stop the future mouths!
G.E. is vastly pleased to hear of a revival of the clerical interest. 1176 White neck-cloths forever! Bedesman is in training, and will make a splendid run if he does not win the Derby. I have faith in that horse and will back him to any reasonable amount.
E. begs his kindest regards to his best and most encouraging of jockeys, and says he will let Bedesman show some of his paces directly we return to Richmond (NB. this will be the 1 September) when E. will also write to that successful and cheering jockey.
I am also glad to hear that "Studies" have so much of life as is implied in movement. It will be deuced hard if the book doesn't sell, considering how some books sell with nothing new in them at all.
We live like Hermits here. Not a soul will I see and our society is strictly limited to Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Veronese, and the other "gents" of painting. In Munich we had too much society; it was pleasant but prevented work; and as it is not easy for me to know one family in these small places without being forced to know a great many more I have resolved on complete seclusion. It is amazing how well one can do without "society"! When the mind is occupied, and the affections engaged, "the world" becomes a visionary kind of entity -- a sort of playhouse into which one feels tempted to go now and then for an hour, halfprice to see what is going on; but where one has no desire to remain.
So you are golfing again? I must learn that golf, some day to ascertain what its fascinations are. Do you really think it as thrilling as molluscs? How many days could you spend doing nothing else? That is the test. In Munich I made the acquaintance of a Russian anatomist who for six years daily has done nothing but make preparations and observations on the Spinal Chord -- and with 50,000 preparations he couldn't convince me of the truth of his "discovery." What say you to that?
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Waisenhaus Gasse | Dresden 16 August 58.
My dear Blackwood
By this post the proof goes to Edinburgh. The following is the list of subjects for the Physiology:
*1 Hunger and Thirst
*2 The Food we eat
Digestion and Indigestion
*4 The Blood and its Circulation
*5 Respiration and Suffocation
Why we are warm and how we keep so
Feeling and Thinking in relation to the Nervous System
Sleep and Dreams
The qualities we inherit from our Parents
Life and Death
Those marked * have already been printed; 3, 6, and 7 are written; and 8, 9, and 10 I never contemplated publishing in Maga.
Perhaps, however, Maga has already had enough of physiology and we may cry Hold! 1175 -- Even those that are printed will have to be enlarged on republication, and by enlarging them I shall be able to make them more readable to "those that run." The necessities of space hampered me in Maga: each subject was really too much for an article and could only be got into one by compression. Moreover in republication there will be the advantage of illustrations (most of which by the way can be repeated from Johnston).
Have you heard any grumbling or yawning remarks about those which have already appeared? and did the yawners specify what parts were tiresome? Tell me any thing of this kind, that I may stop the future mouths!
G.E. is vastly pleased to hear of a revival of the clerical interest. 1176 White neck-cloths forever! Bedesman is in training, and will make a splendid run if he does not win the Derby. I have faith in that horse and will back him to any reasonable amount.
E. begs his kindest regards to his best and most encouraging of jockeys, and says he will let Bedesman show some of his paces directly we return to Richmond (NB. this will be the 1 September) when E. will also write to that successful and cheering jockey.
I am also glad to hear that "Studies" have so much of life as is implied in movement. It will be deuced hard if the book doesn't sell, considering how some books sell with nothing new in them at all.
We live like Hermits here. Not a soul will I see and our society is strictly limited to Raphael, Titian, Correggio, Veronese, and the other "gents" of painting. In Munich we had too much society; it was pleasant but prevented work; and as it is not easy for me to know one family in these small places without being forced to know a great many more I have resolved on complete seclusion. It is amazing how well one can do without "society"! When the mind is occupied, and the affections engaged, "the world" becomes a visionary kind of entity -- a sort of playhouse into which one feels tempted to go now and then for an hour, halfprice to see what is going on; but where one has no desire to remain.
So you are golfing again? I must learn that golf, some day to ascertain what its fascinations are. Do you really think it as thrilling as molluscs? How many days could you spend doing nothing else? That is the test. In Munich I made the acquaintance of a Russian anatomist who for six years daily has done nothing but make preparations and observations on the Spinal Chord -- and with 50,000 preparations he couldn't convince me of the truth of his "discovery." What say you to that?
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to John Blackwood, Dresden, 16 August 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/94595