GHL to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 25 August [1860]
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 25 August [1860]
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 25 August [1860]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1860-08-25
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GHL to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 25 August [1860]
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Holly Lodge | Saturday 25 August.
My dear Blackwood
Your checque and letter arrived in due course.
I am glad you like Mad Wits. At present I am preparing a paper of a more popular character -- "Seeing is Believing" -- with a view to make people understand the difference between a fact and an inference. It is with especial reference to the monstrous folly of Table-turning and Spirit-rapping which has revived -- and which the "Cornhill Mag." has the immorality (I can call it nothing else) to assist by a paper in its favor, although Thackeray does not pretend to believe it. 617 People imagine that the "respectability" of a witness is a guarantee that he saw what he relates; whereas in truth he relates a great deal more than he saw, than was possible for any one to see. He saw the table move, but he did not, and could not, see that "no physical force, could have moved it" -- that is pure inference, and is based on his ignorance as to how the table was moved.
My paper embraces the various aspects of evidence, and only takes table-turning as one sample. Would you like it for Maga?
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
Holly Lodge | Saturday 25 August.
My dear Blackwood
Your checque and letter arrived in due course.
I am glad you like Mad Wits. At present I am preparing a paper of a more popular character -- "Seeing is Believing" -- with a view to make people understand the difference between a fact and an inference. It is with especial reference to the monstrous folly of Table-turning and Spirit-rapping which has revived -- and which the "Cornhill Mag." has the immorality (I can call it nothing else) to assist by a paper in its favor, although Thackeray does not pretend to believe it. 617 People imagine that the "respectability" of a witness is a guarantee that he saw what he relates; whereas in truth he relates a great deal more than he saw, than was possible for any one to see. He saw the table move, but he did not, and could not, see that "no physical force, could have moved it" -- that is pure inference, and is based on his ignorance as to how the table was moved.
My paper embraces the various aspects of evidence, and only takes table-turning as one sample. Would you like it for Maga?
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 25 August [1860], 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/94812