GHL to Sir Arthur Helps, London, [7 March 1873]
Title
GHL to Sir Arthur Helps, London, [7 March 1873]
Title
GHL to Sir Arthur Helps, London, [7 March 1873]
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Sir Arthur Helps
Date(s)
- 1873-03-07
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to Sir Arthur Helps, London, [7 March 1873]
MS: Nuneaton Public Library. Published: Correspondence of Sir Arthur Helps, 1917, p. 346.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Friday.
My dear Helps
In my hurry yesterday I forgot to add a note about Descartes confirming your impression that he did not maintain animals to have no feeling. With regard to your difficulty in finding any passage in which his opinion was distinctly expressed the only one I know is that in his Letters ('8cuvres, 149 vol. 7, p. 393) in which however you may observe that he qualifies the denial of feeling by saying comme en nous et aucun vrai sentiment. Now if you compare this with the passage vol. X, p. 208 you will see that he speaks of thought, non de la vie ou du sentiment. He adds je ne leur refuse pas m'eame le sentiment autant qu'il d'e9pend des organes du corps. Ainsi mon opinion n'est pas si cruelle aux animaux.
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
MS: Nuneaton Public Library. Published: Correspondence of Sir Arthur Helps, 1917, p. 346.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Friday.
My dear Helps
In my hurry yesterday I forgot to add a note about Descartes confirming your impression that he did not maintain animals to have no feeling. With regard to your difficulty in finding any passage in which his opinion was distinctly expressed the only one I know is that in his Letters ('8cuvres, 149 vol. 7, p. 393) in which however you may observe that he qualifies the denial of feeling by saying comme en nous et aucun vrai sentiment. Now if you compare this with the passage vol. X, p. 208 you will see that he speaks of thought, non de la vie ou du sentiment. He adds je ne leur refuse pas m'eame le sentiment autant qu'il d'e9pend des organes du corps. Ainsi mon opinion n'est pas si cruelle aux animaux.
Ever yours faithfully
G. H. Lewes.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Sir Arthur Helps, London, [7 March 1873], 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/95022