John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 14 April 1873
Title
John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 14 April 1873
Title
John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 14 April 1873
Sender
John Blackwood
Recipient
George Henry Lewes
Date(s)
- 1873-04-14
Place
Edinburgh
Letter Content
John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 14 April 1873
Text: Copy in Blackwood Letter Book. Hitherto unpublished.
George Street | Edinburgh April 14/73.
My Dear Lewes
Will you indicate the points with an eye to which you would more particularly like Prof. Tait 767 to look to the proofs of your book. I know him quite well and I am sure he will be pleased at the application but I should like to be better able to define what you want.
The thousand copies of the Guinea Edition of Middlemarch are gone and we have broken bulk upon another 500 which we printed when we saw that the 1000 were going to run out. Even should this 500 not sell off at once this will always have a dropping sale as the best and most luxurious edition.
We are ready in the Printing Office for more copy of the Problems of Mind. I have read the first few sheets. 768 Your metempirical is an ingenious word but I almost feel the general application of the meaning of the word Empirical will not be got over. It strikes me that you assume too much a general disbelief in religion. At foot of page two you speak of some of the most considerable thinkers desiring the extinction of religion. Now I doubt this altogether. People may think as much as they like and believe as little as they like, but I cannot imagine any man with a real head upon his shoulders wishing to cast mankind adrift without religion of any kind.
Give my best regards to Mrs. Lewes, who I hope is well. I have been laid up as an invalid for the last fortnight but am now quite well. I had been very unwell and the Doctor said I must surrender at discretion and treat myself as a complete invalid. Accordingly I have lived upon slops and drunk nothing stronger than water for the last fortnight. The treatment was severe but I have come out of the fiery furnace wonderfully well.
Always yours Truly
(signed) John Blackwood.
Text: Copy in Blackwood Letter Book. Hitherto unpublished.
George Street | Edinburgh April 14/73.
My Dear Lewes
Will you indicate the points with an eye to which you would more particularly like Prof. Tait 767 to look to the proofs of your book. I know him quite well and I am sure he will be pleased at the application but I should like to be better able to define what you want.
The thousand copies of the Guinea Edition of Middlemarch are gone and we have broken bulk upon another 500 which we printed when we saw that the 1000 were going to run out. Even should this 500 not sell off at once this will always have a dropping sale as the best and most luxurious edition.
We are ready in the Printing Office for more copy of the Problems of Mind. I have read the first few sheets. 768 Your metempirical is an ingenious word but I almost feel the general application of the meaning of the word Empirical will not be got over. It strikes me that you assume too much a general disbelief in religion. At foot of page two you speak of some of the most considerable thinkers desiring the extinction of religion. Now I doubt this altogether. People may think as much as they like and believe as little as they like, but I cannot imagine any man with a real head upon his shoulders wishing to cast mankind adrift without religion of any kind.
Give my best regards to Mrs. Lewes, who I hope is well. I have been laid up as an invalid for the last fortnight but am now quite well. I had been very unwell and the Doctor said I must surrender at discretion and treat myself as a complete invalid. Accordingly I have lived upon slops and drunk nothing stronger than water for the last fortnight. The treatment was severe but I have come out of the fiery furnace wonderfully well.
Always yours Truly
(signed) John Blackwood.
Signature
(signed) John Blackwood.
Citation
John Blackwood, John Blackwood to GHL, Edinburgh, 14 April 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/95364