The Life of William Wilberforce

The Life of William Wilberforce

Wilberforce, Robert Isaac and Samuel Wilberforce

Philadelphia: Perkins, 1839

Google Books

1839

George Eliot to Maria Lewis, 6-8 November 1838. "I have just begun the Life of Wilberforce and I am expecting a rich treat from it. There is a similarity, if I may compare myself with such a man, between his temptations or rather besetments and my own that makes his experience very interesting to me. O that I might be made as useful in my lowly and obscure station as he was in the exalted one assigned to him. I feel myself to be a mere cumberer of the ground. May the Lord gi[ve] me such an insight into what is truly good and su[ch] realizing views of an approaching eternity, that I may not rest contented with making Christianity a mere addendum to my pursuits, or with tacking it as a fringe to my garments. May I seek to be sanctified wholly. My nineteenth birthday will soon be here (the 22d) an awakening signal! My mind has been much clogged lately by languor of body, to which I am prone to give way and for the removal of which I shall feel thankful." GEL 1: 12

Wilberforce, Robert Isaac and Samuel Wilberforce, The Life of William Wilberforce, George Eliot's Reading, George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/56997

https://georgeeliotarchive.org/files/original/06c2acd69afe0d70587b6ac54be536b5.pdf