Views of the Architecture of the Heavens. In a Series of Letters to a Lady

Views of the Architecture of the Heavens. In a Series of Letters to a Lady

Nichol, John Pringle

Edinburgh: Tait, 1837

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1837

George Eliot to Maria Lewis, 3 September 1841. "I have been revelling in Nichol's Architecture of the heavens and Phenomena of the Solar system and have been in imagination winging my flight from system to system, from universe to universe, trying to conceive myself in such a position and with such a visual faculty as would enable me to enjoy what Young enumerates among the novelties of the ‘stranger’ man when he burst the shell, to Behold an infinite of floating worlds Divide the crystal waves of ether pure, In endless voyage without port. "Hospitable infinity"! Nichol beautifully says. How should I love to have a thoroughgoing student with me that we might read together! We might each alternately employ the voice and the fingers and thus achieve just twice as much as a poor solitary. I am more impressed than ever with a truth beautifully expressed in ‘Woman's Mission.’ "Learning is only so far valuable as it serves to enlarge and enlighten the bounds of conscience." This I believe it eminently does when pursued humbly and piously and from a belief that it is a solemn duty to cultivate every faculty of our nature so far as primary obligations allow. There is an exhortation of St. Paul's that I should love to take as my motto. Finally my brethren whatsoever things are honest (you know the continuation) -- if there be any virtue and if there be any praise think on these things." GEL 1: 106-7

Nichol, John Pringle, Views of the Architecture of the Heavens. In a Series of Letters to a Lady, 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/57033

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