The British Empire: A Sketch of Geography, Growth, Natural and Political Features of the United Kingdom, it's Colonies and Dependencies

The British Empire: A Sketch of Geography, Growth, Natural and Political Features of the United Kingdom, it's Colonies and Dependencies

Bray, Caroline

London: Longman, Green, Longman, Roberts, & Green, 1863

Internet Archive

1863

George Eliot to Mrs. Charles Bray, 04 December 1863. “The book is come, with its precious inscription, and I have read a great piece of it already (11 a.m.) besides looking through it to get an idea of its general plan. See how fascination shifts its quarter as our life goes on! I cannot be induced to lay aside my regular books for half an hour to read "Mrs. Lirriper's Lodgings," but I pounce on a book like yours which tries to tell me as much as it can in brief space of "the natural order," and am seduced into making it my after-breakfast reading instead of the work I had prescribed for myself in that pleasant quiet time. I read so slowly, and read so few books, that this small fact among my small habits seems a great matter to me. -- I thank you, dear Cara, not simply for giving me the book, but for having put so much faithful labour in a worthy direction and created a lasting benefit which I can share with others. Whether the circulation of a book be large or small there is always this supreme satisfaction about solid honest work, that as far as it goes its effects must be good, and as all effects spread immeasurably what we have to care for is kind and not quantity.” GEL 4: 120 

Bray, Caroline, The British Empire: A Sketch of Geography, Growth, Natural and Political Features of the United Kingdom, it's Colonies and Dependencies, 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/57759

https://georgeeliotarchive.org/files/original/f1fd6627891464d85efdeb1409a9259d.pdf