Anthony Trollope to GHL, Waltham Cross, 9 August 1860
Title
Anthony Trollope to GHL, Waltham Cross, 9 August 1860
Title
Anthony Trollope to GHL, Waltham Cross, 9 August 1860
Sender
Anthony Trollope
Recipient
George Henry Lewes
Date(s)
- 1860-08-09
Place
Waltham Cross
Letter Content
Anthony Trollope to GHL, Waltham Cross, 9 August 1860
MS: Yale. Published: The Letters of Anthony Trollope, ed. B. A. Booth, 1951, p. 68.
My dear Lewes.
I hear that C. L. Lewes was at the head of the Poll at that Civil Service examination, and I suppose I may congratulate him in being a Queens servant. I hope I shall soon shake hands with him over his desk at the Post office. 512
Do not let him begin life with any ideas that his profession is inferior to others. Men may live as vegetables, or again as dead sticks, in the Civil Service. But so they may, and so many do, in the church and as lawyers. But in the Civil Service nowadays, exertion will give a man a decent gentleman's income not late in life, if it be accompanied by intellects not below par. I do not know that more can be said of any profession except that in others there are great prizes. To compensate this the Civil Service allows a man, who has in him the capacity for getting prizes, to look for them elsewhere. A government clerk, who is not wedded to pleasure, may follow any pursuit without detriment to his public utility. One such man in our days edits the Edinbro, a great gun in his own way; another has written the best poem of these days; a third supplies all our theatres with their new plays; and a fourth plies a small literary trade as a poor novelist. 513 We boast also of artists, philosophers, newspaper politicians, and what not.
Do not therefore let him think that six hours a day at the shop is to be the Be all and End all of his life.
Yours always
Anthony Trollope.
Waltham
August 9. 1860.
MS: Yale. Published: The Letters of Anthony Trollope, ed. B. A. Booth, 1951, p. 68.
My dear Lewes.
I hear that C. L. Lewes was at the head of the Poll at that Civil Service examination, and I suppose I may congratulate him in being a Queens servant. I hope I shall soon shake hands with him over his desk at the Post office. 512
Do not let him begin life with any ideas that his profession is inferior to others. Men may live as vegetables, or again as dead sticks, in the Civil Service. But so they may, and so many do, in the church and as lawyers. But in the Civil Service nowadays, exertion will give a man a decent gentleman's income not late in life, if it be accompanied by intellects not below par. I do not know that more can be said of any profession except that in others there are great prizes. To compensate this the Civil Service allows a man, who has in him the capacity for getting prizes, to look for them elsewhere. A government clerk, who is not wedded to pleasure, may follow any pursuit without detriment to his public utility. One such man in our days edits the Edinbro, a great gun in his own way; another has written the best poem of these days; a third supplies all our theatres with their new plays; and a fourth plies a small literary trade as a poor novelist. 513 We boast also of artists, philosophers, newspaper politicians, and what not.
Do not therefore let him think that six hours a day at the shop is to be the Be all and End all of his life.
Yours always
Anthony Trollope.
Waltham
August 9. 1860.
Signature
Anthony Trollope.
Citation
Anthony Trollope, Anthony Trollope to GHL, Waltham Cross, 9 August 1860, Complete George Eliot Letters(2026), George Eliot Archive, edited by Beverley Park Rilett. https://GeorgeEliotArchive.org, Accessed September 7, 2026. https://www.georgeeliotarchive.org/items/show/91721