GE to [Emanuel Deutsch?], Shottermill, 7 July [1871]
Title
GE to [Emanuel Deutsch?], Shottermill, 7 July [1871]
Title
GE to [Emanuel Deutsch?], Shottermill, 7 July [1871]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
[Emanuel Deutsch?]
Date(s)
- 1871-07-07
Place
Shottermill
Letter Content
GE to [Emanuel Deutsch?], Shottermill, 7 July [1871]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 76. Hitherto unpublished.
Shottermill | Petersfield | July 7.
My dear Rabbi
I have heard from others that you are "better" and "very well," but I want to have an account of you from yourself. Since I wrote to you last I have been ailing and in the Slough of Despond too, and am only just emerging. Come, be generous, shake off dull sloth and take the trouble to write me a few lines. Is it not the middle of this month that you go back to work? How are you really?
About Fraser, I have had a confirmation of the report that Froude 311 has given up the editorship, but either Longmans will choose some man with a popular name as nominal or show editor, or else, I should think, Mr. Allingham who has been acting as sub-editor will take the entire management.
Pray observe that we want to know how you are physically -- whether you get plenty of sleep, and whether the bad symptoms have thoroughly disappeared. If so, encourage Mr. Micawber's philosophy in your soul, and be sure that something will "turn up." Hopelessness has been to me, all through my life, but especially in painful years of my youth, the chief source of wasted energy with all the consequent bitterness of regret. Remember, it has happened to many to be glad they did not commit suicide, though they once ran for the final leap, or as Mary Wolstonecraft did, wetted their garments well in the rain hoping to sink the better when they plunged. She tells how it occurred to her as she was walking in this damp shroud, that she might live to be glad that she had not put an end to herself -- and so it turned out. She lived to know some real joys, and death came in time to hinder the joys from being spoiled. 312
Which things are a parable.
We had thought of going to Scotland next month, but we shall not do so, my health not being strong enough for me to incur the fatigues of the journey and the literary mob.
Yours always sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: 76. Hitherto unpublished.
Shottermill | Petersfield | July 7.
My dear Rabbi
I have heard from others that you are "better" and "very well," but I want to have an account of you from yourself. Since I wrote to you last I have been ailing and in the Slough of Despond too, and am only just emerging. Come, be generous, shake off dull sloth and take the trouble to write me a few lines. Is it not the middle of this month that you go back to work? How are you really?
About Fraser, I have had a confirmation of the report that Froude 311 has given up the editorship, but either Longmans will choose some man with a popular name as nominal or show editor, or else, I should think, Mr. Allingham who has been acting as sub-editor will take the entire management.
Pray observe that we want to know how you are physically -- whether you get plenty of sleep, and whether the bad symptoms have thoroughly disappeared. If so, encourage Mr. Micawber's philosophy in your soul, and be sure that something will "turn up." Hopelessness has been to me, all through my life, but especially in painful years of my youth, the chief source of wasted energy with all the consequent bitterness of regret. Remember, it has happened to many to be glad they did not commit suicide, though they once ran for the final leap, or as Mary Wolstonecraft did, wetted their garments well in the rain hoping to sink the better when they plunged. She tells how it occurred to her as she was walking in this damp shroud, that she might live to be glad that she had not put an end to herself -- and so it turned out. She lived to know some real joys, and death came in time to hinder the joys from being spoiled. 312
Which things are a parable.
We had thought of going to Scotland next month, but we shall not do so, my health not being strong enough for me to incur the fatigues of the journey and the literary mob.
Yours always sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to [Emanuel Deutsch?], Shottermill, 7 July [1871], 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/91956