GE to Alexander Main, London, 9 November 1871
Title
GE to Alexander Main, London, 9 November 1871
Title
GE to Alexander Main, London, 9 November 1871
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Alexander Main
Date(s)
- 1871-11-09
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Alexander Main, London, 9 November 1871
Text: Main's copy owned by Mr. John R. Sprunt. Published: Cross, New Edition, pp. 478-479.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
November 9. 71.
Dear Mr. Main,
I will no longer await the packet of extracts which Mr. Lewes is expecting from you, 395 before I thank you for all the feeling and intelligence you have given to that best part of me which has long ago taken paper wings, and left me rather a shrunken residue. I have too long made no sign to you of the gratitude I feel towards a mind whose emotions and judgments have given me the encouraging response which I find both in your letters and in your selection of passages. Over the latter I have not done more than run my eyes hastily, but I believe that when your book appears I shall be almost like one of the public in making acquaintance with it. For I have read my own books hardly at all after once giving them forth -- dreading to find them other than I wish. And now I am haunted by the fear that I am only saying again what I have already said in better fashion. For we all of us have our little store -- our two or three beliefs which are the outcome of our character and experience; and there is equal danger of our harping on these too long, and of taking up other strains which are not at all our beliefs, but mere borrowing and echo. From both of these dangers, Good Sense, deliver us! -- that Good Sense which includes good conscience and a high estimate of the author's function. Every one who contributes to the "too much" of literature is doing grave social injury. And that thought naturally makes one anxious.
I was very glad to find that you are young and have a long future in prospect. The value you attach to anything I may have said becomes all the more promising of result that may tell on other lives. You speak of having had trouble, but --
"He who hath never warr'd with misery, Nor ever tugg'd with danger and distress, Hath had n' occasion nor no field to try The strength and forces of his worthiness." 396
That quatrain of old Daniel brings up -- does it not? -- Goethe's famous
"Wer nie sein Brod mit Thr'e4nen ass" -- 397 and these sayings will remain true while this earth is a world of suffering. For who could be prepared for true fellowship without having had his share of sorrow as well as joy? I have no doubt that the joy has often been present in your case, for ardent, active faculty must bring it.
Always yours sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Text: Main's copy owned by Mr. John R. Sprunt. Published: Cross, New Edition, pp. 478-479.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
November 9. 71.
Dear Mr. Main,
I will no longer await the packet of extracts which Mr. Lewes is expecting from you, 395 before I thank you for all the feeling and intelligence you have given to that best part of me which has long ago taken paper wings, and left me rather a shrunken residue. I have too long made no sign to you of the gratitude I feel towards a mind whose emotions and judgments have given me the encouraging response which I find both in your letters and in your selection of passages. Over the latter I have not done more than run my eyes hastily, but I believe that when your book appears I shall be almost like one of the public in making acquaintance with it. For I have read my own books hardly at all after once giving them forth -- dreading to find them other than I wish. And now I am haunted by the fear that I am only saying again what I have already said in better fashion. For we all of us have our little store -- our two or three beliefs which are the outcome of our character and experience; and there is equal danger of our harping on these too long, and of taking up other strains which are not at all our beliefs, but mere borrowing and echo. From both of these dangers, Good Sense, deliver us! -- that Good Sense which includes good conscience and a high estimate of the author's function. Every one who contributes to the "too much" of literature is doing grave social injury. And that thought naturally makes one anxious.
I was very glad to find that you are young and have a long future in prospect. The value you attach to anything I may have said becomes all the more promising of result that may tell on other lives. You speak of having had trouble, but --
"He who hath never warr'd with misery, Nor ever tugg'd with danger and distress, Hath had n' occasion nor no field to try The strength and forces of his worthiness." 396
That quatrain of old Daniel brings up -- does it not? -- Goethe's famous
"Wer nie sein Brod mit Thr'e4nen ass" -- 397 and these sayings will remain true while this earth is a world of suffering. For who could be prepared for true fellowship without having had his share of sorrow as well as joy? I have no doubt that the joy has often been present in your case, for ardent, active faculty must bring it.
Always yours sincerely
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Alexander Main, London, 9 November 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/92001