GE to Charles Bray, [London, 18 September 1852]
Title
GE to Charles Bray, [London, 18 September 1852]
Title
GE to Charles Bray, [London, 18 September 1852]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Bray
Date(s)
- 1852-09-18
Place
[London]
Letter Content
GE to Charles Bray, [London, 18 September 1852]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Sep. 18. Extract published: Cross, I, 291.
Dear Friend
I am counting the hours till Monday when I hope to see your kind face. Do not disappoint me, for I am sure no one can want to see you so much as I. Try not to have the headache, and to that end eat no duck before starting, and do not shout facetiae in the ears of your fellow-travellers. To-day looks like the commencement of the deluge 182 -- but in spite of that I am better and in better spirits than I have generally been since I came back.
Miss Martineau writes, kindly saying that she looks forward with pleasure to my visit to her, and I really think it will be worth doing. I have seen nothing of the Combes yet, but I have heard that they are to return to Edinburgh.
Lewes called on me the other day and told me of a conversation with Prof. Owen, in which the latter declared his conviction that the cerebrum was not the organ of the mind, but the cerebellum rather! He founds on the enormous comparative size of brain in the grampus! The professor has a huge anterior lobe of his own. 183 What would Geo. Combe say if I were to tell him? 184 But every great man has his paradox, and that of the first anatomist in Europe ought to be a startling one.
Love to all
Marian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Sep. 18. Extract published: Cross, I, 291.
Dear Friend
I am counting the hours till Monday when I hope to see your kind face. Do not disappoint me, for I am sure no one can want to see you so much as I. Try not to have the headache, and to that end eat no duck before starting, and do not shout facetiae in the ears of your fellow-travellers. To-day looks like the commencement of the deluge 182 -- but in spite of that I am better and in better spirits than I have generally been since I came back.
Miss Martineau writes, kindly saying that she looks forward with pleasure to my visit to her, and I really think it will be worth doing. I have seen nothing of the Combes yet, but I have heard that they are to return to Edinburgh.
Lewes called on me the other day and told me of a conversation with Prof. Owen, in which the latter declared his conviction that the cerebrum was not the organ of the mind, but the cerebellum rather! He founds on the enormous comparative size of brain in the grampus! The professor has a huge anterior lobe of his own. 183 What would Geo. Combe say if I were to tell him? 184 But every great man has his paradox, and that of the first anatomist in Europe ought to be a startling one.
Love to all
Marian.
Signature
Marian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Bray, [London, 18 September 1852], 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/92084