GE to Charles Bray, Richmond, 23 December 1857
Title
GE to Charles Bray, Richmond, 23 December 1857
Title
GE to Charles Bray, Richmond, 23 December 1857
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Charles Bray
Date(s)
- 1857-12-23
Place
Richmond
Letter Content
GE to Charles Bray, Richmond, 23 December 1857
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
Park Shot | Richmond | December 23. 57.
Dear Friend
Thank you for sending me your pamphlet on the Currency. I have read your letter on the subject in the Leader, 1041 and so far as I am capable of judging, your views are the "sound" ones. But it has often appeared to me -- and your letter is, I think, open to a similar criticism -- that the opponents of the [gold-standard] do not make it sufficiently clear to their readers that they presuppose, as a necessity, some guarantee such as government security, as a basis for confidence; so that the holder of a bag of cowries for example, where cowries are the circulating medium, should not be liable, some fine morning, to discover that his cowries will purchase him nothing. That contingency, so far as I am able to see, is the one stronghold of those who maintain that the circulating medium should have an intrinsic value, and therefore all the emphasis of argument and illustration should storm them at that point. But whether I am talking "sanity or insanity," as Carlyle says of himself, 1042 is a perfectly equal chance, on a subject of which I know so little.
I heartily respond to your good wishes for Christmas and the New Year. I find there is nothing so heart-warming as happiness when it comes to those who have known what it is to suffer. But the human being can hardly be educated, at present, without the two. I'm sorry to hear from Sara that you have been having a little too much of the suffering lately, in the way of toothache and other bodily evils.
We should like to lend you "Buckle" ourselves very much, but I am sorry to say that Mr. Lewes is needing it for reference on some subjects on which he is engaged. But we shall be going to Germany early in the Spring, and by that time I have no doubt he will have done with it and will be able to leave it for you to read at your leisure, if you cannot obtain it before then. It is a book full of suggestive material, though there are some strangely unphilosophic opinions mixed with its hardy philosophy. For example, he holds that there is no such thing as race or hereditary transmission of qualities! I should tell you, at the same time, that he is a necessitarian, and a physiological-psychologist. It is only by such negations as these that he can find his way to the position, which he maintains at great length, that the progress of mankind is dependent entirely on the progress of knowledge, and that there has been no intrinsically-moral advance. However, he presents that side of the subject which has perhaps been least adequately dwelt on.
Mr. Lewes unites with me in kind regards, and I am always
Your affectionate Friend
Marian Lewes.
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
Park Shot | Richmond | December 23. 57.
Dear Friend
Thank you for sending me your pamphlet on the Currency. I have read your letter on the subject in the Leader, 1041 and so far as I am capable of judging, your views are the "sound" ones. But it has often appeared to me -- and your letter is, I think, open to a similar criticism -- that the opponents of the [gold-standard] do not make it sufficiently clear to their readers that they presuppose, as a necessity, some guarantee such as government security, as a basis for confidence; so that the holder of a bag of cowries for example, where cowries are the circulating medium, should not be liable, some fine morning, to discover that his cowries will purchase him nothing. That contingency, so far as I am able to see, is the one stronghold of those who maintain that the circulating medium should have an intrinsic value, and therefore all the emphasis of argument and illustration should storm them at that point. But whether I am talking "sanity or insanity," as Carlyle says of himself, 1042 is a perfectly equal chance, on a subject of which I know so little.
I heartily respond to your good wishes for Christmas and the New Year. I find there is nothing so heart-warming as happiness when it comes to those who have known what it is to suffer. But the human being can hardly be educated, at present, without the two. I'm sorry to hear from Sara that you have been having a little too much of the suffering lately, in the way of toothache and other bodily evils.
We should like to lend you "Buckle" ourselves very much, but I am sorry to say that Mr. Lewes is needing it for reference on some subjects on which he is engaged. But we shall be going to Germany early in the Spring, and by that time I have no doubt he will have done with it and will be able to leave it for you to read at your leisure, if you cannot obtain it before then. It is a book full of suggestive material, though there are some strangely unphilosophic opinions mixed with its hardy philosophy. For example, he holds that there is no such thing as race or hereditary transmission of qualities! I should tell you, at the same time, that he is a necessitarian, and a physiological-psychologist. It is only by such negations as these that he can find his way to the position, which he maintains at great length, that the progress of mankind is dependent entirely on the progress of knowledge, and that there has been no intrinsically-moral advance. However, he presents that side of the subject which has perhaps been least adequately dwelt on.
Mr. Lewes unites with me in kind regards, and I am always
Your affectionate Friend
Marian Lewes.
Signature
Marian Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Charles Bray, Richmond, 23 December 1857, 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/92161