GE to James Thomson, London, 30 May 1874
Title
GE to James Thomson, London, 30 May 1874
Title
GE to James Thomson, London, 30 May 1874
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
James Thomson
Date(s)
- 1874-05-30
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to James Thomson, London, 30 May 1874
MS: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Endorsed: George Eliot (Mrs. Lewes) (re City of Dreadful Night) 30.5.74. James Thomson 1834-1882. Published: Mathilde Blind, George Eliot, 1883, pp. 171-172.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
May 30. 74.
Dear Poet
I cannot rest satisfied without telling you that my mind responds with admiration to the distinct vision and grand utterance in the poem 99 which you have been so good as to send me.
Also, I trust that an intellect informed by so much passionate energy as yours will soon give us more heroic strains with a wider embrace of human fellowship in them -- such as will be to the labourers of the world what the odes of Tyrtaeus were to the Spartans, thrilling them with the sublimity of the social order and the courage of resistance to all that would dissolve it. To accept life and write much fine poetry, is to take a very large share in the quantum of human good, and seems to draw with it necessarily some recognition, affectionate and even joyful, of the manifold willing labours which have made such a lot possible.
Yours sincerely,
M. E. Lewes.
MS: Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge. Endorsed: George Eliot (Mrs. Lewes) (re City of Dreadful Night) 30.5.74. James Thomson 1834-1882. Published: Mathilde Blind, George Eliot, 1883, pp. 171-172.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
May 30. 74.
Dear Poet
I cannot rest satisfied without telling you that my mind responds with admiration to the distinct vision and grand utterance in the poem 99 which you have been so good as to send me.
Also, I trust that an intellect informed by so much passionate energy as yours will soon give us more heroic strains with a wider embrace of human fellowship in them -- such as will be to the labourers of the world what the odes of Tyrtaeus were to the Spartans, thrilling them with the sublimity of the social order and the courage of resistance to all that would dissolve it. To accept life and write much fine poetry, is to take a very large share in the quantum of human good, and seems to draw with it necessarily some recognition, affectionate and even joyful, of the manifold willing labours which have made such a lot possible.
Yours sincerely,
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to James Thomson, London, 30 May 1874, 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/92554