GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 30 July 1859
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 30 July 1859
Title
GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 30 July 1859
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1859-07-30
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 30 July 1859
Text: Cross, II, 123-125.
Pug is come! 234 -- come to fill up the void left by false and narrow-hearted friends. I see already that he is without envy, hatred, or malice -- that he will betray no secrets, and feel neither pain at my success nor pleasure in my chagrin. I hope the photograph does justice to his physiognomy. It is expressive, full of gentleness and affection, and radiant with intelligence when there is a savoury morsel in question -- a hopeful indication of his mental capacity. I distrust all intellectual pretension that announces itself by obtuseness of palate!
I wish you could see him in his best pose, -- when I have arrested him in a violent career of carpet-scratching, and he looks at me with fore-legs very wide apart, trying to penetrate the deep mystery of this arbitrary, not to say capricious, prohibition. He is snoring by my side at this moment, with a serene promise of remaining quiet for any length of time: he couldn't behave better if he had been expressly educated for me. I am too lazy a lover of dogs and all earthly things to like them when they give me much trouble, preferring to describe the pleasure other people have in taking trouble.
Alas! the shadow that tracks all earthly good -- the possibility of loss. One may lose one's faculties, which will not always fetch a high price; how much more a Pug worth unmentionable sums 235 -- a PUG which some generous-hearted personage in some other corner of Great Britain than Edinburgh may even now be sending emissaries after, being bent on paying the kindest, most delicate attention to a sensitive mortal not sufficiently reticent of wishes.
All I can say of that generous-hearted personage No. 2 is, that I wish he may get -- somebody else's Pug, not mine. And all I will say of the sensitive, insufficiently-reticent mortal No. 2 is, that I hope he may be as pleased and as grateful as George Eliot.
Text: Cross, II, 123-125.
Pug is come! 234 -- come to fill up the void left by false and narrow-hearted friends. I see already that he is without envy, hatred, or malice -- that he will betray no secrets, and feel neither pain at my success nor pleasure in my chagrin. I hope the photograph does justice to his physiognomy. It is expressive, full of gentleness and affection, and radiant with intelligence when there is a savoury morsel in question -- a hopeful indication of his mental capacity. I distrust all intellectual pretension that announces itself by obtuseness of palate!
I wish you could see him in his best pose, -- when I have arrested him in a violent career of carpet-scratching, and he looks at me with fore-legs very wide apart, trying to penetrate the deep mystery of this arbitrary, not to say capricious, prohibition. He is snoring by my side at this moment, with a serene promise of remaining quiet for any length of time: he couldn't behave better if he had been expressly educated for me. I am too lazy a lover of dogs and all earthly things to like them when they give me much trouble, preferring to describe the pleasure other people have in taking trouble.
Alas! the shadow that tracks all earthly good -- the possibility of loss. One may lose one's faculties, which will not always fetch a high price; how much more a Pug worth unmentionable sums 235 -- a PUG which some generous-hearted personage in some other corner of Great Britain than Edinburgh may even now be sending emissaries after, being bent on paying the kindest, most delicate attention to a sensitive mortal not sufficiently reticent of wishes.
All I can say of that generous-hearted personage No. 2 is, that I wish he may get -- somebody else's Pug, not mine. And all I will say of the sensitive, insufficiently-reticent mortal No. 2 is, that I hope he may be as pleased and as grateful as George Eliot.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to John Blackwood, Wandsworth, 30 July 1859, 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/92751