GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [21 August 1841]
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [21 August 1841]
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [21 August 1841]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria Lewis
Date(s)
- 1841-08-21
Place
FOLESHILL
Letter Content
GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [21 August 1841]
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
My very dear Veronica,
My precious books arrived last night, and I hasten to prevent your feeling the least anxiety about what has been too troublesome already. They are all beautiful -- just what I wished, and Rivingtons have very liberally allowed 15s/ discount, so that I have 6 volumes of Chalmer's Sermons. 346 How shall I ever repay you? I will make you some delicious extracts, if you are not intimate with Coleridge, or any of the other books. Tell me. I have now said enough about myself for many months to come -- I want to talk and hear of you. Write, write, write. Keep a sheet by you and scribble down thoughts as they occur. I have been reading 1 Pet. 5 this morning (the 2d lesson). You know the sweet, the elevating comfort it contains. I was impressed with the mode in which the Apostle speaks of the reversionary possessions of the Christian. [When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.] [That He may exalt you in due time.] [The God of all grace hath called you to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus.] 347 Let us call up the image of the Grecian games -- the concourse of spectators, the noblest and most intelligent of the sons of the land. The ambition of those who strove for the mastery, an efficient motive for rigid discipline and strenuous agonizing exertion, their perseverance until the reaching of the goal and the bestowal of the crown amid the acclamations of the multitude. Here is a type that by its analogy illustrates, but by its infinite inferiority serves to exalt our conceptions of the arduousness of the spiritual race, the dignity of the cloud-like host of witnesses, and the transcendent glory the inappreciable value of the [crown] reserved for those who have finished the course and kept the faith. 348
Forgive hurry and almost incoherency -- believe me my beloved Veronica,
Your faithful,
Clematis.
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
My very dear Veronica,
My precious books arrived last night, and I hasten to prevent your feeling the least anxiety about what has been too troublesome already. They are all beautiful -- just what I wished, and Rivingtons have very liberally allowed 15s/ discount, so that I have 6 volumes of Chalmer's Sermons. 346 How shall I ever repay you? I will make you some delicious extracts, if you are not intimate with Coleridge, or any of the other books. Tell me. I have now said enough about myself for many months to come -- I want to talk and hear of you. Write, write, write. Keep a sheet by you and scribble down thoughts as they occur. I have been reading 1 Pet. 5 this morning (the 2d lesson). You know the sweet, the elevating comfort it contains. I was impressed with the mode in which the Apostle speaks of the reversionary possessions of the Christian. [When the Chief Shepherd shall appear, ye shall receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.] [That He may exalt you in due time.] [The God of all grace hath called you to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus.] 347 Let us call up the image of the Grecian games -- the concourse of spectators, the noblest and most intelligent of the sons of the land. The ambition of those who strove for the mastery, an efficient motive for rigid discipline and strenuous agonizing exertion, their perseverance until the reaching of the goal and the bestowal of the crown amid the acclamations of the multitude. Here is a type that by its analogy illustrates, but by its infinite inferiority serves to exalt our conceptions of the arduousness of the spiritual race, the dignity of the cloud-like host of witnesses, and the transcendent glory the inappreciable value of the [crown] reserved for those who have finished the course and kept the faith. 348
Forgive hurry and almost incoherency -- believe me my beloved Veronica,
Your faithful,
Clematis.
Signature
Clematis.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria Lewis, Foleshill, [21 August 1841], 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/92873