GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, [13 March 1840]
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, [13 March 1840]
Title
GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, [13 March 1840]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Maria Lewis
Date(s)
- 1840-03-13
Place
GRIFF
Letter Content
GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, [13 March 1840]
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, I, 62, under date 2 May 1840.
Griff Friday Evening.
My very dear Friend,
This is a business letter and will be written in business-like haste. I could not bear to send you such a one in return for your last which will be one of my treasured remembrances of an era in my existence but that I know you will be glad to think of me as thoroughly employed, as indeed I am to an extent that makes me fear I shall not be able to accomplish anything well. I have engaged if possible to complete the Chart, 171 the plan of which I sketched out last year, by November next, and I am encouraged to believe that it will answer my purpose to print it. The profits arising from its sale, if any, will go partly to Attleborough Church 172 and partly to a favorite object of my own. Mrs. Newdegate 173 is very anxious that I should do thus and she permits me to visit her library when I please in search of any books that may assist me. Now what I want to beg of you is that you will, if you have an opportunity, pump Mr. Craig on the subject, and obtain his opinion on the utility, feasibility for me, and best mode of executing the work. Will you ask him what he considers the best authority for the date of the apostolical writings? I should like to carry the chart down to the Reformation, if my time and resources will enable me to do so.
We are going to have a Clothing Club, the arrangement and starting of which are left to me. Naughty Mrs. Newdegate promised to send me rules which she has forgotten. I am ashamed to run the risk of troubling you, but I should be very grateful if you could send me an abstract of the rules by which yours is regulated. Now I hope I have done with self of which both you and I have reason to be weary. I do not tell you the cause of my silence after your permission that I should write again within last week, as that would lead me to subjects on which I cannot trust myself; I have felt grieved that I have not been able to entitle myself to a bulletin respecting your bodily and mental health. One circumstance connected with the trial you mentioned in your last was gratifying to me, namely that it gave occasion for the triumph of Christian friendship over a regard to your own comfort, for I am sure it must have been a task for you to write with your eyes and heart both sore. I am anxious to know that your persecutor 174 has had a thorough castigation for her own sake as well as yours.
Mrs. T. Bull has entrusted me with a message of love to you and this reminds me to tell you that I was invited to a party at her house last week. You know I had causes for anything but high spirits before-hand, and when I had been there some time the conviction that I was not in a situation to maintain the Protestant character of the true Christian, together with the oppressive noise that formed the accompaniment to the dancing, the sole amusement, produced first headache and then that most wretched and unpitied of afflictions, hysteria, so that I regularly disgraced myself. 175 Mrs. Bull was extremely kind. One good effect of a temporary annoyance and indisposition will be to render me more decided in rejecting all invitations of a dubious character.
You see I have rolled again on the centre to which I invariably gravitate. I wish I could make you amends for nearly four sides of uninteresting matter by sending you something worth reading before I say good bye. Perhaps something I wrote this morning to my useful little pocket-book (Brown's patent with a metallic pencil the marks of which are indelible) will amuse you. Wretched doggrel as the lines are, I would the sentiment they convey though obscurely were graven with an iron pen and lead in the too rocky heart within me. I will put them on the envelope. 176 I beseech you to pardon my trifling, my egotism, and much more that is perceptibly offensive to others though not to myself. I have not referred to realities that I desire to have nearest my heart, for several reasons. I hope soon to write a little more tolerably to you. I shall hug a letter from you, and I assure you I need one as much as ever. Tell me all about your dear self. I think you will be pleased to hear that Isaac is determinately busy, and altogether improving. It is time I came to an end for you see I forget even my nominative case. 177 Never, you will say when it is in the first person, and to this charge I plead guilty but have great confidence in the clemency of the court. Love and pray for your grateful and affectionate
Mary Ann.
I promise to write again very soon if that will be the least bait to you.
MS: Yale. Extracts published: Cross, I, 62, under date 2 May 1840.
Griff Friday Evening.
My very dear Friend,
This is a business letter and will be written in business-like haste. I could not bear to send you such a one in return for your last which will be one of my treasured remembrances of an era in my existence but that I know you will be glad to think of me as thoroughly employed, as indeed I am to an extent that makes me fear I shall not be able to accomplish anything well. I have engaged if possible to complete the Chart, 171 the plan of which I sketched out last year, by November next, and I am encouraged to believe that it will answer my purpose to print it. The profits arising from its sale, if any, will go partly to Attleborough Church 172 and partly to a favorite object of my own. Mrs. Newdegate 173 is very anxious that I should do thus and she permits me to visit her library when I please in search of any books that may assist me. Now what I want to beg of you is that you will, if you have an opportunity, pump Mr. Craig on the subject, and obtain his opinion on the utility, feasibility for me, and best mode of executing the work. Will you ask him what he considers the best authority for the date of the apostolical writings? I should like to carry the chart down to the Reformation, if my time and resources will enable me to do so.
We are going to have a Clothing Club, the arrangement and starting of which are left to me. Naughty Mrs. Newdegate promised to send me rules which she has forgotten. I am ashamed to run the risk of troubling you, but I should be very grateful if you could send me an abstract of the rules by which yours is regulated. Now I hope I have done with self of which both you and I have reason to be weary. I do not tell you the cause of my silence after your permission that I should write again within last week, as that would lead me to subjects on which I cannot trust myself; I have felt grieved that I have not been able to entitle myself to a bulletin respecting your bodily and mental health. One circumstance connected with the trial you mentioned in your last was gratifying to me, namely that it gave occasion for the triumph of Christian friendship over a regard to your own comfort, for I am sure it must have been a task for you to write with your eyes and heart both sore. I am anxious to know that your persecutor 174 has had a thorough castigation for her own sake as well as yours.
Mrs. T. Bull has entrusted me with a message of love to you and this reminds me to tell you that I was invited to a party at her house last week. You know I had causes for anything but high spirits before-hand, and when I had been there some time the conviction that I was not in a situation to maintain the Protestant character of the true Christian, together with the oppressive noise that formed the accompaniment to the dancing, the sole amusement, produced first headache and then that most wretched and unpitied of afflictions, hysteria, so that I regularly disgraced myself. 175 Mrs. Bull was extremely kind. One good effect of a temporary annoyance and indisposition will be to render me more decided in rejecting all invitations of a dubious character.
You see I have rolled again on the centre to which I invariably gravitate. I wish I could make you amends for nearly four sides of uninteresting matter by sending you something worth reading before I say good bye. Perhaps something I wrote this morning to my useful little pocket-book (Brown's patent with a metallic pencil the marks of which are indelible) will amuse you. Wretched doggrel as the lines are, I would the sentiment they convey though obscurely were graven with an iron pen and lead in the too rocky heart within me. I will put them on the envelope. 176 I beseech you to pardon my trifling, my egotism, and much more that is perceptibly offensive to others though not to myself. I have not referred to realities that I desire to have nearest my heart, for several reasons. I hope soon to write a little more tolerably to you. I shall hug a letter from you, and I assure you I need one as much as ever. Tell me all about your dear self. I think you will be pleased to hear that Isaac is determinately busy, and altogether improving. It is time I came to an end for you see I forget even my nominative case. 177 Never, you will say when it is in the first person, and to this charge I plead guilty but have great confidence in the clemency of the court. Love and pray for your grateful and affectionate
Mary Ann.
I promise to write again very soon if that will be the least bait to you.
Signature
Mary Ann.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Maria Lewis, Griff, [13 March 1840], 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/92889