GE to Martha Jackson, Griff, [February 1840]
Title
GE to Martha Jackson, Griff, [February 1840]
Title
GE to Martha Jackson, Griff, [February 1840]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Martha Jackson
Date(s)
- 1840-02
Place
GRIFF
Letter Content
GE to Martha Jackson, Griff, [February 1840]
Text: Bookman, 3 (December 1892), 82-83.
Griff, | February, 1840.
Does my mental scent deceive me when it tells me that my merry little Martha's finely rounded compliment is strongly impregnated with the satire that she is continually, even though unconsciously, breathing out? Well, be it so; notwithstanding the paucity of my cerebrum in a certain part, I will not allow you to-night to disturb my self-complacency, but will answer your application with all gravity and importance. The word classics has a very soaring air, but alas! we must crawl for some time up a rugged steep before we can catch a glimpse of the desired summit. We must get a Latin Grammar and tax our memories with every word of it. This is all I have attempted at present, with the exception of reading some of Esop with Taylor's literal translation. I have a series of elementary Latin books after Locke's method, published by Taylor and Walton; 164 the set cost one guinea.
As you are so spirited in determining to see every book that is mentioned to you, I will tell you the modern ones I have read since I last wrote. Three volumes of G. P. R. James's Life and Times of Louis Quatorze; there is a fourth and last, which I shall, I hope, soon have. His reign, you know, was a focus on which were blended the brightest rays of France's military and literary glory. I devour it as a romance. I have now the life of Sir Richard Hill, 165 by the Rev. Edwin Sidney, and Scrope on Deer Stalking in the Highlands, 166 which last, you may fancy, can be a book only for sportsmen and Amazons, but I rather think it is interesting. I intend, if spared, to be busy with a chart which I am anxious to complete, and if I succeed, to print it for a certain object. It gives a chronological view of Ecclesiastical History, and has not that I know of been forestalled. I have seen charts of profane history innumerable, or rather I should say secular history, but never one of Church history. Have you?
I have a faint hope that Mr. Brezzi 167 will be able to give me some time next month, and if I am not disappointed I shall begin German with him and continue Italian; this I ardently long for. . . .
Our dear J[essie]'s 168 letters are always full of spiritual feeling, and
I rejoice that you share the same benefit as myself in being one of her correspondents. I am just now perturbed by circumstances that have called forth much emotion of a kind not favourable to the progress of the soul, either in earthly or heavenly acquirements. May I one day be a more useful friend!
Text: Bookman, 3 (December 1892), 82-83.
Griff, | February, 1840.
Does my mental scent deceive me when it tells me that my merry little Martha's finely rounded compliment is strongly impregnated with the satire that she is continually, even though unconsciously, breathing out? Well, be it so; notwithstanding the paucity of my cerebrum in a certain part, I will not allow you to-night to disturb my self-complacency, but will answer your application with all gravity and importance. The word classics has a very soaring air, but alas! we must crawl for some time up a rugged steep before we can catch a glimpse of the desired summit. We must get a Latin Grammar and tax our memories with every word of it. This is all I have attempted at present, with the exception of reading some of Esop with Taylor's literal translation. I have a series of elementary Latin books after Locke's method, published by Taylor and Walton; 164 the set cost one guinea.
As you are so spirited in determining to see every book that is mentioned to you, I will tell you the modern ones I have read since I last wrote. Three volumes of G. P. R. James's Life and Times of Louis Quatorze; there is a fourth and last, which I shall, I hope, soon have. His reign, you know, was a focus on which were blended the brightest rays of France's military and literary glory. I devour it as a romance. I have now the life of Sir Richard Hill, 165 by the Rev. Edwin Sidney, and Scrope on Deer Stalking in the Highlands, 166 which last, you may fancy, can be a book only for sportsmen and Amazons, but I rather think it is interesting. I intend, if spared, to be busy with a chart which I am anxious to complete, and if I succeed, to print it for a certain object. It gives a chronological view of Ecclesiastical History, and has not that I know of been forestalled. I have seen charts of profane history innumerable, or rather I should say secular history, but never one of Church history. Have you?
I have a faint hope that Mr. Brezzi 167 will be able to give me some time next month, and if I am not disappointed I shall begin German with him and continue Italian; this I ardently long for. . . .
Our dear J[essie]'s 168 letters are always full of spiritual feeling, and
I rejoice that you share the same benefit as myself in being one of her correspondents. I am just now perturbed by circumstances that have called forth much emotion of a kind not favourable to the progress of the soul, either in earthly or heavenly acquirements. May I one day be a more useful friend!
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Martha Jackson, Griff, [February 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/92932