GE to Martha Jackson, Griff, 20 October 1840
Title
GE to Martha Jackson, Griff, 20 October 1840
Title
GE to Martha Jackson, Griff, 20 October 1840
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Martha Jackson
Date(s)
- 1840-10-20
Place
GRIFF
Letter Content
GE to Martha Jackson, Griff, 20 October 1840
Text: Bookman, 3 (December 1892), 83.
Griff, October 20th, 1840.
Have I really a friend Martha still, or is she become only a "bead of memory's rosary"? I can ill spare her, I confess, for I am not rich in friends. . . .
I am very far from well to-night, and quite in an unfit state to conciliate or recover a weary correspondent, but my desire to know the worst of you and the expectation of having my time and thoughts occupied by visitors 254 influence me under every disadvantage to try the effect of importunity on your durissimo cor. . . .
Every day's experience seems to deepen the voice of foreboding that has long been telling me, "The bliss of reciprocated affection is not allotted to you under any form. Your heart must be widowed in this manner from the world, or you will never seek a better portion; a consciousness of possessing the fervent love of any human being would soon become your heaven, therefore it would be your curse." . . .
I was electrified a little while ago by an observation of Aimé Martin's, "I was resolved to be neither a Frenchman, a Russian, nor a Turk, but to be a man!" 255 May I unceasingly aspire to unclothe all around me of its conventional, human, temporary dress, to look at it in its essence and in its relation to eternity, and thus in perhaps rather a different sense from Wordsworth's "breath[e] the spirit of the universe." 256
Text: Bookman, 3 (December 1892), 83.
Griff, October 20th, 1840.
Have I really a friend Martha still, or is she become only a "bead of memory's rosary"? I can ill spare her, I confess, for I am not rich in friends. . . .
I am very far from well to-night, and quite in an unfit state to conciliate or recover a weary correspondent, but my desire to know the worst of you and the expectation of having my time and thoughts occupied by visitors 254 influence me under every disadvantage to try the effect of importunity on your durissimo cor. . . .
Every day's experience seems to deepen the voice of foreboding that has long been telling me, "The bliss of reciprocated affection is not allotted to you under any form. Your heart must be widowed in this manner from the world, or you will never seek a better portion; a consciousness of possessing the fervent love of any human being would soon become your heaven, therefore it would be your curse." . . .
I was electrified a little while ago by an observation of Aimé Martin's, "I was resolved to be neither a Frenchman, a Russian, nor a Turk, but to be a man!" 255 May I unceasingly aspire to unclothe all around me of its conventional, human, temporary dress, to look at it in its essence and in its relation to eternity, and thus in perhaps rather a different sense from Wordsworth's "breath[e] the spirit of the universe." 256
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Martha Jackson, Griff, 20 October 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/92935