GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 15 February 1862
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 15 February 1862
Title
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 15 February 1862
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon
Date(s)
- 1862-02-15
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 15 February 1862
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Hitherto unpublished.
Blandford Sq. | February 15. 1862.
My dear Barbara
If Miss Allen 22 had not given me good news about you, I should have been urged to write and ask you for a letter; but I think it is a reasonable law that the one who takes wing should be the first to write
Everything has gone well with us since you left, except -- a great, great exception! -- livers and stomachs. Mr. Lewes has had much suffering of the usual head-achy, indigestive kind, and I too have had my share. Otherwise we have had no troubles but the public troubles -- anxiety about the war with America, and sympathy with the poor Queen. It really distresses one more than most general questions, to read the evidence of the low moral conditions -- the barbarism of feeling made all the more hideous by the pretension to advancement -- which discloses itself in the acts and writing of the Americans. My best consolation is that an example on so tremendous a scale of the need for the education of mankind through the affections and sentiments as a basis for true development, will have a strong influence on all thinkers, and be a check to the arid, narrow antagonism which in some quarters is held to be the only form of liberal thought.
Charlie was pleased to be remembered by you with a message of love. He is more and more precious to us, growing in inward grace, and I think somewhat also in outward. Your friend Mr. Scharf 24 has taken to him quite affectionately, and often has him for a quiet evening at his own house. Thornie too seems to be working and in every way improving at Edinburgh, and we are hoping, though without too much confidence, that he will get well through the Indian Examination in July.
George, in spite of ailments, has done a great deal of work since we said goodby to you. He has fairly begun what we have long contemplated as a happiness for him -- a History of Science, and has written so thorough an analysis and investigation of Aristotle's Natural Science, that he feels it will make an epoch for the men who are interested at once in the progress of modern science and in the question, how far Aristotle went both in the observation of facts and in their theoretic combination -- a question never yet cleared up, after all these ages. This work makes him very "jolly," but his dear face looks very pale and narrow. Those only can thoroughly feel the meaning of death who know what is perfect love.
I think I have no news to tell you. We do not, at present, think of going abroad till the Autumn. Charlie has his holiday in May, but we shall arrange for him to spend it at Geneva with my friends the d'Albert's, who will make a pleasant home for him. -- I am glad to hear from Miss Allen that your sister 25 is enjoying her life at Rome, and still more glad that you have perfect comfort about Mrs. Ludlow and her boy. I imagine the General's bliss! 26
George sends his best love. He and I would fain have known a few details about the Doctor's life in these months. It will do us good to see his face beside yours in May. You are both mingled with very much that is constantly in our thoughts, and your names are often turning up even on the surface of our talk. I am in a furor of scribbling in order to get done and carry this to the post. If I dislike letter-writing, I am at least prompt in answering letters, am I not?
I hope the word "success," means many beautiful, or rather, a few beautiful pictures.
God bless you -- that is not a false word -- however many false ideas may have been hidden under it. No -- not false ideas, but temporary ones, caterpillars and chrysalids of future ideas.
Farewell -- Ever thine
M. E. L.
MS: Mr. Philip Leigh-Smith. Hitherto unpublished.
Blandford Sq. | February 15. 1862.
My dear Barbara
If Miss Allen 22 had not given me good news about you, I should have been urged to write and ask you for a letter; but I think it is a reasonable law that the one who takes wing should be the first to write
Everything has gone well with us since you left, except -- a great, great exception! -- livers and stomachs. Mr. Lewes has had much suffering of the usual head-achy, indigestive kind, and I too have had my share. Otherwise we have had no troubles but the public troubles -- anxiety about the war with America, and sympathy with the poor Queen. It really distresses one more than most general questions, to read the evidence of the low moral conditions -- the barbarism of feeling made all the more hideous by the pretension to advancement -- which discloses itself in the acts and writing of the Americans. My best consolation is that an example on so tremendous a scale of the need for the education of mankind through the affections and sentiments as a basis for true development, will have a strong influence on all thinkers, and be a check to the arid, narrow antagonism which in some quarters is held to be the only form of liberal thought.
Charlie was pleased to be remembered by you with a message of love. He is more and more precious to us, growing in inward grace, and I think somewhat also in outward. Your friend Mr. Scharf 24 has taken to him quite affectionately, and often has him for a quiet evening at his own house. Thornie too seems to be working and in every way improving at Edinburgh, and we are hoping, though without too much confidence, that he will get well through the Indian Examination in July.
George, in spite of ailments, has done a great deal of work since we said goodby to you. He has fairly begun what we have long contemplated as a happiness for him -- a History of Science, and has written so thorough an analysis and investigation of Aristotle's Natural Science, that he feels it will make an epoch for the men who are interested at once in the progress of modern science and in the question, how far Aristotle went both in the observation of facts and in their theoretic combination -- a question never yet cleared up, after all these ages. This work makes him very "jolly," but his dear face looks very pale and narrow. Those only can thoroughly feel the meaning of death who know what is perfect love.
I think I have no news to tell you. We do not, at present, think of going abroad till the Autumn. Charlie has his holiday in May, but we shall arrange for him to spend it at Geneva with my friends the d'Albert's, who will make a pleasant home for him. -- I am glad to hear from Miss Allen that your sister 25 is enjoying her life at Rome, and still more glad that you have perfect comfort about Mrs. Ludlow and her boy. I imagine the General's bliss! 26
George sends his best love. He and I would fain have known a few details about the Doctor's life in these months. It will do us good to see his face beside yours in May. You are both mingled with very much that is constantly in our thoughts, and your names are often turning up even on the surface of our talk. I am in a furor of scribbling in order to get done and carry this to the post. If I dislike letter-writing, I am at least prompt in answering letters, am I not?
I hope the word "success," means many beautiful, or rather, a few beautiful pictures.
God bless you -- that is not a false word -- however many false ideas may have been hidden under it. No -- not false ideas, but temporary ones, caterpillars and chrysalids of future ideas.
Farewell -- Ever thine
M. E. L.
Signature
M. E. L.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Barbara [Mme Eugene] Bodichon, London, 15 February 1862, 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/93028