GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 11 September 1879
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 11 September 1879
Title
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 11 September 1879
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Elma Stuart
Date(s)
- 1879-09-11
Place
Witley
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 11 September 1879
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 128-131.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
September 11. 79.
Dearest Elma
I was almost ready to reproach you for letting me be so long without news of you, but I remembered how difficult it might be for you to write, and also your diffident or rather delicate reticence. It is a comfort to see your handwriting in ink again, though the matter is more melancholy than it used to be -- and not without a reason in which I strongly sympathize. I do enter into your regrets of the old time and its hopes and can understand how the glorious Buffet seems to you sometimes only a record of disappointments. And our heart-sorrows are not easily wrestled with when our bodies are being bruised or tormented. Some little share of this torment I too have been going through -- I think almost entirely since I wrote to you, though perhaps I already grumbled at its beginning, for I am a very Greek at making a noise about my bodily troubles. I have had really a rather painful illness according to my low scale of experience in such matters. But I am now getting strong, and am in many ways better than I was before the illness began.
I shall probably be in London when you come over -- nay I am almost certain to be there by the end of October. As to the Chelsea Embankment, I think your friend was exaggerating. There are still many fine old houses, not likely to be touched at present. The difficulty is to find one empty.
About Roly it is surely the best comfort you could have, that you have done your best to secure his welfare, and in any result you will not have to reflect that you thwarted him for his harm. I shall want to know how the new trial succeeds.
Excuse my scepticism, but I cannot help suspecting that there were some echoes about you in the air around Miss Richardson when she wrote out your character. 317 It is sadly true, I fear, that you have "a too vivid realization, and too keen a sense of joy and sorrow," and you must have had very sharp sorrows, my poor dear. But you have helped others all the better and all the more, so the bitterness in your cup has turned to sweetness for some other sufferer.
The Studentship of Physiology -- [the George Henry Lewes Studentship] -- which I perhaps told you that I was founding -- is now quite settled, 318 and the printing of the last thick volume of [Problems of Life and Mind] is drawing to a close. These two have been my chief objects during this calamitous Summer, in which war and weather have continually pressed upon me the sense of public misfortune. I keep myself as busy as I can in my solitude, so that I may not become imbecile and useless.
I am glad you like Theophrastus. He has most unexpectedly won great favour with the public whom he certainly does not flatter, and they have been magnanimous enough to buy 6000 of his [Impressions.] This detail is worth telling you if it will please your ardent goodwill.
I think about the precious Walking-stick. I should like you to have it again to keep as a memorial, if that would accord with your feeling. I have a great shrinking from the possibility that when I die relics may fall into the hands of those who do not care for them. Many small things I mean to have buried with me, and I think burning is better than leaving consecrated trifles to careless minds -- I mean innocently careless from want of the needful initiation.
Please offer my loving remembrances to Mrs. Menzies and believe me always, dear, full of grateful, affectionate memories -- the record of all your goodness to me whom you have honoured with the name of
Mother.
MS: British Museum. Published: Stuart, pp. 128-131.
The Heights, Witley, | Nr. Godalming.
September 11. 79.
Dearest Elma
I was almost ready to reproach you for letting me be so long without news of you, but I remembered how difficult it might be for you to write, and also your diffident or rather delicate reticence. It is a comfort to see your handwriting in ink again, though the matter is more melancholy than it used to be -- and not without a reason in which I strongly sympathize. I do enter into your regrets of the old time and its hopes and can understand how the glorious Buffet seems to you sometimes only a record of disappointments. And our heart-sorrows are not easily wrestled with when our bodies are being bruised or tormented. Some little share of this torment I too have been going through -- I think almost entirely since I wrote to you, though perhaps I already grumbled at its beginning, for I am a very Greek at making a noise about my bodily troubles. I have had really a rather painful illness according to my low scale of experience in such matters. But I am now getting strong, and am in many ways better than I was before the illness began.
I shall probably be in London when you come over -- nay I am almost certain to be there by the end of October. As to the Chelsea Embankment, I think your friend was exaggerating. There are still many fine old houses, not likely to be touched at present. The difficulty is to find one empty.
About Roly it is surely the best comfort you could have, that you have done your best to secure his welfare, and in any result you will not have to reflect that you thwarted him for his harm. I shall want to know how the new trial succeeds.
Excuse my scepticism, but I cannot help suspecting that there were some echoes about you in the air around Miss Richardson when she wrote out your character. 317 It is sadly true, I fear, that you have "a too vivid realization, and too keen a sense of joy and sorrow," and you must have had very sharp sorrows, my poor dear. But you have helped others all the better and all the more, so the bitterness in your cup has turned to sweetness for some other sufferer.
The Studentship of Physiology -- [the George Henry Lewes Studentship] -- which I perhaps told you that I was founding -- is now quite settled, 318 and the printing of the last thick volume of [Problems of Life and Mind] is drawing to a close. These two have been my chief objects during this calamitous Summer, in which war and weather have continually pressed upon me the sense of public misfortune. I keep myself as busy as I can in my solitude, so that I may not become imbecile and useless.
I am glad you like Theophrastus. He has most unexpectedly won great favour with the public whom he certainly does not flatter, and they have been magnanimous enough to buy 6000 of his [Impressions.] This detail is worth telling you if it will please your ardent goodwill.
I think about the precious Walking-stick. I should like you to have it again to keep as a memorial, if that would accord with your feeling. I have a great shrinking from the possibility that when I die relics may fall into the hands of those who do not care for them. Many small things I mean to have buried with me, and I think burning is better than leaving consecrated trifles to careless minds -- I mean innocently careless from want of the needful initiation.
Please offer my loving remembrances to Mrs. Menzies and believe me always, dear, full of grateful, affectionate memories -- the record of all your goodness to me whom you have honoured with the name of
Mother.
Signature
Mother.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Elma Stuart, Witley, 11 September 1879, 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/93423