GE to Mrs. Peter Alfred Taylor, London, 10 July 1865
Title
GE to Mrs. Peter Alfred Taylor, London, 10 July 1865
Title
GE to Mrs. Peter Alfred Taylor, London, 10 July 1865
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Mrs. Peter Alfred Taylor
Date(s)
- 1865-07-10
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Mrs. Peter Alfred Taylor, London, 10 July 1865
Text: Cross, II, 405-406.
Success to the canvassing! 356 It is "very meet and right and your bounden duty" 357 to be with Mr Taylor in this time of hard work, and I am glad that your health has made no impediment. I should have liked to be present when you were cheered. The expression of a common feeling by a large mass of men, when the feeling is one of good-will, moves me like music. A public tribute to any man who has done the world a service with brain or hand, has on me the effect of a great religious rite, with pealing organ and full-voiced choir.
I agree with you in your feeling about Mill. Some of his works have been frequently my companions of late, 358 and I have been going through many actions de gr'e2ce towards him. I am not anxious that he should be in Parliament: thinkers can do more outside than inside the House. But it would have been a fine precedent, and would have made an epoch, for such a man to have been asked for and elected solely on the ground of his mental eminence. As it is, I suppose it is pretty certain that he will not be elected.
I am glad you have been interested in Mr Lewes's articles. 359 His great anxiety about the [Fortnightly] is to make it the vehicle for sincere writing -- real contributions of opinion on important topics. But it is more difficult than the inexperienced could imagine to get the sort of writing which will correspond to that desire of his.
Text: Cross, II, 405-406.
Success to the canvassing! 356 It is "very meet and right and your bounden duty" 357 to be with Mr Taylor in this time of hard work, and I am glad that your health has made no impediment. I should have liked to be present when you were cheered. The expression of a common feeling by a large mass of men, when the feeling is one of good-will, moves me like music. A public tribute to any man who has done the world a service with brain or hand, has on me the effect of a great religious rite, with pealing organ and full-voiced choir.
I agree with you in your feeling about Mill. Some of his works have been frequently my companions of late, 358 and I have been going through many actions de gr'e2ce towards him. I am not anxious that he should be in Parliament: thinkers can do more outside than inside the House. But it would have been a fine precedent, and would have made an epoch, for such a man to have been asked for and elected solely on the ground of his mental eminence. As it is, I suppose it is pretty certain that he will not be elected.
I am glad you have been interested in Mr Lewes's articles. 359 His great anxiety about the [Fortnightly] is to make it the vehicle for sincere writing -- real contributions of opinion on important topics. But it is more difficult than the inexperienced could imagine to get the sort of writing which will correspond to that desire of his.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Mrs. Peter Alfred Taylor, London, 10 July 1865, 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/93575