GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Foleshill, [14 July 1848]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Foleshill, [14 July 1848]
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Foleshill, [14 July 1848]
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1848-07-14
Place
FOLESHILL
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Foleshill, [14 July 1848]
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Aug. 1848. Extracts published: Cross, I, 191-193.
Foleshill | Friday
Dear Sara
I have seen Emerson -- the first man I have ever seen. But you have seen still more of him so I need not tell you what he is. I have just been reading your letter to Rosehill and am distressed to read the termination about Strauss. Have you seen the Review of his pamphlet in the Edinburgh? 756 The title is [Der Romantiker auf dem Throne der C'e4saren, oder Julian der Abtr'fcnnige] -- a sort of erudite satire on the King of Prussia -- but the reviewer pronounces it to have a permanent value quite apart from this fugitive interest. The [Romantiker] or Romanticist is one who in literature, in the arts, in religion or politics endeavours to revive the dead past. Julian was a romanticist in wishing to restore the Greek religion and its spirit when mankind had entered on the new development, the nearer approach to the imago state of Christianity. But you have very likely seen the review. I must copy one passage, translated from the conclusion of Strauss's pamphlet lest you should not have met with it. "Christian writers have disfigured the death scene of Julian. They have represented him as furious, blaspheming, despairing and in his despair exclaiming -- Thou hast conquered, O Galilean, nenin'eakas 757 Galilaie! This phrase, though false as history, has a truth in it. It contains a prophecy -- to us a consoling prophecy -- and it is this: Every
Julian i.e. every great and powerful man who would attempt to resuscitate a state of society which has died, will infallibly be vanquished by the Galilean -- for the Galilean is nothing less than the genius of the future!"
Cara is uncertain whether she can fulfil her intention of writing to you today as she is rather languid after her children's party 758 and has other letters to write. I shall leave to her to tell how the day -- the Emerson day 759 -- was spent, for I have a swimming head from hanging over the desk to write business letters for Father.
Farewell, Geliebte -- may you be enabled to believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things. 760
Thy ever affectionate
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Endorsed: Aug. 1848. Extracts published: Cross, I, 191-193.
Foleshill | Friday
Dear Sara
I have seen Emerson -- the first man I have ever seen. But you have seen still more of him so I need not tell you what he is. I have just been reading your letter to Rosehill and am distressed to read the termination about Strauss. Have you seen the Review of his pamphlet in the Edinburgh? 756 The title is [Der Romantiker auf dem Throne der C'e4saren, oder Julian der Abtr'fcnnige] -- a sort of erudite satire on the King of Prussia -- but the reviewer pronounces it to have a permanent value quite apart from this fugitive interest. The [Romantiker] or Romanticist is one who in literature, in the arts, in religion or politics endeavours to revive the dead past. Julian was a romanticist in wishing to restore the Greek religion and its spirit when mankind had entered on the new development, the nearer approach to the imago state of Christianity. But you have very likely seen the review. I must copy one passage, translated from the conclusion of Strauss's pamphlet lest you should not have met with it. "Christian writers have disfigured the death scene of Julian. They have represented him as furious, blaspheming, despairing and in his despair exclaiming -- Thou hast conquered, O Galilean, nenin'eakas 757 Galilaie! This phrase, though false as history, has a truth in it. It contains a prophecy -- to us a consoling prophecy -- and it is this: Every
Julian i.e. every great and powerful man who would attempt to resuscitate a state of society which has died, will infallibly be vanquished by the Galilean -- for the Galilean is nothing less than the genius of the future!"
Cara is uncertain whether she can fulfil her intention of writing to you today as she is rather languid after her children's party 758 and has other letters to write. I shall leave to her to tell how the day -- the Emerson day 759 -- was spent, for I have a swimming head from hanging over the desk to write business letters for Father.
Farewell, Geliebte -- may you be enabled to believe all things, hope all things, and endure all things. 760
Thy ever affectionate
Pollian.
Signature
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Foleshill, [14 July 1848], 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/93893