GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 9 March 1854
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 9 March 1854
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 9 March 1854
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1854-03-09
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 9 March 1854
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
Cambridge Street | March 9. 1854.
Dear Sara
Pray keep the M.S. another week. By the week after next I shall have a large parcel for you which I hope Mr. Bray will not object to carry. You know the German fashion of writing 'fcber= und wider= nat'fcrliche, ausser= und 'fcber=weltliche etc. Do you prefer the innovation of introducing this abbreviation into the English, or the awkwardness of repetition? 442
I am rather surprized that Mr. Noel should "speak slightingly" of Feuerbach, since when he came to England with Dr. Springer 443 he brought a smaller work of Feuerbach's "Das Wesen der Religion" 444 containing the same fundamental ideas as the "Wesen des Christenthums" and expressed great anxiety to have it translated. But perhaps he was speaking in Dr. Springer's sense just then. Au reste, Mr. Noel is not a reading man and, I know, has no clear idea of the contents of Feuerbach's works. But that does not hinder him (Mr. Noel) from being a man of strong sense, of real kindliness and large experience of life especially of life among distinguished people and in remarkable places. I am glad you have had some pleasure in his lecture 445 and society.
I am exceedingly well now and enjoying existence as an imperfectly developed stunted creature may. I like my independent life in lodgings better and better, and want nothing but a little more money. Miss Barbara Smith has lent me some of her pictures, of which I am very fond, to ornament my room with and suggest some prettier ideas than I can extract out of dingy walls and curtains. I am often longing for a little more of "le superflu, chose si necessaire" 446 -- much oftener than I remember that half the things I have are "le superflu" for the majority of mankind.
I must tell you a characteristic trait of Herbert Spencer. I happened to say in reference to a criticism I had given of a passage in his article on the Universal Postulate, which passage he expunged in consequence, that the better form for the axiom which is the basis of the syllogism as explained by Mill would be -- "Things which have the same fixed relation to the same thing have the same fixed relation to each other." Mill gives "Things which co-exist with the same thing" etc. The next day he came to tell me in intense delight how important the suggestion was to him in his work on Psychology -- how it had given him just the bridge he wanted etc. -- and that he should put a long note in his book explaining how he came by the idea. Is he not a dear bit of conscientiousness and scrupulosity? 447
Mr. Lewes has just come in and put into my hands the enclosed letter from Gerald Massey, which shew Mr. Bray. Be it noted, that the "letter" G. Massey refers to contained the question -- when was Mr. L. going to review G.M.'s book, as he (G.M.) meant to advertise in the Leader. Also, that Mr. Lewes has been very kind to Gerald Massey as an author. 448
I have no time to say any more. I fear you can't read even this.
Pollian.
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
Cambridge Street | March 9. 1854.
Dear Sara
Pray keep the M.S. another week. By the week after next I shall have a large parcel for you which I hope Mr. Bray will not object to carry. You know the German fashion of writing 'fcber= und wider= nat'fcrliche, ausser= und 'fcber=weltliche etc. Do you prefer the innovation of introducing this abbreviation into the English, or the awkwardness of repetition? 442
I am rather surprized that Mr. Noel should "speak slightingly" of Feuerbach, since when he came to England with Dr. Springer 443 he brought a smaller work of Feuerbach's "Das Wesen der Religion" 444 containing the same fundamental ideas as the "Wesen des Christenthums" and expressed great anxiety to have it translated. But perhaps he was speaking in Dr. Springer's sense just then. Au reste, Mr. Noel is not a reading man and, I know, has no clear idea of the contents of Feuerbach's works. But that does not hinder him (Mr. Noel) from being a man of strong sense, of real kindliness and large experience of life especially of life among distinguished people and in remarkable places. I am glad you have had some pleasure in his lecture 445 and society.
I am exceedingly well now and enjoying existence as an imperfectly developed stunted creature may. I like my independent life in lodgings better and better, and want nothing but a little more money. Miss Barbara Smith has lent me some of her pictures, of which I am very fond, to ornament my room with and suggest some prettier ideas than I can extract out of dingy walls and curtains. I am often longing for a little more of "le superflu, chose si necessaire" 446 -- much oftener than I remember that half the things I have are "le superflu" for the majority of mankind.
I must tell you a characteristic trait of Herbert Spencer. I happened to say in reference to a criticism I had given of a passage in his article on the Universal Postulate, which passage he expunged in consequence, that the better form for the axiom which is the basis of the syllogism as explained by Mill would be -- "Things which have the same fixed relation to the same thing have the same fixed relation to each other." Mill gives "Things which co-exist with the same thing" etc. The next day he came to tell me in intense delight how important the suggestion was to him in his work on Psychology -- how it had given him just the bridge he wanted etc. -- and that he should put a long note in his book explaining how he came by the idea. Is he not a dear bit of conscientiousness and scrupulosity? 447
Mr. Lewes has just come in and put into my hands the enclosed letter from Gerald Massey, which shew Mr. Bray. Be it noted, that the "letter" G. Massey refers to contained the question -- when was Mr. L. going to review G.M.'s book, as he (G.M.) meant to advertise in the Leader. Also, that Mr. Lewes has been very kind to Gerald Massey as an author. 448
I have no time to say any more. I fear you can't read even this.
Pollian.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, London, 9 March 1854, 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/94063