GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, 7 July 1860
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, 7 July 1860
Title
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, 7 July 1860
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Sara Sophia Hennell
Date(s)
- 1860-07-07
Place
Wandsworth
Letter Content
GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, 7 July 1860
MS: Yale. Published: Cross, II, 258-261.
Holly Lodge | July 7. 60.
Dear Sara
I have finished my first rather rapid reading of your book, and now I thank you for it: not merely for the special gift of the volume and inscription, but for that of which many others will share the benefit with me -- the "Thoughts" themselves.
So far as my reading in English books of similar character extends,
yours seems to me quite unparalleled in the largeness and insight with which it estimates Christianity as an "organized experience," a grand advance in the moral development of the race.
I especially delight in the passage, p. 105 beginning "And how could it be otherwise," and ending with "formal rejection of it." 580 On this and other supremely interesting matters of thought -- perhaps I should rather say, of experience -- your book has shown me that we are much nearer to each other than I had supposed. At p. 174, again, there is a passage beginning "These sentiments" and ending with "heroes," which for me expresses the one half of true human piety. That thought is one of my favourite altars where I oftenest go to contemplate and to seek for invigorating motive.
Of the work as a whole I am quite incompetent to judge on a single cursory reading. I admire -- I respect the breadth and industry of mind it exhibits; and I should be obliged to give it a more thorough study than I can afford at present, before I should feel warranted to urge in the light of a criticism my failure to perceive the logical consistency of your language in some parts with the positions you have adopted in others. In many instances your meaning is obscure to me, or at least lies wrapped up in more folds of abstract phraseology than I have the courage or the industry to open for myself.
I think you told me that some one -- Mr. John Sibree or Cara, perhaps -- had found your treatment of great questions "cold-blooded." 581 I am all the more delighted to find, for my own part, an unusual fulness of sympathy and heart-experience breathing throughout your book. The ground for that epithet perhaps lay in a certain professorial tone which could hardly be avoided in a work filled with criticism of other people's theories, except by the adoption of a simply personal style of presentation, in which you would have seemed to be looking up at the oracles and trying to reconcile their doctrines for your own behoof, instead of appearing to be seated in a chair above them. But you considered your own plan more thoroughly than any one else can have considered it for you; and I have no doubt you had good reasons for preferring the more impersonal style.
Mr. Lewes sends his kind regards, and when Du Bois Reymond's book on Johannes M'fcller, 582 with other preoccupations of a like thrilling kind, no longer stand in the way, he will open his copy of the "Thoughts in aid of Faith." He has felt a new interest aroused towards it since he has learned something about it from me and the reviewer in the "Westminster." 583
Madame Bodichon, who was here the other day, told me that Miss Nightingale and Miss Julia Smith had mentioned their pleasure in your book; but you will hear further news of all that, from themselves. Ever, dear Sara,
Your affectionate and grateful
Marian Evans Lewes.
MS: Yale. Published: Cross, II, 258-261.
Holly Lodge | July 7. 60.
Dear Sara
I have finished my first rather rapid reading of your book, and now I thank you for it: not merely for the special gift of the volume and inscription, but for that of which many others will share the benefit with me -- the "Thoughts" themselves.
So far as my reading in English books of similar character extends,
yours seems to me quite unparalleled in the largeness and insight with which it estimates Christianity as an "organized experience," a grand advance in the moral development of the race.
I especially delight in the passage, p. 105 beginning "And how could it be otherwise," and ending with "formal rejection of it." 580 On this and other supremely interesting matters of thought -- perhaps I should rather say, of experience -- your book has shown me that we are much nearer to each other than I had supposed. At p. 174, again, there is a passage beginning "These sentiments" and ending with "heroes," which for me expresses the one half of true human piety. That thought is one of my favourite altars where I oftenest go to contemplate and to seek for invigorating motive.
Of the work as a whole I am quite incompetent to judge on a single cursory reading. I admire -- I respect the breadth and industry of mind it exhibits; and I should be obliged to give it a more thorough study than I can afford at present, before I should feel warranted to urge in the light of a criticism my failure to perceive the logical consistency of your language in some parts with the positions you have adopted in others. In many instances your meaning is obscure to me, or at least lies wrapped up in more folds of abstract phraseology than I have the courage or the industry to open for myself.
I think you told me that some one -- Mr. John Sibree or Cara, perhaps -- had found your treatment of great questions "cold-blooded." 581 I am all the more delighted to find, for my own part, an unusual fulness of sympathy and heart-experience breathing throughout your book. The ground for that epithet perhaps lay in a certain professorial tone which could hardly be avoided in a work filled with criticism of other people's theories, except by the adoption of a simply personal style of presentation, in which you would have seemed to be looking up at the oracles and trying to reconcile their doctrines for your own behoof, instead of appearing to be seated in a chair above them. But you considered your own plan more thoroughly than any one else can have considered it for you; and I have no doubt you had good reasons for preferring the more impersonal style.
Mr. Lewes sends his kind regards, and when Du Bois Reymond's book on Johannes M'fcller, 582 with other preoccupations of a like thrilling kind, no longer stand in the way, he will open his copy of the "Thoughts in aid of Faith." He has felt a new interest aroused towards it since he has learned something about it from me and the reviewer in the "Westminster." 583
Madame Bodichon, who was here the other day, told me that Miss Nightingale and Miss Julia Smith had mentioned their pleasure in your book; but you will hear further news of all that, from themselves. Ever, dear Sara,
Your affectionate and grateful
Marian Evans Lewes.
Signature
Marian Evans Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Sara Sophia Hennell, Wandsworth, 7 July 1860, 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/94135