GE to Thomas Clifford Allbutt, London, 1 November 1873
Title
GE to Thomas Clifford Allbutt, London, 1 November 1873
Title
GE to Thomas Clifford Allbutt, London, 1 November 1873
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
Thomas Clifford Allbutt
Date(s)
- 1873-11-01
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to Thomas Clifford Allbutt, London, 1 November 1873
Text: O. Browning, Life of George Eliot, 1890, pp. 116-118.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
November 1. 73.
Dear Dr. Allbutt
Thanks for a very pleasant proof that you bear us in your mind and heart. Your letter came just in time to find us here, for we only yesterday returned from a house in the country, to which we went at the beginning of September. Before then, we had been for nine weeks in France and Germany, passed in the delightful region of the Vosges, which was new to us. I cannot say that our health has been particularly flourishing amidst all these enjoyments. Happiness, of which we seem to have more than any one we know, does not have the effect of making us fat and strong. I often laughingly compare ourselves to two mediaeval saints painted by a very na'efve master. Our bodies seem to shrink, like the Peau de Chagrin, with every year of happiness. Just now, however, Mr. Lewes, who has been for some time below his usual standard, is improving, and I have no unusual bodily grievance to complain of.
Your ailments are more important, because you are younger and have more working time before you, and I don't like to read of your having worn yourself into an irritable state before you took your holiday. It is difficult to avoid such results, though, for a man whose energy goes out in mental work. 864 Even where there is no external pressure the interest of the work is almost sure to get a wearing intensity. I think this was the cause of Mr. Lewes's flagging in the spring. For two years before he had been in a state of greater intellectual enjoyment than I had ever observed in him, the study of mathematics especially having made the world fresh to him. His first (introductory) volume is soon to be out now, but he is calmly certain that very few will care about its discussions. No human being can be more happily constituted than he in relation to his work. He has quite an exceptional enjoyment in the doing, and has no irritable anxieties about it when done.
As to the Johnsonian biography, he has had nothing to do with it, except the recommendation to Mr. Main to set about the work, and the writing of a brief preface. . . .
Your suggestions about lessening the inconveniences of writing could not come to a more appreciative person. I have for the last three years taken to writing on my knees, throwing myself backward in my chair, and having a high support to my feet. It is a great relief not to bend, and in this way at least I get advantage from the longsightedness which involves the early need of glasses. Mr. Lewes is obliged to stoop close to his desk. But Dr. Liebreich 865 condemns my arrangement as forcing up my knees too much, and he has devised a sort of semi-couch which seems to be perfection so far as the physical conditions of my writing are concerned. But how if I have nothing else worth the writing! It is in vain to get one's back and knees in the right attitude if one's mind is superannuated. Some time or other, if death does not come to silence one, there ought to be deliberate abstinence from writing -- self-judgment which decides that one has no more to say. The public conscience about authorship wants quickening sadly -- don't you think so? Happily for me, I have a critic at hand whom I can trust to tell me when I write what ought to be put behind the fire.
Mr. Lewes unites with me in best regards to Mrs. Allbutt and yourself. We do not despair of being in your neighbourhood again some day, and taking a glimpse of you in your new home.
Yours always warmly and sincerely,
M. E. Lewes.
Text: O. Browning, Life of George Eliot, 1890, pp. 116-118.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
November 1. 73.
Dear Dr. Allbutt
Thanks for a very pleasant proof that you bear us in your mind and heart. Your letter came just in time to find us here, for we only yesterday returned from a house in the country, to which we went at the beginning of September. Before then, we had been for nine weeks in France and Germany, passed in the delightful region of the Vosges, which was new to us. I cannot say that our health has been particularly flourishing amidst all these enjoyments. Happiness, of which we seem to have more than any one we know, does not have the effect of making us fat and strong. I often laughingly compare ourselves to two mediaeval saints painted by a very na'efve master. Our bodies seem to shrink, like the Peau de Chagrin, with every year of happiness. Just now, however, Mr. Lewes, who has been for some time below his usual standard, is improving, and I have no unusual bodily grievance to complain of.
Your ailments are more important, because you are younger and have more working time before you, and I don't like to read of your having worn yourself into an irritable state before you took your holiday. It is difficult to avoid such results, though, for a man whose energy goes out in mental work. 864 Even where there is no external pressure the interest of the work is almost sure to get a wearing intensity. I think this was the cause of Mr. Lewes's flagging in the spring. For two years before he had been in a state of greater intellectual enjoyment than I had ever observed in him, the study of mathematics especially having made the world fresh to him. His first (introductory) volume is soon to be out now, but he is calmly certain that very few will care about its discussions. No human being can be more happily constituted than he in relation to his work. He has quite an exceptional enjoyment in the doing, and has no irritable anxieties about it when done.
As to the Johnsonian biography, he has had nothing to do with it, except the recommendation to Mr. Main to set about the work, and the writing of a brief preface. . . .
Your suggestions about lessening the inconveniences of writing could not come to a more appreciative person. I have for the last three years taken to writing on my knees, throwing myself backward in my chair, and having a high support to my feet. It is a great relief not to bend, and in this way at least I get advantage from the longsightedness which involves the early need of glasses. Mr. Lewes is obliged to stoop close to his desk. But Dr. Liebreich 865 condemns my arrangement as forcing up my knees too much, and he has devised a sort of semi-couch which seems to be perfection so far as the physical conditions of my writing are concerned. But how if I have nothing else worth the writing! It is in vain to get one's back and knees in the right attitude if one's mind is superannuated. Some time or other, if death does not come to silence one, there ought to be deliberate abstinence from writing -- self-judgment which decides that one has no more to say. The public conscience about authorship wants quickening sadly -- don't you think so? Happily for me, I have a critic at hand whom I can trust to tell me when I write what ought to be put behind the fire.
Mr. Lewes unites with me in best regards to Mrs. Allbutt and yourself. We do not despair of being in your neighbourhood again some day, and taking a glimpse of you in your new home.
Yours always warmly and sincerely,
M. E. Lewes.
Signature
M. E. Lewes.
Citation
George Eliot, GE to Thomas Clifford Allbutt, London, 1 November 1873, 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/94163