GE to William Macilwaine, London, 10 August 1868
Title
GE to William Macilwaine, London, 10 August 1868
Title
GE to William Macilwaine, London, 10 August 1868
Sender
George Eliot
Recipient
William Macilwaine
Date(s)
- 1868-08-10
Place
London
Letter Content
GE to William Macilwaine, London, 10 August 1868
Text: Cross, New Edition, pp. 433-434.
From one of the poems which you have kindly sent me, I gather that you knew intimately the late Dr Craik, 804 who was also one of Mr Lewes's earliest and most revered friends. Those who have such a reverence in common are not quite strangers.
I am sincerely obliged to you for your expressions of sympathy, which are the more valuable to me now that I know them to have come from one of long experience.
I assure you I shall not cease carefully to study the great medium of verse, bearing in mind, however, that what are called laws in the "art which nature makes" 805 were at one time undiscovered possibilities, and that some such possibilities may yet lie in store for watchful spirits.
It seems to me that Milton wrote his grand verse partly in virtue of such hopeful watching -- such listening for new melodies and harmonies with instructed ears. He is very daring, and often shocks the weaklings who think that verse is sing-song.
Believe me, my dear sir, gratefully and sincerely yours
[M. E. Lewes.]
Text: Cross, New Edition, pp. 433-434.
From one of the poems which you have kindly sent me, I gather that you knew intimately the late Dr Craik, 804 who was also one of Mr Lewes's earliest and most revered friends. Those who have such a reverence in common are not quite strangers.
I am sincerely obliged to you for your expressions of sympathy, which are the more valuable to me now that I know them to have come from one of long experience.
I assure you I shall not cease carefully to study the great medium of verse, bearing in mind, however, that what are called laws in the "art which nature makes" 805 were at one time undiscovered possibilities, and that some such possibilities may yet lie in store for watchful spirits.
It seems to me that Milton wrote his grand verse partly in virtue of such hopeful watching -- such listening for new melodies and harmonies with instructed ears. He is very daring, and often shocks the weaklings who think that verse is sing-song.
Believe me, my dear sir, gratefully and sincerely yours
[M. E. Lewes.]
Signature
[M. E. Lewes.]
Citation
George Eliot, GE to William Macilwaine, London, 10 August 1868, 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/94227