George Combe Journal, London, 15 September 1854
Title
George Combe Journal, London, 15 September 1854
Title
George Combe Journal, London, 15 September 1854
Sender
George Combe Journal
Recipient
U
Date(s)
- 1854-09-15
Place
London
Letter Content
George Combe Journal, London, 15 September 1854
MS: National Library of Scotland.
John Chapman and the Westminster Review.
Dr. Hodgson writes to me that Mr. Courtauld, John Chapman's friend and patron, has paid him (Dr. H.) Chapman's debt to him £ in full to avoid calling another meeting of creditors, or forcing Chapman into Bankruptcy.
There is truly a great deal more of benevolence than of conscientiousness and discriminative intellect in the world. Mr. Courtauld is sacrificing his money apparently from the best of motives, to uphold Chapman as the organ of advanced opinions, without any perception of the inadequacy of the man to accomplish the end in view. Chapman is deficient in business talent, in conscientiousness, in knowledge, and in sound practical sense; he is a dreamer and a schemer; his leading motives are ambition and the love of the new; and his chief talents are a capacity for plausible talk, rendered easy by large Secretiveness, Love of approbation, and Wonder, acting unrestrained either by Causality or Conscientiousness. Great efforts making to preserve the Westminster Review in his hands; and this, in my opinion, is an error in judgment. He is morally and intellectually incapable of taking the lead in the philosophy, religion, &unknown;practical&unknown; social economy, and science of the 19th century; and yet this is what he aims at. He must be editor as well as publisher; in short the great oracle of liberal opinions. He will fail again in a few years. He has much good nature, but ill directed.
MS: National Library of Scotland.
John Chapman and the Westminster Review.
Dr. Hodgson writes to me that Mr. Courtauld, John Chapman's friend and patron, has paid him (Dr. H.) Chapman's debt to him £ in full to avoid calling another meeting of creditors, or forcing Chapman into Bankruptcy.
There is truly a great deal more of benevolence than of conscientiousness and discriminative intellect in the world. Mr. Courtauld is sacrificing his money apparently from the best of motives, to uphold Chapman as the organ of advanced opinions, without any perception of the inadequacy of the man to accomplish the end in view. Chapman is deficient in business talent, in conscientiousness, in knowledge, and in sound practical sense; he is a dreamer and a schemer; his leading motives are ambition and the love of the new; and his chief talents are a capacity for plausible talk, rendered easy by large Secretiveness, Love of approbation, and Wonder, acting unrestrained either by Causality or Conscientiousness. Great efforts making to preserve the Westminster Review in his hands; and this, in my opinion, is an error in judgment. He is morally and intellectually incapable of taking the lead in the philosophy, religion, &unknown;practical&unknown; social economy, and science of the 19th century; and yet this is what he aims at. He must be editor as well as publisher; in short the great oracle of liberal opinions. He will fail again in a few years. He has much good nature, but ill directed.
Citation
George Combe Journal, George Combe Journal, London, 15 September 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/94238