GHL to John Blackwood, London, 25 May 1873
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, London, 25 May 1873
Title
GHL to John Blackwood, London, 25 May 1873
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
John Blackwood
Date(s)
- 1873-05-25
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to John Blackwood, London, 25 May 1873
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Sunday 25 May 73.
My dear Blackwood
If you read my letter which first proposed your publication of the [Problems] you will remember how strongly I expressed the sense both Mrs. Lewes and I had of the possible objections, and my assurance that I should entirely sympathize with your refusal. But I wished on personal grounds to give you the refusal -- and I thought it possible that in the present state of opinion even the widest speculative differences might not have interfered. We were both surprised and pleased to find you ready to overlook all speculative differences, and after you had read the pages you would object to, it was still open to you to have stayed the further printing, and saved me the very great inconvenience of some three months delay. I am indeed very glad that you have finally decided as you have done. It would have been very painful to both of us had the work been published and you had -- when too late -- expressed your feelings on the subject. Now there is no harm done beyond the wasted time, and the announcement of the book as about to be published by you.
Let us therefore consider the whole project at an end -- treat it as if it had never been; and let me have the m.s. and any proofs that may be ready as soon as practicable.
But now this matter is finally disposed of let me rectify your very strange misconception of my position. I took no notice of it in your letter accompanying the first proof because I thought you had read and written hastily and that a glance at the pages would dispel your misconception. This appears not to have been the case. Look again at pages 2 and 3. You will see first that I do not say those are the most weighty thinkers who believe religion at an end -- and that I could not have implied it, since I declare myself to hold the opposite view; secondly that the whole of page 3 is a summary of arguments against this view, and an expression of my own adhesion to such arguments. How you missed such plain statements I cannot imagine -- probably because you started with a preconception. Thus you say I assume too much on my side at the commencement -- the fact being that I assume nothing, but am simply recording what are the two views held by philosophic speculators.
I add this rectification simply for the sake of disabusing your mind of a complete misconception -- when you add that I "seem to give no weight to mind and feeling in the matter" the misconception of my views is beyond rectification. I can only despair of my power of exposition!
Ever yours truly
G. H. Lewes.
This will of course make no difference. We will meet without reopening the subject -- having decently buried it. When shall you come up? Or will you take your chance some afternoon about 5? We are almost always in at that hour.
MS: National Library of Scotland. Hitherto unpublished.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
Sunday 25 May 73.
My dear Blackwood
If you read my letter which first proposed your publication of the [Problems] you will remember how strongly I expressed the sense both Mrs. Lewes and I had of the possible objections, and my assurance that I should entirely sympathize with your refusal. But I wished on personal grounds to give you the refusal -- and I thought it possible that in the present state of opinion even the widest speculative differences might not have interfered. We were both surprised and pleased to find you ready to overlook all speculative differences, and after you had read the pages you would object to, it was still open to you to have stayed the further printing, and saved me the very great inconvenience of some three months delay. I am indeed very glad that you have finally decided as you have done. It would have been very painful to both of us had the work been published and you had -- when too late -- expressed your feelings on the subject. Now there is no harm done beyond the wasted time, and the announcement of the book as about to be published by you.
Let us therefore consider the whole project at an end -- treat it as if it had never been; and let me have the m.s. and any proofs that may be ready as soon as practicable.
But now this matter is finally disposed of let me rectify your very strange misconception of my position. I took no notice of it in your letter accompanying the first proof because I thought you had read and written hastily and that a glance at the pages would dispel your misconception. This appears not to have been the case. Look again at pages 2 and 3. You will see first that I do not say those are the most weighty thinkers who believe religion at an end -- and that I could not have implied it, since I declare myself to hold the opposite view; secondly that the whole of page 3 is a summary of arguments against this view, and an expression of my own adhesion to such arguments. How you missed such plain statements I cannot imagine -- probably because you started with a preconception. Thus you say I assume too much on my side at the commencement -- the fact being that I assume nothing, but am simply recording what are the two views held by philosophic speculators.
I add this rectification simply for the sake of disabusing your mind of a complete misconception -- when you add that I "seem to give no weight to mind and feeling in the matter" the misconception of my views is beyond rectification. I can only despair of my power of exposition!
Ever yours truly
G. H. Lewes.
This will of course make no difference. We will meet without reopening the subject -- having decently buried it. When shall you come up? Or will you take your chance some afternoon about 5? We are almost always in at that hour.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to John Blackwood, London, 25 May 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/94691