GHL to Richard Owen, London, 4 October 1867
Title
GHL to Richard Owen, London, 4 October 1867
Title
GHL to Richard Owen, London, 4 October 1867
Sender
George Henry Lewes
Recipient
Richard Owen
Date(s)
- 1867-10-04
Place
London
Letter Content
GHL to Richard Owen, London, 4 October 1867
MS: Yale.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
October 1867.
My dear Owen
I hope I am wrong in my uncomfortable notion that you have interpreted a phrase or two of mine into a covert allusion of contempt or sarcasm against your sincerely respected self. That we differ profoundly respecting Design and the Creator is an old story -- that difference never yet has disturbed our harmony -- but what is new is the suspicion (it is not more) that you interpret my language as covertly attacking you, and above all as imputing [infirmity] to you.
If you had cast your eyes over the Prolegomena to my 3rd ed. 762 (to which reference is made in the article on the Reign of Law) you would have seen that by [Infirmity] I designated a native tendency (distinguished from the [necessities of thought]) into which all philosophers are eminently liable to fall and into which most have fallen, viz. the tendency to give objective reality to subjective forms. The term [Infirmity] has not a shadow of reproach or contempt in it as thus used by me. It merely marks a tendency against which we have to guard ourselves. And with regard to the application you will see that I applied it to "philosophers from Plato downwards" -- and although you are the one most associated with the doctrine of vertebral-type plan in England, I assure you I was not specially alluding to you, and certainly never should have thought of a covert sarcasm.
I wanted to say this -- and only this -- in reference to your paper in Frazer. 763 I may be and hope I am -- altogether mistaken. I only don't want our old friendship to be crossed by a misunderstanding. By a difference in opinion it won't be.
Ever yours truly
G. H. Lewes.
Richard Owen Esq.
MS: Yale.
The Priory, | 21. North Bank, | Regents Park.
October 1867.
My dear Owen
I hope I am wrong in my uncomfortable notion that you have interpreted a phrase or two of mine into a covert allusion of contempt or sarcasm against your sincerely respected self. That we differ profoundly respecting Design and the Creator is an old story -- that difference never yet has disturbed our harmony -- but what is new is the suspicion (it is not more) that you interpret my language as covertly attacking you, and above all as imputing [infirmity] to you.
If you had cast your eyes over the Prolegomena to my 3rd ed. 762 (to which reference is made in the article on the Reign of Law) you would have seen that by [Infirmity] I designated a native tendency (distinguished from the [necessities of thought]) into which all philosophers are eminently liable to fall and into which most have fallen, viz. the tendency to give objective reality to subjective forms. The term [Infirmity] has not a shadow of reproach or contempt in it as thus used by me. It merely marks a tendency against which we have to guard ourselves. And with regard to the application you will see that I applied it to "philosophers from Plato downwards" -- and although you are the one most associated with the doctrine of vertebral-type plan in England, I assure you I was not specially alluding to you, and certainly never should have thought of a covert sarcasm.
I wanted to say this -- and only this -- in reference to your paper in Frazer. 763 I may be and hope I am -- altogether mistaken. I only don't want our old friendship to be crossed by a misunderstanding. By a difference in opinion it won't be.
Ever yours truly
G. H. Lewes.
Richard Owen Esq.
Signature
G. H. Lewes.
Citation
George Henry Lewes, GHL to Richard Owen, London, 4 October 1867, 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/94992