Lord Acton to GE, London, 15 April 1878
Title
Lord Acton to GE, London, 15 April 1878
Title
Lord Acton to GE, London, 15 April 1878
Sender
Lord Acton
Recipient
F
Date(s)
- 1878-04-15
Place
London
Letter Content
Lord Acton to GE, London, 15 April 1878
MS: University of Virginia.
Princes Gate.
April 15 1878.
Dear Mrs. Lewes
As Mr. Lewes has the flair of a Dominican for the detection and exposure of heresy, allow me to confess mine in secret. In pursuing the topic of awkward and misdirected admiration, Mr. Lewes said 436 that both Wordsworth and yourself write in reality for a chosen audience and are shut out from intelligent appreciation by many schools of men.
To me who do not rate Wordsworth next to Shakespeare among modern writers there was a flavour of heresy in the juxtaposition and I was going on to say that no intelligent man or woman of any school seems to me shut out from sympathy with your writings or enjoyment of them. For myself who come to them from afar the perpetual wonder next to your supreme faculty of prose is the gift of penetrating and dwelling in regions not your own. I suppose it must be as difficult an art as that of thinking according to mood or subject in different languages and I never knew anybody who thought in more than three.
But I am persuaded that if you chose you could make not only characters of men reveal their secrets to the world more fully than they are known to themselves, but all manner of doctrines and persuasions display themselves in their strength and attraction more faithfully and more vividly than they appear to their own exponents.
That was the argument that was on my lips during the short freedom of my t'eate 'e0 t'eate with Mr. Lewes and if I bore to look foolish and even disrespectful rather than deliver it before you, it was from a selfish fear that I should forfeit your gracious farewell, bidding me come again. Believe me, Dear Mrs. Lewes,
Most truly yours
Acton.
MS: University of Virginia.
Princes Gate.
April 15 1878.
Dear Mrs. Lewes
As Mr. Lewes has the flair of a Dominican for the detection and exposure of heresy, allow me to confess mine in secret. In pursuing the topic of awkward and misdirected admiration, Mr. Lewes said 436 that both Wordsworth and yourself write in reality for a chosen audience and are shut out from intelligent appreciation by many schools of men.
To me who do not rate Wordsworth next to Shakespeare among modern writers there was a flavour of heresy in the juxtaposition and I was going on to say that no intelligent man or woman of any school seems to me shut out from sympathy with your writings or enjoyment of them. For myself who come to them from afar the perpetual wonder next to your supreme faculty of prose is the gift of penetrating and dwelling in regions not your own. I suppose it must be as difficult an art as that of thinking according to mood or subject in different languages and I never knew anybody who thought in more than three.
But I am persuaded that if you chose you could make not only characters of men reveal their secrets to the world more fully than they are known to themselves, but all manner of doctrines and persuasions display themselves in their strength and attraction more faithfully and more vividly than they appear to their own exponents.
That was the argument that was on my lips during the short freedom of my t'eate 'e0 t'eate with Mr. Lewes and if I bore to look foolish and even disrespectful rather than deliver it before you, it was from a selfish fear that I should forfeit your gracious farewell, bidding me come again. Believe me, Dear Mrs. Lewes,
Most truly yours
Acton.
Signature
Acton.
Citation
Lord Acton, Lord Acton to GE, London, 15 April 1878, 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/95525