Sara Sophia Hennell to GE, Coventry, 15 November 1854
Title
Sara Sophia Hennell to GE, Coventry, 15 November 1854
Title
Sara Sophia Hennell to GE, Coventry, 15 November 1854
Sender
Sara Sophia Hennell
Recipient
George Eliot
Date(s)
- 1854-11-15
Place
Coventry
Letter Content
Sara Sophia Hennell to GE, Coventry, 15 November 1854
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
Rosehill, November 15th 1854. | Wednesday Evening.
Dear Marian
Thanks for your letter to me. I was going to write to you on St. Cecilia's day, 547 when I hope the junction of our birthdays will recall me to you and you to me. Here is my signature 548 to the truest good wishes for you now and evermore.
I am glad you feel it will be a pleasure to tell us of some of the things you are now enjoying. We shall always be delighted to hear of them. Your letter to Charles today seems to show you very happy now -- but I have a strange sort of feeling that I am writing to some one in a book, and not to the Marian that we have known and loved so many years. Do not mistake me, I mean nothing unkind.
I can bring myself to reality directly by recollecting a message of yours. -- about your Mme. de Sabl'e9. We did not know anything of it till we read it, and admired its elegance and profundity then and therefore attributed it to you -- having heard indeed that one of the articles was by you. Afterwards, as we stayed a day or two in London after our visit to the Isle of Wight, 549 we heard that you had sent a particular request through Mr. Chapman, that Mrs. Hennell 550 should correct your proofs -- which she accordingly did. Mr. Ch. came to our lodgings for one hour or two, looking very well, as if he could still thrive upon his misfortunes. Almost all his time was spent in reading to us a pile of manuscripts -- being notes of the Hodgson and Martineau controversy about the Westminster.
Almost the first thing I said to him was to fly at him in a rage for admitting that disgraceful notice of Feuerbach, 551 which you will readily divine to have excited my ire. When I saw it, I thought Mr. Ch. in his straits had been obliged to get some poor hack of a penny-a-liner to do it -- i.e. Froude, who knows nothing of the matter. I should have thought J. M. would have done it more cleverly at all events. I see there is a review of Feuerbach in the new number of the Prospective 552 which is coming out very strong to cut out the Westminster, but it has not fallen in my way yet.
But all these things are ante-diluvian to you, unless you are obliged to respice to them to earn your butterbread! -- I read Butler's Analogy 553 all through yesterday -- so to speak -- for the first time -- and feel my mind wonderfully enlarged thereby today, as to the state of the mental world of Christendom in this year of grace. Am I not ante-diluvian with a vengeance?
Your ancient friend
Sara Hennell.
MS: Yale. Hitherto unpublished.
Rosehill, November 15th 1854. | Wednesday Evening.
Dear Marian
Thanks for your letter to me. I was going to write to you on St. Cecilia's day, 547 when I hope the junction of our birthdays will recall me to you and you to me. Here is my signature 548 to the truest good wishes for you now and evermore.
I am glad you feel it will be a pleasure to tell us of some of the things you are now enjoying. We shall always be delighted to hear of them. Your letter to Charles today seems to show you very happy now -- but I have a strange sort of feeling that I am writing to some one in a book, and not to the Marian that we have known and loved so many years. Do not mistake me, I mean nothing unkind.
I can bring myself to reality directly by recollecting a message of yours. -- about your Mme. de Sabl'e9. We did not know anything of it till we read it, and admired its elegance and profundity then and therefore attributed it to you -- having heard indeed that one of the articles was by you. Afterwards, as we stayed a day or two in London after our visit to the Isle of Wight, 549 we heard that you had sent a particular request through Mr. Chapman, that Mrs. Hennell 550 should correct your proofs -- which she accordingly did. Mr. Ch. came to our lodgings for one hour or two, looking very well, as if he could still thrive upon his misfortunes. Almost all his time was spent in reading to us a pile of manuscripts -- being notes of the Hodgson and Martineau controversy about the Westminster.
Almost the first thing I said to him was to fly at him in a rage for admitting that disgraceful notice of Feuerbach, 551 which you will readily divine to have excited my ire. When I saw it, I thought Mr. Ch. in his straits had been obliged to get some poor hack of a penny-a-liner to do it -- i.e. Froude, who knows nothing of the matter. I should have thought J. M. would have done it more cleverly at all events. I see there is a review of Feuerbach in the new number of the Prospective 552 which is coming out very strong to cut out the Westminster, but it has not fallen in my way yet.
But all these things are ante-diluvian to you, unless you are obliged to respice to them to earn your butterbread! -- I read Butler's Analogy 553 all through yesterday -- so to speak -- for the first time -- and feel my mind wonderfully enlarged thereby today, as to the state of the mental world of Christendom in this year of grace. Am I not ante-diluvian with a vengeance?
Your ancient friend
Sara Hennell.
Signature
Sara Hennell.
Citation
Sara Sophia Hennell, Sara Sophia Hennell to GE, Coventry, 15 November 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/95595