george eliot - forgotten books
TRANSCRIPT
GEO RGE EL IOT
MAT H ILDE BL I ND
NEWEDITIOTN
TO W H ICH ARE ADDED A CR ITICAL ESTIMATEO F GEO
'
RGE ELIOT’S W R ITINGS
AND SUPPLEMENTARY ”
CHAPTERS ON HER
METHODS OF W ORK AND HER FRIENDSAND HOME LIFE
FRANK W ALD O, PH .D .
mm
C . A, TUR KING TON, M..A.
B O STO N
LITTLE,BROWN, AND COMPANY
GEORGE ELIOT AND HER WORK
MATHILDE BLIND , the author of this volume on GeorgeEliot, was born at Mannheim, March 2 1 , 1 84 1 . H er
own father’s name was Cohen , but she took the name
of her stepfather, Karl Blind . The latter took partin the Baden insurrection of 1 848
—49 , and was ex
iled . The family fina lly settled in London, after a
sojourn in France and Belgium,and the Blind home
became a rendezvous for refugees from the Continent.Mathilde early showed a taste for poetry and pub
lished a number of poems,the most ambitious of
which was the ‘Ascent of Man,’an epic based on
Darwin ’s great work. This was reissued after her
death w ith an introduction by Alfred Russe l Wallace .
M iss Blind translated Strauss ’s ‘The Old Faith and
the New ’and ‘ The Journal of Marie Bashkirtseff
,
’
and among her prose writings were Madame Rolandand the present volume in the ‘ Famous Women
Series .
’ M iss Blind displayed much ability in all of
her writings, and some of her poetry ranks high .
There is a memoir prefixed to her collected works,
edited by Arthur Symons in 1 900. M iss Blind waswe ll equipped for writing a biography of George
Eliot, not only by her mental endowments, but as wel l
by her literary training and experiences in Englandand on the Continent.
GE ORGE ELIOT.
The extensive literature which has appeared con
cerning the life and writings of George Eliot rangesfrom brief notices to formidable volumes covering the
period of her whole life, and includes the criticism
of the foremost litterateurs and even the testimony ofGeorge Eliot herself. Far the most important of all
,
so far as her personality is concerned, is her life as
told in the volumes of extracts from her diary and letters which were edited by her husband, Mr . Cross,and published in 1 885 .
The first to appear of the separate volumes treat
ing of George Eliot’s life and writings was that by
Mathilde Blind, written just after the great nove list'
s
death and published in London and Boston in 1 883,
at a time when retrospective interest in George
Eliot’s life was naturally the keenest. A good dea lof critica l and some biographica l materia l had beenpreviously published in scattered places, but this wasthe first attempt to gather it together and summarizeit much additional matter was also included, so thatMiss Blind’s book could not be looked upon as a
mere compilation .
The George Eliot literature has two distinct periods,the second ofwhich begins with the publication of her
life and letters or perhaps it is not too much to
make the statement that it began with the publicationofMathilde Blind ’s George Eliot,
’for Miss Blind had
access to much of the then unpublished material thatappeared a little later in Cross ’s ‘ Life,
’and even
quoted some letters that did not appear in the L ife.
’
80 excellently was her work done and so diligently didshe search out local unpublished material that a care
HER WORK .
ful examination of the literature about George Eliotmakes it evident that what Mathilde Blind has writtenneeds little modification so far as it goes, and that a
satisfactory completeness to her book from the pres
ent-day standpoint is attained by supplementing hertext by some additional details, chiefly those of an
autobiograph ica l nature published in Cross ’s ‘ L ife .
’
This has been done by the addition of an appendix.
This last includes matters related in the journal ofGeorge Eliot, her correspondence with the Blackwoods
,and some other letters to which M iss Blind
d id not have access. We have, however, been obligedto keep in mind the matter of space in order to prevent this little book from becoming too bulky.
At the time of its appearance, M iss Blind’s book
was widely and, in general, appreciatively reviewed.
It was even predicted by one reviewer that it willhold its place even after some ampler memoir hasbeen written, by virtue of its compactness and the
justness of its estimates.
” Not only has this prediction been verified, but the book is still, after the lapseof a score of years, for the genera l reader and studentu se the most satisfactory sketch of George Eliot
’
s lifeand work.
The main value of the more recent writings con
cern ing George Eliot lies in the added light whichhas been thrown on her personality by some of her
acquaintances and friends, as for instance by Mr.
O scar Brown ing, and in the study of her writings and
the estimation of the ir value by such eminent critics
as H enry james and Sir Leslie Stephen . In MathildeBlind ’s ‘ George E liot ’ both O scar Browning and
Vi i i GE ORGE ELIOT.
Leslie Stephen have found material which they haveused in the ir recent works.
Concerning biographies, George Eliot herself hassaid We have often wished that when some great
or good personage dies, instead of the dreary threeor four-volumed compilation of letters and diary anddetail, little to the purpose, which two-thirds of thereading public have not the chance
,nor on the other
hand the inclination, to read, we cou ld have a realf
Life,’setting forth briefly and vividly the many in
ward and outward struggles, aims and achievements,so
as to make clear the meaning which his experiencehas for his fellows.Perhaps more than in the case of any other woman
writer do the works of George Eliot need to be interpreted by her life 3 and the present volume furnishesa good introduction to the novelist’s writings.
Mr. H enry james expresses a wide-spread opinion
when he mentions the disappointment caused by thereading of Cross’s Life of George Eliot, but he insists that he himself experienced no such feeling.
This disappointment was no doubt caused by the
failure of the ‘ L ife ’to reveal matters concerning
George Eliot’s private life that it was considered hadh itherto been withhe ld from the public and wouldnow be divulged . So little concerning the actual lifeof the great authoress had drifted beyond the exclusive circle with which she came into personal contactthat the public, even the public that read her books,knew little of the minutiae of her private life ; so
that the two known facts of her dissent from the usu
ally held religious views and the irregularity of her
HER W ORK . ix
union with Mr. Lewes were repeated over and overagain with all possible variations and embellishments.
The record of the quiet life of study and productivework to which George Eliot devoted all her strength,and which was revealed in her books to those who
could go below the surface, was not what the expectant public looked for in the L ife, ’ and consequentlythey were disappointed . To those who, like Mr.
James, can appreciate the conditions of a life such as
George Eliot lived, the work reveals all that is wanted.
To the criticism that the record of George Eliot’s
inner life has been withheld by the judicious editingof the material available to Mr. Cross, we have Mr.
James ’s statement that “ there is little absent that itwould have been in Mr. Cross’s power to give us.
”
These words, coming from one of the foremost and
most careful of the literary critics of the day, who isundoubtedly in a position to be sure of what he wrote
in this connection, must be given full weight by thedoubting or cynical minds that still feel themselves defrauded of some of the details of George Eliot
’s life
which might have proved “ interesting reading . But
even Mr. James admits that these vo lumes do not fullyreveal the personality of George Eliot, but only so
much of it as pertained to the ordinary affairs of life .
We do not find in them that self-analysis, or even the
material for that analysis by others, that would show
the inner workings of her mind in the developmentof her novels, and the process by which she achievedsuch wonderful literary resu lts. The inner personality,that those who conversed with her fe lt that she keptto herself, was no more revealed in her letters or
x GE ORGE ELIOT.
diary jottings than in her talk,and therefore is still
lacking in the public’s knowledge concerning her,
except in so far as it is revea led in her writings andby the testimony of c lose friends . George Eliot ’sm ind was of that receptive cast that took in, but didnot easily give out again in what Mr. James terms anoverflow in idle confidences .
” From this it must not
be inferred that George Eliot was not an interesting
conversationalist, for otherwise she cou ld not haveheld the circle of which she was the centre for so
many years,although the credit for this is usually
given to Mr. L ewes, who must after all be consideredas only a master of ceremonies .
While people read her books, yet the re ligious feeling against George Eliot
’s personality increased dur
ing her life and even up to the publication of h er
journal and letters. It was after this that the per
sonal element began to decline and her works beganto emerge from the peculiar atmosphere in which
they had been enveloped.
Though there is still existing a feeling of expectancyin regard to the ultimate appearance of a ‘ Life ’
of
George Eliot that shall give a complete account of
the details of her life, yet we have her own statement
as to the meagreness of detail recorded in her journal.“ To-day [December 3 1 , 1 8 7 7] I say a final far e
well to this little book, which is the only record I havemade of my personal life for sixteen years or more .
I have often been helped, in looking back in it, tocompare former with actual states of despondencyfrom bad health or other apparent causes . I shallrecord no more in this book, because I am going to
HER WORK .
keep a more business- like diary. H ere ends 1 8 7 7 .
It would thus appear that the autobiographical detailwh ich we so much desire does not exist.The name George Eliot,” which was first used in
a letter to Mr. Blackwood dated February 4, 1 85 7 ,was selected as a pseudonym for two reasons
, one
specific and the other general, — George, because itwas Mr. L ewes
’
s name,and Eliot merely on account
of its dignity and well-sounding brevity. The earlyadoption of the name permitted Mr. L ewes to do
much more with her early writings than he cou ldhave done for one bearing his name, and by its continued use we are spared the confusion that wouldarise from the succession of names
, Marian Evans,M rs. Lewes, and Mrs. Cross .The literary life of George Eliot may be divided
into the following periods : Translator, editor, essayist
,nove list. During the period of nove listic work she
a lso assumed the role of poet.George Eliot
’s writings, when taken in chronologi
cal order,may be considered as an index to her
intellectual cultura l progress . H er powers of assimilation were indeed taxed by her opportunities duringthe last twenty years of her life, when she could get atfirst hand and by word of mouth the ideas and opinionsof the best philosophic and scientific minds of England. This personal contact was unquestionably “a
great stimulus to her own mind, and by this meansshe was enabled to absorb within a few years a knowledge that a whole lifetime of reading and ordinarystudy wou ld not have given. H er previous regularand serious studies had prepared her mind for just
GE ORGE E LIOT.
such a process of further education . Unfortunatelythis mental growth carried with it the sense of dutyon her part to share it with her readers
,to the detri
ment of her spon taneous art. In the relationship between author and reader, there is no more unbendinglaw than that in works of fiction, as well as in poetry,the reading public does not wish to be instructed, inthe usual sense of the word, and yet this very desireto instruct grew stronger and stronger in George Eliotas she went on with her literary work and as she her
self grew in knowledge .
George Eliot’
s early life was thoroughly provincial,and all of her early impressions pertain either to thecountry, hamlet, or village life of the Warwicksh ireregion in which she lived . Later she was introducedto the English literary circle through that most uniqueof positions, editorship on a Review . Still later herown position in the literary world and that of Mr.
Lewes enabled them to become a little centre, roundwhich serious thinkers gathered for the interchange ofviews, chiefly of a philosophical natu re. There is nodoubt but that in her essays George Eliot has revealedher thoughts on non -persona l topics more free ly andspontaneously than in her novels, where every sentencewas carefully weighed in a different manner from thatofmerely careful writing.
Until she was nearly forty years of age George
Eliot’s intellectual growth had been accomplished byclose study, the reading of solid literature, the makingof translations, and the preparation of magazine and
review literature . H er critical faculties had beencarefully cultivated, and her editorial work on the
H ER WORK . x i i i
Werz‘mz
'
m fer Review shows them to have been of the
h ighest order. She was the only one of the group ofcontemporary British fiction writers who possessed thetra in ing of a student of philosophy, when, at the age
of thirty-eight, she made her a’
ééw‘ in imaginative literature by the serial publication of ‘ Scenes of ClericalLife ’
( 1 8 These were based on events that occurred ih the neighborhood where George Eliot hadherself passed her childhood. It is the pathos of
commonplace lives depicted in these stories that istheir distinctive characteristic .
In the ‘ Scenes of Clerical Life,’ George Eliot keptvery closely to facts and actual people, and the incidents and portraits were so completely recognized byresidents of the section in which she had lived thatthey felt certain that the author had been one of them
se lves. However, George Eliot did not depend entirely upon her own observation, but used incidentsthat had come to her through tradition, and from her
imagination added some things that never occurred tothe individuals whose memories are perpetuated inthese stories .The first twenty years of her life had been passed at
Griff, a charming, red brick, ivy-covered house on
the Arbury estate at Ch ilvers-Coton, near Nuneaton .
”
Although George Eliot’s lot was originally cast among
the lower middle c lass, yet during this period from
infancy to maturity she had unusual advantages forthe study of both the upper and lower strata of societyunder ideally typical conditions. She was herself amember of the class that could most readily affiliatewith the lower orders of society, from the laborer up,
GEORGE EL IOT.
to the extent that they preserved with her their naturalbearing. On the other hand, h er father’s fortunate positiou as land agent in the Newdigate family gave herthe opportunity to come in contact with the landed
gen try.
In the book ‘ The Cheverels of Cheverel Manor’
Lady Newdigate, in explaining how George Eliot gotthe information of traditions and stories from the
manor house, which she had used in ‘Mr Gilfil’
s
Love-Story,’ says with much bluntness Wh ilstRobert Evans was transacting estate work with the
Squire in the library, she (Mary Anne Evans) probably waited for him in the housekeeper’s room at
Arbury.
” Here, e ither by speech directed toward heror overheard, she learned the family history bit bybit.
Thanks mainly to the cultivated instincts of Sir
Roger Newdigate, there was an atmosphere of artistic
breadth pervading Arbury H ouse which must haveexerted a strong influence on George Eliot
’s youth
ful mind and enabled her, unwittingly probably, totake up a position whence she could view her own en
vironment. Concerning this atmosphere and its ef
fects on George Eliot, Les lie Stephen says : “ The
impressions made upon the girl during these years aresufficiently manifest in the first scenes of her nove ls.Were it necessary to describe the general character ofEnglish country life, they would enable the graphichistorian to give life and color to the skeleton madefrom statistical and legal information.
”
These short stories were followed by the companion
novels ‘ Adam Bede ’
( 1 859 ) and‘The Mill on the
HER WORK . xv
Floss the chief characters of which weredrawn from George Eliot’s own surroundings and ex
periences or persona l knowledge . These novels thuscontain a persona l e lement that strongly attracts thereader. The simplicity of these stories renders themthe most popular ” of the author
’s novels, since they
are not above the comprehension of the majority ofreade rs .
‘ Adam Bede ’created a sensation in the literary
world . It was startling in its originality, stirred people ’s hearts by its pathos, and aroused the greatest interest by its humor. Not only was it everywhere readand discussed, but the shrewd sayings were widelyquoted, even in Parliamentary speeches .
‘ Scenesof Clerical L ife,’ ‘ Adam Bede,’ ‘ Silas Marner,
’and
The Mill on the Floss probably give the most vividpicture now extan the
the. midland - .counties ..o£
malaria:While numerous attempts have been made to iden
tify with her characters those with whom George
Eliot came into personal contact, or knew from
hearsay, yet great interest a lso centres in what may be
termed autobiographica l details in her novels, whetherof fact or spirit. These latter are most evident inThe Mill on the Floss, ’ where is to be found depictedmuch of her early life and thought.
George Eliot’s first three stories, the Scenes of
Clerical L ife,’ relate to Nuneaton life.
‘ Adam Bedeperta ins to the borderland of Staffordshire and Derbyshire The Mill on the Floss to Lincolnshire and
Silas Marner,’ Felix Holt,’ and Middlemarch to
xvi GE ORGE E LIOT.
the central midland region which includes Warwickshire . Thus, with the exception of ‘ Romola,’ herstories were chiefly confined to the midland section of
England, which, physiograph ically considered, is generally conceded to be one of the least interestingregions of the is land of Great Britain . A favoritecompanion of her father in his frequent drives overthe country surrounding Nuneaton, George Eliot wasa keen childish observer of the details of the section
through which they passed and of the people with
whom they came in contact. This gave her opportu
nities to observe the ways of a great variety of people,and she herse lf has recorded that she studied her English life among the midland villages and marke ts
,
a long by the tree- studded hedgerows, and where the
heavy barges (on the canal) seem in the distance to
float mysteriously among the rushes and featheredgrass rather than within the boundaries of an an
cestral park.
” The fact that this was a coa l regionadded much to the variety that was open to her gaz e ,
although it tended to accentuate more strongly the
prevalence of commonplace life .
After completing ‘ The M ill on the Floss, ’ th ere
was a new departure in the character of George
Eliot’s works, concerning wh ich Leslie Stephen saysThe publication of Silas Marner marks an impor
tant change in the direction of George Eliot’
s work.
The memories of early days are no longer to be the
dominant factor in her imaginative world and hence
forth one charm disappears ; however complete ly to
the taste of some readers, it may be replaced by
others . She has begun to consider theories
H ER W ORK . xv i i
about the relations of ethics and msthetics and psychology ; and hereafter the influence of her theoryupon her writing will be more obvious .In Silas Marner ( 1 86 1 ) and Felix Holt ’
George Eliot has given u s two imaginative nove lswh ich belong to the midland region only so far as
concerns stage setting and persanm. In the first of
these books she has endeavored to “set in a strong
light the remedia l influences of pure natural humanre lations and she was almost tempted to tell herstory in metre. This more strictly imaginative deve lopment of ‘ Silas Marner
’
gives it that impersonalcharacter which will tend to make it a lasting work.
The author of the ordinary novel does not connectthe events and influences of the personal life that is
described with humanity as a whole but this George
Eliot has attempted to do in ‘ Felix Holt,
’which
,
however, must be regarded as the least successful ofher nove ls. In this book the author has taken up the
problem of youth with active m inds and an all-absorbing idea l in other words, the problem of radica lismas displayed in the moral awakening in England.
George Eliot became so thorough ly imbued withthe spirit of her early surroundings that throughout herwho le after life she was able to reproduce in her mind ’seye the minutest de tails of landscape or personal action. In the opening chapter of ‘ Felix Holt
,
’she
has given awa y graphic description of this midlandsection ofWarwickshire and the neighboring counties .
It has been pointed out that in her early novelsGeorge Eliot has given the . results of the observation sand experiences that natura lly fell in her way, and
O
xvi i i GE ORGE E LIOT.
the portraiture is correspondingly sharp ; but in the
later works of Romola, ’ Middlemarch,’ and Dan ie lDeronda, ’ there was an actua l study of conditions forliterary purposes ; so that, with the writing of Romola,’
still another new departure in method is mademanifest.
We mu st agree w ith Thomas Dawson in saying
that the great purpose in‘
Romola ’
( 1 863 ) is to
show the effect of circumstance upon the deve lopmentof human character
,and all the historical background
painted in the most intricate detail serves but to show
up this deve lopment. George Eliot always tells thestory of a soul, and in ‘ Romola George Eliot hasleft her living sou l .
‘ M iddlemarch’
( 1 87 1 —7 2 ) deals with a higherstratum of the English provincial society than that
which is the main field of George Eliot ’s earliernove ls
,and while it lacked their pecu liar charm, ow
ing to the more constrained and deeper philosophica lreflections, and the less spontaneous action of its char
acters, yet there is an added strength which marks
the highest leve l of her work. In commen ting upon
the success of ‘ Middlemarch, ’ Les lie Stephen re
marks George Eliot was now admittedly the first living novelist. Thackeray and Dickens were both dead,and no survivor of her generation could be countedas a rival .”
Although ‘ M iddlemarch attained such success
that George Eliot herself said that it was receivedwith as much enthusiasm as any of her works, not
excepting‘ Adam Bede,’ yet it brought out more
forcibly than ever the melancholy and sadness that
xx GE ORGE ELIOT.
poem,
‘ The Spanish Gypsy’ displayed her
strength as well as her weakness as a poet . In it she
uses a Spanish historical setting, as she had previously,in Romo la, ’ u sed an Italian background . The chiefconception is the subordination of perspnal cla ims to
those of class as demanded by destiny ; the se lf- sacrifice of the individual for the genera l good. The
story wou ld undoubtedly have been more effective
told in prose than in verse . Much has been written
concerning George Eliot as a poet, and it seems to be
the universal opinion that she lacked the poe tic inspiration . Mr. James has given in half a sentence a
clean-cut criticism of George Eliot’
s poe tical writings,“ verse which is all reflection, with direct, vivifying
vision, or emotion , remarkably absent.The identification of persons and places in George
Eliot’s novels has given some occupation to the ma
jority of writers who have treated of her works . In
deed , two writers have dealt wholly with the placesRose Kingsley having published a brief article on
The Coun ty of George Eliot in the Gem‘my M aga
z z'
ne,1 88 5 , and Mr. S. Parkinson a little book entitled
Scenes from the George Eliot Country (Leeds,These productions contain illustrations showing some
of the houses in which George Eliot lived, and buildings and towns which she has described in her writings . Also in Cross
’s Life George Eliot herse lf
gives much valuable information concerning her literary geography. This Parkinson has free ly used .
It has been discriminatingly said that it is throughthe nove l that we can best
,or in fact we must
,study
the condition of person and place during the past
H ER W ORK .
century and if the intrinsic value of the novels of thatperiod depend on their palpable truthfulness, George
Eliot must be placed at the head of the list of nineteenth century English novelists . During the centurythe complexity of life was very much increased
,and its
presentation by the nove list became correspondinglyd ifficult . George Eliot ’s novels show us in SilasMarner and Dan ie l Deronda the marked contrasts
of the old simple life and the complex life due to
modern influences . It is true that she selected “ the
people for portrayal and confined herse lf to a lim
ited geographica l area for her scenes, but by doingthis she dea lt with what she knew actua lly to exist
by obta in ing her information a t first hand , and her
works are of lasting value according as she has keptto this condition . This feature concern ing a book, sowel l shown in Adam Bede
,
’
is very different from that
of inherent greatness a s it is usually recognized and
wh ich is exemplified in ‘ Romo la .
’
O scar Brown ing
points out, however, that a lthough her novels depictingEnglish Midland life are drawn from experience,
yet they have the impersonal form that must be longto imperishable literature .
Compassionate sympathy characterizes George
Eliot’s writings, but instead of a llowing herself thefreedom of the objective method as did Scott and
Balzac,she kept herse lf in such a servitude to rea lism
that her art has rema ined as nearly as possible true toactual cond itions .
Probably no other nove list has furnished a betteropportunity than George Eliot for the critic to air his
views as an interpreter of the meaning or significance
xxi i GE ORGE E LIOT.
of what the author has said . These psychologica ls tud ies have been made by a ll classes of critics
,from
those who have written in the ve in demanded by the
popu lar magazines to those who have exercised all
the ir ingenuity to conjure up meanings that origi
nated entire ly within themse lves and which never
entered George Eliot ’s m ind . O f all the critica lestimates of George Eliot that have appeared, that ofH enry James appea ls to us a s the bes t, although it isvery brief. H e has re lated his impre ssions in c lear,simple language that goes straight to the mark, andhas not permitted the indefinite ramblings that havecharacterized so much of the so-called critica l workof others .
As an example of the criticism that exists concern
ing George El iot may be mentioned Mrs . H errick ’sremark She seems to me to be the on ly woman in
all the wide range of fictitiou s lite rature who has
drawn a genu ine, man ly man ; wh ile Leslie Stephenth inks that she cou ld not present accurate ly the essen
tially mascu line e lements in the character of men,
a lthough she portrayed with such strength those which
belong to both sexes and those which are best deve loped in the feminine sex. H er women
,he th inks
,
have not been surpassed . Even ‘ Adam Bede,
’as
L eslie Stephen has acutely po in ted out,
“ is a most
admirable portrait ; but we can, we th ink, see c learlyenough that he always corresponded to the view
which an inte lligent daughter takes of a respectedfather. The true difficulty is aga in , I take it, thatshe was too thoroughly feminine to be quite at home
in the psychology of the male animal . H er women
H ER W ORK . xxi i i
are so far as a man can judge unerringly drawn.
W e are convinced at every point of the insight and
fide lity of the ana lysis ; but when she draws a man ,
she has not the same certainty of touch .
”
M . Brune tiere , the critic, calls George Eliot the \founder of n atura lism in English litera ture . H e des
ignates as the soul of natura lism the intelligence and
heartfelt sympathy which George Eliot possessed to 1such a wonderful degree ; and he says that her pro
-
jlJ
I
II
i
found psychology, her metaphysica l solidity, and hermora l breadth are displayed in that sympathetic
trea tment of the commonplace and ugly.
In commenting upon Silas Marner,
’Leslie Stephen
remarks : A modern realist wou ld,I suppose, com
plain that George Eliot had omitted , or touched too
slightly for his taste, a great many repu lsive and bruta le lements in the rustic world . H er portraits
,indeed
,
are so vivid as to convince us of the ir fide lity ; butshe has selected the less ugly, and taken the point ofView from which we see mainly what was wholesome
and kindly in the little village community.
‘ SilasMarner
’is a masterpiece in that way, and scarcely
equalled in English litera ture .
In Mr . H enry James’s judgmen t, ‘ Romola is on
the whole the finest thing she wrote, but its defectsare a lmost on the scale of its beauties. And aga in ,
a lmost in the same breath , he says :“ It is on the
whole a failure . The book is overladen With learning and its characters lack life blood .
”
George Eliot possessed the active scientific bentof mind rather than the receptive artistic . The works
of art seemed not to have made the same impressions
xxiv GE ORGE EL IOT.
on her that they would have on a more poetic nature .
It was this lack of artistic temperament that kept her
from giving to Romola ’a breathing atmosphere , but
overloaded it with conditions and facts and made itas laboriously instructive as if it had been written bya German. H er preparation for the task was thoroughly German in character, and, as Mr . James pointsout, was, a las thoroughly German in its resu lt.The criticism has been made by Leslie S tephen that
the true atmosphere of the times of the Renaissance
is not repre sented in Romola ,
’
and that wh ile it
serves admirably as an“academic ”
treatise , yet it
does not satisfy the conditions of a romance of that
period. In fact,to have done so
,it would have been
necessary to depict the morals of a time which on lyan audacious pen could present to a modern audienceof readers . George Eliot would not have reproducedthat life w ith the rea listic fa ithfulne ss that distinguishesher stories of English life, even if she could havethrown herself into real sympathy w ith the every-dayFlorentine life
,which is extremely doubtful.
The treatment of the main problem that confronts
Romo la, to keep alive\ that flame of un se lfish emo
tion by which a life of sadness might well be a life of
active love, is carried out with that powerful geniusthat d istinguishes George El iot at her best. If we
can put aside the historical paraphernalia, forget thedates and the h istorical Savonaro la and Machiave lli
,
there remains a singularly powerful representation of
an interesting spiritual history ; of the ordea l throughwhich a lofty nature has to pass when brought in tocollision with characters of baser composition .
HER W ORK . XXV
There is hardly any novel, except the ‘Mill on the
Floss, ’ in wh ich the stages in the inner life of a
thoughtful and tender nature are set forth with so
much tenderness and sympathy. If Romola is farless attractive than Maggie, her story is more con
s istently deve loped to the end .
”
Hardly any heroine since Clarissa H arlowe hasbeen so effective a centre of interest as Romola and
if I regret that she was moved out of her own century
and surrounded by a mass of irrelevant matter of
antiquarian or sub-historica l interest,I w ill not pre
sume to quarre l with people who do not admit theincongruity.
”
In connection with George E liot ’s diary, the briefcomment on Balzac ’s Pere Goriot, ’ in which she callsit a hateful book
,
”causes Mr . James to remark
that “ it illuminates the author’s [George Eliot’s]
genera l attitude with regard to the novel , which , for
h er,was not primarily a picture of life, capable of
deriving a high value from its form , but a moralizedfable
,the la st word of a philosophy endeavoring to
teach by example . Although George Eliot herse lfhas said (as quoted in Cross
’s Life ,
’Vol. III.) My
function is that of the aesthetic, not the doctrina lteacher ; the rou sing of the nobler emotions, which
make mankind desire the socia l right ; not the prescribing of specia l m easures, concern ing which the artistic
mind, however strongly moved by social sympathy,is often not the best judge,” ye t it would seem a s
though she did not fu lly realize the degree to which ,
especially in her later works , she philosophized in theabstract, and then applied her conclusions to the in
xxvi GE ORGE EL IOT.
dividual cases presented by her. She thus gave us
the deductive nove l in which the character was made
to su it ner conc lusions, rather than the direct resultsof observation of the individual. And yet in her
application of her genera l conclusions to the individual
,George Eliot has shown her greatest genius, for
she has been able to infuse them most naturallyinto creatures of flesh and blood . While one feelsthe philosophic spirit that pervades her stories
, yet
her characters fit so well into her background thatthey present and preserve the attractiveness that has
caused her nove ls to be so widely read. As H enryJames has said Nothing is finer in her genius thanthe combination of her love of genera l truth and loveof the special case .
It is th is combination of the abstract and concre te
that has given George Eliot her lasting position in
the world of letters ; Probably no other nove listgives back to the thinker so much of what he h imse lfputs into the reading, and it is on th is account that
such wide ly divergent criticism has been possible inregard to George Eliot’s works.
W ithout doubt George Eliot’
s growing interest in
the subjects to which Lewes devoted his paralle l life,
had much to do w ith the increased reflectiveness so
apparent in her later works . She had a lways readwide ly in the phys ica l sciences , and many of her illustrations are drawn from this matter-of- fact source.
This has deprived her writings of the charm of rich
classical a llusion that has served the purpose of so
many writers who have won fame in their ca lling.
Without Lewes ’s influence, George Eliot would prob
xxvi i i GEORGE ELIOT.
not give her character a natural way of speaking ac
cording to Italian conditions .
George Eliot so close ly ana lyzed some of her char
acters that it amounted to a dissection —~ a vivisection
of the soul — and this introspection becomes actuallysadden ing to some natures : the problems tha t she
has selected for her themes have contributed towardsincreasing this effect. There can be no doubt, however
,but that George Eliot ’s reading public would
have been much larger than it has been had the toneof her writings been less sombre for
,notwithstanding
the wit which she has displayed , not one of her novelsleaves the reader in a joyous mood
, but rather in one
of subdued reflection .
One feature that makes George Eliot ’s writingsdifficu lt reading for the masse s
,and in places rea lly
appreciable by only the more high ly and broadlyeducated people , is her continual use of scientificmetaphor. While this habit was one that she earlyexhibited and was thus unquestionably persona l, yetit undoubtedly developed to its abnorma l proportionsthrough the influence of Mr. Lewes and the c ircle of
scien tists and more genera l philosophers that the
L eweses drew about them. In reality, George Eliot
applied the s cien tific method to her analysis of char
acter,and that was why she was able to do it with
such certainty ; one critic has well remarked that“ to study men as a branch of natural h istory wasthe inherent tendency of her mind .
”
One advan tage under which George Eliot wroteafter her first success was the almost total freedomfrom outside influences except those of Mr. Lewes ;
HER W ORK . xxix
and these critics regard as non-beneficial in that he
had in mind success before the public. But in the
main George Eliot worked out each story, each char
acter, to its inevitable and logica l conclusion as she
saw i t.
W ith the publication of her ‘ Scenes of ClericalL ife in B la ckwood ’
s M aga z ine, George Eliot jumpedat once into favor w ith the public that reads such
periodica ls . The publication of ‘ Adam Bede ’ex
tended her reputation into far lower circles, and wonfor her a popularityw ith the whole of the rea l read ingpublic of the English language . The financial successof ‘ Adam Bede
,
’which sold copies in one year,
caused the Blackwoods to offer such generous terms
for future books that George Eliot was independen tof financia l worry , a lthough from the early sale of
‘ Adam Bede ’ itself she rece ived but this
was,however
,double the amoun t agre ed upon . H er
fame thus created, and firmly established by the
publication of ‘ The M ill on the Floss,’ gave to her
writings a momen tum that carried them into largeeditions
,so that in all her later writings the number
of copies that were sold of a book was no indicationof its intrinsic value or the real interest which it
aroused .
At the present time the books rank, according to
their popular demand,about in the following order,
as indicated by the calls for them at a much-usedAmerican public library ‘ Adam Bede,’ ‘ Romola,’
Mill on the Floss, ’ Daniel Deronda, ’ Middlemarch,
’
Silas Marner,’Fe lix Holt. ’
In America the popularity of George Eliot’s writ
xxx GE ORGE E LIOT.
ings as shown by their sales, is in the following order :‘ Adam Bede ‘ Romola,’ ‘ Silas Marner
,
’ ‘ Scenes of
Clerica l L ife, -M ill on the Floss,’ Felix H olt .
’
‘ Midd lemarch’and ‘ Dan ie l Deronda ’ both ap
peared at a time when pamph let editions of popularbooks were at the height of their popularity. In
consequence of the publication of severa l competingeditions, these two books sold in larger numbers thanany other of George Eliot
’s books and they became
better known to the American public . Middlemarch,
’ however, was and is still the more popular ofthe two. The ‘ Essays,
’ ‘ Poems, ’ and ‘ Impressions
of Theophrastus Such’were never popular to any
great degree, and there was little demand for themoutside of the complete sets of the au thor
’s works.
Whatever may be the verdict, either popular or
critical,concerning the question as to the greatest of
George Eliot’s works, there is one thing that all mu st
recogn ize, and that is that during the period of h er
great productiveness there is an increase in the com
plexity and depth of her stories by reason of the greater
number of actors and the more profound study of
their psychological characteristics . As increasedexperience in life revealed its complexities , she
endeavored to modify her work by taking advantageof her shifting point of view and its surroundings .
What greater contrast could there be than that shown
in The Sad Fortunes of the Reverend Amos Barton ,
’
her first contribution to fiction,and Danie l Deronda , ’
her last nove l In Amos Barton ’ ha lf a dozen persons may be regarded as really entering into the
action of the story, which is very simple, while in
HE R W ORK . xxxi
Dan ie l Deronda ’a host of personages appear, and
the book presents subtile problems that can be apprecis ted by only the comparative ly few. In the earlynove ls the character studies are simple , as befits thesimplicity of the lives of the people who enter into
the story,and there is little that may not be compre
he nded by any reader who has the capacity to readthe books at all. But in ‘ Danie l Deronda ’ feelingsand conditions appear that are narrowed down evento specia l university experiences.
The position that George Eliot occupies in the litcrary world is as firmly fixed as it can be until time
sha ll have given her most enduring works their placein the world ’s literature . It is still too early to say
which of her works will be thus honored, but the cri
terion of this selection by reading posterity must be
found in the books themselves,irrespective of any
local va lue as regards time or place . Those of her
books wh ich depend for the ir interest chiefly on
these latter grounds have a place, and if valuable ,as are
‘ Adam Bede ,
’ ‘
The Mill on the Floss ,’ and
Danie l Deronda,’ for their local coloring, will be of
use to inquiring minds . But the other reason for thelife of books, their continued appea l to readers of
succeeding ages, depends on a broad conception of
humanity wh ich , while present in all of George Eliot’s
writings to a greater or less degree, yet appears to us
to be most marked in Middlemarch and SilasMarner.’ It is perhaps not too much to say that a
profounder expression of human nature pervadesMiddlemarch than is to be found in her other works,perhaps more than in any other English nove l wh ile
Xxxi i GE ORGE E L IOT.
the perfection of Sila s Marner,
’which has resulted in
its choice a s a typica l English fiction classic for studyby school youths, will render its cla ims for a perma
n ent place in literature a very strong one .
Even L eslie Stephen is willing to admit that twodecades after her death George Eliot’s works havenot quite so high a position as was assigned to them
by contemporary enthusiasm ,”but he g ives as the
cause the partial m isdirection of her powers in the
later period .
” This was at the time when George
Eliot was searching other fields than her own mindfor bu ilding materia l .A new reason for the study of George Eliot’ s life
has arisen in the se lection of Silas M arner’as one
of the books in the required English in the en trance
examination for college . This has occasioned a very
wide study, not only of the required writings of GeorgeEliot
,but of her life as we ll : it has necessitated the
preparation of a specia lly ed ited text of the nove l .Of George Eliot’s fiction, Silas M arner is for a num
ber of reasons the one best suited for student use .
It is the shortest of the stories, and thus does not
offer an overwhelming bulk. It is the most sponta
neous and artistic,and presen ts a perfection of form
hardly to be met with in any other work of Englishfiction . The theme is one that appeals to the mass of
mankind . She leads,or rather follows
, Silas Marner
through the vicissitudes of a simple narrow life in
which confidence in life itse lf is overturned throughtreacherous friendship, to be restored through the me
dium of child nature . The high conception of the
theme and the skilful manner in which the details of
H E R WORK . xxxi i i
thought and action which appea l broadly to humaninstincts are inte rwoven with it, together with the
fact that a plane of society is chosen that everyreader can understand
,owing to its simplicity
, tendto make the work a classic that appea ls to a W ideaudience.
The requirements, for student use, of biographicaldetail and a genera l summary of George Eliot
’
s con
tribution to literature, are fully and s ingularly we l lmet by Mathilde Blind’s book. The features that especially recommend it for such use are that it is not
written over the heads of the youthful students whoare called upon to familiarize themselves with GeorgeEliot’s life and works, and it con tains much information that they might be expected to acquire con
cerning this author.
1 846 . Completion of the translation of Strauss’s
Life of Jesus .
’
1 849 . Wrote a review of Nemesis of Faith .
’
Translated Spinoza’s ‘Tractatus Theologico-Politicus .
’
May 3 1 . Death of her father.
June . Left England for the Continent withthe Brays ; went to Nice, Genoa, Milan, Como, Mag
giore, the Simplon, Chamounix,and settled at Geneva .
1 850. March . Returned to England .
1 85 1 . Wrote Review of Mackay’s ‘ Progress of
the Intellect. ’
Became assistant editor of the West
minster Review .
Became acquainted with H erbert Spencer.Introduced to George H enry Lewes.
Visit to Edinburgh .
1 85 3 . Left Mr. Chapman’s house and took lodg
ing on Cambridge Street, Hyde Park.
1 854 . Union with Mr. Lewes.
Translated Feuerbach ’
s Essence of Christianity.
’
Resigned the assistant editorship of the
I/Vestmim z‘er Review .
Went to Antwerp,Weimar
,and Berlin .
Absent eight months .
1 85 5 . March 1 3 . Returned to England .
Lived at 8 Park Shot, Richmond .
Wrote articles for the I’Vestmim ter Review
and the L eader .
1 856 . Translated Spinoza ’s Ethics .
’
Experience in Nature study.
GEORGE ELIOT’S LIFE . xxxvn
1 85 6. September. First serious attempt at fictionwri ting.
November 5 . Amos Barton finished .
May. Mr. Gilfil’
s Love Story finished.
1 85 7 . Assumed the name George Eliot.October 9 . Janet ’s Repentance finished.
O ctober 2 2 . Adam Bede begun .
1 85 8 . February 28 . George Eliot’
s identity re
vealed to John Blackwood .
Visit to Germany.The M ill on the Floss begun .
February 5 . Removed to Holly Lodge,Wandsworth .
April 29 . Finished The Lifted Veil . ’
Trip to Switzerland .
June 20 . Revealed the identity of GeorgeEliot to her friends, the Brays and Sara H ennell.
1 860 . March 2 1 . Finished M ill on the Floss .
’
Spring. First journey to Italy : Rome,
Naples, Florence, Venice .
At Florence became fired with the idea of
writing a historical romance scene, Florence 5 period,the close of the fifteenth century, which was marked bySavonaro la ’s careerand martyrdom. First conceptionof Romola.
’
Michae lmas . Left Wandsworth and re
moved to 1 0 Harewood Square .
Began Silas Marner.
’
1 86 1 . March 1 0 . Finished Silas Mamer.’
Revisited Florence for local color for
Romola.
’
October 7 . Began Romola .
’
xxxvi i i
Jan . 1 . Resumed Romola .
’
June 9 . Finished Romola.
’
Third trip to Italy.
September. Spanish Gypsy’ begun .
March . Felix H olt begun.
Trip to Brittany.
1 866 . May 3 1 . Felix Holt ’completed .
Trip to Belgium and Holland .
August 30 . Resumed work on SpanishGypsy.
’
October 1 3 . Began‘ Spanish Gypsy in
its new form.
1 86 7 . Journey to Spain for atmosphere and localcolor for the Spanish Gypsy.
’
Two months’trip to North Germany.
Acquaintance with the Cross family began .
November. Wrote Felix H olt ’s address toworkingmen .
1 868 . Made trip to Torquay.
April 29 . Finished Spanish Gypsy.
’
May 2 6 . Trip to Baden.
1 869 . January 1 .
f Middlemarch dec ided upon .
January.
‘ Agatha’was written .
February. ‘ How Lisa Loved the Kingcompleted .
Spring. Fourth trip to Italy.
Sonnets on Childhood finished . Brotherand Sister sonnets .
At work on M iddlemarch,’ which duringits early composition was called M iss Brooke .
’
1 870. January 20 .
‘
Legend of Jubal ’ com
pleted .
GE ORGE E LIOT’S L IFE . xxx ix
1 8 70 . March and April. Journey to Berlin and
Vienna.
Armgut completed.
At work on Middlemarch.
’
1 87 1 . At work on Middlemarch .
’
v 1 8 7 2 . September. Middlemarch completed.Fall. Trip to Homburg.
1 87 3 . June 23 . Started on a Continenta l trip of
n ine weeks.
November. Thoughts“slowly simmering
towards another big book Danie l Derondav 1 8 74. May. Publication of collection of Poems.
October. Trip to Ardennes .
1 8 7 5 . At work on Daniel Deronda .
’
1 8 76 . April. Finished Book VII. of Danie lDeronda.
’
June to September. A trip to Germanyand Switzerland.
December. Purchased a house in Surrey,The He ights, Witley, near Godalming.
v 1 8 78 . November. Sent the completed manuscriptTheophrastus Such to Blackwood .
November 28 . George H enry Lewes
died .
1 8 79 . Edited Mr. Lewes’s unfinished manuscript.
Spring . Read proof sheets of Theo
phrastus Such .
’
Spring. Plans to endow a physiologicalstudentship fund at Cambridge in memory of
Mr. Lewes .
1 880 . May 6 . George Eliot married to JohnWa lter Cross, at St. George
’s,Hanover Square .
x1 GE ORGE E LIOT’
S L IFE .
on the Continent,including
George Eliot received a letter fromher brother, Isaac P. Evans, the first in many years .
December Settled in new house a t 4
Walk.
December 2 2 . George Eliot died . H er
body rests in H ighgate Cemetery, in the grave next
to Mr. Lewes .
PREFATORY NOTE
DETA ILED accounts of GEORGE ELIOT’
S lifehave hitherto been singu larly scanty. In the
dearth of published material s a considerableportion of the in formation con tained in thisbiographica l study has, necessarily, been de
rived from private sources . In vi s iting the
places connected wi th GEORGE ELIOT’
S earlylife, I en j oyed the privilege of mee t ing her
brother, M r. Isaac Evan s, and was also fortunate in g lean ing many a characteri stic factand tra it from old people in the ne ighborhood,contemporaries of her father, Mr. RobertEvans . For va luable help in forming an ideaof the grow th of GEORGE ELIOT’
S mind,my
w arm thanks are especia l ly due to her oldestfriends, Mr . and Mrs . Charles Bray, and Mi s sH ennell of Coventry. M i ss Jenkins
, the nov
elist’
s schoolfe llow, and Mrs . John Cash, also
x l ii PREFA TOR Y NOTE .
generously afforded me every a ss istance in
the ir power.A g reat part of the correspondence in the
presen t volume has not hitherto appeared inprint, and has been kindly placed a t my dis
posa l by Mrs . Bray, Mrs . Gi lchrist, Mrs . Clifford, Mi ss Marks, Mr. W i ll iam M . Rossetti ,and the la te James Thomson . I have alsoquoted from letters addressed to M i ss Phe lpswhich were published in Ha fgper
’
s M ag az ine
of March 1882, and from one or two otherarticles that have appeared in periodica l publications . For permi ssion to make use of
this correspondence my thanks are due to
Mr . C . L . L ewes .By far the most exhaus tive publi shed ac
count of GEORGE EL ror’
s l ife and w ri ting s,and the one of which I have most free lyavai led myse lf, is Mr . Ca l l ’ s admirable es sayin the Wes tm ins ter Review of Ju ly 188 1 .
A lthough this, as indeed eve ry othe r artic leon the subj ect, states GEORGE ELIOT’
S birthplace incorrectly, it conta ins many importan tda ta not mentioned e lsewhere . To the a rticleon GEORGE ELIOT in B lackwood
'
s M ag a z ine
for February 188 1 , I owe many interes tingparticu lars, chiefly connected w i th the be
C O N T E N T S
GEORGE ELIOT AND HER W ORK
THE CHIEF EVENTS 0F GEORGE ELIOT's L IFE
PREFATORY NOTE BY MATHILDE BLIND
I . INTRODUCTORY
CHILDHOOD AND EARLY HOME
III. YOUTHFUL STUDIES AND FR IENDSHIPS
TRANSLATION OF STRAUSS AND FEUERBACH .
TOUR ON THE CONTINENT
THE W ESTMINSTER Kne w’
GEORGE HENRY LEW Es
VII. SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE
VIII. ADAM BEDE
IX. THE MILL ON THE FLoss
X. SILAS MARNER
XI. ROMOLA
XII. HER POEMS
Chapter
FELIx HOLT AND MIDDLEMARCH
DANIEL DERONDA
LAST YEARS
APPEND IX
ELIOT’
s HOME LIFE FRIENDS
GEORGE ELIOT AT; W ORK
GEORGE BIBL IOGRAPHY
INDEX
I LLU S TRA T ION S
POrtrait of George
George E l iot’s Birthplace, South Farm, Arbury
Park
George E liot’s Home , Foleshill
Griff House, G eorge E liot’s Ear ly Home
G EO RGE E L IOT
CHAPTER L
INT R O D U C T O R E
SPEAKING of the contribution s made to lit
erature by her own sex, George E l iot, in a
charm ing essay written in 1854, awards thepa lm of inte llectua l pre-eminence to the womenof France .
“They a lone,” says the g reat
English author, “ have had a vita l influenceon the development of l iterature . For in
France alone th e mind of woman has passed,like an e lectric current, through the language ,making crisp and defin ite what is elsewhereheavy and blurred in France a lone , if thewrit ings of women were swept away, a seriou s
gap would be made in the nationa l h i story .
The reason ass igned by George E l iot forthis l ite rary superiority of FrenchWomen con
s ists in their having had the courage of the i rsex . They thought and felt as women , and
when they wrote, the i r books became the fu l l
2 GEORGE ELIOT.
est expre ssion of thei r womanhood . And by
being true to themse lve s , by only seekingin spirat ion from the ir own l ife-experience,ins tead of servi le ly copying that of men,
the irletters and memoi rs, the ir nove ls and pictures,have a dis t inct, nay un ique, va lue for the stu
dent Oi art and l iterature . Eng l i shwomen, on
the other hand, have not follow ed the sponta
n eons impu l ses of natu re . They have not
a l lowed free play to the pecu l iarly fem in inee lement, preferring to mou ld the ir in te l lectua lproducts on the mascu line pattern . For thatreason , says George El iot, th e ir w ritings are
“usual ly an absurd exaggera tion of the mas
cu l ine style, l ike the swaggering gait of a bad
actress in ma le attire .
”
This novel theory, concerning a specifi
cally femin ine man ifestation of the in te l lect,is doubly curiou s when one compares it w ithMadame de S tael’s famous saying ,
“ L e g e’
n ie
n’
a pas de serve.
”But an aphorism
,however
brill iant, usual ly conta ins on ly one ha lf thetruth, and there i s every reason to think thatwomen have a lready, and w i l l much morelarge ly, by-and-by, infuse into the ir works certain inte l lectua l and emot iona l qua l ities whichare essentia l ly their own . Sha l l w e, however,admit George El iot
'
s conclusion that Frenchwomen a lone have hitherto shown any of this
4GE ORGE ELIOT.
the larger brain and slower temperament of
the Eng lish and German s are in the woman lyorgan izat ion genera l ly dreamy and pas sive .
SO that the p/zy s iqne of a woman may su fficeas th e substratum for a superior Ga l l ic m ind,but i s too thin a soi l for a superior Teu ton icone .
”
So knotty and subtle a problem must beleft to the scienti st of the futu re to decide .
Perhaps some prom ising young physio log i st,profiting by the
“ George H enry L ewes Studentship founded by George E l iot, maysome day satisfactori ly e lucidate this quest ion.
In the meanwhile it i s at least gratifying to
reflect that she does not deny the fu turepos s ibi l ities of even Eng li sh and Germanwomen . She adm its that condition s m ightarise which in the i r case also wou ld be favorable to the highest creat ive effort ; condit ionswhich wou ld modify the existing s tate of
things according to which, to speak in her
own scientific phraseology :“ The woman of
large capacity can se ldom ri se beyond the
absorption of ideas ; her physica l condition srefuse to support the energy requ ired forspontaneous activity the vol taic pile i s not
strong enough to produce crystal l iza tions .Bu t was the author of ‘ Adam Bede ’
not
hersel f destined to be a triumphant refu ta
INTRODUCTORY. 5
t ion of her theory ? O r had those morefavorable circumstances ment ioned as vagueposs ibi l ities a lready arisen in her case ? Notthat w e believe , for that matter, in the superior cla im s of i l lu striou s Frenchwomen It i strue George E l iot enumerates a formidablel i st of names . But on the whole we mayboast of feminine ce lebrit ies that need not
shrink from the comparison .
There i s, of course, much truth in the
great Eng l i shwoman’s generous prai se of her
French compeers. “ Mme . de Sevigne re
ma in s, she says , “the s ing le instance of a
woman who i s supreme in a class of l iteratu rew hich has engaged the ambit ion of men ;
Mme. Dacier st i l l reign s the queen of bluestocking s, though women have long studiedGreek w ithout Shame Mme . de S tael’s name
sti l l rises to the l ips when we are asked tomen tion a woman of great in te llectua l power ;Mme . Roland is sti l l the un riva l led type of
the sagaciou s and stern ly heroic yet lovablewoman ; George Sand is the unapproachedarti st who, to Jean Jacques
’
e loquence and
deep sense of externa l natu re, un ite s the
clear de l ineation of character and the trag icdepth of pass ion .
”
Sha l l we be forced to adm it that the repre
sen tative women of Eng land cannot justly be
6 GE ORGE ELIOT.
placed on as high a leve l ? Is it so certa inthat they, too, did not speak ou t of the ful
ness of the ir woman ly natures ? That they,too, did not fee l the genu ine need to expressmodes of thought and feeling pecul iar to
themse lves , w hich men , if at all, had but
inadequately expressed hitherto ?
W as not Queen Elizabeth the best type of
a female ru ler, one whose keen penetrat ionenabled her to choose her m in is ters w ithinfa l l ible judgmen t ? D id not Fanny Burneydisti l the de l icate aroma of g irlhood in one
of the most de lightfu l of nove ls ? O r whatof Jane Au sten ,
w hose m icroscopic fide l i ty ofobservat ion has a w e ll-nigh scientific accu
racy, never equalled un less in the pages of
the author. we are w riting of ? S ir W a lterScott apparently recogn ized the em inen tlyfemin ine inspiration of her w riting s , as he
says : “
That young lady had a ta len t fordescribing the involvements, and fee l ing s ,and characters of ordinary life, which is forme the most wonderfu l I ever met w ith . The
Bow -wow stra in I can do myself l ike any
now agoing bu t the exqu is ite touch , whichrenders ordinary commonplace thing s and
characters in teresting from the tru th of the
descriptions and the s ent imen t, i s den ied to
Nme . Then turn ing to the Bronte' s, does not
INTRODUCTORY. 7
one fee l the very heartbeats of womanhood inthose powerfu l utte rances that seem to springfrom some centra l emot iona l energy ? Again,
does not Mrs . Brown ing occupy a un iqueplace among poets ? Is there not a distinc
tively woman ly stra in of emotion i n the throbbing tides of her high-w rought me lodiou ssong ? And , to come to George E l iot herse lf, will any one deny that, in the combinat ion of sheer inte l lectua l powe r with an
unparal le led vision for the home ly deta i ls of
l ife, she takes precedence of all writers of
this or any other coun try To some extentthis wonderful woman conforms to her own
standard . She undoubtedly adds to the com
mon fund of crysta l l ized human experience,as l iterature migh t be ca l led, something whichis specifical ly femin ine . But, on the otherhand, her intel lect exce ls precisely in thosequa l ities habitual ly be l ieved to be mascu l ine,one of its chief characteri stics consi sting inthe grasp of abstract phi losophica l ideas .This facu lty, however, by no means imp ai rsthose instinctive processes of the imag inat ion by which true a rtis t ic work is producedGeorge E liot combin ing in an unu sua l degreethe subtlest power of ana lysi s w ith that happy
g ift of gen ius which enabled her to createsuch characters as Amos Barton, Hetty, Mrs .
8 GE ORGE ELIOT.
Poyser, Magg ie, and Tom Tulliver, GodfreyCas s, and Ca leb Ga rth, which seem to come
fresh from the mou ld of Natu re itse lf. In
deed, she has hardly a riva l among women in
this power of obj ective imag ination by w hichshe throws her whole sou l into natu res of
the most varied and opposite types, w herea sGeorge Sand on ly succeeds g reat ly when she
i s thoroughly in sympathy w ith her crea t ion s .A fter George E liot
’s eu log ium of Frenchwomen , one fee ls tempted to ins titute a
comparison between these two great con tem
poraries , who occupied the same leading pos it ion in the ir respective coun tries . Bu t it w i l lprobably a lways rema in a question of idiosyn
crasy which of the two one i s disposed to
rank higher, George E l iot be ing the greatestrea l ist, George Sand the greatest ideal is t, ofher sex The works of the French w riterare, in fact, prose poems rather than nove l s .They are not studies of l ife, but l ife inter
preted by the poet ’s vision . George Sandcannot g ive us a description of any scenein nature, of her own fee l ings, of a human
character, w ithou t imparting to it some mag ical effect as Of objects seen under the transfiguring influence of moon l ight or stormclouds whereas George E liot loves to batheher productions in the broad piti less midday
IIVTROD UCTORY.
9
light, which leaves no room for illusion, butreveals all
,nature with uncompromi s ing di
rectnes s . The one has more of that prim itive imag ination which se izes on the elementals ide of l ife — on the spectacle of the starryheavens or of A lpine sol itudes, on the insurrection and tumu lt of human passion , on the
shocks of revolu tion convu lsing the socialorder - while the other possesse s, in a higherdegree, the acute intel lectua l perception forthe orderly sequence of life, for that um
changeable round of toil which i s the lot ofthe mass of men . and for the earth in its
homel ier aspects as it tel l s on our da i ly existence . In George S and
’s finest work there i sa sweet spontane ity, a lmost as if she were an
oracle of Natu re uttering automat ica l ly the
d ivine message . But, on the other hand,when the in spiration forsakes her
, she driftsa long on a w indy current of words , the fata lfaci l ity of her pen often begu i ling the writerinto vague diffu seness and un substantia l declamation .
In this respect, a l so, our Eng li sh nove l i sti s the oppos ite of George Sand , for GeorgeE l iot invariably rema ins the master of her
gen ius : indeed , she thoroughly fu lfils Goethe’s
demand tha t if you set up for an artist youmust command art. This in te l lectua l se lf
10 GE ORGE E L IOT.
restraint never forsakes George El iot, who
always se lects h er mean s w ith a thoroughknow ledge of the ends to be atta ined . The
radica l difference in the gen ius of these two
w riters, to both of whom applies Mrs . Browning
’
s apt appel lation of “ large -brained womanand large—hearted man , extends natura lly to
the ir whole tone of thought. George Sandis impassioned , turbu lent, revolu tionary, thespiritual daughter of Rous seau ,
w ith an en thu
s ias tic faith in man’s futu re des tiny . George
Eliot, con templative , observant, in stinctivelyconservative , her imag ination dearly loving todo a l ittle Toryism on the sly, is as yet the
s o le ou tcome of the mode rn pos itive spir it inimag inative l iterature — the s o le nove l is t whohas incorporated in an artis t ic form s ome of
the leading ideas of Comte, of Mazzin i,and
of Darw in . In fact, underlying all her art
there is th e s ame r igorous teach ing of the
inexorable law s which govern th e l ife of man .
Th e teach ing that not l iberty bu t duty is the
condition of exis tence ; th e teaching of the
incalcu lable effects of hereditary transm i ss ionw ith th e s olemn respon s ibi lities it invo lves ;th e teach ing of the inherent sadn es s and im
perfection ln human natu re, which rende rres ignation the firs t virtue of man .
In fact, as a mora l influ ence, George E l iot
CHAPTER II.
CHILDHOOD AND EARLY HOME .
MARY ANN EVANS better known as GeorgeE liot,
”was born on November 22nd, 18 19,
at South Farm, Arbu ry near G ri ff,in the
pari sh of Coton, in W arw icksh i re . Boththe date and p lace of her b irth have beenincorrect ly s tated, h itherto, in the not ices Ofher l i fe . The fam i ly moved to G ri ff Housein March of th e fo l lowing year, when she was
on ly four mon ths old. H er father, RobertEvans
,of W e l sh orig in, was a S taffordsh ire
man from E l laston , in Staffordsh ire , and be
gan life as a carpenter. In the kitchen at
Griff House may sti ll be seen a beautifu l lyfashioned oaken press, a sample of his workman ship . A portra it of h im, a lso preservedthere
,i s known among the fami ly as
“ AdamBede . It i s not as good a l ikeness as thatof a certa in carefu l ly pa inted m in iatu re, thefeatures of which hear an unmistakable re
semblance to those of the daughter destinedto immortal ize his name . A strong ly marked,
CHILDH OOD AND EARL Y H OME . 13
yet handsome face, massive in structure, andw ith brown eye s, whose shrewd, penetratingg lance i s particu la rly noticeable , betoken the
man of strong pract ica l inte lligence , of rareenergy and endurance . H is career and character are partial ly depicted in Adam Bede,Ca leb Garth , and Mr. H ackit portra ituresin which the d ifferent stages of his life are
recorded w i th a ming l ing of fact and fiction.
A shadow ing forth of the same nature i s discern ible in the devot ion of S tradivarius to hisnoble craft and even in the tender patern ityof Mr. Tulliver there are indication s of an
other pha se oi the same individual ity .
L ike Adam Bede , Mr. Evan s from carpenter rose to be forester, and from forester tobe land-agent. It was in the latter capacitya lone that he was eve r known in W arwickshire . At one time he was surveyor to five
e states in the midland counties— those of
L ord Aylesford , L ord L ifford, Mr. Brom leyDavenport, Mrs . Gregory, and Colonel Newd igate . The last was h i s pr incipa l emp loyer.The father of Co lone l Newdigate, of A st leyCast le , Mr . Franc i s Newdigate, induced h imto sett le in Warwicksh ire, and take charge of
h i s estates . The country seat, Arbury Ha l l ,i s the or ig inal of the charm ing descript ion of
Cheverel Manor in Mr. Gilfi l’
s Love Story.
’
14 GE ORGE ELIOT.
It i s sa id that Mr. Evans’
s trustworthinesshad become proverbia l in the coun ty. But
w hi le fa ithfu l ly serving his employers he a lsoenjoyed g reat popu larity among thei r tenants .He was gentle, bu t of indom itable firmness ;and while stern to the idle and un thrifty, hedid not press heavi ly on those who m ight bebehindhand w ith thei r ren t, ow ing to i l l- luckor mis fortune, on quarter days .Mr . Evans was twice married . He had lost
his first w ife, by whom he had a son and a
daugh ter, before s ettl ing in W arw ickshire . Of
his second w ife, whose ma iden name was Pearson , very little i s known . She mu st, therefore,according to Schil ler, have been a pa ttern of
womanhood for h e says that the best women,
l ike the bes t ru led states, have no history.
W e have it on very good authority, how ever,that Mrs . Hackit, in
‘ Amos Barton ,
’ i s a
fa ithfu l l ikeness of George E l iot’s mother.This may seem startl ing at first, but, on re
flection, she i s the woman one might haveexpected, be ing a strong ly marked figure ,w ith a heart as tender a s her tongue i s sharp .
She is described as a thin woman,w ith a
ch ron ic l iver-complaint, of indefat igable in
dus try and epigrammatic speech ; who, in
the u tmost en j oyment of spoi l ing a friend ’sse lf-sati sfaction, was n ever known to spoi l a
CHILDH OOD AND EARL Y H OM E . 1 5
stocking . A notable hou sew ife, whose clockwork regu larity in all domestic affairs was
such that all her fa rm-work was done by n ineO’
clock in the morn ing, when she wou ld s it
down to her loom .
“ In the same spirit, she
brought out her furs on the first of November,w hatever might be the temperature . She was
not a woman weakly to accommodate herse lfto shi lly- sha l ly proceed ing s . If the seasondid n
’
t know what it ought to do, Mrs . Hackit
did . In her best days it was a lways sharpweather at Gunpowde r Plot,
’
and she did n ’
t
l ike new fashions .
” Keen ly observant and
qu ick of temper, She was yet fu l l of goodnature, her sympathy show ing itse lf in the
active he lpfu lness w ith which she came to the
ass i stance of poor M i lly Barton, and the loveshe showed to her chi ldren, who, however,decl ined kiss ing her.
Is there not a strong fami ly resemblancebetween this character and Mrs . Poyser, thatmasterpiece of George E liot’s art ? MaryA nn
’ s g ift of pointed speech was thereforemother-w it, in the true sense, and her richhumor and marve l lous powers of observation were derived from the same side, whileh er conscien tiousness , her capacity, and thatfacu lty of taking pains , which is so large a
factor in the deve lopment of genius, came
more directly from the father.
16 GE ORGE ELIOT.
Mr. Evans h ad three children by his secondw ife, Chris tiana , Isaac, and Ma ry Ann .
“ It
i s in tere s t ing, I think, w rites George E liot,in reply to some qu estions of an Americanlady, to know whe ther a w rite r was bornin a cen tra l or border district— a conditionwhich a lways has a strong ly determ in ing ih
fluence . I was born in W arw ickshire, bu tcerta in family traditions connected w ith morenortherly districts made the se districts a re
g ion of poetry to me in my early chi ldhood.
”
In the autobiographica l sonnets , entitledBrother and S ister,
’
we catch a g l impse of
the mother preparing her children for the iraccustomed ramble, by stroking down the
t ippet and setting the fri l l in order ; thenstanding on the door- step to fol low the ir lessen ing figures w ith the benediction of her
gaze.
”Mrs . Evan s was aware , to a certain
extent, of her daughter’s unu sua l capacity,
be ing anxiou s not on ly tha t She shou ld havethe best education attainable in the ne ighborhood, bu t a ls o that good mora l influencesshou ld be brought to bear upon her : s ti l l, theg irl
’
s constant habit of read ing , even in bed,
caused the practical mother not a l ittle an
noyance .
The hou se , where the fami ly l ived at thattime, and in which the first twenty years of
GE ORGE ELIOT.
gone things . A garden where roses and cab
bages jostle each othe r, where vegetables haveto make room for gnarled old apple-trees, andwhere, am id the raspberry bushes and row of
curran t trees , you expect to come upon Hettyhers e lf, stooping to gather the low—hang ingfruit.
”
h was the place where the childhood of
George El iot was spent . He re she drew inthose impressions of Eng lish rura l and provincial l ife, of which one day she was to be
the g reatest interpreter . Imposs ible tobe in a better position for seeing l ife . Not
on ly was her father’s pos ition a lways improving , so that she wa s early brought in
contact with differen t g rade s of society, buthis ca l l ing made him more or les s acquaintedwith all ranks of his ne ighbors , and , saysGeorge Eliot,
“ I have always thought that
the most fortunate Briton s are those whoseexperience has g iven them a practica l sharein many aspects of the nationa l lot, who
have l ived long among the mixed commona lty, .
rough ing it w ith them under diffi cu lties ,know ing how the ir food tas tes to them, and
getting acquainted with the ir notion s and mo
tives , not by infe rence from traditiona l typesin l iteratu re , or from phi losophica l theories,but from daily fe l lowship and observation .
”
CHILDH OOD AND EARL Y H OIIIE . 19
And what kind of a child was it who loitered about the farm-yard and garden and
fie ld s, noticing everything w ith grave , watchful eyes, and storing it in a memory of extraordinary tenacity ? O ne of her school fe l lows,who knew her at the age of thirteen , con
fe ssed to me that it was impos sible to imag ineGeorge E liot as a baby that it seemed as
i f she mu st have come into the world fu l lydeveloped, l ike a second M inerva . H er featu res were ful ly formed at a very early age,
and she had a seriousness of expression a lmoststart l ing for her years . The records of her
chi ld-l ife may be deciphered , amid some 10
man tic alteration s, in the early history of Tomand Magg ie Tulliver . Isaac and Mary Ann
Evans w ere playmates , l ike the se , the la tte rhaving all the tastes of a boy ; whe reas hers ister Chris sy, said to be th e origina l of L ucyDeane, had pecu l iarly dainty femin ine ways,and shrank from ou t-door rambles for fear ofsoi l ing her shoes or pinafore . But Mary Ann
and h er brother went fishing together, or
Spinn ing tops , or digg ing for ea rth-nu ts and
the tw ice-told inciden t of the l ittle g irl be ingleft to m ind th e rod and losing herse lf ind reamy contemplation , obliviou s of her task ,
is evidently taken from l ife, and may be quotedas a remin i scence of her own childhood
20 GE ORGE ELIOT.
One day my brother left me in high charge
To m ind the rod, while he went seeking bait,And bade me, when I saw a nearing barge,Snatch out the line, les t he shou ld come too late.
Proud of the task I watched w ith all my might
For one whole minute, til l my eyes grew wide,Til l sky and earth took on a new, strange l ight,And seemed a dream-world floating on some tide.
A fair pavilioned boat for me a lone,Bearing me onward through the vast unknown .
But sudden came the barge ’s pitch-black prow,
Nearer and angrier came my brother ’s cry,And all my soul was quivering fear, when 10 !Upon the imperil led l ine, suspended high,
A s ilver perch l My guilt that won the preyNow turned to merit, h ad a guerdon rich
O f hugs and praises , and made merry playUntil my triumph reached its highest pitch
“When all at home were told the wondrous feat,And how the little s is ter had fished we l l.
In secret, though my fortune tas ted sweet,
I wondered why this happiness befel l.
The little lass had luck, ’ the gardener saidAnd so I learned, luck was to glory wed.
”
Un l ike Maggie, however, l ittle Mary Ann
was as good a hand at fi shing as her brother,on ly differing from h im in not l iking to putthe worms on the hooks .
Another incident taken from rea l l ife, ifsomewhat magnified, i s the adventure with
CHILDH OOD AND EARL Y H OME . 2 1
the gyps ie s . For the prototype of Maggiea l so fe l l among these marauding vagrants,and was deta ined a l ittle time among them.
W hether she a lso proposed to in struct the
gypsies and to ga in g reat influence over themby teaching them someth ing about “
geogra
phy”
and “ Columbus,” does not transpire .
But, indeed , most of Magg ie’s early experi
ences are autobiographic, down to such factsas her father telling her to rub her “
turnip ”
cheeks aga in st Sal ly’s to get a l ittle bloom,
and to cutting off one s ide of her ha ir in a
passion . A t a very early age Mary Ann and
her brotherWEI—
é sent to a dame’ s schoo l kept
by a Mrs . Moore near Gri ff H ouse . A t the
age of five she jo ined h er s i ster “ Chr i ssy ”
at M iss Lathom ’
s schoo l in Att leborough ,
where she cont inued for three or fou r years .
There are st i l l old men l iving who u sed to
s it on th e same form wi th l itt le Mary Ann
Evan s learn ing her A , B,C ,
and a certa inW i l l iam Jacque s (the orig ina l of the de l ightfu l ly com ic Bob Jak in s of fict ion ) remembersca rrying her pick—a-back on the lawn in frontof her fathe r ’ s house.
In her e ighth or n inth year Mary Ann was
sent to a schoo l at Nuneaton kept by a Mi ssW a l l ington . Th e principal governess was
M i ss L ewi s, for whom she retained an affec
22 GE ORGE EL IOT.
t ionate regard long years afterwards. About
the s ame t ime sh e taught at a Sunday- ,s choo lin a l itt le cottage adjoin ing h er father
’ s hou se .
W hen she was twelve y ears . be ing then,
in th e words of a ne ighbor, who occas iona l lyca l led at Gri ff House,
“a queer, three -cor
nered, awkward g ir l ,”who sat in corners and
shyly watched her e l ders, she was p laced asboarde r w ith the M i sses Frank l in at Coventry.
Th is school , then in high repu te throughoutthe ne ighborhood, was kept by two s i sters , ofwhom the younger, M i ss Rebecca Frank l in ,
was a woman of unu sua l atta inment s and ladyl ike cu lture, a lthough not w i thout a certa inta int of Johnson ian a ffectat ion Sh e seemsto have thorough ly grounded M i s s Evan s in a
sound Eng l i sh educat ion , laying g reat s tres sin part icu lar on the propriety of a prec i seand carefu l manner of speaking and reading .
She herse l f a lways made a po int of expres sing hers e l f in stud ied s entences, and on one
occas ion, when a fr iend had ca l led to ask aftera dying re lat ive , she actual ly kept the se rvantwa iting ti l l she had framed an appropriate lyw orded message . M is s Evans , in whose fam i lya broad provincia l dia lect was spoken , soon
acqu i red M is s Rebecca ’ s carefu l ly e laboratedspeech, and, not content w ith that, she mightbe said to have created a new voice for her
CHILDH OOD AND EARL Y H OME . 23
self. In late r life every one who knew her
was struck by the sweetness of her voice, andthe fin i shed con struction of every sentence,as it fe l l from her l ips for by that t ime the
acqu i red habit had become second nature , andblended harmon iously w ith her ent ire personal ity . But in those early days the artificia le ffort at perfect propriety of express ion was
st i ll perceptible , and produced an impre ssionof affectation , perhaps reflect ing that of her
revered instructress . It i s a lso be l ieved thatsome of the beau ty of her in tonation in reading Engl ish poetry was ow ing to the sameearly influence .
Mary Ann,or Marian as she came after
wards to be ca l led , rema ined about three yearswith the M i sses Franklin . She stood a looffrom th e other pupil s, and one of her schoolfe l low s, M i s s Bradley Jenkin s, says that she
was qu ite as remarkable in those early daysas after she had acqu i red fame . She seemsto have s trangely impressed the imag inat ionof th e latter, who, figu rative ly speaking ,looked up at her as at a mounta in .
”There
was never anything of the schoolg irl aboutM i s s Evan s, for, even at that early age, she
had the manners and appearance of a grave,staid w oman ; so much so, that a stranger,happening to ca ll one day, mi stook this g irl
24GE ORGE E LIOT.
of thirteen for one of the M isses Franklin,who w ere then m iddle-aged women . In this ,a lso, there is a certain resemblance to Magg ieTulliver, who, at the age of thirteen ,
is de
scribed as looking a lready like a woman .
Eng l ish composition ,French and German ,
were some of the studies to which mucht ime and attention were devoted . Be inggreatly in advance of the other pupils in the
know ledge of French, M is s Evans and Mi ssJenkins were taken ou t of the genera l classand set to study it together ; but, though thetwo g irls were thus associated in a closerfe l lowship, no rea l in timacy apparently followed from it. The latter watched the fu tureGeorge E liot w ith intense interest, but al
ways fe lt as ii in the presence of a superior,though socia l ly the ir positions we re much on
a par . This haunting sense of super iorityprecluded th e growth of any closer friendshipbetween the two fe l low-pupils . A ll the morestartl ing was it to the adm iring schoolg irl,when one day, on using Marian Evans ’s German dictionary, she saw scribbled on its blankpage some verses, evidently orig inal, expressing rather sentimental ly a yearn ing for loveand sympathy. Under this g ran ite- l ike ex
terior, then, there was beating a heart thatpassionately craved for human tenderness andcompan ionship
25 GE ORGE ELIOT.
Holt,’
she had a fine sense, am id somewhatanomalous surroundings, of the highest re
finements and delicacies which are supposedto be the natura l attributes of people of rankand fashion . She even shared w ith the abovementioned heroine certain g i rlish van i ties andweaknesses, such as l iking to have all thingsabout her person as e legant as possible .
About the age of s ixteen Marian Evan s leftthe M i sses Franklin, and soon afterwards she
had the m i sfortune of losing her mother, whodied in her forty-n inth year . W rit ing to a
friend in after life she says , I began at sixteen to be acquain ted w ith the unspeakable
g rief of a last parting , in the dea th of my
mother.” L ess sorrow fu l part ings en sued,though in the end they proved a lmost as
irrevocable . H er e lder s ister, and the brotherin whos e s teps she h ad once fo l lowed puppylike
,marr ied and s e tt led in homes of the ir
own . The ir diffe ren t lots in l ife, and the far
more pronounced differences of the i r a ims
and ideas afterwards divided the “ brotherand s is te r complete ly. Thi s kind of separat ion be tween people who have been friends inyouth is often more terrible to endu re thanthe actua l loss by death itse lf, and doth t ru ly“work like madnes s in the brain .
”Is there not
some reference to this in that pathetic passage
CHILDH OOD AND EARL Y H OME . 27
in ‘A dam Bede Fami ly likeness has oftena deep sadne ss in it . Nature , that great trag icd ramat ist, kn its u s together by bone and
muscle, and divides us by the subt ler web of
our brain s, blends yearn ing and repu ls ion,and
t ie s us by our heartstring s to the be ing s that
jar u s at every movement we see eye sah so l ike our mother’s, averted from us
in cold al ienat ion .
”
1f/
For some years after this M is s Evans and
her father remained a lone together at GriffHou se. H e offered to get a hou sekeeper, asnot the hou se on ly, but farm matters
,had to
be looked after, and he was a lways tenderlyconsiderate of the l ittle wench,
”as he ca l led
her . But his daughter preferred taking the
whole management of the place into her ownhands, and she was as conscientious and dili
gent in the d ischarge of her domestic dut ie sa s in the prosecution of the studies she carried
Lpn at the same time . One of her chief beau tieswas in her large, finely shaped, fem in ine handsbands which she has , indeed, described as
characterist ic of severa l of her heroines ; butshe once poin ted out to a friend at Foleshil lthat one of them was broader across than the
other, saying , w ith some pride, that it wasdue to the quantity of bu tter and cheese she
had made during her housekeeping days at
28 GE ORGE ELIOT
Griff. It will be remembered that this is
a characteristic attribu ted to the exemplaryNancy L ammeter, whose person gave one
the idea of “ perfect, unvarying neatness, as
the body of a l ittle bird, on ly her handsbearing
“the traces of butter-making , cheese
crushing, and even sti l l coarser work ”Cer
tainly the description of the dairy in ‘AdamBede,
’
and all the processes of butter-making ,i s one which on ly complete know ledge cou ldhave rendered so perfect. Perhaps no scenein all her nove ls stands out w ith more l ifelike vividness than that da iry which one cou ldhave s ickened for in hot, dusty streetsSuch coolnes s, such purity, such fre sh fra
g rance of new-pres sed cheese, of firm butter,of wooden vesse ls perpetua l ly bathed in purewater ; such soft coloring of red earthenwareand creamy surfaces, brown wood and po lishedtin . gray limestone and rich orange-red ruston the i ron we ights and hooks and hinges.
”
This life of m ixed practical activity and intellectual pursu its came to an end in 1841 ,
when Mr. Evan s re l inqu ished Griff H ou se,and the management of Co lone l Newdigate
’ se s tate s, to h is married son
,and removed with
h is daughter to Folesh il l, near Coventry.
CHAPTER III.
YOUTHFUL STUDIES AND FRIENDSHIPS.
THE period from abou t twenty to thirty i su sua lly the most momentous in the lives ofi l lu striou s men and women . It i s true thatthe most abiding impressions, those w hichth e future author will reproduce most vividly
,
have been absorbed by the growing brain previous to this age ; but the fus ion of thesevaried impression s of the outward world w iththe inner life, and th e endless combinat ion sin which imag inat ion de l ights, rarely beg inbefore . Then, as a ru le, the idea s are en
gendered to be carried out in the maturity oflife . A lfred de Vigny says tru ly enough
Qu ’est-ce qu
’une grande vie ?
Une pensée de la jeunesse , exécutée par Page mur.
Moreover, it is a revolutionary age. In
lherited opin ions that had been accepted, asthe rotation of the seasons, with unhesitat ingacqu ie scence, become an object of specu lationand pass ionate question ing . Nothing i s taken
30GE ORGE ELIOT.
upon trust. The inte l lect, stimulated by thesense of expand ing and hitherto uncheckedcapacity, delights in exerci s ing its strengthby critica l ly passing in review the opinions,law s, inst itutions commonly accepted as un
a lterable . And if the in te l lect i s thu s act ivethe heart i s sti l l more s o. This is emphati
ca l ly the time of enthu siast ic friendship and
glow ing love, if often also of crue l d i senchantment and disillu s ion . In most biog raphies,therefore, this phase of l ife i s no le ss fascinating than in struct ive . For it show s the in
dividua l whi le s ti l l in a s tage of g row th a lreadyreacting on his environmen t, and becom ing a
motive power according to the measu re of his
inte l lectual and moral endowments.It is on this state of George Eliot
’
s l ife thatwe are now entering . A t Foleshill she ao
qu ired that va st range of know ledge and
un ive rsa l ity of cu l ture which s o em inentlydis tingu ished h er .
The hou se she now inhabited, though not
nearly as picturesque or s ub s tan tial as the
former home of the Evanses , was yet suffi
cien tly spacious, w ith a pleasant garden in
fron t and behind it the latter, Marian Evan swas fond of making as much like the de liciou s
garden of her childhood as w as poss ible underthe circumstances . In other respects she
YOUTHFUL S TUDIES , E TC.
great ly a ltered her ways of life, cultivatingan u ltra-fastid iousness in her manners and
hou sehold arrangements . Though so young ,
she was not on ly entire mi stress of her father’ sestablishment, but, as hi s bus iness requ iredh im to be abroad the g reater part of eachweek, she was mostly a lone.
H er life now became more and more thatof a student, one of her chief reasons for re
joicing at the change of res idence be ing the
freer access to books . She had, howeve r,a l ready amassed qu ite a library of her own bythi s t ime . In addition to her private studies,she was now al so able to have masters to in
struct her in a variety of subj ects . The Rev.
T. Sheepshanks, head master of the CoventryGrammar-school, gave her lessons in Greekand L atin, as she particu larly wished to learnth e former language in order to read [Eschylus . She continued her study of French ,German, and Ital ian unde r the tu ition of
S ignor Brezzi , even acqu iring some know ledge of Hebrew by her own unassi sted ef
forts. Mr. S imms, the veteran organist of
S t . M ichae l ’s, Coventry, in structed her in thepianoforte ; and probably Rosamond Vincy
’
s
teacher in ‘ M iddlemarch ’ i s a faithfu l portrai ture of him. Her master at Mrs . L em
on’
s school (close to a country town with a
32 GE ORGE ELIOT.
memorable history that had its rel ics in churchand castle) was one of those exce l lent mus icians here and there to be found in the provinces, worthy to compare w ith many a notedKape l lmei ster in a coun try which offers moreplentifu l conditions of mu sica l ce lebrity.
”
George E liot’s sympathet ic rendering of her
favorite composers, particu larly Beethovenand Schubert, was a lways de l ightfu l to her
friends, although connoisseurs con sidered herpossessed of l ittle or no s trict ly techn icalknow ledge . Be that as it may, many an ex
quis ite passage scattered up and down her
works, bears w i tness to h er heartfe lt appreciation of music, which seems to have had a moreintimate attraction for her than the fine arts .She Shows litt le feel ing for a rchaeolog ica lbeauties , in which W arw ickshire i s so rich :in her
‘ Scenes of Clerica l L ife ’ dismis sing a
fine monument of L ady Jane Grey, a genu
ine specimen of old Gothic art at A s tleyChurch , with a sneer about “ marble war
riors, and the ir w ives w ithout noses.In spite of excessive study, this period of
Marian ’s l ife i s not w ithou t faint echoe s of anearly love-story of her own . In the houseof one of her married hal f-s isters she me t a
young man who promised, at that time , totake a d istingu i shed position in h is proies
34 GE ORGE ELIOT.
The ci rcle to which M i ss Evans now hap
pened to be introduced was in eve ry sen secongen ia l and inspiriting . Mr. Bray, his w ife,and his s is ter-in -law were a trio more likesome de lightfu l characters in a fi rs t-rate nove lthan the sober inhabitants of a W arwickshirecountry town . L iving in a house beautifullys ituated on the ou tskirts of Coventry, theyu sed to spend th e ir l ives in phi losophicalspecu lations, philan thropy, and pleasant so
cial hospital ity, j oin ing to the ease and la isser
a lter of con tinenta l manners a thoroughlyEngl i sh gen ia lity and trustworthiness .Mr. Bray was a wea lthy ribbon manufac
turer, but had become engros sed from an
early age in re l ig ious and me taphysica l specula tion as we l l as in pol itica l and socia l quest ions . Beg inn ing to inqu ire in to the dogmaswhich formed the basis of his be l ief, he found,on carefu l investigat ion , that they did not
s tand,in his Opin ion . the te s t of reason . H is
arguments set his brother-in—law , Mr. CharlesC . B enne l l, a Un itarian, to examine afreshand go ca refu lly over the whole g round of
popu lar theology, the con sequence of thisc los e study be ing the ‘ Inqu iry concern ingthe O rig in of Christian i ty,
’
a work which ar
tracted a good dea l of a ttention when it appeared, and was trans lated into German at the
YOUTHFUL S TUDIE S , E TC. 35
instance of David Strauss . It was publ i shedin 1838, a few years after the appearanceof the L ife of Jesu s .’ In its critical examination oi the m iracles, and in the s iftingof mytholog ica l from historical e lements inthe Gospe ls , it bears considerable ana logy toS trauss
’
s g reat work, a lthough strictly basedon independent studies. be ing orig ina l ly nothing more than an attempt to solve the doubtsof a sma l l set of friends . The ir doubts wereso lved, but not in the manner orig inally anticipated .
Mrs . Bray, of an essential ly re l ig ious na
ture, shared the opin ion s of her husband and
brother, and w ithout conforming to the exte rnal rites and ceremon ies of a creed , led a
l ife of saintly purity and se lf-devotion . The
exqu is ite beauty of her moral nature not on lyattracted Marian to this tru ly amiable woman ,
but fi lled her w ith reverence, and the friendship then commenced was on ly ended bydea th .
In M i ss Sara Hennell , Marian Evans foundanother congen ia l compan ion who became as
a s ister to her . This s ingu lar being, in mostre spects such a con trast to her s ister, highstrung ,
nervou s, excitable, import ing all the
ardor of feel ing into a l ife of au stere thought,seemed in a manner menta lly to totter under
36 GE ORGE ELIOT.
the we ight of her own immense metaphysicalSpecula tions . A casua l acquaintance of thesetwo young ladies m ight perhaps have pre
d icted that M i ss H ennell was the one des
t ined to achieve fame in the futu re, and she
certain ly mu st have been an extraordinarymental s timu lus to her young friend Marian .
Thes e g ifted sisters , two of a fami ly, all themembers Of which were remarkable, by someare iden tified as the orig ina ls of the de l ightful Meyrick household in Dan ie l Deronda .
’
Each member of this gen ia l g roup was al
ready, or u ltimately became, an au thor of moreor les s repu te. A reviewer in the Wes tm in
s ter, writing of Mr. Bray’s philosophical publications
,some years ago, said :
“ If he wou ldreduce his many works to one containingnothing unes sen tial, he wou ld doubtless ohta in that high place among the philosophersof our country to which his powers of thoughtentitle h im. H is most popu lar book
, ca l ledThe Education of the Fee l ings,
’ intended foru se in secu lar schools, deals wi th the lawsof moral ity practical ly applied . Mrs . Bray’sw riting s, on the same order of subj ects , are
sti l l further simplified fer the understanding of
children . She i s the au thoress of Physiologyfor Schools,
’ ‘
The British Empire, E lemen tsofMoral ity,
’
etc. Her Duty to An ima l s ’
has
YOUTHFUL S TUDIES , E TC.
37
become a class book in the school s of the
m idland counties, and she was one of the firstamong those noble-hearted men and womenwho have endeavored to in troduce a greate rdegree of humanity into our treatment of
an imal s.George Eliot,writing to Mrs . Bray in March
1873 on this very subj ect, says :A very good, as we l l as very rich , woman,
Mrs . S has founded a mode l school atNaples, and has the sympathy of the bestItal ian s in her educationa l efforts . Of cou rsea chief point in trying to improve the Ital iansis to teach them kindne ss to animal s, and
a friend of Mrs . S has confided to her asma ll sum of money— fifty poimds, I think
to be applied to the translation and publication oi some good books for young people,which wou ld be l ike ly to rouse in them a
sympathy with dumb creatures .W i l l you kindly he lp me in the effort to
fu rther Mrs . S’
s good work by sendingme a copy of your book on an imal s, and a lsoby tell ing me the periodica l in which the partsof the book first appeared, as we ll as the tit lesof any other works which you think wou ldbe worth mentioning for the purpose i n quest ion
“Mrs . S (as indeed you may probably
38 GE ORGE ELIOT.
know) is the widow of a German merchant ofManchester, as rich as many such merchantsare , and as benevolent as on ly the choicestfew. She knows all sorts of good work forthe world , and is known by mos t of the workers . It struck me, while she was speaking of
this need of a book to translate, that you haddone the very thing .
A few days later the fo llow ing highly interesting letter came from the same source :Many thanks for the he lpfu l things you
have sent me .
‘ The Wounded B ird ’ i scharm ing . But now some thing very muchlarger of the same kind must be w ri tten , and
you are the person to write it somethingthat w i ll bring the emotions, sufferings , andpos s ible consolations of the dear brutes vividly home to the imag ination s of chi ldren :
fitted for chi ldren of all coun tries, as Re inekeFuchs i s comprehensible to all nat ion s. A
rough notion came to me the other day of
supposing a house of refuge , not on ly for dogs,but for all dis tressed an ima ls . The keeper ofthis refuge understands the language of the
brutes, which includes differences of dialectnot hindering commun ication even betweenbirds and dogs, by the he lp of some U lyssesamong them who is versed in the varioustongues, and puts in the needed explanation s .
YOUTHFUL S TUDIE S , E TC. 39
Sa id keeper overhears his refugees solacingthe i r even ing s by te l l ing the story of theirexperience s, and finally acts as editor of the irautobiog raphies . I imag ine my long- lovedfe l low-creatu re, the ug ly dog, tel ling the sor
row s and the tender emotions of gratitudewhich have wrought him into a sen sitive sou l .The donkey is another cosmopol itan suffere r,and a greater martyr than Saint L awrence .
If we on ly knew what fine mot ives he has forh is meek endurance, and how he loves a friendwho w ill scratch his nose !
“ All this i s not worth anything except tomake you fee l how much better a plan youcan think of.
On ly you must pos itive ly w rite this bookwhich everybody wants —this book whichwil l do jus tice to the share our worthy fellow—laborers ’ have had in the g roan ing and
trava i l ing of the world towards the birth of
the right and fair.But you must not do it without the s us
tenance of labor,’
I don ’
t say‘
pay,’ s ince
there i s no pay for good work . L et Mr.
be blest with the bless ing of the unscrupu lou s .I want to contribute something towards he lping the brutes, and helping the children , especially the southern chi ldren, to be good to thecreatures who are continual ly at the ir mercy.
40 GE ORGE ELIOT.
I can’
t write the needed book myse lf, but Ifee l s ure that you can, and that you wil l notrefuse the du ty.
Mrs . Bray’s answer to this humorous sug
gestion may be gathered from George E l iot’s
amiable replyI see at once that you mu st be right about
the necessity for be ing s imple and l ite ra l. In
fact I have ridicu lous impu l ses in teachingchildren, and a lways make the horizon too
w ide .
“ ‘ The Wounded Bird ’ i s perfect of its
kind, and that kind is the bes t for a largerwork. You yourself See clearly that it i s an
exceptiona l case for any one to be able to
write books for chi ldren w ithout pu tting in
them fa lse moral ity disgu ised as devou t re
ligion . And you are one of the exceptiona lcases . I am quite sure, from what you havedone, that you can do the thing which is s t i l lwanted to be done . A s to imag ination,
The
Wounded Bird is fu l l of imag ination .
”
These extracts pleasant ly i l lustrate both thew riter and recipient of such humane lette rsand
, though w ritten at a much later period ,not only g ive an idea of the nature of Mrs .
Bray’s literary pursu its,bu t of the friendly
relat ions s ubsis ting to the end between her
and George El iot.
42GEORGE EL IOT.
of thought and feel ing in one love ly rainbowof prom ise for the harves t of happiness .
”
Some thing of the s ame idea l ies at the rootof much in M i ss Hennell
’
s mystical disqu is ition s .
This circumstan tia l account of the circle towhich Mi ss Evans was now introduced hasbeen g iven , because it consisted of friendswho
,more than any others, he lped in the
growth and formation of her m ind . No hu
man be ing, indeed, can be fu l ly understoodw ithout some know ledge of the compan ionsthat at one t ime or other, but especia l ly duringthe pe riod of deve lopmen t, have been intimate ly ass ociated w ith his or her l ife . How
ever vastly a mounta in may appear to loomabove u s from the plain , on ascending to its
s ummit one a lways finds innumerable lesserem inences w hich all he lp in making up the
one imposing cen tra l effect . And s imi larlyin the world of m ind
,many superior natures,
in varying degrees , all contribute the ir sharetowards the maturing of tha t exceptiona l ihtellectual product whose topmost summ it isgen ius .
The lady who first introduced Marian Evan sto th e Brays was not w ithout an obj ect of her
(Own,
for her young friend — whose re l ig iousfervor, tinged with evange l ical sentiment, was
YOUTHFUL S TUDIE S , E TC. 43
as con spicuou s as her unusual learn ing and
thoughtfu lness seemed to her pecu liarly fitted to exerci se a beneficia l influence on the
Rosehi l l hou sehold , where genera l ly unorthodox opin ions were much in vogue .
Up to the age of seven teen or e ighteenMarian had been con sidered the most tru lypiou s member of her fami ly, being earnestlybent, as She says , “
to shape this anoma lou sEng l i sh Christian l ife of ou rs into some con
sistency w ith the spirit and simple verbal tenorof the New Testament . Iwas brought up,
”
She informs another corre spondent, in the
Church of England, and have never joinedany other re l ig ious society ; but I have hadclose acqua in tance with many d i ssenters of
various sects , from Ca lvin is tic Anabaptis ts toUn itarians . H er inner life at this time i sfaithfu l ly m irrored in the spiritua l experiencesof Magg ie Tu lliver. Marian Evans was not
one who cou ld rest sat i sfied ‘
w ith ou tward obs ervances and l ip-worship : she needed a faithwhich shou ld g ive un ity and sanctity to the
conception of l ife which shou ld awaken “that
recognit ion of something to be lived for beyond the mere sati sfaction of se lf, which is tothe mora l l ife what the addition of a greatcentral gang l ion i s to an ima l l ife.
”A t one
t ime Evangelicalism supplied her wi th the
44GE ORGE ELIOT.
mos t essential conditions of a rel ig ious lifew i th all the vehemence of an ardent natu reShe flung h er whole sou l into a pas siona teacceptance of the teaching of Chris t ian ity,carrying her zea l to the pitch of ascet icism .
This was the state of her m ind, at the age
of seventeen,when her aun t fromW irksworth
came to stay w ith her . Mrs . E l izabeth Evans
(who came afterwards to be large ly identifiedw ith D inah Morris) was a zea lou s W esleyan,
having at one time been a noted preacher ;but her n iece, then a rig id Ca lvin i st, hardlythought her doctrine strict enough . Whenthis same aunt pa id her a vis it, some yearsafterwards, at Foleshill, Ma rian ’
s view s hada l ready undergone a complete transformation ,
and the ir intercou rse was constra ined and
pa infu l for the young evange l ica l en thus iast,who had been a favorite in clerica l circles,was now in What she afterwards describeda s a
“crude state of freethinking . It was a
period of transition through wh ich she gradually pas sed into a new relig ious syn thes is .
Her in timacy w ith the Brays began aboutthe t ime when these new doubts were beg in
\n ing to ferment in her. H er expanding mind,nourished on the best l iterature, ancient and
modern , began to fee l cramped by dogmasthat had now lost thei r vital ity ; yet a break
YOUTHFUL S TUDIES , E TC.
45
with an inherited form of belief to which a
thousand tender a ssociations bound her, wasa catastrophe she shrank from with dread.
H ence a period of mental uncertainty and
trouble. In con sequence of these inwardquestion ing s, it happened that the young ladywho had been unwitting ly brough t to converther new acquaintances was converted by them .
In intercourse w ith th em she was able freelyto open her m ind, the i r en l ightened viewshe lp ing her in this cris is of her spiritual l ifeand she found it an intense re lief to fee l nolonger bound to reconcile her mora l and ihtellectual perception s with a particular formof worship.
The antagonism she met with in certainquarters, the social persecution from whichshe had much to suffer, are perhaps responsible for some of the sharp, caustic irony w ithwhich she afterwards assai led certain theolog ical habits of thought. It i s not un l ike ly thatin some of her e ssays for the Wes tm ins ter
R eview she main ly expressed the thoughtswhich were stirred in her by the oppos itionshe encountered at this period of her lifeas , for example, in the bri lliant paper ent itledWorldliness and O ther-World liness
,
’ whichcontains such a scathing passage as the fol
low ing
45 GE ORGE ELIOT.
For certain other e lements of virtue,which are of more obvious importance to un
theolog ical m inds, a delicate sense of our
ne ighbor’s rights, an active participation in
the joys and sorrows of our fe l low—men, a
magnan imous acceptance of privation or suf
fering for ourse lves when it i s the conditionof good to others, in a word , th e exten s ionand intensification of ou r sympathetic nature ,we think it of some importance to con tend,that they have no more d irect re lation to the
bel ief in a future state than the in terchangeof gases in the lungs has to the plura l ity of
worlds . Nay, to u s it i s conceivable that tosome m inds the deep pathos lying in the
thought of human morta lity— that we are
here for a l ittle while and then van ish away,that this earthly life i s all that i s g iven to our
loved ones, and to our many suffering fe l lowmen , l ies nearer the founta ins of mora l emo
tion than the conception of extended exis tence .
To u s it i s matter of unm ixed rej oicingthat this latter necessity of healthfu l l ife isindependent of theolog ica l ink, and that i tsevolution i s insured in the in teraction of hu
man soul s as certain ly as the evolu tion of
science or of art, w ith which , indeed , it is buta tw in ray,melting into them w ith undefinable
limits .”
YOUTHFUL S TUDIES , E TC. 47
It was , of course, inevitable that her changedton e of m ind shou ld attract the attention of
the family and friends of Marian , and that thebacksliding of so exemplary a member shou ldafford matte r for scanda l in many a clericalc i rc le and evange l ica l tea-mee ting . Close to
the Evanses there l ived at that time a dissenting m in i ster, whose daughter Mary was a
particu lar favorite of Marian Evans . Therehad been much ne ighborly int imacy betweenthe two young ladies, and though there was
on ly five years ’ difference between them,
Marian always in spired h er friend w ith a
fee l ing of awe at her inte l lectual superiority.
Yet her sympathy — that sympathy with all
human life which was the strongest e lementof h er character— was even then so irres is ti
ble that every little trouble of Mary’s life wasintru sted to her keeping . But the suddendiscovery of the i r daughter
’s friend be ing an
infide l came with the shock of a thunderclap on the parents . Much hot argumentpassed between the m in is ter and this youthfu lcontroversia l i st, but the former cl inched the
whole question by a triumphant reference to
th e d ispersion of the Jews throughout theworld a s an i rrefutable proof of the divine inspirat ion of the Bible . In spite of this vita ldifference on relig ious questions, M i s s Evans
43 GE ORGE ELIOT.
I
was suffered to go on g ivi ng the min i ster sdaugh ter lesson s in German
, which werecont inued for two or three years , she hav
ing generou sly undertaken this labor of lovetw ice a week, because she judged from the
shape of her young friend’s head — phrenol
ogy be ing rife in those days that sh e musthave an exce llent understanding . But
,better
than languages, she taught her the va lue of
t ime, a lways cutting short mere random talkby s imply ignoring it. A ltogether the won
derful s trength of her persona l ity man ifes teditse lf even at this early period in the inde li bleimpression it left on her pupi l ’s memory, manyof her sayings rema in ing graven
'
on it as
on stone . A s for instance, when one day
tw itting Mary s too g reat se lf-es teem she
remarked , “ W e are very apt to measure our
se lves by our aspiration instead of our per
formance . O r when on a friend ’s a sking,“ W hat is the mean ing of Fau st ? ” she re
plied, “ The same as the mean ing of the uni
verse . W hile reading Wa llens tein’
s L ag er,’
w ith h er young pupil , the latter happenedto say how l ife- l ike the characte rs seemed :“ Don
’
t say s eemed,”excla imed Marian ; “
we
know that they a r e true to the l ife .
”And
she immediate ly began repeating the talk of
laborers, farriers, bu tchers, and others of that
50 GEORGE ELIOT.
Mr. and Mrs . Bray, pers uaded her to conformto her father’s w ishes as far as outward oh
servances were implied, and for the rest hedid not trouble himse lf to inqu ire into her
“
thoughts or occupations .From a letter written at this period it
appears that the ‘ Inqu iry Concern ing the
O rig in of Christian ity ’
had made a mostpowerfu l impression on her m ind. Indeed,she dated from it a new birth . Bu t so earnestand consc ient ious was she in her s tudie s, thatbefore beg inn ing its longed-for peru sal , she
and a friend determined to read the B iblethrough aga in from beg inn ing to end .
The intimacy between the inmates of Rosehil l and the g irl student a t Fole shi ll mean
whi le was constantly grow ing closer. Theymet dai ly, and in the ir m idst the humorousside of her nature expanded no less thanher inte llect. A lthough striking ordinary ac
quaintances by an abnorma l g ravity , whencomplete ly at her ease She at t imes bubbledover w ith fun and gayety, i rradiated by theunexpected flashes of a w it whose fu l l scopewas probably as yet unsu spected by its posses sor . Not but that Mi ss Evans and her
friends must have been consciou s, even at
that early age, of extraordinary powers in her,destined some day to g ive her a conspicuous
YOUTHFUL STUDIES , E TC.
5 1
position in the world . For her conversationwas al ready so full of charm , depth . and com
prehen siveness , that all ta lk after hers seemedsta le and common-place . Many were the discu s s ions in those days between Mr . Bray andMarian Evan s, and though frequently brokenoff in fierce dispute one even ing , they alwaysbegan aga in quite am icably the next. Mr.
Bray probably exerci sed con siderable influ
ence on his young friend’ s mind at this im
press ible period of l ife perhaps her attent ionto phi losophy was first rou sed by acquain tance w ith him, and hi s varied acqu irementsin this department may have he lped in g ivinga pos it ive direction to her own thoughts .Mr. Bray was just then working out hi s
‘ Philosophy of Necessity,’
the problems discussed be ing the same as those which haveoccupied the lead ing thinkers of the day :
Auguste Comte in h is Positive Ph iloso
phy ;’
Buckle in hi s ‘ H i story of Civilizat ion ; and Mr . Herbert Spencer in h is
‘ Sociology.
’
The theory that, as an individua l and collective ly, man is as much sub
ject to law as any of the other entities innature , was one of those magn ificent ideaswh ich revolution ize the world of thought .Many m inds, in different countries, of differea t calibre, were all trying to systematize
52 GEORGE ELIOT.
what know ledge there was on this subj ect inorder to convert hypothesis in to demonstration . To what extent Mr. Bray may havebased his ‘ Philosophy of Neces si ty ’
on in
dependent research , or how much was mere lyassimilated from contemporary sources, wecannot here inquire . Enough that the ideasembodied in it represented some of the mostvita l thought of the age, and contribu tedtherefore not a l itt le to the formation of
George E l iot’s m ind, and to the g rip which
she presently displayed in the handling of
philosophica l topics .In 1 842 the sensation created by Dr.
S traus s’
s L eben 7 esn had even extendedto so remote a dis trict as W arwickshire .
Some persons of advanced opin ion s, deeplyimpressed by its penetrating historical criticism , which was in fact Niebuhr’ s me thodapplied to the e lucidation of the Gospe ls ,we re very des irou s of obtain ing an Eng l ishtrans lation of this work ; mee t ing at the
house of a common friend , the late Mr.
Joseph Parkes of Birmingham,they agreed,
in the fi rst blush of the ir enthusiasm, to raiseamongst them whatever sum m ight be re
quired for the pu rpos e . Mr. H ennell, the
leading spirit in th is en terprise , proposed thatthe trans lation shou ld be undertaken by M is s
54GE ORGE ELIOT.
twenty-three years old at thi s time, bu t,though sh e had not yet done anything, herfriends already thought her a wonderfu l woman . She never seems to have had any rea lyouthfu lness , and her persona l appearance
great ly improved w ith time . It is on ly to
the finest natures, it shou ld be remembered,that age g ives an added beauty and dis tinc
tion for the most persisten t se l f has thenworked its way to the surface, having modifled the expres s ion ,
and to some exten t thefeatures, to its own l ikenes s .
There exists a co lored sketch done by Mrs .
Bray about this period, which g ives one a
g l impse of George El iot in her g irlhood. In
those Fole shil l days sh e had a quant ity of
soft pale-brown hai r worn in ring le ts . H er
head was mas s ive , her features powerfu l andrugged, her mouth large but shape ly, the jawsingu larly square for a woman , yet having a
certain de licacy of outl ine . A neutra l toneof coloring did not he lp to re lieve th is
‘
gen
era l heaviness of structure, the complex ionbe ing pale but not fai r. Neverthe less the
play of express ion and the wonderfu l mobil ityof the mouth, which increased with age, gavea woman ly softness to the countenance in cu
rious con trast w ith its framework. Her eyes,of a gray-blue, con stantly varying in color,
56 GE ORGE ELIOT.
Though not above the middle heightMarian gave people the impression of be ingmuch tal ler than she real ly was , her figure ,a lthough thin and slight, be ing w e l l-poisedand not withou t a certain sturdiness of make .
She was never robust in health, be ing de l icately strung , and of a highly nervous tem
perament . In youth the keen excitabi l ity ofher nature often made her wayward and hysterical. In fact her extraordinary inte llectua lvigor did not exclude the susceptibil ities and
weaknesses of a pecu l iarly femin ine organ iza~t ion . W ith all her menta l activity she yet
led an inten sely emotiona l l ife, a l ife w hichmust have held hidden trials for her, as in
those days she was known by her friends to
weep bucketfu ls of tears .”
A woman of strong pass ion s , l ike her ownMagg ie, deeply affectionate by nature, of a
cling ing tenderness of dispos ition , MarianEvans went through much inward struggle,through many pa infu l experiences before she
reached the mora l self-government of her
la ter years . Had she not, it is hardly l ike lythat she cou ld have entered with so deep a
comprehension into the most intricate windings of the human heart. That,M ont sefi
was to a great extent due tosympathy being the strongest qual ity of her
YOUTHFUL S TUDIES , E TC.
57
moral nature . She flung herself, as it were,into other l ives, making the ir affairs, the irhopes, the i r sorrows her own . And this
powe r of identifying herse lf with the peopleshe came near had the effect of a magnet
in attracting her fe l low-creatures . If friendswent to her in the ir trouble they wou ld findnot on ly that she entered with deep fee l inginto the ir most minute concern s , but that, by
g radua l degrees , she l ifted them beyond theirpersonal distress, and that they wou ld leaveh er presence in an ennobled and e levatedframe of m ind . This sympathy was close lyconnected w ith her faculty of detecting and
responding to anything that showed the
sma l lest s ign of inte l lectua l vitality. She es
sen tially resembled Socrates in her mannerof e l icit ing whatsoever capacity for thoughtm ight be laten t in the people she came in
contact with : were it on ly a shoemaker orday
-laborer, she wou ld neve r re st ti l l she hadfound out in what points that particu lar mand iffe red from other men of his class . She
a lways rather educed what was in others thanimpressed herself on them ; show ing muchkindliness of heart in draw ing ou t people whow ere shy. Sympathy was the keynote of her
nature, th e source of her iridescent humor, o fher subt le knowledge of character, and of her
dramat ic genius.
CHAPTER IV.
TRANSLATION OF STRAU SS AND FEUERBACH.
TOUR ON THE CONTINENT.
MISS BRABANT’
S marriage to Mr. CharlesHennell occu rred some months after thisexcurs ion to Tenby. In the meanwhi le it
was settled that Miss Evans shou ld continueh er trans lat ion of Dr . S traus s
’
s L eben 7 em .
Thus her first introduction to l iteratu re wasin a sense accidental . The resu lt proved heradm irably fitted for the task ; for her versionof this searching and volum inous work re
ma in s a mas terpiece of clear nervous Engl i sh,at the same time faithfu l ly rendering the
spirit of the orig ina l . But it was a vast and
laboriou s undertaking, requiring a large shareof patience, w i l l, and energy, qu ite apart fromthe necessary mental qua l ifications. On thisoccas ion , to fit herse lf more fu l ly for her
we igh ty task, Marian taught herse lf a cons id
erable amount of Hebrew. But she groaned,at t imes , under the pressure of the toi l whichhad necessari ly to be endured, fee ling tempted
60 GEORGE EL IOT.
Soon after re l ieving M i ss Brabant from the
task of tran s lat ion,M i s s Evans w ent to stay
for a w eek or two in the home of Dr. Bra
bant, who sadly fe lt the loss of his daughter’s
inte lligen t and en l iven ing companionship . Nodoubt the society of this accomplished scholar,described by Mr . Grote as
“a vigorous se lf
thinking intel lect,”was no less congen ial than
in struct ive to his young compan ion ; whileher singu lar mental acu teness and affectionate woman ly ways were most g ratefu l to the
lonely old man There i s something veryattractive in this episode of George E l iot’slife . It recal ls a frequen tly recurring s ituation in her nove ls , particularly that touchingone of the se lf-renouncing devotion w ith whichthe ardent Romola throws herself into herafli icted father’s learned and recondite pursu its .There exists a letter written to an intimate
friend in 1846, soon after the tran slation of
S trau ss was fin ished, which , I shou ld say,
a lready shows the future nove l i st in embryo.
In this de l ightfu l ly humorous mys tification of
her friends, M i ss Evans pretends that, to her
g ratification . she has actua l ly had a visit froma rea l l ive German professor, whose mus ty pers on was encased in a sti l l must ier coat . Thislearned personage has come over to Eng land
TRANSLA TION OF STRAUSS,ETC. 6 1
with the s ingle purpose of getting h is volum inous writings tran slated into Eng l ish . Thereare at least twenty volumes, all unpubl ished,ow ing to the enviou s machinations of rivalau thors, none of them treating of anythingmore modern than Cheops, or the inventionof the hie rog lyphics . The respectable professor
’
s obj ect in coming to Eng land is to
secure a wife and trans lator in one . But
though, on inquiry, he finds that the ladiesengaged in translation are leg ion, they mostlytu rn out to be u tterly incompetent, besidesnot answering to his requirements in otherrespects . The qual ifications he looks for in a
w ife, besides a thorough acqua intance withEng l ish and German, be ing personal ug linessand a snug l itt le capita l, sufli cient to supplyh im w ith a moderate a l lowance of tobaccoand Schwa r z bier, after defraying the expenseof printing his books . To find this phoen ixamong women he i s sent to Coventry on all
handsIn Mi s s Evans, so she runs on, the aspiring
professor finds his utmost w i shes rea l ized,and so proposes to her on the spot ; thinking that it may be her last chance, she ac
cepts him with equa l ce lerity, and her father,although strongly obj ecting to a foreigner, i sinduced to g ive his consent for the same
62 GE ORGE ELIOT.
reason . The lady’s on ly st ipu lation is thather fu tu re husband shal l take her out of England , w ith its dreary c l imate and drearierinhabitants . This be ing settled, she invi tesher friends to come to her w edding, which isto take place next week .
This l ive ly little j en d’
esprit i s written in
the w ittiest manner, and one cannot he lpfancying that this German D ryasdust con
tained the germ of one of her very su btlestma sterpieces in characterization , that of the
much—to-be-pitied Casaubon, the very Sisyphus of au thors . In the lady, too, w i l ling to
marry her parchment—bound su itor for the
sake of co-operating in h is abstruse menta llabors, we have a faint adumbration of the
simple -m inded Dorothea .
But these sudden stirring s at orig inal invention did not preven t M i ss Evans fromundertaking another task, s imilar to h er last,i f not so laborious . She now set abou t translating L udw ig Feuerbach
’
s Wesen a’es C/zr is ten
t/znm’
s . This daring philosopher, who kepta loof from professiona l honors , and dweltapart in a w ood, that he might be free to
handle question s of theology and metaphys icsw ith absolute fearles sness , had created a g reatsensat ion by his philosophica l critici sm in
Germany. Un l ike his countrymen,whose
64GE ORGE ELIOT.
because her former tran slation had been so
em inen tly successfu l , Mis s Evans receivedfifty pounds for her present work. But therewas no demand for it in Eng land, and Mr.
Chapman lost heavi ly by its publicat ion .
About the same period M i ss Evans a lsotran slated Spinoza ’s De Deo for the benefitof an inqu iring friend . Bu t her Eng lish ver
sion of the ‘ Ethics ’ was not undertaken ti l lthe year 1854, after she had left her home at
Foleshi ll. In applying herse lf to the severelabor of rendering one philosophica l workafter another into Eng lish , M i ss Evans, no
doubt, on e lucidating for herse lfsome of the mo
l
s
f
t
l
vifi l/
p
T
rOhTé ifi s which em
gage the mind when once it has shaken it
s e lf free from purely traditiona l be l iefs , ra therthan on securing for he rse l f any pecun iaryadvantages. But her adm irable trans la tionsattracted the attention of the like—minded,and she became gradua l ly known to some of
the most distinguished men of the time .
Unfortunate ly her father’s health now be ‘
gan to fai l , causing her no little pain and
anxiety. A t some period during his il lnesssh e stayed w ith him in the Is le of W ight, forin a letter to Mrs . Bray, written many yearsafterwards , she says , “ The Sir Charles Grandison ’
you are reading must be the series of
l ittle fat volumes you lent me to carry to theIsle of W ight, where I read it at every inte rval when my father did not wan t me , and
was sorry that the long nove l was not longer.
It i s a solace to hear of any one’ s reading and
enjoying R ichardson. W e have fallen on an
evil generation who wou ld not read Clarissa ’
even in an abridged form. The French havebeen its most enthusiastic admirers, but Idon ’
t know whether the ir present adm irationi s more than trad itional, l ike thei r set phrasesabout the i r own classics .During the last year of her father
’s life hisdaughter was a l so in the habit of readingScott
’s nove ls aloud to him for severa l hou rsof each day ; she mu st thus have becomedeeply versed in his manner of te l l ing the
stories in which she con tinued to de light all
her l ife ; and in speaking of the w iden ing of
our sympathie s which a picture of human lifeby a g reat arti st is calcu lated to produce,even in the most trivia l and se lfish, she g ivesas an in stance Scott ’ s description of L uckieMucklebackit
’
s cottage, and his story of the
Two Drovers .’
But a heavy loss now befell Marian Evan sin the death of her father, which occu rred in1849 . L ong afterwards nothing seemed to
afford consolation to her grief. For eight5
GE ORGE ELIOT.
years these two had kept house together, andthe deepest mutua l affection had a lways subsisted be tween them. Marian ever treasuredher father’s memory. A s George E liot she
loved to reca ll in her works everything as
sociated w i th h im in her childhood ; thosehappy t imes when, standing between her
father’s knees, she used to be driven by himto outlying hamlets , whose groups of in
habitants were as distinctive to my imag inat ion as if they belonged to differen t reg ionsof the g lobe . Mis s Evans , however, wasnot suffered to mourn uncomforted . The
tender friends who ca red for her as a sis ter,now planned a tou r to the Cont inent in hopesthat the change of scene and associationswou ld soften her g rief .So they s tarted on their travels, going to
4Sw itzerland and Ita ly by the approved route,which in those days was not so hackneyedas it now i s . To so penetrating an observer asMi ss Evans there must have been an infin iteinterest in this first S ight of the Cont inent .
But the journey did not seem to dispe l her
grief, and she cont inued in such very lowspirits that Mrs . Bray a lmost regretted having taken her abroad s o soon after her bereavement . Her terror, too, at the g iddypasses which they had to cross, w ith preci
GE ORGE ELIOT.
pecu l iarly nervous and excitable condition,
and her frequent fi ts of weeping were a sou rceof pain to her anxious fe l low -travellers . She
had , in fact, been so as s iduou s in attendanceon her s ick father, that She was phys ical lybroken down for a time . Under these cir
cumstances an immediate return to Eng landseemed unadvisable, and, when her friendsstarted on the ir homeward jou rney, it was
decided that Marian shou ld rema in behindat Geneva.
H ere, amid scenes so intimately as sociatedwith gen iu s where the se lf-torturing sophist, w i ld Rou s seau,
” placed the home of h is‘ Nouvelle Heloi se,
’
and the octogenarian Voltaire spent the serene Indian summer of hisstirring career ; where Gibbon wrote his H istory of the Decl ine and Fall of the RomanEmpire ;
’ where Byron and She l ley soughtrefuge from th e hatred of the ir countrymen ,
and which Madame de S tael compla in ing lyexchanged for her be loved Rue da Bac
here the future author of ‘ Romola ’
and‘ M iddlemarch ’
gradua l ly recovered under thesublime influences of Nature ’s healing beaut ies .
For abou t eight months M is s Evans lived
I at a boarding-house,
“ L e Plongeau,
”n ear
Geneva. But she was g lad to find a qu ieter
TOUR ON THE CONTINENT. 69
retreat in the family of an arti st, M . D’
Albert,
becom ing much attached to him and hisw ife . Established in one of the lofty upperstories of this pleasant house , with the blueshimmering waters of the lake g lancing farbelow , and the awful he ights of Mont Blancsolemn ly dom inating the entire landscape,she not on ly loved to prosecute her studies,but, in i solation from mankind, to plan glo
rions schemes for the ir w e lfare . During thisstay sh e drank deep of Rou sseau ,
whoseworks , especially L es Confes s ions , made an
inde l ible impression on her. And when incit ing a friend to study French, She remarkedthat it was worth learn ing that language, ifon ly to read h im. A t the same period Marianprobably became familiarized w ith the mag
nificent socia l utopias of S t. S imon, Proudhon ,
and other French w riters . Having under
gone a kind of men tal revolution herse lf notso long ago, she mu st have fe lt some sym
pathy w ith the thri ll ing h opes of l ibertywhich had ag itated the states of W es ternEurope in 1849 . But, as I have a lreadypoin ted out , her natu re had conservat ivelean ing s . She believed in progres s on ly as
the resu lt of evo lu tion ,not revolution. And
in one of her most inci sive essays, entitled‘
The National H i story of German L ife,’
she
70 GE ORGE ELIOT.
fine ly points out the notable fai lure of revolu tionary attempts conducted from the pointof view of abs tract democratic and socia l i stictheories.” In the same article she draw s a
s triking para l le l between the growth of lan
guage and that of pol itica l institution s , contending that it wou ld be as unsati sfactory toconstruct a un iversa l language on a rat iona lbasis one that had “
no uncertainty, no
whims of idiom , no cumbrous forms, no fi tfulshimmer of many-hued sign ificance, no hoaryarchai sms ‘ fam il iar w ith forgotten years,
’
as abruptly to a lter forms of government
which are nothing, in fact, but the resu l t of
his torica l g rowth, systematica l ly embodied bysocie ty.
Bes ides the fascinat ions of s tudy, and the
outward g lory of natu re,the charm of socia l
intercou rse was not wan ting to this life a t
Geneva . In M . D’
A lbert , a very superiorman, gent le, refined , and of unu sua l menta latta inments , she found a high ly desi rable da i lycompan ion . H e was an art is t by profession ,
and it is whispered tha t he suggested someof the traits in the character of the de l icatem inded Philip W akem in the ‘ Mil l on the
Flos s .’ The on ly portrait in oils which ex
ists of George E l iot i s one pa inted by M .
D’
A lbert at this interesting time of her life.
7 2 GEORGE ELIOT.
unsuspected powers were darkly ag itating herwhole be ing .
A s has been a lready said, Marian Evanshad a highly complex nature, compounded of
many contradictory impu lses, which, though
g radual ly brought into harmony as l ife ma
tured, were a lways pu l ling her, in those days ,in different directions . Thus
, though she
posses sed strong fami ly affections , she cou ldnot he lp feeling that to go and take up her
abode in the house of some re la tive, wherel ife resolved itse l f in to a monotonous recurrence of petty con side rations , something afterthe Glegg pattern , wou ld be litt le short of
crucifixion to her, and, however deep her attachment for her nat ive soi l may have been,she yet sighed pa ss ionate ly to break awayfrom its as sociations , and to become a wan
derer and a pilgrim on the face of th e earth.
”
For some litt le t ime after her retu rn fromabroad Marian took up her residence w ithher brother and his fami ly. But the childrenwho had toddled hand-ih -hand in the fie ldstogether had now diverged so w ide ly that no
memories of a mutua l pas t cou ld br idge overthe chasm that divided them . Under theseci rcumstances the fam i ly at Rosehi ll pressedher to make the ir home permanently hers,and for about a year, from 1850 to 185 1 , she
TOUR ON THE CONTINENT. 7 3
became the member of a household in fullestsympathy with her. Here Mr. Bray’s manysided menta l activity and genial brightness ofdisposition , and his wife
’ s exqu i s ite goodnessof heart, mu st have helped to soothe and
cheer one whose de licately strung nature wasj ust then nearly bending under the excessivestrain of thought and fee ling she had gone
through . One person, indeed , was so s truckby the g rave sadness general ly affecting h er,
that it seemed to h im as if her coming tookall the sun shine ou t of th e day. But whether
grave or gay, whether med itative or playfu l ,her conversation exerci sed a spel l over allwho came within its reach .
In the pleasant house at Rosehil l distin
guished guests were con stantly com ing and
going , so that there was no lack of the neededin te l lectua l friction supplied by clever and
orig ina l ta lk. Here in a pleasan t garden ,
planted with rustl ing acacia trees, and opening 011 a wide prospect of richly wooded,undu lating country, with the fi tful brightnessof Eng l ish skies overhead , and a smoothshaven lawn to wa lk or recl ine upon , manywere the topics discussed by men who had
made, or were about to make , the i r mark .
Froude was known there George Combed i scussed with his host the principles of phre
74 GEORGE ELIOT.
nology, at that time claiming its thousandsof disciples . Ra lph W aldo Emerson , on a
lecturing tou r in this country, while on a
brief visit, made Marian ’s acquaintance, andwas observed by Mrs . Bray engaged in eagerta lk w ith her . Sudden ly she saw h im start.Something said by this quiet, gen tle-man
nered g irl had evidently g iven h im a shock of
surprise . A fterwards, in conversation w ithher friends, he spoke of her g reat ca lmsou l . This i s no doubt an in stance of the
intense sympathetic adaptiveness of Mis sEvan s. If great, she was not by any means
ca lm at this period, but inwardly deeply perturbed, yet her nature, w ith subt lest response,reflected the tran scendenta l ca lm of the ph i
losopher when brought w ithin his atmos
phere .
George Dawson, the popu lar lectu rer, and
Mr . Flower, were more intimate ly associatedwith the Rosehi ll hou sehold . The latte r,then l iving at Stratford-ou -Avon ,
where he
was wont to entertain a vast number of peo
ple, especially Americans, who made pilgrimage s to Shakespeare
’ s birthplace,i s known to
the world as the benevolent denouncer of“ bits and bearing-re ins .” O ne day this wholeparty wen t to hear George Dawson , who had
made a great sensation at Birmingham,preach
76GE ORGE ELIOT.
for the amu sement of the chi ldren , sud
denly pouncing out from unde r the tablec loth , w ith hideous roaring s and screech ings ,
ti ll the hubbub became appa l l ing, joined to
the de lighted ha lf-frightened exclamations ofthe l ittle ones . Mr . Dawson did the l ions ,and Mr. Flower, who had made persona l acqua intance w ith the w i ld ca ts in the backwood s of America, was in imitable in theirpecu l iar pounce and screech.
Thu s amid studies and pleasant friendlyl intercourse did the days pass at Rosehi l l .S ti l l Marian Evans was restless, tormented,frequently in tears , perhaps uncon scious lycraving a wider sphere, and more defin itelyrecognized posi tion . However strenuous lyshe, at a matu re r t ime of l ife, incu lcated thenecess ity of resignation, she had not thenlearned to resign herse lf. And now a changewas impending — a change which , fraughtwith the most importan t consequences , wasdestined to g ive a new d irection to the cur
rent of her l ife . Dr . John Chapman invitedher to ass ist him in the editorship of the
Wes tm inster R eview , which passed at thatt ime into his hands from John M i l l . Theyhad a lready met, when Marian was passingthrough L ondon on her way to the Cont inent,on some matter of business or other connected
TOUR ON THE CONTINENT. 77
with one of her translations . Dr. Chapman’sproposition was accepted and although Mar
ian suffered keenly from the wrench of parting with her friends, the prompting to workout her powers to the fu l l overcame the
cling ing of affection, and in the spring of
185 1 she left Rosehill behind her and cameto L ondon.
CHAPTER V.
THE‘WESTMINSTER REVIEW .
’
DR. and Mrs . Chapman were at this t ime inthe habit of adm itting a few se lect boarders ,chiefly engaged in l iterary pu rsu its, to the irlarge house in the Strand, and Mi ss Evan s,at the ir invitat ion,
made her home w iththem. Thus she found herse lf at once in the
centre of a ci rcle con sisting of some of the
most advanced thinkers and bri lliant litte’ratea rs of the day a circle which, partly con
s i st ing of contribu tors to the Wes tm ins ter
R eview ,was strong ly imbued w ith scient ific
tendencies, being particu larly partia l to th e
doctrines of Pos itive Philosophy.
Those were in truth the pa lmy days of theWes tmins ter R eview . H erbert Spence r, G .
H . L ewes , John Oxenford, James and HarrietMartineau
,Charles B ray, George Combe , and
Professor Edward Forbe s w ere among the
w riters that made it the leading expos itor of
the philosophic and scientific thought of the
age. It Occupied a pos ition something mid
go GE ORGE ELIOT.
stead of the dreary three or five-volumed com
pilations of letter, and diary, and detai l, l ittleto the purpose
,which two-thirds of the public
have not the chance, nor the other third the
inclination to read, we cou ld have a rea l‘ life,
’ setting forth briefly and vividly the
man’s inward and outward strugg les, a ims,
and achievements, so as to make clear themeaning which his experience has for his fellows . A few such lives (ch iefly au tobiogra
phies) the world possesses , and they have,perhaps
,been more influentia l on the forma
tion of character than any other kind of reading . Then again, speaking of the Memoi rsof Margaret Fu l ler,
’
she remarks , in refe renceto the same topic, The old-world biographiespresen t the ir subj ects gene ra l ly as brokenfragments of human ity, noticeable because of
the ir individua l pecu l iarities , the new -wor ldbiographies pres ent the ir subj ects rather as
organ ic portions of society.
”
George E liot’
s estimate of Margaret Fu l ler
(for there can be l i ttle doubt that it i s hers)possesses too rare an interest for readers not
to be g iven here in her own apposite and
pungent words : “W e are at a loss whe therto regard her as the parent or child of New
Eng land Transcenden tal ism . Perhaps ne i therthe one nor the other. It was essentia lly an
THE ‘ WES TMINS TER RE VIEW .
’
8 1
intellectual, moral, spiritual regeneration a
renewing of the whole man — a kindling of
his aspirations after fu l l deve lopment of faculty and perfect symmetry of being . Of thissect Margaret Fu l ler was the priestess. In
conversation she was as copious and oracu laras Cole ridge, bri ll iant as S terling , pungentand paradoxica l as Carlyle ; g ifted with the
inspired powers of a Pythone ss , she saw in tothe hearts and over the heads of all who came
nea r her, and, but for a sympathy as boundless as her se lf-esteem, she wou ld have despised the whole human race ! Her frai ltyin this respect was no secret e ither to herse lfor her friends W e mu st say that fromthe t ime she became a mother ti l l the finaltragedy when she perished w ith her hu sbandand child w ithin s ight of her native shore, shewas an altered woman, and evinced a g reatness of sou l and heroi sm of character so grandand subdu ing, that we fee l d isposed to extendto her whole caree r the adm irat ion and sym
pathy inspired by the c los ing scenes.Whi le her reputat ion was at its he ight in
the l iterary circles of Boston and New York,sh e was so se lf-con sciou s that her l ife seemedto be a studied act, rather than a spontaneou s
grow th ; but this was the mere flutter on the
surface ; the well was deep, and the spring6
82 GE ORGE ELIOT.
genu ine ; and it i s creditable to her friends,as we l l as to herse lf, that such at all times wasthe ir be l ief.”
In , th is striking summ ing-up of a character,the penetrating observer of human naturetaking in at a g lance and depict ing by a fewmasterly touches all that he lps to make up a
picture of the rea l l iving be ing— beg in s toreveal herse lf.These essays in the Wes tm ins ter R eview
are not on ly capita l reading in themse lves ,but are, of cou rse, doubly attracti ve to u s
because they let out opin ions , views , j udgmen ts of things and authors, which we shou ldnever otherw i se have known . Marian Evan shad not yet hidden herse lf behind the ma skof George El iot, and in many of these W iseand witty u tterances of hers we are adm ittedbehind the scenes of her m ind, so to speak,and see her in her own undisgu ised personbefore she had as sumed the ro
‘
le of the nov
e lis t, show ing herse lf to the world main lythrough her dramatic impersonations .
In these art icles, written in the fresh maturity of her powers , we learn what GeorgeE liot thought about many s ubj ects . W e learnwho we re her favorite authors in fiction whatOpin ions she h e ld on art and poetry ; whatwas her attitude towards the politica l and
84GE OR GE E L IOT.
Empty writing was excused by an emptystomach, and twaddle was consecrated bytears . It i s clear that they w rite in e legantboudoirs, with violet-colored ink and a ruby
pen ; that they mus t be enti re ly indifferen tto publishers ’ accounts ; and inexperiencedin every form of poverty except poverty of
brains.”
A fter finding fau lt w ith what she sarca st ica l ly cal ls the w/zite neck- doze species of
novel, a sort of medica l sweetmeat for L owChu rch young ladies ,
"
she adds, “ The rea ldrama of Evange l ica lism , and it has abundance of fine drama for any one who has
genius enough to discern and reproduce it,l ies among the m idd le and lower clas ses .
Why can we not have pictu res of re l ig iou slife among the indu s tr ia l classes in Eng land,as interesting as Mrs . Stowe
’ s pictures of re
lig ious life among the negroes E‘
She who asked that question was herse lfdestined, a few years later, to answer her own
demand in most triumphant fash ion . A lreadyhere and there w e find hints and suggestion sof the ve in that w as to be so fu lly worked
(ou t in Scenes of Clerical L ife ’
and ‘AdamBede .
’
H er intimate know ledge of Eng l ishcountry life, and the hold it had on her imag ination, every now and then eats its way to
THE ‘ WES TMINS TER RE VIE W .
’
85
the surface of her writings, and s tands out
among st its surrounding matter w ith a cer
ta in unm istakable native force . A fter cen
su ring the lack of rea l ity w ith which peasantl ife i s common ly treated in art, she makesthe fol low ing apposi te remarks, s uggested byher own experience ' “ The notion that peasants are joyous , that the typica l moment to
represent a man in a smock-frock is whenh e i s cracking a j oke and show ing a row of
sound teeth , that cottage matron s are u sual lybuxom , and vi llage children necessarily rosyand merry, are pre j udices difficu lt to dis lodgefrom the arti stic mind which looks for its
subj ects into literature ins tead of l ife . The
pa in ter is still unde r the influence of idyllicl iteratu re
,which has always expres sed the
imag ina tion of the town—bred rather than the
truth of ru stic life . Idyll ic ploughmen are
j ocu nd when they drive the ir team afie ld ;idyl l ic shepherds make bashfu l love underhaw thorn bushes ; idyllic vi l lagers dance in
the chequered shade, and refresh themse lvesnot immoderate ly w ith spicy nu t-brow n ale.
Bu t no one who has seen much of actual
ploughmen thinks them j ocund , no one who
is well acquain ted with the Eng l i sh peas antrycan pronounce them merry . The slow gaze,in which no sense of beauty beams, no humor
86 GE ORGE ELIOT.
tw inkles ; the s low utterance , and the heavys louching walk, rem ind one rather of that mel
ancholy an imal the camel , than of the s turdycountryman,
with striped s tocking s , red wais tcoat, and hat as ide, who represents the traditional Eng l ish peasan t. O bs erve a companyof haymakers . W hen you see them at a
distance tossing up the forkfu ls of hay in the
golden l ight, whi le the wagon creeps s low lyw ith its increas ing burden ove r the meadow,
and the bright g reen space which te l ls of workdone gets larger and larger, you pronounce thescene sm i l ing ,
’
and you think the se compauion s ih labor mu st be as bright and cheerfu las the picture to which they g ive anima tion .
Approach nearer and you w i l l find haymakingtime i s a t ime for joking , especia l ly if thereare women among the laborers but the coarselaugh that burs ts out every now and then , and
expresses the triumphant taun t, is as far as
possible from your conception of idyl l ic mer
rimen t. That de l icious effervescence of the
mind which we cal l fun has no equ iva lentfor the northern peasant, except tipsy reve l rythe on ly realm of fancy and imag ination forthe Eng l i sh c lown exists at the bottom of the
third quart pot .The conventiona l countryman of the stage,
who picks up pocket-books and never looks
88 GE ORGE ELIOT.
a rtist can g ive, su rprises even the trivial andthe se lfish into that attention to what i s apartfrom themse lves, which may be ca l led the
raw materia l of sen timent .
”For “
art i s th enearest th ing to l ife ; it i s a mode of amplifying experience and extending our contact
w ith our fe l low -men beyond the bounds of
our personal lot . All the more sacred is thetask of the arti st when he undertakes to pain tthe life of the People . Fals ification here i sfar more pernicious than in the more artificia laspects of l ife . It is not s o very serious thatwe shou ld have fa lse ideas about evanes centfashions — about the manners and conversation of beaux and duchesses bu t it is seriou sthat our sympathy w ith the perenn ia l j oysand strugg les, the toi l
, th e tragedy, and the
humor in the l ife of our more heavily ladenfe llow -men Shou ld be perverted, and turnedtowards a fa lse obj ect ins tead of a true one .
”
George E liot a fterwards faithful ly adheredto the canons fixed by the critic. Whetherthis consciousness of a mora l purpose was
a ltogether a ga in to her art may be more fi tlydiscus sed in connection w ith the ana lysis of
her works of fiction . It i s on ly needfu l topoint ou t here how close and binding she
wished to make the un ion between ethics andae sthetics.
TH E ‘ I/VE STAIINS TER RE VIE W .
’
89
A lmost identical views concern ing fundamenta l laws of A rt are discu ssed in an equa l lyterse , vigorous, and pictoria l manne r in an
article ca l led ‘ Real i sm in A rt : Recent Ger
man Fiction .
’
This art icle , however, is not
by George El iot, bu t by George Henry L ewes.It was published in October, 18 58, and ap
peared after the i r j oint soj ou rn in Germanydu ring the spring and summer of that year.I think tha t i f one carefu l ly compares Rea lism in A rt
’ with George E l iot’s other articles ,
there appears some thing l ike a marriage of
the ir respective s tyles in this paper. It seemsprobable that L ewes .w ith his flexible adaptiveness, had come under the influence of GeorgeE liot’s powerfu l in tel lect, and that many of
the view s he expres ses here at the same timerender George E l iot ’s , as they frequen tly ap
pear, iden tica l w i th hers . In the article inque stion the manner as we l l as the ma tte r hasa certain sugges tion of the nove l i st’s style .
For example , she frequently indicates the qua lity of human speech by its resemblance to
mu s ica l sounds . She is fond of speaking of
the s tacca to tones of a voice ,”an aa
’ag io of
u tter indifference, and in the above-mentionede ssay there are such express ion s as the state lyla rg o of good German prose . Aga in ,
in the
article in question, we find the fol lowing
90GE ORGE ELIOT.
sat irical remarks . about the Slovenly prose of
the general ity of German writers ' “ To be
gent lemen of somewhat slow , s lugg i sh m indsis perhaps the ir mi sfortune bu t to be w ritersdeplorably deficient in the first principles of
composition i s assuredly the ir fau lt. Some
men pas ture on pla titudes , as oxen uponmeadow -
grass they are at home on a deadleve l of common -place , and do not des ire to
be irradiated by a fe l icity of express ion .
A nd in another passage to the same effectthe au thor says sarcas t ical ly, “ Graces are
g ifts : it can no more be requ ire d of a pro
fes sor that he shou ld w rite w ith fe l icity thanthat he shou ld charm all beho lders w ith hispersona l appearance ; bu t literatu re requ iresthat he shou ld write inte l lig ibly and careful ly,as society requ ires that he shou ld wash h isface and button his wai stcoat.” Some of
these strictures are very s im i lar in spirit towhat George E liot had said in her review of
H e inrich H eine, publ ished in 1 8 56, where,complain ing of the genera l cumbrousnes s ofGerman w riters, she makes the fol low ingcu tting remark : A German comedy is likea German sentence you see no reason in its
s tructure why it shou ld ever come to an
end, and you accept the conclusion as an ar
rangement of Providence rather than of the
author.
”
92GE ORGE E LIOT.
iel Deronda the incident — although unskil
fu lly introduced — of a Neapol itan fishermanwhose momenta ry murderous hes itation to
rescue his drown ing friend ends in l ifelongremorse for his death .
What makes the article in question particularly interest ing are the a l lusions to the German tou r, which g ive it an almos t biog raphica linterest. A s has been mentioned a l ready, Mr .
L ewes and George E l iot were trave ll ing in
Germany in the spring of 1858 , and in a le tterto a friend She w rites : “ Then we had a de l icions jou rney to Sa lzburg , and from thencethrough the Sa lz-Kammergut to Vienna, fromVienna to Prague , and from Prague to D resden, where we Spen t our last s ix weeks inqu iet work and quiet worship of the Ma
donna .
”And in h is essay on A rt Mr. G . H .
L ewes alludes to the most price less art-treasu re Dresden conta ins, Raphael ’s marve llouspicture, the Madonna di San S i sto,
”as fur
n ishing the most perfect il lus tration of whathe mean s by Rea li sm and Ideal i sm. Speaking of the child Jesus he says “ In the neverto-be-forgotten divine babe, we have at once
the intenses t rea lism of presentation w ith thehighest ideal i sm of conception : the attitudei s a t once g rand, easy, and natura l ; the facei s that of a child, but the chi ld is divine : in
THE ‘WESTMINSTER RE V/E W .
’
those eyes and in that brow there is an in
definable some thing which , g reate r than the
expression of the angels , grander than that ofpope or sa in t, i s to all who see it a perfectZrutlz ; we fee l that human ity in its highestconce ivable form i s before u s , and that to
tran scend such a form wou ld be to lose sightof the kmm m natu re there represented A
s imi lar passage occu rs in ,
" The Mi l l on the
F loss,’ where Phi lipW akem says : The great
e st of painters on ly once pa in ted a myste
riously d ivine chi ld ; h e cou ld n’
t have toldhow he did it, and we can
’
t te l l why we feelit to be divine .
Enough has probably been quoted fromGeorge E l iot’s a rticles to g ive the readersome idea of her view s on art. But they areso rich in happy aphorisms, orig inal ity of i l lustration , and raciness of epithet that they notonly deserve attentive study becau se they werethe first fru its of the mind that afterwards
gave to the world such noble and perfectworks as The Mi l l on the Floss ’
and S i lasMarner,
’
but are we l l worth attent ion for the i rown sake . Indeed nothing in George Eliot
’sfict ions exce l s the style of these papers. And
what a clear, inci s ive, masterly style it was !Her prose in those days had a swiftness ofmovement, an epigrammatic felicity, and a
94GEORGE ELIOT.
brilliancy of antithesis which we look for inva in in the over-e laborate sentences and somewhat ponderous w it of Theophrastu s Such .
’
A very vapid paper on‘We imar and its
Ce lebrities,’
Apri l 1859, which a writer in the
Academy attributes to the same hand, I knownot on what authority, does not posses s a
s ing le attribute that w e are in the habit of
a ssociating w ith the writing s of George E liot.That an author who, by that time, had a lreadyproduced some of her very finest work, name ly,the Scenes of Clerical L ife,
’
and AdamBede,
’
shou l d have been responsible s imulta
neous ly for the trite common-places venti latedin this article i s simply incredible. It i s truethat Homer is some times found nodding , and
the right-hand of the greatest master may for
get its cunn ing, but wou ld George El iot in hermost abject moments have been capable of
penn ing such a sentence as this in connectionw ith Goethe ? Wou ld not Fredricka or L i l ihave been a more gen ia l compan ion thanChristina Vu lpins for that great poet of whomhis native land is so j ustly proud ? ” It i s notworth while to point out other platitudes suchas flow spontaneously from the faci le pen of a
penny-a- l iner ; but the consistent mi sspe l l ingof every name may be a l luded to in pass ing .
Thus we read L i ly for L ely,” “ Z etter
”
96GEORGE E LIOT.
Eliot’ s mental deve lopment wou ld be to loseone of the connect ing l inks in her his torya history by no mean s smooth and un eventfu l,as sometimes superficia lly represen ted , butfu l l of strong con trasts , abrupt trans itions,outward and inward changes sympatheticallycharged w ith all the mean ing of this trans itional time . Two extracts from the abovementioned articles w i l l amply testify to whathas just been said .
Given a man w ith a moderate inte l lect, amora l s tandard not highe r than th e average,some rhe torical affluence and g reat g l ibnes sof speech, what is the career in wh ich ,
w ithout the aid of birth or money, he may mosteasily a ttain power and reputa t ion in Eng
l ish society ? Where i s that Goshen of in te llectual mediocrity in which a smattering of
science and learn ing w il l pass for profoundins truction
,where plati tudes w i l l be accepted
as w isdom ,bigoted narrownes s as holy zea l ,
unctuou s egoism as God -
g iven piety ? L et
s uch a man become an evange l ica l preacher ;he w i ll then find it poss ible to reconci le smal labi l ity w ith g reat ambition , s uperficia l know ledge w ith the pres tige oi erud ition , a m iddl ingmorale w ith a high reputation for sanctity.
L e t h im shun pract ica l extremes , and be u ltraonly in what i s purely theoretic. Let h im be
THE WESTM INSTER RE VIEW .
’
97
stringent on predestination , but latitudina
rian on fasting ; unflinching in insisting on
the etern ity of pun i shmen t, bu t diffident of
cu rtailing the substan t ial comforts of time ;ardent and imag inat ive on the pre
-mi l lenn ia ladven t of Christ, but cold and cau tious tow ards every other infringement of the s ta tus
gzzo. L et h im fish for sou l s, not w ith the baitof inconven ien t s ingu larity, but w ith the dragnet of comfortable conformity. L et h im be
hard and litera l in hi s interpretation on lywhen he wants to hurl texts at the heads of
u nbelievers and adversaries , bu t w h en the let
ter of the Scriptures presses too close ly on the
gentee l Chris tian i ty of the n ineteenth cen
tury,let h im use h is spiritua l izing a lembic
and di sperse it into impa lpable ether. L et
him preach less of Chri s t than of An tichristlet him be les s definite in show ing what s in
is than in show ing who i s the Man of S in ;
le s s expans ive on the bles sedness of fa iththan on the accu rsedness of infide l ity. Aboveall, let h im set up as an interpreter of prophecy,
riva l Moore ’
s A lmanack ’
in the pred ict ion of pol itica l events , tickling the interestof hearers who are but moderate ly spiritua lby showing how the Holy Spi rit has dictatedproblems and charades for thei r benefi t and
how , if they are ingenious enough to solve7
98GEORGE ELIOT.
these, they may have the ir Christian g racesnourished by learn ing precise ly to whom theymay point as
‘the horn that had eyes,
’ ‘the
lying prophet,’
and the unclean spirits .’ In
this w ay he w i l l draw men to him by the
s trong cords of thei r passions ,made reason
proof'
by be ing baptized w ith the name of
piety . In this w ay he may gain a metropol itan pu lpit ; the avenues to his church w i l l beas crowded as the passages to the opera ; hehas but to print his prophet ic sermon s, andbind them in l i lac and gold , and they w i l ladorn the draw ing -room table of all evange l ical ladies , who w i l l regard as a sort of piou s‘ light reading
’
the demonstration that the
prophecy of th e locusts, whose sting i s inthei r tai l , i s fu lfilled in the
”
fact of the Turkish commander having taken a horse ’ s ta i lfor h is s tandard , and that the French are the
very frogs predicted in the Reve lations .
”
Even more scathing than this on slaughton a certain type of the popu lar evange l icalpreacher, i s the paper on the poet Young ,
one of the w itt iest thing s from George E l iot’
s
pen , wherein she castigates w ith all her powersof sa rcasm and ridicu le that c la ss of be lieverswho cannot vi lify this life sufficiently in orderto make sure of the next, and who, in the
care of the ir own sou ls, are care less of the
100 GEORGE ELIOT.
H is secularman be l ieves in cambric bands andsi lk s tocking s as characteri stic attire for an
ornament of re ligion and virtue he hopescourtiers w il l never forget to copy S ir RobertW alpole ; and w rites begging letters to the
king’ s mi stress . H is spiritua l man recogn izes
no motives more fami liar than Golgotha and
the skies it wa lks in g raveyards, or soarsamong the stars . If it were not for the
prospect of immorta l ity, he considers it wou ldbe w i se and ag reeable to be indecent, or tomu rder one
’s father ; and , heaven apart, itwou ld be extreme ly i rrational in any man not
to be a knave . Man , he thinks, i s a compoundof the ange l and the brute the brute i s to behumbled by be ing reminded of its ‘ re lationto the stars,
’
and frightened into moderation bythe contemplation of deathbeds and sku l l s ;the ange l i s to be deve loped by vituperat ingthis world and exa lting the next, and by thisdouble process you get the Christ ian the
highest style of man .
’
W ith all this our
new-made divine i s an unmistakable poet.To a clay compounded chiefly of the worldling a nd the rhetorician there is added a rea lspark of Promethean fire . H e w il l one dayc lothe his apos trophes and obj urgations , hisas tronomica l re lig ion and h is charne l-housemoral ity, in lasting verse, which w i l l stand ,
TH E ‘ WESTMINSTER RE VIEW .
’
101
l ike a Jugge rnau t made of gold and j ewels, atonce magn ificen t and repu l s ive : for this divine is Edwa rd Young , the future author ofthe Night Thoughts .
’
It has seemed appropriate to quote thuslargely from these essays, because , neverhaving been reprinted , they are to all intentsand purposes inaccessible to the genera l reader.Yet they conta in much that shou ld not w i l ling ly be consigned to the du st and cobwebs ,among which obsolete magazines usua l ly s inkinto oblivion . They may as we l l be specifiedhere accord ing to the ir date s . Carlyle
’
s L ife ofS terl ing ,
’ January 1852 Woman in France :Madame de Sablé ,
’
O ctober 1854 Evange l ical Teaching : Dr. Cumm ing ,
’
October 185 5
German W it He in rich He ine,’ January
1856 ; S i l ly Novels by L ady Noveli s ts ,’
Oc
tober 1856 ;‘ The Natura l H i story of Ger
man L ife,’ Ju ly 18 56 ; and
‘Worldl iness and
O ther-Worldliness : the Poet Young ,’ January
1857 .
M i ss Evans’
s main employment on the
Wes tm ins ter Review was , however, editoria l .She used to write a con s iderable portion of
the summary of contemporary literature at
the end of each number. But her co-operat ion as sub-editor ceased about the close of
1853, when she left Dr. Chapman’s house, and
102 GEORGE ELIOT.
went to live in apartments in a sma l l hou sein Cambridge S treet , Hyde Park. MarianEvan s was not ent ire ly dependent at this t ime
on the proceeds of her l iterary work, herfather having sett led the sum of 801. to 1001. a
year on her for life , the capita l of wh ich, however, did not be long to her. She was very
generous with her money ; and a lthough herearn ing s at this time were not considerable,they were partly spent on her poor re lat ion s.
GE ORGE ELIOT.
In a le tter to Miss Phe lps , George El iottouches on this rumor, after al luding in an
unmis takable manner to another g reat con
temporary “ I never to answer one of yourques tions quite d irectly— I never had any
persona l acquaintance w ith (naming a prominent Positivis t) ;
“neve r saw him to my
knowledge, except in the Hou se of Com
mons ; and though I have studied his books,especia l ly h is ‘ L og ic
’
and ‘ Pol itica l Economy ,
’
w ith much benefit, I have no con
sciousnes s of the ir having made any markedepoch in my life.
“ Of Mr .
'
s friendship I have had the
honor and advantage for twenty years , butI be l ieve that every main bias of my m indhad been taken before Iknew h im. L ike therest of his readers, I am, of course , indebtedto him for much en largement and clarifyingof thought.Bu t there was another acquain tance which
M i ss Evans made during the first year of herresidence in the S trand, destined to affect thewhole future tenor of her l ife the acqua in tance of Mr. George Hen ry L ew es , then, l ikeher, a contributor to the Wes tm ins ter R eview .
George H enry L ewe s was Marian ’
s sen iorby two years , having been born in L ondon
on the 18th ofApri l , 18 17 . He was educated
GE ORGE HENRY LEWES . 105
at Greenw ich in a school once possessing a
high reputation for thoroughly groundingits pupi ls in a know ledge of the classics .W hen hi s education was so far fin ished, hewa s placed as clerk in a merchant’s office .
This kind of occupation proving very distastefu l, he turned medica l student for a t ime .
Very early in l ife he was attracted towardsphi losophy , for at the age of n ineteen we findh im attending the weekly meet ings of a sma l lclub, in the habit of discus sing me taphys ica lproblems in the parlor of a tave rn in Red
L ion Square, Holborn . This club, from whichthe one in ‘ Dan ie l Deronda ’ i s s upposed tohave borrowed many of its features, was the
point of j unct ion for a most heterogeneouscompany. Here , amicably seated round thefi re, a specu lative ta i lor wou ld hob and nob
w ith some medica l studen t deep in anatomya second -hand bookse l ler having devou red the
on his she lves , vent i lated the ir connts for the general benefit ; and a discursive
flmerican mystic was l is tened to in turn w itha Jew i sh j ourneyman watchmaker deeply imbued with Spinozi sm. It i s impos sible not
to connect this Jew , named Cohen , and de
scribed as“a man of aston i shing subtilty
and log ica l force, no le ss than of sweet personal worth, wi th the Mordeca i of the nove l
106 GE ORGE EL IOT.
just mentioned . However wide the after divergencies , here evidently lies the germ . The
weak eyes and chest, the grave and gentledemeanor, the whole ideal ity of character,correspond . In some respects G . H . L ewesw as the “ Dan iel Deronda ”
to this “ Mordecai
”For he not on ly loved but venerated
h is great ca lm inte llect.” An immense
pity, says Mr. L ewes, “a fervid indignation ,
fi l led me as Icame away from his attics in one
of the Holborn cou rts, where I had seen h imin the pinching poverty of his home, w ithhis German w ife and two l ittle black-eyedchildren .
”
To this pure-spirited suffering watchmaker,L ewes owed his first acquain tance w ith Spinoza. A certain passage, casua lly cited byCohen , awakened an eager thirs t for more inthe you th . The des ire to possess h imse lf of
Spinoza’s works , st i l l in the odor of pes tilenti-al heresy, haunted h im l ike a passion . For
he himse lf, then suffering the socia l pers ecu tion which embitters any departure fromaccepted creeds, felt in defiant sympathyw ith all ou tcasts . On a dreary Novembereven ing , the coveted volumes we re at leng thdis covered on the dingy she lves of a secondhand bookse l ler By the flaring gas light,young L ewes, with a beating heart, read on
103 GEORGE ELIOT.
Germany, and devoted himse lf to the studyof its language and l iterature, j ust broughtin to fashion by Carlyle . Re turn ing to Eng
land in 1839, he became one of the most prolific j ourna lists of the day. W itty, bri llian t,and many-s ided, he seemed pre
-em inentlyfitted by nature for a press w riter and littoratea r . H is versati l ity w as s o amazing , that a
c lever ta lker once said of him ' “ L ewes can
do everything in the world but paint and he
cou ld do that, too, after a week’
s study.
”A t
th is t ime , besides assisting in the editorshipof the Class ica l M useum,
he w rote for the
Morn ing Cnr on iele, the At/zenaeum , the E a’in
Ourg/z , Foreig n Quarterly, B r itt'
s/z Qua r terly,B lackwooa
’
,Fraser
,and the Wes tm ins ter R e
view . A fter publishing A B iographical H istory of Philosophy,
’
through Mr. Kn ight’s
‘ W eekly Volumes ’
in 1846, he wrote two
novels , ‘ Ran thorpe ,’
and Rose , Blanche, andV iolet,
’
which success ive ly appea red in 1847
and 1848 . But fiction was not hisforte, thesetwo production s be ing singu larly crude and
immature as compared w ith his exce l len t ph ilosophical work . Some jokes in the pape rsabou t “ rant,
” killed what l ittle l ife th e rewas in Ranthorpe .
’ Neverthe les s , Char lotteBronte, w ho had some correspondence w i thMr . L ewes about 1847 , actually wrote about
GE ORGE HENR Y LEWES . 109
it as follow s In reading‘ Ranthorpe,
’
Ihaveread a new book, not a reprint, not a reflec
t ion of any other book, but a new Oook .
”
A nother great w riter, Edgar Poe, admired itno less, for he says of the work : “ I havela te ly read it w ith deep interest, and derived
g reat consola tion from it a lso. It relates tothe career of a l ite rary man , and g ives a j u stview of the true a ims and the true dign ityof the literary characterThe Span i sh Drama ; The L ife of Maxi
m i l ian Robspierre, w ith extracts from hisunpublished correspondence ;
’ ‘ The NobleH eart : a Tragedy ;
’
all followed in c losesucce ss ion from the same inexhaustible pen .
The last, it was said, proved a lso a tragedyto the publ ishers . Bu t not content w i thw riting dramas , Mr . L ewes was a lso ambit ious of the fame of an actor, the theatrehaving always pos sessed a strong fascinationfor h im. A lready as a chi ld he had haun tedthe theatres , and now ,
while de l ivering a
lecture at the Philosoph ica l Ins titut ion in
Edinburgh , he shocked its staid liabitue’
s not
a l ittle by immediate ly afterwards appearingon the stage in the character of Shylock :s o many, and seeming ly incompatible, wereL ewes
’
s pu rsui ts . Bu t this extreme mobilityof mind, this intellectual tripping from sub
1 10 GE ORGE ELIOT.
ject to subj ect, retarded the growth of hispopu larity. The present mechanical subdi
vision of labor has most unfortunately a l soaffected the j udgment pas sed on l iterary andarti stic products . L et a man once have w ritten a nove l typical of the manners and waysof a certain class of Eng li sh society, or
painted a picture with certain pecu l iar effectsof sea or landscape , or composed a poemaffecting the very trick and language of somebygone mediaeval singer, he w i l l be doomed,to the end of h is days, to do the same thingover and over again, a a
’nauseam. Nothing
can we l l be more deaden ing to any vigorousmental l ife, and Mr. L ewes set a fine exampleof intel lectual dis in teres tedness in sacrificingimmediate success to th e free play of a mostvariou sly endowed nature .
The public too w as a gainer by thi s. For
the l ife of Goethe cou ld not have been madethe rich, comprehensive , many- sided biography it i s, had Mr . L ewes himse lf not triedh is hand at such a variety of subj ects . Thislife, begun in 1845, the resu lt pa rt ly of his
sojourn in Germany, did not appear in prin tunti l 1855 . U ltimate ly destined to a g reatand lasting success , the MS . of the L ife of
Goethe ’
was ignom in ious ly sent from one
publisher to another, unti l at las t Mr . David
1 12 GEORGE E LIOT.
na te the principles of Comte’
s phi losophy inthis coun try, he w as a t the same time vio
lently opposed to his P olitique P os itive,’
w ithits schemes of social reorganization .
Even so sl ight a survey as this must showthe aston i sh ing discu rs ivenes s of Mr. L ewes
’
s
intel lect . By the time he was thirty he hada l ready tried his hand a t critici sm, fiction,
biography, the drama, and philosophy . H e
had en larged h is experience of human natureby fore ign travel he had addressed audiencesfrom the lecturer 5 platform he had enjoyedth e perilou s sweets of edit ing a newspaper ;he had even , it is said , played the ha rlequ inin a company of s trol l ing actors . Indeed, Mr.
Thackeray was once heard to say that it
wou ld not surpri se h im to meet L ewes in
Piccadil ly, riding on a white e lephant whilstanothe r w it likened h im to the W anderingJew, as you cou ld never te l l where he was
going to turn up, or what he was going to donextIn this discursivene ss of inte l lect he more
nearly resembled the Encyclopedists of the
e ighteenth century than the men of his ownt ime . Indeed his pers ona l appearance, tem
perament, manners, genera l tone of thought,seemed rather to be those of a highly aecom
plished fore igner than of an Eng l ishman.
GE ORGE HENR Y L E I/VES . 1 13
H e was a ligh tly bu ilt, frag i le man, withbushy cu rly ha ir, and a general shagg inessof beard and eyebrow not unsuggestive of a
Skye terrier . For the rest, he had a prom inent mou th and gray, deeply set eyes underan ample, finely proportioned forehead . Vol
ati le by nature, somewhat w i l d and law lessin his ta lk, he in tu rn delighted and shockedh is friends by the gayety, recklessnes s, and
gen ia l aOandon of h is manners and conversat ion H is compan ionship was singu larlystimu lating , for the commonest topic servedhim as a starting-point for th e lucid deve lopmen t of some pet phi losophica l theory. In
this g i ft of making abstruse problems intelli
g ible, and difficu lt things easy, he had someresemblance to the late W . K . Clifford , w ithhis mag ical facu lty of i l luminating the mos t
abstruse subj ects by his vivid directnes s of
exposition .
A s L ewes’
s life was so soon to be closelyun ited to that of Marian Evan s, this curs orysketch of h is career wil l not seem inappropri
ate . A t the t ime they met at Dr. Chapman ’shouse, Mr . L ewes , who had married early inl ife, found his conj uga l re lation s i rretrievablyspoiled . How far th e blame of this m ight attach to one side or to the other does not concern us here. Enough that in the intercourse
8
1 14 GE ORGE E LIOT.
w ith a woman of such aston ishing intellect,varied acqu irements, and rare sympathy
,M r.
L ewes discovered a commun ity of ideas and
a mora l support that had been sadly lackingto h is exis tence hitherto .
In many ways these two natures, so opposite in character, dispos ition, and tone of m ind,who, from such different starting-points, hadreached the same standpoint, seemed to needeach other for the final fruition and u tmostdeve lopment of what was best in each . A
was now impending in Marian ’s life .
was cal led upon to make her privatej udgment a law unto herse lf, and to shapeher act ions, not according to the recogn izedmora l standard of her country, bu t in harmonywith her own convictions of right and wrong .
From a g irl, it appears , she had he ld independent view s about marriage, strong ly ad
vocating the German d ivorce laws . On the
appearance of ‘ Jane Eyre ,
’
when every one
was ta lking of this book and prai s ing the
exemplary conduct of Jane in her famous ihterview w itt oches ter, Marian Evans, thenonly fou r-and-twen ty, remarked to a friendthat in his pos ition she cons idered h im j ustified in contracting a fresh marriage . And in
an article on Madame de Sablé , written as
early as 1854, there i s thi s sign ificant passage
16 GEORGE ELIOT.
of events. Enough that Mr. Lewes appearsto have w ritten a letter in which, after a fu l lexplanation of his circumstances, he used all
his powers of persuasion to win Mi ss Evan sfor h is l ife- long compan ion ; that she con
sented , after having satisfied her consciencethat in real ity she w as not injuring the claim sof others ; and that henceforth she bore Mr .
L ewes’
s name, and became his wife in everysense but the lega l one .
This proceeding cau sed the utmost con
sternation among st h er acquaintances, especially amongst her friends at Rosehi l l. The
former intimate and affectionate intercou rs ewith Mrs . Bray and her s ister was only gradually restored, and on ly after they had come
to rea l ize how perfectly her own consciencehad been consulted and sat isfied in the matter.Miss Hennell, who had a lready entered on thescheme of re l ig ious doctrine which ever s inceshe has been setting forth in her printedworks, “ swerved nothing from her own principles that the main tenance of a conventiona lform of marriage (remou lded to the demandsof the present age) is essential ly attachedto all relig ion , and pre
-eminently so to the
relig ion of the futu re .
In thus defying public Opinion . and forminga connection in opposition to the laws of so
GEORGE HENRY LE WEs . I17
clety,George El iot must have undergone sometrial s and sufferings pecu l iarly pa infu l to one
so shrinking ly sen sitive as herse lf. Consciou sof no w rong—doing , enjoying the rare happiness of completest inte llectua l fe l low ship inthe man she loved , the step she had takenmade a gap between her kindred and herse lfw hich cou ld not but ga l l her cling ing ,womanlynature . To some of her early compan ions
,
indeed , who had a lways fe lt a certain awe at
the impos ing gravity of her manners, th i sdereliction from what appeared to them the
path of duty was a lmost as startling and un
expected as if they had seen the heaven s fa l ling down .
How far the individua l can ever be j ust ifiedin follow ing the dictates of his private j udgment, in oppos ition to the laws and preva len topin ion s of h is t ime and country,mu st rema ina question no less difficu lt than de l icate of
decis ion . It i s preci se ly the point where thehighest natures and the lowest somet ime sapparently meet ; s ince to act in oppositionto custom may be due to the loftiest motives— may be the spiritual exa ltat ion of the re
former, braving socia l ostraci sm for the sakeof an idea, or may spring , on the other hand ,
from pure ly rebe l l iou s promptings of an antisocial egoi sm, which recogn izes no law
’ higher
1 18 GE ORGE ELIOT.
than that of persona l g ratification . A t the
same t ime, it seems, that no prog ress couldwe l l be made in the evolu tion of socie ty w i thout these departures on the part of individual sfrom
'
the wel l-beaten tracks , for even the fa ilures he lp eventua l ly towards a fu l ler recogn ition of what is beneficia l and possible of
atta inment. Mary W ol ls tonecraft, She l ley,George Sand , the New Eng land Trans cendentalis ts , w ith the ir commun i stic experimentat Brook Farm, all more or less strove to be
path -finders to a better and happier s tate of
society . George Eliot, however, hardly belonged to this order of m ind. Circums tancesprompted her to dis regard one of the mostbinding law s of socie ty, yet , whi le she con
s idered herse lf j ustified in doing so, her sym
pathics were , on the whole, more en l is ted inthe s tate of things as th ey are than a s theym ight be It i s certa in ly cu riou s that the
woman , who in her own life had fol lowed s uchan independen t course , severing hers e lf inmany ways from her past w i th all its traditional sanctities , shou ld yet so often incu lcatethe very opposite teaching in her worksshou ld incu lcate an almost s lavish adherenceto whatever surroundings , be l iefs , and familyt ies a human be ing may be born to .
I need on ly add here that Mr. L ewes and
1 20 GEORGE ELIOT
over her delicate health , cheering the gravetenor of her thoughts by his inexhaust iblebuoyancy, j ea lou sly sh ie lding her from everyadverse breath of crit icism, Mr. L ewes in a
manner created the spiritua l a tmosphere in
which George Eliot cou ld best put forth allthe flowers and fru its of her gen iu s .In join ing her l ife w ith that of Mr . L ewes,
the care of his three chi ldren devolved upont
George E l iot, who henceforth showed themthe undeviating love and tenderne s s of a
mother . One of the sons had gone out to
Natal as a young man , and con tracted a fa ta ldisease, w hich, complicated w ith s ome accident, resu l ted ih an un time ly death . H e
re turned home a hope less inva lid, and histedious il lnes s was cheered by the affectionate tendance of her who had for so many
years acted a mother’s part towards him.
CHAPTER VII.
SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE .
A s has a lready been mentioned, Mr . Lewesand Marian went to Germany in 1854, dividing the year between Berl in , Mun ich, and
W e imar , In the latter pleasant little SaxonCity, on which the mighty influence of Goetheseemed st i l l vis ibly resting , as the reflectionof the s un l ingers in the sky long after thes un himse lf has set, L ewes partly re-wroteh is ‘ L ife of Goethe .
’
Here must have beenspent many de l ightfu l days , wandering in
Goethe ’s track, exploring the beautiful ne ighborhood , and en joying some of the mos t cul
tivated society in Ge rmany. Severa l articleson German l ife and literatu re, afterwardspublished in the Wes tminster R eview , wereprobably w ritten at this time . The translation of Spinoza ’ s Ethics ’ by George Eliotwas a lso execu ted in the same year. Mr .
L ewes, a l luding to it in ‘ Goethe’ s L ife,’ says,
in a foot-note, It may interest some readersto learn that Spinoza will ere long appear in
122 GE ORGE ELIOT.
English , edited by the w riter of these l ines .Th is was a de lus ive promi se , since the translation has not yet made its appearance . But
s urely its publication wou ld now be warmlywe lcomed .
The time, howeve r, was approaching whenGeorge El iot was at las t to discover whereh er rea l mastery lay . And this i s the way,
as the story goes, that she discovered it.
They had returned from the Continent and
were settled again in L ondon ,Lboth act ive lyengaged in l iteratu re. But literature, un lessin certain cases of triumphant popu larity, isperhaps the worst pa id of all work. Mr.
L ewes and George E liot were not too we l loff. The former, infin ite in re sources, havinghimse lf tried every form of l iteratu re in turn ,
cou ld not fa i l to notice the matchles s powerof observation, and the memory matching itin power, of the fu tu re nove l ist O ne day
an idea struck him.
“ My dear, he sa id,“ I think you cou ld w rite a capital story.
”
Shortly afterwards there was some dinnerengagement , but as he was preparing to go
out, She said, “ I won’
t go out th i s even ing ,
and when you come in don’
t disturb me . I
sha ll be very busy .
”And this was how the
‘ Scenes of Clerica l L ife ’
came first to be
written ! On be ing shown a portion of the
124 GE ORGE E LIOT.
novels . But this idea i s unj ust to both. In
comparing her earlies t w ith her latest style,it i s clear tha t from the firs t she w as apt
to cu l l her i l lustrations from the physicalscience s, thereby show ing how much thesestudies had become part of herself. Indeed ,she was far more l iable to introduce thesescientific modes of expression than Mr. L ew es ,a s may be easily seen by comparing his L ifeof Goethe ,
’ partly re-w ritten in 1 854, w iths ome of her es says of the same date . A s to
her matte r,it is curious how much of it was
drawn from the earl ies t s ources of memoryfrom that life of her Childhood to which she
may sometimes have turned yearn ing ly as
to a long - lost Paradise . Most of her worksmight, indeed, not inaptly be cal led L ookingBackward .
’
They are a ha lf—pathetic, halfhumorou s , but entirely tender revivification
of the “ days that are no more .
” No one,
however in timate, cou ld real ly in termeddlewith the workings of a gen ius draw ing itshappie st inspiration from the earliest experiences of its own individua l past.Nothing is more characteristic of this obvi
ou s tendency than the first of the Scenes of
Clerical L ife,’ ‘The Sad Fortune s of the Rev.
Amos Barton ’
A t Chilvers Coton the curious in such matters may sti l l see the identica l
SCENES OF CLERICAL LIFE . 125
Chu rch where the incumbent of Sheppertonused to preach sermon s shrewdly compoundedof H igh Church doctrines and L ow Churchevange l ica l ism, not forgetting to note
“ its
l ittle fl ight of steps w ith thei r wooden rai lrunning up the ou ter wa ll, and leading to the
school-Chi ldren ’s gal lery . There they may
s ti l l see the l ittle churchyard , though theymay look in va in for the s l im black figu reof the Rev Amos, “
as it fl its past the pa le
g ravestones, in “the si lver l ight that fa l ls
a s lant on church and tomb . And amongth e tombs the re i s one, a handsome subs tan
t ial monument, overshadowed by a yew-tree,on which there i s this inscription
HERE LIES,WAITING THE SUMMONS OF THE ARCHANGEL
’S TRUMPET,
ALL THAT WAS MORTAL OF
THE BELOVED WIFE OF THE
REV. JOHN GWYTHER , B .A.,
CURATE OF THIS PARISH,
NOV. 4TH,1 836,
AGED THIRTY—FOUR YEARS,
LEAVING A HUSBAND AND SEVEN CHILDREN.
This Emma Gwyther i s none other thanthe beautifu l M i lly, the w ife of Amos, so
touchingly described by George E l iot, whosemother , Mrs . Evans , was her intimate friend .
George E l iot would be in her teens when she
125 GE ORGE ELIOT.
heard the story of this sweet woman : heardthe Circumstan tia l detai ls of her s truggles tomake the two ends of a ridicu lou sly smal lincome meet the yearly expen ses heard hermother, no doubt (in the words of Mrs .
H ackit) blame her weak forbearance in tol
erating the presence in her house of the lux
u riou s and exact ing countess, who, havingingratiated herse lf w ith the gu l l ible Amosby her ta lk of the “ l ivings she w ou ld geth im , gave much scandal in the ne ighborhoodheard of the pathetic death -bed
,when ,
wornby care and toi l, th e gentle l ife ebbed qu ie tlyaway, leaving a l ife- long void in her hus
band ’ s heart and home . A ll th is was the
talk of the ne ighborhood when George E l iotwa s a g irl ; and her extraordinary memorya llowed nothing to e scape .
O n the comple tion of Amos Barton ,
’
Mr
L ewes , who,as a l ready men tioned , was a
con tributor to ‘Maga,’ sen t the MS . to the
ed itor, the late Mr . John Blackwood. as the
work of an anonymou s friend . This w as inthe au tumn of 1856 The other scenes of‘ Clerical L ife ’
were then unwritten , but the
edi tor was informed that the story subm ittedto his approva l formed one of a series .Though his judgment was favorable, h e
begged to see some of the other ta les before
128 GEORGE ELIOT.
in so few word s Soon afterwards he begananothe r le tter : My dear Amos , I forgetwhether I told you or L ewes th at I had
shown part of the MS . to Thackeray . He
w as staying w ith me, and having been out at
dinner, came in about e leven o’
clock, when I
had j ust fin i shed reading it . I sai d to h im,
‘ Do you know that I think I have lightedupon a new author, who is uncommon ly l ikea first-clas s pas senger.
’
I showed h im a
page or two, I think the passage where the
cu rate returns home and M il ly i s first introduced . He wou ld not pronounce whether itcame up to my ideas, bu t remarked afterwardsthat he wou ld have l iked to have read more,which I thought a good s ign .
D ickens, after the publication of the
Scenes,’ sent a letter to the unknown write r
through the editor, warmly express ing the
admira tion he felt for them Bu t he was
s trong ly of opin ion from the fi rst that theymust have been w ritten by a woman . In the
meanwhile the ta les we re reprinted in a col
lected form, and they were so succe ssfu l thatthe editor, w riting to M r. L ewes at the end
of Janua ry 1858, when the book had hardlybeen ou t a month , was able to say,
“ GeorgeEl iot has fairly achieved a l iterary reputat ionamong judges, and the public must fol low ,
S CENES OF CL ERICAL LIFE 129
a lthough it may take time . And in a letterto George E l iot herse lf, he w rote in February : You will recollect, when we proposedto reprint, my impres sion was that the serieshad not la sted long enough in th e magazineto g ive you a hold on the gene ra l public,a lthough long enough to make your l iteraryreputa t ion . Un less in exceptiona l cases, a
ve ry long time often e lapses betw een the two
stages of repu tation the l iterary and the
public. You r progress w i l l be sure, if not so
qu ick as we cou ld w i sh .
”
W hile the sketches were being re- i s sued inbook form, Me ss rs . kBlackwood informed itsau thor that they saw good cau se for makinga large increase in the forthcom ing reprint,and the i r an ticipat ions were fu lly j us tified byits success . A ll sorts of rumors were abroadas to the rea l author of these Cle rica l ta les .M is led by a hint, ca lcu lated to throw him off
the rea l scent, Mr. B lackwood was at first under the impression that they we re the workof a clergyman , and this may perhaps have beenthe orig in of a bel ief which lingered ti l l qu iterecently, that George E l iot was the daughterof a clergyman , a statement made by severa lof the lead ing daily papers afte r her death .
Abandon ing the idea of the clergyman, Mr .
Blackwood next fixed upon a very d ifferent9
130GEORGE ELIOT.
sort of person , to w it , Profes sor Owen ,w hom
he su spected ow ing to the S imi larity of handw rit ing and the scientific know ledge so ex
ceptional in a nove l is t . No les s funny was
the suppos ition he ld by othe rs of L ord L ytton— who more than once hoaxed the publicunder a new l itera ry disgu i se having at lastsurpas sed himse lf in the s te rl ing exce l lenceof these ta les. Now that Bu lw er has gonethe w ay of all fashions , it seems incrediblethat the most obtu se and s low-w itted of cri tics shou ld have m istaken for a moment h is
high- flown sentimen ta l s tyle for the new au
thor’ s terse, vigorous, and s imple prose .
It was impossible , however, for an authorto rema in a mere nameless abs traction . A n
appe l lation of some kind became an impera tive necess ity, and ,
during the pas sage of‘ Mr. Gilfil
’
s L ove -S tory ’
through the pres s ,the pseudonym of “ George E liot a name
des tined to become so j us tly renowned was
fina lly as s umed .
The ‘ Scenes of Clerica l L ife ’
were to
George E liot’s fu tu re works w hat a bold ,Spirited ske tch is to a carefu lly e laboratedpicture . A ll the qual ities that di s tingu ishedher gen ius may be discovered in this, her firstessay in fiction . W ith all Miss Aus ten
’smatchles s facu lty for painting commonplace
132 GE ORGE ELIOT
The as tronomer was at his telescope ; the
g reat Ships were laboring over the waves the
toi l ing eagerness of commerce , the fierce Spiritof revolution,
were on ly ebbing in brief restand s leepless statesmen were dreading the
poss ible cris is of the morrow . W hat wereour l ittle Tina and her trouble in this m ightytorrent, rushing from one awfu l unknown to
another ? L ighter than the sma l les t cen treof qu ivering life in the water—drop , hiddenand uncared for as the pu lse of angu ish in the
breast of the tin iest bird that has fluttereddown to its nes t w ith the long-sought food,and has found the nest torn and empty .
There is rather more incident in this storyof Mr. Gilfil than in e ither of the two otherScenes of Clerica l L ife .
’
In Amos Bartonthe narrat ive i s of the s implest, a s has a lreadybeen indicated and the e lements from which‘ Janet’s Repentance ’
is composed are as freefrom any complex en tang lemen t of plot . The
au thor u sua l ly describes the most ordinaryC ircumstances of Eng l ish l ife , but the powe rful rendering of the human emotion s whichSpring from them takes a mos t vivid holdof the imag ination : Mr. Gilfil
’
s L ove-S tory,’
how ever , seems a litt le Ital ian romance droppedon Eng l ish soi l .It is , in brief, the narrat ion of how Sir Chris
S CENES OF CLERICAL LIFE . 133
topher Chevere l and hi s w ife, during their res idence at M i lan , took pity on a l ittle orphan g irl ,whose large dark eyes shone from out her
queer little face l ike the precious stones in a
g rotesque image carved in old ivory . Cat
e rina, or Tina as she i s ca l led , taken backto Chevere l Manor, grew up under the careof the Baronet’s w ife, to whom she becameendeared by her exceptiona l mus ical ta lent .
S ir Christopher had no chi ldren , but had
chosen his nephew ,Captain Wybrow,
for hishe ir
,and planned a marriage between him and
M is s A s sher , the handsome and accomplishedowne r of a pretty e state . Another marriage,on which he has equal ly set his heart, i s thatbetween his ward Maynard Gilfil, an openeyed man ly young fel low des tined for the
Church , and th e me l low-voiced, large-eyedTina, for whom he has long nursed an undeclared pass ion . Bu t alas, for the futi lity of
human plan s ! Tina, to whom the e legantA nthony Wybrow has been secretly professing love ,
suffers torture s of j ealousy when he
and M i ss A s sher, to whom he has duti fu l lybecome engaged, come on a visit to CheverelManor. The treacherous Captain, to lu l l thesuspicion s of his betrothed, insinuates thatpoor Mis s Sarti entertain s a hope less passionfor him,
which puts the poor g irl, who gets
134 GE ORGE ELIOT.
an inkling of this double-deal ing , into a frenzyof indignat ion . In this state She posses sesherself of a dagger, and as she i s going to
meet the Captain by appoin tment,dreams of
plung ing the weapon in the traitor’s heart.But on reaching the appointed spot, she be
holds the false lover stre tched motion less on
the g round a lready having sudden ly died of
heart disease . Tina ’s angu i sh is indescrib
able : she g ives the a larm to the household ,
bu t stung by remorse for a contemplated re
venge of which her tender-hearted natu re wasu tterly incapable, she fl ies unperce ived fromthe premises at n ight. Be ing searched for invain
, She is suspected of having comm ittedsu icide. A fte r some days of a lmost unbearable suspense, news is brought that Tina i slying i ll at the cottage of a former maid in the
hou sehold . W ith reviving hopes her anxiouslover rides to the farm, sees the ha lf- s tunned,unhappy g irl, and , after a while, manages to
remove her to his s ister’s hou se . She g radua l lyrecovers under . Mrs . Heron ’s gentle tendance,and one day a chi ld ’s accidenta l striking of a
deep bass note on the harpsichord s uddenlyrevives h er old passionate de light in mus ic.
A nd ‘the soul that was born anew to mu sic
was born anew to love .
’
A fter a whi le Tinaagrees to become Mr. Gilfil
’
s w ife, who has
136 GE ORGE ELIOT
and accidenta l to the core of man’s mixed
nature which g ive certa in of her creationssomething of the l ife- like complexity of
Shakespeare ’s .Her power of rendering the idiom and
manners of peasants , arti sans, and paupers ,of cal l ing up before us the very gesturesand phrases of parson s, country practitione rs , and other varieties of inhabitants of our
provincial towns and rural dis tricts, a lreadyman ifests itse lf fully in these clerica l stories .Here we find such types as Mr . Demps ter,the un scrupu lous, bruta l , drunken lawyer ;Mr. Pilgrim, the ta ll , heavy, rough-mannered,and spluttering doctor, profuse ly addicted to
bleeding and blistering his patients Mr. Gilfil,
the eccen tric vicar, w ith a tender love-storyhidden beneath h is rugged exterior ; the largehearted, unfortunate Janet, rescued from mora lru in by Mr. Tryan, the ascetic evange l ica l Cler
gyman ,whose character, the au thor remarks,
might have been found sadly wanting in per
fection by feeble and fastidious minds , bu t,as she adds, “ The blessed work of help ingthe worl d forward happily does not wai t to bedone by perfect men ; and I shou ld imag inethat ne ither L uther nor John Bunyan,
for
exampl e, would have sat isfied the modern demand for an idea l hero, who bel ieves nothing
S CENES OF CLERICAL LIFE . 137
but what i s true, fee ls nothing but what i sexa lted, and does nothing but what i s gracefu l. The rea l heroes of God’s making are
qu ite d ifferent : they have the i r natura l heritage of love and conscience, which they drewin with the ir mother’s mi lk ; they know one or
two of those deep spi ritua l truths which are
on ly to be won by long w restl ing with the irown s ins and the ir own sorrows ; they haveearned faith and strength so far as they havedone genu ine work, but the rest i s dry, barren theory, blank prej udice, vague hearsay .
George E l iot ’s early acquaintance w ithmany types of the clerica l character, and hersympathy w ith the re l ig ious l ife in all its
man ifestations, was never more fu l ly shownthan in these Scenes . ’ In Janet’s Repentance
’
w e a lready discover one of GeorgeE l iot’s favorite psycholog ica l studies — the
awaken ing of a mora l ly mixed nature to a
new , a Spi ritua l l ife . This work of regenerat ion Mr . Tryan performs for Janet , Fe lix Holtfor Esther, and Dan ie l D eronda for Gwendolen . H er protest against the applicationof too lofty a mora l standard in judg ing of
our fe l low -creatu res , her Championship of th e“ mong re l, ungain ly dog s who are nobody’ spets ,
” i s another of the prominent qual itiesof her gen ius fu l ly expressed in this firs tling
138 GEORGE ELIOT.
work, being, indeed, at the root of her humorous conception of life . One of the finest bitsof humor in the present volume i s the scenein Amos Barton,
’
which occurs at the workhouse, euphemi stical ly cal led the Col lege .
"
Mr. Barton , having just fini shed his addres sto the paupers, i s thus accosted by Mr. Spratt ,“a smal l-featured, sma l l- statured man,
w ith a
remarkable power of language, mitigated byhes itation, who piqued himse lf on express ingunexceptionable sent imen ts in unexception
able language on all occas ions.Mr. Barton , s ir aw aw excuse my
trespassing on you r time aw to beg that
you wil l admin i ster a rebuke to this boy ; hei s aw aw most inveterate in i l l-behavior du ring service- time .
’
The inveterate cu lprit was a boy of seven,
vainly contending again s t candles at h is
nose by feeble sn iffi ng . But no sooner h adMr . Spratt u ttered his impeachment th an
Mrs . Fodge rushed forward, and placed herse lf between Mr. Barton and the accused .
That ’s my child, Mu ster Barton ,’
she ex
cla imed, further man ifesting her materna l instincts by applying her apron to her offspring
’
s
nose. He’s a ly ’s a -findin
’ faut w i’ him,and
a—poundin’
him for nothin ’
. L et h im goo an’
eat his roost goose as is a - smellin’
up in our
CHAPTER VIII.
ADAM BEDE .
RARELY has a noveli st come to his task withsuch a far-reaching cu ltu re , such an in te llectual grasp, as George E l iot. W e have seen
her g irlhood occupied w ith an extraordinaryvariety of studies we have seen h er plungedin abs truse metaphys ica l speculations ; we
have seen her tran slating some of the mostlaborious philosophica l investigations of Ger
man thinkers we have seen her again tran slating from the Latin the Ethics ’ of Spinozaand , fina l ly, w e have seen her attract ing , and
attracted by, some of the leaders in science,phi losophy, and l iterature .
Compared w ith such qua l ifications who
among nove l ists cou ld compete ? W hat cou lda D ickens, or a Thackeray himself, throw intothe opposing scale ! L ewes , indeed, was a
match for her in variety of attainmen ts, bu the had made several attempts at fiction, and
the attempts had proved fai lures . W hen at
last, in the maturity of her powers , George
ADAM EEO E . 14 1
Eliot produced ‘Adam Bede,’
she produced a
novel in which the amplest resu lts of knowledge and meditation were so happily blendedwith instinctive ins ight into l ife and character, and the rarest dramatic imag ination, as
to s tamp it immediate ly as one of the g reattriumphs and masterpieces in the world of
fiction .
It i s worth noticing that in ‘Adam Bede ’
George E l iot fu lfil s to the utmost the demandswhich she had been theoretica l ly advocat ingin her essays . In some of these she had not
on ly e loquently enforced the importance of a
truthfu l adherence to nature, but had pointedout how the arti st i s thus in the very van
guard of socia l and pol it ical reforms ; as in
fam i l iarizing the imag ination w ith the rea lcondition of th e people, h e d id much towardscreating that sympathy w ith the ir wants , the i rtria ls, and their su fferings, wh ich would eventna l ly effect externa l Changes in harmony withthis better understanding . Such had beenher teach ing. And in D ickens she had rec
ogniz ed the one great nove l ist who, in certainre spects, had pa inted the lower orders w ithunerring truthfu lness. H is “ O l iver Tw i sts,his Nancys, his “ Joes, were terrible and
pathetic picture s of the forlorn ou tcasts haunting our London streets . And if, as George
142GE ORGE ELIOT.
E l iot says , D ickens had been able to g iveus the ir psycholog ica l character, their concept ion of life and the i r emotions, w ith the same
truth as the ir idiom and mann ers , his bookswoul d be the g reatest contribu tion Art has
ever made to the awaken ing of socia l sym
pathies . Now George E liot absolute ly doeswhat Dicken s aimed at doing . She not mere lyse izes the outward
.
and acciden ta l traits of hercharacters : she pierces w ith unerring visionto the very core of the ir nature, and eTl
'
a'bles
us to rea lize the peculiar y s u t e re lat ion sb tween charac er an Ci rcu a cc . H er
primary object i s to excite our sympathyw ith the most ordinary aspects of human l ife,w ith the people that one may meet any day in
the fie lds, the workshops, and the home s of
Eng land . H er mos t vivid creations are not
exceptional be ings, not men or women pre~
eminently conspicuous for sublime heroi sm of
character or magn ificent men ta l endowmen ts,but work-a-day folk,
Not too fine or good
For human nature’
s daily food .
To this conscientious fide l ity of observat ion and anxious endeavor to report the
truth and noth ing but the truth , as of a
w itness in a court of j us tice , are ow ing thatlife-like vividness with wh ich the scenery
144 GE ORGE ELIOT.
This village i s so l ittle altered that the trave l ler may s ti l l see the s ign -board of the Don
n ithorne A rms, and the red brick ha l l, on lyw ith w indows no longer unpatched . Samue l,W i l l iam, and Robert Evans (th e father of thenove list) we re born in this place , and beganlife as carpen ters, as the i r fa ther before them.
Samue l Evans became a zea lous Methodist,and was rather laughed at by his fami ly inconsequence, for he says, My e lde r brothersoften tried to tease me they entertainedH igh Church principles . They told me what
great blunders I made in preaching and
prayer that I had more zea l than know ledge . In this, as in other respects , h e is theprototype of Seth, as Adam resembles RobertEvans, one of the more secu lar e lde r brothers ,on ly that in rea l l ife it was Samu e l who mar
ried E lizabeth, the Dinah Morris of fict ion .
Much has been wri tten abou t this ElizabethEvans (the aunt of George E liot, a lreadyspoken of) : indeed, h er l ife was one of suchrare devotion to an idea l cau se, that evens uch imperfect fragmen ts of it as have beencomm itted to writing by herse lf or her friendsare of cons iderable interest. E l izabeth w as
born at Newbold in L e icestershire , and lefther fa ther’s house when l ittle more tha n fourteen years old . She j oined the Methodists in
ADAM EEDE . 145
1797 , after which she had entirely done withthe pleasu re s of the world and all her old
compan ions. “ I saw it my duty, she says,“to leave off all my s uperfluities of dress ;hence I pu lled off all my bunches , cut off mycu rls, left off my lace, and in this I found anunspeakable pleasure . I saw I cou ld make a
better use of my t ime and money than to follow the fashion s of a vain world. W hi le st il la beau tifu l young g irl, attired in a Quakerd ress and bonnet, she u sed to walk acrossthose bleak Derbyshire hil ls, looking so
strange ly mournfu l in the ir treeless nudity,w ith the i r bare stone fences gray aga in st a
g rayer sky . H ere she trudged from villageto vil lage, gathering the poor abou t her, andpou ring forth words of such earnest convic
t ion that, as she says, “ Many were broughtto the L ord .
”The poin ts of resemblance
between her career and that of D inah Morri scannot fai l to strike the reader, even the irphraseology being often singu larly alike, as
when Mrs . Evans writes in the short account
of what she ca l l s h er “unprofitable l ife :
“ I s aw it my duty to be whol ly devoted to
God, and to be set apart for the Master’ su se ; while D inah says : “ My l ife i s tooshort, and God
’
s .»work is too g reat for me
to think of making a home for myself in
145 GE ORGE ELIOT.
th i s world . It mus t be borne in mind, how
ever, that these s imi larities of expre ssion are
n atu ra l enough when one con siders that D inahis a type of the same old -fashioned kind of
Methodism to which Mrs . Evans be longed.
W hat i s perhaps s tranger i s, that the account
g iven by George E liot of her va rious meetings w ith her aunt, Mrs . E lizabeth Evans,should differ considerably from what the latter herse lf remembered or has s tated aboutthem . Short ly after the appearance of AdamBede ,
’
atten tion h ad been publicly ca l led to
the ident ity of the heroine of fiction w ith theMe thodist preacher. This conviction was so
s trong in W irksworth, that a number of friendsplaced a memoria l tablet in the Methodistchape l at W irksworth w ith the fol low ing In
scription :
ERECTED BY GRATEFUL FRIENDS ,
In gam ut-
g of
MRS . ELIZABETH EVANS ,
(KNOWN To THE WORLD AS“DINAH BEDE
”
)
WHO DURING MANY YEARS PROCLAIMED AL IKE IN THE
OPEN AIR , THE SANCTUARY,AND FROM HOUSE
TO HOUSE,
THE LOVE OF CHRIST :
SHE DIED IN THE LORD , MAY 9TH , 1849 AGED 74 YEARS.
In order to g ive a correct notion of the
amount of tru th in her nove l, George Eliot
ADAM BEDE . 147
w rote in the follow ing terms to her friendM is s Hennell on the 7 th of October, 1859 :
“ I should like , while the subj ect i s vividlypresent w ith me , to te ll you more exactly thanI have ever yet done , wha t I knew of my aunt,
E lizabeth Evans . My father, you know ,l ived
in W arw ickshire all my l ife w ith h im,having
fina l ly left S taffordshire first , and then Derbyshire, six or seven years before he marriedmy mother. There was hardly any intercou rse between my father
’s fam i ly, residentin Derbyshire and S taffordshire, and our
fami ly— few and far between visits of (tomy chi ldish fee ling) strange uncles and auntsand cou s in s from my father
’s far-off nativecounty, and once a journey of my own, as a
l i tt le child, w ith my father and mother, to see
my uncle W il l iam '
(a rich bu i lder) in S taffordsh i re — but not my uncle and aunt Samue l,so far as I can reca ll the dim outl ine of
things — are what I remember of northerlyrela tives in my chi ldhood .
But when I was seventeen or moreafter my si ster was married, and I was
m i stress of the hou se — my father took a
j ou rney into Derbyshire , in which, Vis itingmy uncle and aunt Samue l, who were verypoor, and l ived in a humble cottage at W irks
worth , he found my aunt ih a very delicate
143GE ORGE EL IOT.
state of heal th after a serious il lness , and , to
do her bodily good, h e persuaded her to re
turn with him , te l ling her that I shou ld bevery, very happy to have her with me for a
few weeks . I was then s trong ly under theinfluence of evange lical be l ief, and earnestlyendeavoring to shape this anomalous Eng l i shChristian l ife of ou rs into some consistencywith the Spirit and s imple ve rba l tenor of theNew Testament . I wa s de lighted to see myaunt . A lthough I had on ly heard her spokenof as a strange person, g iven to a fanaticalvehemence of exhortation in private as we l las public, I be lieved that I shou ld find sym
pathy between us . She was then an old
woman — above s ixtym and, I believe, had
for a good many years g iven up preaching .
A tiny little woman , w ith bright, small darkeyes, and hair that had been black, I imagine,but was now gray — a pretty woman in heryouth, but of a tota l ly different physica l typefrom Dinah . The difference — as you w il lbe lieve —was not s imply physical no difference i s . She was a w oman of strong natura lexcitability, which I know, from the description I have heard my father and half—s ister
g ive , prevented her from the exe rci se of discretion under th e prompt ing s of her zeal .But this vehemence was now subdued by age
1 50 GE ORGE E LIOT.
had taken to sma l l tippling , though othe rw isenot cu lpable .
‘ But I hope the good man’
s
in heaven for all that,’ sa id my uncle . Oh
yes ,’
sa id my aunt,w ith a deep inward groan
of joyfu l convict ion,
‘
Mr. A .
’
s in heaven,that
’
s
sure.
’
This w as at the t ime an offence to
my s tern , ascetic, hard views how beau t ifu lit is to me now !
A s to my aunt’s conversat ion , it is a fact
that the on ly two thing s of any in tere st Iremembe r in our lone ly s ittings and walksare her te l l ing me one s unny afternoon howshe had , w ith another pious woman , Vis itedan unhappy g irl in pris on , stayed w ith her all
n ight, and gone w ith her to execu tion ; andone or two accoun ts of supposed m i rac les inwhich she be l ieved , among the rest, tlze facew ith tke crown of tkorns s een in tfie g la s s .
In her accoun t of the pr ison scenes I remem
ber no word she uttered ; I on ly rememberher tone and manner, and the deep fee l ing I
had under the recital . Of the g irl sh e knewnothing ,
I be lieve, or told me nothing , butthat she was a common , coarse g irl , convictedof chi ld-murder. The inciden t lay in mymind for years on years, as a dead germ ,
apparently, ti l l time had made my mind a
n idus in which it cou ld fructify ; it thenturned out to be the germ of Adam Bede.
’
ADAM BEDE .
I saw my aunt twice after this . Once I
spent a day and n ight w i th my father in theW i rksworth cottage, sleeping w ith my aun t ,
I remember . O ur interview was less intere s ting than in the former t ime ; I think I
was le s s simply devoted to re lig ious ideas .And once aga in she came with my unc le tosee me, when father and I were living at
Foleshill ; time there was some pain , for I
had g iven up the form of Christ ian bel ief, andw as in a crude state of free - thinking . She
stayed abou t three or fou r days , I think .
This i s all I remember distinct ly, as matter Icou ld wri te down , of my dear aunt, whomI rea l ly loved . You see how she s uggested‘ D inah but it i s not poss ible you shou lds ee, as I do, how entire ly her individua l ity differed from D inah ’s .’ How curiou s it seemsto me that people shou l d th ink ‘ D i
sermon ,prayers, and speeche s wer
when they were written w ithsurged up In . my own m ind !
“ A s To to facts of localand persona l h i s tory of a smal l kind con
nected w ith Staffordshire and Derbyshire ,
you may imag ine of what kind that i s, whenI te l l you that I n ever rema ined in e ither ofthose coun ties more than a few days together,and of on ly two such visits have Imore than
1 52 GE ORGE E LIOT.
a shadowy, in terrupted recol lection. Th e de
ta i ls which I know as facts, and have made
u se of for my pictu re , were gathe red froms uch imperfect a l lus ion and na rrat ive as I
heard from my father in h is occas iona l ta lkabout old t imes .
A s to my aunt’s Children or grandchi ldren
saying , i f they did say, that D inah’ i s a good
portra it of my aunt, tha t is simply the vague,eas ily satisfied notion imperfectly in structedpeople a lways have of portra its . It is not
surpris ing that simple men and women. w ithou t pretens ion to en lightened d iscrim ination ,
shou ld th ink a generic resemblance con s titutes a portrait, when we see the g reat public,s o accus tomed to be de lighted w ith m is -repres entations of life and character, which theyaccept as representat ions , that they are s can
daliz ed when art makes a nearer approach totruth .
Perhaps I am doing a superfluou s thingin w riting all this to you , but I am promptedto do it by the fee l ing that in futu re years‘ Adam Bede,
’
and all that concerns it, may
have become a dim portion of the pas t, andthat I may not be able to reca l l so much of
the truth as I have now told you .
Nothing cou ld prove more conclus ive ly how
powerfu l was the impression which ‘ A dam
1 54 GEORGE ELIOT.
of seeing each other every day for severa lhours at this time . They u sua l ly met at the
hou se of one of the married daughters of
Mrs . El izabe th Evans, holding long conversations whi le sitting by themse lves in the parlor.These secret conversations,
” says the w riterof the artic le, “
exci ted some curiosity in thefami ly, and one day one of the daughters said,Mother, I can
’
t think what thee and MaryAnn have got to ta lk about so much ’
To
which Mrs . Evans replied : W e ll , my dear, Idon ’
t know what she wants, bu t she gets me
to tel l her all about my life and my re l ig iousexperience , and she puts it all down in a l ittlebook I can
’
t make out what she w ants itfor . A fter her departure , Mrs . Evans is reported to have sa id to her daughter, Oh dear,Mary Ann has got one thing I did not meanher to take away, and that i s the notes of thefirs t sermon I preached at Ellas ton Green .
”
A ccording to the same authority, MarianEvans took notes of everything people sa idin her hearing : no matter who w as speaking, down it went in to the note-book, whichseemed never ou t of her hand ; and thesenotes she is sa id to have transcribed everyn igh t before going to bed. Yet this habitwas fore ign to her whole character, and the
friends who knew her most in timate ly in
ADAM EEDE . 1 55
youth and later l ife never remember see ingher resort to such a practice . Be that as it
may, there can be no doubt that the nove li stvery freely u sed many of the ci rcumstancesconnected w ith her aunt
’s remarkable career.
How close ly she adhered to natu re i s shownby the fact that in Mrs . Poyser and BartleMassey she retained the actua l names of the
characters portrayed, as they happened to beboth dead . Bartle Massey, the Vi llage cyn ic,h ad been the schoolmaste r of her father,Robert Evans. How accurately the latter,together w ith all his su rroundings, was described is shown by the fol low ing anecdote.
On its first appearance ‘ Adam Bede ’
was
read a loud to an old man , an in timate assoC iate of Robert Evan s in hi s S taffordshiredays . This man knew nothing concerninge ither author or subj ect beforehand, and hisa ston i shment was boundless on recogn izingso many friends and incidents of his own
youth portrayed w ith unerring fidelity. H e
sat up ha lf the n ight l isten ing to the s tory inbreathless excitement, now and then slappinghis knee as he excla imed, “ That’s Robert,that ’s Robert to the life .
”
A lthough W i rksworth i s not the localitydescribed in ‘ Adam Bede,
’
it contains features recall ing that quaint little market-town,
156 GE ORGE ELIOT.
where over the door of one of the old-fashioned hou ses may be read the name madei l lus trious by the in im itable Mrs . Poyser . In
the ne ighborhood , too, are Arkwrigh t’
s m i l lsthere a t Cromford, casua lly a l luded to byA dam Bede ; and should the tourist happento enter one of the cottages of g ray stone,w ith blue -washed door and w indow -frames, hemay sti l l a l ight on specimen s of Methodism,
as devout as Seth Bede , e loquently expounding the lates t pol itica l event by s ome prophecyof Dan iel or Ezekie l . In short
,one breathes
the atmosphere in which such characters as
D inah and Seth actua l ly lived a nd had the i rbe ing . This uncompromis ing Rea l ism , so far
from detracting , on ly enhances the gen iu sof th is powerfu l nove l . A thousand writersm ight have got hold of these iden tica l mate
ria ls : a George El iot a lone cou ld have castthe s e materia ls into th e mou ld of ‘ AdamBede .
’
L e t any one g lance at the accoun t of
the ir re l ig ious experiences, as g iven by E l izabeth or Samue l Evans
,and he w i l l real ize all
the more strong ly how great was the gen iu sof her who transfused these rambling , com
monplace effusions into such an artistic whole .
I have en tered s o m inute ly into thi s ques tionof the l ikeness between the actual charactersand those in the nove l pu re ly on account of
1 58GE ORGE ELIOT.
t ive nature, fee l ing much but doing l ittle ;whereas th e Eng lish preacher does not in
qu ire too curiou sly into the mysteries of her
fa ith, but moved by the Spirit of its teachinggoes about act ive ly, participat ing in the l ive sof others by her rou s ing words and her acts ofcharity. On ly a woman wou ld or cou ld havedescribed j us t such a woman as this a w oman
whose heart i s centred in an impersona l idea lins tead of in any individua l obj ect of love ;whereas a man
’
s heroine a lways has her exis tence rooted in some persona l affect ion or
pas s ion ,whether for parent or lover, child or
husband. This makes Dinah les s roman ti
ca l ly in terest ing than Hetty Sorre l , the beautifu l, kitten l ike, se lf-involved creature w ithwhom she is so happily con tras ted . George
E l iot never drew a more l iving figure thanthis of H etty, hiding such a hard l ittle heartunder that soft dimpling beau ty of he rs .
Again,I think that on ly a woman wou ld
have depicted j ust such a Het ty as this .
The persona l charms of this young g irl aredrawn in words that have the g low of l ifeitg lf ; ye t while in tensely consciou s of her
beau ty, we are kept aware all the time that,
to use one of th e famous Mrs . Poyser’
s epi
g rammat ic saying s , H etty is “no better nor a
cherry w i’ a hard s tone inside it.”George
ADAM BEDE . 1 59
E l iot i s never dazzled or led away by her ownbewitching creat ion as a man wou ld havebeen . There is a certain pit i les sness in h eranalys i s of Hetty
’
s sha l low ,frivolous little
sou l, a lmos t a s if she were saying See here,
w hat stuff this beau ty which you adore i smade of in real ity ! To quote her own subtle,far-reaching interpretation of beauty : Het
ty’
s face had a language that transcendedher fee l ings . There are faces which naturecharges w ith a mean ing and pathos not be
long ing to the S imple human sou l that fluttersbeneath them, bu t speaking the joys and sor
rows of foregone generat ions ; eyes that te l lof deep love which doubtless has been and issomewhere, but not paired w ith these eyes,perhaps paired with pa le eye s that can say
nothing,j ust as a nationa l language may be
instinct with poetry unfelt by the l ips thatu se it .
The sensation created by Adam Bede’
was
shown in other ways besides the cla im of
some to have discovered the orig ina l cha ractersof this striking nove l . The curiosity of the
public was natura l ly much exerci sed as to
who the unknown au thor could poss ibly be,who had so suddenly leaped into fame . And
now there comes on the scene an individualwho does not claim to be the living mode l of
160 GE ORGE EL IOT.
one of the characters portrayed,but to be
the au thor of the book himse lf . And the
name of this person was L igg insW hi le the ‘ Scenes of Clerica l L ife ’
were
yet appearing in B lackwood’
s Mag az ine th e
inhabitants of Nuneaton and its ne ighborhood were considerably perplexed and excitedto find we l l-known places and persons touchedoff to the l ife . In Amos Barton they recogn iz ed the incumben t of Coton Chu rch , in Mr.
Pilgrim a med ica l man fam i l iar to every chi ldin the town , and indeed in eve ry one of the
Characters an equa lly unm is takable portra it.Clearly no one but a fe llow—townsman couldhave h it off the se wonderfu l likenesses . L iterary ta lent not be ing too abundan t, the ir choiceof an author was l imi ted . The on ly man
who by any stretch of imag ination seemed tohave the making of a man of lette rs in h im
was this above-men tioned L igg ins . To havestudied at Cambridge , ga l lant ly run througha fortune , and be in very needy Circums tances , were exactly the qua l ifications to beexpected in a man of gen iu s . Further evi
dence seeming unnecessary, the real authorsh ip of the Scenes
’
was now revealed in an
Isle of Man paper . At firs t the reputedauthor gen tly den ied the impeachment, bu ton the appearance of ‘ Adam Bede '
he suc
162 GE ORGE EL IOT.
is mention ed, g ravely shakes his head ,im
plying that there is more in the name thanmee ts the eye of the s uperficia l observe r . Bu t
a heavy retribution befe l l the -poor pseudoauthor at last, for w hen h is fa lse pretencesto favor were fu lly man ife st h e fe ll into utterneglect and poverty, ending his days in the
workhouse .
This fool ish m is representation hastened thed isclosu re of George Eliot
’s rea l persona l ityand name, which occu rred on the publicationof The M i l l on the Floss . ’
George E l iots ays that on December 10, 1857 , Ma jor B lackwood ca l led on them
,when it was ev ident
to u s , when he had been in the room a few
m inu tes, that he knew I was George E l iot.
”
It was on February 28, 1 858, on the day
when Mr . John B lackwood rece ived the fi rs tinsta lment of Adam Bede that he was introduced to George E l iot, who thu s de scribesth e introduct ion :
“H e ta lked a good dea l
about th e‘ C ler ica l Scenes ’
and GeorgeE l iot, and at last asked, W e l l , am I to see
George E l iot th i s t ime ? G . sa i d,Do you
W i sh to see h im ? A S he l ike s,I W i sh it
to be qu ite Spontaneous . ’
I left the room,
and G . fo l low ing me a moment I to l d h imhe m ight revea l me.
”
CHAPTER IX.
THE MILL ON THE FLOSS .
WHILE the public had been trying to discoverwho the mysterious George E liot cou l d poss ibly be, one person there was who immedi
ate ly penetrated the disgu ise , and fe lt positiveas to the identity of the author. On readingthe Scenes ’
and e specia l ly A dam Bede,’
he
was convinced that no one but a member ofhis own fam i ly cou ld have written these sto
ries . H e recogn ized incidents, touches, a
saying here or there, ju st the things tha t noone ou tside his own home could by any
Chance have come upon . But George Eliot’s
brother kept this discovery c losely lockedw ithin hi s own breast. H e trembled lestany one e l se shou ld d i scover the secret,fearing the outcry of ne ighbors who m ightnot a lways fee l that the author had repre
sen ted them in colors s ufficiently flattering.
W hen ‘
The M i l l on th e F loss ’
appeared,
how ever, the ve i l was l ifted , and people heardthat George E liot had once been a Miss
164 GE ORGE ELIOT.
Marian Evans, who came from the neighborhood of Nuneaton in W arw ickshire. To her
brother Isaac alone this was no news , as hehad detected his s ister in the first of the
Scenes.’ The child- l i fe of Tom and Mag
g ie Tulliver was in many respects an auto
biography ; and no biographer can ever hopeto describe the early hi story of George E l iotas she herse lf has done in ‘
The M i l l on theFloss .’ How many joys and griefs of thosehappy care less days mus t have been reca l ledto her brother— those days when l ittle MaryAnn had sat poring over Dan ie l Defoe’s H is
tory of the Devil — or sought refuge in the
attic at Griff House , after a quarre l with h im“ This attic was Magg ie
’s favorite retreat on a
wet day, when the weather was not too coldhere she fretted out all her i l l-humors, andtalked aloud to the worm-eaten floors and theworm-eaten shelve s, and the dark rafters festooned with cobwebs ; and here she kept a
Fetish which she pun i shed for all her mis
fortunes . This was the trunk of a larg ewooden doll, which once stared w ith the
roundest of eyes above the reddest of cheeks,but was now enti re ly defaced by a long careerof Vicarious suffering . Three nai ls driveninto the head commemorated as many crisesin Magg ie
’s nine years of earthly strugg le,
166 GEORGE ELIOT.
w ith its terrific wave and flood ing the land
for m i les round, i s known as the Eagre, a
name not a little descriptive of the thingitse lf.The Mill on the Eloss .
’
(a title adopted bythe author ai the Sugge stion of. Mr. Blackwood in preference/to S ister Maggie
’
) is; themost poetjéal of George E liot
’s nove la i The
great Floss, hurrying between green pastu resto the sea,
“
g ives a un ity of its own to t hisstory
,which open s to the roar of waters, the
we ltering waters which accompany it at the
Close . It forms the e lemen ta l backg roundwhich i‘ ounds the l ittle lives of the i l l- sta rredfam ily group nurtu red on its banks . The
chi ldhood of Tom and Magg ie Tulliver i sinextricably blended w ith this sw ift river, thetraditions of which have been to them as
fa i ry ta les its haunt ing presence is more or
less w ith them throughout the ir chequeredexistence and when pride and pass iop,
w henshame and sorrow
,have divided the brother
and s ister, pursued as by some trag ic fate, theFlos s seems to rise in sympathy, and sub
merges them in its mighty waters to un itethem once more “ in an embrace never to beparted .
"
It cannot fa i l to strike the readerthat in a lmost every one of George E liot
’snove ls there occurs a death by drown ing as in
THE MILL ON THE FL OS S . 167
the instance of Thias Bede, of Dunstan Cass,of Hen le igh Grandcourt, and nearly in that ofTito. This may be accounted for by the factthat as a child the novel ist became acqua intedwith the sudden death of a near relative whohad accidental ly fal len into a stream : an in
cident which sunk deeply into her retentivemind .
Fate plays a very conspicuous part in thisas in most of George Eliot
’s novels. But it
i s not the Fate of the Greeks,it i s not a
power that affects human exis tence fromwithout : it rather lies at the root of it, moreor less Shaping that existence according to
obscu re inherited tendencies, and in the col
lis ion between Character and circums tance,between passion and law ,
potent only in
proportion as the individua l final ly is suesconquered or a conqueror from the strugg leof l ife . This action of character on ci rcumstance and of circumstance o
’
n character isan ever- recurring motif wi th George E l iot.W e constantly see adverse
'
circumstancesmodifying and mou lding the l ives of the
actors in her stories . She has hardly, ifever, therefore, drawn a hero or heroine, forthese, instead ofy ielding , make Circumstances
yie ld to them. Dorothea and Lydgate, inabandoning their striving after the highest
15 8 GEORGE ELIOT.
kind of l ife ; Tito in invariably yie lding to
the mos t pleasurable prompting of the mo
ment Gwendolen in be ing main ly influencedby circumstances act ing on her, w ithout h erreacting on them, are all type s of this kind .
Magg ie belongs, on the whole, to the same
type . She, too, i s what Goethe ca l ls a problematic nature, a nature which, a long w ithvast possibilities and lofty a spirat ions , lacksa certain fixity of pu rpose, and drifting helpless ly from one extreme to another, is shattered a lmost as s oon as it has put out of port .
In Magg ie’s case this eiril springs from the
very fu lness of h er nature ; from the acute
nes s of an imag ination which the many-sidedn ess of l ife attracts
_ _
by turns in the mostoppos ite directions
,Tom, on the other hand,
w ith hi s narrow pract ica l understanding , en
tirely concen trated on the bus in ess in hand,swerves ne ither to right nor left, because hemay be said to resemble a horse w ith blinkers ,in that he sees on ly the road straigh t ahead .
Magg ie, w ith all her palpable weaknesses and
startl ing incon sistencies , i s the most adorableof George E l iot
’s women . In all poetry andfiction there is no child more delicious thanthe “ little wench with her loving heart anddreamy ways, her rash impu lses and w i ldregrets, her fine susceptibilit ies and fiery j ets
GE ORGE ELIOT.
her, and though She doubts whether theremay not even be a s in fu lnes s in the indul
gence of this enjoyment, yet the summerflowers and the summer sun shine put her
scruples to fl ight. A nd then ,when , through
the intervent ion of Philip W akem,the en
chantments of romance and poetry are broughtw ithin her reach, the g lory of the world aga inlays hold of her imag ination, and a fresh con
flict i s begun in her sou l . Thus she driftsfrom one state into another most opposed toit
,and to an ou ts ide observer, such as Tom,
her abrupt transitions are a s ign that she i sutterly wanting in mora l s tamina .
Not on ly Tom, but many em inent critics,who have descan ted with fond partia lity on
Magg ie's early l ife, seem to be shocked by
that part of her story in which she allowsherse lf to fa ll passionate ly in love with s uchan ordinar s ecimen of manhood as Stephen(M en accusedof violating the truth of Nature, inasmuch as
such a high-minded woman as Magg ie cou ldnever have incl ined to so vulgar, so common
place a man as her lover. O thers, while not
question ing the truth of the character, findfau lt w ith the poor heroine herse lf, whom theypronounce an ineffective natu re revealing itsinnate un soundness by the crowning error of
THE MILL ON THE FL OS S . 17 1
an abject passion for so poor a creature as
the dandy of St. Oggs . This content ion on lyprove s the S lngular Vi tal ity of the characteritse lf, and nothing i s more psycholog ica l lytrue in George E l iot ’s studies of characterthan this love of the high-sou led heroine fora man who has no corresponding fineness offibre in his nature, his attraction lying en
tirely in the magnetism of mutua l passion .
This V‘itality places Magg ie Tulliver by the
s ide of the Ju l iets, the Mignons, the Con
sue los, the Becky Sharps , and other a iry inheritors of immorta l ity . It i s curious thatMr . Swinburne, in view of such a characteras this, or, indeed, bearing in mind a S i lasMarner, a Dol ly W in throp, a Tito, and othe rintrin s ica l ly l iving reproduct ions of humannature, shou l d describe George E l iot
’ s as in
tellectually con structed characters in contrastto Charlotte Bronte’ s creation s, the former,according to him , be ing the resu lt of inte l lect,the latter of geniu s . If ever character came
s imply dropped out of the mou ld of Nature iti s that of Maggie . H is assumption,
that ‘ The
M i l l on the Floss ’
can in any sen se havebeen suggested by, or partia lly based upon,
Mrs . Gaskell’
s story of ‘ The Moorland Cottage,
’ seems equa l ly base less . There i s cer
fain ly the identity of name in the heroines,
172 GEORGE E LIOT.
and some resemblance of situation as regardsportions of the story, but both the name and
the s ituation are sufficient ly common not to
excite a stoni shment at such a coincidence .
H ad George E l iot real ly known of this talea tale feebly execu ted at the best she wou ldobviously have a ltered the name so as not to
make her obligation too patent to the world .
A s it is, she was not a litt le aston ished and
even indignant, on accidental ly see ing thisopin ion stated in some review, and pos itively denied ever having seen the s tory inquestion .
Indeed, when one know s how this story
grew out of her own experience,how its
earl ier portions especia lly are a record of herown and her brother
’s childhood how evenMrs . Glegg and Mrs . Pu llet w ere on ly too
fa ithfu l ly done from the aunts of rea l l ife , oneneed not go far afie ld to seek for its orig in .
Every author usually writes one book, whichhe might more or les s j ust ly en title ‘ My Con
fess ions ,’ in to which he pours an intimate part
of his life under a thin disgu i se of fiction , a
book invariably exciting a un ique kind of in
teres t in the reader be be con sciou s or not of
the presence of this autobiographica l element .
Fie lding’
s‘ Ame lia
,
’
Thackeray ’s Pendennis ,
’
Dickens ’s ‘ David Copperfie ld,’ Charlotte
174 GEORGE E LIOT.
been had there not been counterbalancingtendencies of unusual force, sufficient to holdin check all erratic impu lses contrary to the
ma in direction of her l ife .
W hi le tempted to dwe l l largely on Magg ieTulliver, the centra l figure of ‘ The M il l onthe Flos s,
’
it wou ld be very unfair to slur overthe other admirably drawn characters of thisnovel . Her brother Tom,
a l ready repeatedlya l luded to, i s in every sense the coun terpartof S ister Magg ie . Hard and narrow -mindedhe was from a boy, particularly clear and
pos itive on one poin t, namely, that he wou ldpuni sh everybody who deserved it : why, hewou ldn ’
t have m inded be ing pun i shed h imse lf, if he deserved it ; but, then, he never d id
serve it.” This strikes the key-note of a
aracter whose stern inflexibil ity, combinedw ith much practical insight and dogged
“
per
sis tence of effort, i s at the same time dignifiedby
Tom Tulliver’
s re l ig ion . H e i s not in
fi l
’
fi a or mean , or
.
sordid he i s only so
circumscribed in his perceptive facu lties,that
he has no standard by which to mea su rethoughts or feelings tha t transcend his ownvery l imited conception of l ife .
Both by his"
good and his bad qual ities, by
THE MILL ON THE FLos s . 17 5
his excellencies and his negations, Torn Tull iver proves himse lf what he i s — a genu inesprig of the Dodson fami ly, a chip of the old
block ! And the Dodson sisters are, in theirway, among the most amazing ly living por
traitures that George E l iot ever achieved .
Rea l ism in art can go no further in this d irection . These women , if present in the flesh,wou l d not be so dist inctive ly vivid as whenbehe l d through the transfixing med ium of
George E liot’s gen iu s . For here we have the
personages, w ith all thei r qua intnes ses, the ireccentricities, the ir odd, old-fashioned tw i stsand ways — on ly observed by fragments inactua l l ife — successfu l ly brought to a focusfor ‘ the de light and amusement of generation s of readers . There i s nothing grotesque,nothing exaggerated, in these humorous figu re s . The com ic effect i s not produced , as
i s often the case w ith the invention s of D ickens , by some set pecu l iarity of manner or
trick of speech, more in the spirit of caricarure . On the contrary, it i s by a strictadherence to the just mean of nature, by a
con scien tiou s care not to overstep her probabilities , that we owe these matchless types ofEng l i sh provincia l life. And the genu inehumor of these types verges on the pathetic,in that the infinitely l ittle of the ir lives is so
1 75 GE ORGE E LIOT.
magn ified by them out of all proportion to itsrea l importance . Mrs . Glegg , w ith her dictatorial ways , her smal l econom ies , her anxietyto make a handsome figure in her w i l l
, and
her invariable reference to what was “the
way in our fami ly,”
as a criterion of rightbehavior on all occas ions : Mrs . Pu l let, thewife of the we l l-to-do yeoman-farmer, bent onproving her gentil ity and wea lth by the de l icacy of her hea lth, and the quant ity of doctor
’sstuff she can afford to imbibe : Mrs . Tulliver,
the good, muddle-headed woman,w hose hus
band “ picked her from her s iste rs 0’ purpose,’
cause she was a bit weak, l ike , and for who
the c limax of mi sery in bankruptcy is theof her china and table- linen th ese, as we l l asthe hen-pecked Mr. Glegg, and the old
-maidishMr . Pu l let, are worthy pendants to Mrs . Poyserand Dolly W inthrop .
W hether too great a predominance may
not be g iven to the narrow ,trivia l View s of
these people, w ith the ir prosa ic respectabi lity,i s a n ice question ,
which one i s incl ined to an
swer in the negative on reading such a conju
gal scene as that between Mr. and Mrs . Glegg ,
after the la tter’s quarre l w ith Mr. Tulliver
It was a hard case that a vigorous moodfor quarre l l ing , so highly capable of u sing any
Opportun ity, should not meet with a s ing le
178GE ORGE ELIOT.
Now what ca ll have you to say that ? ’
said Mr. Glegg rather wa rm ly, for, though a
kind man , he was not as meek as Moses .
When did I rej oice or triumph over youThere ’s ways 0’ doing things worse than
speaking out pla in, Mr. Glegg . I’
d sooneryou ’d te l l me to my face as you make l ight ofme, than try to make as everybody’s in th e
right bu t me, and come to your breakfast inthe morn ing , as I
’
ve hardly s lept an hou r thisn ight, and sulk at me as if I was the dirt un
de r your feet.
’
Su lk at you said Mr. Glegg , in a tone
of ang ry facetiousnes s . You’re l ike a tipsy
man as thinks everybody’
s had too much bu thimse lf.’
“ ‘ Don’
t lower yours e lf w ith u sing coarselanguage to me, Mr . Glegg ! It makes youlook very sma l l, though you can
’
t see you rse lf,
’ sa id Mrs . Glegg , in a tone of energet iccompassion .
‘ A man in you r place shou ldset an example
,and talk more sensib le .
’
A fter a good deal of sparring in the same
tone , Mr . Glegg at las t burs ts forth : Did
ever anybody hear the l ike i ’ this pari sh A
woman w ith everything provided for her, anda l low ed to keep her own money the same as
if it was settled on her, and w ith a gig new
stuffed and l ined at no end 0’
expen se, and
THE MILL ON TH E FL 05 5 . 179
provided for when I die beyond anything she
cou l d expect to go on i ’ this way, bitingand snapping l ike a mad dog ! It
’
s beyondeverything , as God A
’
migh ty shou ld ha’
madewomen so.
’
(The se last words were u tte redin a tone of sorrowfu l ag itat ion . Mr . Glegg
pushed h is tea from h im , and tapped the tablew ith both his hands .)
W e l l,Mr. Glegg ! i f those are your fee l
ings, it’
s best they Shou ld be known,
’ said Mrs .
Glegg, taking off her napkin, and fold ing it
in an excited manner. But if you talk 0’
mybe ing provided for beyond what Icou ld expect,I beg leave to tell you as I
’
d a right to expecta many things as I don
’
t find . And as to mybe ing l ike a mad dog , it
’
s we l l if you ’ re not
cried shame on by the country for you r treatment of me, for it
’
s what I can’
t bear, and Iwon
’
t bea r . ’“ Here Mrs . Glegg
’
s voice intimated thatShe was going to cry, and ,
breaking off fromspeech, sh e rang the be l l violently.
Sal ly,’
She said , ris ing from her chair,and speaking in rather a choked voice,
‘ lighta fire up
—stai rs,and pu t the blinds down .
Mr . Glegg, you’ ll please order wha t you like
for dinner. I shall have g ruel .’
Equa l ly wel l drawn in the i r way,though
be longing to a different class of character, are
180 GE ORGE E LIOT
Maggie’
s cou s in , the love ly, gent le, and re~
fined L ucy ; Philip W akem,whose phys ica l
ma lformation is compen sated by exceptiona lcu l ture and nobility of nature ; Mr . Tu lliver,
the headstrong ,violent, but witha l gene rou s ,
father of Magg ie, and his s ister Mrs . Moss,whose motherl ines s and care les sness of ap
pearances form a s triking foi l to the Dodsons isters . Indeed,
‘
The M il l on the Floss ’ i ss o rich in minor characters that it i s impos s ible to do more than men t ion such capita lsketches as that of Bob Jakin and his dog
Mumps, or of L uke, the head m i ller, who
has no Opin ion of reading , cons idering tha tThere ’s fool s enoo - an
’ rogues enoo — wi
out lookin ’ i ’ books for ’
em .
The distinguishing feature of this nove l ,however, l ie s not so much in its wea lth of
portraitu re or freshness of humor as in a cer
tain pas s ionate g low of you th , which emanatesfrom the heroine, and seems to warm the storythrough and through . For passion , pathos,and poetic beauty of description ,
‘ The M i l l onthe Floss ’ i s certain ly unique among GeorgeEl iot’s works .
182 GE ORGE ELIOT.
George Eliot’s life . In three successive years
she published ‘ Adam Bede,’ ‘
The M i ll on
the Flos s ,’
and ‘ S i las Marner,’
the last s toryappearing in 186 1 . W hen the amount of
thought, observation, and wisdom concen
trated in these nove ls i s taken into cons ideration , it must be admitted that her men ta lenergy was tru ly as ton ish ing . Bu t it was
the accumu lated experience of her whole past,th e firs t abundant math borne by the springt ide of l ife which was garnered up in thesethree remarkable works . A fterwards , whenshe came to write her next book ,
’
Romola ,
’
she turned to ent ire ly fresh‘ fields of in spiration ; indeed, a lready at this date her m indw as occupied w ith the idea of an Ita l iannove l of the t ime of Savonarola .
In the meanwhile she produced her mostfin ished work . Sh e w rote S i las Marner, theW eaver of Raveloe .
’
I ca l l ‘ S i las Marner ’
her mos t fin ished work, not on ly becau se of
the symmetry w ith which each pa rt i s ad
ju sted in re lation to the whole , nor becau seof the absence of those partly satirica l , partlymora l reflection s w ith which George E l iotu sua l ly accompan ies the action of her s tories ,bu t chiefly on account of the s imple pathosof the centra l motive into which all the differen t incidents and characters naturally con
SILAS MARIVER . 183
verge . How homely are the e lements fromwhich this work of art i s constructed, and
how matchless the resu lt !Nothing bu t the story of a humble weaver
belong ing to a smal l d i s sen ting commun itywhich assembled in L antern Yard , somew here in the back streets of a manufacturingtown ; of a faithless love and a fa lse friend,and the loss of trust in all th ihgs human or
divine. Nothing but the s tory of a lone,bew i ldered man , shu t out from his kind
,con
cen trating every balked pass ion into one
the all- engrossing pa s sion for gold . And
then the sudden di sappearance of the hoardfrom its accu stomed hiding-place, and in its
stead the startl ing apparit ion of a goldenha ired little chi ld, found one snowy w inter’sn ight sleeping on the floor in front of the
g l immering hea rth . And the g radua l re
awaken ing of love in the heart of the sol itary man , a love “ draw ing his hope and joycont inual ly onward beyond the money, and
once more bring ing him in to sympathetic re
lations with his fe l low -men .
In old days, says the s tory, “there were
ange l s who came and took men by the handand led them away from the city of destruction . W e s ee no white-w inged ange ls now .
But yet men are led away from threatening
184 GE ORGE E LIOT.
des truction a hand is put into the irs , whichleads them forth gently towards a calm and
bright land, so that they look no more backward, and the hand may be a l ittle child’s .
”
Curiou sly enough, I came qu ite recen tlyupon a s tory w hich in its leading featuresvery closely resembles this ta le of the W eaverof Rave loe .
’
It i s cal led ‘
Jermola the Potter,’
and i s considered the masterpiece of J . I.
Kraszewski, th e Pol ish nove li st, author of at
least one hundred and fifty works in differentbranches of l iterature .
‘
Jermola,’
the mostpopu lar of them all
,has been tran s lated into
French , Dutch, and German . It g ives an
extraordinarily vivid picture of peasan t l ifein a remote Pol i sh vi llage, and n ot on ly of
peasant l ife, but of the manners and habitsof the landed proprietor, the Jew, the art isan , and the yeoman
,in a commun ity whose
modes of l ife have undergone but litt le modification since the M iddle Ages . These pic
tu res, though not e laborated w ith anythingl ike the minute care of George E l iot’s descriptions of Eng l i sh country l ife, yet fromthe ir extreme simplicity produce a most powerful impres s ion on the reader.The story, in brief, i s that of Jermola , the
body servant of a Pol i sh nobleman in Vol
hynia, whom he has served with rare devotion
135 GE ORGE E LIOT.
for the child’s sake, he incl ines at first to the
craft of the weaver, but final ly turn s potterin his old age. L ove sharpen ing h is w its, heplies qu ite a thriving trade in time, and the
beaut ifu l boy brings him into more friendlyre lations with h is ne ighbors . But one day,
when Radionek, who has learned Jermola’
s
trade , i s abou t twe lve years old , the rea lparents appear and claim him as the i r own .
They had never dared to acknow ledge the irmarriage ti ll the father, who had threatenedto disinherit his son in such an event, had departed this life . Now, having nothing moreto fear, they want to have the ir chi ld back,and to bring h im up as befits the ir stat ion in
life . Jermola suffers a deadly angu ish at thisseparation the boy, too, i s in despair, for heCl ings fondly to the old man who has rearedh im w ith more than a father’s love . But the
parents in sis ting on the ir legal rights , Radionek is at last carried off to the ir house intown, to be turned into a gen tleman,
be ingon ly grudg ing ly a l lowed to see Jermola fromt ime to t ime . The boy pines, however, forth e dear famil iar presence of his foster-father,and the free outdoor life, and at last, aftersome years of m isery, he appears one day
sudden ly in Jermola’
s hut, who has g iven up
his pottery in order to be secretly near the
SILAS MARNER . 187
child he i s afraid to go and see . The piteou sentreaties of Rad ionek, and the sight of hi snow s ickly countenance , induce the old man
to flee into the pathless forests, where the twomay escape un seen , and reach some distantpart of the coun try to take up the i r old pleasant l ife once more . But the hardships andfatigues of the journey are too much for theboy’s enfeebled health, and j u s t as they come
within s ight of human dwe l l ings, he is seizedwith a fever which cuts his young life short,leaving Jermola nearly crazy w ith angu i sh .
L ong afterwards a little decrepit old man
was to be seen by churchgoers sitting near a
g rave, whom the children mocked by cal lingthe “ bony little man, becau se he seemed to
consist of nothing but bones.Such is the bare outl ine of a story whose
ma in idea, that of the redemption of a human
sou l from cold , petrifying i solat ion ,by means
of a l ittle child, i s unquestionably the same as
in S i las Marner. ’ O ther incidents , such as
that of the peasant woman who in itiates Jermola into the mysteries of baby management,
and the disclosure of the real parents after alapse of years , wan ting to have the ir chi ldback , suggest paral le l passages in the Eng l i shbook . But coincidence s of this kind are ,
after all, natural enough, considering that the
GEORGE E LIOT.
circle of human fee l ing and act ion i s l imited ,and that in all ages and countries like conditions must g ive rise to much th e same se
quence of events . It is therefore most like lythat George E l iot neve r saw
,and poss ibly
never even heard of, Jermola the Potter.’
The monotonous tone in the narrative of
this Pol ish novel.
is in s trong con trast,it may
be observed , to George E liot’s vivid and
varied treatmen t of her subj ect. This mo
notony, however, su its the loca l coloring of‘
Jermola ,
’ by sugges t ing the idea of the
league - long expanse of ancient fores ts whosesombre sol itudes encompass w ith a mys te
rions awe the l ittle temporary dwe l l ing s of
men . But if the foreign story surpasses‘ S i las Marner ’ in trag ic pathos , the la tterfar exce ls it in the mas terly handling of cha racter and dialogue , in the underlying breadthof thought, and, above all, in the preciou s sa ltof its humor.Indeed, for humor, for sheer force, for in
tense rea l ism, George E l iot, in the immorta ls cene at the “ Rainbow ,
”
may be sa id to riva lShakespeare . Her farriers, her butchers, herwh ee lwrights, her ta i lors, have the same
sta rtl ing vita l ity, the same unm is takable ac
cen ts of nature , the same dis tinctive yet un
forced individual ity, free from e ither exaggera
190GEORGE ELIOT.
marks : There ’s a llays two ’pin ions ; there ’
s
the’pin ion a man has 0
’
h imsen, and there
’
s
the’pinion other folks have on him. There’d
be two’pin ion s about a cracked be ll, i f the
'
bel l cou ld hear i tse lf .DollyW inthrop, the w ife of the jol ly whee l
w right who makes one of the company at the
Ra inbow , is no less admirable . She i s notcut after any particu lar patte rn or type of hu
man natu re , bu t has a dist inctive individual ity,and is fu ll of a freshness and unexpectednesswhich sets foregone conclus ions at defiance .
A notable woman , w ith a bound less appetitefor work, so that , rising at ha lf-pas t four, shehas “
a bit 0’
time to spare mos t days, forwhen one gets up betimes i
’
the morn ing th eClock seems to stan ’ st i l l tow ’
rt ten, afore it’
s
t ime to go about the victual .” Yet w ith all
this ene rgy she i s not shrewish, bu t a ca lm ,
g rave woman,in much request in s ick-rooms
or wherever there is trouble. She i s goodlooking , too, and of a comfortable temper, being patiently toleran t of her husband
’ s j okes ,con s idering that ‘ men wou ld 'be so,
’
and
view ing the s tronger sex in the l ight of an i
ma ls whom it pleased H eaven to make troublesome l ike bu l ls or tu rkey-cocks . ’
Her vague idea , shared indeed by S i las ,that he has qu ite another faith from herse lf
,
S ILAS MARIVER .
as com ing from another part of the country,g ive s a vivid idea of remote ru ra l l ife, as we llas her own d im, semi-pagan but thoroughlyreverential re l ig ious feel ings , prompting hera lways to speak of the D ivinity in the plura l,as when she says to Marner : “ I
’
ve lookedfor help in the right quarter, and g ive myse lfup to Them as we must all g ive ourselves upto at the last ; and if we
’
n done our part, iti s n ’
t to be be lieved as Them as are above us
’
u ll be worse nor we are, and come short 0'
The irn .
”
The humor shown in the se scenes and
characters , or, more properly speaking , GeorgeE l iot’ s humor in general, belong s to the highest order, the same as Shakespeare’s . It i sbased on the e ssen tia l e lements of humannature itself, on the pathetic incongruities ofwhich that “ quinte ssence of dust , man , i smade up, instead of finding the comic in the
pure ly acciden ta l or externa l ci rcumstances ofl ife, as i s the case w ith such humori sts as
Rabela i s and D ickens . These latte r mightfind a good subj ect for the ir comic ve in in
see ing the Venus of M i lo’s broken nose, which
a m i schievou s u rchin had again stuck on thew rong side upwards — a sight to send the
ordinary spectator in to fits of laughter. But
the g enu ine humorist sees something in that
192 GE ORGE ELIOT.
featu re itself, as natu re shaped it, to excite hisfacetiou sness. In A Minor Prophet ’
some
l ines occur in which a somewhat similar Viewof the genuine source of humor is pithily
put
My yearnings fail
To reach that h igh apocalyptic mountW hich shows in bird ’
s-eye V iew a perfect world,O r enter warmly into other joysThan those of fau lty, struggling human kind.
That s tra in upon my s ou l ’s too feeble wingEnds in ignoble floundering : I fal lInto short-sighted pity for the men
W ho, living in those perfect future times,“fil l not know half the dear imperfect thingsThat move my smiles and tears — w il l never knowThe fine old incongru ities that raise
My friendly laugh ; the innocent conceitsThat like a needless eyeglass or black patchGive those who wear them harmless happiness ;The twis ts and cracks in our poor earthenware ,
That touch me to more conscious fe l lowship(I am not myse lf the finest Parian)W ith my coevals .
Again, in her essay on‘ Heinrich He ine,
’
George Eliot thus defines the difference between humor and w it Humor is of earl ier
g rowth than wit, and it i s in accordance w iththi s earlier growth that it has more affin itywith the poetic tendencies , while wit is morenearly al l ied to the ratiocinative inte l lect.Humor draws its materials from s ituation sand characteristics w it seizes on unexpected
194 GE ORGE ELIOT.
the re-awakening of benumbed sympathiesth rough h is love for the l ittle foundling child .
The scene where he finds that child has on lybeen touched on in a pas s ing al lus ion, yet
there i s no more powerfu l ly drawn s ituation inany of her nove l s than that where S i las, w iththe chi ld in his arms, goes ou t into the darkn ight, and, guided by the l ittle footprints inthe virg in snow ,
d iscovers the dead mother,Godfrey Ca ss ’s opium-eating w ife
,lying w ith
her head sunk low in the furze and halfcovered w ith the shaken snow . There is a
picture of this subject by the young and sin
gularly g ifted artist, the late O liver MadoxBrown ,
more genera l ly known as a nove l is t,which is one of the few pictoria l inter
pretations tha t seem to comple te ly proj ecton the canvas a vis ible embodiment of the
spirit of the orig inal . The pale , emaciatedw eaver, sta ring w ith big ,
short- sigh ted eyesat the body of the unconscious young womanstretched on the g round, clutching the lusty,s trugg l ing chi ld w ith one arm, while w ith theother he holds a lantern which throw s a feeble
g leam on the snow — i s rea lized w ith exceptional inten sity .
The exqu i s ite picture of Eppie ’s Childhood,the dance she leads her soft—hearted fosterfather, are things to read, not to describe,
SILAS MARNER. 19 5
un less one cou ld quote whole pages of thisdelightful idyl, which for gracious
!
charm and
l impid purity of descript ion reca l ls those pearlsamong prose-poems, George Sand
’s Francoi sle Champi and L a Mare au D iable.’
CHAPTER XI.
ROMOLA.
ROMOLA marks a new departure in GeorgeE l iot’s literary career . From the present shetu rned to the past, from the native to the for
e ign, from the domestic to the his torica l . Yet
in thus Shifting her subj ect-matter, she didnot alter the strong ly pronounced tendencie sUnderlying her earl ier nove ls there was moreof spontaneous, humorous description of l ifein the latter, wherea s in ‘ Romola ’
the ethica lteaching wh ich forms so prom inent a featureof George E liot ’s art, though the same in
ess ence, was more dist inctly wrought out .
Touching on this very point, she observes ina letter to an American correspondent : It
i s perhaps less irre levan t to say, apropos of a
dis tinction you seem to make between myear l ier and later works, that though I trus tthere i s some grow th in my appreciat ion of
others and in my se lf-distrust, th ere has beenno change in the point of View from which Iregard our l ife s ince I w rote my first fiction ,
198GE ORGE ELIOT.
of the highest ; though it is not, and cannot
be popu lar. In Florence we hear they are
w i ld w ith delight and surprise at such a workbe ing executed by a fore igner ; as if an Ita lian had ever done anything of the kindBefore w riting Romola ’
George E l iot h adspent five weeks in Florence in order to familiariz e herself w ith the manners and conversat ion of its inhabitants, and yet she hardlycaught the trick of Ita l ian speech, and for
some time afterwards she hung back frombeg inn ing her s tory, as h er characters not
on ly refused to speak Ita l ian to her, but wou ldnot speak at all, as we can we l l imag ine Mrs .
Poyser, Bartle Massey, and Magg ie to havedone . These reca lcitrant spirits were at lastbrought to order, and she succeeded so we l l,e specially in her de l ineat ion of the lowerc las ses, that they have been recognized byItal ian s as true to the l ife .
It shou ld, however, be mentioned that the
g reatest modern Ital ian , G iuseppe Mazzin i,found fau lt w ith the handling , and, indeed,w ith the introduction in to this nove l of the
g reat figure of Savonarola. He consideredtha t it co
‘
mpared unfavorably w ith ‘ AdamBede,
’
a nove l he genu inely adm ired, all butthe marriage of Adam w ith D inah Morri s,which, he said, shocked his feelings, not
ROM OLA . 199
having any conception that the taste of the
nove l-reading public demands a happy endingwhatever may have been the previous courseof the three volumes . Another i l lu striou sman
,D . G . Rossetti , w hose judgmen t on such
a subj ect carries pecu l iar weight, con s ideredGeorge El iot to have been much less successful in Romola
’
than in her nove ls of Eng l ishcountry life . H e did not think tha t the tone
and color of Ita l ian l ife in the fifteen th centurywere caught with that intu it ive perception of a
bygone age characteristic of a W alter Scott ora Me inhold . The Florent ine con temporariesof Fra Girolamo seemed to him Nineteen thCentury men and women dressed up in the
costume of the Fifteenth The book, to us e
his expression,was not native .
It i s a majestic book , however : the most
grandly planned of George E l iot’
s nove l s . It
has a certa in architectura l d ign ity of structure,qu ite in keeping w ith its Ita l ian nationa l ity, a
qual ity, by the way, en tire ly absent from the
three later nove ls. The impressive historicalbackground is not un l ike one of Mr. Irving
’smagn ificently wrought Italian stage-effects,rich in movement and color, yet he lping to
throw the chief figures into g reater re lief. Theerudition shown in this work the vast yet m inu te acquaintance with the habits of though t,
200 GE ORGE EL IOT.
the manners, the very ta lk of the Florentinesof that day are truly surpris ing ; bu t perhapsthe very fact of that erudition being so per
ceptible shows that the materia l has not beenabsolutely vita lized . The amoun t of laborGeorge E l iot expended on
‘ Romola ’
was so
g reat, that it was the book which, she re
marked to a friend, “she began a young
woman and ended an old one . The deepimpres s ion her works had made upon the
public mind he ightened her natura l conscientiousness , and her g ratitude for the confidencewith which each fresh con tribution from he r
pen was rece ived , increased her anxiety to
w ie ld her influence for the highest ends .But her g ratitude to the public by no mean s
extended to the critics . She recoi led fromthem w ith the ins tinctive shrinking of the
sens itive plant. These interpreters betweenauthor and public were in her eyes a mostsuperfluous mode rn ins titu tion : though at
one time she herself had not scorned to s it
in the critic’ s seat . It i s we l l-known thatG . H . L ewes acted as a kind of mora l screenprotecting her from every gu st or breath of
criticism that was not entire ly gen ia l . One
lady, after reading‘
The M i l l on the Flos s,
’
had w ritten off in the heat of the momen t,
and, w ith the freedom of old friendship, while
202 GE ORGE ELIOT.
wou ld rather impress the publ ic genera l lyw iththe sen se that th ey may get the best iesultfrom a book w ithou t necessari ly form ing an
‘opin ion ’
about it, than I wou ld rush intostating Opin ions of my own . The floods of
nonsen se printed in th e form of criticahbpinions seem to me a chief curse of our t imesa chief obstacle to true cu lture .
In Spite of these severe strictures on
critics and the ir opin ions , an opin ion mu stnow be g iven about ‘ Romola .
’
This nove lmay rea l ly be j udged from two en tirely different points of view, possibly from othersbesides , but, as it appears to me, from two.
One may consider it as an historica l work,w ith its moving pageants, its civic broils , itschurch fest ivals, its re l ig ious reviva l, its ficklepopu lace, now siding w ith the Pope, and now
w ith the wou ld-be reformer of the Papacy .
O r again one may regard the conj uga l re lat ion s between Romola and Tito, the s lowspiritual g rowth of the one, and the sw iftermoral dis integ ration of the other, as one
of the subt lest studies in psychology in literature .
To tu rn to the scen ic detai l s which forma considerable e lemen t of this h istorical picture, I have a lready hinted that they are not
without a taint of cumbrou sness and pedan
ROIWOLA 203
try. The author seems to move somewhatheavily under her we ight of learn ing , and we
J fisfi that splendid natural swiftness and ease
of movemen t which Shakespeare, Goethe, andHugo know how to impart to the i r crowdsand spectacu lar effects . If, in stead of the
people, one examines the man who dominatedth-e
'
people, the large, mass ive, imposing figureof Savonarola, one must admit that the character i s very powerfu l ly and faithfu l ly executed“
but not produced at one throw . He does nottake the imag ination by storm as he wou ldhave done had Carlyle been at his fashioning .
W ith an epithet or two, with a sharp, inci s ivephrase , the latter would have conjured the
g reat Domin ican from his grave , and we
shou ld have seen h im , or be l ieved at leastthat we saw h im , as he was in the flesh whenhis impassioned voice resounded through theDuomo, swaying the heart s of the Florentinepeople w ith the force of a g reat convict ion .
That he stands ou t thus tang ibly in Romola ’
it wou ld be futi le to assert : nevertheless, hei s a noble, powerfu l study, a lthough one has
laboriou sly to gather into one’s m ind the
somewhat mechan ica l de scription s which he lpto portray his indiv idua lity. The idea underlying the working out of this grand characteris the same which Goethe had once proposed
204GE ORGE ELIOT
to himself in his proj ected , but unfortunatelynever executed , drama of ‘ Mahomet.
’
It i sthat of a man of mora l gen ius , who, in sol itude and obscurity, has conce ived some new ,
profounder aspect of re l ig iou s tru th, and who,stirred by a sublime devotion ,
now goes forthamong men to bless and regenerate them byteaching them this higher life. But in hi scontact w ith the mu ltitude, in h is efforts at
influencing it, the prophet or preacher is inhis tu rn influenced. If he fa ils to move bythe loftiest means, he w i l l g radua l ly resort tothe lower in order to effect his pu rpose . The
purity of h is spirit is tarn i shed , ambition hascrept in where holiness reigned , and his perfect rectitude of purpose w i l l be sacrificed so
that he may but ru le .
Such are the oppos ing tendencies co~exis ting in Savonarola ’
s m ixed but lofty nature.
For “that dissidence between inward real ity
and outward seem ing was not the Chris t ianS implici ty after which he had s triven throughyears of h is youth and prime , and which h ehad preached as a chief fru it of the D ivinel ife . In the heat and s tress of the day, w ithcheeks burn ing , w ith shou ts ring ing in the
e ars , who i s so bles t as to remember the yearnings he had in the cool and s i lent morn ing ,
and know that he has not be l ied them ? ”
205 GE ORGE ELIOT.
yet in most nove ls the fictitious charactersecl ipse th e historica l ones . The effect pro
duced by the high-sou led Romola i s not un l ikethat of an an tique s tatue, at once splendid lybeau tifu l and impos ing ly cold. By the s ideof Tito she reminds one of the pure whitenes s of marble scu lpture as contrasted w iththe rich g low ing sensuousne ss of a Venetianpicture .
It is difficu lt to ana lyze why the proud,loving, sing le-hearted Romola, who has s ome
thing of the fierceness and impetuosity of
the old Bardo blood in her, shou ld leavethis impres s ion of coldness ; for in spite of
her acts of magnanimity and se lf-devotion ,
s uch , curious ly enough , is the case . Perhapsin this instance George E l iot mode l led the
character too much according to a phi losophica l concept ion ins tead of proj ecting it, com
plete in its incompleteness , as it m ight havecome from the hand of Natu re . Anotherobj ection sometimes brought forward , of
Romola having but l ittle resemblance to an
Ita l ian woman of the fifteen th century, seemsto me less re levant . The lofty dign ity, thepride, the in tense adhesion to fam i ly tradit ion s
,were, on the con trary, very marked
attributes of a high nationa l type during the
period of Ital ian supremacy. In fact, the
ROM OLA 207
character» i s not without hints and sugges
t ions of such a woman as Vittoria Colonna,w hile its didactic tendency s l ightly reca l lsthose awfu l women of Ita ly! who he ld profes sorial cha irs, and were great in civi l andcanon law . In one sense Romola i s a truechild of the Rena is sance . Brought up byh er father, the en thu siastic old scholar, inpagan ideas, she had remained aloof fromRoman Ca thol ic be l iefs and superstitions,and even when trans formed by the mightyinfluence of Savonarola into a devoted P iag none, her att itude a lways remains more or
less that of a Prote stant, unw i l l ing to sur
render the right of private j udgment to the
Church.
The clash of character when a woman likeRomola finds herse lf cha ined in a l ife-longbond to such a nature as Tito’ s — the beautifu l
,wily, in sinuating Greek— i s w rought
out w ith wonderfu l ski l l and matchless subtlety of ana lysi s. Indeed Tito i s not on lyone of George E l iot
’s most orig inal creation s,he i s a unique character in fiction . Novelis ts, as a ru le , on ly depict the ful l- blownvi l la in or traitor, the ir virtuous and w ickedpeople be ing separated from each other bya hard and fa st l ine much like the goatsand sheep . They continual ly treat character
GE ORGE EL IOT.
as some thing permanent and unchangeable,whereas to George E l iot it presen ts itse lf as
an organ ism flexible by nature, subj ect to
change under varying condit ions, liable on
the one hand to disease and deterioration , but
on the other hand no less capable of be ing ,
rehabilitated, refined, or ennobled . This Is
one of the most distinctive notes of GeorgeEl iot ’ s art, and g ives a qu icken ing , fructifying qua lity to her mora l teaching . Bu t it is
an artis t ic no less than a moral gain, sharpen ing the interest fe lt in the evolution of her
fictit ious personages . For this reason Tito,the creature of circumstances , is perhaps themos t striking of a ll her characters in the eyesof the psycholog is t. W e seem to see the verypulse of the human machine laid bare
,to see
the corroding effect of se lf-indu lgence and
dread of pain on a natu re not in trin s ical lywicked , to see at last how , l ittle by lit tle ,weakness has led to falsehood, and falsehoodto infamy. And yet this creatu re, who, underour eyes , gradual ly harden s in to crime , i s oneso richly dowered with rare g ifts of personand m ind, that in spite of his mora l degeneracy, he fascinates the reader no less thanthe men and women supposed to come in toactual Contact w ith h im. H is beauty is described with the same life-l ike in tensity as
2 10 GE ORGE ELIOT.
no pos itive impress ion of Ti to’s innate badness, bu t, on the contrary, fee ls as if, after hisfi rs t lapses from truth and goodness, 1here i ss til l a possibility of his reform ing , if on ly hissoft, pleasure- loving nature were not drivenon, almost in spite of himse lf, by h is shuddering d read of shame or suffering form.
“ For, w rites George E l iot,“ T expe
riencing that inexorable law of human sou ls,that we prepare ourse lves for sudden deedsby the re iterated choice of good or evil which
g radual ly determines Cha racter.”
The description of the married life of
Romola and Tito i s unsurpassed in GeorgeE liot’s nove ls for subtlety and depth of in sightnotably the young w ife ’s fond striving aftercomplete inner harmony, her firs t
,fa int, un
avowed sense of something wan t ing ,her in
s tinctive efforts to keep fa st hold of her loveand tru st, and her vio lent, irrevocable reco i lon the disCovery of Ti to’s fi rst fa ithless ac
t ion . Perhaps there is something cold , a lmoststern , in Romola ’s loathing a l ienation fromher husband, and the in stantaneous death of
her pass ionate love . One cannot quite hinderthe impress ion that a softer woman m ighthave forg iven and won from him a confe ssionof his w rong-doing a confession which wouldhave averted the committal of his worst and
ROM OLA . 2 1 1
basest deeds. Indeed, it i s Tito’s awe of his
grand , noble w ife, and his dread of her judgmen t, which first of all incite h im to pre
varication ‘and l iesIt i s curious to compare George Sand
’stheory of love , in this instance , w ith GeorgeE l iot’s . In ‘ L eon L eon i ,
’
and in many of
her JIOVClS besides , the Frenchwoman seems)to imply that for a woman to love once i s tolove a lways
,and that there i s nothing so base,
or mean , or cruel, but she w i ll forg ive the
ma n on whom s he has placed her affection s .In the story mentioned above she has workedout this idea to an exten t which, in manyof its de ta i ls , i s s imply revolting . L ove i sthe re described as a magne tic attraction , un
resis ted and irresi stible, to which the heroineabsolu te ly su rrende rs pride, reason , and con
science . Ju st the oppos ite kind of love is
that which we find portrayed in ‘ Romola z’
it i s a love identica l w ith the fu l les t be l ief inthe truth and goodness of the be loved obj ect,s o that a t the first rea lization of mora l ohliqu ity the repu l s ion created ext ingu i shes thatlove, a lthough there is no outward severanceof the marriage bond .
This great nove l close s w ith these s ignifi
cant words, which Romola addresses to L i l lo,Ti to’s child, but not her own
2 12 GE ORGE ELIOT.
And so, my L i llo, if you mean to act nobly,and seek to know the best things God has
put within reach of man, you mus t learn to
fix your mind on that end , and not on whatw i l l happen to you becau se of it. And re
member, if you were to choose somethinglower, and make it the ru le of your life to
seek your own pleasure and escape from whati s disagreeable, calamity m ight come ju st thesame ; and it wou ld be ca lamity fa l ling on a
base mind, which is the one form of sorrowthat has no ba lm in it, and that may we l l makea man say, It wou ld have been better for meif I had never been born
2 14 GE ORGE ELIOT
and science . For the rest, her l ife flowed on
its even tenor, its routine be ing rig idly regulated . The morn ing t ill lunch time was in
variably devoted to w riting : in the afternoonshe e ither went out for a qu iet drive of abouttwo hours , or she took a walk w ith L ewes inRegen t
’
s Park. There the strange -lookingcouple — she w ith a certain wei rd , s ibyllineair
,he not un l ike some unkempt Pol i sh refu
gee of vivacious manners — m ight be seen .
sw ing ing the i r arms , as they hurried a long at
a pace as rapid and eager a s the ir ta lk . Be
s ides these wa lks, George E liot’ s chief recrea
t ion cons is ted in frequenting concerts and
picture ga l leries . To mu s ic she was pass iona te ly devoted, hardly ever fai l ing to attend at
the Saturday afternoon concerts at S t. James 'sH a ll , besides frequenting variou s mus ica l réun ions, such as the fol low ing extract from one
of her letters w ill show :“ The other n ight
we went to hear the Bach choi r a society ofladies and gent lemen got toge ther by JennyL ind
,who sings in the m iddle of them, her
husband acting as conductor. It is pretty tosee people who might be nothing but simplyfashionables taking pains to sing fine musicin tune and time, with more or less success .One of the baritones we know is a G
who used to be a swell guardsman , and has
HER P OEM S .
happily taken to good courses while st i l lqu ite young . Another i s a handsome youngG not of the un satisfactory Co., but of
the R G kin . A soprano i s Mrs .
P w ife of the Queen's Secretary, Genera l
P , the g randdaughter of Earl Grey, andj ust l ike h im in the face — and so on . Thesepeople of ‘ high
’ birth are certa in ly reformingthemselve s a little .
She l ikew ise never omitted to Visit the
Exhibition of Old Masters at Burl ingtonH ou se . To most people few things exerci seso g reat a strain on the i r menta l and physica lpowers of endurance as the in spect ion of a
pictu re ga l lery, w ith its incessant appea l tothe most concen trated atten tion . Yet, in
spite of physica l weakness, George E l iotpos ses sed such inexhaustib le menta l energytha t sh e cou ld go on , hou r after hour, lookingw ith th e same unflagging in terest at wha teverposse ssed any cla im to a tten t ion ,
ti ring out
even vigorou s men that were in her company.
In her works the al lus ion s to art are muchle s s frequent than to music but from a few
hints here and there, it i s pos s ible to formsome idea of her tas te, one very sign ifican tpassage in Adam Bede show ing her pecu liarlove of Du tch pain ting s, and her readine ss toturn without shrinking
“ from cloud-borne an
2 16 GE ORGE ELIOT.
ge ls , from prophets, s ibyls , and heroic warriors,to an old woman bending over her flower
pot, or eating h er sol itary d inner, whi le the
noonday light, softened perhaps by a screenof leaves , fa l ls on her mob-cap, and j u s ttouche s the rim of her spinn ing -whee l andher stone jug, and all those cheap common
things which are the preciou s necessaries of
life to her.
”
Another favorite resort of George E liot’swas the Zoolog ica l Gardens . She w ent therea g reat dea l to s tudy the an ima ls , and was
particu larly fond of the “ poor dear rate l ”
that used to turn somersau lts. In fact her
know ledge of,and sympathy w ith, an imal s
was as remarkable as that which she show edfor human nature . Thus she aston ished a
gen tleman farmer by draw ing atten tion to
the fine points of his horses. Her in timateacquaintance w ith the dog comes out in a
thousand touches in her nove ls , and her humorou s appreciat ion of l ittle pigs led her to
w atch them a tten tive ly, and to pick out some
particu lar favorite in every l itter . In her
country rambles , too, she was fond of turn ingover stones to inspect the m inu te insect l ifeteem ing in moist, dark places ; and she was
as interes ted as L ewes himse l f in the creatures, frog s, etc., he kept for scientific pur
2 18 GE ORGE ELIOT
through Continenta l town s, “ dozing roundold cathedra ls , formed del ightfu l episodes inGeorge E liot
’s s trenuous ly active l ife . The
residence in Germany in 1854, and again in
1858, h as a lready been a l luded to. Now ,in
the year 1865, they paid a Short visit to
France, in the course of which they saw
Normandy, Brittany, and Tou raine , returningmuch refreshed at the beg inn ing of the au
tumn . Two years afterwards they wen t to
Spa in, a country that mu st have possessed apecu liar interest for both for in 1846 L eweshad publi shed a charming, if one - sided , l ittlebook on The Span ish Drama
,
’
with especia lreference to L ope de Vega and Ca lderon and
in 1864, on ly a year after the appearance of
Romola,’
George E liot produced the fi rs tdraught of ‘ The Span i sh Gypsy.
’
On be
coming pers onal ly acquainted w ith this landof “
old romance, how ever, her impre ss ion swere so far modified and deepened that she
re-wrote and ampl ified her poem, which wasnot publ ished ti l l 1868.
The subject of the gypsies w as probablysuggested to George E l iot by her own mem
orable adventure in childhood,wh ich thus be
came the germ of a very impressive poem .. Be
that as it may, it i s w orth not icing that theconception of
‘
The Span i sh Gypsy ’ shou ld
HER P OEM S . 2 19
have followed so c losely on the completionof the Ita l ian nove l, both be ing foreign sub
jects , belong ing to much the same period ofhi story . In both the novel ist has departedfrom her habitua l track, seeking for “
pas
ture s new in a foreign soi l . After inculcating on the art ist the desi rabi lity of g iving“the loving pain s of a l ife to the fai thfu lrepresentation of commonplace things,
”she
remarks in Adam Bede ’
that there are few
prophets in the world,few sublimely beauti
ful women,few heroes, and that we cannot
afford to g ive all our love and reverence to
such rarit ies . But having fol lowed this ru le,and g iven the most marve llously tru thfu l delineation s of her fellow-men as they are or
dinarily to be met with , sh e now a lso fe ltprompted to draw the exceptiona l types of
human character, the rare prophets, and the
sublime heroes .To her friend Mi ss S imcox, George E l iot
one day men tioned a plan of g iving“the
world an idea l portrait of an actua l characterin hi story, whom She did not name, but to
whom she a l luded as an obj ect of pos siblereverence unm ing led with disappoin tment .
This idea was never carried out, but at any
rate D inah Morris, Savonarola, Zarca, and
Mordecai are all exceptional beings — be
220 GEORGE ELIOT.
ings engrossed by an impersonal aim, hav
ing the spiritua l or national regeneration of
the ir fe llow-men for its obj ect. D inah and
Savonarola are more of the nature of prOph
e ts ; Zarca and Mordeca i of that of patriots .Among these th e fair Methodist preacher,whose yearn ing piety is on ly a more suhlimated love of her kind, i s the most vividly re
aliz ed while Mordeca i , the patriot of an idea lcoun try, i s but the abstraction of a man , en
tirely want ing in that indefinable solidity of
pres entation which g ives a l ife of its own to
the creations of art .
O n the whole, Zarca, the gypsy chief,perhaps the most vividly drawn of GeorgeE liot’s pure ly idea l characters — charactersw hich never have the flesh-and- blood real ityof her Mrs . Poysers , her S ilas Marners , and
her dear little Totties and Eppies . Yet thereis an unm i stakable g randeur and power of invention in the heroic figure of Zarca, although,in spite of this power, we mi ss the convincingstamp of real ity in him, and not on ly in h im,
but more or les s in all the characters of ‘
The
Span i sh Gypsy.
’
George E l iot’s fee l ing for
the extraordinary and romant ic was very subordinate to tha t which she entertained forthe more fami l iar aspects of our life . For,
a lthough she here chose one of the most
222 GE ORGE ELIOT.
Lies not in lightnin g th at avenges them,
Bu t in the injury w rought by broken bondsAnd in the garnered good of human trus t.
The poetic mode of treatment corresponds tothe exa lted theme of
‘
The Span ish Gypsy,’
a s ubj ect certain ly fitted for drama or ro
mance rather than for the novel, properly so
cal led. Nothing cou ld apparen t ly be be tte radapted for the purposes of a noble his torica lpoem than the concept ion of a g reat man
such as Zarca ,whose aim i s nothing less than
the fu sion of the scatte red , wandering , law les s
gypsy tribes into one nation,w ith common
traditions and a common country : the roman
tic incident oi the discovery of h is los t daughter in the affianced bride of S i lva, Duke of
Bedmar : the supreme confl ict in Fedalma’
s
breas t be tween love and duty, her renunciat ion of happiness in order to ca s t in her lot
w ith that of her outcas t people : S i lva’s frantic g rief, his desertion of his country, his relig ion,
and all h is s olemn re spons ibil ities to
turn gypsy for Fedalma’
s sake , and havingdone so,
his agony of remorse on see ing thefortress comm itted to h is trust taken by the
gyps ie s he has join ed, his deares t friendsmas sacred , his neares t of kin , Is idor, the in
quis itor, hanged before his very eyes, a s igh tso madden ing that, hard ly con scious of his
HER P OEM S . 223
act, he s lays Zarca, and so divides h imse lf forever, by an impassable gu lf, from the woman
for whose sake he had turned apos tate .
Clearly a subj ect conta ining the highest ca
pabilities . and , if great thoughts con stituteda g reat poem, this shou ld be one of the g reates t. But with all its high meri ts , its sen timents imbued w ith rare mora l g randeur, itsfe l icitou s descriptions, the work lacks thatbe st and incommun icable g ift which come sby nature to the poet. Here
,as in her nov
els , w e find George E l iot’
s ins tinctive insighti nto the primary pa ss ions of the human heart,he r w ide sympa thy and piercing keenness of
vis ion but her thoughts , ins tead of be ingnatura l ly w inged w ith me lody, seem mechan i
ca l ly we lded into s ong . This applies to all
her poet ic work, a lthough s ome of it, especially The L egend of Juba l ,
’ reaches a muchhigher deg ree of metrica l and rhythm ical excellence . But although George E liot
’s poemscannot be con sidered on a par w ith her prose ,
they possess a dis t inctive interest, and shou ldbe carefu l ly studied by all lovers of h er gen
ius , as affording a more intimate insight intothe working of her ow n m ind . Nowhe re dowe perce ive so clearly as he re the profoundsadness of her View of l ife nowhere does sheso emphatica l ly rei terate the stern lesson of
224 GE ORGE E LIOT.
the duty of resignation and se lf- sacrifice ; orthat othe r doctrine that the individua l i s boundabsolu te ly to subordinate his personal happiness to the socia l good, that he has no rightssave the right of fu lfi l ling his obl iga t ions tohis age, his country, and his fami ly Thisidea is perhaps more comple tely incorporatedin Feda lma than in any other of her characters — Feda lma
,who s eems so boun t ifu l ly en
dowed w ith the fu lles t mea su re of beau ty, love,and happiness, that her renunciation may be
the more absolute She who in her youngjoy s uddenly know s herse l f as an aged s or
row,
”
excla im ing :I w il l not take a heaven
H aunted by shrieks of far-off m isery.
This deed and I have ripened w ith the hours
It is a part of me a wakened though t
That , ris ing l ike a gian t, masters me,
And grows into a doom. 0 mother life ,That seemed to nourish me so tenderly,Even in the womb you vowed me to the fire ,
H ung on my sou l the burden of men ’s hopes ,
And pledged me to redeem I I ’l l pay the debt.You gave me strengt h that I shou ld pour it allInto this anguish . I can never shrink
Back into blis s— my heart has grown too big
W ith th ings th at might be .
Thi s sacrifice is the completer for being w ithou t hope ; for not coun ting on aught butbe ing fa ithfu l for res ting sati sfied in sucha sublime conviction as
226 GE ORGE E LIOT.
thought properly be long ing to poetry, they atthe s ame t ime indubitably prove to the de l ica te ly attuned ear the absence of that s ubtlein tu itive music, that “ l inked sw eetness of
sound and sense which is the birthright of
poets . If an intimate and profound acquaintance wi th the laws and structure of metrecou ld bestow this qual ity, which appertain to
the e lementa l , George El iot’s verse ought to
have achieved the highe st success . For in
mere technica l know ledge concern ing rhyme,
assonance , al literation , and the man ipu lat ionof blank verse according to the most cunn ingdistribution of pauses, she cou ld hold her ownw ith the foremost contemporary poe ts , be ingno doubt far more vers ed than e ither She lley or Byron in the laws govern ing thesematters .H ow incalcu lable she fe lt the poet’s influ
ence to be , and how fain she wou ld have hadh im w ield th is influence on ly for the loftiestends, i s we l l shown in a beautifu l letter,h itherto unpubli shed , now pos sessing an addedpathos as addressed to one who has bu t
la te ly departed , at the very time when his
rare poet ic g ifts w ere beg inn ing to be morew ide ly recogn ized . Jame s Thomson,
the
author of The City of D readfu l Night, a
poem which appeared firs t in the pages of
HER P OEMS . 227
the Nationa l Reformer, with the signatureof “ B. was thus addressed by GeorgeE l iot
DEAR POET,— I cannot rest sati sfiedwithou t tel ling you that my mind respondswith admiration to the distinct Vision and
g rand utterance in the poem which you havebeen so good as to send me .
A lso, I trust that an intellect informedby so much passionate energy as yours wil lsoon g ive us more heroic strains, with a widerembrace of human fe llow ship, such as will beto the laborers of th e world what the Odesof Tyrtae us were to the Spartans, thril l ingthem with the sub l im ity of the social orderand the courage of resistance to all thatwou ld dissolve it. To accept life and writemuch fine poetry, is to take a very large sharein the quantum of human good , and seemsto draw with it nece ssari ly some recogn ition,affect ionate, and even joyfu l , of the manifoldwil ling labors which have made such a lot
poss ible.
”
These words are of pecu l iar interest, because, a lthough the w riter of them is almostas much of a pessimi st as its recipient, theyare so with a difference . The pessimi sm of
The City of Dreadfu l Night,” in its blank
hopelessnes s, paralyzes the inmost nerve of
228 GE ORGE ELIOT.
l ife by isolating th e individual in cold ob-v
s truction . W he reas George E liot, whi le rec
ogn iz ing to the utmos t “the bu rthen of a
world, where even the sunshine has a heartof care,
” insists the more on the fact thatthis common suffering binds man more indissolubly to man ; that so far from ju stifyingh im in ending his life
“when he w ill,
”the
groan ing and trava i ling generation s exact thathe shou ld s tand firm at his post, regardlessof persona l consideration or requ ita l, so longon ly as he can help towards making the fateof his fel low -mortals les s heavy for them to
bear . In fact, the one i s a theory of l ife , theother a disease of the sou l.The same stoic view ,
in a d ifferent form,
find s expression in this answer to a dearfriend ’s query : I cannot qu ite agree that iti s hard to see what has been the good of you rlife . It seems to me very clear that you havebeen a good of a kind that wou ld have beensorely m is sed by those who have been nearestto you, and a lso by some who are more distant. And it i s this kind of good which mus t
reconcile us to l ife , and not any answer tothe ques tion , W hat wou ld the un iverse havebeen w ithou t me ? ’
The point One has tocare for i s, ‘ Are A , B, and C the bette r forme ?
’
And there are severa l letters of the
230 GE ORGE ELIOT.
among the crowd . In the fi rst delirium of
despai r she longs to put an end to herse lfsooner than bear the yoke of thwarted life ;but i s painfu l ly startled from her defiant moodby the indignant query of W alpurga, herhumble cousin
W here is the rebel ’s right for you a lone ?Noble rebe l lion l ifts a common load ;But what is he who flings his own load off
And leaves his fe l lows toiling ? Rebe l ’s r ight
Say rather the deserter’
s . Oh, you smiledFrom your clear height on all the million lotsW hich yet you brand as abject.”
It may seem singular that having once, in‘ Armgart,
’ drawn a woman of the highestartist ic a ims and ambitions, George E l iotshou ld imply that what i s most valuable inher is not the exceptiona l g ift, but rather thatpart of her nature which she shares w ithordinary humanity . This is
,however, one
of her leading be l iefs , and strong ly contras tsher, as a te acher, w ith Carlyle . To the
author of He ro Worship ’
the promiscuou smass — moi l ing and toi l ing as factory handsand artisans , as miners and laborers — onlyrepresents so much raw material , from wh ichis produced that fina l resu lt and last triumphof the combination of human forces— the
great statesman , great warrior, great poet,and so forth . To George El iot, on the con
HER P OEM S . 23 1
trary— and this i s the democratic side of her
nature— it is the mu ltitude, so charily treatedby destiny, which claims deepest sympathyand tendere st compas sion ; so that all greatness, i n her eyes, i s not a privilege, but a
debt, which entai l s on its possessor a morestrenuous effort, a completer devotion to the
service of average human ity.
CHAPTER XIII.
FELIX HOLT AND MIDDLEMARCH.
IN ‘Fel ix Holt,’
which was publ ished in 1866,
George E l iot returned once more to her own
pecu l iar fie ld, w here she stands supreme and
unriva l led — the novel of Eng l ish provincia ll ife . This work, which , however, i s not equa lto her earl ier or later fictions , yet posses ses a
double interest for us . It i s the on ly one of
her writings from which its author’s pol itica lview s may be inferred, i f we exclude a paperpublished in B lackwood
’
s M ag az ine in Jan
uary 1868, which, indeed, seems to be part of
the nove l , see ing that it i s entitled Addressto W orking Men, by Fe l ix Holt.” The pa
per contains , in a more d irect and conci seform, preci se ly the same genera l views as
regards the principles of government whichw ere previous ly enunciated through Fe l ix theRadical . It was an appea l to the operativec lasses who had been on ly recently enfran
chised by the Reform Bi ll . Its advice is
mainly to the effect that genu ine politica l
234 GEORGE ELIOT.
undo. Everybody now s ees an example of it
in the case of Ire land . W e who are livingnow are sufferers by the w rong -doing of thos ewho l ived before u s we are sufferers by eachother’s w rong-doing ; and the children who
come after u s w i l l be sufferers from the samecau ses .
To remedy this long -standing w rong-doingand suffering , so argues Fe l ix Holt, is not in
the power of any one measure, clas s , or period . It wou ld be chi ldish fol ly to expect anyReform Bi ll to possess the mag ica l propertywhereby a sudden socia l trans formation cou ldbe accomplished . On the contrary, abrupttran sition s shou ld be shunned as dangerous toorder and law,
which alone are certain to in
su re a steady col lective progress ; the on lymeans to this end con sisting in th e g enera ls pread of education, to secu re which , at leas t’
;for his Chi ldren, the working man shou ldspare no pains . W ithout know ledge, the
Writer continues, no pol itica l measu res w il l beof any benefit, ignorance w ith or w ithout votea lways of neces s ity engendering Vice and m is
ery . Bu t, gu ided by a fu l ler know ledge, the
working classes wou ld be able to discern whats ort of men they shou ld choose for the ir rep
resentative s , and instead of e lecting“ plat
form swaggerers, who bring us nothing but
FELIX H OL T.
the ocean to make our broth w ith, theywou ld confide the chief powe r to the handsof the tru ly w i se, those who know how to
regu late l ife“according to the truest princi
ples mankind is in posses s ion of.”
The Felix Holt ” of the story is describedby George El iot as shaping his actions muchaccord ing to the ideas which are here theoretically expres sed. H is knowledge and apt itude wou ld enable him to choose what i scon sidered a higher ca l l ing . But he scorn sthe vu lgar ambition called getting on in the
world ; his sense of fe l lowsh ip promptingh im to rema in a s imple arti san that h e may
exert an e levating influence on the class towhich he be long s . Class differences, so are
gues this Radica l-Con se rvative, be ing inher
ent in the con stitution of society, it becomessomething of a desertion to withdraw whatabilities one may have from the mediumwhere they are u rgently needed , in order tojo in , for the sake of se lfish aims, some otherbody of men where they may be superfluous .
The other distinctive feature of ‘Felix Holt ’
consis ts in its e laborate construction , rankingit, so to speak, amongst sensation nove ls . A s a
ru le,George El iot’s stories have l ittle or no plot,
the incidents seeming not so much inventedby the write r for the sake of producing an
235 GEORGE EL IOT.
effective work, as to be the natural resu lt of thefriction between character and circums tance .
This simplicity of narrative be longs , no doubt,to the highes t clas s of nove l, the cla ss towhich ‘The V icar of W akefi e ld,
’
W averley,’
and‘
Van ity Fa ir ’ be long . In Fe lix Holt,’
however, the intricate network of inc iden t inwhich the characters s eem to be enmeshed,i s not un like the modern French art of s torytel l ing, w ith its fert il ity of inven tion , as i s a lsothe strange ly repe llent intrigue w hich formsthe nucleus of the whole . A ll the e lemen tswhich go to make up a thrill ing narratives uch as a dubious inheritance, the disappearance of the rightfu l Cla imant, a w ife ’
s gu i ltysecret, the involvemen ts of the mos t desperatehuman fa tes in a perplexing coi l through s in
and error — are in terwoven in this s tory of
Fe lix Ho lt the Radica l . ’
Though ingen iou sly invented , the differentincidents seem not so much natura l ly to have
g rown the one from the other as to be con
structed w ith too con scious a seeking for
effect. There i s something forced , uneasy,and inadequate in the laborious contrivance of
fi tting one set of events on to another, and
the machinery of the dispu ted Transome
claim i s so involved that the reade r nevermasters the ins and “
outs of that baf
238GE ORGE ELIOT.
cannot but think one of the author’s finest,the passage beginn ing
The pathos exqu is ite of love ly mindsH id in harsh forms not penetrating them
Like fire divine within a common bushWhich glows transfigured by the heavenly guest,So that men put their s hoes off but encaged
Like a sweet child within some thick-wal led cel l,Who leaps and fails to hold the w indow-bars,But having shown a little dimpled hand,Is vis ited thenceforth by tender hearts
W hose eyes keep watch about the prison wal ls .
Esther, on the other hand, i s one of thosefortunate being s whose lovely mind is lodgedin a form of corresponding love l iness . Thischarming Esther, though not orig inally W ithou t her feminine van ities and worldly desires ,is one of those characters dear to GeorgeE l iot ’s heart, who renounce the a llurementsof an easy pleasurable existence for the highersati sfactions of a noble love or a nobler idea l .It i s curious to notice that Eppie, Esthe r,Fedalma, and Dan ie l Deronda are all childrenthat have been reared in ignorance of the i rreal parentage, and that to all of them the recomes a day when a more or less difficu ltdeci s ion has to be made, when for good or
evi l they have to choose, once for all, betweentwo confl icting cla ims. L ike Eppie, Estherrejects the advantages of birth and fortune,and elects to share the hard but dignified life
FELIX H OL T. 239
of the high-minded Felix . But this decis ionin her case show s even higher mora l worth,becau se by natu re she is so keen ly susceptibleto the de l ica te refinemen ts and g raceful ele
gancies which are the natura l accompan imentof rank and wealth .
The mos t cu riou s feature of this book con
s is ts , perhaps, in its orig ina l treatment of i l l icitpass ion . Nove l i sts, as a rule, when handlingthis subj ect, depict its fascinat ions in bri ll iantcon tras t to the su fferings and terrors whichfol low in its tra in . But George E l iot con tentsherse lf with show ing u s the reverse side of the
meda l . Youth has faded , joy is dead, lovehas turned to loathing , yet memory, l ike a
re len tless fury, pu rsues the gray- haired Mrs .
Tran some,who h ides within her breas t such
a heavy load of shame and dread . The pow erand intens ity wi th which this character of thehaughty, stern, yet inwardly quai l ing woman
is drawn are unsurpas sed in the ir way, and
there is trag ic horror in the recoi l of h erfinest sen sibi l itie s from the vu lgar, mean ,
se l f-complacent lawyer, too thick- skinned everto know that in h is own pers on h e is a dailyj udgment on h er whose l ife has been madehideou s for his sake . Never more impress ively than here does the noveli st enforce herteaching that the deed fol lows the doer, being
240 GE ORGE ELIOT.
imbued with an incalcu lable v ita l ity of its own ,
shaping all after l ife, and subdu ing to its guisethe natu re that i s in bondage to \ it . L ikethose fabled dragon
’s teeth planted by CadmuS, which sprung up aga in as a rmed men,spreading discord and ruin . so a man
’ s evilact ions seem endowed w ith independent vol it ion, and their consequences extend far beyondthe ind ividua l life where they orig inated .
If Fe lix Holt i s the most in tricate ly con
structed of George E liot’s nove ls,M iddle
march,
’ which appeared five years afterwards,is
, on the other hand, a s tory w i thout a plot.In fact, it seems hardly appropriate to call
fi
it
a nove l . L ike Hogarth’
s serial picture s rep
resenting the succes s ive stages in the ir progress through life of certain typical characters,so in this book there i s unrol led before u s,
not so much the history of any particu lar ind ividua l, as a whole phase of society portrayedw ith as daring and uncompromi s ing a fide l ityto Nature as that of Hogarth himse lf. In‘M iddlemarch,
’
Engl ish provincia l l ife in the
first half of the n ineteenth centu ry is inde l iblyfixed in words holding -a un iverse impalpable for the apprehens ion and de l ight of thefurthest generations of Eng li sh-speaking na
t ions . Here, as in some kind of panorama,
sections of a commun ity and g roups of char
242 GE ORGE ELIOT.
a type which seems to be S pecifica lly GeorgeE liot’s own, and which
[
has perhaps more incommon w ith s uch Greek ideals as Antigoneand Iphigen ia, than w ith more mode rn he roines . But Dorothea, however lofty her aspirations, has /not the Christian heroi sm of
Romola, or/the ant ique devotion of Feda lma .
She (i s one-
of those problematic natures .
a lready-s poken of ' i l l-adj usted to her circumstances, and never qui te adjusting circums tances to herse lf. It i s true that her higha ims and g loriou s pos s ibi lities are partia llystifled by a social medium where there seemsno demand for them sti l l the -resolute sou lusual ly finds some way in which to w orkits des tiny.
“ Many ‘
Theresas, says George El iot,have been born who found for themse lves
no epic life wherein there was a cons tant un
folding of far-resonant action ; perhaps on lya l ife of m is takes , the offspring of a cer
tain spiritual grandeur ill-matched w ith the
meannes s of opportunity ; perhaps a trag icfai lure w hich found no sacred poet, and sankunwept into oblivion . W ith d im lights and
tang led circumstance they tried to shape the irthought and deed in noble agreement ; but,
after all, to common eyes, the ir strugg lesseemed mere inconsistency and formlessnes s
M IDDLEMARCH . 243
for these later-born ‘ Theresas ’ were he lpedby no coheren t socia l fa ith and order whichcou ld perform the funct ion of know ledge forthe arden tly w il l ing sou l .
Some have fe lt that these blundering livesare due to th e inconven ien t indefin itenes s w ithw hich the Supreme Power has fash ioned the
natu res of women if there were one leve l offem inine incompetence as strict as the abi l ityto count three and no more , th e socia l lot ofw oman m igh t be treated w ith scien t ific certitude . Meanwhile the indefinitene s s rema ins
,
and th e l im its of variat ion are rea l ly muchw ider than any one wou ld imag in e from th e
sam enes s of women’s coiffure , and the favorite
love - s tories in pros e and verse .
”
S uch a l ife of m i stake s is that of the beautifu l Dorothea , the i l l- s tarred w ife of Ca saubon .
In h is w ay the characte r of Casaubon is as
g reat a triumph as that of Tito himse lf. The
nove l is t s eem s to have crept in to the inmos t
reces ses of that uneasy con s ciou snes s , to haveprobed the most sens itive Spots of that disea sed van ity, and to lay bare before our eye sthe du l l labor of a brain whose ideas are s ti l lborn . In an article by Mr . Mye rs it is stated,h owever incredible it may sound, that an
undi scrim inat ing friend once condoled w ithGeorge E l iot on the me lancholy experience
244 GE ORGE E LIOT.
wh ich , from her know ledge of L ewes, hadtaught her to depict the g loomy characte r ofCasaubon whereas , in fact, the re cou ld not bea more s triking con trast than that betweenthe pedant groping am id d im fragments of
know ledge , and the vivacious litte’ra teur and
thinker w ith his s ingular men ta l energy and
g rasp of thought. On the nove li st’s laughingly as suring h im that s uch was by no means
the case ,“ From whom , then,
” pers is ted he,
“ did you draw W ith a h u
morons solemn ity,wh ich w as qu ite in earnes t,
she pointed to her own heart. She confes sed,on the other handfliaving found the characte rof Rosamond Vincy d ifficu l t to su s ta in, s uchcomplacency of egoism , as has been poin tedou t, be ing a l ien to her own habit of mind .
But she laid no cla im to any such natu ra lmagnan im ity as cou ld avert Casaubon ’
s temp
tations of j ealous van ity, and bitter resen tment ,
If there is any character in whom one may
poss ibly trace some s ugges tion s of L ewes , it
is in the versati le , br il l iant , ta len ted L adis law,
who he ld , that while gen ius mus t have the
u tmost play for its spontane ity, it may awa itw ith confidence “
those mes sages from the
universe which s ummon it to its pecu l iarwork, on ly placing i tse lf in an attitude of
246 GE ORGE ELIOT.
E liot’s, I bel ieve, in which there i s a distinctindication of her attitude towards the aspirat ions and clearly formu lated demands of thewomen of the n ineteenth century. H er manys arcas tic a llusions to the s tereotyped theoryabou t woman ’s sphere show on which s ide hersympathies were en l isted . On the whole , she
lwas mm tfg toi he educationa l movement
,than to tha t other ag itation which aims at se
1cu ring the pol itica l enfranchisemg nt ofwomen .
How s incere ly she had the fi rst at heart i sshown by the donation of 501.
“ From the
author of when Girton Collegewas firs t s tarted . And in a letter to a younglady who s tudied the re, and in whose career
she was much intere sted , sh e says , “the pros
perity of G irton is very sati sfactory. Among
her mos t intimate friends , too,were s ome of
the ladie s who had in i tiated and organ izedthe W omen
’
s Suffrage movement . L ikew i sew riting to M iss Phe lps , she a l ludes to the
Woman’s L ectureship in Bos ton , and remarks
concern ing the new Un iversity : “A n officethat may make a new precedent in socia ladvance, and which is at the ve ry least an
experiment that ought to be tried . Americais the seed-ground and nu rsery of new ideals ,where th ey can grow in a larger, freer air
than ours.”
MIDDLEMARCH . 247
In 187 1 , the year when M iddlemarch ’
was
appearing in parts, George Eliot spent part ofthe spring and summer months at Shottermi l l , .a qua int Hampshire vil lage Situated am ida landscape that un ites beauties of the mostvaried kind . H ere we may imag ine her andMr. L ewes, afte r the i r day
’s work was done ,e ither seeking the vast stretch of heath and
common on ly bounded by the horizon, or
strol l ing through the deep-sunk lanes, or finding a soothing repose in
“ place s of nest lingg reen for poets made .
”They had rented
Brookbank, an old-fashioned cottage w ithti led roof and lattice-paned w indows
,belong
ing to Mrs . Gi lchrist, the widow of the dis tin
guished biographer of W i l l iam Blake .
The descript ion of Mrs . Meyrick’
s hou se inDan ie l Deronda ’ “
where the narrow spacesof wa l l he ld a world-history in scenes and
heads, may have been suggested by h er
present abode , rich in orig ina l draw ings byB lake , and va luable prints , and George El iotwrites : “ If I eve r steal anything in my l ife,I think it w i l l be the two l ittle S ir Joshuasover the draw ing-room mante lp iece .
”
A t thist ime she and Mr. L ewes a lso found in tenseinterest in reading the L i fe of Blake .
’
Some
corre spondence , kindly placed at my di sposa lby Mrs . Gi lchrist, passed between this lady
248 GE ORGE ELIOT.
and the L eweses in connect ion w ith the lett ing of the house, g iving in te res ting g l impsesinto the domes tic ities of the latte r. The i rhabits here , as in L ondon ,
w ere of clockwork regu larity, household arrangements being expected to run on whee ls .
“ Everything ,
”w rites George E l iot, goes on slow ly
at Shottermi l l , and the mode of narration i sthat typified in ‘ This is the house that Jackbu ilt ’
But there is an exqu is ite s ti l lness inthe sunsh ine and a s ense of d is tance fromL ondon hurry, which encourages the g row thof patience .
M rs . G’
s”
(the ir one servan t) pacei s proportionate to the other slownes ses , bu tshe impre sses me as a worthy pe rson ,
and
her cooking — indeed, all her attendance on
u s — is of s a tisfactory qual ity . But we find
the awkwardnes s of having only one personin the house , as we l l as the advantage (thislatter be ing qu ietude) . The bu tcher does notbring the meat, everybody g rudges sel lingnew m i lk, eggs are scarce , and an expeditionwe made yes terday in s earch of fow ls , showedu s noth ing more hopefu l than some chickensS ix weeks old, which the good woman ob
served w ere sometimes ‘ea ten by the gentry
w ith asparagus .
’
Those eccen tric people , the
gentry
250GE ORGE ELIOT.
After the lapse of a few mon ths spent inthis swee t rura l retreat, George E liot againw rites to Mrs . Gi lchris t : I did not imaginethat I shou ld ever be so fond of the place as I
am now . The departure of the bitter w inds,
some improvement in my hea lth, and the
gradua l reve lat ion of fresh and fresh beautiesin the scenery, especia l ly unde r a hopefu l skysuch as w e have sometimes had all thesecondit ions have made me love our l ittle w or ldhere, and w ish not to qu it it un ti l we can
settle in our L ondon home . I have the re
g ret of thinking that it was my orig ina l indifference abou t it (I hardly ever like thing sunti l they are fam i liar) that hindered us fromsecu ring the cottage un ti l the end of Sep
tembe r .George E liot ’s conscientiousne ss and pre
cis ion in the sma l l affa irs of life are exem
plified in her last note to Mrs . Gi lchris t :A fter Mr . L ewes had w ritten to you , I was
made aware that a sma l l des sert or breadand-bu tter dish had been broken . That archS inne r, the cat, wa s credited w ith the gu i lt.I am assu red by Mrs . G that nothinge lse has been inj ured dur ing her re ign , and
Mrs . L confirmed the statemen t to me
ye s terday. I wi sh I cou ld replace the unfor
tunate dish . This note, of cou rse, needs
MIDDLEMARCH . 25 1
no answe r, and it is in tended s imply to makeme a C lean breast about the crockery.
Abou t this t ime George Eliot was verymuch out of health : indeed, both she and
L ewes repeatedly speak of themse lves as
two nervous, dyspeptic creatures, two ail
ing , su sceptible bodie s,”to whom S l ight in
conven iences are inju rious and upsetting .
A lthough it was hot summer weathe r, Mrs .
L ewes suffered much from cold, sitting a lwaysw ith artificia l heat to her feet. One broi l ingday in Augu s t, after she had left Brookbank,and taken another place in the neighborhood ,an acquaintance happening to cal l on her,
found her s itting in the garden writing , as
was her wont, her head mere ly shaded by a
deodora , on the lawn . Being expostulatedw ith by h er Vis itor for h er imprudence inexposing herse lf to the fu ll blaze of the mid
day sun , She replied , Oh , I l ike it ! To-day
is the fi rst t ime I have fe lt warm this sum
mer .
They led a most secluded life, George Eliotbe ing at this time engaged w ith the con tinnation of M iddlemarch and L ewes, a lludingto the ir sol itary habits, w rites at this date :“ W ork goes on smoothly away from all
friendly interruption s . L ord Houghton saysthat it i s incomprehensible how we can l ive
252 GE ORGE E LIOT.
in such S imeon Styli tes fashion , as we often
do, all a lone— but th e fact i s we never a r ea lone when a lone . And I sometimes marve lhow it i s I have contrived to get through so
much work l iving in L ondon . It’
s true I’ma L ondon child . Occasiona l ly, however, theywou ld go and see Tennyson ,
w hose house i son ly three mi les from Shottermil l, but th e roadbeing all uphil l made the ride a l ittle tediousand uncomfortable , especial ly to George El iotwho had not got ove r her old nervou snes s .The man who us ed to d rive th em on theseoccasions was so much struck by this that hetold the lady who has recorded these de tailsin the Cen tu ry Mag az ine : W itha l h er be ingsuch a m ighty clever body, she were verynervous in a carriage — a llays wanted to go
on a smooth road, and s eemed dreadfu l fea redof be ing thrown out . On one of these oc
cas ional mee tings w i th Tennyson , th e poe t
got involved in a conversation w ith th e nov
elist concern ing evolu tion and s uch w e ightyquestions . They had been w a lking togethe rin close argumen t , and a s the Poe t- L aureatebade George E liot farewe l l, he ca l led to he r,a lready making her way down the h il l
, W e l l,good-by, you and your molecu les And she ,
looking back, said in h er deep low voice (wh icha lways got lower when she was a t all roused),I am quite content w ith my molecu les .
”
CHAPTER XIV.
DANIEL DERONDA.
DANIEL DERONDA ,
’
which appeared five yearsafter ‘ Middlemarch,
’
occupies a place apartamong George E liot
’s nove l s . In the Spiritwhich anima tes it, it has perhaps the c losestaffin ity w ith The Span ish Gypsy.
’
Speakingof this work to a young friend of Jew ishextraction (in whose career George E l iot fe ltkeen interest), she expressed su rprise at the
amazement which h er choice of a subj ecthad created .
“ I w rote about the Jew s , sh e
remarked , “ because I con s ider them a fine
old race who have done g reat things for humanity. I fee l the same admi ration for themas I do for the Florent ines . O n ly late ly Ihave heard to my g reat sati sfaction that an
influent ial member of the Jew i s h commun ityis going to start an em igration to Pa les tin e .
You w i l l a lso be g lad to learn that He lmholtzis a Jew .
”
These observations are va luable as affording a key to the leading motive of ‘ Dan ie l
DANIEL DERONDA . 255
Deronda.
’
Mordeca i ’s ardent des ire to founda new national state in Pa lestine i s not simplythe author’s dramatic rea lization of the feel ingof an enthusiast,but expresses her own verydefin ite sentiments on the subj ect. The Jew
i sh apostle i s , in fact, more or less the mouthpiece of George El iot ’s own opinion s on
Juda ism . For so great a master in the art
of creating character, this type of the lofties tkind of man i s curious ly unreal. Mordeca ide l ivers himself of the most e loquent and
exa lted view s and sent iments, yet his own
personal ity remains so vague and nebu lou sthat it has no power of kindling the imag ination . Mordeca i is meant for a Jewish Maz
zin i . W ith in his consciousness he harborsthe future of a people . He fee ls h imse lfdestined to become the savior of his race ;yet he does not convince us of his greatness .
H e convince s us no more than he does them ixed company at the Hand and Banner,
”
which listens with pitying incredu l ity to hispassionate harangues. Neverthe less the firs tand final test of the relig ious teacher or of
the socia l reformer is the magnetic force w ithw hich his own intense be liefs become bindingon the con sciences of others, if on ly of a few .
It is true Mordeca i secures one disciplethe man destined to trans late his thought
256 GE ORGE EL IOT.
in to action , Dan iel Deronda, a s shadowy, aspuppet- l ike, as l ifeless as Ezra Mordecai Cohenhimse lf. These two men , of whom the one
is th e spiritua l leader and the othe r the herodestined to real ize his aspira tions
,are prob
ably the two mos t unsucce ss fu l of GeorgeE l iot ’s vas t ga l lery of Characters . They are
the repre sentatives of an idea, bu t the ideahas never been made flesh . A s uccinct ex
pression of it may be gathered from the
fol low ing passage :
Which among the chief of the Genti lenat ions has not an ignoran t mu ltitude ? Th eys corn our people ’s ignoran t observance ; bu tthe mos t accu rsed ignorance is that wh ichha s no observance — s unk to the cunn inggreed of the fox, to which all law is no more
than a trap or th e cry of the worrying hound .
There is a degradation deep down be low the
memory that has w ithered into superstition .
For the mu ltitude of th e ignorant on th ree
con tinen ts who observe ou r rites and makethe confe ss ion of the D ivine Un ity the L ordof Judaism is not dead . Revive the organ iccentre : le t the unity of Is rae l wh ich has
made the growth and form of its re lig ion bean ou tward real ity . L ooking towards a landand a pol i ty, our dispersed people in all the
ends of the earth may share the dign ity of a
258 GE ORGE ELIOT.
Observances of her H ebrew father, breaksaway from the “ bondage of having been borna Jew, from which she w ishes to re l ieve herson by parting from him in infancy, M irah,brought up in disregard,
“even in dis like of
her Jewish orig in,
”c l ings w ith inviolable te
nacity to the memory of that orig in and to the
fel lowship of her people . The author leavesone in l ittle doubt as to which s ide her own
sympathies incline towards. She i s not so
much the arti st here , impartia l ly portrayingd ifferent kinds of characte rs , as the specialpleader proclaiming that one set of motivesare righteous , j ust, and pra iseworthy, as wel las that the others are mis chievous and repre
hen s ible .
This seems carrying the principle of na
tionality to an extreme , if not pern iciouslength . If there were never any breakingup of old forms of soc iety, any fresh blending of nationa l ities and races , we shou ld soonreduce Europe to anothe r China. This nu
wavering faithfu lness to the tradi tions of the
past may become a cu rse to the l iving . A
rig id ity as unnatural as it i s dangerous wou ldbe the resu lt of too tenaciou s a cl ing ing to
inherited memorie s . For if th i s doctrine werestrictly carried ou t, s uch a coun try as America, where there is a slow amalgamation of
DAIVIE L DERONDA . 2 59
many a l l ied and even heterogeneous racesinto a new nation,
wou ld practica l ly becomeimpossible . Indeed , George E l iot does not
absolute ly hold these view s . She conside rsthem nece s sary at present in order to act as
a drag to th e too rapid transforma tion s of
socie ty . In the mos t interes t ing paper of
Theophrastu s Such ,’
tha t ca l led ‘ The Mod
ern H ep ! H ep ! Hep !’
she remarks : “
The
tendency of thing s is towards qu icker or
s lowe r fus ion of races . It i s impossible to
a rres t this tendency ; all w e can do is to mod
crate its cou rse s o as to hinder it from de
g rading the mora l s tatu s of societies by a too
rapid effacement of those nationa l traditionsa nd cu stoms which are the language of the
nat iona l gen ius — the deep suckers of heal thysentimen t. Such moderating and gu idance ofinevitable movemen t i s worthy of all effort.
Cons ide ring that George El iot w as con
vinced of this modern tendency towards fusion ,
it i s all the more singu lar that she
should , in‘ Dan ie l Deronda,
’ have la id suchs tress on the reconstruct ion , after the lapseof centu rie s, of a Jewish state singu lar, whenone cons iders that many of the most eminentJews
,so far from a spiring towa rds such an
even t,hardly seem to have contemplated it as
a des irable or poss ible prospect . The sym
260 GE ORGE ELIOT.
path ies of Spinoza, the Mende lssohns , Rahel,Meyerbee r, He ine , and many others , are not
d is t inctive ly Jewish bu t human itarian . And
the g randes t, as w e ll as true s t thing that hasbeen uttered about them is that saying of
H e ine ’ s : “ The coun try of the Jews is the
ideal, is God .
”
Indeed, to have a true conception of Jew
ish nature and character, of its brilliant l igh tsand deep shadows , of its pathos , depth , s ubl imity, degradation,
and w it of its infinite re
source and boundless capacity for sufferingone must go to H eine and not to
‘ Dan ie lDeronda .
’
In ‘
Jehuda -ben-Ha levy ’
H e ine ex
presses the love and long ing of a Jew ish h eartfor Jerusa lem in accents of s uch piercing intensi ty that compared w ith it, Mordecai ’sfervid des ire fades in to mere abstract rh etoric .
Natu re and experience were the principa lsources of George E l iot ’s inspiration . And
though she knew a great deal abou t the Jew s ,her experience had not become sufficientlyincorpora ted w ith her con sciou sness . O therw ise, in s tead of portraying s uch tame mode lsof perfection as Deronda and M irah, sh e wou ldhave s o m ixed her colors as to give u s thatsubtle involvement of motive and tendencyas of cross -current s in the sea — which we
find in the Characters of nature ’
s making and
262 GE ORGE ELIOT.
has l ife in her and one specu lates as to whatshe w il l say and do next, a s if she were a
person among one’
s acqua intances . O n thataccoun t mos t readers of Dan ie l Deronda ’
find
the ir interes t eng ros sed by the fate of Gwen
dolen, and the conjuga l re lations between herand Grandcou rt , Th i s i s s o much the cas e,
that one s uspects her to have been th e firstidea of the s tory . She i s at any rate its mos t
a ttract ive featu re . In Gwendolen , GeorgeE liot once remarked, she had w ished to drawa g irl of the period . Fas cinating, accom
plished , of s i ren - l ike beauty, she has everyoutward grace combined w ith a S ingu lar inw ard vacu ity . The deepe r aspects of life are
undreamed of in her ph i los ophy . Her re ligion con s is ts in a vague awe of the unknownand invis ible , and her ambition in the acqu is it ion of rank, wealth, and persona l dis tinction.
She i s se lfish, va in , frivolous , worldly, domineering , yet not w ithout s udden impu lses of
generos ity, and j ets of affect ion . Somethingthe re is in her of Undine before she had a
s ou l something of a gay, vivacious , unfee ling sprite , who recks nothing of human loveor of human m isery, bu t looks down w ithutter indifference on the poor humdrum mor
tals around her,whom she inspires at once
w ith fear and fondness : something , a lso, of
DANIEL DERONDA . 263
the princess in exi le, who in time of fam inewas to have her breakfast—rol l made of the
finest bolted flou r from the seven thin ears of
wheat, and in a genera l decampmen t was tohave her s i lver fork kept ou t of the baggage .
How this bew itching creature , whose iridescence of character makes her a psycholog ica l problem,
i s g radua l ly brought to ac
cept Hen le igh Grandcourt, in Spite of the
promise she has g iven to L yd ia Glasher (hisdiscarded Victim), and her own fleeting pre
s ent imen ts , is described w ith an analytica ls ubtle ty un surpas sed in George El iot
’
s works .
So, indeed , i s the who le episode of the mar
ried life of Grandcourt. This territoria l magnate, who pos ses ses every worldly advan tagethat Gw endolen desired , i s worthy, as a studyof character, to be placed bes ide that of Ca
saubon h imse lf. Gw endolen ’
s g irlish typeof egoi sm ,
which loves to be the centre of
admiration ,here meets w ith that far other
deadlier form of an exorbitan t egoism, con
Spicuous for its intense obst inacy and tenacityof ru le, “ in proportion as the varied susceptibilities of younger years are stripped away .
”
This cold , negat ive nature l ies w ith a kind ofw ithering blight on the s u sceptible Gwendolen . Roused from the complacen t dreams of
g irlhood by the rea l ities of her married life,
264 GE ORGE ELIOT.
shrinking in he lpless repu ls ion from th e hus
band whom she meant to manage, and who
holds her as in a vice , the unhappy woman
has noth ing to cl ing to in this terrible inwardcol lapse of her happiness , but the man , who,
from the first momen t when his eye arrestshers at the gam ing table at L eubronn , be
comes, as it were, a con science vis ibly incarnate to her . This incident, wh ich is told inthe firs t chapter of the nove l , reca l ls a ske tchby Dan te Rossetti , where Mary Magdalene, inthe flush of j oyous l ife , is held by the Sa
viour’
s gaze , and in a sudden revu ls ion fromher old l ife, breaks away from compan ion sthat wou ld fa in hold her back, w ith a pas s ionate movemen t towards the Man of Sorrow .
Th is impressive conception may have uncon
sciously s ugges ted a somewhat s imilar situation to the nove li st, for that George El iot wasacqua inted w ith this draw ing is shown by thefollowing letter addres sed in 1870 to Dan te
Rossett i :“I have had time now to dwe l l on the
photog raphs . I am especia lly gratefu l to youfor g iving me the head marked June 186 1 it
is exqu is ite . But I am g lad to pos s es s everyone of them . Th e s ubj ect of the Magdalenerises in interest for me, the more I look at It.
I hope you w i l l keep in the picture an equa l ly
266 GE ORGE EL IOT.
s u lt of th e crimina l desire, it yet seems tothe unhappy wife as i f it had a determin
ing power in bring ing abou t the catastro
phe . But it is preci se ly th is remors e whichis the redeem ing qual ity of her nature ,
and awakens a new l ife w ithin her. In
this qu icken ing of the moral consciou snes sthrough gu i lt we are reminded , a lthoughin a different manner
,of a s imi lar process,
fu l l of pregnan t suggestions , described in
Nathan ie l H awthorne ’ s Trans formation .
’
It
w i l l be remembered that Donate l lo leads a
pu re ly ins t inctive, that i s to say an ima l,exis t
ence,ti l l the commi s s ion of a crime awakens
the dorman t conscience , and a sou l i s bornin the throes of angu i sh and remorse .
In Dan ie l Deronda ’
there is an en tire ah
sence of that rich , gen ia l humor which seemed
spontaneou sly to bubble up and overflow herearl ier works . W hether George E liot’s con
ception of the Jews as a pecu l iarly seriousrace had any share in bring ing abou t thatresu lt, it is difficu lt to say. A t any rate, inone of h er essays she remarks that, “ The
history and literature of the ancient He
brews g ives the idea of a people who wen t
about the ir bus iness and pleasu re as grave lyas a society of beavers . Certainly Mordecai, Deronda, and M irah are preternatura l ly
DANIEL DERONDA . 267
solemn ; even the Cohen fami ly are not pre
sented with any of those com ic touches onewou ld have looked for in this great humoriston ly in the boy Jacob there are g leams of
drol lery such as in this description of h im byH an s Meyrick : “ He treats me w ith the easie st fam i l iarity, and seem s in genera l to lookat me as a second-hand Christian commodity,l ikely to come down in price ; remarking on
my disadvantages with a frankness whichseems to imply some thoughts of fu ture purchase . It is pretty, though, to see the Changein h im if M irah happen s to come in . H e
tu rn s Chi ld sudden ly his age usual ly strikesone as be ing l ike the Israe l iti sh garments inthe desert, perhaps near forty, yet w ith an
air of recent production .
A certa in subdued vein of humor i s not
entire ly absen t from the portraitu re of the
Meyrick fami ly, a de l ightfu l group, who“ had
the i r little oddities, streaks of eccentricityfrom the mother’s blood as wel l as the
father’s, the ir minds be ing l ike mediae valhou ses w ith unexpected recesses and opening s from this into that, fl ights of steps,and s udden ou tlooks . But on the whole,in s tead of the old humor, we find in Dan ielDeronda a pol i shed irony and epigrammaticsarcasm,
which were afterwards s ti l l more
2625 U L: U Iru L: E L IU I .
fu l ly deve loped in the Impres sions of Theo
phrastu s Such .
’
Soon after the publication of this nove l ,we find the fol low ing a l lu s ion to it in one
of George E liot’s letters to Mrs . Bray : “ I
don’
t know what you refer to in the S‘ew isn
World . Perhaps the report of Dr . H ermannAdler ’s lecture on
‘
Deronda ’
to the Jew ishw orking-men , g iven in the Times . Probably the Dr . Adler whom you s aw is D r.
H ermann’
s father, sti l l l iving as Chief Rabbi .I have had some de lightfu l commun ica tion sfrom Jews and Jewes ses , both a t home and
abroad . Part of the Club scene in D . is
flying abou t in the Hebrew tongue throughthe various Hebrew new spapers , which havebeen copying the Maga ,
’
in which the translat ion was first sent to me three mon ths ago.
The Jew s natural ly are not indifferent to
themse lves .”
This Club scene gave rise at the time to
quite a controversy . It cou ld not fai l to beidentified w ith that other club of philosophersou t at e lbow s so vividly described by G . H .
L ewes in the Fortn tgAtly R eview of 1866.
Nor was it pos sible not to detect an affin itybetween the Jew Cohen, the poor consump
t ive j ourneyman watchmaker, w ith h is weakvoice and his g reat calm inte l lect, and Ezra
GE OR GE E L IU I
ba la . her friend humbly suggesting thatby ordinary accoun ts it appeared to be awfu lnon sense, she said “
that it neverthe lesstained fine ideas, like Plato and the O ld
tamen t, which , however, people took in the
lump, being accustomed to them.
CHAPTER XV
LAST YEARS .
‘ DANIEL DERONDA ’ i s the last great imag inat ive work w ith which George El iot was dest ined to en rich the world . It came ou t in
sma l l volumes, the appearance of each freshnumber be ing hai led as a l iterary event. In
a l lusion to an author’ s fee l ing on the conclu
s ion of a weighty task, George E liot remarksin one of her letters As to the grea t nove lwhich rema ins to be w ri tten , I mus t te l l youtha t I never be l ieve in future books . Al
ways after fin ishing a book I have a period of
despair that I can never again produce any
thing worth g iving to the world The re
sponsibi lity of the w riter grow s heavie r and
heavier does it not ? as the world g row solder, and the voices of the dead more numerous . It is d ifficu l t to be l ieve , unti l the germof some new work grows in to imperious activity wi thin one , that it is pos s ible to make a
really needed contribu tion to the poetry of the
world Imean possible to one ’
s se lf to do it.’
272 GE ORGE EL IOT.
This s ingu lar diffidence, arising from a .
sense of the tremendou s re spons ibility whichher pos ition en ta i led, was one of the mos t
noticeable Characteris tics of this great woman ,
and struck eve ry one who came in con tact
w ith her . Her conscientiousness made her
even painfu lly anxious to enter sympatheti
ca lly into the needs of every person who ap
proached her, so as to make her speech a
permanen tly fru itfu l influence in her heare r’ slife . Such an in terview , for example , as thatbe tween Goe the and H eine — whe re the
younger poet, after th inking all the way whatfine things to say to Goe the ,
was so dis concerted by the awe-inspiring presence of the
mas ter, that he cou ld find nothing be tte r tos ay than tha t the plums on the road-sidebetween Jena and W e imar w e re rema rkably
good —wou ld have been impos s ible w ith one
so eager a lways to g ive of her best .
This deep seriousness of natu re made herSunday afternoon recept ion s , which became
more and more fashionable as time wen t on ,
s omething of a tax to one who preferred the
in timate converse of a few to that more su
perficially brill ian t ta lk which a prom iscuous
gathe ring brings w ith it. Among the dis t in
gu ished vis itors to be met more or les s frequen tly a t the Priory may be men t ioned M r.
274 GE ORGE EL IOT
Few things have g iven us more pleasurethan the intimation in your note that you hada fi ancee. May she be the centra l happin es sand motive force of you r career, and, by s atisfying the affections , leave your ra re inte l lectfree to work out its g loriou s destiny. For
,if
you don’
t become a g lory to you r age and time ,it w i l l be a s in and a shame . Nature doesn ’
t
often send forth such g ifted sons, and whenshe does, Society u sua lly cripples them.
Nothing bu t marriage a happy marriagehas seemed to Mrs . L ewes and myse l f wan ting to you r future .
”
On the Sunday afternoon receptions j us tmentioned, G. H . L ewes acted, so to speak,as a socia l cement. H is vivacity, his readytact, the fascinat ion of h is manners, diffusedthat genera l sense of ea se and abandon so
requ is ite to foster an harmon ious flow of con
versat ion . He was in im itable as a racon teu r,
and Thackeray, Trollope , and A rthu r H e lpswe re fond of quoting some of the storieswh ich he wou ld dramat ize in the te l l ing .
O ne of the images which , on these occas ions,recu rs oftenest to George E l iot
’s friends , i sthat of the fra i l-looking woman who wou lds it w ith her chair drawn close to the fire
,and
whose w inn ing woman l iness of bearing and
manners struck every one who had the privi
LA S T YEARS . 27 5
lege of an introduction to her. Her long,pale face, w ith its strongly marked features,w as less rugged in the matu re prime of l ifethan in youth, the inner mean ings of her na
ture having worked themse lve s more and
more to the s urface , the mouth, with its
ben ignant suavity of expression , especia l lysoften ing the too prominent under- l ip and
mass ive jaw . Her abundan t ha i r, untingedw i th gray, whose smooth bands made a kindof frame to the face , was covered by a lace or
mus lin cap,w ith lappe ts of r ich poin t or Val
enciennes lace fas tened under her chin . Her
g ray-blue eye s, under noticeable eye lashes ,expressed the same acu te sens it iveness as
her long, thin, beaut i fu l ly shaped hands . She
had a pleasan t laugh and sm i le, her voicebe ing low , dis tinct, and intensely sympathet icin qua lity : it was contra lto in sing ing , but
she seldom sang or played before more thanone or two friends . Though h er conversat ionw as perfect ly easy, each sentence was as fin
ished, as perfectly formed , as the style of her
published works . Indeed , she laid great stres son th e va lue of correct speaking and clearnes sof enunciation and in ‘Theophras tus Such ’
she laments “the genera l ambition to speak
every language except our mothe r Eng li sh ,
which pe rsons ‘
of style ’
are not ashamed of
276 GE ORGE EL IOT.
corrupting w ith slang , fa lse fore ign equ iva
len ts, and a pronunciat ion that crush es out
all color from the vowe ls , and j ams them be
tween jos tl ing consonan ts .Bes ides M . D
’
A lbert’
s Genevese portrait ofGeorge Eliot,
'
we have a draw ing by Mr. Bur
ton , and another by Mr . L aw rence, the lattertaken soon after the publication of ‘ AdamBede .
’
In cri tici sing the latter l ikene s s, a
keen observer of human natu re rema rked thatit conveyed no indica tion of the infin ite depthof her obse rvan t eye, nor of tha t cold, subtle,and unconscious crue lty of expression whichm ight occas iona l ly be detected there. GeorgeE liot had an unconquerable aversion to her
liken es s be ing taken once , however, in 1860,
she w as photographed for the s ake of h er“ dear s i sters ” at Roseh i l l . Bu t She seem sto have repented of this w eakness , for, afterth e lapse of years , she w rites : “ Mr. L ew e sh as j u st come to me after reading your letter,and says, For God ’s s ake te l l h er not to havethe photograph reproduced and Ihad nearlyforgotten to s ay that the fading is what Ides ired . I shou ld not l ike this image to be
perpetuated . It needs the friend ly eye s thatreg ret to see it fade , and mu st not be reca l ledin to emphatic black and white for indifferen t
gazers . Pray let it van ish .
27g GE ORGE ELIOT.
In cutting the leaves , whi le my head iss til l sw imming from the journey, I have not
res is ted the temptat ion to read many thing sas they ought not to be read — hurriedly.
Bu t even in this way I have rece ived a
stronger impression than any fresh poemshave for a long while g iven me , that to readonce i s a reason for reading again . The son
nets towards ‘ The House of L ife ’
attract mepecu l iarly . I fee l about them as I do about an ew cahier of music w hich I have been ‘
try
ing’ here and there w ith the de l igh tfu l con
viction that I have a g reat dea l to becomeacqua inted w ith and to l ike better and better.A nd aga in , in acknow ledgment of some pho
tograph s :“ The Ham let ’
s eems to me perfectly inte l l ig ible, and a ltogether adm irable inconception , except in the type of the man
’
s
head. I fee l sure that Hamle t ’
had a squarean te rior lobe .
“Mr . L ewes says , this conception of yoursmakes h im long to be an actor who has Ham
let’
for one of h is parts, that he m ight carryout this scene according to your idea .
O ne is a lways l iable to mistake prejudicesfor s ufficien t inductions , about types of headand face, as we l l as about all other things . I
have some impressions perhaps on ly prejudices dependent on the narrowness of my
LAS T YEARS . 279
experience — about forms of eyebrow and
the i r re lation to passionate expres s ion . It i spossible that such a supposed re lation has a
rea l anatom ical basis . But in many particulars facia l expression is l ike the expressionof hand-w rit ing : the re lat ions are too s ubtleand intricate to be detected, and on ly Sha l lowne ss i s confident .
”
G eorge E l iot read but l ittle contemporaryfiction , be ing u sual ly absorbed in the study of
some particu lar subj ect. For my own spiritual good I need all other sort of reading ,
”
she says, more than I need fiction . I knownothing of contemporary Eng l i sh nove l istswith the exception of and a few of
’
s
works . My constant groan i s that I mu stleave so much of the g reatest w riting whichthe centuries have s ifted for me un read forwant of time .
”For the same reason, on be
ing recommended by a l iterary friend to readW a lt W hitman, sh e hes itated on the groundof h is not conta ining anything sp iritua l lyneedfu l for her, but, having been induced to
take him up, she changed her opin ion and
admitted that he did con tain what was goodfor her sou l . A s to l igh ter reading, she wasfond of books of trave l , pronouncing
“ ‘ The
Voyage of the Cha l lenger’
a Splendid book .
Among fore ign nove l i s ts she was very partia l
280 GEORGE ELIOT.
to Henry Grevil le, and speaks of ‘
L es Kou
miass ine’
as a pleasant story.
Persons who were privileged enough to be
admitted to the in timacy of George E liot andMr. L ewes could not fai l to be impressed bythe immense admiration which they had forone another. Lewes
’
s tenderness , a lways on
the watch lest the great w riter, w ith her del icately poi sed health, shou ld over-exert herself,had something of dog like fide l ity. On the
other hand, in spite of George El iot’s habitu
a l ly retiring manner, if any one ever engagedon the opposite side of an argument to thatmaintained by the bri lliant savant, in takinghis part, she usua l ly had the best of it, al
though in the mos t gentle and feminin e way.
A lthough there was en t ire oneness of feeling between them, there w as no unan imity ofopinion. George E l iot h ad the highest re
gard for L ewes’
s opinions, but he ld to her
own. O ne of the chief subj ects of differenceconsisted in the i r attitude towards Christianity : whereas he was its u ncompromi s ingopponent, she had the g reatest sympathywith its various manifestation s from Roman
Cathol ic asceticism to Evangel ica l au sterityand Methodist fervor . Her reverence for
every form of worship in which mankind hasmore or less consciou sly embodied its sense
282 GE ORGE E LIOT.
L essing, Bentham, She l ley, M i l l, Mazzin i, and
V ictor Hugo. Inasmuch as Comte co-ordimated these ideas into a consis ten t doctrine ,George E l iot found herse l f greatly attractedto h is system ; and Mr. Beesly, after an
acqua intance of e ighteen years, cons ideredhimse l f jus tified in s tating that her pow erfulinte l lect had accepted the teaching of Au
g us te Comte , and that she looked forward to
the reorgan ization of belief on the l ines whichhe had laid dow n . S ti l l her adherence, likethat of G . H . L ewes, was on ly partia l, and
applied ma inly to h is philosophy, and not to
his scheme of social pol icy. She went farthe rthan the latter, however, in her concu rrence .
For Mr. L ewes, speaking of the Politique
Pos itive in his H istory of Philosophy,’
ad
m its that h is antagon i stic attitude h ad beencons iderably modified on learn ing from the
remark of one very dear to him, to regardit as an U topia, presenting hypotheses ratherthan doctrines — suggestions for future in
quiries rather than dogmas for adepts .”
O n the whole , a lthough George E liot didnot agree w ith Comte
’
s later theories conce rning the recons truction of society
,she regarded
them w ith sympathy “as the e fforts of an
individual to anticipate the work of fu ture
generations .”This sympathy w ith the gen
LAS T YEARS . 283
eral Positivist movement she showed by subscribing regu larly to Pos itivi st obj ects , especially to the fund of the Central O rgan ization
pres ided over by M . L affitte, but she invariablyrefu sed all membership w ith the Posit ivistcommun ity . In conversation w ith an old
and va lued friend, she a lso repeatedly ex
pressed h er object ion to much in Comte ’slater specula tion s, saying on one occasion,
“
I cannot submit my intel lect or my sou l tothe gu idance of Comte .
”The fact is that,
a lthough George E l iot was greatly influencedby th e leading Positivist ideas, her mind wastoo orig inal not to work out her own individual conception of l ife.
W hat th is conception is has been a lreadyindicated, so far as space wou ld permit, inthe discu ssion of h er successive works . Per
haps in the course of time her moral izinganalytica l tendency encroached too much on
the pu re ly artis tic facu lty . Her eminentlydramatic gen ius — which enabled her to rea liz e characters the most varied and oppos itein type, somewhat in the manner of Shakespeare — became hampered by theories and
abstract View s of life . This was especiallyshown in her latest work ‘ The Impress ionsof Theophrastus Such ,
’
a series of es sayschiefly sati rizing the weaknesses and vanities
284GE ORGE E LIOT.
of the l iterary class . In these unattractive“ impress ions th e w it i s often labored, anddoes not play beneficently round the Changing facets of ego ism , absurdity, and vice, a sthe sunshine over the rippling sea or the
dewy meadow s .” Its cutting i rony and in
cis ive ridicule are no longer tempered by thehumorou s laugh , but have the corrosive quality of some acrid chem ica l substance .
O ne of the papers , however, that entitled‘ Debasing the Mora l Currency,
’
expressesa s trong ly marked characteris tic of GeorgeE l iot’s m ind . It is a pithy protes t agains tthe tendency of the present generation to
tu rn the grandes t deeds and noblest worksof art into food for laughter. For she hatednothing so much as mockery and ridicu le of
what other people reverenced , often remarking that those who cons idered thems e lve sfrees t from superst itious fancie s w ere the
mos t intoleran t. She carried this fee ling to
such a pitch that she even dis liked a booklike A l ice in W onderland ’ becau se it laughedat the thing s wh ich chi ldren had had a kindof be lief in . In censuring this vicious habitof bu rle squing the things that ought to be
rega rded w ith awe and admiration , she re
marks , “ L et a greedy buffoonery debase all
historic beau ty, maj es ty, and pathos , and the
286 GE ORGE ELIOT.
s ti l l hang about our pa in . In her case , also,
the c l ing ing compan ionship w ith the deadwas gradua l ly linked w ith her l iving affec
tions , and she found a l leviation for her sor
row ih resum ing those habits of con t inuou smenta l occupation which had become s econdnature w ith her. In a le tter addres sed to a
friend, who, on ly a few short months afterw ards
, suffered a l ike heavy bereavement,
there breathes the Spir it in which GeorgeE l iot bore her own sorrow :
“ I understandit all. There i s bu t one refuge — the
having much to do. You have the mother’sduties . Not that these can yet make yourlife other than a burden to be patient ly borne .
Nothing can , except the gradua l adaptationof you r sou l to the new condi tions . It
is among my most cherished memories th atI knew you r husband, and from the firs t de~lighted in him. All blessing — and eventhe sorrow that is a form of love has a heartof bless ing — is tenderly w ished for you .
O n see ing this lady for the first time afterthe ir mutua l loss, George E l iot asked her
eagerly :“ Do the chi ldren help ? Does it
make any difference Some he lp there wasfor the w idowed heart of th is sorrow ing woman
in throw ing herse lf, w ith all h er energ ies , in tothe work which L ewe s had left unfin ished at
LAS T YEARS . 287
his death, and preparing it for publication,
w ith the he lp of an expert . Another subj ectwhich occupied her thoughts at this time,wasthe foundat ion of the “ George H en ry L ewe sStudentship,
”in order to commemorate the
name of one who had done so mu ch to distin
gui sh himse l f in th e varied fie lds of l iterature,science , and philosophy The va lue of the
studentship is slight ly under 2001. a year.It i s worth noticing tha t persons of both sexesare rece ived as ca ndidates . The object of theendowment i s to encou rage the prosecutionof orig ina l research in physiology, a scienceto whose study L ewes had devoted himselfmost ass iduously for many years. W rit ing of
th is matter to a young lady, one of the Gi rtonstudents, George E l iot says : “ I knowwil l be g lad to hear a lso that both in Eng landand Germany the type , or scheme , on whichthe studentship is arranged has been regardedwith sat isfaction ,
as like ly to be a u sefu lmodel.”
Amid such preoccupation s , and the preparat ion of ‘Theophrastus Such for the press , themonths passed on ,
and George E l iot was be
g inn ing to see her friends again ,when one day
she not on ly took the world , bu t her int imateci rcle by su rprise , by her marriage with Mr.
John Walte r Cross, on the 6th of May, 1880.
288 GE ORGE E L IOT.
George E l iot ’ s acqua intance w ith M r.
Cros s , dat ing from the year 1867 , had longago grown in to th e warmes t friendship, andh is bound les s devotion to the g rea t woman
w hose s ocie ty w as to h im as h is da ily bread ,no doubt induced h er to take a step wh ichcou ld not fa i l to star tle even those who lovedh er th e mos t. But George El iot
’
s w as a na tu rethat needed some one e specia l ly to love . A nd
though that preciou s compan ion ship, a t once
s timu lating and sympathetic,which she had
so long enjoyed, was taken from her, sh e cou lds ti l l find comfor t during the remainde r of herl ife in the love , the apprecia tion ,
and the ten
der care which were proffered to her by Mr.
Cros s . Unfortunate ly her l ife w as not des
tined to be prolonged .
A l though s eeming fairly we l l at this date ,George E l iot’s hea lth, always de l icate , hadprobably received a shock, from w hich it
never recovered . On ly s ix mon ths beforeher marriage three em inent medical men
w e re attending her for a painfu l dis ease .
However, there seemed s ti l l a prospect of
happines s for her when sh e and Mr . C ros swent for a tou r in Ita ly
, set t l ing , on the irre tu rn , at her favorite coun try hous e a t W it
ley . In th e au tumn they once more madethe ir home in L ondon, at Mr. Cross ’s town
290 GE ORGE EL IOT.
Christmas Eve the announcement of her
death was rece ived w ith genera l g rief. She
was buried by the s ide of George HenryL ewe s , in the cemetery at H ighgate .
George Eliot’
s career has been habitua l lydescribed as un iform and uneven tfu l . In
real ity nothing i s more m is leading . On the
contrary, her life , from its ri sing to its set
ting , describes an aston ishing ly w ide orbit.If one turn s back in imag ination from the
l ittle S taffordshire vi l lage w hence her fathersprang , to the s imple rural su rround ings of
her own you th, and traces h er history to the
moment when a crowd of mourners , consis ting of the most distinguished men and women
in Eng land, fol lowed h er to the grave , one
cannot he lp rea lizing how tru ly eventfu l wasthe l ife of her who now j oined in spirit the
Choir invis ibleOf those immortal dead who live again
In minds made better by their presence liveIn pulses stirred to generos ity,
In deeds of daring rectitude, in scorn
For miserable aims that end in se lf,In thoughts sublime that pierce the night l ike stars,And w ith their m ild pers istence urge man
’
s search
To vas ter issues .
”
294 AP PENDIX .
It is not easy to realize the extent to which re ligionhad become the controlling power in her life, exceptby the aid of such concrete illuminations as are foundin some of her letters . On her first visit to London
,
a trip taken with her brother as sole companion, she
was “not at all de lighted with the stir of the great
Babel,” and,like the ascetic that she had temporarily
become,refused to attend the theatre, and for a
souvenir of the trip bought Josephus’s
‘ H istory of
the Jews .
’She wrote of herse lf : “ I used to go
about like an owl, to the great d isgust of my brother ;and I would have denied him What I now see to havebeen quite lawfu l amusements .
”
Music, which was all her life a passion and he lpshe came to pronounce a use less accomplishment,and seriously pondered whether she cou ld profitablyattend “
such exhibitions of talent ” as an oratorio
which she had just heard rendered. And when she
reached the po int of solemnly asserting that novelswere pern iciou s, since surely the weapons of Christian warfare were never sharpened at the forge
‘
of
romance ,”we recognize how deeply rooted the re li
giou s feeling was,that wou ld urge her to find per
nicious the two things that were most congenia l inher life
,music and books . H er language even took
on a scriptura l cast. The marriage of a friend provoked the spoken thought that
“ those are happiest
who are not fermen ting themselves by engaging in
projects for earthly bliss, who are considering this
life mere ly a pilgrimage, a scene ca lling for diligenceand watchfulness, not for repose and amusement.”
She desired a proper“scriptura l digestion ”
and
wrote her aunt : “ I shall not only suffer, but be
delighted to receive,the word of exhortation, and I
beg you not to withhold it.” The “ dominant cor
ruption”
of her nature she found to be ambition,
“ which turns the milk of my good purpose all to
AP PENDIX . 29 5
The beautiful heavens awaken in me
aspiration after all that is suited to engage an
immateria l nature .
”
A small proportion ofMr. Cross ’s Life of George
Eliot consists of journal extracts, the body of the
work being a continuous series of letters to her friendsand publisher. George Eliot was preéminently a
woman of friends . She could and did live without
health or bodily case,she could have lived happily
in poverty, but it would have been impossible for a
woman of her affectionate,sensitive , self-deprecating
nature to live without friends . The greatest tributeto her sterling womanliness and nobility is the friendship and love wh ich good, and often great, women laidat her feet
,both in the years of her obscurity and
public censure as we ll as in the days of renown .
After she had grown away from the Maggie Tulliver
period and had entered upon housekeeping responsi
bilities, away from the brother Tom whose playmateshe had long been, for three years, from 1 838 to 1 84 1 ,her on ly intimate friend and correspondent was a
M iss Lewis,who had been the principal governess in
M iss Wallington’
s schoo l at Nuneaton, wh ich GeorgeEliot attended in her eighth or n inth year. It is to
this Miss Lewis that the first letters in the L ife ’are
directed . Mr. Cross remarks At M iss Wa llington ’s
the re ligious side of her nature was deve loped toa remarkable degree . M iss Lewis was an ardentEvange lica l Churchwoman,
and exerted a strong
influence on her young pupil, whom she found verysympathetically inclined. But Mary Ann Evans d id
not associate freely with her schoolfe llows, and her
friendship with M iss Lewis was the only intimacy she
indulged in .
”
This was distinctly not the ordinary girlish friendship, for Miss Lewis was much older than her former
pupil and George Eliot had eschewed all youthful
296A P P ENDIX .
vanities and was settling down to the sober earnest
ness of life , a lthough she was not yet twenty. Perhapsthe only suggestion of levity in the ir correspondencewas the occasion of George Eliot
’s writing that some
one had bestowed upon her the flower name
Clematis. She promised to send Miss Lewis one
a lso. Accordingly the next letter is inscribed “ Mydear Veronica — which
,being interpreted, is fidelity
in friendship.
’ The genera l tone of their correspondence is
,however, the reverse of light, as the following
indicates : “ I do not deny that there may be manywho can partake with a h igh degree of zest of all thelawful enjoyments the world can offer, and yet livein near communion with their God who can warmlylove the creature, and yet be careful that the Creatormaintains his supremacy in their hearts ; but I con
fess that,in my short experience and narrow sphere
of action, I have never been able to attain to
this .
”
She “ highly enjoyed H annah More’s letters 3
“ the contemplation of so blessed a character as hers
is very salutary.
”If one doubts that this admiration
for religious en thusiasts was but a part of a short,
definite period of her life — her intimacy with M issLewis — he has but to turn to a letter from the same
hand just ten years later.
“ I am glad you detestMrs . Hannah More
’s letters . I like neither her
letters, nor her books, nor her character. She was
that most disagreeable of all monsters, a blue- stocking
— a monster that can only exist in a miserablyfalse state of society, in which a woman w ith but a
smattering of learning or philosophy is c lassed alongwith singing mice and card-playing pigs.
” The
George Eliot of the first writing was that incarna tionof herse lf which placed the ban of condemna tion
upon music and fiction and thought it good to rejoiceonly in suffering, denying herse lf all that she most
298AP PENDIX .
fifty-six years old .
“ I wonder if you all rememberan old governess of mine who u sed to visit me at
Foleshill — a M iss Lewis ? I have found her out .
She is living at Leamington, very poor as well as old,but cheerful, and so delighted to be remembered withgratitude .
”
To Miss Sara H ennell “ Miss Evans mainly turnsnow for intellectual sympathy ; to Mrs . Bray when
she is in pain or trouble,and wants affectionate com
pan ionship , with Mr. Bray she quarrels, and the
humorous side of her nature is brought out. Everygood story goes to him
, with a certainty that it willbe appreciated. W ith all three it is a beautifu l andconsistent friendship, running like a thread through
the woof of the coming thirty- eight years .
”
Although George Eliot had previously urged MissLewis to “
ever be lieve that ‘ my heart is as thyheart
,
’that you may rely on me as on a second self,”
and insisted that “ I long to have a friend such as
you are a lone to me, to unburden every thought
and d ifficulty— for I am a solitary though near a
c ity yet those were the days when she wrote that
she had become alive to the fac t that she was a lonein the world. I do not mean to be so sinful as tosay that I have not friends mos t undeservedly kindand tender but I mean that I have no one who
enters into my pleasures or my griefs, no one with
whom I can pour out my soul, no one with the same
yearnings, the same temptations, the same delights asmyse lf.” From the date of her early friendship w iththe Brays and their friends, this mood came to her
less frequently.
“ In Mr. and M rs . Bray and in the
H ennell fam ily she had found friends who calledforth her in terest and stimulated her powers in no
common degree . This was traceable even in ex
ternals,in the changed tone of voice and manner.
”
When she left her cares at home to stay for a time at
APPENDIX . 299
Rosehill, she always fe lt,as she closed the garden door,
that she was shutting the world out.
Perhaps next to Mr. Lewes, Sara H ennell was
George Eliot’
s greatest inspiration to literary activity.
She wa s especia lly he lpful in the work of translatingStrauss. It was to her that George Eliot wrote Iam miserably in want of you to stir up my sou l andmake it shake its wings, and begin some kind of
flight after some thing good and noble,for I am in a
grovel ling, s lothful condition, and you are the onlyfriend I possess who has an animating influence overme . Te ll me not that I am a mere prater
that fee ling n ever talks . I wil l ta lk,and caress
,and
look lovingly, until death makes me as stony as the
Gorgon like heads of all the judicious people I know .
”
.
“ I am translating the ‘ Tractatus Theologico
Politicus of Spinoza,b
and seem to want the on lyfriend that knows how to praise or blame . How
exquis ite is the satisfaction of feeling that another
mind than your own sees precisely where and what
is the difficulty, and can exactly appreciate the suc
cess with which it is overcome .
“ Remember,you are one ofmy guardian ange ls .
To the sympath etic lover of the quiet author, of
whom one usually th inks as a sombre figure, me lancholy and self-distrustful
,those pages of Mr. Cross ’s
Life containing the letters written from Geneva to
her English friends are supremely interesting as
marking one of the happiest,most care-free
,and
cheerful periods in her life . There is a youthfu lspontaneity and enthusiasm in her interpretations of
people and things which is as delightful as it is
rare,and makes one fee l thankful that this experi
ence was hers just when she most needed it. The
life of devotion to a re ligion narrow and stem ,
the life of household cares and perplexities, wasin the past for her, and she had not yet entered
300 A P P ENDIX .
upon the arduous career of literary labor that wasbefore her.In Geneva, despite more or less illness and difficul
ties in obtaining su itable lodgings, she gave herse lf upto the enjoyment of the historic city, and began to
believe in the good intention of the world about her.She fi lled her letters to England with bits of gossipin school—girl style. With charming na iveté she wrote
in one letter : “ You would not know me if you saw
me . The Marquise took on her the office of femmede clzamé re, and dre ssed my hair one day. She has
abolished all my curls, and made two things stick outon each side of my head like those on the head of
the Sphinx. All the world says I look infinitely better ; so I comply, though to myself I seem uglierthan ever— if possible The Marquis is themost well-bred, harmless of men . H e talks verylittle —every sentence seems a terrible gestation, andcomes forthfor tzlrs z
'
mo.
” “ The gray-headed gentleman got quite fond of talking philosophy with mebefore he went.” For the first day I lay in bedI had the whole female world of Plongeon in mybedroom
,and ta lked so incessantly that 1 was unable
to sleep after it. “ M . de H would be a
n ice person if he had another soul added to the one
he has by nature — the sou l that comes by sorrowand love .
” Imake no apology for writing all
my peevishness and follies , because I want you to do
the same to let me know everything about you, tothe aching of your fingers — and you tell me verylittle .
" “ There are no better jokes going thanIcan make myself.” Mme . Ludwigsdor sendsme tea when I wake in the morn ing orange
-flower
water when I go to bed— grapes and her maid to
wait on me .
“ The tea of the house is execrableor, rather, as Mrs. A. says,
‘ How glad we ought to
be that it has no taste at all ; it might have a very
302AP P ENDIX .
Geneva to her English friends, and of the George
Eliot ” who longed for a ll the kindness and love theworld had to give . The affection that she cravedseemed to have been lacking in her early life, so thatit came to her as something to be wondered at, as
we ll as deeply thankful for, that when she went to Ge
neva,a stranger ailing and despond ent, she found af
fectionate friendships awaiting her. I am perfectlycomfortable ; everyone is kind to me and seems to
like me .
”It was worth While to be ill to have
so many kind attentions .
”
The most delightful of all her Geneva friends wereMonsieur and Madame D ’
Albert, who acted “as if
they wished me to like their friends and the ir friendsto like me .
” “ I am in an atmosphere of loveand refinement even the little servant Jeanne seems
to love me .
”She [Madame D
’Albert] kisses me
like a mother,and I am baby enough to find that a
great addition to my happiness .
” It was at the time
of her e arly acquaintance with the Brays that she hadsaid
,I really begin to recant my old be lief about
the indifference of a ll the world towards me , for myacquaintances of this neighborhood seem to seek an
opportunity of smiling on me in spite of my heresy.
”
The beginning of her London life marked a change
in the ties between George Eliot and the Brays . A
letter which she wrote at this time to Sara H ennell,
a ssuring her of her present and future great affection,
seems to have been occasioned by some reproach
on the part of Miss H ennell that George Eliot in hern ew and broader life was forgetful of her old friends .
I love you more than ever,not less . It is im
possible that I shou ld ever love two women betterthan I love you and Cara . Notwithstanding this
assertion , while not loving her Rosehill friends less,she was finding new friends, occupations, and pleasures which made the former not less clear but less
AP PENDIX . 303
necessary to her well-being . Chief among her
London acquaintances was H erbert Spencer, who wasj ust making h imse lf strongly fe lt in literary and philosophic circles . My brighte st spot, next to my loveof old friends
,is the deliciously ca lm, new friendship
that H erbert Spencer gives me . We see each other
every day.
”Spencer says that their being seen to
gether so frequently gave rise to the report that theywere engaged to be married
, which he denies .
George Eliot found him a good, de lightful creature,”but asserted that we have agreed that we are not in
love with each other,and that there is no reason why
we shou ld not have as much of each other’
s societyas we like .
”
In his autobiography Herbert Spencer, in writingof George Eliot, speaks of Miss Evans whom
you have heard me mention as the translatress of
Strauss and as the most admirable woman , mentally, Iever met. In physique there was, perhaps, a traceof that masculinity characterizing her in tellect for
though of but the ordinary feminine height, she wasstrongly built. The head
,too, was larger than is
usual in women . It had , moreover, a peculiarity distinguishing it from most heads, whether feminine or
masculine namely, that its contour was very regular.Striking by its power when in repose , her face
was remarkably transfigured by a sm ile with her
sm ile there was habitually mingled an expression of
sympathy. H er voice was a contralto of rather
low pitch and I be lieve naturally strong, but
the habit of subduing her voice was so constant, that
I suspect that its real power was rarely, if ever, heard .
Its tones were a lways gentle and,like the smile
,sym
pathetic . She complained of be ing troubled bydouble consciousness — a current of se lf-criticismbe ing an habitua l accompaniment of anything she
was saying or doing ; and this naturally tended
304 APP ENDIX .
toward self-depreciation and self-distrust. Probably it was this last trait that prevented her from
displaying her powers and her knowledge . How
great both were there is now no occasion to te ll anyone . An extraordinarily good memory and great
quickness of apprehension made acquisition of everykind easy ; and a long with this facility of acquisitionthere went an ability to organize that which she ac
quired , though not so great an ability her spec
u lative faculty was critical and analytic rather than
sympathetic . Even as it was,however
,her philosoph
ical powers were remarkable . I have known but fewmen with whom I cou ld discuss a question in philosophy with more satisfaction. Capacity for abstractthinking is rare ly found along with capacity for con
crete representation, even in men and among wo
men, such a union of the two as existed in her,has
,
I shou ld think, never been paralle led .
”
It was through H erbert Spencer that George Eliotand Mr. Lewes came to know each other
,and when
the latter had succeeded in w inning her liking, inspite of herse lf, a s she put it, all other friendships became of secondary importance, and the w ish expressedby her a number of years before to Mrs. Bray wasrealized : “ The only ardent hope for my future lifeis to have given to me some woman
’s duty — some
possibility of devoting myself where I may see a
daily result of pure, calm blessedness in the life of
another.
”
The new life of un ion with Mr. Lewes was begunby George Eliot not knowing but that she would bedeprived of all her former friends . Because of
this possibility, she had resolved that when theyshould return to London after their brief sojourn in
Germany they wou ld see and visit with on ly those whovoluntarily chose to seek them ou t. She wrote to
Mrs. Bray “ I wish it to be understood that I
305AP PENDIX .
advice. Chrissey’s long silence toward her younger
sister was pathetically broken by a letter written
shortly before she died of consumption, in wh ich she
regretted deeply that through her action they had
become such strangers to each other. Many yearslater, when George Eliot became the w ife of Mr.
Cross,her brother, too, broke the silence which he
had allowed to exist between them . But whileGeorge Eliot never gave anything but kindness and
love to her own family, it was by outside friends thatshe herself was most beloved, and to whom she gavemost love .
H er love and friendship for Mrs . Congreve, who wasa daughter of the Dr. Bury who attended her fatherin h is last illness, was someth ing more human and
womanly than her affection for oth ers . For a time
they were near neighbors as well as c lose friends, andeven when distance and years separated them, George
Eliot could pay her this tribute :“ The other day
I said to Mr. Lewes,
‘ Every now and then it comes
across me, like the recollection of some precious
little store laid by, that there is a Mrs . Congreve inthe world.
’
Madame Bodichon,whom George Eliot first knew
as Miss Barbara Smith , brought into her secludedlife the atmosphere of the busy outside world . She
was continua lly in the midst of petitions to Parliamentand schemes for the proper education of women
,and
being a woman of rare sympathy and energy, won
a warm place in George Eliot’
s affections,a s we ll as
arousing her interest in current reform and philanthropy. Madame Bodichon alone of George Eliot ’sfriends recognized her as the author of Adam Bede .
’
Even the Brays, who had known George E liot longerand perhaps more intimately than Madame Bodichon, were overwhelmed with surprise when she
revealed herself to them as‘ George Eliot. ’
AP PENDIX . 307
George Eliot’s letters and confidentia l talks to herjournal do not reveal such personalities as her habitsor choice in eating and drinking : they leave us in
ignorance as to her favorite colors and flowers, and
whe ther she preferred as a pet an Angora cat or a
poodle dog . H owever,they do show most interest
ingly that her chief pastime was music’
,and that it
became th e one passion of her life , outside of her
literary work and her love of home . H er familiarity with the piano dated from her fourth year,when she played without knowing one note, in orderto impress the servant with a proper notion of her
acquirements and genera lly distinguished position .
When thirteen years of age,“ her enthusiasm for
music was a lready very strongly marked,and her
music-master soon had to confess that he had
no more to teach her.”
At M iss Franklin ’s school
,
“ when there were visitors, M iss Evans, as the bestperformer in the school, was sometimes summonedto the parlor to play for their amusement, and though
suffering agonies from shyness and reluctance, she
obeyed with all readiness,but
, on being re leased, mymother has often known her to rush to her room and
throw herse lf on the floor in an agony of tears .
”
Since music ‘was one of this busy woman’s few
pastimes, it is not strange that her open Sundaysshould so frequently have been devoted to music with
celebrated musicians as performers,
and this fact
doubtless was an added attrac tion to the vis itors whomet M r. Lewes and his famous wife in their quiethome. George Eliot
’s love of music exceeded he r
theoretica l knowledge, however, as is shown by her
erroneous reference to principles of harmony in one
of her novels .
It seems impossible to imagine a person more sen
sitive to external influences than was George Eliot.No matter how comfortably housed she was, nor how
308APP ENDIX .
much loved by those within the shelter of the house,a cold rain driven c ityward by a chill ocean windra ins such as London ,
where her home was oftenest
made , excelled in — cou ld drive her to me lancholyand headaches , and unfit her for her literary work .
Even those gray masses of fog which came without
wind or rain and beat‘
\noiselessly upon the walls of
London houses,cou ld counteract perhaps a whole
week of days of sunshine and optimism,and bring
the mood which wou ld cause her to write to a friendthat the fog reduced her faith in all good and love lythings to its lowest ebb . Yesterday it ra ined ,
and
of course I said euz’
bone ? and found my troublesa lmost more than I could bear to- day the sun
shines,consequen tly I find life very glorious, is
typical of the comments which show the effect of
cloud and sunshine on her. There is as much
of earnestness as of playfulness in her summary of
her woes as“ fog, east wind, and headache .
”
Since she realized so we ll that for her the soul ’sca lm sunshine is half made up of the outer
sunshine ,”
and that London afforded such smal l,and a t best intermittent, supplies of it, one wondersthat the greater part of her busy life should have beenspent there where she could be so tormented . In
writing from London to a friend who was recuper
ating in the coun try, she said that the wide sky, the
we t London,makes a new creature of me in half an
hour.
”After her defin ite connection with the [Ves t
mz
’
m ier Review was ended in April, 1 854 , just beforeshe went to live with Mr. Lewes , the necessity for
her presence in London did not exist. Mr . Lewes,too , had severed his formal connection with The
L ea der,and while both his work and that of George
Eliot were wholly a long literary and journal istic lines ,such pursuits need not have languished in a sunn ier,more fogle ss a tmosphere . Yet
,e ither because o f
3 10 AP PENDIX .
of an isolated life, parents not un loving but unappre
ciative of her nature,and few books to read
,cou ld
find on ly exhilaration in buffe ting the winds and ad
verse c ircumstances as we ll .A significant feature of George Eliot’s home life
was the harmonious relation existing between herselfand Mr . Lewes
’s three sons . The completeness of
her conquest of their boyish allegiance could not be
more convincingly shown than in the fact that the y
addressed her as Mother.
’In one of her letters to
a married woman she said that when the three stalwart boys in their family called her mother, she fe ltthat she was entitled to the respect from the worldusually accorded a married woman .
George Eliot lived no life of self- indulgence , as sheput it
,but with the stimulus wh ich the new life
brought with it worked diligen tly, early and late,at
the pen in order that her literary work might be a
credit to herse lf and bring in the necessary funds forthe ir own living expenses, the education of Mr.
Lewes’s sons, and the support of their mother. At
first, and wh ile the boys were away at school inGermany, the Lewes
’s lodgings were of the simplest
character, their pleasures and recreations were foundin inexpensive wa lks and little excursions undertakenfor purposes of work, for acquiring specimen s, or
from similar motives ; but when her writing began to
give her greater confidence in herself and broughther a sufli cient money return, they rented a wholehouse, so tha t the boys shou ld have a home to come
to,and one in which they could receive their friends .
One can feel no regre t that those years, and especiallythe very first years of her union with Mr. Lewes, were
years of hard work and rigid economy, for it was on lyby such means that she could find contentment and
happiness . A life shorn of stern duties and necessarylabors would have had no attraction for her and her
APP ENDIX. 3 II
new life, making Mr. Lewes’s obligations her own,
caused only a feeling of eagerness to meet them brave lyand effi ciently. With our knowledge of her slavishdevotion to duty in whatever form it came
,her success
in mothering the boys and stimulating them to usefullives was to have been expected .
George Eliot he lped to select a suitable school forthe boys, the place chosen being Hofwyl, where all
three Charles, Thornton, and H erbert remaineduntil their preliminary education was completed.
Charles, being the eldest, seems to have carried on
the correspondence with the “ little Pater and the ir
fostermother. Severa l bits from George Eliot’s lettersto Charles show how true a mother’s love and interestshe gave to these boys .
“ If I am able to go on
working, I hope we sha ll afford to have a fine grandpiano . I like to know that you were gratified byg etting a watch so much sooner than you expected ;and it was the greater satisfaction to me to send it toyou, because you had earned it by making good useof these precious years at Hofwyl. It is a great comfort to your father and me to think of that, for we,with our old grave heads , can
’t he lp talking very often
of the need our boys will have for all sorts of goodqualities and habits in making their way through thisdifficult life. Te ll Thornton he shall have the
book he asks for, i f possible — I mean the book of
moths and butterflies ; and te ll Bertie I expect tohear about the wonderfu l things he has done with hispocket-knife . We shall hope to hear a great dea lof your journey, with all its haps and mishaps.You are an exce llent corre spondent, so I do not fear
you will flag in writing to me .
” I fear you willmiss a great many things in exchanging Hofwyl, with
its snowy mountains and glorious spaces, for a very
moderate home in the neighborhood of London . You
wi ll have a less various, more arduous life : but the
3 12 A PP ENDIX .
time of E nz‘ée/zr zmg or E nz
‘mgnng must begin, you
know, for every mortal of u s . And let us hope that
we shall all father and mother and sons help one
another w ith love .
”
Charles,after completing his studies in Germany,
took and passed successfully the post-office examina
tions in London and made h is home with his parents
un til h is marriage . H is engagement gave great
pleasure to George Eliot, who found it “very pretty
to see the happiness of a pure first love, full at presentof nothing but promise . Thornton went to Natal,Africa
, but was brought back after s ix years,wasted
with illness . Though a specia l nurse attended himconstantly, the time of the family was chiefly absorbedin caring for him : and even in the m idst of her
trouble and anxiety for the boy George El iot wrote toa friend that there was joy in her heart because therewas nothing unlovable in the sufferer to check her
tenderness towards him. On the night on which he
d ied she wrote in her journa l these line s, which are
a tribute to his disposition and home—training as we llas to her tenderness for h im ' “ Through the six
months of his illness his frank,impulsive mind dis
closed no trace of evil fee ling . He was a swee t
natured boy, still a boy, though he had lived fortwen ty
-five years and a ha lf. Th is death seems
to me the beginn ing of our own .
Knowing what we do of George Eliot’s gentle,home- loving nature and the nobility of her character
,
the words which Henry james wrote describing the
impression wh ich her home made upon an outsiderexpress what we feel ought to be true . Those who
had access to her home during the years at the
Priory ( 1 863—1 880)“remember we ll a kind of
sanctity in the place , an a tmosphere of stillness and
concentration, someth ing that suggested a literarytemple .
”
3 14 AP PENDIX .
c imens of history, ancient and modern ; scraps of
poetry picked up from Shakespeare, Cowper, Wordsworth, and Milton ; newspaper topics ; morse ls of
Addison and Bacon,Latin verbs, geometry, ento
mology, and chemistry ; reviews and metaphysicsall arrested and petrified and smothered by the
fast- thicken ing everyday accession of actual events,relative anxie ties
,and household cares and vexations .”
W ith the encouragement and suggestive help of
this same Miss Lewis she undertook in 1 840, and
soon became thorough ly engrossed in, the preparation of a chart of ecc lesiastica l history
,which she
hoped to print. The profits arising from its sale,if
any, wil l go partly to Attleborough Church, and
partly to a favorite object of my own . H owever,the chart was never completed, for one similar tothat wh ich she had planned was almost immediate lypublished by Seeley and Burnside .
“ I console a ll
my little regrets by thinking that what is thus evi
deuced to be a desideratum has been executed much
bette r than if left to my slow fingers and slower head.
I fear I am laboriously doing nothing, for I am be
guiled by the fascination that the study of languageshas for my capricious m ind.
” This same year she
became proficient in German and Italian .
George Eliot’s acqua intance with the Brays and
Miss Sara Hennell soon resulted in a change,—a
broadening in her reading, studying, and earnest
work. M iss H ennell,especially, was a constant in
spiration because of her thorough, scholarly ways .
In timate association with such people as those at
Roseh ill, where men and women of education and
culture were frequent guests, was an exce llent preparation for her duties as associate editor of the
Wes tmins ter Review . There she learned what hardliterary drudgery was, for although she did originalwriting in the way of book-reviewing, and responsible
APP ENDIX .
3 15
work in he lping the editor,Dr. Chapman
,to plan
h is prospectuses, there were long hours of proof
reading and revising which left their trace at the
week’s end in headaches and backaches . But this
new London life was replete w ith compensations,among which were the soiré es
,where she met the
distinguished London literary lights, and also formedfriendships with such persons a s H erbert Spencerand Harriet Martineau
,who were “
short-s ightedenough to like one,
”so that she had opera and
theatre parties galore .
In the summer of 1 85 5 while she and M r. Lewes
were still away from London,she wrote an article on
Cumming for the Wes tmins ter R eview ,which caused
Mr . Lewes to te ll her some time after its writing that “ itconvinced him [for the first time] of the true genius
in her writing.
” This article seems to have arousedmuch discussion and comment, for she wrote in Oc
tober of that year to Charles Bray : “ Since you havefound out the Cumm ing,’ I write by to-day’s postjust to say that it is mine . The article appearsto have produced a strong impression,
and that im
pression wou ld be a little counteracted if the author
were known to be a woma n .
”
It was just a year later, in September, 1 85 6, thatGeorge Eliot was led into her first modest attempt
a t fiction writing, and she can best te ll in her own
words what we are interested to know of this new
literary departure of hers : September, 1 856 , madea new era in my life, for it was then I began to w rite
fiction . It had always been a vague dream of mine
that some time or other I might write a novel and
my shadowy conception of what the nove l was to bevaried, of course, from one epoch of my life to
another. But I never went further towards the
actua l writing of the novel than an introductorychapter describing a Staffordshire village and the life
3 16 AP P ENDIX .
of the neighboring farmhouses ; and as the years
passed on I lost any hope that I shou ld ever be able towrite a novel, just as I desponded about everythinge lse in my future life . I a lways thought I was defic ient in dramatic power, both of construction and
d ialogue , but I felt I should be at my ease in the
descriptive parts of a nove l. My‘ introductory chap
ter’was pure description , though there were good
materials in it for dramatic presentation . It hap
pened to be among the papers I had with me in
Germany, and one evening a t Berlin something led
m e to read it to George . H e was struck w ith it as
a bit of concrete description, and it sugge sted to himthe possibility of my be ing able to write a novel
,
though he d istrusted — indeed, disbelieved in — my
possession of any dramatic power. Still, he beganto think that I might a s well try sometime what I
could do in fiction,and by and by when we came
back to England, and I had greater succe ss than h e
ever expected in other kinds of writing, his impres
s ion that it was worth wh ile to see how far my mentalpower would go towards the production of a nove lwas strengthened . H e began to say very positively,‘ You must try and write a story, ’ and when we were
at Tenby he urged me to begin at once . I deferredit, however, after my u sual fashion with work that
does not present itself as an absolute duty . But one
morning, as I was thinking what should be the sub
ject of my first story, my thoughts merged themselvesinto a dreamy doze, and I imagined myself writing a
story, of which the title was The Sad Fortunes of
the Reverend Amos Barton .
’I was soon wide awake
aga in and told G . H e said,
‘ Oh, what a capita lt itle and from that time I had se ttled in my mindthat this should be my first story. George used to
say,‘ It may be a failure — it may be that you are
unable to write fiction. O r, perhaps, it may be just
3 18 AP P ENDIX .
both cried over it, and then he came up to me and
kissed me, saying, I think your pathos is better thanyour fun .
’
Several years before this first essay at fictionH erbert Spencer had, with apparent non- success,
pointed out to George Eliot her fitness for fictionwriting. It was, I presume
,h er lack of self—confi
dence which led her,in those days, to resist my sug
gestion that she should write novels. I thought I saw
in her many, if not all, of the needful qualifications inhigh degrees. But she would not listen to myadvice . She d id not believe that she had the requiredpowers .
George Eliot had once remarked that if she everwrote a book she would make a present of it to 110
body. And this was her rule,which
,however, she
did not always strictly keep, her first a ttempt in fiction being the most notable exception, for she sent
author’
s copies to some half-dozen people, anonymously, of course, through h er publisher . Dickens
wrote to thank her,conj ecturing that the author was
a woman ; I. A. Froude d id not know whether he
was addressing a young man or an old — a c lergyman or a layman,” but never doubted the male sex
of the writer ; while jane Carlyle wrote that she con
ceived of the author as a man ofmiddle age , with a
wife,from whom he has got those beautifu l feminine
touches in his book a good many children,and a
dog that he has as much fondness for as I have for mylittle Nero . By refraining from sending au thor
’s
copies of her works to friends and prominent personsshe re lieved herself of the necessity of hearing their enforced praise or censure
,from which she instinctive ly
shrank.
“ I hate oo/zga to reading and oolzga to ta lkabout my books. I never sena
’them to anyone, and
never wish to be spoken to about them,except by an
unpremeditated, spontaneous prompting. Per
AP PENDIX .
3 19
haps the annoyance I suffered [a lluding to the Lig
gins affair] has made me rather morbid 011 such pointsbut, apart from my own weaknesses , I think the lessan author hears about himse lf the better.
Rea lizing the unpleasant and unprofitable effect of
knowing what was being said about what she wrote, sheresolved to be unheedfu l of outside criticism. Yet
one of the d isturbing e lements of the quiet te‘ te-d- tete
home life of George E liot and Mr. Lewes was that
influx of magazines, newspapers,and letters from
friends and strangers which the appearance of each of
her books occasioned anew. The tide of critic ism
cou ld not be stayed,but instead of trea ting the critics
with the indifference which one might well show
toward the existence of a necessary evil,she gave it
the place in her home of a bugaboo . It disturbedher far more than it should to know that there were
critics, whether well-mean ing or not, who objected tothe marriage of Dinah Morris and Adam Bede, whofound flaws in the dialect of the Warwicksh ire peas
ant folk, and who explained the bright epigrammatic re
marks of her characters as remembered conversation .
In a letter George Eliot remarked that “ Mr. Lewes
examines the newspapers before I see them,and cuts
out any criticisms which refer to me,so as to save me
from the se spiritual chills — though, alas he cannot
save me from the physical chills which retard mywork more seriously.
In spite of his efforts , however, to so carefullysh ie ld her, and notwithstand ing her frequen t asser
tions to friends that it was her habit, “strictly ob
served,” never to read criticisms on her books, yetthere is ample evidence in her published correspondence that her almost morbid eagerness to know
whether her books were producing the desired effect ofh elpfulness and inspiration caused her to indulge herse lf in a small occasional allowance of unvarnished
320 AP P ENDIX .
criticism. But the result was always to sadly upsether
,both mentally and physically, and bring to her
a fee ling of d iscouragement similar to that producedby the damp fog and chill winds of London
,a lthough
she once remarked that she had self-conceit enoughto believe that she knew better than the critics .
”
The effect of criticisms would not have been so det
rimenta l to her hea lth if they had simply arousedher indigna tion at the displays of ignorance or lack oftact, as was sometimes the case . After Lord Lyttonhad called upon h er and ventured some criticisms in
person,she confided to her journal that night that he
had found two defects in Adam Bede,— the dialect
and Adam’s marriage to Dinah,
“ but, of course, I
would have my teeth drawn rather than give upe ither. And elsewhere she spoke of the damnatory
pra ise of ignorant journalists,”which seem harsh
words to have come from the demure, Quakerish
woman ; but it wa s better for her to give vent to her
feelings thus than , as so often,to let the care less words
sink into her sensitive heart,where she wou ld brood
over them until they assumed the proportion of huge
dark shadows of despair, spreading over all her fu ture
career. In view of the fact that the genera l censureand praise which must be the portion of every writer
so h eavily oppressed her, it is a keen disappoin tment
to us that even when fame was assured,it brought no
real pleasure to her. But she herself said in a letter,
in 1 85 9 , that she did not regret that fame broughther no happiness, she only grieved that she derivedno strength from her sense of thankfulness that herlife was not u tterly u se less . Earlier than this she
had written to her publisher, “ I perceive that I have
not the characteristics of the popular author,’and yet
I am much in need of the warm expressed sympathywhich only popularity can win .
”
To have accomplished so much notable fiction
322 AP P ENDIX .
jump’
read . I feel so strongly in this matter that I
am determined to risk being thought rude and
officious and write to you .
After the appearance o f Felix H olt ’George Eliot
received a le tter from an American trave lling in
Europe, who gave the h istory of one copy of that
book,showing the large number of people who had
read it eagerly. Upon reading this she half petulantly said, “ it seems people now-a-days economizein nothing but books,” and a few days later she wrote
to her publisher : It is rather a vexatious kind of
tribute when people write, as my American corre
spondent d id , to te ll me of one paper- covered Ameri
can copy of ‘ Fe lix Holt ’ being brought to Europe
and serving for so many readers that it wa s in dangerof being worn away under the ir hands . H e
, goodman
,finds it easy
‘ to urge greater circulation bymeans of cheap sale,’ having found so many friends
in Ireland anxious but unable to obtain the book.
’
I suppose putting it in a yellow cover with figures onit, remind ing one of the ou tside of a show
,and
charging a shilling for it, is what we are expected to
do for the good of mankind . Even then I fear it
would hardly bear the rivalry of The Pretty M illiner,’or of ‘ The Horrible Secret. ’While continually caution ing her publisher against
cheapness or vulgar display in advertising, she never
theless had the financia l success of her literary off
spring at heart quite as tru ly as she d id their mora linfluence . This is shown by her eager chron icling of
the sales of each book in its turn, rejo icing at each
extra 500 copies sold, and fee ling that the world wasful l of sunshine when she learned that the fourth
edition of ‘ Adam Bede,
’of 5000 volumes, had been
sold in a fortnight. She approved of modestly placarding at railway stations,
“ for Ruskin was nevermore mistaken than in asserting that people have no
APPENDIX . 323
spare time to observe anything in such places. I am
a very poor reader of advertisements, but even I am
forced to get them unpleasantly by heart at the
stations.
”
The extreme secretiveness which George Eliotmain tained in regard to her prospective writing was
equalled only by her re luctance to talk of her bookswhen completed . There is no room for misunder
standing the spirit of the letters she wrote to CharlesBray on this topic, nor how deeply rumors could disturb her. The extract wh ich follows is from a letterwritten after the appearance of ‘ Scenes of Clerica lL ife
,
’
but before ‘ Adam Bede was in print and no
one except Major and John Blackwood knew the
identity of George Eliot.’ When do you bring out
your new poem ? I presume you are already in the
s ixth canto . It is true you never told me you intendedto write a poem,
nor have I heard any one say so who
was likely to know. Neverthe less I have quite as
active an imagination as you , and I don ’t see why I
shou ld n ’
t suppose you are writing a poem as we ll asyou suppose that I am writing a nove l. Seriously, Iwish you would not set rumors afloat aboutme . Theyare injurious. Severa l people, who seem to derivetheir notions from Ivy Cottage [Bray
’s House] have
spoken to me of a supposed nove l I was going to
bring out. Such things are damaging to me .
There is no undertaking more fruitful of absurd mistakes than that of ‘ guessing
’at authorship and as I
have never communicated to any one so much as an
intention of a literary kind, there can be none but
imaginary data for such guesses . If I withhold any
thing from my friends which it would gratify them to
know, you w ill believe, I hope, that I have good
reasons for doing so, and I am sure those friends willunderstand me when I ask them to further my object— which is not a whim but a question of solid interest
324 AP PENDIX .
~ by complete silence. I can’t afford to indulge
either in vanity or sentimentality about my work . I
have only a trembling anxiety to do what is in itselfworth doing, and by that honest means to win verynecessary profit of a temporal kind . There is noth
ing h idden that shall not be revealed ’in due time .
But till that time comes — till I tell you myself,‘ This is the work of my hand and brain ’
- don ’t
believe anything on the subject. There is no one who
is in the least likely to know what I can, could, should,or wou ld write .
Akin to this impulse to secrete from the world of
friends and acquaintances her literary projects washer unwillingness to give to her publisher more than
fragmentary outlines of her stories . She demandedthat upon the quality of what he had se en and heardhe should trust the excellence of the remainder . This
attitude she took even with her earliest efforts at
fiction writing. But while refusing to send out advanceannouncements of her plans, it was not because she
had not thorough ly mapped out her work in her own
m ind . She a lways saw the end before making anydisclosures . My stories grow in me like plan ts, andthis is only in the leaf-bud [referring to The M ill onthe Floss I have faith that the flower will come .
Not enough faith , though , to make me like the idea ofbeginning to print till the flower is fairly out— till Iknow the end as we ll as the beginn ing.
”
Although there was constant variation in her faith
in herse lf and an a lmost incredible lack of faith in
the success of her fiction writing, even after the realcritics had passed approval upon ‘ Adam Bede,’ yetshe applied herself persistently to her work
,taking
only short periods of rest. Scenes of Clerical Life, ’‘ Adam Bede
,
’ ‘ The M ill on the Floss, ’ and ‘ FelixHolt ’
were e ach written within a year’s time
,while
‘ Romola,
’ ‘ Middlemarch,
’and ‘ Danie l Deronda ’
326 AP PENDIX .
“ in her personal bearing George Eliot was seldommoved by the hurry which mars all d ignity in action .
”
She wrote of her work on‘The Mill on the Floss ’
to
Mr. Blackwood : “ But you may rely on it that no
amount of horse-power wou ld make me flurry over
my book, so as not to do my best. If it is written
fast,it will be because I can
’t help writing it fast .
”
It was not impossible, however, for her to alter,con
dense, expand, or rearrange at the suggest ion of
others and except on vital points she was singularlyopen to suggestions and criticisms from Mr. Lewes and
M r. Blackwood, whose judgmen ts she h ighly respected.
When she had written into the second volume of‘ Adam Bede
,
’ Mr. Lewes “expressed h is fear that
Adam ’s part was too passive throughout the drama,
and that it was important for him to be brought intomore direct collision with Arthur. This doubt hauntedm e
,and out of it grew the scene in the wood be tween
Arthur and Adam the fight came to me as a necess ityone n ight at the Munich opera .
”She had to feel the
necessity for the presence of everything which founda place in her stories, whe ther the product of her
own mind or suggestions from others . Mr. Lewes
a lso suggested the first scene at the farm .
When she received Sir Edward Lytton’s critica l
estimate of her Mil l on the Floss,’ she accepted hiscriticisms on two points .
“ First, that Maggie is
made to appear too passive in the scene of quarre l inthe Red Deeps. If my book were still in MS.,
I
should— now that the defect is suggested to me
alter,or rather expand, that scene . Secondly, that
the tragedy is not adequate ly prepared . This is a
defect which I fe lt even while writing the third volume,and have felt ever since the MS. left me . The
Epz'
se/ze B rez'
z‘e,into which I was begu iled by love of
my subject in the two first volumes,caused a want of
proportionate fulness in the treatment of the third,
APPENDIX. 327
which I shall always regret.” However,she felt no
sympathy w ith his criticism of Maggie’s attitude
towards Stephen .
“ If I am wrong there —w if I did
not rea lly know what my heroine would fee l and dounder the circumstances in which I deliberate lyplaced her
,I ought not to have written this book
at all.”
No nove list has been more conscientious than was
George Eliot in her work, wh ich she did w ith all seri
ousness and w ith the h ighest conception of the de
mands of writing as an art. The conscientiousness
with which she wrote is best illustrated in Romola .
’
A few weeks after she had begun the book she came
to a standstill, having been “ detained from writingby the necessity of gathering particu lars first, aboutLorenzo di Medici’s death ; second
,about the pos
sible retardation of Easter ; th ird, about CorpusChristi day fourth
,about Savonarola ’s preaching in
the Quaresima of These topics give one an
idea of the mu ltitude of questions that arose in the
construction of this story, and they a lso indicate to
those who have had experience in this time-consumingkind o f research the enormous labor that she took
upon herself in order to insure historica l accuracy.
This very laboriousness unquestionably took from the
story the spontaneity that is necessary to give to a workof fiction its highest va lue .
While George E liot made use of real materia lthroughout her literary life, yet she became less dependent on it and relied more upon her inner con
sciousness as she proceeded . H er most impersonalworks are Silas Marner and The Span ish Gypsy.
’
Concern ing her growth and choice of field, she saidI do wish much to see more of human life how
can one see enough in the short years one has to
stay in the world ? But I meant that at present mymind works with the most freedom and the keenest
328AP PENDIX .
sense of poetry in my remotest past, and there are
many strata to be worked through before I can
begin to use,artistically, any materia l I may gather
at present.” The monotonously tame, a lmost leve l
na ture of the Warwickshire country had little in it toinspire a spontaneous love of nature and so fill anauthor
’s m ind that it would make its way to the front
in her writings . Neverthe less George Eliot used itas a scenic background to her actors . The nervous
strain in the production of some of those writings
that came from her own life was very great . Remi
n iscences weighed down her spirits, and the men ta lliving over again of portions of her life brough t depression. Then with the grea t success of ‘ AdamBede
,
’and the resulting influence of her pen she felt
a greatly increased responsibility. It was under sucha spe ll that she wrote to Major Blackwood : I am
assured that ‘ Adam Bede ’was worth writing
worth living through long years to write . But now it
seems impossible to me that I shall ever write anything so good and true again . I have arrived at
faith in the past, but not faith in the future .
”
Notwithstanding her continued ill-hea lth, GeorgeEliot was able to give long periods of continuous
study to subjects requiring great mental strain . To
her wonderful memory she was indebted for the vast
fund of knowledge that she had acqu ired through
observation ,reading, and conversation, which was at
her d isposal in her work as a writer. However,ac
cording to Mr. Cross, her verba l memory was not
always to be depended on . She could never trust
herself to write a quotation without verifying it.”
One of the remarkable qualities of her mind was thegenius for taking pains, which is shown not only bythe slowness of composition but by the care with
which she has prepared her facts . She believed thatcare lessness in authorship was “
a mortal sin.
”She
BIBLIOGRAPHY
GEORGE EL IOT’S WORKS
1 . The Life of Jesus ,’critica lly examined by D . F. S trauss .
Trans la ted from the fourth German edition (by Ma rian
Evans . The trans lator ’s name does not appear ) .
3 vols . London, 1846.
2 . The Es se nce of Chris tianity.
’ By L. Feuerbach . Trans
lated from the second German ed ition by Marian
Evans . London ,1854.
3. Scenes of C lerical Life .
’
Blackwood ’s Edinbzi rg/z Maga
z ine, January—November, 1857 . Reprinted in 2 vols .
Edinburgh , December , 1857 .
4. Adam Bede .
’
3 vo ls . Edinburgh, 18 59 .
5 .
‘ The Lifted Veil .’ B lackwood’
s E dinbu rgh M agaz ine,Ju ly, 1859 .
6 . The Mil l on the Floss .
’
3 vols . Edinburgh and London,1860.
7 . Silas Marner : the W eaver of Rave loe .
’Ed inburgh and
London,186 1.
8.
‘Romola .
’Corn/rill M aga z ine, Ju ly, r8éa—Augus t, 1863.
3 vo ls . Smith, E lder Co .,London . Ju ly, 1863 .
9.
‘ Bro th er Jacob.
’
Corn/i t'
ll M agaz ine, Vol. X . pp . 1—32.
1864.
IO. Felix Holt, the Radica l.’ 3 vo ls . Edinburgh and L on
don ,1866 .
1 1 .
‘ The Spanish Gypsy,’a poem . Edinburgh and London,
1868 .
12. How Lis a Loved the King,’ a poem . B lackwood ? Edin
bu rg/t M aga z ine, May, 1869 .
13.
‘ Agatha ,’a poem . Atlantic Mont/i ty ,
August , 1869. L on
don, 1869 .
14. The Legend of Juba l,’ a poem. M acmilla n’
s M agaz ine,May, 1870.
1 5. Midd lemarch ,’a s tudy of provincia l life . 4 vols . Edin
burgh , 187 1—2 . Iss ued in twelve month ly parts , beginning in D ecember .
16.
‘ Armgart,’a poem . Ma cmillan ? Magaz ine, Vol. XXIV.
pp . 16 1- 187 . July, 187 1 .
332 BIBL IOGRAPH Y.
‘ The Legend of Jubal , and other Poems .
’ Edinburgh ,1874.
‘Aga tha ,
’ ‘Armgart,
’ ‘ How Lis a Loved the
King,’ A Minor Prophet,’Bro the r and S is te r,
’
S tra
d iva rius ,
’
Two Lovers ,’ ‘Arion ,
’ I Join the
Choir Invis ible ! ’ Second Editi on, 1879, includ inga ls o ‘
A Co l lege Breakfast Party,” ‘
S e lf and Life ,’Swee t Even ings ,
’ ‘Come and go, Love,’ and
‘ The
Death of Moses .
’
Danie l Deronda .
’
4 vols . Edinburgh and London,1876.
A Col lege Breakfas t Party,’ a poem. M a cmilla n’
s M ag
az ine, Vol. XXXVI II . pp. 161—1 79 . 1878 .
‘ Impres s ions of Theophras tus Such .
’Edinburgh and
London ,1879.
‘ Es s ays and‘ Leaves from a Note-Book .
’
(Edited byC . L. Lewes .) Edinburgh , 1884.
‘George Eliot’s Life ,’ a s re la ted in h er letters and jour
na ls . Arranged and edited by her husband, J . W .
C ross . Edinburgh and London, 1885 .
REVIEW S AND MINOR ARTICLES
The fo llowing articles and reviews , w ith the exceptions
specifica lly no ted , appeared in the Westminster Review (des ig~nated W. The article on Margaret Fuller O s s o li, men
tioned by Mathilde Blind , is not included , as its authorsh ip is
not certain .
Mackay’
s Progress of the Inte l lect .’ W'
. R ., Vol . LIV . pp .
353—368 . 185 1 .
Carlyle ’s Life of S ter ling.
’ W R ., Vol . I.,New Series , pp.
247—25 1 . Janua ry, 1852 .
1852—3, As s is tan t ed itor of th e Westminster Review .
W oman in France ,’
Madame de Sable. W R .
,Vo l . VI . pp .
448—473 . October, 1854.
8
‘Prus sia and Pruss ian Policy ’
(Stahr). W. R .,Vol . VI I .
1 55 .
‘ Th ree Months in W eimar .
’Fra z er’ s Maga z ine, Vol . LI .
pp. 699—706 . 1855.
8
‘Vehs e
’
s Court of Aus tria .
’ W R .,Vol . VII . pp . 383
—385 .
1 55 .
8
‘
Dryden and his Times .
’ W'
. R ., Vol . VII . pp. 336
-367 .
1 55 .
‘
Evangelical Teaching ,
’Dr. Cumming . W
'
. R .,Vol . VIII .
pp . 436—462 . O ctobe r, 1855 .
German W it : H einrich H eine .
’PV. R ., Vol. IX . pp .
3. January, 1856.
The Natura l H is tory of German Life .
’ W R .,Vol. X . pp.
5 1—79. J uly, 1856 .
334BIBL IOGRAPH Y.
The books and essays concern ing George Eliot, orthe George Eliot criticism in the broadest use of the
word, have diverged into a number of channe ls whichit is of interest to men tion here .
In the first place there is the matter which treats
of George Eliot’s life, both as an individual and an
author. Then there is that which is devoted ex
e lusive ly to her literary work, e ither as a wholeor in detail ; and fina lly that which pertains to her
persona l life and opinions . To these must be addedthe excerpts and special arrangements of certain of
her writings.
The critical writings on George Eliot’s works embrace detailed criticism of each work and an expres
sion of opinion as to their position in literature,and
on the following poin ts : on the art and the literaryskill displayed in them ; on their genera l tone of
morals and thought, and the influence that the writ
ings will have in these respects ; on their precepts
and influence in matters of religious faith ; on their
h istorica l and geographical truthfulness ; on the u se
of dialect ; on the success of the attempts at com
position ih verse ; on treatment of Judaism and the
Jewish question ; and on the philosophical principleslaid down ; iden tification .of characters in the M id
land stories ; comparison of the collected and individua l works with those of other authors
,Carlyle,
Sand, Kingsley, Miss Austen,Hawthorne, and
Shakespeare ; church views of the principa l of hercharacters and her precepts humor idea l ethics aspropounded by her ; the clergy, married people,rustics
,and children of the novels ; political e sympa
thies and affiliations of her characters edited editionsof some of her books with analytical and critica lnotes for student use .
The writer on spec ific points in George Eliot ’spersonal life has taken up : her re ligious beliefs
BIBLIOGRAPH Y. 335
(these articles have been ch iefly in the nature of
attacks) the matter of her two marriages and mora land social questions at issue in the first matrimonia lconnection George Eliot as a Christian, as a mora lteacher
,as a novelist, as a poet ; comparisons of
George Eliot’s personal life w ith that of other prominent writers the church view of her life and exampleher life as illustrative of the religious ideas of our timetrave ls home life the life depicted in her novels ascompared with her own life .
BIOGRAPHY AND CRITICISM
ARRANGED BY AUTHORS
Acton ,Lord . George E liot. Nineteenth Century, 1885.
Adam s, W . H . Davenport. Ce lebrated Engl ishwomen of the
Victorian Era . 2 vo ls . London ,1884. Vol. I I . pp. 86—182.
Ames , Charles Gordon . George E liot’s TwoMarriages . An
es s ay. Philade lphia , 1886.
Axon,W il liam E . A .
— S tray Chapters in L iterature, Folklore , and Archaeology. M anches ter, 1888. George El iot’sUse of Dialect, pp. 16 1—168. Papers of the Manches ter
Literary C lub, 188 1 , p . 1 29 .
Baildon, H . B. George Elio t, Moralis t andThinker. Round
Table Series . Edinbu rgh, 1887 .
Barine , Arvede. Portrai ts de Femmes : Madame CarlyleGeorge El iot, etc. Par is , 1887 .
Bel loc, Madame .— Dorothea Casaubon. In a. W al led Gar
den . Vol. I. London , 1896 .
Bibliography of George Eliot. Hodgkin’s Nineteenth Cen
tury Authors . Cooke’s George El iot. Browning
’s George
E liot. C . W . Sutton, Papers of the Manches ter LiteraryC lub, 1881, p. 97 .
Blas hfield, E. H . Evange l ine W ilbour. Italian Cities . In
Florence with Romola . 2 vo ls . New York, 1900.
Blind, Mathilde . George Eliot. London and Boston , 1883 .
Part of the EminentW omen S eries , edited by J . H . Ingram .
Bolton, Sarah K. Lives of girls who became famous . New
York pp. 2 13- 239.
Bonne l l, H . H . Charlotte Bronte, George Eliot,Jane Aus ten.
1 02.
Brag, Charles . Phases of Opinion and Experience during a
Long Life : an Autobiography, pp. 72-
78. London, 1884.
336 BIBLIOGRA PH Y.
Brown, John Crombie . The Ethics of George Eliot’s W orks ,etc. Edinburgh , 187 9. Reprinted Philadelph ia, 1885, with
an introduction by C . G . Ames,author of George E liot ’s
Two Marriages .
Browne , Matthew. George E liot’s Complete Poems, withIntroduction . Bos ton , 1887 .
Brownell, W . C . Victor ian Prose Masters . IncludingGeorge Eliot. New York, 190 1 .
Browning, Oscar. Life of George E liot. London, 1890.
Buchanan , Robert . A Look round Literature. London,1887 . A Ta lk with George E liot, pp. 218—226 ; GeorgeE liot’s Life, pp. 314
—32 1 .
C leveland, Rose Eliz abe th . George Eliot’s Poetry and other
S tudies . London, 1885 .
Cone , He len Gray, and Gilder, Jeanne tte L. Pen-Portraits
of Literary W omen. 2 vo ls . New York Vol . II .PP 245
—292.
Conrad, Hermann . George Eh ot : Ihr L eben und Schaffen,e tc. Berl in , 1887 .
Cooke,George W il l is . George Eliot : a Critica l Study of herLife, W ritings , and Philosophy . London, 1883.
Cooke, G. W . Scenes of C lerica l Life . Life of author. Bos
ton, 1886.
Cros s , J . W . George Eliot’s Life . 3 vols . Edinburgh,1885. New York, Harper, 1885 .
Darmsteeter, J . Life and Le tters of George Eliot. EnglishS tudies , pp. 97
—1 1 1 . London,1896.
Dawson, W . J. Ques t and Vis ion Essays in Life and Literature, pp. 1 58
—195 . London ,1886.
Dowden,Edward . Studies in Litera ture, 1 789—187 7 . George
E lio t,’ pp. 240—27 2 M iddlemarch and Danie l Deronda,’pp. 273
—310. London , 1878 .
Dronsart, Marie . Portrai ts d’
O utre-Manche, pp. 213- 289.
Paris , 1886.
Druskowitz , H .—D rei englisch e D ichterinnen Essays, pp.
149—242. Berlin, 1885 .
Edwards ,Matilda Bentham. Reminiscences . London, 1887 .
Includes George El iot.-Eggles ton, E .
— George Eliot and the Novel . Essays fromCr itic, p. 49.
Eliot , George .— ‘ Janet’s Repentance .
’Printed in raised
le tters for the blind. Bos ton ,1891 . Also ‘ Si las Marner.
’
Bos ton,1882 .
Eliot, George .—Essays . Ana lys is . Funk Wagnall. 1883.
E liot, George — Es says and Reviews not heretofore printed .
I
ggroductory essay on the Genius of George Eliot . Bos ton
,
1 7 .
Eliot, George, on George Meredith . In Nicol l and W ise ’s
338 BIBLIOGRAPH Y.
James , H enry. Partial Portraits . The Life ofGeorge Eliot,pp. 37
—52 ; Dan ie l Deronda : a Conversation , pp . 65
—93.
London, 1888.
Jenkin , Fleeming .— Papers , Literary, Scientific, e tc. 2 vols .
Vol. I . pp. 17 1—1 74. London , 1887 .
Johns ton ,R . M . Married Peopl e of George Eliot . S tudies ,
Lite ra ry and Socia l, p. 106. Indianapol is , 189 1—92 .
Ka ufmann , Profes sor David .— George E liot and Judaism .
Trans la ted from the German . Edinburgh , 187 7 .
Lancas ter, Henry H .— Essays and Reviews . Edinburgh ,
187 6. George El iot’s Novels , pp. 35 1—398 ; reprinted from
the A’ort/z B r itis/z Review , September, 1866 .
Lanier, Sidney — English Nove l . New York, 1883.
Lewes , C . L. Essays . Ed inburgh , 1884.
Lil ly, W . S .— Four English H umoris ts of the Nineteenth
Century, p . 7 5. London, 1895 .
Lonsda le, Margaret . George Eliot Though ts upon her Life ,her Books , and H erself. London , 1886.
Lord , J . Beacon Ligh ts , Vol . V. p . 467 . New York,
1884.
Magnus ,Katie , Lady — Jewish Portra its . London , 1897 .
Magruder, Jul ia — Ch ild Sketches from George Eliot.(G limps es of boys and girls in the romances of the great
nove l is t .) Bos ton, 1895 .
Mallock , W . H . George E liot on H uman Character.
A the ism, p . 147 . London,1884.
Mccarthy, Jus tin .— Modern Leaders ; being a series of B io
graphica l Sketches . New York, 187 2. George Elio t and
George Lewes , pp. 136—144 ; appeared o rigina lly in the
Ga laxy , Vol. VII . 1869.
McCrie , George . The Rel igion of our Litera ture . Es says ;includ ing the theology of George E liot, e tc. London ,
187 5 .
M iles , A . H . (J . A . Noble) . Poe ts of the C entury. Vol. VII .p . 293. London (11 .
Montégut, Emile .—Ecriva ins Modernes de l
’Angleterre .
Paris , 1885, pp. 3—180.
Morgan , W il liam . George El iot : a paper . London, 188 1 .
Morley, J . Life and Letters of George Eliot. Critica l M iscellany. Vol . I I I . p . 93. London,
1886.
Mortimer, J .
—George E liot as a Nove list. Papers of the
M anches ter Literary Club, p . 1 16. 188 1 .
My!gs , F. W . H .
— Es s ays , Modern , pp . 2 51—27 5 . London
,
1 3.
O liphant, Mrs . M . O . W . (E . L . Linton) .— W omen Novelistsof Victoria ’s Reign , p. 6 1 . New York ,
1897 .
O live tti, C .— Dan ie l Deronda . Vers ione da l l’ Inglese fatta
con prefa z ione e note de l l ’ avvocato C . O livetti. 3 vols .
Roma, 1882—83 .
B IBL IOGRAP IIY
Parkinson , S .— Scenes from the
“George El iot Country.
W i th illus trations . Leeds , 1888 .
Par ton , James — Some Noted Princes , Au thors,and S ta tes
men of our Time . Edited by James Parton . A mee tingw ith George El iot by Mrs . John Lill ie, pp . 62- 6 5 . New'
Y0rk , 1886.
Paul , C . Kegan . Biographica l Sketches , pp. 141—170. Lon
don, 18a3.
Quayle, A.— George E liot as a Nove list. The Poet
’s
Poe t and oth er Es s ays . Cincinnati, 1897 .
Robe rtson , Eric S .—Englis h Poe tesses , pp. 327
—334. L on
don, 1883 .
Ros lyn , Guy [pseuaflJosh ua H atton] . George Eliot in Derbysh ire . Reprinted from London Society, w ith a l terationsand additions
,and an introduction , by G . Barnett Smith .
London , 1876 .
Russ e l l,George W . E. G eorge El iot her Genius and W rit
ings . A lecture , e tc. W oburn ,1882.
S aintsbury, G . Corrected Impres s ions , p . 162 . New York,1895 .
Samue l, W .— Eng lish Humo ris ts . London ,
1895.
Scherer, Edmond . Etudes Critiques s ur la Litté rature Contemporaine . Paris , 1863 . George Eliot (Sila s Marner) , tom.
I . pp. 1 7—27 ; reprinted from the Temps . Danie l Deronda
,
Sé rie V. pp. 287 - 304. George Eliot , torn . VIII . pp. 187- 242.
Scherer, E .— Es says on Eng l ish Literature , p . 25 1 . New
York,189 1 .
Schmidt, Julian .— Bilder au s dem Ge is tigen Leben unserer
Z e it . 4 Bde . Leipz ig, 1870—7 5 . Rd . 1. pp . 344-
409.
Scudder , V . D . Socia l Cons cience and George Eliot. Socia lIdeals in Eng lish Letters , p. 180. Bos ton , 1898 .
J Seg uin ,L . G .
— Scenes and Characters from the of
George Eliot . A series of il lus trations by em inent a r tis ts ,w ith introductory ess ay and descriptive le tterpre ss by L . G .
Seguin . London, 1888.
Shepard, Nathan .- Es s ays , w ith an Introduction on her
Ana lys is of Motives . New York, 1883 .
Shepard , W il liam . Pen P ictures of Modern Authors . New
York, 1882 . pp. 41—57 .
Silas M arner. Schoo l Edition . See H errick , W itham, Gu lick .
Sma l ley, Geo — London Le tters and Some O thers . Vo l. I .p . 241 . New York ,
189 1 .
Smith , G . B . W omen of Renown , p . 83 . London , 1893.
Solomon, H enry.— D anie l D eronda from a Jew ish Point of
View . LondonStephen,
Les lie . C ros s , Mary Ann or Marian (Dictionaryof Na tiona l Biography, Vol . XIII . pp. 216 London,1888. 8vo .
BIBLIOGRAPH Y
Taylor , Bayard . Critica l Essays and Literary Notes . NewYork ,
1880. pp. 339—347 .
Thorne, W . H . Modern Idols , p . 136. Ph iladelph ia, 1887 .
Trol lope , T. A . What I Remember, Vol. I I . p . 267 . Lon
don,1887 .
Underwood , S . A . Heroines of Free Thought, p . 297 . NewYork
,1876 .
V ictor ian Era — Queens of Literature of the Victorian Era .
London,1886. pp. 185
- 2 58 .
W a lds te in, C .—W arner Library, Vol. IX . p . 5359. New
York , 1898. W arner C lass ics , Vol . I I . p. 83 . New York,1899 .
W a lford ,Lucy B .
— Twelve Eng lish Authoresses , p. 187 .
London , 1892.
W a lsh,\V. S .
—Pen Pictures of Modern Authors, p. 41 .
New York,1882 .
W e lsh , Alfred H . Development of English Literature and
Language . 2 vols . Chicago ,1882. Vol . I I . pp. 470
-487 .
W h ipple , Edwin Percy. Reco llections of Eminent Men, e tc.
Boston , 1887 . Danie l D eronda , pp . 344-
379 George Eliot'spriva te life , pp. 380
-397 ; appeared origina lly in the Nortfi
Amer ican Review , 1835 .
W ilkinson ,W il liam C . A Free Lance in the Field of Life
and Lette rs . New York,187 4. The Literary and Ethica l
Qual ity of George Eliot ’s Nove ls . pp . 1 - 49 .
W il liams , Edward M . Th e Lif ted Veil . W ritten in Graham
s tandard phonography (with key in common type ) . NewYork, 1900.
W ilson, S . L .—Theo logy of Modern Literature . London,
18VVith
ga
gm
,R . Ad e laide . S ilas Marner . Edited with Intro
duction and Notes .
W o lz ogen ,Erns t von .
— George El iot. Eine biographischkritische Stud ie . Le ipz ig, 1885.
W o tton,M abe l E . W o rd Portra its , p. 98. London,
1887 .
MAGAZ INE ARTICLES ,ETC .
(After the general worles On George Eliot, arrang ed alphabetically by topics .)
E liot, George. Litte l l ’s Living Age (from th e Sa turday Re
v iew ),Vol. LVIII . 1858, pp. 274—27 8. British Quarterly Re
v iew,Vol . XLV . 1867 , pp. 141—1 78 .
— Tins ley’s Magaz ine ,Vol .
I II . 1868 , pp . 565-
578 . Con temporary Review , by E . Dow
den ,Vol. XX . 187 2, pp. 403 23 ; s ame article
,Eclectic
Magaz ine , Vol. XVI. N. S . pp . 562—57 3 , and Litte l l ’s Living
Age , Vol . CXV . pp. 100—1 10.— S t . Pau l ’s Maga z ine , by
Geo. B . Sm ith , Vol. XII . 1873, pp . 592—6 16.
— L e Corre
342 BIBLIOGRAPH Y
E l iot, George. Adam B ede. Edinburgh Review ,
Vol. CX. 1859,
pp. 223- 246. W es tmins ter Review,Vol . XV.N. S . 1859 , pp.
486—51 2. Blackwood ’
s Edinburgh Maga z ine,Vol . LXXXV.
1859, pp . 490-504.
— Dublir1 Review , Vol. XLVI I . 18 59,
pp. 33-
42.—Hyde , J ., Notes from th e Coun try of Adam
Bede, Gen tleman’
s Magaz ine , N. S . Vol. LXI . p. 15 ;Eclectic Maga z ine, Vol . CXXXI . p. 336 ; Littel l’s , Vol .CCXVII I . p . 508.
D inah M orr is and M rs . Eliz abeth E vans . Century,by L. Bu lk ley, Vol. XXIV. 1882
, pp . 550-552 .
Adam B ede a nd P a r son Chr istia n . Gentleman ’s
Maga z ine , by Ferrar Fenton , Vol. CCLXI I . 1887 , pp.
392-407
Adam B ede and Recent I‘
vovets . Bentley’
s QuarterlyReview, Vol . I . 1859, pp. 433
—47 2.
Adam B ede’
s L ibra ry . Book-Lore,Vol . I I . 1885,
pp 964 99;and llIzss Austen . Nat iona l Revi ew, by T. E .Kebbel
,Vol.
I I . 1883 , pp. 259—273 .
a nd P oetry . Argosy, by Matthew Browne, Vol. I I . 1866,PP. 437
—443
Ar t of . By 0 . Browning . Fortnightly, Vo l. XLIX. p.
538 .—Eclectic,
Vo l . CX . p . 762 .
Mind , by James S u lly, Vol . VI . 1881 , pp. 378—394 ;
Fortnigh t ly Review,by O scar Brown ing, Vol. XLIII . N. S.
1888 , ppB ray on . Spectator , January IO
,1885 ; s ame article
,
C ritic (New York ), January 3 1 , 1885, pp . 56, 57 .
a nd Ca r ly le . Modern Review, by George Sarson ,Vol.
I I . 188 1 , pp. 399—413 . Na tion
,by J . Bryce, Vol. XXXI I.
188 1 , pp . 201,202.
and j ane I/V. Ca r ly le. By A . I . Ire land. Gentleman’s
Maga z ine , N. S . Vol. XL. p . 229 .
a nd D orothea Ca sa ubon . By B . R. Bel loc. Contemporary Review, Vol . LXV . p . 207 .
— Litte l l ’s Living Age, Vol.CC . p . 728. Eclectic Magaz ine , Vo l. CXXI I . p. 373.
Catholic View of . Month , Vol. XLI I . 188 1, pp. 27 2
278 .
a s a Char acter Ar tist. By M . B. W h iting. W estminsterReview, Vol . CXXXVIII . p . 406.
Ch ildren in Novels of . Macmil lan ’s Magaz ine , by Annie
Matheson ,Vol. XLVI . 1882, pp . 488—497 s ame article, L it
te ll 's Living Age ,Vol . CLV. pp. 2 1 1—2 19, and Eclectic Mag
az ine, Vol . XXXVI . N. S . 1882, pp. 822—830.
a s a Chr istian . Contemporary Pulpit, Vol. I I . 1884,
pp 1 79- 183
Clematis and Ivy . A Record of Early Fri endsh ip, byW . G . Kings land, Poe t-Lore, Vol . VI . pp . 1
, 57 , 182 .
BIBLIOGRAPH Y 343
E liot, George, The Clergy as drawn by . Charing Cross, by E .
C larke , Vol. IV. N. S . 1876, pp. 295-
304.
and Comtism . London Quarterly Review, Vol. XLVI I .187 7. pp 446—47 1 .
a nd her Cor respondents . Pa l l Mal l Gaz ette ; repr. Critic,O ctober 2, 1886, pp. 163
—164.
Country a nd Country Characters efi Time, by JamesPu rves , Vol. XXI . p. 379.
County of . Century Magaz ine, by Rose G . Kings ley,Vol. XXX . 1885 , pp. 339
-352 .
I
Criticism s on Contempora r ies by. Lippincott’s Magaz ineofLiterature , Vol . XXXVII . 1886, pp . 19
—20.
— in D erby sh ire. London Society, by Guy Ros lyn, Vol.XXVII . 187 5 , pp. 31 1-3 19, 439
—45 1, Vol.XXVIII . pp. 20—27 .
Reprinted 187 6 .
D an iel D eronda . Edinburgh Review,Vol . CXL IV. 1876,
pp . 442-47o.-Fortnigh tly Rev iew, by Sidney Colvin, Vol.
XX. N. S . 1876, pp. 601- 6 16.—British Quarterly Review,
Vol. LXIV. 187 6, pp. 47 2-492 ; same article , Eclectic Mag
a z ine, Vol. XXIV. N. S . pp . 657- 667 . Gen tleman’s Mag
az ine, by R. E. Francil lon,Vol. XVII . N. S . 1876, pp. 410
427 . Atlantic Month ly, by H enry James , Jr., Vol.
XXXVII I . 1876, pp. 684—694. North American Review,by
E . P. W hipple , Vol . CXXIV. 187 7 , pp. 3 1—52.— Gentle
man’s Magaz ine, by J . P icciotto , November, 1876, pp. 593
603. Victoria Magaz ine , by A . S . Richardson , Vol .
XXVII I. 1876, pp. 227—23 1 . Canadian Month ly, Vol. IX .
1876. pp 250, 25 1. 343. 344 ; Vol. x . pp 362-
364Nation, by A . V . D icey, Vol. XXII I . 1876, pp. 230, 23 1 ,245, 246. Saturday Review , Vol . XL I I. 1876, pp. 356
-358.
— Deu tsche Rundschau, by W ilhelm Scherer, Vol. X . 1877 ,
PP' 240-255— Deronda’
s M other . Temple Bar, Vol . XLIX . 187 7 ,
pp. 542 45 ; s ame ar ticle,Littel l’s Liv ing Age, Vol .
CXXXII pp. 248- 250, and Eclectic Magaz ine, Vol. XXV.
N. S . pp. 7 5 1—7 53. 0
Mordeca i a P rotest ag a inst the Cr i ti cs . Macm i l
lan’s Maga z ine , by J . Jacobs , Vol. XXXVI . 1877 , pp. 101
1 1 1 ; s ame article, Li tte l l ’s Living Age, Vol. CXXXIV.
pp. 1 12- 12 1 .
Early L ife of : Litte l l ’s Living Age (from the P all Ma ll
Gaz ette), Vol. CXLVI I I . 188 1 , pp. 38 1—383 .
Essays . Athenaeum, February 23, 1884, pp. 241- 243 ;s ame article ,
Littel l ’s Living Age , Vol . CLX . pp . 762- 766.
Spectator, March 1 , 1884. Saturday Review,March 8,
1884. Academy, by H . C . Beeching, March 1 5, 1884.
E thz'
cs ofi H arvard Month ly, by R. M . Lovett, Vol . X .
p. I420
344 BIBLIOGRAPH Y
E liot, George, E thics of : Catho licW orld,by G . P . Curtis , Vol.LXXVI . p . 2 17 .
Idea l E thics of . Spectator ; repr. Litte l l ’s Living Age ,Vo l . CXLI I . 1879 , pp . 1 23
—1 25 .
S urrender of Fa zth . British and Fore ign Evange lica lReview,
by W . G . Blackie , Vol. XXXV. 1886, pp. 38—65 .
Felix H olt . Edinburgh Review,Vo l. CXXIV. 1866
, pp.
435—449 ; s ame a rticle , Litte l l ’s Living Age, Vol . XCI. pp.
432-
439 . Blackwood ’s Edinburgh Magaz ine, Vol. C . 1866,
pp. 94—109 . W e s tmins ter Review ,
Vol . XXX. N. S . 1866
pp. z oo—207 .— Con temporary Review ,
Vo l . I I I . 1866, pp.
5 1—70. London Quar terly Review, Vo l. XXVII . 1866, pp .
100—124.- North American Review, by A . G . Sedgwick,
Vol . C I I I . 1866, pp . 557—563. Na tion , by H enry James
, Jr.,Vol . I I I. 1866, pp . 127 , 1 28 .
- Eclectic Review , Vol. XI.
N. S . 1866, pp. 34-
47 . Ch ambers’s Journal
,1866, pp. 508
5 1 2.— Chris tian Remembrancer, Vol . LI I . N. S . 1866, pp.
445-468 .
Fir st Roma nce of Gen tleman’
s Magazme , by R. E .
Franci l lon, Vol. XVII . N. S . 1876, pp. 4 10—427 .
Gen iu s of D ublin Review,by W il liam Barry, Vol . V .
3rd Series , 1881 , pp. 37 1-
394. Sou thern Review,by M rs .
S . B . H errick, Vol. XIII . 1873, pp . 205—235 .
on the Gospel . Chr istian W orld ,February 28 , 1884.
a nd Na than iel Haw thorne. North British Review,Vol.
I I I . 1860, pp. 165
—185 .
H ome ana’
H aun ts of . By G . Morley, Art Journa l, Vol.XLIX . p . 233. By A . H . Leach , Muns ey, Vol . XI I . p . 7 53 .
[t umou r of Specta tor, January 3 1 , 1885 , pp. 146, 147 ;s ame article , Litte l l ’s Living Age , Vol . CLXIV. pp. 638
- 640.
Critic, Vo l . X . p . 69 .
w as she a Hypocr ite . By M rs . Van R . Cruger . Cosmo
pol itan , Vol. XX . p . 3 12 .
a nd King sley . Lite rary W orld, October 1 5, 1886.
a nd George H enry L ew es . Ga laxy, by J . McCarthy, Vol .VII . 1869, pp. 801—809 ; repr. Modern Leaders , 187 2 .
L ife a nd PVr z'
ting s of In ternationa l Review , by W . F.
Rae , Vol. X . pp . 447 , etc., 497 , e tc.— W estmins ter Review,
Vol. LX . N. S . 188 1, pp . 1 54—198 .
L ife of ; illustra tive of the Religi ous Idea s of our Time.
British and Fore ign Evange lica l Review, by J . R . Thomson,
Vol. XXXIV. 1885 , pp . 5 1 7—543.
Cross’
s L ife of . A tlan tic Mon th ly, by H enry James ,
Vol. LV . 1885, pp . 668—678 .
— Blackwood ’
s Edinbu rghMaga z ine , Vol . CXXXVII . 1885 , pp. 1 55
—1 76. BritishQ uarterly Review , Vol. LXXXI . 1885 , pp . 3 16
—333.
— Con
gregationalis t, Vol. XIV. 1885, pp. 275- 284. Contem
346 BIBLIOGRAPH Y.
Th . Bentz on, Vol. C111. 187 3, pp . 667—690.
—Die Gegenwart,by F. Spie lhagen , Nos . 10- 12, 1874.
E liot, Georg e, M iddlema r ch . M iddlema rch a nd D a n iel De
r onda . Contemporary Review,by E . Dowden
,Vol . XXIX.
187 7 . 139 -348—369
M i ddlema rch a nd Flenr a nge, Compa r i son between .
Catholic W orld , by J . McCarthy, Vol. XVII . 1873, pp.
7“
7 2
—7 5M z%l on the Floss . W es tminster Review , Vol . XVIII .
N. S . 1860, pp. 24-
33. Blackwood ’s Edinburgh Magaz ine ,Vol . LXXXVII . 1860, pp. 61 1—623 .
- Macmillan ’
s Maga
z ine , Vol . I I I . 186 1 , pp. 441—448 . Dublin Un ivers ity
Maga z ine, Vol . LVII . 186 1, pp . 192—200.
M ora l Infl uen ce of . Contempora ry Review, Vol. XXXIX .
188 1 , pp. 17 3—185 ; s ame article, Litte l l ’s Living Age, Vol.
CXLVII I . pp . 56 1-57 1 .
M ora lity qf. Chris tian W orld , February 1 2, 1885 .
and Thackeray . At lantic Month ly, by Maria L.
H enry, Vol . LI . 1883, pp. 243- 248.
as a M ora l Teach er . W es tminster Review, Vol. LXI .N. S . 1882, pp . 65
—8 1 .
Neg r i on . Blackwood’s , Vo l. CL . p . 867 .
a nd her Neighborhood. By G . Morley, Gentleman’
s
Magaz ine , N. S . Vol. XLV. p. 583 .— Litte ll’s Living Age,
Vol . CLXXXVIII . p . 42.
Novels . Quarterly Review,Vol. CVII I . 1860, pp. 469—499 .
— Na tional Review ,Vol . XI . 1860, pp . 19 1
—2 19 . Chris tian
Exam iner, by I . M . Luys ter, Vol . LXX . 1861 , pp. 227- 25 1 .
H ome and Foreign Review ,Vol . I I I . 1863 , pp. 522
-
549 .
North British Review by H . H . Lancas ter, Vol. XLV . 1866
pp . 197- 228 ; afterwards reprinted in Es says and Reviews .
1876 .— M acmillan ’
s Maga z in e , by John Morley, Vol . XIV .
1866, pp. 27 2- 279 ; s ame article, Eclectic Magaz ine,Vol . IV .
N. S . pp . 488—495.— A tlantic Monthl y, by H . James , Jr .
,
Vol . XVII I. 1866, pp. 479-492 .
— Scribner’s Month ly, byW . C . W ilkinson ,
Vol . VIII . 1874, pp . 685-703.
a nd the Novel . C ritic, by E . Eggles ton,Vol. I . 188 1
, p. 9 .
as a Novelist. W es tminster Review, Vo l. LIV. N. S .
1878, pp. 105- 135.
P er sonality of . By H . M . Benton, Southern Month ly,Vol. I I . p. 13 1 .
P lace of , in L itera ture. By F. H arrison, Forum,Vol.
XX . p . 66.
P oems . North American Review, by H . James , Jr., Vol.CXIX . 187 4, pp . 484
-
489 .
as a P oet. Contemporary Review,by M . Browne , Vol.
VI II . 1868, pp. 387—396.
a nd P oetry . Argosy, by Matthew Browne, Vol. XLVI .1882, pp. 437
—443
B IBLIOGRAPH Y. 347
E liot, George, P olitics of Gentleman’s Magaz ine,by F. Dolman,
Vol. CCLIX . 1885, pp. 294—300 ; s ame article, EclecticM aga
~
z ine , Vol. XLI I . N. S . pp . 67 5—679.
P ortra it of . Centu ry M agaz ine , Vol. XXIII . 188 1, pp.
47 , 48.
a t Thirty . Critic, Vol. XXVII . pp. 46, 64.
P r iva te L ife of . North American Review,by E . P .
W h ipple, Vol. CXLI . 1885, p. 320, e tc . ; afterwards re
printed in Recollections of Eminent Men , 1887 .
of Rea lism . By L . T. Damon,H arvard Month ly,
Vol. XV. p . 14.
Opé'
n ions about Religion . Month, Vol. LI I I . 1885, pp.
473-4 2
Religion of: Dubl in Review,by W il l iam Barry, Vol . VI .
Thir
gsSeries , 1881 , pp. 433
-464. Chris tian Wor ld, January
29, 1 5.
View s of Relig ion of . Ethica l Record, by W . L. Salter,Vol . I I . p . 1 2 1 .
Relig iou s Views of . Nation , by R . Ogden ,Vol . XLV.
p. 68 . By E . C . Towne , Na tion , Vol. XLV . p. 92 .
Remin iscences of . Grafi‘ic, January 8, 188 1 .— H arper’
s
Month ly, by F. Ha rris on , Vol. C I I I . p . 57 7 .
Revisited . Contemporary Review, by G . W . E . Russ e l l,Vol . LXXIX . p . 357 .
L itera ry Reputa tion of . Academy, Vol. LI I. pp . 5 5 1 , 573 .
Romola . W es tmins ter Review, Vol. XXIV. N. S . 1863 ,
pp. 344—351 . Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magaz ine, Vo l .
CXVI . 1874, pp. 7 2—9 1 .— Christian Remembrancer, Vol.
LII . N. S . 1866, pp . 468—479.
— Revue des D eux Mondes ,by E . D . Forgues Vol . XLVI I I . 1863, pp . 939
-967 .
Romola : a S tudy, Canadian Month ly, by S . R . Tarr,Vol. X . p. 295.Ru stic of , a nd Thoma s H a rdy . Merry England , by C .
Kegan Pa ul , Vol . I . 1883, pp . 40—5 1 .
and George Sand . Saturday Review, Vol . XLII . 1876 , pp.
56 1-
562 ; repr. Ec lectic Magaz ine , Vol. XXV. N. S . 187 7 ,
pp. 1 1 1—1 14. Nineteenth Century, by M ary E. Ponsonby,Vol. L. p . 607 .
Scenes
g’ Cler ica l L ife. Saturday Review , Vol. V . 1858,
66,ppaiza’ Shahespea re. Blackwood’sMaga z ine , Vol . CXXXIII .
1883, pp. 524-
538 ; repr . Eclectic Magaz ine , Vol. XXXVII .N S
:1883, pp 743
—754.
S i las Ma r ner . Revue des Deux Mondes , by Cucheval
Clarigny, tom . XXXV. 1861 , pp. 188—210.
and H olmes’s E lsie Venner . Macmil lan ’
s Maga
z ine, Vol . IV . 186 1 , pp . 305—309 .
Outline S tudy of S ila s Ma rner . Education,by M.
E. K ings ley, Vol. XXIV. p. 301 .
348 BIBLIOGRAPH Y.
E liot, Georg e, Sonnet on . Temple Bar, Vol . LXVI I . 1883,
p . 123, agd a lso in the Eclectic Magaz ine, Vol. XXXVIII .
N. S . p. o.
Span ish Gypsy . Edinburgh Review,Vol . CXXVI II .
1868, pp. 523-
538 .— W es tmins ter Review , Vol . XXXIV .
N. S . 1868, pp . 183—192. London Quarterly Review, Vol.
XXXI . 1868, pp. 160—188 . Blackwood ’
s Ed inburgh Maga
z ine ,Vol . C I I I . 1868
, pp. 760-7 7 1 .
— British Quar terlyReview ,
Vol . XLVIII . 1868, pp. 503-
534.— Fraser
’
s Maga
z ine , by J . Ske lton, Vol . LXXVII I . 1868, pp. 468—479 .
Macm il lan ’s Magaz ine , by John Morley, Vol. XVII I . 1868,
pp . 28 1- 287 ; same article , Eclectic Magaz ine, Vol. VII I .N. S . pp. 1 27 6
—1 282 . S t . Jame s ’s Magaz ine , Vo l. I . N. S .
1868, pp . 478-
486 .— St . Pau l ’s , Vol . I I . 1868, pp . 583
—592 .
North Ame rica n Review,by H enry James , Jr., Vol . CVII .
1868, pp. 620- 635 .— Nation , Vol . VII . 1868, pp. 1 2- 14.
Revue des De ux Mondes, by Lou is Etienne , tom . XC . 1870,
pp . 429-446
Sug‘
gestions for Study of . Poet-Lore , Vol. XIII . p . 28 1 .
a s a Repr esen ta tive of her Times . New Englander, by I .M . S tree t, Vol . LII I . p . 143 .
Theophra stus Such . Edinburgh Rev iew,Vol . CL . 1879,
pp. 557—586 .
— Fortn igh tly Review ,by Grant A l len , Vol .
XXVI . N. S . 1879 , pp . 145—149 .
— W es tmins ter Review,
Vol . LVI . N. S . 1879, pp . 185—196 . Fras er
’
s M agaz ine ,Vol . XX . N. S . 1879, pp . 103
—1 24. Canadian Month ly,Vol . I II . 187 9, pp . 333
—335 . British Q uarterly Rev iew , Vol.
LXX . 1879, pp. 240—242 .
— North American Review,Vol .
CXXIX . 1879, pp. 5 10-
5 13.
Tito M elenza . A s tudy, by J . H . Gu l liver. New W orld,Vol. IV . p . 687 .
Village L ife according to. Fraser’
s Magaz ine, by T . E .
Kebbel, Vol . XXII I . N. S . 1881 , pp. 263—276 ; s ame article ,
Litte ll ’s Living Age , Vol. CXLVI II . pp . 608—617 .
A Week w ith . Temple Bar , Vol . LXXIII . 1885, pp . 226
232 ; s ame article , Critic (New York ), March 7 , 1885, pp.
1 16, 1 17 , and Litte l l ’s Living Age , Vol . CLXIV . pp . 743—746.
L ast PVora’s f r om . Harper
’
s Monthly, by E . S . Phe lps ,VO]. LXIV. 1882, pp . 568
—57 1 .
War/e of . L e Correspondant, by P ierre du Quesnoy,tom. CXII I . 1878, pp. 438
—470, 660—682 , 826—847 .
IVorhs of . British Quarterly Review,Vol . XLV. 1867 ,
pp. 141—1 78 .
— Revue des Deux Mondes , by Arvede Barine,tom . L XX . 1885 , pp. 100—130. Revue des D eux Mondes ,by Emile Montegut, tom. LVI . 1883, pp. 305
-
346.
I N D E X
‘ADAM BEDB ,’xiv, xv
, 12, 13,2 7. 28, 7 x.84.8s, 94. 2 19 ;chapter on,
140—162 ; life and
character depicted‘
n,141 , 142 ;
realism of,143 ; c aracters in,
143 , 1443 D inah Morris,143 ;
Seth Bede, 143 ; Donnithorne
Arms, 144 ; germ of, 1 50 ; con
troversy concern ing, 1 53 ; Mrs .
Poyser and Bartle Massy, 1 55 ;localities in,1 55 , 1 56 ; as a work
of art, 1 57 ; Dinah Morris,1 57 ;
Hetty Sorrel, 1 58.
Adler, Dr . Hermann,268.
Appendix,293
-
348 . (See also inthe index under George Eliot.)
Arbury Hall, 13 .
Armgart,’229, 230.
Art,views of George Eliot on , 9 1 .
Au sten, Jane, accuracy of detailin writings of
,6.
BAL Z AC, xxv, 87.Barton , Amos , 7 .
Bede, Seth , 143.
Beas ly, Prof., 2 73, 282 .
Belloc, Madame, 305 .
Bibliography of George Eliot, 3 1
348 ; George E liot ’ s wor s,
33 1 , 332 ; reviews and minor
articles , 332, 333 , compilationfrom works
, 333 ; note on George
E liot biography and criticism,
333-
33 5 ; biography and eriti
cism, 335-
340 ; magaz ine arti
cles, 340-
348 .
Blackwood,John , manuscript of
‘ Amos Barton ’sent to
,1 26 ;
writes appreciatively to George
E liot,1 27 .
Blind,Mathilde, prefatory note,
xli ; biographical details con
cern ing , v ; value of ‘ Life of
George E liot ' by, xxxiii .
Bodichon Madame, 273, 304.Braban t
, Dr .
, 53, 60.
Brabant , Mis s, 53, 58.
Brays, 34, 35. 36. so. 5 1.55 7 667 67 : 73, 78, 296, 300 .
Bronte,Charlotte
,108 .
Brontes , the, power of the writings
of,6 .
Brookes,241 .
Brown, O liver M.
,194.
Browning, Mrs .
,10.
Browning, O scar, vii .
Browning, Robert, 273, 2 77.Brunetiere, xx iii.
Buls trode, 241 .
Burney, Fanny , novels of, 6.
Burton , Mr .,273.
Byron, 68.
CADWALLADER ,Mrs .
,245.
Carlyle, Jane, 3 16 .
Carlyle, Thomas, 1 1 , 79, 203, 230.
Casaubon,62
,241 , 243, 244, 245 .
Cass , Godfrey, 8 , 194.
Castletown, Lady, 273.
Cha
spman, Dr ‘ 1ohni 59, 631 761 7 7 )7
Chattams,241 .
Cheverel Manor,x iv, 13.
Chronology, George E liot, xxxv
xl.
Clifford , W . K., 1 13, 2 73 .
Coh en , E z ra Mordecai (see Mor
decai) .Coleridge, 95 .
Colonna, Vittoria, 207 .
Combe,George , 73, 78, 103.
Comte, 10, 5 1 , 1 1 1 , 1 1 2, 281 .
Congreve, Dr. and Mrs .,2 73, 305,
306 .
Conway, Moncure, 273.Coton , 1 2 , 1 24.
Country, Scenes from the GeorgeE liot,‘ xx.
352 INDEX .
‘ County of George Eliot,’ xx.
Cross ’s Life,’ 293, 295 .
DACIER, Madame, pos ition in
literature, 5 .
D ’Albert, M ., 69, 7 1 , 302 .
‘ Daniel Deronda,’xvii
,xix , 36,
9 1 , 238 ; chapter on,254
- 270 ;appearance of, 2 54 ; affi nityw i th ‘
Epan ish Gypsy ,
’2 54 ;
George w t and the ] ews , 254 ;admiration for the Florentines ,2 54 ; motif of
,2 55 ; Mordecai
,
2 55, 256, 26 1,266
,267 , 268 ;
quotation from,2 56 ; reorgani
z ation of the Jews,256. 2 5 7 ;
M irah Lapidoth , 2 57 ; PrincessHalm-Eberstein, 25 7 ; diffusion
of races,2 58, 259 ; Grandcourt,
Gascoigne, Rex ,Mrs . Davilow ,
Sir H ugh Mallinger, Gwendolen ,M irah , 26 1 ; duality of DanielDeronda, 26 1 ; character con
trast in , 26 1 character ofGwen
dolen , 262, 263 ; Grandcourt,263 ; gaming table at L eubronn ,
264 ; relations of Deronda and
Gwendolen, 265 ; absence of
humor in, 266 ; Hans Meyrick,
267 ; irony and sarcasm in,267 ;
Jewish appreciation of,
268 ;
publ ic reception of,2 7 1 .
Darwin ,10 .
Davilow,Mrs .
,261 .
Dawson,George, 74, 7 5 .
Deane, Lucy, 19 .
‘ Debas ing the Moral Currency284.
D erbysh ire Hills , 297 .
D ialect,xxv1i .
D ickens , 1 28, 140, 141 , 142, 3 16.
D inah Morris, 143, 1 5 7 , 2 19, 220.
Dodsons , th e, 1 7 5 .
Donnithorne , Arthur, 144.
Dorothea , 167 , 241 , 242, 243, 245,26 1 .
Dresdéh, 92.
Du Maurier,2 73.
EL IOT, GEORGE ,her work, v
xxx iii ; range of l iterature con
cerning, vi ; Cross’
s Life of, vi,viii
,ix ; critical and biographical
literature concerning, vi ; periodsof literature concerning, vi ;Math ilde B lind ’s Life of, vi
,
vii ; George Eliot on biographies ,viii ; name ‘ George Eliot ’ as
sumed, x i, 130 ; periods in lit
crary life of, xi ; intellectualprogress , x i
,xn ; debu t in im
aginative literature,x iii; ‘Scenesof Clerical Life,’ x iii ; life at
Griff,
x iii ; use of Newdigatematerial , x iv ; atmosphere of
Cheverel Manor, x iv ;‘ Adam
Bede,
’x iv ;
‘ M ill on the Floss,
’
xv,
xvi,
xvii ; scenes of her
s tories , xv, xvi ; S ilas Marner,
’
xvii ;‘ Felix Holt
,
’xvii ;
‘ Ro
mola,
’xvi
,xvii i ;
‘ Daniel Deronda
,
’xviii
,xix ; Middle
march,
’xviii
,xix ; methods of
work,xviii
,x ix ; position in lit
erature,xviii ;
‘ Impress ion s ofTheophra s tus Such ,
’x ix ; as a
poet , x ix ;‘ Span ish Gypsy,
’
xx ; poetry criticised by HenryJames
,xx ; county of
,xx ;
country of,xx ; s tudy of Eng
li sh life in works of, xxi ; sym
pathetic character of wri tings of,xx i ; criticisms of writings of
,
xxii,xxiii, xxiv ; comment on
Balz ac’ s ‘ Pere Goriot,
’xxv ; as
a teacher , xxv ; L ewes’s influ
ence on,xxvi, xxviii use of dia
lect, xxv.i ; scope and nature of
writings of,xxviii ; popularity
of writings , xxix,xxx ; com
plexity of writings of, xxx ; po
s itiou in literary world, xxxi,
xxx ii ; w ritings as text-books,
xxxii ; va lue of Mathilde Blind’sLife of
,xxx iii ; chief events inlife of
,xxxv- x l ; prefatory note
on, by Mathilde Blind, xli—xliii .Chapter I. Introductory
chapter , 1—1 1 character of writ
ings , 1- 7 ; moral influence of
wri tings of,
10 ; teachings of
writings , 1 1 .
Chapter II. Childhood of,1 2—28 birth of, 1 2 ; early home
cf,1 2
,16, 1 7 ; mother of,
brother and s ister of, 16 ; car y
354
of un ion with Mr . Lewes , 1 16 ;defiance of public Opinion, 1 1 7 ,1 18 ; journey to Germany w ith
Lewes , 1 19 ; devotion to L ewes ’ schildren , 1 20.
Chapter VII. Scenes of
Clerica l Life,‘ 12 1 -139 ; in Germany w ith Lewes , 1 2 1 ; translation of Spinoz a
’s
‘ Eth ics ,’12 1
discovery of power to write fic
tion,1 22
,1 23 ; influence of Lewes
on writi ngs of, 1 24; manuscript
of Amos Barton sent to JohnBlackwood, 1 26 ; the other‘ Scenes of Clerical Life ’ written ,1 26, 1 2 7 ; appearance of ‘ Amos
Barton in Bla ckwood ’s , 12 7 ;Blackwood writes appreciativelyto ,
1 27 ; literary reputation
fairly achieved, 1 28 ; comparis on
with jane Austen,130, 131 ;
humor in ‘ Scenes of ClericalLife
,
’135 .
Chapter VIII. Adam
Bede,’
140—162 ; intellectual
preparation for authorsh ip, 140
in Derbyshire, 143 ; vis its to
her aun t, 147, 1 5 1 , 1 53 ; the L ig
gins affair, 160, 161 ; di sclosureof identity of
,162.
Chapter IX .
‘The Mil l onthe Floss ,’ 163
—180 ; disclosureof identity of, 163, 164 ; Tom
Tulliver,M aggie Tulliver, 164 ;
autobiograph ical nature of M illon the Floss
,
’164 ; identity of
Maggie Tulliver with , 1 72, 1 73.
Chapter X .
‘ Silas Mar
ner,’
18 1—195 ; popular repu
tation fu lly established, 1 8 1‘ The Lifted Veil,’ 1 81 ; com
parison of,w ith Shakespeare,
188 ; success in describing villagelife,1 88, 189 ; humor in
‘ S ilasMarner,
’19 1 , 192, 193 .
Chapter X I. Romola,’196—2 1 2 ;
‘ Romola ’a new de
parture in writings of,196 in
Florence, 198 ; labor expended
on‘ Romola,’ 200 ; Lewes a
screen aga inst criticism, 200,
201 : theory of love comparedwith George Sands
'
,2 1 1 .
INDEX .
Chapter XII. Poems,2 13
231 ; remova l to the Priory ,S t .
j ohn ’s Wood
,2 13 ; decoration of
home by Owen Jones,2 13 ; Sun
day afternoon receptions , 1 13 ;mus ical interest of
,2 14 ; interes t
in painting, 2 1 5 ; visits to Z o
ological Gardens, 2 16 ; eveningrecreations
,2 1 7 ; fondness for
travel,
2 1 7 ; vis it to France
2 18 ; first draught of ‘ Spanish
Gypsy,’218 ; origin of ‘ Spanish
Gypsy,’2 19 ; ideality of ‘ Span
ish Gypsy,’2 1 9 ; distinctiveness
of poems of, 223 ; knowledge ofpoetic forms , 226 ; letter to JamesThomson
,22 7 ; philosophy of
life, 228, 229 ;‘Armgart,
’229,
230.
Chapter XIII . FelixHolt ’ and Middlemarch
,
’232
253 ; character of Dorothea , 242 ;Theresas , 242, 243 ; character
ins igh t of, 243 ; erroneous criti
cisms on‘ M iddlemarch , ’ 243 ;
attitude toward education of
women,246 ; donation to Girton
College, 246 ; interest in Woman
Suffrage , 246 ; sojourn at Shot
termill, 247 , 248, 249 ; consci
entiousness of, 2 50 ; indi spo
s itiou of, 25 1 ; at work on
‘ Middlemarch ,’ 25 1 ; ca lls on
Tennyson, 252 ; personality of,
252 ; home at W itley, 2 53 .
Chapter XIV . DanielDeronda,
’2 54
—2 70 ; leas t suc
cessful characters of,256 ; re
organiz ation oi the j ews , 2 56,2 5 7 ; idea of diffusion of races
,
2 58, 2 59 ; sources of inspiration,260 ; letter to Dan te Rossetti,264 ; familiar ity with Hebrewliterature, 269, 2 70.
Chapter XV . Last yearsof her life, 27 1- 290 ; diffidence
of,
2 72 ; con scientiousness of,272 ; serious nature of
,272 ;
dis ti nguished friends of,2 73 ;
personality , 274, 275 ; portraits
of,276 ; felicitous expressions
of, 277 ; Rossetti’s gifts to, 27 7 ,
[YVZDIEAC
2 78 letter to Rossetti, 278 her
reading, 2 79 ; L ewes’s care for,
280 ; spiritua l ph ilosophy of,influ ence of Comtism on
,
282, 283 ;‘Impressions of Theo
ph ras tus Such ’283
2 85 ;‘ Debasing the Moral Cur
rency,’
284 ; bereavement of,
286 ; George Henry LewesS tudentship founded, 287 ;‘ Theophrastus Such
’prepared
for press, 287 ; marriage withJohn Walter Cross, 287 death
289 ; career , 290.
APP ENDIX . H ome life andfriends , 293
—3 1 2 ; ch ildhood
,
293 ; young womanhood, 293 ;religious asceticism,
293, 294;first vis it to London , 294 ; mus icher passion, 294 ; ambition of
,
294 ; letters of, 295 ; playfu lnessof, 296 ; sober reading, 296 ;housekeeping respon sibilitiesand troubles, 29 7 ; Isaac’s mar
t iago, 29 7 ; removal to Folesh ill,297 ; friendsh ips at Rosehill
,
297 ; intellectual sympathy withSarah H ennell
,298 ; letter to
Sarah Kennell, 299 ; trans lationof Tractatus Th eologico
-Politicus
,
’299 ; letters written at Ge
neva, 299 ; life at, 300 ; as a
confidante, 301 ; letter to the
Brays describing Geneva life,30 1 ; beginning of London life,02 ; acquaintancesh ip with H er
gert Spencer, 303 ; Spencer’s
remarks on personality of, 303,
304 ; meeting with Mr . Lewes ,304 ; un ion with Mr. Lewes ,304 uncommunica tiveness, 305 ;correspondence with Mrs .
Hough ton, Mrs . Congreve,Madame Belloc, 305 ; generosity to relatives , 05, 306 ; s ilenceof Chrissey and Isaac towards ,306 ; friendsh ip for Mrs . Con
greve and Madame Bodichon,
306 ; lack of personalities in herJournal, 307 ; early interest in
music, 306 ; sensitiveness to ex
tern al influences ofweather,307309 ; affection for L ewes
’s sons,
355
3 10 ; simplicity ofhome life, 310 ;the Lewes boys at school, 3 1 1bus iness careers of the Lewesboys , 3 1 2 ; Mr. James on home
life of, 312 . At work, 3 13
—329 ;
early studies and reading, 3 1 3 ;summary of intellectual attain~ments
, 3 13, 3 14 ; preparation ofecclesiastical h istory chart, 3 14 ;increased breadth of knowledge,3 14 ; work on Westmin ster Re
view , 3 14 ; evidence of gen ius inwriting, 315 ; first attempt at
fiction writing, 3 1 5, 316, 31 7writing Scenes of Clerical Life,3 1 7 ; Herbert Spencer’s recognition of ability for fiction writing,31 8 Opin ions of authors on the
Scenes,
’
3 18 ; unheedfu lness ofcriticism
, 3 19, 20 stimulus ofLewes , 331 ; re uctance to discuss her writings , 323, 324 ; timespent on writings, 324, 32 dil
igence in work, 32 5 ; in uence
of Lewes on writings , 326 ; attention to details in writings ,
32 7 ; use of real material inwriting, 327 impersonal works,32 7 ; nervous strain
, 328 ; poorverbal memory, 328 humanityof, 329 ; purpose in writings,329.
Emerson , 74.
Eppi e, 194, 238 '
E sther (Felix Holt), 25, 237, 238.Evans, Christiana, 16, 1 9, 303.Evans, E liz abeth , 44, 143, 144,
145, 146, 149 , 1 54~Evans , Isaac, 16, 19, 163, 297 .
Evans, Mary Ann (see George
E liot ).Evans , Robert, 1 2, 13, 14, 28, 64,65s I55» 245, 305 °
Evans,Samuel, 144.
Eyre, Jane, 1 14.
FEATHERSTONE, 241 .
Fedalma, 22 1 , 222, 238,Felix Holt,’ xvii ; chapter on , 232240 ; published in 1866, 232
political nature of,232 Ad
dress toWorking Men by, 232 ;teachings of, 233, 234, 235 per
sonality of Felix Holt, 235 two
s ensational features of, 235 in Houghton, Mrs ., 305.
tricacies of,
236, 240 ; Mrs . Howard, George, 273.
Transome,237, 238 Harold Hueffer
,Dr.
,2 73.
Transome, 237 ; Rufus Lyon, Hugo, Victor, 203, 282.
237 ; Es ther, 237 , 238 ; M15 . Huxley, 2 73.
Holt, 237 ; Job Tudge, 237 ;original features of, 239. JAKIN, Bob, 180.
Feuerbach,Ludwig, 62. James , Henry, vn, V111, 1x,xx , xxn,
Flaubert, 87 . xxiii,xxvi.
Foleshill, 28, 30. Janet’ s Repentance ,’
1 27 (seeForbes , Edward, 78. Scenes of Clerica lForman
,Mr. and Mrs . Buxton, enkins , Miss Bradley, 23.
2 73 . ones, Burn e, 2 73 .
France,visit to, 2 18. ones, Owen, 2 13.
Franklin,Rebecca , 22 .
Franklin,the Misses
,22. KINGSLEY
,Rose
,xx .
Froude, 73, 316.
Fuller, Margaret, 79, 80, 81 .
GARTH ,Caleb, 8, 13, 241 , 245.
Gascoigne, 261 .
Geneva, 68—7 2, 299, 300.
Gibbon , 68.
Gilchrist ,Mrs .,247—250.
Mr . Gilfil’s Love S tory,’13, 127
(see Scenes of Clericalquotation from, 13 1 ; outline of
,
132, 133.
Girton College, 246.
Gleggs, the, 1 76 .
Goethe,1 10
,12 1 , 1 23 , 203, 272.
Grandcourt, 9 1 , 261 , 263.
Griff House, 1 7 , xiii .
Gwendolen, 168, 26 1 , 262 , 265.Gwyther, Emma, 1 25.
HACKIT,Mr., 13.
Hackit, Mrs .,14, 15, 126.
Halm-Eberstein,Princess , 257 .
Harrison, Frederic, 2 73.
Hawthorne, Nathaniel, 266 .
Heine,Heinrich
, 90, 95, 192, 260,2 72 .
H elps, Arthur, 274.
Hennell,Charles C.
, 34, 58.
H ennell, Sarah, 35, 40, 52, 296,297 ;errick
,M rs .
,xxu .
Hetty, 7 , 1
58, 1 59, 209.
Heyse, Pau 91 .
Hogarth , 240.
Holt, Mrs .,237.
Houghton, Lord, 251, 273.
LADISLAW ,241 , 244, 245.Lafitte , the Positivist, 283.
L ammeter, Nancy, 28.
Legend of Juba l ,’ 223 .
Leland,C. G .
, 2 73.
Lemon,Mrs .
,school of
, 31 .L e Plongeau, 68.
Less ing , 282 .
Lewes , George H enry, contributorto Westminster Review
, 78 ; realism in art : recent German fiction
,
89 influence of George Elioton, 89 ; essay on art, 92 ; idea lityof child Jesus , 92, 93 ; chapter
on George H enry Lewes, 1031 20 acquaintanceship w ith
George E liot begun, 104 ; birth ,104 ; education
, 105 ; club life,105 acquain tanceship with Jews ,105 ; as Daniel Deronda, 106 ;study of philosophy, 106, 107 ;biograph ical history, 107 ; s tu
dent in Germany, 108 ; Londonjournalist
,108 ; versatility of,108,
1 10,1 12 ; as a novelist, 108 ; corre
spondence with Charlotte Bront'
é,
108 ;‘ Ranthorpe,
’108, 109 ;
Rose,B lanche, andViolet,’ 108 ;
assista nt editor of the Clas sica l
Af u seum,
108 ; contributor to
M orn ing Chron icle,At/zen ceum,
the Ed inbu rgh , Foreign Qu a rter ly , B r itt
'
s/t Qu a rter ly , Blackwood
,F ra ser
, Westmin ster
R eview,
108 Spanish drama,109 ;
‘ Life ofMaximilian Robe
358
Pattison, Mark, 273.
P ears , Mrs ., 295 .
P helps , Miss, letter to, 104.
INDEX .
Sand, George, 5, 8, 9, 10, 1 1 , 67,
‘ Sartor Resartus,’1 1 .
Poe,Edgar Allan ,
admiration of, Savonarola , 198, 204, 205, 207 , 2 19,for ‘ Ranthorpe,
’109 .
P oems of George E liot, 2 13—231 .
Poyser, Mrs.,8, 15, 155, 1 76, 198,
245.P rague, 92 .
Priory , the, 2 13, 2 72, 273, 274,27 7 .
Pullets , the, 1 76.
RAHEL , 260.
Ralston,Mr .
,273.
Ranthorpe,’108, 109.
Realism in Art : Recent GermanFiction,
’ 89.Rex
,261 .
Roland,Madame
, position of, inliterature, 5 .
Romola, xvii, xviii, xxiv, xxv, 60,68, 241 , 242, 246 ; chapter on,
196—2 12 ; a new departure in
George Eliot’s writings, 196 ;eth ical teaching in, 196 ; appear
ance in Corn/t ill M ag a z in e,1 862, 197 ; Lewes on seria l publica tion of
,197 ; appreciation of,
198 ; visit to Florence for material for
,198 ; criticism of, 198,
199 ; majesty of Romola,’ 199labor expended on, 200 ; true
point of view for, 202 Romolaand Tito
,202 ; learning d is
played in, 203 spiritual growthof Romola , 205, 206 ; Tito, 206 ;Vittoria Colonna, 207 ; Romola’smartyrdom,
207 ; Tito, 207 , 208,2 10 ; Tito’s character, 208 ;Melema, 20 married life of
Romola an Tito, 2 10 ; R0
mola's address to Lillo, 2 12 .
Rose,Blanche
, andViolet,’ 108.Rosehill, 103, 295 .Rossetti
,D . G .
, 199, 264, 2 77.Rousseau, 10
, 68
SABLE,Madame de, 1 14.
Sad Fortunes of the Rev. AmosBarton
,
’1 24, 1 28 (see also
Scenes of ClericalSalzburg, 92 .
220.
‘ Scenes of Clerical Life,’ x iii, 32,84, 85, chapter on , 12 1
139 ; origin, 122 ; Amos Barton,1 23, 124 ; church in wh ich AmosBarton preached , 1 25 ; the origi
nal of Amos Barton ’s wife, 1 26 ;Amos Barton sent to John Blackwood, 126 ; appearance of ‘AmosBarton ’ in Blackw ood ’
s M aga z ine, 1 2 7 ; Mr. Gilfil
's Love
Story and ‘ Janet’s Repen t
ance written, 1 27 ; Blackwood’sappreciation of ‘ Amos Barton,
’
12 7 ; Thackeray’s appreciation of
Amos Barton,’1 27 ; Dickens
’s
appreciation of Scenes of Clerical Life,’ 1 28 public curiosity as
to authorsh ip of, 1 29 ; nameGeorge Eliot ’ assumed , 130 ;
s tories compared, 132 ; outline of‘ Mr . G ilfil’s Love S tory,’ 132,133 ; humor in, 135 precepts of,136, 137 ; Mr . Spratt
’s example,
138 ; originals of portra its in , 160
the Liggins episode, 160, 161 .
Sch iller, 1 23.
Sevigne, Madame de, 5.Shakespeare, 283.
Sheepshanks, Rev. T., 31 .
Shelley, 68, 282 .
Shottermill, 247 .Simms
,Mr.
, 3 1 .
‘ S ilas Marner,’ xvu, xxiii, xxxu,
93 ; chapter on, 181- 195 ; re
semblance to ‘Jermola the Pot
ter,
’184, 187, 188 ; story of
‘
Jermola the Potter,’184—187 ;
scene at the Rainbow,’189
190 ; Dolly W inthrop, 190
humor in, 191 ; Eppie
’s child
hood, 194, 26 1 .
South Farm , Arbury, 1 2 .
Spain, visit to, 2 18.
‘ Spanish Gypsy,’xx
,2 18, 2 19,
220, 22 1—22 5.
Spencer, Herbert , 5 1 , 78, 103, 273,Spi noz a, 64, 12 1, 260, 299.
Spratt, Mr.,138. VELASQUEZ , 87.
se a,Madame de, 5, 68. Vienna, 92.
S tephen, Les lie, vii, xxiv. Vincy, Rosamond, 31 , 241 .S ter ling, Life of, 79.
S trauss ’s ‘ Leben Jesu,’ 52, 58, 59.
Sully, Mr., 273.
Tenny son,
273, 277.Thackeray, 12 , 140, 274.
The Lifted Veil,’ 181 . 45, 76, 78Theophrastus Such ,
’xix, 94, 275,
283, 28 285, 287.Thomson, ames
,227 .
Tina’s gri 13 1 , 132.
Tito, 168, 202, 206, 207, 208, 210.Tourguénief, M. 273.Transome, Harold, 237 .Transome, Mrs .
,237, 238.
Trollope, 274.
Tadge, Job, 237.Tulhver, Maggie, 8: 191 241 251 431
164, 168- 1 75, 198, 261, 295.
Tulliver, Mr., 13
. Z ARCA, 219, 220, 222, 223.Tulliver
, Tom, 19, 164, 168- 175, Zoological Gardens, 2 16.29s.
WAKEM, Philip, 70, 93, 1 70, 180.
W alpole, Sir Robert, 100.
Walpurga, 230.Warwickshire, 12.
Weimar, 1 19.Westminster102
,101 .
Whitman, Walt, 279.W itley, 2 3.
Women, nglish, 2.
Women,French , 1,P
.
Women,influence 0 race peculiari
ties in writings of,(3,4.
W orldliness and ther-Worldli
ness.’
45. 46. 95~
YOUNG ’S Night Thoughts,’98.
ROMANCES OF ALEXANDRE DU
NEW EDITION in 48 volumes of the entire St
Edition of Dumas, formerly pub lished in 60 v0
W ith 4-8 frontispieces in etching and photogravure and 9page pictures in ha lf-tone.
top.
Rom ances of th e Reign of
H en ry II.
Th e Two Dianas,2vols.
Th e Duke’s Page, 2 vols .
Th eHoroscope,an dTh eBrigand,1 vol.
5 vols . 12mo. In b ox ,
Th e Va lois Rom an ces
Marguerite de Valois, 1 vol.Th e Forty
-Five, 1 vol .
La.Dame de Monsoreau,1 vol.
3 Vol s . 121110 . In b ox ,
Th e D ’Ar ta gnan R om a n ces
Th e Three Mu sketeer s,2 vols .
Twenty Years After , 2vols .
Vicomte de Bragelonne, 4 vols .
(In clu d ing“ Bragelonn e ,
”
“ L ou i s e d e Va l l i ére,”
and
Th e Iron Mask ”)
8 vols. 1 2mm In b ox ,
R om ances of th e Reg ency and
L ou i s XV.
Th e Ch eva l ier d’Harmenta l ,1 vol .
The Regent’s Daughter, 1 vol .
Olympe de Cleves , 2 vols .
4 vols . 121110. In box ,
48 vols.Ha l f crushed morocco, gi lt top,
Decorated cloth .
Th e M a r i e An to in e t t
m an ces
H i stor ica l Rom an ces
Agénor de Maul éon, 2 vol
Ascanio, 1 vol.
TheW ar ofW omen,1 v0?
Sylvandire, 1 vol.
The Black Tul ip, and T
the Caucasu s,1 vol.
Black , th e Story of a.Dog7 v ol s . 121110. In b ox, $7 .
Th e Cou n t of Mon te Cr!
3 v0“. 121110. In box, 3 3 0
Memoirs of a Phys ician
The Queen’s Necklace
,2
Ange Pitou , 2 vols .
Comtes se de Cham y, 3 v0
Ch eva l i er d e M a i son
1 vol.
Chauvelin’s W ill, Th eNeck lace, and Blan e
Beaul ieu , 1 vol.
1 2 vol s . 1 2m o . In b ox, $1
Th e Napol eon R om ance
The Compan ion s of J ehu ,
TheW h ites and th e Blues,
The Sh e-W olves of Mac
2 vols .
6 V015 . 1 21110. In b ox , 8 8 .
THE NOVELS OF JANE AU ST
ILLUSTRATED w ith 12 photogravu re plates
drawings by Edmund H . Garrett . 6 vols.Decorated cloth, g ilt top, in box, H alf cmorocco, g ilt top,Sense and Sens ibility, 1 vol. Mansfield Park
,1 vol.
Pride and Prejud ice, 1 voL Emma,1 vol.
Northanger Abbey , and P er sua L ady Sus an , Th e W ats (
s ion , 1 vol. ters,etc.
,1 vol.
GEORGE SAND ’
S NOVELS
W ITH front ispieces in photogravu re and etchin
vols ., 12mo. Decorated(
cloth, gilt top, iH alf crushed morocco, g ilt top,
Mauprat, 1 vol. Nanon , 1 vol.An toni a , 1 vol. Fadette
,1 vol .
Mons ieur Sylvestre, 1 vol. Francois th e W aif,1 vol.
Th e Snow Man,1 vol . Master Mosa ic W orkers
Mi ller of Angibault, 1 vol. Devi l ’s Pool,1 vol.
Th eBagpipers , 1 vol.
BALZ AC ’S NOVELS AND STOR I
LA COMEDIE HUMAINE OF HONOR .
BALZ AC. Compris ing Scenes from PrivatScenes in Provincial L ife, Scenes from Pa risian L ife,from M ilita ry L ife, Scenes from Polit ical Life , SceneCountry L ife, and Philosophical Studies. W ith
gravu re frontispieces, byGoupil and Company, from pby noted French artists. 39 vols . 12mo. Decorate
g ilt top, H alf crushed morocco, extra , giSold on ly in sets.
TEN THOU SAND A—YEAR
TH E NO VE L S , R OM AN CE S , A
MEMO IR S OF ALPHONSE DAU
W ITH 16 photog‘ ravure plates and 32 full-pag
tures. 16 vols. 12mo. Decorated cloth, gilin box, Hal f crushed morocco, g ilt top, $44
Th e Nabob, 2 vols . Sappho, Between the Fli
Fromont and Risler, and Robert th e Footlights, and Ar
B elmont,1 vol. Treasur e, 1 vol .
Numa Roumestan, and Rose and Kings in Exil e, 1 vol.
Ninette, 1 vol. Monday Tales, L etters fi'
c
L itt l e-W h at ’s -H i s -Name, and Mill,L etters to an
Scenes and Fancies , 1 vol. One, 1 vol .
The L ittle Parish Church , and Memories of a Man of L
The Evang e li st, 1 vol. Notes on L ife, Thir tyTartarin of Tara scon, Tartarin in Paris, and Ultima , 1
on th e A lps, and Arti s ts ’ Th e Immortal,and The St
W ives,1 vol. for L ife
,1 vol.
Port Tarascon, and La Fedor, Th e Support of th e Family1 vol . J a ck , 2 vols .
THE ROMANCES OF V ICTOR H
W ITH 28 portra its and plates . 14 vols. l 2mo.
orated cloth, in box, Half crushedrocco, gilt top,Les Miserables , 5 vols . Th e Man who Laugh s, 2 v
Toilers of the Sea, 2 vols. Han s of Iceland, 1 vol .
Ninety-Three,1 vol . Bug-J argal , Claude Gueux
Notre Dame, 2 vols . Day of.a Condemned,etc.
SAMUEL LOVER ’S NOVELS
W ITH photogravure frontispieces. 4 vols.Decorated cloth, gilt top, in box,
crushed morocco, gi lt top,“
R n n ’M n r n 1 v n l
