George Eliot's Life, as Related in Her Letters and Journals. Vol. 3 (of 3)

Letter to Madame Bodichon, 15th Oct. 1878.

The days pass by without my finding time to tell you what I want to tell you – how delighted I was to have a good account of you. But every bright day, and we have had many such, has made me think the more of you, and hope that you were drawing in strength from the clear, sweet air. I miss so much the hope that I used always to have of seeing you in London and talking over everything just as we used to do – in the way that will never exactly come with any one else. How unspeakably the lengthening of memories in common endears our old friends! The new are comparatively foreigners, with whom one's talk is hemmed in by mutual ignorance. The one cannot express, the other cannot divine.

We are intensely happy in our bit of country, as happy as the cloudy aspect of public affairs will allow any one who cares for them to be, with the daily reading of the Times.

A neighbor of ours was reciting to me yesterday some delicious bits of dialogue with a quaint Surrey woman; e. g., "O ma'am, what I have gone through with my husband! He is so uneddicated – he never had a tail-coat in his life!"

Letter to John Blackwood, 23d Nov. 1878, from the Priory.

When Mr. Lewes sent you my MS.³⁴ the other morning he was in that state of exhilarated activity which often comes with the sense of ease after an attack of illness which had been very painful. In the afternoon he imprudently drove out, and undertook, with his usual eagerness, to get through numerous details of business, over-fatigued himself, and took cold. The effect has been a sad amount of suffering from feverishness and headache, and I have been in deep anxiety, am still very unhappy, and only comforted by Sir James Paget's assurances that the actual trouble will be soon allayed.

I have been telling the patient about your letter and suggestion that he should send a form of slip as advertisement for the Magazine. He says – and the answer seems to have been a matter of premeditation with him – that it will be better not to announce the book in this way at once – "the Americans and Germans will be down on us." I cannot question him further at present, but I have no doubt he has been thinking about the matter, and we must not cross his wish in any way.

I have thought that a good form of advertisement, to save people from disappointment in a book of mine not being a story, would be to print the list of contents, which, with the title, would give all but the very stupid a notion to what form of writing the work belongs. But this is a later consideration. I am glad you were pleased with the opening.

Letter to Miss Sara Hennell, Sunday evening, 24th Nov. 1878.

For the last week I have been in deep trouble. Mr. Lewes has been alarmingly ill. To-day Sir James Paget and Dr. Quain pronounce him in all respects better, and I am for the first time comforted. You will not wonder now at my silence. Thanks for your affectionate remembrances.

Letter to John Blackwood, 25th Nov. 1878.

Mr. Lewes continues sadly ill, and I am absorbed in nursing him. When he wrote about Parliament meeting, he was thinking that it would be called together at the usual time – perhaps February. The book can be deferred without mischief. I wish to add a good deal, but, of course, I can finish nothing now, until Mr. Lewes is better. The doctors pronounced him in every respect better yesterday, and he had a quiet night, but since five o'clock this morning he has had a recurrence of trouble. You can feel for him and me, having so lately known what severe illness is.

Mr. Lewes died on the 28th November, 1878.

SUMMARY

MARCH, 1876, TO NOVEMBER, 1878

Letter to John Blackwood – Visit to Weybridge – "Daniel Deronda" – Letter to Mme. Bodichon – Meets Sir Garnet Wolseley – Vivisection – Letter to John Blackwood – Public discussion of "Deronda" – Motto from Walt Whitman – Inscription on the MS. of "Deronda" – Letter to Mrs. Stowe – Thanks for sympathy – Drawbacks to going too much abroad – Mr. Lewes's "Problems" – Letter to J. W. Cross on the effect of her writing – Three-months' trip to Continent – Letter to John Blackwood – Visit to Chambéry and Les Charmettes – Lausanne and Vevey – Ragatz – Return to London – Letter to John Blackwood – Dr. Hermann Adler – Letter to Mme. Bodichon – St. Blasien – Women's work – Visit to Six-Mile Bottom – Meets Turguenieff – Jewish appreciation of "Deronda" – Letter to Mrs. William Smith – Mrs. Ruck – Letter to Mrs. Stowe – Jewish element in "Deronda" – Letter to Miss Hennell – Miss Martineau's "Autobiography," and biography in general – Resignation – Gratitude of Jews for "Deronda" – Purchase of house at Witley, near Godalming – Dr. Hermann Adler's lectures on "Daniel Deronda" – Application to translate "Romola" into Italian – Christmas at Weybridge – Opening of year 1877 – Letter to James Sully – The word "meliorism" – Letter to John Blackwood – Illustrations of cheap editions – "Romola" – Letter to William Allingham – Warwickshire dialect – Letter to Mrs. Bray – Harriet Martineau's "Autobiography" – Letter to Mme. Bodichon – Holmes and Mrs. Vernon Lushington playing – Letter to Miss Hennell – Mrs. Chapman on Harriet Martineau – Mrs. Stowe and the Byron case – Letter to Professor Kaufmann – Gratitude for his estimate of "Deronda" – Letter to F. Harrison – Sympathy incentive to production – Letter to Mme. Bodichon – Miss Thackeray's marriage – Letter to W. Allingham on his poems – Letter to Professor Kaufmann – Translation of his article by Mr. Ferrier – Letter to Mrs. Ponsonby – Reference to Stradivarius – Pity and fairness – Letter to J. W. Cross – Appreciation of Tennyson's poems and dramas – Letter to Mrs. Peter Taylor – Improvement in health at Witley – Proposal to write on Shakespeare for "Men of Letters" series – Letter to Miss Hennell – Gain of health and strength at Witley – Letter to Mrs. Burne-Jones – Christmas plans – Farewell to Journal and to year 1877 – Letter to Mme. Bodichon – State of France – London University opening degrees to women – Reading Green's "History of the English People" and Lecky – The phonograph – Letter to John Blackwood – "Pascal" – "La Bruyère" – Letter to Mrs. Burne-Jones on the "Two Grenadiers" – Letter to Mrs. Bray – Meeting with Crown Prince and Princess of Germany at Mr. Goschen's – Visit to Oxford to the Master of Balliol – Letter to John Blackwood – Indian story of Lord Lytton's – Letter to Mrs. Peter Taylor – Function the æsthetic not the doctrinal teacher – Letter to John Blackwood – Mr. Lewes's ill-health – Letter to William Blackwood – Letter to Mrs. Burne-Jones complaining of health – Letter to J. W. Cross – Mr. Lewes's continued illness – Life at Witley – Effect of receptions at the Priory – Description of receptions – Letter to John Blackwood – Complaining of health – Letter to Mme. Bodichon – Delight in old friends – Letters to John Blackwood – MS. of "Theophrastus Such" – Mr. Lewes's last illness – Postponement of publication of "Theophrastus" – Mr. Lewes's death.

CHAPTER XIX

For many weeks after Mr. Lewes's death, George Eliot saw no one except Mr. Charles Lewes, and the very few persons she was obliged to receive on necessary business. She read no letters, and wrote none, but at once began to occupy herself busily with Mr. Lewes's unfinished MSS., in which work Mr. Charles Lewes was able to assist her in the arrangement. The only entry in her diary on the 1st January, 1879, is "Here I and sorrow sit." At the end of two months this desolation had told terribly on her health and spirits; and on the last day of January she was greatly comforted by a visit from Sir James Paget – a friend for whom she had always had the highest and most cordial regard during the many years she had known him. Meantime she had begun to write a few short notes, and she mentions in her journal of 2d January, "A kind letter from Professor Michael Foster, of Cambridge, offering to help me on any physiological point;" and on the 19th January, "Ruminating on the founding of some educational instrumentality as a memorial to be called by his name." There are the following letters in January and February.

Letter to Madame Bodichon, 7th Jan. 1879.

I bless you for all your goodness to me, but I am a bruised creature, and shrink even from the tenderest touch. As soon as I feel able to see anybody I will see you. Please give my love to Bessie³⁵ and thank her for me – I mean, for her sweet letter. I was a long while before I read any letters, but tell her I shall read hers again and again.

Letter to John Blackwood, 13th Jan. 1879.

It was a long while before I read any letters, and as yet I have written none, except such as business required of me. You will believe that this has not been for want of gratitude to all my friends for their goodness to me. I can trust to your understanding of a sorrow which has broken my life. I write now because I ought not to allow any disproportionate expense to be incurred about my printed sheets.

To me, now, the writing seems all trivial stuff, but since he wished it to be printed, and you seem to concur, I will correct the sheets (if you will send me the remainder) gradually as I am able, and they can be struck off and laid by for a future time. I submit this proposition to your judgment, not knowing what may be most expedient for your printing-office.

Thank you for all your kind words.

Letter to J. W. Cross, 22d Jan. 1879.

Sometime, if I live, I shall be able to see you – perhaps sooner than any one else – but not yet. Life seems to get harder instead of easier.

Letter to J. W. Cross, 30th Jan. 1879.

When I said "sometime" I meant still a distant time. I want to live a little time that I may do certain things for his sake. So I try to keep up my strength, and I work as much as I can to save my mind from imbecility. But that is all at present. I can go through anything that is mere business. But what used to be joy is joy no longer, and what is pain is easier because he has not to bear it.

I bless my friends for all their goodness to me. Please say so to all of them that you know, especially Mr. Hall. Tell him I have read his letter again and again.

If you feel prompted to say anything, write it to me.

Letter to Mrs. Burne-Jones, 4th Feb. 1879.

Do not believe that your love is lost upon me, dear. I bless you for all your goodness to me, and keep every sign of it in my memory.

I have been rather ill lately, but my head is clearer this morning. The world's winter is going, I hope, but my everlasting winter has set in. You know that and will be patient with me.

Letter to Madame Bodichon, 6th Feb. 1879.

Bless you for your loving thought. But for all reasons, bodily and mental, I am unable to move. I am entirely occupied with his manuscripts, and must be on this spot among all the books. Then, I am in a very ailing condition of body – cannot count on myself from day to day – and am not fit to undertake any sort of journey. I have never yet been outside the gate. Even if I were otherwise able, I could not bear to go out of sight of the things he used and looked on.

Bless you once more. If I could go away with anybody I could go away with you.

Letter to J. W. Cross, 7th Feb. 1879.

I do need your affection. Every sign of care for me from the beings I respect and love is a help to me. In a week or two I think I shall want to see you. Sometimes, even now, I have a longing, but it is immediately counteracted by a fear. The perpetual mourner – the grief that can never be healed – is innocently enough felt to be wearisome by the rest of the world. And my sense of desolation increases. Each day seems a new beginning – a new acquaintance with grief.

Letter to J. W. Cross, Saturday, 22d Feb. 1879.

If you happen to be at liberty to-morrow, or the following Friday, or to-morrow week, I hope I shall be well enough to see you. Let me know which day.

On Sunday, the 23d February, I saw her for the first time, and there is the following letter next day.

Letter to J. W. Cross, 24th Feb. 1879.

A transient absence of mind yesterday made me speak as if it were possible for me to entertain your thoughtful, kind proposal that I should move to Weybridge for a short time. But I cannot leave this house for the next two months – if for no other reason, I should be chained here by the need of having all the books I want to refer to.

Letter to John Blackwood, 25th Feb. 1879.

Pray do not announce "Theophrastus" in any way. It would be intolerable to my feelings to have a book of my writing brought out for a long while to come. What I wish to do is, to correct the sheets thoroughly, and then have them struck off and laid by till the time of publication comes. One reason which prompted me to set about the proofs – in addition to my scruples about occupying the type – was that I was feeling so ill, I thought there was no time to be lost in getting done everything which no one else would do if I left it undone. But I am getting better, I think; and my doctors say there is nothing the matter with me to urge more haste than the common uncertainty of life urges on us all.

There is a great movement now among the Jews towards colonizing Palestine, and bringing out the resources of the soil. Probably Mr. Oliphant is interested in the work, and will find his experience in the West not without applicability in the East.

It is a satisfaction to you, I hope, that your son is about to be initiated in George Street. I trust he will one day carry on the good traditions of the name "John Blackwood."

Letter to Madame Bodichon, 5th Mch. 1879.

Your letter, which tells me that you are benefiting by the clear, sunny air, is very welcome. Yes, here too the weather is more merciful, and I drive out most days. I am better bodily, but I never feel thoroughly comfortable in that material sense, and I am incredibly thin. As to my mind, I am full of occupation, but the sorrow deepens down instead of diminishing. I mean to go to Witley in a few months, that I may look again on the spots that he enjoyed, and that we enjoyed together, but I cannot tell beforehand whether I shall care to go again afterwards.

Everybody is very kind to me, and by and by I shall begin to see a few intimate friends. I can do or go through anything that is business or duty, but time and strength seem lacking for everything else. You must excuse my weakness, remembering that for nearly twenty-five years I have been used to find my happiness in his. I can find it nowhere else. But we can live and be helpful without happiness, and I have had more than myriads who were and are better fitted for it.

I am really very busy, and have been sadly delayed by want of health. One project I have entered on is to found a studentship, which will be called after his name. I am getting help from experienced men.

Letter to John Blackwood, 5th Mch. 1879.

I send the corrected sheets of "Theophrastus," and shall be much obliged if you will order a complete revise to be sent me before they are struck off. Whenever the book is published (I cannot contemplate its appearing before June, and if that is a bad time it must stand over till the autumn season) I beg you kindly to write for me a notice, to be printed on the fly-leaf, that the MS. was placed in your hands last November, or simply last year.

I think you will enter into my feeling when I say that to create a notion on the part of the public of my having been occupied in writing "Theophrastus" would be repugnant to me. And I shrink from putting myself forward in any way.

I hope you are benefiting by the milder weather. I drive out a little now, but you must be prepared to see me a much changed creature. I think I should hardly know myself.

Journal, 1879.

March 8.– Gertrude³⁶ and the children came to tea.

March 9.– Mr. Henry Sidgwick came to discuss the plan of the studentship.

March 13.– Professor Michael Foster came to discuss the studentship, and we arrived at a satisfactory clearness as to the conditions. He mentioned as men whom he thought of as suitable trustees, Huxley, Pye Smith, Thiselton Dyer, Francis Balfour, and Henry Sidgwick.

Letter to Mrs. Burne-Jones, 20th Mch. 1879.

Dear Friend, – When you have time to come to me about six o'clock I shall love to see you.

Journal, 1879.

March 22.– Mrs. Congreve came again. Mrs. Burne-Jones came.

Letter to William Blackwood, 25th Mch. 1879.

I am so dissatisfied with "Theophrastus" on reading the revise that I have proposed to suppress it in this original form, and regenerate it whenever – if ever – I recover the power to do so. You see the cruel weather has travelled after you. It makes one feel every grievance more grievously in some respects, though to me the sunshine is in one sense sadder.

Journal, 1879.

March 30.– Mr. Bowen (now Lord Justice Bowen) came, Mr. Spencer, and J.

Letter to John Blackwood, 5th April, 1879.

After weighing what you have said, I agree to the publication of "Theophrastus" in May. If you had at all suspected that the book would injure my influence, you would not have wished me to give it forth in its present form, and in the uncertainty of one's inner and outer life it is not well to depend on future capabilities. There are some things in it which I want to get said, and if the book turned out to be effective in proportion to my other things, the form would lend itself to a "second series" – supposing I lived and kept my faculties.

As to the price for the right of translating, you will judge. If you will kindly undertake these negotiations for me, I shall be thankful. And pray remember that I don't want the book to be translated, so that it will be well to wait for the application, and to ask a sufficient sum to put the publisher on his guard as to the selection of a translator. But, of course, this little book cannot be paid for according to the difficulty of translation.

You see, I have been so used to have all trouble spared me that I am ready to cast it on any willing shoulders. But I am obliged now to think of business in many ways.

I am so glad to know that Mrs. Blackwood has the comfort of a good report about you from the doctors. Perhaps it may seem to you the wrong order of sympathy to be glad for your sake in the second place.

Journal, 1879.

April 8.– Mrs. Stuart came.

Mrs. Stuart was a devoted friend whose acquaintance had been formed some years before through the presentation of some beautiful wood-carving which she had executed as an offering to George Eliot.

Letter to Frederic Harrison, 8th April, 1879.

Dear Friends, – Will you come to see me some day? I am always in from my drive and at liberty by half-past four. Please do not say to any one that I am receiving visitors generally. Though I have been so long without making any sign, my heart has been continually moved with gratitude towards you.

Letter to Madame Bodichon, 8th April, 1879.

Your letter was very welcome this morning, for I do not like to be very long without having some picture of you, and your words of affection are always sweet.

The studentship I mention is to supply an income to a young man who is qualified and eager to carry on physiological research, and would not otherwise have the means of doing so. Mr. H. Sidgwick, Michael Foster, and other men of kindred mind are helping me in settling the scheme. I have been determined in my choice of the studentship by the idea of what would be a sort of prolongation of his life. That there should always, in consequence of his having lived, be a young man working in the way he would have liked to work, is a memorial of him that comes nearest my feeling. It is to be at Cambridge to begin with, and we thought at first of affiliating it to the university; but now the notion is that it will be well to keep it free, so that the trustees may move it where and when they will. But the scheme is not yet drafted.

I am going to bring out one of "The Problems" in a separate volume at the beginning of May, and am now correcting the proofs.

My going to Witley is an experiment. I don't know how I shall bear being there, but I hope there will be nothing to hinder my having you there if you will undertake the troublous journey for my sake.

Letter to John Blackwood, 9th April, 1879.

I enclose the proof of title-page and motto. Whether the motto (which is singularly apt and good) should be on the title-page or fly-leaf I leave you to judge. Certainly, everybody who does not read Latin will be offended by its claiming notice, and will consider that only the deepest-dyed pedantry could have found the motive for it. But I will not leave it out altogether.

I have had such various letters from time to time, asking me to reprint or write essays, that, perhaps, some of the public will not be disappointed that the volume is not a story. But that must be as it may; and if you think the acceptance dubious, it is much the better plan not to stereotype.

What energy there is in Mr. Kinglake in spite of the somewhat shattered health that his Wesen gives one the impression of! Among incidents of war that one can dwell on with anything like gladness, that account of the rescue of the colors at Isandlana is memorable, is it not?

I go out every day, drive beyond the ranks of hideous houses in the Kilburn outskirts, and get to lanes where I can walk, in perfect privacy, among the fields and budding hedgerows.

I hope Mr. Julian Sturgis will take care of his writing and do something lasting. He seems to me to have a strain above the common in him; and he is not writing for his bread, or even his butter. I don't know why I say this just now, except that I had it in my mind to say long ago, and it has just come upper-most as I was thinking of the Magazine.

Letter to Professor Kaufmann, 17th April, 1879.

Your kind letter has touched me very deeply. I confess that my mind had, more than once, gone out to you as one from whom I should like to have some sign of sympathy with my loss. But you were rightly inspired in waiting till now, for during many weeks I was unable even to listen to the letters which my generous friends were continually sending me. Now, at last, I am eagerly interested in every communication that springs out of an acquaintance with my husband and his works.

I thank you for telling me about the Hungarian translation of his "History of Philosophy;" but what would I not have given if the volumes could have come, even only a few days, before his death! For his mind was perfectly clear, and he would have felt some joy in that sign of his work being effective.

I do not know whether you will enter into the comfort I feel that he never knew he was dying, and fell gently asleep after ten days of illness, in which the suffering was comparatively mild.

One of the last things he did at his desk was to despatch a manuscript of mine to the publishers. The book (not a story, and not bulky) is to appear near the end of May, and, as it contains some words I wanted to say about the Jews, I will order a copy to be sent to you.

I hope that your labors have gone on uninterruptedly for the benefit of others, in spite of public troubles. The aspect of affairs with us is grievous – industry languishing, and the best part of our nation indignant at our having been betrayed into an unjustifiable war in South Africa.

I have been occupied in editing my husband's MSS., so far as they are left in sufficient completeness to be prepared for publication without the obtrusion of another mind instead of his. A brief volume on "The Study of Psychology" will appear immediately, and a further volume of psychological studies will follow in the autumn. But his work was cut short while he still thought of it as the happy occupation of far-stretching months. Once more let me thank you for remembering me in my sorrow.

Letter to J. W. Cross, 22d April, 1879.

I am in dreadful need of your counsel. Pray come to me when you can – morning, afternoon, or evening.

From this time forward I saw George Eliot constantly. My mother had died in the beginning of the previous December, a week after Mr. Lewes; and, as my life had been very much bound up with hers, I was trying to find some fresh interest in taking up a new pursuit. Knowing very little Italian, I began Dante's "Inferno" with Carlyle's translation. The first time I saw George Eliot afterwards, she asked me what I was doing, and, when I told her, exclaimed, "Oh, I must read that with you." And so it was. In the following twelve months we read through the "Inferno" and the "Purgatorio" together; not in a dilettante way, but with minute and careful examination of the construction of every sentence. The prodigious stimulus of such a teacher (cotanto maestro) made the reading a real labor of love. Her sympathetic delight in stimulating my newly awakened enthusiasm for Dante did something to distract her mind from sorrowful memories. The divine poet took us into a new world. It was a renovation of life. At the end of May I induced her to play on the piano at Witley for the first time; and she played regularly after that whenever I was there, which was generally once or twice a week, as I was living at Weybridge, within easy distance.

Besides Dante, we read at this time a great many of Sainte-Beuve's "Causeries," and much of Chaucer, Shakespeare, and Wordsworth. But I am anticipating. We will return to the correspondence in its order.

Letter to John Blackwood, 22d April, 1879.

When I shall be able to get to Witley is altogether uncertain. The cold winds make one less hungry for the country, but still it will be a relief to me, in some respects, to get away from town. I am much stronger than I was, and am again finding interest in this wonderful life of ours. But I am obliged to keep my doors closed against all but the few until I go away. You, however, I shall hope to see. I am founding a studentship of Physiology, to be called "The George Henry Lewes Studentship." It will be placed, in the first instance, at Cambridge, where there is the best physiological school in the kingdom. But the trustees (with my consent during my life) will have the power of moving it where they judge best. This idea, which I early conceived, has been a great stay to me. But I have plenty to think of, plenty of creatures depending on me, to make my time seem of some value. And there are so many in the world who have to live without any great enjoyment.

Journal, 1879.

April 26.– Mr. and Mrs. Hall came.

Letter to Mrs. Burne-Jones, 3d May, 1879.

If you can come to me next week for a parting word, will you try to learn beforehand whether and when your husband can give me half an hour at the end of his working-day? I should like to see him before I go, which I hope to do soon after the 13th.

Journal, 1879.

May 6.– Mr. and Mrs. Call, Eleanor and Florence (Cross) came.

May 8.– Mr. Burne-Jones came.

May 10.– Edith Simcox and Mr. Pigott came.

May 13.– Dr. Andrew Clark came and gave me important suggestions about the studentship.

May 21.– Saw Mr. Anthony Trollope.

May 22.– Came down to Witley – lovely mild day.

Letter to James Sully, 28th May, 1879.

Mr. Lewes always wrote the dramatic criticisms in the Leader, and for a year or two he occasionally wrote such criticisms in the Pall Mall. Of the latter, the chief were reprinted in the little book on "Actors, and the Art of Acting." What was written in the Fortnightly (1865-66) is marked by signature. The most characteristic contributions to the Cornhill (1864-65) were "The Mental Condition of Babies," "Dangers and Delights of Tobacco," "Was Nero a Monster?" "Shakespeare in France," and "Miseries of a Dramatic Author."

But after 1866 his contributions to any periodical were very scanty – confined to a few articles in the Pall Mall Gazette, one on "The Reign of Law," in the Fortnightly, and the series on Darwin, now incorporated in "The Physical Basis of Mind." After these, his sole contributions were an article on Dickens (1872), two on "Spiritualism" and "Mesmerism" (1876), and one on "The Dread and Dislike of Science" (1878).

Charles, I think, mentioned to you my desire that you should do me the valuable service of looking over the proofs of the remaining volume of "Problems," and you were so generous as to express your willingness to undertake that labor. The printing will not begin till after the 16th – Dr. Michael Foster, who has also kindly offered to help me in the same way, not being sufficiently at leisure till after that date.

I have been rather ill again lately, but am hoping to benefit by the country quietude. You, too, I am sorry to hear, are not over strong. This will make your loan of mind and eyesight all the more appreciated by me.

Letter to Mrs. Burne-Jones, 3d June, 1879.

Your letter, full of details – just the sort of letter I like to have – has been among my comforts in these last damp, chill days. The first week I was not well, and had a troublesome attack of pain, but I am better, and try to make life interesting by always having something to do.

I am wishing Margaret many happy returns of this day, and am making a picture of you all keeping the little fête. A young birthday, when the young creature is promising, is really a happy time; one can hope reasonably; and the elder ones may be content that gladness has passed onward from them into newer vessels. I should like to see the blue-eyed maid with her bangles on her arms.

Please give my love to all and sundry who make any sign of love for me; and any amount you like is ready for you to draw upon.

Letter to Frederic Harrison, 10th June, 1879.

I am greatly obliged to you for sending me the paper you are to read to-day; and I appreciate it the more highly because your diligence is in contrast with the general sluggishness of readers about any but idle reading. It is melancholy enough that to most of our polite readers the social factor in psychology would be a dull subject; for it is certainly no conceit of ours which pronounces it to be the supremely interesting element in the thinking of our time.

I confess the word factor has always been distasteful to me as the name for the grandest of forces. If it were only mathematical I should not mind, but it has many other associated flavors which spoil it for me.