to Heidelberg and Würzburg. But in any case he will not take more than a fortnight.
Letter to Miss Sara Hennell, 28th Dec. 1867.
Public questions which, by a sad process of reduction, become piteous private questions, hang cloudily over all prospects. The state of Europe, the threat of a general war, the starvation of multitudes – one can't help thinking of these things at one's breakfast. Nevertheless, there is much enjoyment going on, and abundance of rosy children's parties.
Letter to Mrs. Congreve, 30th Dec. 1867.
It is very good and sweet of you to propose to come round for me on Sunday, and I shall cherish particularly the remembrance of that kindness. But, on our reading your letter, Mr. Lewes objected, on grounds which I think just, to my going to any public manifestation without him, since his absence could not be divined by outsiders.
I am companioned by dyspepsia, and feel life a struggle under the leaden sky. Mme. Bodichon writes that in Sussex the air is cold and clear, and the woods and lanes dressed in wintry loveliness of fresh, grassy patches, mingled with the soft grays and browns of the trees and hedges. Mr. Harrison shed the agreeable light of his kind eyes on me yesterday for a brief space; but I hope I was more endurable to my visitors than to myself, else I think they will not come again. I object strongly to myself, as a bundle of unpleasant sensations with a palpitating heart and awkward manners. Impossible to imagine the large charity I have for people who detest me. But don't you be one of them.
Letter to John Blackwood, 30th Dec. 1867.
I am much obliged to you for your handsome check, and still more gratified that the "Address" has been a satisfaction to you.
I am very glad to hear of your projected visit to town, and shall hope to have a good batch of MS. for you to carry back. Mr. Lewes is in an unprecedented state of delight with the poem, now that he is reading it with close care. He says he is astonished that he can't find more faults. He is especially pleased with the sense of variety it gives; and this testimony is worth the more because he urged me to put the poem by (in 1865) on the ground of monotony. He is really exultant about it now, and after what you have said to me I know this will please you.
Hearty wishes that the coming year may bring you much good, and that the "Spanish Gypsy" may contribute a little to that end.
Letter to Madame Bodichon from Bordeaux – Madame Mohl – Scherer – Renan – Letter to Mrs. Congreve from Biarritz – Delight in Comte's "Politique" – Gratitude to him for illumination – Learning Spanish – Papers in the Revue des Deux Mondes, by Saveney – Letter to Madame Bodichon from Barcelona – Description of scenery – Pampeluna – Saragossa – Lerida – Letter to F. Harrison from Granada – The vindication of the law in "Felix Holt" – Spanish travelling – Letter to John Blackwood from Granada – Alicante – Granada – Letter to Mrs. Congreve from Biarritz – Delight of the journey – Madrid pictures – Return to the Priory – Letter to John Blackwood – "Felix Holt" – Cheap edition of novels – "Spanish Gypsy" – Dr. Congreve's Lectures on Positivism – Letter to Miss Hennell – Historical Portraits at South Kensington – Letter to Mrs. Peter Taylor – Women's claims – Comte's position – Fortnight's Visit to the Isle of Wight – Letter of adieu to Mrs. Congreve – Two months' visit to North Germany – Return to England – Reading on Spanish subjects – Mr. Lewes and Mr. Spencer at Weybridge – Acquaintance with Mrs. Cross and family – Letter to Miss Hennell – Deutsch's article on the Talmud – Letter to Blackwood about putting "Spanish Gypsy" in type – "Address to Workingmen, by Felix Holt" – Letter to Miss Hennell – Girton College – Letter to Madame Bodichon – The higher education of women – Letter to John Blackwood on the "Address" – Christmas day at the Priory – Letter to Miss Hennell – Visit of Mr. Lewes to Bonn – Letter to Mrs. Congreve – Depression – Letter to John Blackwood – Mr. Lewes on "Spanish Gypsy."
CHAPTER XV
Letter to Mrs. Congreve, 9th Jan. 1868.
There is a good genius presiding over your gifts – they are so felicitous. You always give me something of which I have felt the want beforehand, and can use continually. It is eminently so with my pretty mittens; there was no little appendage I wanted more; and they are just as warm at the wrist as I could have wished them to be – warming, too, as a mark of affection at a time when all cheering things are doubly welcome.
Mr. Lewes came home last night, and you may imagine that I am glad. Between the bad weather, bad health, and solitude, I have been so far unlike the wicked that I have not flourished like the green bay-tree. To make amends, he – Mr. Lewes, not the wicked – has had a brilliant time, gained great instruction, and seen some admirable men, who have received him warmly.
I go out of doors very little, but I shall open the drawer and look at my mittens on the days when I don't put them on.
Journal, 1868.
Jan.– Engaged in writing Part III. of "Spanish Gypsy."
Feb. 27.– Returned last evening from a very pleasant visit to Cambridge.4 I am still only at p. 5 of Part IV., having had a wretched month of malaise.
March 1.– Finished Guillemin on the "Heavens," and the 4th Book of the "Iliad." I shall now read Grote.
March 6.– Reading Lubbock's "Prehistoric Ages."
March 8.– Saturday concert. Joachim and Piatti, with Schubert's Ottett.
Letter to Mrs. Congreve, 17th Mch. 1868.
We go to-morrow morning to Torquay for a month, and I can't bear to go without saying a word of farewell to you. How sadly little we have seen each other this winter! It will not be so any more, I hope, will it?
We are both much in need of the change, for Mr. Lewes has got rather out of sorts again lately. When we come back I shall ask you to come and look at us before the bloom is off. I should like to know how you all are; but you have been so little inspired for note-writing lately that I am afraid to ask you to send me a line to the post-office at Torquay. I really deserve nothing of my friends at present.
Letter to Miss Sara Hennell, 22d Mch. 1868.
I don't know whether you have ever seen Torquay. It is pretty, but not comparable to Ilfracombe; and, like all other easily accessible sea-places, it is sadly spoiled by wealth and fashion, which leave no secluded walks, and tattoo all the hills with ugly patterns of roads and villa gardens. Our selfishness does not adapt itself well to these on-comings of the millennium.
I am reading about savages and semi-savages, and think that our religious oracles would do well to study savage ideas by a method of comparison with their own. Also, I am studying that semi-savage poem, the "Iliad." How enviable it is to be a classic. When a verse in the "Iliad" bears six different meanings, and nobody knows which is the right, a commentator finds this equivocalness in itself admirable!
Letter to John Blackwood, end of Mch. 1868.
Mr. Lewes quite agrees with you, that it is desirable to announce the poem. His suggestion is, that it should be simply announced as "a poem" first, and then a little later as "The Spanish Gypsy," in order to give a new detail for observation in the second announcement. I chose the title, "The Spanish Gypsy," a long time ago, because it is a little in the fashion of the elder dramatists, with whom I have perhaps more cousinship than with recent poets. Fedalma might be mistaken for an Italian name, which would create a definite expectation of a mistaken kind, and is, on other grounds, less to my taste than "The Spanish Gypsy."
This place is becoming a little London, or London suburb. Everywhere houses and streets are being built, and Babbacombe will soon be joined to Torquay.
I almost envy you the excitement of golf, which helps the fresh air to exhilarate, and gives variety of exercise. Walking can never be so good as a game – if one loves the game. But when a friend of Mr. Lewes's urges him angrily to play rackets for his health, the prospect seems dreary.
We