National Republican., 1881-01-20
GEORGE ELIOT,
A True Story of u Remarkable Woman
Her Wonderful Ability.


George EliOt'S death has brought out two things
her exact age, regarding which the encyclopa-
da, Sycre uncertain, and the truth about her early
history respecting which they were altogether
Vrong She was known to have been born about
$50 hut the inCriptiOn on her coffin plate fixed
the date. II reads: Mary Ann Gross George
Fliot-born I'D November, 1920; died 22d Deccm-
ber 1850"
She was not the daughter either of "poor Gu
a.e" ora dissenting minister" nor was she edu-
Gated by wealthy clergyman, as has been va
r0usly affirmed. An apparently wellinfoImed
correspondent Of the Pal Nall Gazette says that
Gift, near NunestOn, was her birthplace. Her
father Robert Evans, who died in ISi9 was land
agent TO five estates in Warwickshire, and was
highly respected Mary Ann was the youngest Of
three children 10y her fathers second marriage,
having nalf brother and sister, the offspring of
the first union. She was says our authority
A remarkable child in many ways thoughtful
sHd earnest and at the age of twelve might have
been seen teaching in the Sunday-School in little
cottage near her fathers house. She received her
first education at Miss Franklms school, i'll COven-
tIy and retained through life an ahectiOnatc re-
mrmbTauCe OF these teachers of her childhood
often speaking Of her obligation TO Miss Rebecca
franklin for much careful trimming, Her family
r~ded at GTiff until about her twentieth year. her
mother having died when she was fifteen. 1t can
not be dOubted-theTc is every evidence OF the
Bt-In1l DHT piTllSn experiences III lildI pIOStlC
country district were so many boarded treasures
III her retentiYc memory which. by means of her
marvellous Wit and insight into Character served
10 enrich her first three novels and her Scenes OF
Clerical Life Her letters of those days show a
penetration, wit and philosophical observation
belonging rather TO mature life, and they show
asu that her mind was deeply imbued with evan
gr!ical sentiments. Her sisters and brothers hay
iHg married. She lived alone with her father who
IN l-li removed from Griff To Foleshill near Cow
citry. In this somewhat more pOpulOUS neighbOr-
became a
than common interest, and, moreover. as a most
devoted daughter and the excellent manager of
her fathers household.
Herbert Spencer has contradicted the story that
hc had much 10 do with her training for he did
not make her acquaintance until 1851, when she
had already gained some literary reputation and
formed her ideas. She was industrious from the
start, studying Greek, Latin, German, French, and
Italian with great zeal, under different masters,
and Hebrew by herself She also became proficient
sl music by earnest application. While studying
th" ancient languages in Coventry she became in
Innate with Mr.. and Mrs. Charles Bray we'll
known literary people. Mrs. Bray was the
Sister Of Charles c. Hennell, author of one of
lhc first English attacks on the supernaturalism
oi the Bible from a refined and courteous
standpoint L Was then that she seems to
nave received that anti-ChriStian bias which so
influenced all her after life She met at the
BmEs Emerson, J. a Froudc. George Combe
Robert Nuckay. and other radical thinkers Mr..
lenncls book was published in 1888, when Miss
Aran' vas only eighteen, and doubtless its argu-
ln"nt, overturned her faith. She had much clas-
Si',l learning. once correcting the Greek of quo
talIoa from Epcletus made by one of the gentle
men guests but she had probably taken her reli-
gion on trust, and was therefore unable TO meet
The sVh'ieties familiar enough to Germans, but
lly- LsoON
Nh Hennells suggestion that she translated
strauss Life of Jesus" completing the task in
1910 ana winning the praises fthe author for the
Aoriiiy Of her reproduction of his ideas Her sub
Se4Hen Translation of one of Feuerbachs atheisti-
CaI works show that she was no halfway uube-
Never; yet the beliefs of her early days must have
Adullied her, aS they form the basis of one of her
most pathetic, if less elaborate stories" Janets
repentance After the death of her father she
HaYeled with the Brays on the continent and re-
manned an inmate of their family on their return
until ISL, when she became editor of the
WESTMINSTER ReuieC. Her intimacy with George
Henry Lewes must have intensified all that was
skeptlCal and materialistic in her nature. Lewes
was ametaphySician of the sensational school, who
Imagined himself an Omniscient philosopher He
mad little depth or breadth of thought, but made
up IN pOSitiveneSs what he lacked in profundity.
- 'O'iiA4iS VI tlA0 PcCuLldIlt! VI tneII sOclal
relations 1t Is very obvious that Lewes' influence
was not good on his companion, even from q lite
nary point of view He encouraged all that was
naId and dry, and represSed everything emotional.
1is was no doubt unintentiOnal, but none the less
t'teitt. lin her later works George Eliot showed
heiseT more an auatomst and less an artistic por-
ta!e: Of the human character, if her views of life
DcCame more and more somber, Mr. Lewes was
Ia'g gely responsible for the change Her career is
now ended, and no one will be inclined to treat
er uneharitably. Still, it is impossible to avoid
lle conviction that her life would have been hap
f'ei and her works have been characterized by
certain sympathetic and feminine touches which
mos OF them lack, had she not early fallen in with
otiIcLe Of hard-headed and perhaps hard-hearted
ne0l0gi>fs