The Arkansaw traveler., 1885-04-04
GEORGE RLtor.s CRITICS.
fLp. S,eeIl, Id San Francisean.l

II. D. Sseel1, in San Francisean.l
 Critics of George Eliot's beoks who have written before and since her death, have very generally fallen into grave error, beth in largely mistaking the pur- pose of her woxk4 and in attaching lar too great importance to her religious views in the consideration of her pub lished writings. Her own opinion of this class of critics is found expressed In a private letter to Mrs. EfSlbsth Stewart Phelps, of Boston, published by the latter since the death of the great novelist. AL luding to the fact that she never read critques of her books, Mrs. Lewes, by which name George Eliot ~ss then known in private llfe-writes:
 cannot imagine any edi6cation con- ing to a writer from the sort of reviewing which consists in attributing to him or her uns xpressed opinions, and imagining circumstances which may be alleged as petty motives for the treatment of sub- iects which ought to be of general human interest. It is, perhaps, less irrelevant to say, apropos of distinction you seem to make between my earlier and later works, that, though trust there is some growth in my appreciation of others and in my self distrast, there has been no change in the point of view from which regard our life since ] wrote my frst fiction, "Scenes from Clerical Life" Any apparent change of spirit must be due to something of which am uncon- scious. The principles which are at the root of my efforts to paint Dinah Morris are equally at the root of my effort to paint Mordecai.
 Here is the key to the aim of all the writings she gave to the public, and 1t IS so plainly and consistently set forth in all her works that 1t Is wonder that any uu- prejudiced reader could mistake It; yet so appreciative an admiier as Mrs. Pnelps seems to have missed its percep- ton. That critics should persist in seeing a growing hopelessness and gloom set ting on her mind, and should attribute it to her lack of faith in any supernatural power in the universe, only shows how great an influence preconceived ideas can have on the judgment.
 That the unsettling of her early faith may have had some effect< on George Eliot's works, by influencing in a meas ure her habits of thought, may be true i; but that anything of this is perceptible in any of her published writings is utterly false. The writer has found it almost impossible to convince any one uhac- uuainted with the facts of her life that the author of Adam Bede and "The Mill on the Floss" was not a christian theist.
 Indeed, in the light thrown on the early bent of her mind, as shown in the | i~s4~~, .v;.,au hMv hiouva chu hu Mv Gross, it is doubtful if she would have had any different theory of life, even if she had always held the evangelical faith. which she at one time carried almost to the verge of f. naticism; but it is hardly possible that she could have had so true a sympathy with the highest spiritual de- veiopment in representatives of every shade of belief had she been trammeled by the bonds Of sectarianism.
 Marion Evans, who is known to the world of letters as George Eliot, possessed a naturally religious nature. Her early life, which called for many sacrifices, impressed upon her mir d the significance of the cardin christian doctriI C of self abnegation. This remained always the dominant principle of her life, the central idea of her philosophy. After she had been led, through the reading of the works of modern sceptical writers, to re- nounce all belief in the supernatural origin of christianity, and even finally the slender faith of the deist, she still clupg all the more strongly to this, which she regarded rightly as the great essential of true religious character. Her ex- peder ce when, on abandoning her belief in the dogmas of christianity. she refused longer to accompany her father 10 church mot from any of the blatant bitterness of the characteristic infdel, but from a ing for a time brcech between parent and child, for which she long reproached herself-probably influenced to grea, degree her after ire atment of those whose opinions differed greatly from her own. So when, through the instrumentality of appreciative friends, she discovered that she possessed the power of appealing to the public through the ever-popular medium of fiction, she asked herself the question: "Can not, without in any way arousing the prejudice of those whose speculative views differ most widely from mine, give impulse through my books to the growth among the masses of those ethical principles which are the source of the highest possible good to the race2' This she always en- deavored to do |; and 1t is likely that the conviction that her usefulness as public teacher might be impaired if her private religious iews were generally known, may have influenced her largely in vail ing her identity under nom de plume. If 90, she showed wisdom la this, as ever since the facts of her life have been made public, assiDine critics have insisted on reading between the lines of her works these individual sentiments which she at all times studiously excluded from them.
 Believing most implicitly that the source of the highest happiness to the in- dividual, as well as the greatest good to the race, lay in disregard of self and de- votion to our fellows, George Eliot was ready to pay homage to all those noble souls who had attempted to make this | ideal h~ 4 as<x~= --~1asA~