The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1885-02-15

wise child's taste In litsfature 10 soundsr than
adults generally venture to bolieve." At Nun
eaton. whore she remained up to tho age Of Is.
she seems to have had no special advantages.
She was noticed. however. to master easily the
usual school learning OF her years. But In her
next school, kept BY the Misses Franklin.
daughters Of q Baptist minister. she found
teachers OF considerable intellectual power.
and ACQUIRED. though the impulse TO
them was probably innate. invaluable
habits OF industry and concentration.
and methods Of accurate and thorougbgolng
study. In talking to Mr.. Cross about tho years
spent with tho Misses Franklin. George Eliot
impressed upon his mind the debt that she felt
she owed to them for their excellent instruc-
ton. and her very high respect for their moral
qualities. When we learn that besides giving
them a sound English education. the Misses
Franklin managed TO procure for their pupils
excellent masters for French. German. and
music. we must acknowledge that Miss Evans.
when at the age OF sixteen she left their school.
had proflted by decidedly better opportunities
OF gaining knowledge than were enjoyed by
Charlotte Bront6 during tho whole OF her
cramped life. II we except the latter's brief
sojourn In Belgium. Yet had George
Eliots intellectual horizon remained bound
cd by what she learned or was i'm
pclled to learn by her school teachers. and had
not her accidental intercourse with the Hem
nell family subsequently metamorphosed her
whole view Of life and given her enlarged
aims and moro catholic standards. It may DO
doubted whether her novels would have been
more richly stored than those OF Charlotte
Bronte. For. II we carefully compare the
achievements OF these famous women. We shall
incline to acknowledge that their natural pow
ers were nearly equal. and that the notable va
rance in the luxuriance Of tho products
should be referred to the great difference OF
the soil and atmosphere In which they grow.
To the end Of her too short life everything
conspired to choke and baffle the do
velopment OF Charlotte Dronts's GO
MUS. whereas. from the age Of twenty
two. George Eliot wns subjected to expansive
and powerful intellectual incentives. and WAS
eventually transported into a medium preeml-
nently favorable to hard study vigorous and
comprehensive thinking. and creative indus
try. 1t should never. indeed. be overlooked
that when at the ago OF thirty-ssven. George
Eliot wrote her first story. the Sad Fortunes
OF Amos Barton" she had been for sixteen
years an interchangeable student Of learning and
OF science. encouraged and directed during q
large part OF that time) by some OF tho most &C.
complished and able minds In England. Even
before she left Coventry to pursue an active lit
and Spinoza. and to that end had not only &C.
Quired remarkable proficiency In the German
Latin. and Greek languages. but had also
taught herself to read Hebrew with considerable
facility. Her literary judgment and her style
were fashioned and perfected not only by trans
lations. which have been pronounced BY ex ports
admirably idiomatic and surprisingly exact
but by innumerable rovlews Of books. and ori9i-
nal disQuisitons upon social questions. writ
ton both for the Westminster, (oi which she was
assistant editor). and for other periodicals.
Whom We bear in mind the breadth and quality
OF the work which she accomplished between
1912 and 1857; when We recall the names OF the
reiormers and philosophers by whose convic-
lions. hopes. and purposes her own were guild
ed. We cannot but feel that George Eliot tun-
like her poor sistor author. stified In York
shire village came to tho function OF novel
writing as Ferdinand Lassalls boastsd that no
came to socialism. armed with all tho thought.
the erudition. and the science OF tho time.