The Birmingham age-herald., 1906-01-28
GEORGE ELIOT'S TRUE
 PHILOSOPHY OF LIFE

epAA ltllNQ on lHdI EHAf anu AoA what Will happen to you because Of tt- and remember. If you were to choose something lower, and make 1t the rule or your life, seek your own pleasure, ana escape from what is disagreeable, eaIamity might come just the same, ana II would be calamity falling on base mind, which is the one form of sorrow that has no balm in it, and that may well make a man say 1t would nave been better if l had never been born!
 wonder whether the subtle measur- Ing of forces will ever come to measuf- Ing the force there would be in one beau- uful woman whose mind was as noble as her face was beautiful. who made man passion for her rush in one cur rent with all the great aims of his life. }SiThe word of all work, Love, will no more express the myriad moods of nut tual attraction than the word Thought can inform you what Is passing in your neighbours mind. As Mrs. Foyer says I'm not denyin' that women are fool ish. God Almighty made 'em to watch the menl'
 Certainly the mistakes that we male and female mortals make when we have our own way might fairly raise some wonder that we are so fond of 1t.
 Pride only helps us to be generous 1t never makes us so, any more than vanity will help us to be witty.
 Our vanities differ as our noses do. All coneeit is not the same conceit, but varies in correspondence with the minutiae of mental make up in which one of us differs from another
 "One's self satisfaction Is an untaxed kind of property which it Is very unpleas- ant to find depreciatedl
 People glorify all sorts of bravery ex- eept the bravery they might show on be- half of their nearest neighbors-
 And yet, we mortals, men and women devour many a disappointment between breakfast and dinner timei Keep back the tears, and look a little pale about the lips, and in answer to inquiries, say 70, nothing" Pride helps us and pride is not a bad thing when it only urges us to hide our own hurts-not to hurt others.
 Half the sorrows of women would be averted if they could repress the speeetS they know to be useless-nay. the speech they have resolved not to utter
 "In this way. poor women, whose power lies solely in their influence, make them selves like music out of tune, and only move men to run away.
 Lest we, the women of the Highland Book club who are only endowed with ordinary mentality and sometimes less than ordinary spirituality, should feel discouraged by the lofty plane of George Eliots philosophy, witness the fact that she wrote once to a friend: My present
 
 Gloom in the Valley of Dolor, but, poor pebble as I am. left entangled among slimy weeds, I can yet hear from afar the rushing of the blessed torrent, and rejoice that It Is there to bathe and brighten other pebbles less unworthy than L.
 "I have been holding a court of con- science, and I cannot enjoy my Sundays music without restoring harmony-wthout entering a protest against that superficial soul of mine which Is perpetually contra dieting and belying the true inner soul. I am in that mood, which In another age of the world would have led me to put on sack cloth and pour ashes on my head, when call to mind the sins of my tongue my animadversions of others, as if I thought myself to be something when I am nothing-I need the Jesuits discipline of silence-and tho my 'evil-speaking' is- sues from the intellectual point of view rather than the moral-tho' there may be gall In the thought, while there Is honey In the feeling yet the evil speaking is wrong. We may satirize character and qualities In the abstract without injury to our moral natures, but persons. hardly ever.
 Poor hints and sketches of souls as we are. with some slight, transcient vis- ion of the perfect and the true. we had need help each other to gaze at he blessed heavens, instead of peering into each others eyes to find out the notes there.
 How delcously human, too, Is her dec laration when asked if she was open to conviction on some subject: "Open to conviction indeed! I should think so. I am open to conviction on all points except dinner and debts. I hold that the one must be eaten, and the other paidi There are my only prejudices' And touehngly ain fa hpY- oil xnrI,a cIaa t4FF4tA a friend of an elderly lady, she has met on the continent who has been kind to her She kisses me like a mother. and I am baby enough to find that a great addition to my happiness.
 Tt Is always good to know, if only in passing a charming human belng-it re- freshes one like flowers and woods. and clear brooks
 The last word to be said of George Eliot's personality comes. of course, from MT. Cross, who had known her long and intimately before the death of MT. Lewes He was, indeed. their cherished household friend and, tho many years younger seems to have had the most sympathetic insight Into and intelligent comprehension of her character.
 ''He dwels on the catholicity of her judgment: singularly free from the spirit of detraction either in respect of her contemporaries or her predecessors, she was always anxious to see the best and the most most noble qualities of human beings or of books-and 1t was this wide sympathy. this understanding of so many points of view that gained for her the passionate devotion not only of personal friends but also of literary admirers from the most widely sundered sections of society. This many-sidedness, however makes 1t exceedingly difficult to ascertain. either from her books or from the losest personal intimacy what her exact rela- ton was to any existing religious creed, or to any political party.
 ''Yet. hers was emphatlcally religious mind. The Bible was a very precious and sacred book to her. not only from early associations, but also from the profound convictin of its importance in the devel- opment of the religious life of man-and, Mr Cross, adds. We generally began our daily reading with some chapters from the Bble-parts of which she particularly enjoyed reading aloud. Her deep. rich voice with its organ-like tones, gave new meaning and beauty to the most familiar passages
 "She was keenly anxious to redress in- justices to women and to raise their gen eral status in the community This she thought could best be effected by women improving their work-cea sing to be anna teurs. But 1t was one of the most dis tinctly marked traits of her character. that she particularly disliked everything generally associated with the idea of a masculine woman, She was, and as woman, she wished to be- above all things, feminine-'so delicate with her needle, and an adOirahl f,oiisiafan' ba woe nro,,d