‘George Henry Lewes studentship.’ It is worth nearly 200l. a year, and is to be held for three years by some student occupied in physiological investigation. ‘Theophrastus Such’ appeared in May 1879.
In 1867 Mr. Herbert Spencer had introduced Lewes to Mrs. Cross, then living with her daughter at Weybridge. Mr. J. W. Cross, the son, was then a banker at New York. In 1869 Mrs. Cross, with her son, met George Eliot at Rome. At the end of August in the same year the Leweses visited Mrs. Cross at Weybridge, and a close intimacy was accelerated by sympathy in family sorrows which soon followed, Mrs. Cross's daughter, Mrs. Bullock, dying within a month, Thornton Lewes (son of G. H. Lewes) a month later. Mr. Cross, settling in England, continued his intimacy with the Leweses, and was helpful to George Eliot after Lewes's death. A marriage with Mr. Cross was arranged in April 1880, and was celebrated at St. George's, Hanover Square, on 6 May. They made a tour on the continent, during which her health was remarkably good, returning at the end of July. The English fogs tried her. After staying some time at Witley Mr. and Mrs. Cross came to London, 3 Dec. 1880, to occupy a house at 4 Cheyne Walk, Chelsea. She caught a chill at a concert on Saturday, 18 Dec., her powers rapidly failed, and she died with little pain 22 Dec. 1880.
George Eliot regarded herself as an æsthetic teacher, and held that such teaching was ‘the highest of all teaching, because it deals with life in its highest complexity. But,’ she adds, ‘if it ceases to be purely æsthetic—if it lapses anywhere from the picture to the diagram—it becomes the most offensive of all teaching’ (Cross, ii. 375). How far she succeeded in solving the ‘tremendously difficult problem’ which she so clearly appreciated is a question still undecided. In philosophy she did not affect to be an original thinker, and though she had an extraordinary capacity for the assimilation of ideas, she had the feminine tendency (no one was more thoroughly feminine) to accept philosophers at their own valuation. The most common criticism is that the desire to act as an interpreter of certain philosophical ideas was injurious to the artistic quality of her books. The later books, in which the didactic impulse is strongest, suffer in comparison with the earlier, where it is latent. The poetry and the essays indicate an inaccurate estimate of her true abilities. The overlaboured style which too frequently intrudes is another error springing from the same cause. That some of her writing suffers from the philosophic preoccupation is scarcely deniable. But where the philosophic reflectiveness widens her horizon and strengthens her insight, without prompting to excessive didacticism, her novels stand in the very first rank. In her own peculiar province no contemporary equalled or approached their power and charm; while even the comparative failures reveal a mind of extraordinary grasp and perceptive faculty.
A portrait of George Eliot was painted by M. d'Albert at Geneva at the end of 1850, which is now in possession of Mr. Cross. Sir Frederick Burton made an admirable drawing in 1864, which is now in the National Portrait Gallery. An etching by M. Rajon is prefixed to Mr. Cross's ‘Life,’ where there is also an engraving from M. d'Albert's picture. She also sat in 1860 to Samuel Laurence, who made chalk-drawings of many eminent contemporaries.
George Eliot's works are as follows: 1. ‘Strauss's Life of Jesus’ (anon.), 1846. 2. ‘Ludwig Feuerbach's Essence of Christianity, by Marian Evans,’ 1854. 3. ‘Scenes of Clerical Life,’ 1858. 4. ‘Adam Bede,’ 1859. 5. ‘The Mill on the Floss,’ 1860. 6. ‘Silas Marner,’ 1861. 7. ‘Romola,’ 1863 (previously in the ‘Cornhill,’ July 1862 to August 1863). An ‘édition de luxe,’ with Sir Frederick Leighton's illustrations, appeared in 1880. 8. ‘Felix Holt,’ 1866. 9. ‘The Spanish Gypsy,’ 1868. 10. ‘Agatha,’ a poem, 1869. 11. ‘Middlemarch,’ 1872 (in parts, December 1871 to December 1872). 12. ‘Jubal and other Poems.’ 13. ‘Daniel Deronda,’ 1876. 14. ‘Impressions of Theophrastus Such,’ 1879. Two short stories, ‘The Lifted Veil’ and ‘Brother Jacob,’ appeared in ‘Blackwood’ in 1860.
The following appeared in the ‘Westminster Review:’ ‘Mackay's Progress of the Intellect,’ January 1851; ‘Carlyle's Life of Sterling, ’January 1852; ‘Woman in France, Mme. de Sablé,’ October 1854; ‘Prussia and Prussian Policy’ (Stahr), January 1855 (?Cross, i. 305); ‘Vehse's Court of Austria,’ April 1855 (ib. i. 302); ‘Dryden,’ July 1855 (ib. i. 309); ‘Evangelical Teaching, Dr. Cumming,’ October 1855; ‘German Wit,’ Heine, January 1856; ‘Natural History of German Life,’ July 1856; ‘Silly Novels by Lady Novelists,’ October 1856; ‘Worldliness and Other-Worldliness, the poet Young,’ January 1857. The last four, excluding ‘Silly Novels,’ were collected by Mr. Charles Lee Lewes in a volume of ‘Essays,’ published in 1884, which also includes: ‘Three Months in Weimar,’ ‘Fraser,’ 1855; ‘Influence of Rationalism: Lecky's History,’ ‘Fortnightly Review,’ 1865; ‘Address to Working Men by Felix Holt,’ ‘Blackwood,’ 1868, and ‘Leaves from a Note-book.’
