ory, North Bank,
Regent's Park, September 4, 1876. Dear Madam--Owing to an absence of
some months, it was only the other day that I read your kind letter of
April 17; and, although I have long been obliged to give up answering
the majority of letters addressed to me, I felt much pleased that you
had given me an opportunity of answering one from you; for I have
always remembered your visit with a regretful feeling that I had
probably caused you some pain by a rather unwise effort to give you a
reception which the state of my health at the moment made altogether
blundering and infelicitous. The mistake was all on my side, and you
were not in the least to blame. I also remember that your studies have
been of a serious kind, such as were likely to render a judgment on
fiction and poetry, or, as the Germans, with better classification,
say, in 'DICHTUNG' in general, quite other than the superficial
haphazard remarks of which reviews are generally made. You will all the
better understand that I have made it a rule not to read writing about
myself. I am exceptionally sensitive and liable to discouragement; and
to read much remark about my doings would have as depressing an effect
on me as staring in a mirror--perhaps, I may say, of defective glass.
But my husband looks at all the numerous articles that are forwarded to
me, and kindly keeps them out of my way--only on rare occasions reading
to me a passage which he thinks will comfort me by its evidence of
unusual insight or sympathy. Yesterday he read your article in The
Melbourne Review, and said at the end--'This is an excellently written
article, which would do credit to any English periodical' adding the
very uncommon testimony, 'I shall keep this.' Then he told me of some
passages in it which gratified me by that comprehension of my
meaning--that laying of the finger on the right spot--which is more
precious than praise, and forthwith he went to lay The Melbourne Review
in the drawer he assigns to any writing about me that gives him
pleasure. For he feels on my behalf more than I feel on my own, at
least in matters of this kind. If you come to England again when I
happen to be in town I hope that you will give me the pleasure of
seeing you under happier auspices than those of your former visit.--I
am, dear madam, yours sincerely, M. G. Lewes." The receipt of this kind
and candid letter gave me much pleasure; and, although on the strength
of that, I cannot boast of being a