month, so that this too retrospective letter of mine will reach you in the midst of your new duties. I trust that this new Institution will be a great good to professor and students, and that your position is of a kind that you contemplate as permanent. To teach the young personally has always seemed to me the most satisfactory supplement to teaching the world through books, and I have often wished that I had such a means of having fresh, living, spiritual children within sight.
"One can hardly turn one's thought toward Eastern Europe just now without a mingling of pain and dread; but we masş together distant scenes and events in an unreal way, and one would like to believe that the present troubles will not at any time press on you in Hungary with more external misfortune than on us in England.
"Mr. Lewes is happily occupied in his psychological studies. We both look forward to the reception of the work you kindly promised uș, and he begs me to offer you his best regards.
"Believe me, my dear sir,
Apart from her works George Eliot was little known to the public. She was always in delicate health, and led a retired life, visiting but little, and caring nothing for general society, although delighting to receive and entertain her chosen friends.
An American lady, who enjoyed the privilege of attending one of her receptions, describes her as the most charming of hostesses, her conversation simple yet often profound, and often "when you least looked for it taking an odd, quaint turn that produced the effect of wit." Not only did she talk herself, but she possessed the gift of making others talk, and of drawing from each the best that was in him. Her voice was beautiful, and
