brought into personal acquaintance with many literary people as well as philosophical writers. It was in Dr. Chapman’s home that she first formed that acquaintance with George Henry Lewes, already a well-known and popular writer, which finally deepened into love, and culminated in their union for life. Here, too, she met Herbert Spencer, and other radical and earnest thinkers.
Miss Evans’ first attempts at fiction-writing were the series of short stories and sketches, now known under the title of “Scenes of Clerical Life,” published in serial form in magazines.
Previous to this she had been known only as a translator and writer of essays and reviews. Of her original writings she seems to have had no very high opinion. “For years,” she remarked to a friend, “I wrote reviews because I knew so little of humanity.”
It was not until the publication of “Adam Bede” by the Harpers, a little more than a dozen years ago, that a new
