I. HER EARly Life.

MANY inaccurate statements have been made respecting George Eliot's parentage and early life. Mr. Herbert Spencer has himself contradicted the long

drawn the whole trade of the empire into their hands, partly by the firm union among themselves, partly by the idle temper and want of industry of the Turk. Every Bassa has his Jew, who is his homme d'affaires; he is let into all his secrets and does all his business. No bargain is made, no bribes received, no merchandises disposed of, but what passes through his hands. They are the physicians, the stewards, and the interpreters of all the great men. You may judge how advantageous this is to a people who never fail to make use of the smallest advantages. They have found the secret of making themselves so necessary that they are certain of the protection of the Court whatever Ministry is in power. Even the English, French, and Italian merchants, who are sensible of their artifices, are, however, forced to trust their affairs to their negotiation, nothing of trade being managed without them, and the meanest among them being too important to be disobliged, since the whole body take care of his interests with as much vigor as they would those of the most considerable of their members. They are, many of them, vastly rich."

The Berlin Jew of to-day is not an oppressed, put-upon individual. He has nothing of the meekness of martyrdom in his disposition. A short time ago, two professors in a Berlin tramwagon expressed themselves strongly upon a scurrilous article which had appeared recently in a Jewish journal. The conversation, which was in the strictest sense dialogue, was interrupted by a violent box on the ear from a person of Jewish blood, who, springing from an unobserved corner, dealt one of the professors a blinding blow. An angry altercation ensued, and the police were called in. The law protects the assaulted in all civilized countries. An Englishman's argumentum ad hominem would probably have been a return "box." But the professors were wiser. The next day the whole Liberal press was loud in its outcries of reprehension. The professors were taunted with their Mangel an Bildung; they were told that they had profaned the testament of Lessing in the legacy he had left to all Christendom in "Nathan der Weise." In a word, the "liberal" Germans disavowed their countrymen, and sided unanimously with the belligerent Jew.

The Berlin philanthropists having read of the immense success in England of Workmen's Coffee-taverns, erected a temperance tavern on the same pattern. It proved as flourishing as its founders could have hoped, and a second Coffee-palace was the result. Thereupon the Jewish press made merry over the 'Christian coffee," baptized with skim milk; over the NEW SERIES.-VOL. XXXIII., No. 3

current belief, to which a positive form had been given, that he had much to do with her training, and has testified that when his friendship with her began in 1851 she was "already distinguished by that breadth of culture and universality waiters who "look like vergers thrusting the begging plate under your nose;" and over the beloved of the Lord who use chicory with the coffee, and provide tracts for light refreshment.' The article will not bear quot

ing in English, because taste and tact forbid with us the insult to any man's religion; but it is idle to talk of Jew-baiting" and Racehatred," where such utterances go unreproved.

The Jewish youth who lately shot an officer whose remarks displeased him is a fair example of the general Jewish attitude in Germany. Nothing can be farther from oppression, submission, or the dumb endurance of wrongs.

The writer of the foregoing pages was in July, August, September, 1880, in a small German watering-place. The Jewish community outnumbered the Christian population by two thirds, yet there was not a single Hebrew of position or consideration among them. Admission to the Kursaal was procured by the payment of the "cure tax," and once a week a small réunion was held, where society" danced from 8 P.M. to 10 P.M. The conduct of the assembled Jews, the total absence of consideration and tact displayed by them, caused the German and English ladies to withdraw from these soirées, where not even the presence of their fathers and brothers could protect them from the impertinent familiarities of the underbred Israelites present. It was thought to be a hard case that this little relaxation should be denied to young girls fond of dancing, and the German officers determined to hire the ball-room for one night and invite their personal friends to a dance. The thing turned out a great success in a small way. But on the following day the town was in commotion. The Jewish community had been insulted. The steward had no right, though it was never used during the other six days in the week, to let the ball-room to officers. If it occurred again, every Jew, not only the visitors but the shopkeepers in the town, would force their way into the ball-room and join in the dance. Who spent most money in the place, Jews or Germans? And when, in reply to our excited landlady, we remarked, It cannot signify to you; your house is let to Germans,' the woman, trembling with anger and fear, replied, "But next year? I may be glad to let to Jews and, apart from the visitors, ali our best shopkeepers are Jews, and they can spite me in a thousand ways. They can refuse me credit, or sell me the worst things for outside prices; and if I owe them money I cannot say a word." The little local paper was, of course, in the hands of the Jews, and on the following Saturday they celebrated a regular

23

Mary Ann Evans was born at Griff, near Nuneaton, on the 22d of November, 1820. Her father, Robert Evans, was land-agent and surveyor to five estates in Warwickshire-those of Lord Aylesford, Lord Lifford, Mr. C. N. Newdegate, Mr. Bromley - Davenport, and Mrs. Gregory. In this capacity he was highly respected, and his reputation for trustworthiness may be said to have been proverbial. Mary Ann was the youngest of three children by a second marriage, Mr. Evans having also a son and daughter by his first wife. She was a remarkable child in many ways, thoughtful and earnest, and at the age of twelve might have been seen teaching in the Sunday-school in a little cottage near her father's house. She received her first education at Miss Franklins' school in Coventry, and retained through life an affectionate remembrance of these teachers of her childhood, often speaking of her obligation to Miss Rebecca Franklin for much careful training. Her family resided at Griff until about her twentieth year, her mother having died when she was fifteen. It cannot be doubted -there is every evidence of the factthat her girlish experiences in that prosaic country district were so many hoarded treasures in her retentive memory which, by means of her marvellous

Sabbath of Christenhetze. Who were the beggarly aristocrats that spent their pauper pence on preposterous exclusiveness? Was it even certain that the hire of the room could be paid by the impecunious counts and barons whose very sojourn at the wells was owing to the patience of their tailors? And those fine ladies, with nothing to boast of but their gentility and their titles, might it not be better to dance with persons of an ancient race, despite religious prejudice, rather than sit, fading wall flowers round a room which they peopled

rather than adorned?

wit and insight into character, served to enrich her first three novels and her "Scenes of Clerical Life." Her letters of those days show a penetration, wit, and philosophical observation belonging rather to mature life, and they show also that her mind was deeply imbued with evangelical sentiments. Her sisters and brothers having married, she lived alone with her father, who in 1841 removed from Griff to Foleshill, near Coventry.

In this somewhat more populous neighborhood she soon became known as a person of more than common interest, and, moreover, as a most devoted daughter and the excellent manager of her father's household. There was perhaps little at first sight which betokened genius in that quiet gentle-mannered girl, with pale grave face, naturally pensive in expression; and ordinary acquaintances regarded her chiefly for the kindness and sympathy that were never wanting to any.

But to those with whom, by some unspoken affinity, her soul could expand, her expressive gray eyes would light up with intense meaning and humor, and the low, sweet voice, with its peculiar mannerism of speaking-which, by the way, wore off in after years-would give utterance to thoughts so rich and singular that converse with Miss Evans, even in those days, made speech with other people seem flat and common. Miss Evans was an exemplification of the fact that a great genius is not an exceptional, capricious product of nature, but a thing of slow, laborious growth, the fruit of industry and the general culture of the faculties. At Foleshill, with ample means and leisure, her real education began. She took lessons in Greek and Latin from the Rev. T. Sheepshanks, then head master of the Coventry Grammar School, and she acquired French, German, and Italian from Signor Brezzi. An acquaintance with Hebrew was the result of her own unaided efforts. From Mr. Simms, the veteran organist of St. Michael's, Coventry, she received lessons in music, although it was her own fine musical sense which made her in after years an admirable pianoforte player. Nothing once learned escaped her marvellous memory; and her keen sympathy with all human feelings, in which lay the secret of her power of discriminating character, caused a constant

fund of knowledge to flow into her treasure-house from the social world about her. Among the intimate friends whom she made in Coventry were Mr. and Mrs. Charles Bray--both well known in literary circles. In Mr. Bray's family she found sympathy with her ardent love of knowledge and with the more enlightened views that had begun to supplant those under which (as she described it) her spirit had been grievously burdened. Emerson, Froude, George Combe, Robert Mackay, and many other men of mark were at various times guests at Mr. Bray's house at Rosehill while Miss Evans was there either as inmate or occasional visitor; and many a time might have been seen, pacing up and down the lawn, or grouped under an old acacia, men of thought and research, discussing all things in heaven and earth, and listening with marked attention when one gentle woman's voice was heard to utter what they were quite sure had been well matured before the lips opened. Few, if any, could feel themselves her superior in general intelligence, and it was amusing one day to see the amazement of a certain doctor, who, venturing on a quotation from Epictetus to an unassuming young lady, was, with modest politeness, corrected in his Greek by his feminine auditor. One rare characteristic belonged to her which gave a peculiar charm to her conversation. She had no petty egotism, no spirit of contradiction she never talked for effect. A happy thought well expressed filled her with delight; in a moment she would seize the point and improve upon it-so that common people began to feel themselves wise in her presence, and perhaps years after she would remind them, to their pride and surprise, of the good things they had said.

It was during her residence in Foleshill, almost within a stone's-throw of the quaint old city of Coventry, that she translated the "Leben Jesu." This work she undertook at the instigation of Mrs. Bray's brother, the late Charles Hennell, a writer now remembered only by the few, but whose "Inquiry concerning the Origin of Christianity" (1838) was recognized in England and Germany as a signal service to the cause of liberal thought. The labor of render ing Strauss's masterpiece into clear idio

matic English was by no means light, and her intimate friends of that time well remember the strain it entailed upon her. She completed her task (1846) in scarcely more than a year, and had the satisfaction of being complimented by Strauss upon the success that had attended her efforts. Such an undertaking by a young woman of twenty-five may certainly be ranked among the marvels of literature; its real significance will be best appreciated by those who know not only English and German but much more besides.

Miss Evans's father died in 1849, and in the summer of that year she accompanied her friends the Brays on a continental tour, and by her own choice was left behind at Geneva, where she stayed till the following spring. On her return to England she made her home with the same family until 1851, when she was persuaded by Dr. Chapman to take up her residence in the Strand and assist him in the conduct of the Westminster Review. Thus ended her connection with her native county, to which, however, she afterward paid many visits.— From a letter to the Pall Mall Gazette.

II. THE FUNERAL.

The remains of this gifted authoress were interred yesterday in Highgate Cemetery. The weather was dismal, otherwise the large crowd that attended the obsequies of one so celebrated would have been even larger. But weeping skies accorded well with the unfeigned grief of the mourners who gathered round the grave, and few who were present had a thought to spare for the discomfort of their surroundings. In the chapel the crowd was so great that many had to forego a cherished wish to take part in the service, and were content to group themselves round the grave, waiting patiently amid the drenching rain till they should be able to render their last respectful salute to one who henceforth was to be to them but a memory and a name. In the chapel reverential feeling was at its highest pitch as the Rev. Dr. Sadler, himself deeply moved, read a Unitarian funeral service, which in many passages adheres closely to that of the Church of England. The mourners, leaving Cheyne Walk at eleven, had arrived at the chapel at half-past twelve.

The cortège originally consisted of the hearse and eight mourning carriages, but was joined by private coaches on the way. The two carriages immediately following the hearse were occupied by the chief mourners, Mr. J. W. Cross, Mr. Isaac Evans, Mr. C. L. Lewes, Mr. W. Cross, Mr. Albert Druce, Mr. W., H. Hall, Mr. F. Otter, and the Rev. F. R. Evans. In other carriages there followed Mr. Herbert Spencer, Dr. Congreve, Mr. E. S. Pigott, Mr. Robert Browning, Mr. F. W. Burton, Mr. Frederic Harrison, Mr. E. Gurney, Mr. G. Howard, Mr. F. Locker, Mr. C. Kegan Paul, Mr. W. Blackwood, Mr. T. Sellar, Mr. R. Benson, Mr. R. Stuart, Mr. C. H. Warren, Mr. V. Lewes, Mr. F. L. Hutchins, and Mr. J. Langford. Besides these, there were observed as present at some part of the obsequies Professor Tyndall, Sir T. Martin, Mr. Oscar Browning, Professors Beesly and Sidney Colvin, Mr. J. E. Millais, Mr. Lyulph Stanley, M.P., Mr. Du Maurier, Mr. Hamilton Aïdé, Mr. Woolner, Mr. W. R. Ralston, Mr. R. Lehmann, and Mr. E. Yates. Many others, including Lady Colvile, Miss Helps, General Sir G. Wolseley, Lord A. Russell, Sir H. Thompson, Bart., Professor Huxley, Mr. Lionel Tennyson, Sir L. Pelly, Sir H. Maine, Sir F. Stephen, Mr. J. Morley, Sir C. Dilke, M.P., and Sir J. Lubbock, M.P., were either present or sent some representative or apology for inability to join in the day's mournful ceremonies.

Dr. Sadler, who had conducted a similar service at the funeral of Mr. G. H. Lewes, introduced into the proceedings at the chapel the following address, which, as according well with the feelings of all present, and as also revealing here and there interesting glimpses of 'George Eliot's" life, may be here reproduced.

FELLOW-MOURNERS: We who are gathered together to-day must feel that we are here not only to perform an office of reverent affection, but also as representatives of a vast comIpany from far and near, who are present with us in spirit, and sympathize with every tribute of respect and honor which is paid to the earthly part and the memory of that greatly gifted woman, whom it has pleased God to call away from this world. How many thousands are there who were touched with sympathy and saddened by regret as they read or heard that she, too, had gone over to the majority!"

They had met her often in the printed page, and had looked forward with eager anticipation and intense interest to every fresh meeting there, and when the new book had been read

wondered anew at the genius that could have produced it. She did not so much paint characters as create them, showing them to us not

simply on the outside or by dwelling constantly on some peculiarity by which they might always be identified, but in the depths of their being, so that they had a personal influence of their own, and became our companions, examples, warnings. And how wide and diver

sified is the range of those with whom she has thus made us acquainted! And whither shall we turn for works of the same kind, so rich in thoughts for the thinker to ponder in his study, the divine to quote from in the pulpit, and the devout worshipper to take with him to his chamber as a stimulus and a help to his devotions? We are in no mood now to ask who is or shall be greatest. Her place among the greatest of the living and the dead in the walks of literature is beyond question. She is "one of the few, the immortal names that were not born to die." In the province of imaginative writing what announcement could be made now that would excite so much interest and expectation as would have been excited a little while ago by the prospect of a new work from the pen of George Eliot?" But the pen has fallen from the hand of her who has made that name so memorable, and nothing is left for us

but to gather up with heartfelt thankfulness to the Supreme Giver the treasures she has left for us and all who come after us. But though we who are here to day represent a multitude which cannot be numbered, it is also given to us to mingle with the feeling of public loss the tenderness of personal friendship and affection. To those who are present it is given to think of the gentleness and delicate womanly grace and charm, which were combined with breadth of culture and universality of power which," as one has expressed it,

that

66 have made her known to all the world." To those who are

present is given to know the diffidence and selfdistrust which, notwithstanding all her public fame, needed individual sympathy and encouragement to prevent her from feeling too keenly how far the results of her labors fell below the standard she had set before her. To those who are present too it may be giventhough there is so large a number to whom it is not given-to understand how a nature may be profoundly devout and yet unable to accept a great deal of what is usually held as religious belief. No intellectual difficulties or uncertainties, no sense of mental incapacity to climb the heights of infinitude could take from her the piety of the affections or "the beliefs which were the mother tongue of her soul." I cannot doubt that she spoke out of the fulness of her own heart when she put into the lips of another the words, May not a man silence his awe or his love and take to finding reasons which others demand? But if his love lies deeper than any reasons to be found!" How patiently she toiled to render her work in all its details as little imperfect as might be. How green she kept the remembrance of all those

companions to whom she felt that she owed a moulding and elevating influence, especially in her old home and of him who was its head, her father. How her heart glowed with a desire to help to make a heaven on earth, to be a "cup of strength" to others, and when her own days on earth should have closed, to have a place among those

"Immortal dead who still live on

In minds made better by their presence; live

In pulses stirred to generosity

In deeds of daring rectitude; in scorn

For miserable aims that end with self;

In thoughts sublime that pierce the night like stars,
And with their mild persistence urge man's search
To vaster issues."

How she thus yearned" to join the choir invisible, whose music is the gladness of the world!" All this is known to those who had the privilege of being near her. My fellowmourners, not with earthly affections only, but also with heavenly hopes, let us now now fulfil the office which is laid upon us. Before I left home this morning I turned to the preaching of a sweet Methodist girl in "Adam Bede," and I read these words: "When she came to the question, Will God take care of us when we die? she uttered it in such a tone of plaintive appeal that the tears came into some eyes.' As the noblest lives are the truest, so are the loftiest faiths. It would be strange that she should have created immortal things, and yet be no more than mortal herself. It would be strange if names and influences only were immortal, and not the souls which gave them their immortality. No; the love and grief at parting are prophecies, and clinging memories are an abiding pledge of a better life to come. So then we may take home the words of Christ, "Let not your heart be troubled; ye believe in God, believe also in me. In my Father's house are many mansions." Great and dear friend, we bid thee farewell, but only for a little while, till death shall come again and unite forever those whom he has separated for a time.

This address was followed by a thanksgiving to "the source of all that is great and good" for "gifts to our departed sister, and to us and the world and the future through her," by a petition for Divine comfort to sorrowing hearts, and by the Lord's Prayer. The coffin, loaded with loving tributes in the shape of lilies, camellias, and other beautiful white flowers, with here and there a small bouquet of violets, was then borne to a grave in the unconsecrated portion of the cemetery, adjoining that of the late George Henry Lewes. These lovely flowers completely covered the lid of the polished oak coffin, and hid from view the inscription:

MARY ANN CROSS. ("GEORGE ELIOT") Born 22d Nov., 1820; died 22d Dec., 1880. Quella fonte

Che spande di parlar si largo fiume.

At the grave side the remaining portion of the Burial Service was read. After the words had been said committing the body, Ashes to ashes and dust to dust,' Dr. Sadler offered up a prayer, committing into the hands of the Heavenly Father "the spirit of her whose earthly tenement" had been committed to the dust. "Raise us,

the prayer proceeded, "from the death of sin to a life of righteousness, and when our hour of departure comes, may we rest in Thee, and have part in the great gathering of Thy faithful servants and children in Thy everlasting kingdom." The impressive benediction followed, "Now may He who hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope through grace, comfort our hearts, and stablish us in every good word and work. Amen." The crowd lingered a little while over the grave, and then sorrowfully dispersed, the chief mourners returning, according to the funeral intrusted arrangements, to Messrs. Banting, St. James's Square, in the mourning carriages to the now lonely house in Cheyne-walk.-From the London Daily News of December 30th, 1880.

III. AN ESTIMATE OF HER WORK.

England has suddenly lost the greatest writer among Englishwomen of this or any other age. There can be no doubt that George Eliot touched the highest point which, in a woman, has been reached in our literature-that the

genius of Mrs. Browning, for instance, though it certainly surpasses George Eliot's in lyrical sweetness, cannot even strength and force. The remarkable be compared with hers in general thing about George Eliot's genius is, that though there is nothing at all unfeminine in it-if we except a certain touch of scientific pedantry which is not pedantry in motive, but due only to a rather awkward manipulation of somewhat unfeminine learning-its greatest qualities are not in the least the qualities in which women have usually surpassed men, but rather the qualities in which, till George Eliot's time, women had always been notably deficient. Largeness of mind, largeness of conception was her first characteristic, as regards both matters of reason and matters of imagination. She had far more