54 
‘“ GEORGE ELIOT’S LIFE,” as related in her Letters 
and Journals: arranged and edited by her Husband, 
J. W. Cross. 
By B. SAGAR. 
In reviewing Mr. Cross’s Work, Mr. B. Sagar spoke of the 
accuracy of the descriptions of Warwickshire scenery given in 
George Eliot’s novels. The claim of Liggins to the authorship 
of the earlier works of the Authoress was investigated and 
exposed. Interesting accounts of G. H. Lewes and others were 
given by Mr. Sagar, who spoke in the highest terms of the 
genius and character of George Eliot. Personal reminiscences 
of some of the scenes and characters named in the Life were 
also given by the Reviewer. 
Essays and Leaves from a Note book by GEORGE ELIOT. 
By FRED J. GRANT. 
All were aware that George Eliot possessed in rare degree the 
creative faculty. The book under review proved that she had 
also the critical faculty. As Editor of the Westminster Review 
in 1851 and subsequent years, she had published anonymously 
several trenchant essays; this was before she was known as a 
novelist. (‘Scenes of Clerical Life appeared in 1856, ‘* Adam 
Bede,” three years later.) Of the seven Essays in the book, 
four were published in the Westminster, one in the Fortnightly, 
one in Fraser, and one in Blackwood. While engaged on the 
Westminster Review, George Eliot became acquainted with many 
of the leading writers of the time :—Carlyle, Dickens, Grote, W. 
R. Grey, and Herbert Spencer. The last named author was one 
of the educating influences in the novelist’s life, and it was 
through him that G. H. Lewes learned to know Marian Evans. 
The Essays in this book were not reviews of any particular 
work, they were the expression of George Eliot’s views and 
feelings on subjects suggested by some Author whose works 
she had been reading. ‘Thus, she takes the nine volumes of Dr. 
Cumming’s Sermons, and finding ‘‘nowhere, a spark of rare 
thought, of lofty sentiment, or pathetic tenderness, nothing but 
commonplace cleverness,” she glides off into a criticism of evan- 
gelical teaching as expounded by the Apostle of Crown Court. 
She reads the ‘‘ History of the Rise of Rationalism” by W. E. 
H. Lecky, and the same year writes an Essay on the ‘‘ Influence ”’ 
of Rationalism. A perusal of the works of Heine leads her to 
write an Kssay on German Wit; the books of Riehl furnish a 
