PREFACE. XXV11 



possibly, the most gifted writer of fiction 

 that th6 world has ever seen. Some hitherto 

 unpublished letters of the late Mrs. Cross 

 (known to the world as " George Eliot,"} 

 have recently (March, 1884) been com- 

 mented on in the Journal des Debats, by 

 M. James Darmester, which have been 

 placed in his hands by a correspondent of 

 the great authoress. In one, bearing date 

 Dec. 5th, 1859, after reading Darwin's 

 Origin of Species , George Eliot writes, with 

 that clear grasp of truth and that charming 

 grace for which this gifted lady was so 

 celebrated " So the world gets on step by 

 step to brave clearness and honesty. But 

 the chain of Darwinism, and all the ex- 

 planations of the march by which things 

 have been produced, make but a feeble im- 

 pression upon me, compared with the mystery 

 lying beneath this same march" Hence, we 

 are not surprised at her hearty condemna- 

 tion of the scepticism and Latitudinarianism 

 which prevails with so many inferior 

 minds in the present day. In a letter 

 dated Nov. 26th, 1862, she writes " I am 



