1872-82 ‘DANIEL DERONDA’ 231 
South Africa ’ in the collection of the British 
Museum. He varied his more serious work by 
contributing an article on ‘ Petroleum and Oil 
Wells’ to ‘ P'raser’s Magazine.’ 
A frequent correspondent of Owen’s was G. 
H. Lewes. The following letter, dated Christ- 
mas Eve, 1876, is interesting, as it gives a few 
particulars about George Eliot’s ‘ Daniel Deronda,’ 
and will also serve to show the strong feeling of 
friendship which existed between both of them 
and Owen. 
G. H. Lewes to Richard Owen 
The Priory, 21 North Bank, Regent’s Park : 
Christmas Eve, ’76. 
‘ My dear Owen, — It was a most pleasant 
reminder of the bygone happy days when we 
used to see much of each other, greatly to my 
profit, that letter of yours, with its accompanying 
paper ! 
‘ It is cheering also to contemplate the work 
you are still doing, though I am forced to admire 
it at an ignorant distance, feeling how much I 
need to approach and appreciate it. I don't find 
my own powers of work at all what they were — 
very far from it — but I go on “doggedly,” as 
Johnson said, with the uncomfortable sense that 
the more I study the nervous system the feebler 
my grasp of it gets, and the profounder my con- 
viction that most of what is taught in the text- 
