Page:Literary studies by Joseph Jacobs.djvu/88

 nothing that will live, not even the overrated Life of Goethe, the critical portions of which are very thin. But George Eliot was herself one of the first to protest against the habit of mind which requires equality of gifts in husband and wife, and we cannot hope that every Elizabeth Barrett will find her Robert Browning.

And it must be owned that, once the lapse committed, Lewes did all in his power to keep at a distance every bad influence. He encouraged her first writing, and checked by his vivacity the tendency to over-seriousness which came to her with the knowledge of her powers and responsibilities. All the petty details of life were warded off from her by Lewes with watchful care. The somewhat unreasoning sensibility to adverse criticism was carefully considered by Lewes, who acted as her private secretary. And all this was effected through long years often filled with illness of his own. He may have encouraged in later years the psychological strain of her work to its detriment, and whatever glimpses we have of his critical influence in early years seem by no means fortunate: it was through him, e.g., that Dinah was made to marry Adam Bede.

And, above all, the lapse must be forgiven or forgotten which led to that fusion of the