Letter from George Eliot, Foleshill, to Martha Jackson Barclay, 1840? January 14 : autograph manuscript signed.

Concerning her recent reading, including "a fragment of Milton's Ode on the Nativity"; "a work on Baptism"; Mrs. (Anna) Jameson's "Winter studies and summer rambles in Canada" ("a lively book, by a clever authoress, but I fear of no fixed religious principles"); Moore's "Prosaic Epicurean" (adding that she "was so epicurean myself as to make a single meal of the philosopher, preserved as he is in spirits after Moore's patent. I was enchanted as completely as if I had been in the clutches of the Egyptian Priests."); stating that she is glad to hear of her friends "enjoyments, past, present, and prospective", and humorously chiding her for her scholarly activities, "it is hardly fair of you to trench on my field; I shall have you publishing metaphysics before my work is ready: a result of the superior development of a certain region of your brain, over that of my poor snailship."; reflecting on some of her recent religious resolutions, including the "duty of perfect contentment with such things as we have, whether gifts of nature or fortune."