Atheism and the value of life Author:William Hurrell Mallock Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: 147 GEORGE ELIOT ON THE HUMAN CHARACTERS A Distinguished living author once observed in our hearing, that there was a time when George Eliot's genius seem... more »ed to him to be of almost boundless promise. ' I even thought,' he proceeded, ' that some day she might perhaps have equalled Miss Austen.' There are few, we conceive, amongst George Eliot's admirers who would either thank our critic for these liberal hopes, or sympathise with him in his implied disappointment ; nor do we ourselves share in the temper of his criticism. We disagree with him, however, not because his judgment was entirely false, but because it was only very partially true. So far as he had viewed the matter, his view was accurate. It is misleading only because its scope was limited. There are few minds which have accomplished much, that to observant eyes have at one time not promisedmore. Even the most many-sided genius must have given hints, at the outset, of the possession of many powers it could never bring to perfection ; and we shall often best estimate a writer's chief achievements by examining first the extent and the nature of his partial failures. When, therefore, it is said that George Eliot might have been a second Miss Austen, and has failed to be so, we need not, in assenting to this, be passing a degrading judgment. We advance instantly from our notice of the success she has foregone, to inquiring what other success she has tried to achieve instead of it—what greater birthright she has bought by the sacrifice of her mess of pottage. This inquiry is not altogether an easy one ; and a more significant homage could not be paid to the authoress than to say that it is worth our while, in her case, to make it with seriousness. Her present volume is especially useful, not only because it suggests such...« less