SECTION X
Chapter 6. George Eliot (Mary Ann Evans)

"It is never too late to be what you might have been." 
--George Eliot

"Keep true, never be ashamed of doing right; decide on what you think is right 
and stick to it."        -- George Eliot

  George Eliot was the pseudo-name of Mary Ann Evans (born 1819), and the author
of such famous novels as SILAS MARNER, THE MILL ON THE FLOSS, and ADAM BEDE.
Brought up in a conservative Christian Evangelical household in England, Mary
Evans became skeptical of Orthodox Christianity as a teenager, after reading
Walter Scott. (Note: Walter Scott, though known for such works as IVANHOE,
was also a philosophical historian, whose writings showed an overall religious
skepticism towards Christian Orthodoxy.) Later, her skepticism grew upon
reading such agnostic works as INQUIRY CONCERNING THE ORIGIN OF CHRISTIANITY,
by Charles Hennell, THE LIFE OF JESUS by Strauss, along with works by the
French positivist, Auguste Comte.

  When Mary Ann first began developing her anti-religious outlooks, her
distressed father enlisted the help of a Baptist minister to reason with
her.  The minister talked at great length to Mary Ann, but to no avail.--
As he later told Mary Ann's father,

  "there was not a book that I recommended to her in support of
   Christian evidences that she had not read."

  Mary Ann wrote a letter to her father in February 1842, asking him to
understand why she no longer wished to attend Church services with him.

  "I could not without vile hypocrisy and a miserable truckling
  to the smile of the world... profess to join in worship which
  I wholly disapprove.  This and THIS ALONE I will not do even for
  your sake--anything else however painful I would cheerfully brave to
  give you a moment's joy."

   Eventually though, Mary Ann compromised with her father over attending
Church services.-- She agreed that she would attend, if he also agreed that
she had the right to THINK whatever she wanted to during the service.

   Mary Ann nursed her father through his old age.  It was during this time,
that she translated into English two famous skeptical works-- Strauss' LIFE
OF JESUS, and Spinoza's TRACTATUS THEOLOGICAL-POLITICUS.  According to her
biographers, as Mary Ann translated Strauss' LIFE OF JESUS from German into
English, she felt distressed. The process made her feel ill (or "Strauss-sick"),
as she rationally dissected apart the beautiful story of the crucifixion, only
to find it a legend.  From time to time, she would take pause from her
translations, to tearfully gaze at the figures of Jesus that were in her
study.

   After this time, Mary Ann completely lost her faith, and became an agnostic. 
When her father died, she changed her name to Marion Evans (instead of Mary
Ann Evans). With the help of friends, she became editor of the WESTMINSTER 
REVIEW.  As editor, she reviewed articles contributed by such writers as John 
Stuart Mill, Herbert Spencer, Thomas Carlyle, Thomas Huxley, and Harriet 
Martineau.

  After an early romance with Herbert Spencer had faltered, Mary Ann Evens
became attracted to Henry Lewes, a distinguished writer in science and
philosophy.  They never married, although they lived together roughly twenty
five years until Henry Lewes died. (English law forbade Lewes to divorce his
first wife on the grounds of adultery, because he had accepted a free love
marriage arrangement in their early years).

  It was during this time, that Marion Evans assumed the name of George
Eliot and wrote her popular novels, beginning with ADAM BEDE.  These were
an instant success, and George Eliot became a celebrity--this despite her
scandalous lack of marital status.

  When Henry Lewes died in 1878, Marion went into seclusion. During this time,
she was heard screaming with uncontrollable grief for long hours.  To everyone's
surprise, she remarried two years later to a man who was twenty years younger 
than her. Though this appeared to be a happy relationship, it was tragically 
brief.-- Within less than a year, Marion Evans also died.

   In 1883, Charles Lewes (Henry's oldest son by his first wife) published
some of Marion Evens essays that she had composed while at the WESTMINISTER
REVIEW.  In one of them, entitled "Evangelical Teaching: Dr. Cumming", she
savagely attacked the popular Evangelical movement, which was then led by a
popular leader named Dr. John Cumming. Evans asked, where else, except
in the Evangelical movement, could such a man of average intelligence, with
greater than average glibness of speech, nevertheless "most easily attain
power and reputation in English society." She continued:

  "Where is that Goshen of mediocrity in which a smattering of science and
  learning will pass for profound instruction, where platitudes will be
  accepted as wisdom, bigoted narrowness as holy zeal, unctuous egoism
  as God-given piety?"

  A few lines later, she wrote on her overall low opinion of the Evangelical
movement, and its (perceived) effects on society:

  "Minds fettered by this doctrine no longer inquire concerning a
  proposition whether it is attested by sufficient evidence, but whether
  it accords with Scripture; they do not search for facts as such, but for
  facts that will bear out their doctrine.  It is easy to see that this
  mental habit blunts not only the perception of truth, but the sense of
  truthfulness, and that the man whose faith drives him into fallacies
  treads close upon the precipice of falsehood...So long as a belief in
  propositions is regarded as indispensable to salvation, the pursuit of
  truth AS SUCH is not possible."

   Perhaps, it is fortunate that Mary Ann Evans never lived to see the
rise of evangelism in the TWENTIETH century--where the rise in technology
has allowed this same message to be delivered within the private homes of
millions of individuals