THOMAS A. EDISON 319




GEORGE ELIOT


"May I reach
That purest heaven, be to other souls
The cup of strength in some great agony,
Enkindle generous ardor, feed pure love,
Beget the smiles that have no cruelty--
Be the good presence of a good diffused,
And in diffusion ever more intense.
So shall I join the choir invisible
Whose music is the gladness of the world."

[Illustration: GEORGE ELIOT]


Warwickshire gave to the world William Shakespeare. It
also gave Mary Ann Evans. No one will question that Shakespeare's is the
greatest name in English literature; and among writers living or dead, in
England or out of it, no woman has ever shown us power equal to that of
George Eliot, in the subtle clairvoyance which divines the inmost play of
passions, the experience that shows human capacity for contradiction, and
the indulgence that is merciful because it understands.

Shakespeare lived three hundred years ago. According to the records, his