"We can only choose whether we will indulge ourselves in the present moment or whether we will renounce that for the sake of obeying the divine voice within us -- for the sake of being true to all the motives that sanctify our lives."
— Eliot, George (1819-1880)
Author
Work Title
Place of Publication
Edinburgh and London
Publisher
William Blackwood and Sons
Date
1860
Metaphor
"We can only choose whether we will indulge ourselves in the present moment or whether we will renounce that for the sake of obeying the divine voice within us -- for the sake of being true to all the motives that sanctify our lives."
Metaphor in Context
'No - I don't sacrifice you - I couldn't sacrifice you,' she said, as soon as she could speak again, 'but I can't believe in a good for you, that I feel -- that we both feel is a wrong towards others. We can't choose happiness either for ourselves or for another -- we can't tell where that will lie. We can only choose whether we will indulge ourselves in the present moment or whether we will renounce that for the sake of obeying the divine voice within us -- for the sake of being true to all the motives that sanctify our lives. I know that belief is hard - it has slipped away from me again and again; but I have felt that if I let it go for ever, I should have no light through the darkness of this life.'
(p. 498)
Categories
Provenance
Reading A.S. Byatt's edition for Penguin Classics and searching at <http://www.princeton.edu/~batke/eliot/mill/>
Citation
See The Mill on the Floss (Edinburgh and London: William Blackwood and Sons, 1860). <Vol. I in Google Books><Vol. II><Vol. III>
Theme
Voice Within
Date of Entry
06/25/2007
