ABSTRACT
George Eliot's article on Dr. Cumming, begun on 13 June, was finished on 24 August 1855 (Journal). With its Macauleyesque exordium and its impassioned appeal to the God who 'sympathizes with all we feel and endure for our fellow-men', it is certainly the most energetic of her several attacks upon the religious spirit she had known in her youth. According to Charles Lewes, 'it was after reading this article that his father was prompted to say to George Eliot, whilst walking one day with her in Richmond Park, that it convinced him of the true genius in her writing. . . . Up to this time he had not been quite sure of anything beyond great talent in her productions.' 1
