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[Chheang <deu...@wa...>]

 with an artificial taste for science by her companion. We now learn

that she took a decided interest in natural science long before she made Mr. Lewes's acquaintance, and many of the roundabout
pedantries that displeased
people in her latest writings, and were set down to his account, appeared

in her composition before she had ever exchanged
a word with him. All who knew her well enough were aware that she had what Mr. Cross describes as 'limitless persistency in application.' This is an old
account of genius, but nobody illustrates more effectively the infinite capacity of taking pains. In reading, in looking at pictures, in playing difficult
music, in talking, she was equally

importunate in the search, and equally insistent on mastery. Her faculty of sustained concentration was part of her immense intellectual power. 'Continuous thought did
not fatigue her. She could keep her mind on the stretch hour after hour; the body might give way, but the brain remained unwearied' (iii. 422). It is
only a trifling illustration of the infection of her indefatigable

quality of taking pains, that Lewes should have formed the important habit of rewriting
every page of his
work, even of short articles for Reviews, before letting it go to the press.
The journal shows what sore pain and travai