From one of the best English novels written Middlemarch by George Elliot, (in my humble opinion), this passage is about Dorothea the main character, a strong, independent, creative and progressive woman who wants to help those around her, and designs cottages for them to live in and is always seeking to relieve the suffering she sees. She is also deeply spiritual.
I adored her character when I first read Middlemarch at university, I couldn’t put it down. I could completely relate to her inner thoughts and desires to help those around her, and to not live the conventional life simply accepting the misery of others as inevitable, and yet this novel was published in 1872. It is one of the most complex and multifaceted plots, rich with dense detail about the many characters that interweave throughout this completely compelling novel. This quote is one of my most loved passages from the novel and is so true:
“Her full nature, like that river of which Cyrus
broke the strength, spent itself in channels which had no great
name on the earth. But the effect of her being on those around
her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world
is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so
ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the
number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs.”
Suzanne Strong 