Literature is at once the cause and the effect of social progress.

Biology would help explain mental functions such as feeling and thinking it would not help us to understand differences of mental faculty in different races and stages of human development. In 1845–46 Lewes publiGeorge Henry Lewesd The Biographical History of Philosophy an attempt to depict the life of philosophers as an ever-renewed fruitless labour to attain the unattainable. However he is perhaps best known today for having openly lived with George Eliot a soul-mate whose life and writings were enriched by their friendship although they were never married.

He became part of the mid-Victorian ferment of ideas which encouraged discussion of Darwinism positivism and religious scepticism. However he is perhaps best known today for having openly lived with George Eliot a soul-mate whose life and writings were enriched by their friendship although they were never married.