Sentence No. 10 · 6 April 2026
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.
George Eliot, Middlemarch
George Eliot — Middlemarch (1871) · Read it at Project Gutenberg
What holds this sentence together
The sentence has two independent clauses joined by "and," each with a delayed main verb: "is partly dependent" and "is half owing." Recognising that both clauses hinge on a form of "is" helps you anchor the long subject phrases ("For the growing good of the world" and "that things are not so ill with you and me") before placing their predicates.
How it appears in Sentle
On Sentle this sentence arrives in 8 pieces, shuffled, with the lines that lead up to it for context. The novel's famous closing reflects on those who live without recognition, yet whose goodness quietly shapes the world. Putting it back in the author’s order is the puzzle — and the order is rarely arbitrary, which is what the note above is about.
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