Ofterdingen and Kropotkin

[Herbert] Spencer and the future George Eliot soon got into the habit of accompanying each other to the opera, or taking the sea air together in Broadstairs. When she complimented him on his clear unwrinkled forehead he attributed it to the fact that he was "never puzzled" being blessed with mental abilities that "did not involve that concentrated effort which is commonly accompanied by wrinkling of the brows". [...] Before long, George Eliot concluded that he suffered from "excess of reason", and announced to her friends that "we have agreed that we are not in love with each other".