The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1876-06-17 00:00:00

t THE LATE GEORGE SAND.

The Paris Correspondent of the Daily News writes :
The family of George Sand, which at first thought of
sending her remainsta Paris for interment changed
their mind on finding that the deceased desired her
Enal resting place to be in the Berri village of Nohant,
which she greatly loved, and where the best part of her
life was passed. The finieral took place at Nohant on
Saturday morning. Alexandre Dumas, Ernest Renan, .
Flaubert, Prince Napoleon, Paul Meurice, Calmann
Levy, Jules Claretie, Henry de is Pommeraye, and
many other literary men attended. Pursuant to what
the relatives believed would have been the wishes '
or,;
the famous authoress although it does not appear that"'
she expressed them by any formal wish, no priest at-
tended the burial.
Victor Hugo being unable to go to Nohant, composed '
a funeral oration, which M. Paul Meurice read over
the grave. The following are the principal passages :
"Je pleure une morte, et je salue une immortelle. I loved,
admired, and venerated her whom I now contemplate in the
august serenity of death I rejoice in her greatness, and thank
her for her goodness. I remember one day writing to her, ' I
thank you for be!ne such a great souL' 0, have we lost her?
No These great spirits disappear under one form, only to
v,r become visible in another, 1 blime transfiguratton I The
human form is a disguise. aiks the true Divine visage
which is the idea. Georg, Sand was an idea. She is
no longer in the flesh, but dead the lives. Patuit -
dea. George Sand occupies an unique place. In our
time there are many great men. She is the one
great woman in this century whose mission was to
finish the French Revolution and commence the Reveille
tiou of humanity. Equality of the Soma being a branch of
the equality of men a great woman was necessary. It was
for a woman to. prove that her mind might possess 101 gifts
without I iting a particle of her angelic nature, might be at
once strong and gentle. Geo:ge Sand was that woman
Happy is it that some one does honour to France when E 0
many disgrace it. George Sand is one of the glories of our
age and country. She had a great heart like Barb&, a great
mind like Balza°, and a great soul like Lamartine. To
enumerate her masterpieces were needless, and a plagiarism
from the stores of universal memory. She was good, and
accordingly she had detractors, but the insults to her were
of that kind which posterity will count as glories. It is a law
of nature that, "Qui eat Couronne eat lapide."
The address concluded by allusions to Quinet and
Michelet, recently deeeased, the grand apostles of
ideas, who, like George Sand, had done their work
before removal to another sphere, and whose departure
was signified in the ears of expectant humanity by a
mysterious fluttering of wings which heralded a grand
event. It is a curious fact that George Sand did not
know her great contemporary, Victor Hugo, and never
even saw him. She once heard his voice, and that was
on the occasion of his reception at the Academy; but
she had a bad place, and was ,prevented by. a pillar
from seeing his face. ' -
In the Assembly on Saturday, M, Drblle, a Bona-
partist, proposed a Bill to erect a statue of George
Sand in the Palace of Versailles, at the cost of 25,000
francs. M. de Lacretelle, a Republican, laid on the
table another Bill, proposing to allow 50,000 francs for
the statue, and that it should be erected in the Luxem-
bourg Gardens. He said France, the Dmocracy
and humanity, had lost one of their most glorioi
petsonifications, and that a national homage was due
to the great mind which was the precursor of the Re-
public. Urgency demanded by M. de Lacretelle was
refused, and both Bills were referred to the Committee
of Initiative.