New-York daily tribune., 1845-02-01

rare and exquisite. He takes up such an OBJECT
carefully and puts il in goodnight But he has
no hatred for what is loathsome, no conte. aps1or
what is bare, 30 love for what is loyely 10 faith
in what is noble To bin there is no virtue and
no vice; men and women are morc or less finely
organized; noble and tender conduct is more
agreeable than The reverse, because it argues bet
ter health; that is all.
Nor is this from en- intellectual calmuess, nor
from an unusual power OF anal zing motives, and
penetrating delusions msrely neither isi mere H.
difference. There's touch ofthe demon, also, in
Balzac; the c Id but gayly familiar demon, and
the smile Of the amateur yields easily TO sneer,
as he delights show you on what foul juices the
fair Aower was fed. He is thorough and will
ling materialist. Tire trance Of Religion Is con-
gestion of the brain; the JOY of the Poet the thrill
ling of the blood in the rapture Of sense; and
every good not only rises from, but hastens back
into, the jaws of death and nothingness ram
bow arch above Pestilential chaos
Thus Bslzac, with all his force end fulness OF
talent, never rises one, moment into the region OF
genius For genius is, in its natGte, positive and
creative, and cannot exist where there Is no heart
to believe in realities. Neither can be have
permanent influence on nature which Is not
thoroughly corrupt. He might toT q wh,ie stag
ger an ingenious mind which had not yet thought
for itself. But this could not last. Hjs uhbellef
yakes his thought too shallow. He has not that
power which mind, only IN part sophisticated,
NAV retain, where The heart still beats warmly,
though it sometimes beats amiss. Write, paint,
arque, as you will, where there is sound spot in
any human being, he capnot be made to believe
that this p escnt bodily frame is more than tenn
porary condition Of his being, though one to which
he may have become shanefuliy enslaved by fault
OF inheritance, cduca,ioD or his own caIclessness.
Taken in his own way, VIC know no modern
tragedies more powerful than Baizac's Eugene
GraDdet, :" "Sweet Pea "Search after the Ab-
solu.o," Father Goriot." See there goodness,
aspiration, the Iovelfst instincts, sufed, sranglcd
by fate, in the form of our own brute nature -
The fate of the ancient Promotheus was happiness
to that Of these who must pay for ever having
believed there was divine fire in Heaven, by ago
MICS of despair, end conscious degradation, un
known 10 those who began by believing man TO
be the most richly endowed of bru;es-no more
Balzac is admirable in his description of look,
tone. gesture He has keen sense of whatever
is peculiar to the individual. Nothing in modem
romance surpasses the death-scene of Father Co.
riot, the Partisan Lear, in The almost immortal
life with which the parental instincts are display
cd. And with equal precision and delicacy Of
shading he Will paint the slightest by play in the
manners of sume young girl.
"Seraphtus is merely specimen of his great
powers Of intellectual transposition. Amid his
delight at the botanical riches Of the new and ell
evated region in which he is travelling, we catch,
ironly by echo the hem and chuckie of the French
matcrialist.
No more of him We leave him 10 his suici
dal work.
An entirely opposite character, in every lead
ing trait, yet bearing traces of the same infiu-
ences, is the celebrated GEORGE SAND. II is prob
ably known to grea, proportion of readers that
this writer is woman, who writes under the
name Of and frequently assumes the dress and
manners of a man. itis also known that she has
not only broken the marriage bond, und, since
that formed other connections independent OF the
civil or ecclesiastical eanction, but ttat she first
rose into notice through works which systematic
ally assaed the present institution of marriage
and the social bonds which are connected with it.
No facts ara more adapted to startle every feel
ing of our community; but, since the works Of
Sand are read here, notwithstanding, and can
not fail to be so while they exert SO important an
influence abroad, it would be well they should be
read intelligently to the circumstances of their
birth, and their tendency.
George Sand we esteem to be a person of strong
passions, but of original nobleness and love of
right sufficient to guide them all to the service Of
worthy aims. But she fell upon evil times She
was given in marriage according to the fashion OF
the old regime; she was taken from convent
where she had heard great deal about the law of
Godand the example of Jesus, into society where
no vice prescribed, if it would wear the cloak
| of hypocrisy. She found hcrselfimpatient of DO
ception, and loudly called by passion: she yielded;
but she could not do SO, as others did, SHINING
against what she owned to the rule OF right, and
the will of Heaven. She protested; she examined !;
sheassaied. She hacked into the roots ofthings,
and the bold sound of her axe called around
her every foe that finds home amid the growihs
of civilization, Sill sbe persisted, "If it be
real," thought she, "it cannot be destroyed; IS
to wha, is false, the sooner it goes the better;
and L. FOR one, had rather perish beneath its fall
than wither in It's shades
SCHILLER puts into the mouth Of Mary Stuart
those words as her only plea: "Tho world knows
the worst of me; aud l may boasrthat, though
have erred, am better than my reputation"
Sand may say the same. All is open, noble; the
free descriptions, the sophistry of passion are, at
least, redeemed by a desire for truth as strcng as
ever beat IN any heart. To the weak or unthinb-
ing the reading OF such books may not be 6esira.