The true northerner. [volume] (Paw Paw, Mich.) 1855-1920, 1876-06-23
George Sand.

w ueQ InauhIue ue OCtcl, tuo SIcdNS
woman-b brain France had mp to that tame
given to the world, died in Paris, in
1917, a young girl of thirteen was just
entering a conventual school in the same
city, sent thither partly to be educated
and partly to escape the coarse wrang-
ling of grandmother who was the left
handed descendant OF kings, and a moth
er who, had risen from the dregs of So
ciety. For three or four years this
young girl found peace and a limited
diet of knowledge in her seclusion, and
the impassioned dreams born of her
awakened religious feeling never allowed
her 70 imagine that crown, richer and
more Respondent than that of the great
woman who had passed away, was wait
ing for her own brow.
Now, as she lies dead in the castle of
Nohant, there will be few to deny that
in George Sand France has lost a greater
than Madame dc Stael. The works of
the the two women are as dissimilar as
/ their fortunes; in character and tenn
permanent we find few points wherein
they coincide. The latter not only pos
sessed, but cultivated masculine tone
iI all she said and wrote; the former is
distinctly feminine, even in her highest
intellectual expression. That is, she
I illustrates the completeness OF the form
TO which genius may rise when 1t works
| through a woman's brain. Madame de
Stael was an observer, critic, a diplo-
matist. George Sand was creative
artist. In her conscience, her devotion
10 lofty literary ideal, her untiring ac-
QUESTIONS in every department of know
ledge, she WAS only equaled by Balzac;
but out of feeling and passion and i'm
! agination she distilled style as pure
and nobly sustained as he achieved by
colder study and labor. Even when she
deals with such subjects as the monastic
life, communism, or social problems
springing from the relations of the sexes,
and is compelled to express her ideas
chiefly through male characters, the
reader never forgets that it is large.
natured, clear-brained, great woman who
speaks-the original equal, not the copy,
Of great man.
AS we trace her achievements back to
their timid and painful beginnings, it is
impossible to withhold from her the re-
nown of being one of the four or five
RItAVtSJ ltululuc UIdluo luc IhCt ltir
ever produced. In literature she is per-
haps the greatest. Her style is as supe-
rior TO that of Madame de Stael as beau
tiful breathing life is to sculptured
marble. Herein she surpasses the only
living woman worthy to be placed be-
side her-George Eliot. The latter also
resembles her in lofty aspiration and
cheerful obedience to the laws of toll
Both are embodied lessons, which am
bilious women-and men no less-would
do we'll to study. Genius is but a.
steam blown from an open vessel, sc
long as it is not accompanied by intelli
gent and unremitting effort. George
Sand first learned what her work must
be; then she learned how to do it, and
gave the best of her life to the deed
In spite of political disability she rose to
power to which political rights coulc
have added nothing. In the field of in
tellectual exertion and achievement she
did a mans task, and her legacy to the
world is ali the more valuable because
she did 1T i'll woman's way.-Ne1t
York Tribune.