Vermont farmer. [volume] (Newport, Orleans County, Vt.) 1870-1877, 1876-06-30
George Sand.

1t is somewhat remarkable that the two
greatest writers of fiction living, until within
a few days, should have been women; that
both Of them should have written under mas
culne names, and that the womanly relations
Of both to men should have been irregular. |
We refer, of course, to George Sand and
George Eliot the first having been, without
question, the best living writer of the French
language, and the latter holding the same
position, with perhaps the exception Of Mr..
Ruskin, in English literature. We hasten
to say that there is no similarity between the
lives Of the two Georges" in regard TO def
ancs Of moral laws. The eminent English
woman has never subjected herself to the
reproaches which the Frenchwoman provoked
during twenty years Of her life. We merely
allude to the well.known fact that there is
something irregular in her claim to the posi-
ton of a married woman; an irrcgularity,
however, of such a nature that it does not
deprive her of the least personal respect
except from those who, like Samson 10 "Ro-
meo and Juliet" will do nothing unless the
law is on their side. 1t is insignificant that
the lives of both these distinguished female
writers have been marked by agitation aud
severe social trial. Like the poets who
| care GRADED into poetry by wrong
And learn IN suffering what they teach in song"
they took up the pen not only as a means Of
| livelihood, but as q means of mental relief.
Their sad experience urged them on to an
utterance Of their views Of life under the
conditions Of modern civilization, and both
Of them took a gloomy view OF their great
subject Here, however, the likeness be-
tween them ends; for nothing could be more
dissimiar than their lives, except, perhaps,
the character of their writings George Eliot
has probably not lived day, as she certain.
ly has not written line, 10 the least degree
exceptionable on the score of mortality, and
her career as an authoress has been one Of
remarkable consistency as well as Of purity
George Sand, on the contrary, openly de-
fed not only the laws of strict morlity, but
all the external restraints which society i'm
poses upon her sex, and her writings in their
tone and purpose were always the reflex of
her irregular life, aud of the influences which
we're brought to bear upon her by the per-
sons into whose intimate society that life
threw her. She was socially ag'tated, and
she was social agitator. Infdelity to God
|
her life an able, an insiduous, and an earnest
advocate The authoress of Indiana and OF
Leila was strewer Of frebrands, and the
flames that she lighted were not to be ex-
tinguished by an ocean Of such deep senti-
mentalsm as she poured out in COnSuelO.
The obliquy with which she sought, in Lui
ct Elle, to load the memory of Alfred De-
Musset provoked such shameful revelations
by his brother Paul. in Elle ct L,ti, that she
/ found herself like "the engineer hoist with
9 his own petard." The controversy thus pro.
} voked, which was taken up by other pens
. was one Of the most disgraceful to the sex
, and to literature that is known to literary
. annals And yet it is well that it took
, place, for it showed that a woman who could
] write Indiana and Leila had absolved her
self not only from the external restraints o
morality, but from that sexual delica cy
J which is not incompatible with the sniu
d indulgence OF grand passion Georg'
! Sands crime was a crime against woman
y hood. She degraded love; she fouied thu
y pure spring whence flows all the true happi
e ness Of woman in man and of man in woman
z 1t was not only that she taught confusion
: but that she wrought it, making in herself {
o splendid example Of iniamy. 1t was no
n only that she had a succession of lovers, bu
d that the reign of some was 80 short, and the,
l. were so soon succeeded by others, that sh
, set at naught the physical reserve and phys
ical concusiveness that nature has made in
= stinctive in womanhood. She not onl
IS defed morality, but openly few in the fac
It of physiology. Her mans dress upon he
VI womans body, assumed 10 mere recklessnes:
" was nevertheless true exponent of che sex
ual confusion Of which she made herself bot
a the apostle and the great exemplar.
ID AS to her great gifts of utterance, Their
le can be no question in regard to them. 1t
TO only by the greatest men, the immortals
IS literature, that they have ever been sui
e, passed. In her writings the French cast {
lr thought, the French use Of language, az
peared at their best She united clearne'
" and precision of expression which equae
ht Macaulay's with a richness and splendor
u coloring which even surpassed the glories {
er his glowing page. She wrote sometimes wit
10 fierceness and impetuOsity Of utterance tn,
oil bore down all before it. There seemed t
n be no answering her, and there was non
w until you stopped and took breath an
ut thought the matter over. Then, indeed, Il
SO answer was not far to seek For her u
% terance was mere utterance; her style, me-
N, style. OF real thought, Of continuous cob
L rent cogitatiou, or Of the results Of it, 81
er had little, almost nothing. 1t has been sa
her philosophy of life was misunderstood al
he misreprcsented which is true, and is no
Oh for she had no philosophy of life, no systeI
se- no orderly development of opinion.
he She thought thus this year because ci
", cumstances awakened in her the feelin
dc from which those thoughts sprang; and 81
thought otherwise next year fori the saT
ny reason. As she felt she thought; as 5
OF, thought she wrote and always with pow
and ferver which was likely to take unstat
ret readers off their feet. She did little good
1 her life except to the French language, mu
ng in need of all that great writers like her C
ID, do for it and she did great harm; the hal
er, Of riotous, incendiary soul, largely gift
cd, with sympathetic powers over others,
y" entirely unable to evolve and elaborate
system even of unbelief and immOrali
me 't'The evil that men do lives after them
Elk, good is often inferred with their bones" i
the evil that this splendid Frenchwoman
rise wrought will die with her, She was mere
-, a voice; voice that uttered something u
the the world of her time wished to hear. N
use use she has passed away, we shall soon cease
M. NJ hear even the echoes of her splendid ravin
n.y. --NeV York Times.
ing -'-~'--
SEES Let your rest be perfect in its season, Il
a L. AL