The Arkansaw traveler., 1883-05-12
GEORGE SANDS RELIGION.
Educated as a Catholic. but Looking foI
 an Ideal Church.

an Ideal Church.
 Paris Cor New York Evening Post.
 Madame Sand received the condolences of many persons unknown to her. She was very conscientious in her character of spiritual adviser. though her spiritual advice was not always very good. She had herself very early been led astray from the straight road, and she had wan dered among many doctrines and many strange men. As novel-wsiter. she had not had any doctrine she had recognized the legitimacy of passion. but had never understood tha, passion must be made obedient to certain rules. She loved nature with a pure love: she was in a certain sense religious. but she did not like any established religion. She writes to Mile. de Chantepie, who was good Catholic <" do not believe in the Cath ollie institution, and any fixed form in the practice of worship seems to me an ob- stacle between Ged and the soul. You form for yourself too narrow an idea of God. and you only see in him a judge m the image of man. Your brain must be ill have often bede you change your locality by travel. Go to Paris, shake of this sad melancholy which has nothing in it agreeable to the Divinity or useful to mankind The purest sentiment in Madame Sand was her affection for her children. She had made herself a botanist to please Maurice :; she collected plants and shells for him, and helped him in his classi6cations. She made him also a writer: Maurice A4I -.liAl ~ Bouffons, !" on the traditional characters of Italian comedy, with fine engravings. A copy was sent to King Victor Emmanuel, by the kindness of Prince Napoleon, who vas Victor Emmanuels son-in-law. /" This book" says Madame Sand to the prince, lis homage rendered to Italian genius, and it has right to be placed at the feet of the iberator of Italy You see what a courier she was becoming Speaking of the ,e .galanfnono, :" The ter rible hero v she says to Prince Napoleon :: he has forced me to give up the idea of a united Italian republic. Before so much patriotism. courage. loyalty. sim plici,y land simplicity Is the mark of true grea,nessl all theories are wrong; the heart is taken by force and is the heart which governs the world
 It is rather surprising 10 ind Alexan- dre Dumas, IT,, the scepuc. among the persons who are under the spiritual guidance of Madame Sand doubt if he was very docile; a, any rate. she talks to him like father-she even explains ,o him that he must not take too much iron Gin 1860 Alexandre Dumas seems to have been unwell). Iron. in certain -l ~k At. ,..I. in the stomach, and can do no good he mus, only take certain salt of iron, and she gives him the formula. Then comes the spiritual advice: Our great evil is excitement; but i, would be another to suppress it altogether, for we are not made like birds and positivists, and the total absence of emotion, of work. even of fatigue. throws us into atony. the great est enemy of our organization. Medication and absolute repose kill us. Dumas had been complaining of being discouraged. " Don't say so to anybody but me; think of all the jealous people who would rub their hands The jealous people means everybody-not only pro- fessional ,ivals, but the lazy, the incapable, who suffer when they see you leading a triumphant ard brilliant life it means the whole public, which is ungrateful, and which likes to see you suffer after having applauded you, and which will applaud you still, if you resist. She calls him the spoiled child of destiny:' and there is much truth in the expression.
 Madame Sand had. in the latter part of her life become very fond of science :; she found in it a new source of inspira- sion. She read the whole of Humbold,'s Cosmos" she read often what she did not understand-it was enough for her to find in some descriptions ef natural phe- of which she was ignorant. Her descrip- tions of natural scenery becomes more precise. There are some charming pie tures of the neighborhood of Tamaris, on the southern coast of France, where she spen, sometime with Maurice in the win ter of is6r: '' The solid Aleppo pines, with their majestic parasol, and the rough cork-trees. are no, shaken by the tenn pests. nor, in spite of these, are the olive-uees more or less pale. Among these inscnsible trees, the real spring plants begin to smile. The tam- nisks, the purple and the red anemones cover the soil. and the orchids flower in in the shade"
 While she was at Tamaris there was some question of giving her the "prix Colbert of the academy. Several mem bers of this body had put her name fcr- ward for this prize, but the majority of the academy was not in her favor, not fnding her novels sufficiently moral. The Emperor Napoleon, hearing of this. spoke of giving Madame Sand some sort of compensation. She wrote on this dei- icate subject, May II, 1861. to friend in Paris -Buloz 1.-the editor of the R<vse des DeEr .Nosdssl. who has not always clear style, writes to me that somebody came to see him and asked him to sound