n the wrong. She had proved that there was a great
deal of suffering in the world, and as human nature is good at bottom,
she decided that society was all wrong. She was a novelist, and she
therefore considered that the most satisfactory solutions are those in
which imagination and feeling play a great part. She also considered
that the best politics are those which are the most like a novel. We
must now follow her, step by step, along the various roads leading to
Utopia. The truth is, that in that great manufactory of systems and that
storehouse of panaceas which the France of Louis-Philippe had become,
the only difficulty was to choose between them all.

The first, in date, of the new gospels was that of the Saint-Simonians.
When George Sand arrived in Paris, Saint-Simonism was one of the
curiosities offered to astonished provincials. It was a parody of
religion, but it was organized in a church with a Father in two persons,
Bazard and Enfantin. The service took place in a _bouis-bouis_. The
costume worn consisted of white trousers, a red waistcoat and a blue
tunic. On the days when the Father came down from the heights of
Menilmontant with his children, there was great diversion for the people
in the street. An important thing was lacking in the organization of the
Saint-Simonians. In order to complete the "sacerdotal couple," a woman
was needed to take her place next the Father. A Mother was asked for
over and over again. It was said that she would soon appear, but she was
never forthcoming. Saint-Simon had tried to tempt Madame de Stael.

"I am an extraordinary man," he said to her, "and you are just as
extraordinary as a woman. You and I together would have a still more
extraordinary child." Madame de Stael evidently did not care to take
part in the manufacture of this prodigy. When George Sand's first novels
appeared, the Saint-Simonians were full of hope. This was the woman they
had been waiting for, the free woman, who having meditated on the lot of
her sisters would formulate the Declaration of the rights and duties
of woman. Adolphe Gueroult was sent to her. He was the editor of the
_Opinion nationale_. George Sand had a great fund of common sense,
though, and once more the little society awaited the Mother in vain. It
was finally decided that she should be sought for in the East. A mission
was organized, and messengers were arrayed in white, as a sign of the
vow of chastity, with a pilgrim's staff in their h