and. They begged as
they went along, and slept sometimes outdoors, but more often at the
police-station. George Sand was not tempted by this kind of maternity,
but she kept in touch with the Saint-Simonians. She was present at
one of their meetings at Menilmontant. Her published _Correspondance_
contains a letter addressed by her to the Saint-Simonian family in
Paris. As a matter of fact, she had received from it, on the 1st of
January, 1836, a large collection of presents. There were in all no less
than fifty-nine articles, among which were the following: a dress-box, a
pair of boots, a thermometer, a carbine-carrier, a pair of trousers and
a corset.

Saint-Simonism was universally jeered at, but it is quite a mistake to
think that ridicule is detrimental in France. On the contrary, it is an
excellent means of getting anything known and of spreading the knowledge
of it abroad; it is in reality a force. Saint-Simonism is at the root
of many of the humanitarian doctrines which were to spring up from its
ashes. One of its essential doctrines was the diffusion of the soul
throughout all humanity, and another that of being born anew. Enfantin
said: "I can feel St. Paul within me. He lives within me." Still
another of its doctrines was that of the rehabilitation of the flesh.
Saint-Simonism proclaimed the equality of man and woman, that of
industry and art and science, and the necessity of a fresh repartition
of wealth and of a modification of the laws concerning property. It also
advocated increasing the attributions of the State considerably. It was,
in fact, the first of the doctrines offering to the lower classes,
by way of helping them to bear their wretched misery, the ideal of
happiness here below, lending a false semblance of religion to the
desire for material well-being. George Sand had one vulnerable point,
and that was her generosity. By making her believe that she was working
for the outcasts of humanity, she could be led anywhere, and this was
what happened.

Among other great minds affected by the influence of Saint-Simonism, it
is scarcely surprising to find Lamennais. When George Sand first knew
him, he was fifty-three years of age. He had broken with Rome, and
was the apocalyptic author of _Paroles d'un croyant_. He put into his
revolutionary faith all the fervour of his loving soul, a soul that
had been created for apostleship, and to which the qualification of "a
disaffected cathedral" certainly applied