ondance:_ To the Citizen Thore, May 28, 1848.

"If, instead of following Lamartine's stupid, insipid policy," she then
wrote, "we had challenged all absolute monarchies, we should have had
war outside, but union at home, and strength, in consequence of this,
it home and abroad."(43) Like the great ancestors, she declared that the
revolutionary idea is neither that of a sect nor of a party. "It is a
religion," she says, "that we want to proclaim." All this zeal, this
passion and this persistency in a woman is not surprising, but one does
not feel much confidence in a certain kind of inspiration for politics
after all this.

(43) _Correspondance:_ To Mazzini, October 10, 1849.

My reason for dwelling on the subject is that George Sand did not
content herself with merely looking on at the events that were taking
place, or even with talking about them with her friends. She took part
in the events, by means of her pen. She scattered abroad all kinds of
revolutionary writings. On the 7th of March, she published her first
_Letter to the People_, at the price of a penny, the profits of which
were to be distributed among working-men without employment. After
congratulating these great and good people on their noble victory, she
tells them they are all going to seek together for the truth of things.
That was exactly the state of the case. They did not yet know what they
wanted, but, in the mean time, while they were considering, they had
at any rate begun with a revolution. There was a second _Letter to the
People_, and then these ceased. Publications in those days were very
short-lived. They came to life again, though, sometimes from their
ashes. In April a newspaper was started, entitled _The Cause of the
People_. This was edited almost entirely by George Sand. She wrote the
leading article: _Sovereignty is Equality_. She reproduced her first
_Letter to the People_, gave an article on the aspect of the streets of
Paris, and another on theatrical events. She left to her collaborator,
Victor Borie, the task of explaining that the increase of taxes was an
eminently republican measure, and an agreeable surprise for the person
who had to pay them. The third number of this paper contained a one-act
play by George Sand, entitled _Le Roi attend_. This had just been given
at the Comedie-Francaise, or at the Theatre de la Republique, as it
was then called. It had been a gratis performance, given on the 9th of
April, 1848, as a fir