"And all this reminded him of a very old song with which his mother
Zabelli used to sing him to sleep. It was a song with words such as
people used to employ in olden times."

In George Sand's pastoral novels we have some of these old words.
They come to us from afar, and are like a supreme blossoming of old
traditions.

It is all this which characterizes these books, and assigns to them
their place in our literature. We must not compare them with the rugged
studies of Balzac, nor with the insipid compositions of the bucolic
writer, nor even with Bernadin de Saint-Pierre's masterpiece, as there
are too many cocoanut trees in that. They prevent us seeing the French
landscapes. Very few people know the country in France and the humble
people who dwell there. Very few writers have loved the country well
enough to be able to depict its hidden charms.

La Fontaine has done it in his fables and Perrault in his tales. George
Sand has her place, in this race of writers, among the French Homers.

IX

THE 'BONNE DAME' OF NOHANT THE THEATRE--ALEXANDRE DUMAS FILS--LIFE AT
NOHANT

Novelists are given to speaking of the theatre somewhat disdainfully.
They say that there is too much convention, that an author is too much
the slave of material conditions, and is obliged to consider the taste
of the crowd, whilst a book appeals to the lover of literature, who can
read it by his own fireside, and to the society woman, who loses herself
in its pages. As soon, though, as one of their novels has had more
success than its predecessors, they do not hesitate to cut it up into
slices, according to the requirements of the publishing house, so that
it may go beyond the little circle of lovers of literature and society
women and reach the crowd--the largest crowd possible.

George Sand never pretended to have this immense disdain for the theatre
which is professed by ultra-refined writers. She had always loved the
theatre, and she bore it no grudge, although her pieces had been hissed.
In those days plays that did not find favour were hissed. At present
they are not hissed, either because there are no more poor plays,
or because the public has seen so many bad ones that it has become
philosophical, and does not take the trouble to show its displeasure.
George Sand's first piece, _Cosima_, was a noted failure. About the year
1850, she turned to the theatre once more, hoping to find a new form of
expression for her energy and tal