Not a
meadow, not a cluster of trees which, under so fine a sun, does not
appear to me quite Arcadian.

We give these passages because they seem to us very forcibly to portray
one side, and that the strongest and most permanent, of the character of
George Sand: the admixture of a child's simplicity of tastes, a poet's
fondness for reverie, and that instinctive independence of habits--an
instinct stronger than the restraints of custom--which her individuality
seemed to demand.

In the letter last quoted to Madame d'Agoult, the new ideal which was
arising out of these contemplations is thus resumed:--

To throw yourself into the lap of mother nature: to take her really
for mother and sister; stoically and religiously to cut off from
your life what is mere gratified vanity; obstinately to resist the
proud and the wicked; to make yourself humble with the unfortunate,
to weep with the misery of the poor; nor desire another consolation
than the putting down of the rich; to acknowledge no other God than
Him who ordains justice and equality upon men; to venerate what is
good, to judge severely what is only strong, to live on very
little, to give away nearly all, in order to re-establish primitive
equality and bring back to life again the Divine institution: that
is the religion I shall proclaim in a little corner of my own, and
that I aspire to preach to my twelve apostles under the lime-trees
in my garden.

The judgment of the court, first pronounced in February, 1836, and given
in her favor by default, no opposition having been raised to her claims
to the proposed partition of property by the defendant, placed her in
legal possession of her house and her children. Appeal was made,
however, prolonging and complicating the case, but without affecting its
termination. In the war of mutual accusations thus stirred up, M.
Dudevant's _role_ as accuser, yet objecting in the same breath to the
separation, had an appearance of insincerity that could not fail to
withdraw sympathy from his side, irrespective of any judgment that might
be held on the conduct of the wife, whose absence and complete
independence he had authorized or acquiesced in. Before the actual
conclusion of the law-suit his appeal was withdrawn. As a result, the
previous judgment in favor of Madame Dudevant was virtually confirmed,
and the details were settled by private agreement.

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