S the simple syllogism by which Maeterlinck tests

[Thwaites Nazelrod]

Er, her love of beauty both outward and inward as represented
in Consuelo

herself, who is contrasted with the mere
beautiful "animal" Anzoleto, the artist in his lowest
form. He cared only for physical loveliness, he was a great child, who
needed

nothing but amusement, emotion and beauty. But

George Sand herself felt the delight of existence. She says of Joy "It
is the
great
uplifter of men, the great upholder. For life to be fruitful, life must
be felt as a blessing." In all she wrote we feel the rare charm of
perfect ease and naturalness, combined with the

cadences of beauty. We never feel that she is "posing." And yet the
author of the bitter attack "Lui et elle," accused her of continual
"posing." Edonard de Musset wrote with an envenomed pen, (but we must
remember he was defending a brother), in that strange literary
duel between him and George Sand. Alfred de Musset had accused
her of assuming the maternal "pose" towards poets and musicians
who adored her, whilst she absorbed their loves and lives and then
deserted them. It is certainly very striking
how her strong vitality seemed to sway and overpower some of those with
whom she came in contact. She was the oak, and the others were the ivy.
When they

were torn apart, the oak was scarred
but not irreparably injured, it was the
ivy that was destroyed. In, "Elle et Lui," George Sand claims that hers
was a protecting love for the wayward, gifted child of art, the poet
whose ingratitude she bore with, whose nerves she soothed, and
whom she cared for and nurse