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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS GEORGE SAND (From a photogravure by N. Desmardyl, after a Painting by A. Charpentier) JULES SANDEAU (From an etching by M. Desboutins) ALFRED DE MUSSET (From a lithograph) FACSIMILE OF AN AUTOGRAPH LETTER OF GEORGE SAND (Written from Venice to Hipp. Chatiron) GEORGE SAND (From a lithograph) F. CHOPIN (From a photograph) PIERRE LEROUX (From a lithograph by A. Collette) GEORGE SAND (From a lithograph) GEORGE SAND I AURORE DUPIN PSYCHOLOGY OF A DAUGHTER OF ROUSSEAU In the whole of French literary history, there is, perhaps, no subject what use is literary history? It is not only a kind of museum, in which a few masterpieces are preserved for the pleasure of beholders. It is this certainly, but it is still more than this. Fine books are, before anything else, living works. They not only have lived, but they continue to live. They live within us, underneath those ideas which form our conscience and those sentiments which inspire our actions. There is nothing of greater importance for any society than to make an inventory of the ideas and the sentiments which are composing its moral atmosphere every instant that it exists. For every individual this work is the very condition of his dignity. The question is, should we have these ideas and these sentiments, if, in the times before us, there had not been some exceptional individuals who seized them, as it were, in the air and made them viable and durable? These exceptional individuals were capable of thinking more vigorously, of feeling more deeply, and of expressing themselves more forcibly than we are. They bequeathed these ideas and sentiments to us. Literary history is, then, above and beyond all things, the perpetual examination of the conscience of humanity. There is no need for me to repeat what every one knows, the fact that | ||||
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