Letters of Lydia Maria Child, with a biographical introduction by John G. Whittier and an appendix by Wendell Phillips.

LETI'ERS. 205
not your auntie; your mother was not my sister."
"Was n't she, though-? " rejoined the soldier. You'd
better ask General Christ about that. He was a great
general, and I guess he would say that your mother
was mny mother's sister. My mother is a good woman.
If you knew her, you would love her." Beautiful,
was it not?
TO FRANCIS G. SHAW.
WAYLANID, 1870.
I thank you cordially for "M. Sylvestre." It is
charmingly translated, in that free, flowing way
that makes it seem as if it were written in English.
It is far less exciting than " Consuelo " was, but it
is very attractive, full of serene wisdom and gleams
of simple beauty. I never can believe that George
Sand is so debased and impure as many represent her
to be. She may have committed grave errors, but I
think they must have proceeded from the restless
yearnings of unsatisfied affections, and the pursuit of
an ideal which she could not find, rather than from
unbridled sensuality. A woman of impure soul
might write elaborate sentences in praise of virtue,
but I deem it impossible for such a woman to write
books that breathe such pure aspirations as many of
hers do. And even her very worst ones, are they not
true pictures of life as she has seen it in that false,
corrupted France? And is it not the sincerity of
her nature, rather than any delight in uncleanness,
which makes it impossible for her to gloss over the
corruptions which she sees all around her? Some
people are so constituted that theytmust "tell the
truth, and shame the Devil." Then again, admitting
that George Sand has been as licentious as some say,