Page:Daughters of Genius.djvu/573

 GEORGE SAND. 561 to be assured of the salvation of our planet and its inhabi- tants, in order to believe in the necessity of the good and the beautiful ; if our planet departs from this law it will perish ; if its inhabitants discard it they will be destroyed. As for me I wish to hold firm till my last breath, not with the certainty or the claim to find a 'good place' elsewhere, but because my sole pleasure is to maintain myself and mine in the upward way." George Sand died at Nohant in 1876, nearly seventy- two years of age, having neglected an illness which she deemed unimportant until it was too late. "It is death," she said to those about her; "I did not ask for it, but neither do I regret it." For a week she lingered in great suffering, but con- scious and courageous to the last. Her thoughts turned to the quiet village cemetery where she was soon to rest, and almost her last words referred to the trees growing there. She desired that none of them should be disturbed, or so her children interpreted the words : " Ne touchez pas a la verdure." At her funeral, which took place in a pouring rain, the country people, who had long ago ceased to call her communist, flocked in from miles around. There, too, were men of letters, scientists, and artists, for she had made friends and kept them in all ranks of life. Her bier was borne by six peasants, preceded by three chor- ister boys and the ancient clerk of the parish, and she was buried close by the graves of her father, her grand- mother, and two little grandchildren whom she had lost. A plain granite monument now marks her resting place. The works of George Sand, including novels, stories, and plays, are so numerous that only a very few of them can find mention here. Among the most famous are the