which is the goal of a humanity that is rationally imperialistic in its vital effort. The mysticism of passion, which makes erotic passion the voice of God, can give greater stability, grandeur, and seriousness to the marriage relations; but when it defies the social rules based upon the experience of the centuries, it leads to disorder and retrogression, disorganizing the family, that supreme teacher of the child, who so successfully adapts the new generation to civic society. And so social or demagogic mysticism, which proclaims the rationality and even goodness of man, regardless of his experience and state of culture, may encourage justice to the down-trodden and promote social cooperation; but it may, on the other hand, paralyze the controls over subjective nature which the wisdom of our fathers has bequeathed to us, and open the gates to brutal passion and anarchy. Aesthetic mysticism, which makes of the artist the interpreter, prophet, and Messiah of an allied God, arouses creative activity of the servant of beauty and develops his sense of dignity and duty; but it may also tempt him to spurn 'the long patience,' which is, surely, one of the conditions of the creativeness of the genius; it may paralyze the synthetic faculties and lead to artistic and social shipwreck, a calamity which the present development of romantic art reveals to us and to which our author has called attention in other books.
Whether or not we accept M. Seillière's thesis and his interpretation of mysticism, there can be no doubt that George Sand indulged in Gefühlschwärmerei all her life long, or at least until old age cooled her ardors, when, as the author says, having founded a family she became officially reconciled to all the institutions of traditional discipline and of the social hierarchy, the institutions which she had done so much to undermine. And it must be admitted that there is something akin to religious mysticism in all enthusiasms, be they sexual, political, social, or aesthetic, and that undisciplined enthusiasms have done and are still doing a great deal of damage in the world.
M. Seillière thinks that this "feminine mysticism" has become the religion of our age. It is true, there is much shallow individualism abroad in the lands, and we hear much from young persons about 'living their own lives,' while we hear very little of the 'long patience' needed to live one's life decently and in order. But there is no evidence of any faith in a supernatural alliance, which constitutes the real mystical element, according to the author. And perhaps it is well that the appeal to an allied God is wanting: "lasst unsern Herrgott aus dem Spass."
It is interesting to note, in conclusion, the judgment of M. Seillière that Goethe made greater concessions to aesthetic mysticism and to the mysticism of passion than did George Sand,—in spite of his factitious reputation for wisdom. He is also of the opinion that she is his equal in the amplitude of her intellectual effort, in the wealth of her lyric verve, and in the
