A new novel was then an event. Madame Cottin was much more
celebrated than George Sand is now. For all her books were read, and by
everybody. Notwithstanding the great merits of George Sand's style, her
plots and her characters are so exaggerated and so unnatural, and her
morality is so perverted, that we have ceased to read her.'
We talked of Montalembert, and I mentioned his _sortie_ the other day
against the clergy.
'I can guess pretty well,' said Tocqueville, 'what he said to you, for it
probably was a _resume_ of his article in the "Correspondant." Like most
men accustomed to public speaking, he repeats himself. He is as honest
perhaps as a man who is very _passionne_ can be; but his oscillations are
from one extreme to another. Immediately after the _coup d'etat,_ when he
believed Louis Napoleon to be Ultramontane, he was as servile as his
great enemy the "Univers" is now. "Ce sont les nuances qui se querellent,
non les couleurs;" and between him and the "Univers" there is only a
_nuance_. The Bishop of Agen has oscillated like him, but began at the
other end. The other day the Bishop made a most servile address to the
Emperor.
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