"Because I could not have been in the same town with Napoleon,"he answered,"without trying to kill him,and I do not feel my hand strong enough for that yet."This happened in 1809;Sand was fourteen years old.Peace,which was signed an the 15th of October,gave Germany some respite,and allowed the young fanatic to resume his studies without being distracted by political considerations;but in 1811he was occupied by them again,when he learned that the gymnasium was to be dissolved and its place taken by a primary school.To this the rector Salfranck was appointed as a teacher,but instead of the thousand florins which his former appointment brought him,the new one was worth only five hundred.Karl could not remain in a primary school where he could not continue his education;he wrote to his mother to announce this event and to tell her with what equanimity the old German philosopher had borne it.Here is the answer of Sand's mother;it will serve to show the character of the woman whose mighty heart never belied itself in the midst of the severest suffering;the answer bears the stamp of that German mysticism of which we have no idea in France:--"MY DEAR KARL,--You could not have given me a more grievous piece of news than that of the event which has just fallen upon your tutor and father by adoption;nevertheless,terrible though it may be,do not doubt that he will resign himself to it,in order to give to the virtue of his pupils a great example of that submission which every subject owes to the king wham God has set over him.Furthermore,be well assured that in this world there is no other upright and well calculated policy than that which grows out of the old precept,'Honour God,be just and fear not.'And reflect also that when injustice against the worthy becomes crying,the public voice makes itself heard,and uplifts those who are cast down.
"But if,contrary to all probability,this did not happen,--if God should impose this sublime probation upon the virtue of our friend,if the world were to disown him and Providence were to became to that,degree his debtor,--yet in that case there are,believe me,supreme compensations:all the things and all the events that occur around us and that act upon us are but machines set in motion by a Higher Hand,so as to complete our education for a higher world,in which alone we shall take our true place.Apply yourself,therefore,my dear child,to watch over yourself unceasingly and always,so that you may not take great and fine isolated actions for real virtue,and may be ready every moment to do all that your duty may require of you.Fundamentally nothing is great,you see,and nothing small,when things are,looked at apart from one another,and it is only the putting of things together that produces the unity of evil or of good.
"Moreover,God only sends the trial to the heart where He has put strength,and the manner in which you tell me that your master has borne the misfortune that has befallen him is a fresh proof of this great and eternal truth.You must form yourself upon him,my dear child,and if you are obliged to leave Hof for Bamberg you must resign yourself to it courageously.Man has three educations:that which he receives from his parents,that which circumstances impose upon him,and lastly that which he gives himself;if that misfortune should occur,pray to God that you may yourself worthily complete that last education,the most important of all.
"I will give you as an example the life and conduct of my father,of whom you have not heard very much,for he died before you were born,but whose mind and likeness are reproduced in you only among all your brothers and sisters.The disastrous fire which reduced his native town to ashes destroyed his fortune and that of his relatives;grief at having lost everything--for the fire broke out in the next house to his--cost his father his life;and while his mother,who for six years had been stretched an a bed of pain,where horrible convulsions held her fast,supported her three little girls by the needlework that she did in the intervals of suffering,he went as a mere clerk into one of the leading mercantile houses of Augsburg,where his lively and yet even temper made him welcome;there he learned a calling,for which,however,he was not naturally adapted,and came back to the home of his birth with a pure and stainless heart,in order to be the support of his mother and his sisters.
"A man can do much when he wishes to do much:join your efforts to my prayers,and leave the rest in the hands of God."The prediction of this Puritan woman was fulfilled:a little time afterwards rector Salfranck was appointed professor at Richembourg,whither Sand followed him;it was there that the events of 1813found him.In the month of March he wrote to his mother:--"I can scarcely,dear mother,express to you how calm and happy Ibegin to feel since I am permitted to believe in the enfranchisement of my country,of which I hear on every side as being so near at hand,--of that country which,in my faith in God,I see beforehand free and mighty,that country for whose happiness I would undergo the greatest sufferings,and even death.Take strength for this crisis.
If by chance it should reach our good province,lift your eyes to the Almighty,then carry them back to beautiful rich nature.The goodness of God which preserved and protected so many men during the disastrous Thirty Years'War can do and will do now what it could and did then.As for me,I believe and hope."Leipzig came to justify Sand's presentiments;then the year 1814 arrived,and he thought Germany free.
