cities, aye, and of courts. I have done nothing new in following the
incline that leads civilized man back to the charms of primitive life. I
have not intended to invent a new language or to create a new style. I
have been assured of the contrary in a large number of _feuilletons_,
but I know better than any one what to think about my own plans, and I
am always astonished that the critics dig so deep for them, when the
simplest ideas, the most commonplace incidents, are the only
inspirations to which the products of art owe their being. As for _The
Devil's Pool_ in particular, the incident that I have related in the
preface, an engraving of Holbein's that had made an impression upon me,
and a scene from real life that came under my eyes at the same moment,
in sowing time,--those were what impelled me to write this modest tale,
the scene of which is laid amid humble localities that I used to visit
every day. If any one asks me my purpose in writing it, I shall reply
that I desired to do a very simple and very touching thing, and that I
have not succeeded as I hoped. I have seen, I have felt the beautiful in
the simple, but to see and to depict are two different things! The most
that the artist can hope to do is to induce those who have eyes to look
with him. Therefore, my friends, look at simple things, look at the sky
and the fields and the trees and the peasants, especially at what is
good and true in them: you will see them to a slight extent in my book,
you will see them much better in nature.

GEORGE SAND.

NOHANT, _April 12, 1851_.