two thousand deputies from different universities in Germany.  This
was a day of joy for Sand; for he found in the midst of new friends a
great number of old ones.

The Government, however, which had not 'dared to attack the
Association by force, resolved to undermine it by opinion.  M. de
Stauren published a terrible document, attacking the societies, and
founded, it was said, upon information furnished by Kotzebue.  This
publication made a great stir, not only at Jena, but throughout all
Germany.  Here is the trace of this event that we find in Sand's
journal:--

24th November
"Today, after working with much ease and assiduity, I went out about
four with E.  As we crossed the market-place we heard Kotzebue's new
and venomous insult read.  By what a fury that man is possessed
against the Burschen and against all who love Germany!"

Thus far the first time and in these terms Sand's journal presents
the name of the man who, eighteen months later, he was to slay.

The Government, however, which had not 'dared to attack the
Association by force, resolved to undermine it by opinion.  M. de
Stauren published a terrible document, attacking the societies, and
founded, it was said, upon information furnished by Kotzebue.  This
publication made a great stir, not only at Jena, but throughout all
Germany.  Here is the trace of this event that we find in Sand's
journal:

24th November

"To-day, after working with much ease and assiduity, I went out about
four with E.  As we crossed the market-place we heard Kotzebue's new
and venomous insult read.  By what a fury that man is possessed
against the Burschen and against all who love Germany!"

Thus for the first time and in these terms Sand's journal presents
the name of the man who, eighteen months later, he was to slay.

On the 29th, in the evening, Sand writes again:

"To-morrow I shall set out courageously and joyfully from this place
for a pilgrimage to Wonsiedel; there I shall find my large-hearted
mother and my tender sister Julia; there I shall cool my head and
warm my heart.  Probably I shall be present at my good Fritz's
marriage with Louisa, and at the baptism of my very dear Durchmith's
first-born.  God, O my Father, as Thou hast been with me during my
sad course, be with me still on my happy road."

This journey did in fact greatly cheer Sand.  Since Dittmar's death
his attacks of hypochondria had disappeared.  While Dittmar lived he
might die; Dittmar being dead, it was his part to live.

On the 11th of December he left Wonsiedel, to return to Jena, and on
the 31st of the same month he wrote this prayer in his journal.

"O merciful Saviour!  I began this year with prayer, and in these
last days I have been subject to distraction and ill-disposed.  When
I look backward, I find, alas! that I have not become better; but I
have entered more profoundly into life, and, should occasion present,
I now feel strength to act.

"It is because Thou hast always been with me, Lord, even when I was
not with Thee."

If our readers have followed with some attention the different
extracts from the journal that we have placed before them, they must
have seen Sand's resolution gradually growing stronger and his brain
becoming excited.  From the beginning of the year 1818, one feels his
view, which long was timid and wandering, taking in a wider horizon
and fixing itself on a nobler aim. He is no longer ambitious of the
pastor's simple life or of the narrow influence which he might gain
in a little community, and which, in his juvenile modesty, had seemed
the height of good fortune and happiness; it is now his native land,
his German people, nay, all humanity, which he embraces in his
gigantic plans of political regeneration.  Thus, on the flyleaf of
his journal for the year 1818, he writes:

"Lord, let me strengthen myself in the idea that I have conceived of
the deliverance of humanity by the holy sacrifice of Thy Son.  Grant
that I may be a Christ of Germany, and that, like and through Jesus,
I may be strong and patient in suffering."

But the anti-republican pamphlets of Kotzebue increased in number and
gained a fatal influence upon the minds of rulers.  Nearly all the
persons who were attacked in these pamphlets were known and esteemed
at Jena; and it may easily be comprehended what effects were produced
by such insults upon these young heads and noble hearts, which
carried conviction to the paint of blindness and enthusiasm to that
of fanaticism.

Thus, here is what Sand wrote in his diary on the 5th of May.

"Lord, what causes this melancholy anguish which has again taken
possession of me?  But a firm and constant will surmounts everything,
and the idea of the country gives joy and courage to the saddest and
the weakest.  When I think of that, I am always amazed that there is
none among us found courageous enough to drive a knife into the
breast of Kotzebue or of any other traitor."

Still dominated by the same thought, he continues thus on the i8th of
May:--

"A man is nothing in comparison with a nation; he is a unity compared
with millions, a minute compared with a century.  A man, whom nothing
precedes and nothing follows, is born, lives, and dies in a longer or
shorter time, which, relatively to eternity, hardly equals the
duration of a lightning flash.  A nation, on the contrary, is
immortal."

>From time to time, however, amid these thoughts that bear the impress
of that political fatality which was driving him towards the deed of
bloodshed, the kindly and joyous youth reappears.  On the 24th of
June he writes to his mother:--

"I have received your long and beautiful letter, accompanied by the
very complete and well-chosen outfit which you send me.  The sight of
this fine linen gave me back one of the joys of my childhood.  These
are fresh benefits.  My prayers never remain unfulfilled, and I have
continual cause to thank you and God.  I receive, all at once,
shirts, two pairs of fine sheets, a present of your work, and of
Julia's and Caroline's work, dainties and sweetmeats, so that I am
still jumping with joy and I turned three times on my heels when I
opened the little parcel.  Receive the thanks of my heart, and share,
as giver, in the joy of him who has received.

"Today, however, is a very serious day, the last day of spring and
the anniversary of that on which I lost my noble and good Dittmar.  I
am a prey to a thousand different and confused feelings; but I have
only two passions left in me which remain upright and like two
pillars of brass support this whole chaos--the thought of God and the
love of my country."

During all this time Sand's life remains apparently calm and equal;
the inward storm is calmed; he rejoices in his application to work
and his cheerful temper.  However, from time to time, he makes great
complaints to himself of his propensity to love dainty food, which he
does not always find it possible to conquer.  Then, in his
self-contempt, he calls himself "fig-stomach" or "cake-stomach."  But
amid all this the religious and political exaltation and visits all
the battlefields near to the road that he follows.  On the 18th of
October he is back at Jena, where he resumes his studies with more
application than ever.  It is among such university studies that the
year 1818 closes far him, and we should hardly suspect the terrible
resolution which he has taken, were it not that we find in his
journal this last note, dated the 3lst of December:

"I finish the last day of this year 1818, then, in a serious and
solemn mood, and I have decided that the Christmas feast which has
just gone by will be the last Christmas feast that I shall celebrate.
If anything is to come of our efforts, if the cause of humanity is to
assume the upper hand in our country, if in this faithless epoch any
noble feelings can spring up afresh and make way, it can only happen
if the wretch, the traitor, the seducer of youth, the infamous
Kotzebue, falls!  I am fully convinced of this, and until I have
accomplished the work upon which I have resolved, I shall have no
rest.  Lord, Thou who knowest that I have devoted my life to this
great action, I only need, now that it is fixed in my mind, to beg of
Thee true firmness and courage of soul."

Here Sand's diary ends; he had begun it to strengthen himself; he had
reached his aim; he needed nothing more.  From this moment he was
occupied by nothing but this single idea, and he continued slowly to
mature the plan in his head in order to familiarise himself with its
execution; but all the impressions arising from this thought remained
in his own mind, and none was manifested on the surface.  To everyone
else he was the same; but for some little time past, a complete and
unaltered serenity, accompanied by a visible and cheerful return of
inclination towards life, had been noticed in him.  He had made no
charge in the hours or the duration of his studies; but he had begun
to attend the anatomical classes very assiduously.  One day he was
seen to give even more than his customary attention to a lesson in
which the professor was demonstrating the various functions of the
heart; he examined with the greatest care the place occupied by it in
the chest, asking to have some of the demonstrations repeated two or
three times, and when he went out, questioning some of the young men
who were following the medical courses, about the susceptibility of
the organ, which cannot receive ever so slight a blow without death
ensuing from that blow: all this with so perfect an indifference and
calmness that no one about him conceived any suspicion.

Another day, A. S., one of his friends, came into his room.  Sand,
who had heard him coming up, was standing by the table, with a
paper-knife in his hand, waiting for him; directly the visitor came
in, Sand flung himself upon him, struck him lightly on the forehead;
and then, as he put up his hands to ward off the blow, struck him
rather more violently in the chest; then, satisfied with this
experiment, said:--

"You see, when you want to kill a man, that is the way to do it; you

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