The sixth Lettre d’un voyageur was addressed to Everard.  This Everard was considered by her to be a superior man.  He was so much above the average height that George Sand advised him to sit down when he was with other men, as when standing he was too much above them.  She compares him to Atlas carrying the world, and to Hercules in a lion’s skin.  But among all her comparisons, when she is seeking to give the measure of his superiority, without ever really succeeding in this, it is evident that the comparison she prefers is that of Marius at Minturnae.  He personifies virtue a l’antique: he is the Roman.

Let us now consider to whom all this flattery was addressed, and who this man, worthy of Plutarch’s pen, was.  His name was Michel, and he was an advocate at Bourges.  He was only thirty-seven years of age, but he looked sixty.  After Sandeau and Musset, George Sand had had enough of “adolescents.”  She was very much struck with Michel, as he looked like an old man.  The size of his cranium was remarkable, or, as she said of his craniums:  “It seemed as though he had two craniums, one joined to the other.”  She wrote:  “The signs of the superior faculties of his mind were as prominent at the prow of this strong vessel as those of his generous instincts at the stern."(21) In order to understand this definition of the “fine physique” by George Sand, we must remember that she was very much taken up with phrenology at this time.  One of her Lettres d’un voyageur was entitled Sur Lavater et sur une Maison deserte.  In a letter to Madame d’Agoult, George Sand tells that her gardener gave notice to leave, and, on asking him his reason, the simple-minded man replied:  “Madame has such an ugly head that my wife, who is expecting, might die of fright.”  The head in question was a skull, an anatomical one with compartments all marked and numbered, according to the system of Gall and Spurzheim.  In 1837, phrenology was very much in favour.  In 1910, it is hypnotism, so we have no right to judge the infatuation of another epoch.

     (21) Histoire de ma vie.

Michel’s cranium was bald.  He was short, slight, he stooped, was short-sighted and wore glasses.  It is George Sand who gives these details for his portrait.  He was born of peasant parents, and was of Jacobin simplicity.  He wore a thick, shapeless inverness and sabots.  He felt the cold very much, and used to ask permission to put on a muffler indoors.  He would then take three or four out of his pockets and put them on his head, one over the other.  In the Lettre d’un voyageur George Sand mentions this crown on Everard’s head.  Such are the illusions of love.