THE STUDY OF NATURE. 19 
“A woman's dreams!” you exclaim. What matters that? + 
Since a woman’s heart breathes in this book, I see no reason 
to reject the reproach. We accept it as an eulogy. Patience and 
gentleness, tenderness and pity, and maternal warmth—these are the 
things which beget, preserve, develop a living creation. 
May this, in due time, become not a book, but a reality! Then, 
haply, it shall prove suggestive, and others derive from it their 
inspiration, 
The reader, aw reste, will better understand the character of 
the work, if he will take the trouble to read the few pages which 
follow, and which I transcribe word for word. [The succeeding section, 
as the reader will perceive, is written by Madame Michelet. ] 
