FUNERAL ORATION BY VICTOR HUGO.

Southland Times, Issue 1288, 2 August 1870, Page 3

FUNERAL ORATION BY VICTOR HUGO.

i The remains of M. Hennett de Kesler, the last companion in exile of M. Victor Hugo, were interred on the 9th April, in; the Foulon Vale Cemetery, in the island 1 of Guernsey. M. Victor Hugo delivered a funeral oration, of which the following; ia a translation, at the grave of M. de

Kesler : — " The day after the ambush was laid for us on the 3rd of December, 1851. at the dawn of day a barricade was erected^ in the Faubourg St. Anfcoine — a memorable barricade on which fell a representative of the people. The soldiery tried to destroy it ; the coup d'etat tried to destroy it ; the soldiery and the coup d'etat were mistaken. Though it was demolished in Paris, it was reconstructed :by exile ; the Biudin barricade reappeared immediately, built, jlnot with paving stones, but with principles; instead of being material as ifc was, it became ideal — that ia to say, terrible. Those who were proscribed constructed it — thi3 lofty barricade — with the debris of justice and of liberty. All the ruins of right were employed in it, which made it magnificent and majestic. As it is there Jn the face of the Boipipe, it bars its future, it obscures its horizon. It is as high as truth, as solid as honor, assailed like reason, and men continue to die in it. After Baudin — yes, it is the same barricade — Holland died in it, Bibeyrollos. died in it, Charras and Durrier died in it. In it, too, Kesler has ju3t died. If one is to make a distinction the two barricades — that of the ■Faubourg St. Antoine and that of exile ; — Kesler was the part of union between them ; for, like many others of the proscribed, he belonged to both. li3t me honor this talented author and this gallant man. He possessed all forms of courage — from the lively courage of the combat even to the slow courage of endurance — from the bravery which faces the cannon to the heroism which accepts the ioss of home. He was a champion land a sufferer. Like many men in this country-^-like myself, who now address ■you — he had been a Koyalist and a Catholic. No one ie responsible for the beginning. The error of the beginning renders more meritorious the truth of the end. Kesler had been the victim of that hateful teaching which is a sort of snare held out for childhood, which conceals history from youthful intelligence, which falsifies facts and warps the mmd — the result being blind generations. Let a despot come, and he will be able to cheat an ignorant nation out of everything, even their consent. He can cheat them even with universal suffrage ; and then is seen the phenomenon of a people governed by extorted signatures, which is called a plebiscite. Kesler had, like many of us, educated himself over, again. He had rejected the prejudices imbibed in his mother's milk. He had put off, not the old man, but the old child ; and step by seep he departed from his false ideas, and arrived at true ones. Matured in years, and warned by reality, and set right by logic, from being a Soyalist he became a Republican. Once he had seen the truth, he devoted himself to it. Never was there more profound and tenacious devotion .than his ! Although affected with love of home, he refused the amnesty ; he ratified his faith by his death. He wished to protest even to the end ; he remained an exile through his love of country. The degradation of France oppressed his hearth . He i.h_adjh_is_ eye fixed on that lie which_ js^ called the Empire. Jla was indignant^he groaned with shame ; he suffered. His exile and his anger have' lasted- for nineteen years. Behold him here at last, asleep. Asleep ! No, I withdraw that word. Death does not sleep. Death lives. Death is a splendid realisation. Death touches a man in two ways — it freezes him, then it resuscitates him. His breath is extinct. Yes, but it again revives. "We see the eyes which it closes ; we do not see those which ifc opens. Adieu, my old companion ! Thou art going now to live in the true life. Thou art going to find justice, truth, brotherhood, harmony, and love in the sphere of immense serenity. Behold! Thou art taking wing to the light. Thou art going to learn the profound mystery of these flowers and these plants which the wind bends down, of the waves that one hears yonder I—of1 — of this grand nature which receives the grave in its night and the soul in its light. Thou are going to live the sacred and eternal life of the stars. Thou art going where live all the bright spirits which have enlightened and lived — where dwell thinkers, martyra, apostles, prophets, and liberators. Thou ark going to see all those great souls shining in the radiant form which death has given them. Listen! say- to Jean Jacques (Eousseau) that human reason is beaten with rods; tell Biccaria that law has arrived at that degree of shame that it hides itself when it kills ; tell Mirabeau that '89 is tied to the pillory ; tell Danton that the land is invaded by a horde worae than the stranger ; tell Saint Just that the people has not the right to speak; Marceau, that the army has not, the right to think ; tell Eobespierre that bho- — Republic—has— been.— stabbed, j and Camille Desmoulins that Justice is dead. And tell them all that all is well ; and that in France an intrepid legion fights more ardently than ever, and that away from France, we, the voluntary sacrifices — we, the handful of the proscribed who survive — still persevere, and are resolved, standing on that great breach which is called exile, never to surrender, with our convictions and their phantoms." M. Victor Hugo then threw a small shovelfhl of earth on the coffin, and the ceremouy was concluded.

Let me give you a list of ten follies They are these : — To think that the more a man eats the fatter and stronger lie will ' become. To believe that the more hours children study at school the faster they learn. To conclude that if exercise is good for the health, the more violent and exhausting it is the more good is done. To imagine that every hour taken from sleep is an hour gained; To act on the presumption that the smallest room in the house is large enough to sleep in. Toi argue that whatever remedy causes one; to feel immediately better is good for the! system, without regard to. ulterior effects.' To commit an act which is felt in itself to be prejudicial, hoping that, somehow' or other, it maybe done in your case

with impunity. To advise another to take a, remedy which you have tried yourself, without making special inquiry as to whether all the conditions are alike. To eat a hasty supper for the pleasure ex perienced during the brief time it is passing down the thToat, at the expense of a whole night of disturbed sleep, and a weary waking in. the morning.— The Moralist.