VICTOR HUGO'S FAITH.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume 6, Issue 1654, 7 April 1884, Page 3

VICTOR HUGO'S FAITH.

Tlio ngetl Victor Hugo, the reverend poet of France, now past fourscore, knows nothing of tlio joyless gloom of Ingorsoll and Bradlaugli as they look beyond death, His own words givo but expression to liis sense ot immortality.—"l feel m myself tlio future life, I am like a forest which has been more than once cut down. Tlio new shoots aro stronger and livelier tlmn ever. I am rising, I know, toward the sky, The sunshine is on ray head. The earth gives me its generous sap, but heaven lights mc with reflection of unknown: worlds. You say tlio soul is nothing but tlio resultant of bodily powers, Why, then, is my soul luminous when my bodily powers begin to fail 1 Winter is on my head, and eternal spring is in my heart. Then I breath, at this hour, tlio fragrance of tlio lilacs, tlio violets, and the roses at at twenty years, Tlio nearer I approach the end, the plainer I hear around me the immortal symphonies of tlio worlds which invite me. It is marvellous yet simple. It is a fairy tale, and it i 3 a history. For half a century I have been writing my thoughts in prose, verse, history, philosophy, drama, remaiice, tradition, satire, ode, song—l have tried all. But I feel I have not said tlio thousandth part of what is in me, When I g(> down to the grave, I can say, like •so mauy others, ' I have finished my day's work; but I cannot say ' I have finished my life." My day's work will begin again next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley; it is a thoroughfare. It closes in the twilight to open with the dawn. I improve every hour, because I love this world as my fatherland. My work is only beginning. My monument is hardly above its foundation. I would be glad to see it mounting and mounting for ever. The thirst for the infinite proves infinity."