Daily globe., 1883-07-31
LEGEND OF THE CENTURIES.


Writing from Paris to the Philadelphia
Press, Edward King says: The fifth and
concluding volume of "Legende des
Slecles"-the mammoth work of Victor
Hugo, and one into which he has put the
whole force of his mighty genius-was
published at noon on Saturday by Calmann
Levy. 1t has been given to no other man
in our generation-in our century-to fol-
low through life of fourscore years all the
promptings of his muse; to begin series
of poems thirty or forty years before he
intended to complete it, and to work as
leisurely as if he felt as if he were
immortal. Victor Hugo's rare lot
has been to do this, steadfastly, So
berly, and, above all, fearlessly. He has
told the truth at all times and at all haz-
ards, never swerving because he feared to
become unpopular, never dallying for an
instant with the picturesque side of things
when be felt that it concealed humbug, a
sham, or lie. Like Theirs, he became
converted to Republicanism after having
been educated a royalist; but think the
poets conversion was the most sincere of
the two. Hugo has for years been the
most powerful enemy in France of the
Catholic church, because he has shown in
his poems its many defects and its his
torlcal crimes. In the preceding volumes
of the Legend of the Ages" the church
comes in for good share of invective, and
in this latest one the popes of the past
and the cardinals are touched wish un-
gentle hand.
For this reason several journals which
are fanatically devoted to the clerical
cause cast aside the reverence with which
it has, for more than thirty years, been the
habit to treat the exalted name of the
master, and condescend to round abuse of
him. why" they say, ''this perpetual
and servile abuse of popes and sover-
eigns? Why does the old poet pour out
his anathemas upon fifteen hundred years
of history which it is impossible to efface,
and why does he continue to villify insti-
tutions which are still respected by the
majority of French men and French
women? He is only an aged dotard." !"
Even worse things have been said about
him since the general tenor of his new
book became known. The venerable poets
shafts strike home. He will neYer see the
spiteful comments of the narrow
minded people whose bigotry and
illiberalism he has attacked, for it
has been long time since he has
looked into a newspaper. His secre-
taries and his immediate personal friends
select from the mass of current literature
such bits as they think it imperative for
him to know about; but he is supposed to
have reached an Olympian height to which
the echoes of hostile criticism can not at
tain.
Va tho
aspects Of the latest fruits of this old
mans pen-we can not but be dazzled
when we contemplate the splendor of his
literary form-the matchless wealth OF his
diction, and the broad and fiery sweep of
his imagination. 1t is not odd that a ne-
tion which ia 80 lamentably poor in imagi-
native quality in the bulk of it's art and
literature, should have produced this one
sublime figure, this mind which is an in
exhaustible fountain of rich imagery, and
of noble ideas Of peace, reconciliation and
charity?
The book is divided into twenty two
parts, as follows: "The Great Laws"
"Deep Voices in the Shadows" "The Kind
ness of the Ancient Judges" delicate
satire on Hugo's part), "The Scafold,"
"Inferi," 'The Four Days of Elciis," ''The
I
Stoned" The Outraged Bey," ''The Song
of the Prov Gilders," a magnifce Mt bit of
melody, full of mystical Orientalism; ''The
Darkness" "Love," victorious as Dead, :"
"The Tyrant's Circle" 'Dante's Vision"
"Ocean," etc., etc. 1 can think of nothing
to which this book cnn more aptly be COM
pared than to vast gallery filed with the
works of Rubens, with here an unfinished
Ill
formless colors, and there superb picture
| complete even in its most infnitessimal de-
tails. Hugo as he approaches the close of
| his life seems to return with loving fond
| ness to his youthful visions of the gorge
| Gus east, of sunlit Spain, and of myster1-
Gus Africa. Yet there is sombre najes-
| ty in most Of his works which betrays his
partriarchal age. Of eloquence and rev.
erent sweetness there are perhaps more
evidences in this volume than in any
others which have come to US from Hugo's
hand in recent years. The poem begin
ming. 80 God whose work overtops our
highest Dream" is almost biblical. At
the commencement of the book is a verse
let written on the I'd of this month. It is
plea for clemency, charity, and concord,
and is most touching in the opening lines:
tnougnG InaI was oeau; i've again
see the sacred goat.
There is evidently an allusion to the
bereavement which he has lately sustained
the death of Nine. Drouet.
"Ocean" is poem written in Hugo's
happiest vein. There is the rush and wash
of the vast waters in its rhythm, and the
pictures of the sunrises over the trackless
wastes, of the storms and Gains, the ship
wrecks and the peaceful sailing of argosies
laden with treasure are wonderfully fine
Hugo remains finished artist; age cannot
stale him one iota. Just as Hugo is renew
ing his praises of the seattle sea which
he studied so carefully during his long exile
in the Channel lislands-another great poet
Swinburne, publishes, in his Century 20
Rondels," lovely series of invocations tt
the old deity of the waters. He, too, Hk'
the master whom he so fervehtly adores
has studied the sea in the wild solitudes O
, Jersey and Guernsey.
LGadOr on Ben JOnSon.
[Tinsley's Magazine.
Mr.. Landor insisted that should sit fo
my picture to his protege. I consented