The evening star and Newark advertiser. [volume] (Newark, N.J.) 1907-1908, 1907-07-06
victor Hueo'a Intellectual BIograpI

Victor HuHo's Intellectual biography
Victor Hugo's Intellectual Autobiog-
raphy." Postscriptum de Ma Vic.) Being
the last of the unpublished, works and en-
bodying the authors ideas of literature,
philosophy and religion. Translated, with
a study OF the last phase of Hugo's genius,
by Lorenzo O'Rourke. Funk & Wagnalis
Company, publishers, New York.
This uniquely important piece of litera-
ture made its first appearance In French
as the principal memorial of the Victor
Hugo Centenary. Hugo himself directed
that the manuscript be not made public
until some years after his death, his idea
probably being that he could thus the
more freely give expression to his inti-
mate thoughts.
The book was written while Hugo was
In exile on the Island of Guernsey. 1t Is
not an autobiography in the sense of
being a history, but is, rather. a record
of its authors thought upon the most
profound matters that engage the human
mind. Half of the book is devoted to
literature and art, and half to the uthor's
meditations upon the soul, life and death,
Immortality. God. the destiny of man, etc.
As a sort of appendix there is included a
series of detached observation or aphor-
isms upon a wide variety of topics, some
OF which are history, politics, morality,
love and woman.
Mr.. O'Rourke introduces the volume
with a very scholarly analytical review OF
Hngo's genius.
All who are interested in the great
French poet and novelist-and who is not?
will find the book most instructive of
the workings of his monumental Intellect
as revealed In an epoch of his career OF
great moment In itself.
Considering the books importance, a
few quotations of varied and Characters
tjc naqea pos NAV not he amisE. This is
said of Shakespeare:
rs Shakespeare, then, a drunken saw
age? Savage? Yes. in so far as he 1nhablts
a virgin forest. Drunk? Yes. he Is the
quaffer of the ideal. He is a giant walking
beneath Notwithstanding trees. Behold
him lifting on high the great golden cup,
his eyes flaming with that light that he
drinks; Shakespeare, like Aeschylus,
Job, like Isaiah, is one of those omnipotent
beings of thought and poetry who, on
equal terms, SO to speak. with the mystic
rious All. have the sublimity OF the crea-
ton itself, and who, like the creation,
translate into outward expression that sub
In profuse forms and images, lavish
ing shadows. flowers, leaves and living
streams
Hugo declares his belief in God is direct.
1.-THE crowd has weak eyes; that is Its own
affair. Dogmas and practises are lenses
through which the short-sighted see the
stars. But. as for me-" he says, 81 see
God with the naked eye.
~ respect the Sunday mass in my parish.
I attend it rarely; this is because I am
assisting perpetually, reverent, dreaming
and attentive, at that other eternal mass
which God is celebrating night and day In
nature, His great church.
ITO place conscience beyond self, slowly.
day by day. to transform 1t into external
reality, into actions or words; to be born
with ideas, to die with works; In a word,
to upbuild the ideal, TO construct 1t In art
and be poet; to construct 1t in science and
he philosopher; 10 construct 1t In life and
be just-such is the goal OF human des-
tiny"
ITO sum up all, let it be known that
science and religion are two identical
words. The learned do not suspect this; no
more do the religious. These two words
express the two sides of the same fact,
which is the infinite"
Following are a few of the aphorisms,
some of them platitudinous, of course, but
all cogently put:
art is to man what nature is to God"
Intelligence is the wife, Imagination Is
the mistress, memory is the servant"
The literate, the erudite, the learned.
mount by means of ladders; poets and art
lists are birds"
II am not certain whether one ought not
to prefer enormity to m%eanness."
THE elephant is scarcely more potent
against the ant than the ant is against the
elephant"
1.-The wicked envy and hate; 1t is their
way of admiring."
1.-THE earned man knows that he is ig-
n~orant."
IA great artist is a great man in a great
child"
"a republic like the United States of
America. constructed on a single principle.