HUGO'S BELIEF.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 11685, 29 April 1916, Page 8

HUGO'S BELIEF.

— I i'cel in myself the future life. 1 am like u forest once cut down: the new shoots are stronger mid livelier than ever. lam rising, I. know, toward the sky. The sunshine is on my head. The earth gives me its generous sap, but heaven lights me with the reflection of. Unknown "worlds. Yon say the soul is nothing but the resultant of the bodily powers. Why, then, is my soul more luminous when my bodily powers begin to fail? Winter is on my head, but eterual spring'is in my Jienrt. I breathe ao this hour the- fragrance of the lilacs, the violets-and the roses, as at twenty years. Hie nearer I approach the end, the plainer J. hear around me tho immortal symphonies of the worlds which invito me. It is marvellous, yet simple. It is a fairy-tale, and it is history. For half a, century I have been writing my thought's in prose and in verse, history, philosophy, drama. . romance, tradition, satire, ode and'song; ] have tried all. "But I foe] I have not said the thousandth part of what, is in run. When I go down to the grave 1 can say like many others, " I have finished my day's work," but I cannot say, " I have finished my life." My day's work will begin again the- next morning. The tomb is not a blind alley: it is a thoroughfare. It closes on 'the twilight, it opens oil the dawn.—Victor Hugo.