VICTOR HUGO.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 124, 10 September 1875, Page 8

VICTOR HUGO.

A TEW months since, M. Fouchei*, the brother-in-law to Victor Hugo, a literary man of much ability and a Catholic, died and was buried with all the rites of the Church. Victor Hugo was presout, and, to tho surprise of all, seemed to enter entirely into the spirit of the ceremonies, kneeling at the elevation, and using holy water at appropriate times. This fact has greatly displeased some of M. Hugo's friends, who consider that it is a sign of a return on his part to the Church which he entered when a youth. The editors of the 'Rappel* must indeed feel annoyed at him for this "misbehaviour j" he ought to have followed their example and to have stayed outside the church during the funeral. This would have been more consistent, but M. Hugo never was and never will be consistont ; his good sense tenches him that the Catholic Church teaches tho true religion, and it is his vanity alono which leads him astray. There is scarcely one of his books in which he has not acknowledged the beauty and truth of the Catholic Church, and yet almost everything he has written since he has been a man, has been with a view of injuring religion. Who knows what thoughts passed through his mind whilst standing at the foot of M. Foucher's coffin and listening to prayers which were so familiar to his .youth ? It -would, indeed, be a great consolation if, before ho dies, Victor Hugo returns to the faith and publicly retracts his many errors.