Victor Hugo on Immortality?

Last updated on: May 18, 2020 at 12:27 am by Dan Peterson

Victor Hugo on Immortality? 2020-05-18T00:27:36-06:00 Dan Peterson

LOGO Patheos Explore the world's faith through different perspectives on religion and spirituality! Patheos has the views of the prevalent religions and spiritualities of the world.

Victor Hugo (d. 1885)
Wikimedia Commons public domain image

We have been using a bit of our extra at-home Sabbath time to do some family history. Today, we read through notes that were taken at the funeral of my wife’s great grandmother. One of those who spoke at the funeral quoted from an essay on immortality that the speaker attributed to the great French poet, essayist, and novelist Victor Hugo (best known in the English-speaking world for his novels The Hunchback of Notre-Dame [French: Notre-Dame de Paris, 1831) and Les Misérables [1862]). I have checked these remarkably complete notes against a couple of online sources and produced an amalgamated and perhaps corrected text of the passage that was read at the funeral. It’s quite a statement:

I feel in myself the future life. l am like a forest which has been more than once cut down. The new shoots are stronger and livelier than ever. l am 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. You say that the soul is nothing but the result of the bodily powers. Why, then, is my soul the more luminous when my bodily powers begin to fail? Winter is on my head, and eternal spring is in my heart. I breathe, at this hour, the fragrance of the lilacs, the violets, and the roses as at twenty years. The nearer I approach the end, the plainer I hear around me the immortal symphonies of the worlds which invite me. It is marvelous yet simple. It is a fairy tale, and it is history. For half a century, I have been writing my thoughts in prose, verse, history, philosophy, drama, romance, tradition, satire, ode, song. I have tried all. But I feel that I have not said the thousandth part of what is in me. When I go down to the grave I can say, like so 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 in the twilight to open with the dawn.

Not included in the notes from the funeral are the following sentences, which follow the quoted portion:

I improve every hour because I love this world as my father-land. My work is only a beginning. My work is hardly above its foundation. I would be glad to see it mounting and mounting forever. The thirst for the infinite means infinity.

If I understand what he means by “The thirst for the infinite means infinity,” it seems to be similar to an argument that C. S. Lewis used to make — namely, that appetites point to the possibility of their satisfaction. We would never be thirsty, for example, if there were no water or analogous liquid for which we thirst. If there were no such thing as food, we would not feel hunger. Lewis believed that there is a yearning for God and meaning and heaven that powerfully indicates their existence. Victor Hugo seems to have thought along analogous lines.

Previous Post

May 17, 2020

Of Limhi and Seer Stones

Next Post

May 17, 2020 Two Book of Mormon grains

Browse Our Archives

Select a Category Uncategorized

Select a Month October 2026 September 2026 August 2026 July 2026 June 2026 May 2026 April 2026 March 2026 February 2026 January 2026 December 2025 November 2025 October 2025 September 2025 August 2025 July 2025 June 2025 May 2025 April 2025 March 2025 February 2025 January 2025 December 2024 November 2024 October 2024 September 2024 August 2024 July 2024 June 2024 May 2024 April 2024 March 2024 February 2024 January 2024 December 2023 November 2023 October 2023 September 2023 August 2023 July 2023 June 2023 May 2023 April 2023 March 2023 February 2023 January 2023 December 2022 November 2022 October 2022 September 2022 August 2022 July 2022 June 2022 May 2022 April 2022 March 2022 February 2022 January 2022 December 2021 November 2021 October 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 June 2021 May 2021 April 2021 March 2021 February 2021 January 2021 December 2020 November 2020 October 2020 September 2020 August 2020 July 2020 June 2020 May 2020 April 2020 March 2020 February 2020 January 2020 December 2019 November 2019 October 2019 September 2019 August 2019 July 2019 June 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 December 2018 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 August 2018 July 2018 June 2018 May 2018 April 2018 March 2018 February 2018 January 2018 December 2017 November 2017 October 2017 September 2017 August 2017 July 2017 June 2017 May 2017 April 2017 March 2017 February 2017 January 2017 December 2016 November 2016 October 2016 September 2016 August 2016 July 2016 June 2016 May 2016 April 2016 March 2016 February 2016 January 2016 December 2015 November 2015 October 2015 September 2015 August 2015 July 2015 June 2015 May 2015 April 2015 March 2015 February 2015 January 2015 December 2014 November 2014 March 2014 August 2013 February 2012

TAKE THE

Religious Wisdom Quiz

According to Jesus, what defiles a person?

Select your answer to see how you score.

Money What comes out of the heart Food eaten Clothing