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    REMARKS ON VICTOR HUGO ? S " LES MISER A...

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    ¦ « By Frances Power Cobbe. It Is Either...

    Nay , having robbed liim of Ms small residue of worldly -wealth , and been brought back by the gensdarmes with the stolen silver in his

    possession , and then liberated by the clemency of the bishop—even then he is not wholly restored—it needs one crime more , and then

    lie years awakes of wrpng . n All and this outrag is absolutel e can y be true effaced to life . by To the suppose charity o th f at

    night , that the sin which has grown to be the all-pervading chronic malady of the soulcan be cured by a single application

    , ¦ would the s be pecific well remed if the y— world is the could dream awake of inexperience . How , often from have which we it

    heard men talk like this of criminals , drunkards , and all the other classes of degraded humanity : _"I spoke to them of their errors

    , and gave them such and such assistance to amend—and now they . have gone back to evil courses ! They are ungrateful

    repro-< bates , and I wash my hands of them for ever ! " Alas ! would sin _fefoe what it is , if human nature could cast it off like a garment at

    i sl moment ' s summons , and not emerge from it slowly , painfully , " with fear and weaknesslike [ a snake from its slough ? What

    -would become of any of , us if , after one chance of restoration , the Great Reformer were to cast us off in disgust ? His way seems

    rather to be to go on exhorting us , appealing to us , aiding and blessing usday after dayyear after yearthrough all the million

    voices of . na , ture and conscience , , all the beneficent , agencies of Providence , making His sun to rise with none the less of healing in

    _ihis wings , on the evil as on the good—nay , rather following the wandering sheep than all the rest of the flockseeking for it " till

    He find it" There seems a grim and cruel mocker , y in that easily disgusted philanthropywhich picks up some trampled weed of

    humanity out of the mire , , places it for a moment in a hothouse ; bidding it bloom like the lily and be pure as the snowdrop—and

    , then , when it remains soiled and sordid , flings it out into the street with a groan of virtuous indignation .

    The author of the " Miserables " is of a different school from this . He shows Valjean making indeed a marvellous reformation under

    that influence which is greatest of human moral agencies , —a man whose soul religion has made the hearth of all warm and tender

    feelings , all clemency and generosity in great things , and all sensitive delicacy in little ones . Half the conversions we read of in

    books are wholly incredible ; but , given Victor Hugo ' s saint , the conversion of Victor Hugo ' s sinner follows of course . Ordinarily

    . good men can exercise only a slow , mechanical , moral force over others . But the true sons of God are permitted to wield that

    electric , spiritual power which rends the oak to its heart , and makes the strong towers of the mighty tremble and fall . *

    . residi * Since ng near writing the supposed the above taken scene we from have of V life heard aljean the ' with s ori reformation great interest , that been from the character a friend of

    _Di of gne the ( bishop the £ > . of actu the story y ) , and having — died about ginal twenty having years ago Bishop .

    Remarks On Victor Hugo ? S " Les Miser A...

    _REMARKS ON VICTOR HUGO S " _LES MISER ABLE S . " 221 ¦ ¦ t \

• Citation
  • English Woman’s Journal (1858-1864), Dec. 1, 1862, page 221, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/ewj/issues/ewj_01121862/page/5/