La Chute: From Victor Hugo's "Les Misérables."

" TantquHl existera^'* says the author in his préface, ^^ par le fait des lois et des mœurs ^ une damnation sociale créant artificiellement^ en pleine civilisation^ des enfers^ et compliquant d^une fatalité humaine la destinée qui est divine; tant que les trois problèmes du siècle, la dégradation de V homme par le prolétariat^ la déchéance de la femme par la faim^ Vatrophie de Venfant par la nuit y ne seront pas résolus ; tant que, dans de certaines régions y V asphyxie sociale sera possible i en d^ autres termes y et à un point de vue plus étendu encore^ tant quHly aura sur la terre ignorance et misère, des livres de la nature de celui-ci pourront ne pas être inutiles, '^'^

Les Misérables is a work of faith and charity, a gospel of humanity.

The very first Book, headed Un Juste, at once strikes this keynote. It gives an elaborate portrait of the Bishop 01 Digne, the idéal priest. It is both touching and elevating,*and leaves indelible impressions on the mind of the reader. A recapitulation, however, is not called for hère ; the only point necessary for the understanding of our fragment is that Bishop Myriel, called Monseigneur Bienvenu, after hia

vi Introduction.

installation in the spadous episcopal palace, visited the hospital,

an insignifîcant building adjoining, and fînding it inadéquate to the

number of its sick inmates, had them moved into his own mansion,

\vhile he himself made his permanent abode in the hospital.

The second Book, entitled La Chute, introduces the sombre

figure of the galley-slave. Jean Valjean is, like Faust, the hero of

a great psychological drama, of which our extract is as it were the

exposition. Though brutalized by his nineteen years' confinement

and maltreatment as a convict, though reduced to such a state of

moral dégradation and depravity that he robs his own benefactor,

this Soûl of Man is not beyond recovery and not beyond rédemption.

The divine spark is still, though faintly, glowing below the ashes,

and only waiting for a gentle and délicate hand that shall fan and

revive it into a bright and purifying fiame. And we are made to

see this gentle hand at work, and the resuit is Jean Valjean kneel-

ing in repentance and prayer before the Bishop's door. As wa

witnessed his fall, so we now see his rise foreshadowed, and thû

words —

Ein guter Mensch in seinem dunkeln Drange

Ist sich des rechten Weges wohl bewusst

apply to Jean Valjean as well as to Faust.