OCR Text |
Show A Relief In Pre-Existence. The Chicago Times says : The late Victor Hugo appears to have been convinced con-vinced that he would meet all his friends in a future world. He was equally sure that he had always existed from the antediluvian times when the Creator placed him on earth. He believed that he would exist forever, inasmuch as he felt in his soul thousands of hymns, dramas and poems that had never found expression. When the atheists would say to him: "The proof that you will not exist in the future is that you did not exist in the past." Hugo would answer: "Who told you I did not exist in the past centuries? You will say that is the legend of the ages. The poet has written writ-ten : 'Life is a fairy tale twice written.' He might have said a thousand times written. There is not an age in which I can not find my spirit. You do not believe be-lieve in the doctrine of surviving personalities per-sonalities for the reason that you do not recollect vour anterior existence. But how can the recollection of vanished ages J remain imprinted on your memory when you do not remember athousand-and-one scenes and events ofjfour present life? Since 1802 there has been ten Victor Hugos in me. Do you think that I can recall all their actions and all their thoughts? The tomb is dark, and when I shall have passed the tomb to emerge into the light once more, all these Victor Hugos will be almost wholly strangers to me, but it will always be the same soul." |