_Analysis_.
The vision of a ship in the sky. What is it? It is man, who has burst
the bonds that held him to earth and risen into the clouds. It is matter
soaring through the heavens.
First lyrical passage. The passage of the ship through the sky.
Description of the life in the ship; the absence of arms; the feeling of
power and joy. Description of the ship's movement.
Second lyrical passage. The voyage amongst the stars.
Whither will man go? He has thrown off his oid nature, his past history
is buried, he aspires to immortality.
Third lyrical passage. Is man to reach Heaven without death?
No, man must remain man, but the weight has been taken from his feet.
War has vanished; man is good and just.
Fourth lyrical passage. The ship is moving towards Virtue, Knowledge,
Right, Reason, Brotherhood, Justice and Love, and is carrying with it
man, who will find liberty and unity in the light.
_La Fable_, i.e. the myth of Aeolus.
_Eole_. Aeolus was the god of the Winds, which he kept fastened up in a
bag.
_fausse clef_, skeleton key.
_fatal_, 'charged with destiny.'
_pesanteur_. Not 'weight' but 'the force of gravity'.
_Nadir_ is the point in the heavens which would be reached if a line
were drawn through the centre of the earth and carried on till it
reached the sky. But here it seems to be used loosely for any distant
point in the heavens. The meaning is that from a remote distance the
round earth, as it came into view beneath the ship, would have the
appearance of a dusky comet.
_aéroscaphe_. A word once proposed, but never widely accepted, as a
designation for an airship. It is derived from the Greek _aer_ (air) and
_skaphe_ (a vessel).
_humaine_, i.e. made by man.
_treuil_, 'windlass.'
_moufle_, 'block.'
_moteur_, 'driving power.'
L. 171. i.e. by mathematics and poetry, that is by reason and
imagination combined.
_Euler_ was a Swiss geometrician (1707-83) who made great contributions
to mathematics and mechanics.
_Délos_. Tradition says that Delos in the Aegean Sea was once a
wandering island, and that Zeus fastened it down that it might be a home
for Latona, who was about to give birth to Apollo and Diana.
_Leibniz_ (English Leibnitz), the German mathematician, chemist, and
philosopher (1646-1716).
_Fulton_, the American inventor (1765-1815), who was one of the first
mechanicians to construct a steamboat.
_Képler_. The German Kepler (1571-1630) was one of the founders of
modern astronomy.
These three men are chosen as typical embodiments of the spirit of
progress.
_Simoun_. See note on PLEINE MER.
_mistral_. In the South of France the north-east wind is so called.
_Sous le renversement de l'urne_. The urn is the symbol of that
'Fatalité' which to Hugo was the dark shadow over human life. Cf.
LA TROMPETTE.
Andromeda, Orion, and the Pleiades are well-known constellations.
Arcturus is a star of the first magnitude in Bootes.
The Scorpion and the Archer are next each other in the heavens. The
lines express in a somewhat bizarre manner the effect of the outpouring
of life on the stars.
_Aldebaran_, a reddish star of the first magnitude in the constellation
of Taurus.
_Céphée_. Cepheus is the name of a constellation, as also is Perseus.
_des espaces vermeils_. See note on AYMERILLOT.
L. 232. _Zoroastre_. Zoroaster was the founder of the Persian religion.
He was a great observer of the stars.
L. 245. _Fatalité_. In Victor Hugo the word denotes, not so much
destiny, as the feeling or the doctrine that man is the helpless victim
of an unseen and cruel power. It is a gloom which overhangs human life,
from which in the progress of the ages man will be delivered. Compare
_La Vision d'où sortit ce livre_, where the spirit of 'Fatalité' is
associated with paganism and contrasted with the spirit of religion. In
_Dieu_ again 'Fatalité' is one of the three sombre deities of paganism,
the other two being Venus, the goddess of pleasure, and Hecate, the
goddess of death. Cf. also the following lines from _La Fin de Satan_,
put into the mouth of man's evil angel:--
Je suis Lilith-Isis, l'âme noire du monde.
Tremble! l'être inconnu, funeste, illimité,
Que l'homme en frémissant nomme Fatalité,
C'est moi. Tremble! Ananké, c'est moi. Tremble! Le voile
C'est moi.