Tu seras Providence et moi Fatalité.
_Notre-Dame de Paris_ is based upon this theme. See especially Livre
VII. iv.
L. 255. For the metaphor compare 'la fausse clef du fatal gouffre bleu',
l. 37, and the following passage in _L'Ane_ about the prison of life:--
La porte en est massive et la voûte en est dure;
Tu regardes parfois au trou de la serrure,
Et tu nommes cela science; mais tu n'as
Pas de clef pour ouvrir le fatal cadenas.
L. 273. Cf. the well-known line in _Les Contemplations: Ce que dit la
Bouche d'Ombre_:--
Le fauve univers est le forçat de Dieu.
Man is likened to a convict, in that he is undergoing punishment, not in
that he deserves it.
_Allioth_, a star of the first magnitude in the Great Bear.
_J'en arrive_: 'Tis from there I come.
_la pesanteur_. Gravity symbolizes the forces which keep man down.
_guèbres_, fire-worshippers, i.e. the Persians, who still adhere to the
ancient religion of Zoroaster. The word itself is Persian.
_Thalès_ (English Thales), one of the seven wise men of Greece.
L. 317. An allusion to the well-known doctrine of the music of the
spheres, enunciated by Plato.
_chouette_. The owl, as a bird of darkness, was to Hugo suggestive of
evil things. Cf. _La Confiance_.
_frisson des roseaux_, i.e. a trembling like that of reeds.
_Spinosa_ (English Spinoza) (1632-77), the Jewish philosopher, whose
rationalistic views would be evidence to Hugo of his need of faith.
_Hobbe_. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679), the famous English philosopher, is
best known by his defence of absolute monarchy. In ethics he held that
man is swayed only by the desire for pleasure and the fear of pain.
Either of these views would be to Hugo a system of despair.
_Erèbe_ (Erebus) was originally one of the Titans who was cast by Zeus
into Tartarus. The word is thus used as a synonym for the lower world,
especially those regions where evil deeds are expiated.
_fatalité_. See note on l. 245.
_géhenne_. Gehenna was the valley near Jerusalem where crimmals were
executed. In the New Testament it is used as a synonym for hell.
Nimrod is again the embodiment of the spirit of war. Aaron typifies
ecclesiastical resistance to progress.
_Beccaria_ was an Italian publicist (1738-94) who worked for the reform
of the penal law. His principal work was a small volume called _Treatise
on Crime and Punishment_, which was translated into nearly every
language in Europe. His opposition to the use of torture, to the
infliction of the death penalty, and to arbitrary arrest no doubt
appealed specially to Hugo.
_Dracon_, i.e. Draco, the Athenian legislator, the memory of the
excessive severity of whose laws lingers in our adjective _draconian_.
_Empédocle_. Empedocles was a Greek philosopher who was born in Sicily
about 450 B.C. He is best remembered from the tradition that he threw
himself down Etna in despair at his incapacity to solve the problem of
its action.
_Prométhée_. Prometheus was the Titan who stole fire from heaven and
gave it to men, for which Zeus chained him to a rock in the Caucasus. In
legend and poetry he figures as the benefactor and civilizer of mankind.
_pesanteur_. See note on l. 305.
_l'antique idéal_, the ancient visions,
as for instance those of Isaiah and Virgil, of a golden age.
_farouche_, i. e. that has never been realized.