[Footnote 1: It is interesting to observe how frequently his heroes are
old men, as Eviradnus, Booz, Fabrice.]

Hugo himself says sadly in his Preface, 'Les tableaux riants sont
rares dans ce livre; cela tient a ce qu'ils ne sont pas frequents
dans l'histoire,' but in truth the tinge of gloom which lies upon the
_Legende_ is rather the impress upon the volume of history of the poet's
own puissant individuality. He was no scientist and no _savant_, he
had none of that spirit of imperturbable calm with which Shakespeare
surveyed all mankind, none of that impartial sympathy with which
Browning investigated the psychology of saints and sinners alike. He
loved deeply and he hated fiercely, and his poetry was the voice of his
love and his hate. The intensity of his own poetic vision made the past
stand before him as clearly as the present; the note of personal feeling
is as clear and strong in _Sultan Mourad_ and _Bivar_ as in _Les
Chatiments_ or _Le Retour de l'Empereur_. His great qualities of heart
and mind and his singular defects are written large upon every page of
the _Legende_. His passionate hatred of injustice and his passionate
love of liberty, his reverence for the virtues of the home, and
especially for filial obedience and respect, his love for little
children, his antagonism to war and his admiration for what is great
in war which was ever struggling with that antagonism, his patriotic
feeling for the triumphs of the Napoleonic era, to him the heroic age of
French history, his exaggerated belief in the wickedness of kings and
the innocence of poor people, the exaltation of pity into the greatest
of all virtues--these and many other characteristic traits find ample
illustration in his legend of the centuries. It is ever Hugo that is
speaking to us, however many be the masks that he wears.

Yet it would be a mistake to suppose that no general conception of the
history and destiny of mankind is to be found in the work, or that the
author had no sense of an increasing purpose running through the ages.
The conception is no doubt that of a poet and a seer, not of a historian
or a philosopher, but it is clear and vivid, and is expressed with
Titanic force. Hugo pictured the history of mankind as a long struggle
upwards towards the light. Man has in all ages been oppressed by many
evils--by war, by tyranny, by materiality, by mental and moral darkness.
He has sinned greatly, he has suffered greatly; he has been burdene