VICTOR HUGO 161 succeeds there, if he succeeds at all, in an independent and manful manner, by force of his own talent and behavior, without needing to seek patronage from anybody. As to ambition, that is, no doubt, a thing to be carefully discouraged in oneself; but it does not necessarily inhere in the barrister's profession more than in many others, and I have known one or two who, byquiet fidelity in pro- moting justice, and by keeping down litigation, had acquired the epithet of the ' honest lawyer,' which appeared to me altogether human and beautiful. " Literature, as a profession, is what I would counsel no faithful man to be concerned with, except when absolutely forced into it, under penalty, as it were, of death. The pursuit of culture, too, is in the highest degree recommendable to every human soul, and may be successfully achieved in almost any honest em- ployment that has wages paid for it. No doubt, too, the church seems to offer facilities in this respect ; but I will by no means advise you to overcome your re- luctance against seeking refuge there. On the whole, there is nothing strikes me likelier for one of your disposition than the profession of teacher, which is rising into higher request every day, and has scope in it for the grandest endowments of human faculties (could such hitherto be got to enter it), and of all useful and fruitful employments may be defined as the usefullest, fruitfullest, and also indis- pensablest in these days of ours. " Regretting much that I can help you so infinitely little, bidding you take pious and patient counsel with your own soul, and wishing you with great truth a happy result, I remain, dear sir, Faithfully yours, "T. Carlyle." VICTOR HUGO By Margaret O. W. Oliphani T he greatest of literary Frenchmen, the greatest man of genius whom this cen- tury has known, the Altis- simo Poeta, the most splendid romancist of his age, has ac- complished his great career. He was the last survivor of a great period in French litera- ture the last member of one of the greatest literary broth- erhoods which has ever ex- isted ; and he carried with him to the very portals of the grave a lamp of genius scarcely dimmed, and a personal power and influence which every year increased. Not very long ago. u
