"Deeds and Words" ("Actes et Paroles"), which is dated June,
1875, is the record of Victor Hugo's public life, speeches and
letters, down to the year of his death, which occurred on May
32, 1885; but it is most important as a defence of his
political career from 1848 onwards. It does not, however, tell
us how changeable his opinions had actually been. His
inconstant attachments are thus summed up by Dr. Brandes: "He
warmly supports the candidacy of Louis Napoleon for the post
of President of the Republic ... lends him his support when he
occupies that post, and is even favourable to the idea of an
empire, until the feeling that he is despised as a politician
estranges him from the Prince-President, and resentment at the
coup d'etat drives him into the camp of the extreme
Republicans. His life may be said to mirror the political
movements of France during the first half of the century."
(See FICTION.)


_I.--Right and Law_


All human eloquence, among all peoples and in all times, may be summed
up as the quarrel of Right against Law.

But this quarrel tends ever to decrease, and therein lies the whole of
progress. On the day when it has disappeared, civilisation will have
attained its highest point; that which ought to be will have become one
with that which is; there will be an end of catastrophes, and even, so