Chapter 32 speech at balzac's funeral

Gentlemen: Those who have just been buried belong to those who have been mourned by the public.In our day, all fiction has disappeared.Henceforth, all eyes are not on the ruling figures, but on the thinking figures.A thought figure disappeared, and the whole country was shaken.Today, the people mourn the death of talented people; the state mourns the death of talented people. Gentlemen, Balzac's name will remain in our time forever, leaving a glorious line for the future. Mr. Balzac participated in the powerful generation of writers after Napoleon in the nineteenth century, just as in the seventeenth century a group of eminent writers emerged after Richelieu—just as in the development of culture, there is a law that promotes spirituality. Rulers inherited the same as rulers by force.

Among the greatest, Balzac is the first; among the best, Balzac is the highest.His mind is magnificent and unique, and his achievements are beyond the present.All his books form just one book: a living, luminous, profound book, where we see our whole modern culture move, come and go, with what I can't say, and mingle with reality Feelings of panic and terror.A marvelous book, which he titles Comedy, which is nothing more than a History, in which there are all forms and styles, beyond Tascitt, up to Choetauno, through Beaumarchais, up to Rabelais; This is a book of observation and imagination. There are a lot of truth, kindness, homelyness, triviality and vulgarity here, but suddenly the curtain of reality is torn, leaving a wide gap, revealing at once the most gloomy and most tragic. ideal.

Whether you like it or don't want it, whether you agree or disagree, the author of this huge and peculiar work joined the powerful ranks of revolutionary writers without knowing it.Balzac went straight to his destination, grasping the hand-to-hand combat of modern society.He pulled something from all sides, there were phantoms, hopes, cries, and masks.He unearths vices and dissects passions.He explores people, soul, heart, viscera, mind and the abyss of each individual.Because of his natural free and strong nature, because of the privilege of reason in our time, after the revolution, he has seen more about the end of human beings and better understood what God's will is, so he smiled , open-minded, got rid of those daunting studies, unlike Molière, fell into depression, and did not like Rousseau, became world-hate.

This is his work among us.This is what he left us, tall and solid, majestic monuments piled up with layers of adamantine rock.Henceforth, his reputation shines at the top of his work.The great man mounts his own seat; the future assumes the responsibility for the statue. His death stunned Paris.He had been back in France for several months.He felt that he was going to die, and he wanted to see his motherland again, just like a person wants to kiss and hug his own mother before going abroad. His life is short, but full; his works are more than years. well!This mighty, tireless worker, this philosopher, this thinker, this poet, this genius, among us, lives a stormy life.A life full of struggles, quarrels, battles, all great men have met in every age.Today, he rests in peace.He came out of conflict and hatred.He passed into glory and into his grave on the same day.From now on, he is with the stars of his motherland, shining above the clouds above us.

Are you standing here envious of him? Gentlemen, however much we may grieve in the face of such a loss, let us bear these heavy blows.No matter how sad the blow is, no matter how serious it is, let's accept it first.It may be expedient, it may be necessary, in our age, when a great death, from time to time, shakes minds full of doubt and skepticism to shake religion.God made the people face the highest mystery, think about death, and know what they are doing.Death is the great equality and the great freedom. Heaven knows what it is doing because it is the highest lesson.A sublime soul with a myriad of phenomena enters into another world. He originally flaps the visible wings of genius and stays in the sky above the crowd for a long time, but suddenly spreads out the other invisible wings and suddenly plunges into the unknown.At such times all a person's mind can have are solemn and serious thoughts.

No, not unknowable.No, I have said it on another sad occasion, and I will say it again without weary: No, not night, but light; not an end, but a beginning; not emptiness, but eternal life.Does anyone among you think that I am wrong? Such a coffin shows immortality.In the presence of certain illustrious dead, man feels more clearly the divine destiny of the intellect to walk the earth in order to suffer and to purify himself.This kind of reason is called a man, and they say to each other: Those who are born geniuses cannot be anything but spirits after death!