The Art of Public Speaking VICTOR HUGO HONORE DE BALZAC Delivered at the Funeral of Balzac, August 20, 1850. Gentlemen: The man who now goes down into this tomb is one of those to whom public grief pays homage. In one day all fictions have vanished. The eye is fixed not only on the heads that reign, but on heads that think, and the whole country is moved when one of those heads disappears. To−day we have a people in black because of the death of the man of talent; a nation in mourning for a man of genius. Gentlemen,.
