In Memory of Henri Bergson
Paul Valery
EDITOR's
NoTE .-The following is the translation of an address deliv–
ered before the French Academy shortly after Bergson's death on
January 4, 1941. There are undoubtedly political intentions in Valery's
celebration of his Jewish colleague as the representative and regenera–
tor of the French tradition, as well as in his contraposing of Bergson
and Kant, and in his statement that Bergson was the last great name
in the history of the· European intelligence. This was said at a time
when the Nazi propagandists and their Vichyite collaborators · were
hailing the advent of a new European Renaissance. Valery, however,
does not hesitate to paint the unew age' 'in the darkest colors.
A
T
the beginning of this year which finds France at the bottom,
its life subjected to the most difficult ordeals and its future almost
beyond the reach of the imagination, I felt that I ought to express
to this Society our common hope that the times to come may be less
bitter, less sinister, and less dreadful than those through which we
have been living since 1940.
But
in
the very first days of this new year the Academy received,
so to speak, a blow on the head. Last Saturday, January 4th, Henri
Bergson died at the age of 81, succumbing, apparently without pain,
to a congestion of the lungs. On Monday his body was taken from
his home to the cemetery at Garches. The funeral was necessarily
extremely simple, and all the more affecting on that account. No
ceremony, no speeches-but so much the more silent reflection and
feeling of exceptional piety among all those present. About thirty
people were gathered in the parlor around the coffin. The French
government was represented by Ambassador de Brinon, the Minister
of Public Education by M. Lavelle. I conveyed to Madame Bergson
the condolences of the Academy, and she asked me to thank you in
her behalf. Very soon they came for the coffin, and on the threshold
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