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| author | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 05:17:08 -0700 |
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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/1432-0.txt b/1432-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5ee61f1 --- /dev/null +++ b/1432-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5239 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1432 *** + +SERAPHITA + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + DEDICATION + + To Madame Eveline de Hanska, nee Comtesse Rzewuska. + + Madame,--Here is the work which you asked of me. I am happy, in + thus dedicating it, to offer you a proof of the respectful + affection you allow me to bear you. If I am reproached for + impotence in this attempt to draw from the depths of mysticism a + book which seeks to give, in the lucid transparency of our + beautiful language, the luminous poesy of the Orient, to you the + blame! Did you not command this struggle (resembling that of + Jacob) by telling me that the most imperfect sketch of this + Figure, dreamed of by you, as it has been by me since childhood, + would still be something to you? + + Here, then, it is,--that something. Would that this book could + belong exclusively to noble spirits, preserved like yours from + worldly pettiness by solitude! THEY would know how to give to it + the melodious rhythm that it lacks, which might have made it, in + the hands of a poet, the glorious epic that France still awaits. + But from me they must accept it as one of those sculptured + balustrades, carved by a hand of faith, on which the pilgrims + lean, in the choir of some glorious church, to think upon the end + of man. + + I am, madame, with respect, + Your devoted servant, + De Balzac. + + + + +SERAPHITA + + + + +CHAPTER I. SERAPHITUS + + +As the eye glances over a map of the coasts of Norway, can the +imagination fail to marvel at their fantastic indentations and serrated +edges, like a granite lace, against which the surges of the North Sea +roar incessantly? Who has not dreamed of the majestic sights to be seen +on those beachless shores, of that multitude of creeks and inlets and +little bays, no two of them alike, yet all trackless abysses? We may +almost fancy that Nature took pleasure in recording by ineffaceable +hieroglyphics the symbol of Norwegian life, bestowing on these coasts +the conformation of a fish’s spine, fishery being the staple commerce of +the country, and well-nigh the only means of living of the hardy men who +cling like tufts of lichen to the arid cliffs. Here, through fourteen +degrees of longitude, barely seven hundred thousand souls maintain +existence. Thanks to perils devoid of glory, to year-long snows which +clothe the Norway peaks and guard them from profaning foot of traveller, +these sublime beauties are virgin still; they will be seen to harmonize +with human phenomena, also virgin--at least to poetry--which here took +place, the history of which it is our purpose to relate. + +If one of these inlets, mere fissures to the eyes of the eider-ducks, is +wide enough for the sea not to freeze between the prison-walls of +rock against which it surges, the country-people call the little bay +a “fiord,”--a word which geographers of every nation have adopted into +their respective languages. Though a certain resemblance exists +among all these fiords, each has its own characteristics. The sea has +everywhere forced its way as through a breach, yet the rocks about each +fissure are diversely rent, and their tumultuous precipices defy the +rules of geometric law. Here the scarp is dentelled like a saw; there +the narrow ledges barely allow the snow to lodge or the noble crests of +the Northern pines to spread themselves; farther on, some convulsion of +Nature may have rounded a coquettish curve into a lovely valley flanked +in rising terraces with black-plumed pines. Truly we are tempted to call +this land the Switzerland of Ocean. + +Midway between Trondhjem and Christiansand lies an inlet called the +Strom-fiord. If the Strom-fiord is not the loveliest of these rocky +landscapes, it has the merit of displaying the terrestrial grandeurs +of Norway, and of enshrining the scenes of a history that is indeed +celestial. + +The general outline of the Strom-fiord seems at first sight to be that +of a funnel washed out by the sea. The passage which the waves have +forced present to the eye an image of the eternal struggle between old +Ocean and the granite rock,--two creations of equal power, one through +inertia, the other by ceaseless motion. Reefs of fantastic shape run out +on either side, and bar the way of ships and forbid their entrance. The +intrepid sons of Norway cross these reefs on foot, springing from rock +to rock, undismayed at the abyss--a hundred fathoms deep and only six +feet wide--which yawns beneath them. Here a tottering block of gneiss +falling athwart two rocks gives an uncertain footway; there the +hunters or the fishermen, carrying their loads, have flung the stems of +fir-trees in guise of bridges, to join the projecting reefs, around and +beneath which the surges roar incessantly. This dangerous entrance to +the little bay bears obliquely to the right with a serpentine movement, +and there encounters a mountain rising some twenty-five hundred feet +above sea-level, the base of which is a vertical palisade of solid +rock more than a mile and a half long, the inflexible granite nowhere +yielding to clefts or undulations until it reaches a height of two +hundred feet above the water. Rushing violently in, the sea is driven +back with equal violence by the inert force of the mountain to the +opposite shore, gently curved by the spent force of the retreating +waves. + +The fiord is closed at the upper end by a vast gneiss formation crowned +with forests, down which a river plunges in cascades, becomes a torrent +when the snows are melting, spreads into a sheet of waters, and then +falls with a roar into the bay,--vomiting as it does so the hoary pines +and the aged larches washed down from the forests and scarce seen amid +the foam. These trees plunge headlong into the fiord and reappear after +a time on the surface, clinging together and forming islets which float +ashore on the beaches, where the inhabitants of a village on the left +bank of the Strom-fiord gather them up, split, broken (though sometimes +whole), and always stripped of bark and branches. The mountain which +receives at its base the assaults of Ocean, and at its summit the +buffeting of the wild North wind, is called the Falberg. Its crest, +wrapped at all seasons in a mantle of snow and ice, is the sharpest peak +of Norway; its proximity to the pole produces, at the height of eighteen +hundred feet, a degree of cold equal to that of the highest mountains of +the globe. The summit of this rocky mass, rising sheer from the fiord +on one side, slopes gradually downward to the east, where it joins the +declivities of the Sieg and forms a series of terraced valleys, the +chilly temperature of which allows no growth but that of shrubs and +stunted trees. + +The upper end of the fiord, where the waters enter it as they come down +from the forest, is called the Siegdahlen,--a word which may be held to +mean “the shedding of the Sieg,”--the river itself receiving that name. +The curving shore opposite to the face of the Falberg is the valley +of Jarvis,--a smiling scene overlooked by hills clothed with firs, +birch-trees, and larches, mingled with a few oaks and beeches, the +richest coloring of all the varied tapestries which Nature in these +northern regions spreads upon the surface of her rugged rocks. The eye +can readily mark the line where the soil, warmed by the rays of the sun, +bears cultivation and shows the native growth of the Norwegian flora. +Here the expanse of the fiord is broad enough to allow the sea, dashed +back by the Falberg, to spend its expiring force in gentle murmurs upon +the lower slope of these hills,--a shore bordered with finest sand, +strewn with mica and sparkling pebbles, porphyry, and marbles of a +thousand tints, brought from Sweden by the river floods, together with +ocean waifs, shells, and flowers of the sea driven in by tempests, +whether of the Pole or Tropics. + +At the foot of the hills of Jarvis lies a village of some two hundred +wooden houses, where an isolated population lives like a swarm of bees +in a forest, without increasing or diminishing; vegetating happily, +while wringing their means of living from the breast of a stern Nature. +The almost unknown existence of the little hamlet is readily accounted +for. Few of its inhabitants were bold enough to risk their lives +among the reefs to reach the deep-sea fishing,--the staple industry of +Norwegians on the least dangerous portions of their coast. The fish of +the fiord were numerous enough to suffice, in part at least, for the +sustenance of the inhabitants; the valley pastures provided milk and +butter; a certain amount of fruitful, well-tilled soil yielded rye +and hemp and vegetables, which necessity taught the people to protect +against the severity of the cold and the fleeting but terrible heat of +the sun with the shrewd ability which Norwegians display in the two-fold +struggle. The difficulty of communication with the outer world, either +by land where the roads are impassable, or by sea where none but tiny +boats can thread their way through the maritime defiles that guard the +entrance to the bay, hinder these people from growing rich by the sale +of their timber. It would cost enormous sums to either blast a channel +out to sea or construct a way to the interior. The roads from Christiana +to Trondhjem all turn toward the Strom-fiord, and cross the Sieg by a +bridge some score of miles above its fall into the bay. The country to +the north, between Jarvis and Trondhjem, is covered with impenetrable +forests, while to the south the Falberg is nearly as much separated +from Christiana by inaccessible precipices. The village of Jarvis might +perhaps have communicated with the interior of Norway and Sweden by +the river Sieg; but to do this and to be thus brought into contact with +civilization, the Strom-fiord needed the presence of a man of genius. +Such a man did actually appear there,--a poet, a Swede of great +religious fervor, who died admiring, even reverencing this region as one +of the noblest works of the Creator. + +Minds endowed by study with an inward sight, and whose quick perceptions +bring before the soul, as though painted on a canvas, the contrasting +scenery of this universe, will now apprehend the general features of +the Strom-fiord. They alone, perhaps, can thread their way through the +tortuous channels of the reef, or flee with the battling waves to the +everlasting rebuff of the Falberg whose white peaks mingle with the +vaporous clouds of the pearl-gray sky, or watch with delight the curving +sheet of waters, or hear the rushing of the Sieg as it hangs for an +instant in long fillets and then falls over a picturesque abatis of +noble trees toppled confusedly together, sometimes upright, sometimes +half-sunken beneath the rocks. It may be that such minds alone can dwell +upon the smiling scenes nestling among the lower hills of Jarvis; where +the luscious Northern vegetables spring up in families, in myriads, +where the white birches bend, graceful as maidens, where colonnades +of beeches rear their boles mossy with the growth of centuries, where +shades of green contrast, and white clouds float amid the blackness of +the distant pines, and tracts of many-tinted crimson and purple shrubs +are shaded endlessly; in short, where blend all colors, all perfumes of +a flora whose wonders are still ignored. Widen the boundaries of this +limited ampitheatre, spring upward to the clouds, lose yourself among +the rocks where the seals are lying and even then your thought cannot +compass the wealth of beauty nor the poetry of this Norwegian coast. +Can your thought be as vast as the ocean that bounds it? as weird as +the fantastic forms drawn by these forests, these clouds, these shadows, +these changeful lights? + +Do you see above the meadows on that lowest slope which undulates around +the higher hills of Jarvis two or three hundred houses roofed with +“noever,” a sort of thatch made of birch-bark,--frail houses, long and +low, looking like silk-worms on a mulberry-leaf tossed hither by the +winds? Above these humble, peaceful dwellings stands the church, built +with a simplicity in keeping with the poverty of the villagers. A +graveyard surrounds the chancel, and a little farther on you see +the parsonage. Higher up, on a projection of the mountain is a +dwelling-house, the only one of stone; for which reason the inhabitants +of the village call it “the Swedish Castle.” In fact, a wealthy Swede +settled in Jarvis about thirty years before this history begins, and did +his best to ameliorate its condition. This little house, certainly not +a castle, built with the intention of leading the inhabitants to build +others like it, was noticeable for its solidity and for the wall that +inclosed it, a rare thing in Norway where, notwithstanding the abundance +of stone, wood alone is used for all fences, even those of fields. +This Swedish house, thus protected against the climate, stood on rising +ground in the centre of an immense courtyard. The windows were sheltered +by those projecting pent-house roofs supported by squared trunks of +trees which give so patriarchal an air to Northern dwellings. From +beneath them the eye could see the savage nudity of the Falberg, or +compare the infinitude of the open sea with the tiny drop of water in +the foaming fiord; the ear could hear the flowing of the Sieg, whose +white sheet far away looked motionless as it fell into its granite +cup edged for miles around with glaciers,--in short, from this vantage +ground the whole landscape whereon our simple yet superhuman drama was +about to be enacted could be seen and noted. + +The winter of 1799-1800 was one of the most severe ever known to +Europeans. The Norwegian sea was frozen in all the fiords, where, as a +usual thing, the violence of the surf kept the ice from forming. A wind, +whose effects were like those of the Spanish levanter, swept the ice of +the Strom-fiord, driving the snow to the upper end of the gulf. Seldom +indeed could the people of Jarvis see the mirror of frozen waters +reflecting the colors of the sky; a wondrous site in the bosom of +these mountains when all other aspects of nature are levelled beneath +successive sheets of snow, and crests and valleys are alike mere +folds of the vast mantle flung by winter across a landscape at once so +mournfully dazzling and so monotonous. The falling volume of the Sieg, +suddenly frozen, formed an immense arcade beneath which the inhabitants +might have crossed under shelter from the blast had any dared to risk +themselves inland. But the dangers of every step away from their own +surroundings kept even the boldest hunters in their homes, afraid lest +the narrow paths along the precipices, the clefts and fissures among the +rocks, might be unrecognizable beneath the snow. + +Thus it was that no human creature gave life to the white desert where +Boreas reigned, his voice alone resounding at distant intervals. The +sky, nearly always gray, gave tones of polished steel to the ice of the +fiord. Perchance some ancient eider-duck crossed the expanse, trusting +to the warm down beneath which dream, in other lands, the luxurious +rich, little knowing of the dangers through which their luxury has come +to them. Like the Bedouin of the desert who darts alone across the sands +of Africa, the bird is neither seen nor heard; the torpid atmosphere, +deprived of its electrical conditions, echoes neither the whirr of its +wings nor its joyous notes. Besides, what human eye was strong enough to +bear the glitter of those pinnacles adorned with sparkling crystals, or +the sharp reflections of the snow, iridescent on the summits in the rays +of a pallid sun which infrequently appeared, like a dying man seeking to +make known that he still lives. Often, when the flocks of gray clouds, +driven in squadrons athwart the mountains and among the tree-tops, hid +the sky with their triple veils Earth, lacking the celestial lights, lit +herself by herself. + +Here, then, we meet the majesty of Cold, seated eternally at the pole +in that regal silence which is the attribute of all absolute monarchy. +Every extreme principle carries with it an appearance of negation and +the symptoms of death; for is not life the struggle of two forces? Here +in this Northern nature nothing lived. One sole power--the unproductive +power of ice--reigned unchallenged. The roar of the open sea no longer +reached the deaf, dumb inlet, where during one short season of the year +Nature made haste to produce the slender harvests necessary for the food +of the patient people. A few tall pine-trees lifted their black pyramids +garlanded with snow, and the form of their long branches and depending +shoots completed the mourning garments of those solemn heights. + +Each household gathered in its chimney-corner, in houses carefully +closed from the outer air, and well supplied with biscuit, melted +butter, dried fish, and other provisions laid in for the seven-months +winter. The very smoke of these dwellings was hardly seen, half-hidden +as they were beneath the snow, against the weight of which they were +protected by long planks reaching from the roof and fastened at some +distance to solid blocks on the ground, forming a covered way around +each building. + +During these terrible winter months the women spun and dyed the woollen +stuffs and the linen fabrics with which they clothed their families, +while the men read, or fell into those endless meditations which have +given birth to so many profound theories, to the mystic dreams of the +North, to its beliefs, to its studies (so full and so complete in one +science, at least, sounded as with a plummet), to its manners and its +morals, half-monastic, which force the soul to react and feed upon +itself and make the Norwegian peasant a being apart among the peoples of +Europe. + +Such was the condition of the Strom-fiord in the first year of the +nineteenth century and about the middle of the month of May. + +On a morning when the sun burst forth upon this landscape, lighting the +fires of the ephemeral diamonds produced by crystallizations of the snow +and ice, two beings crossed the fiord and flew along the base of the +Falberg, rising thence from ledge to ledge toward the summit. What were +they? human creatures, or two arrows? They might have been taken for +eider-ducks sailing in consort before the wind. Not the boldest hunter +nor the most superstitious fisherman would have attributed to human +beings the power to move safely along the slender lines traced beneath +the snow by the granite ledges, where yet this couple glided with the +terrifying dexterity of somnambulists who, forgetting their own weight +and the dangers of the slightest deviation, hurry along a ridge-pole and +keep their equilibrium by the power of some mysterious force. + +“Stop me, Seraphitus,” said a pale young girl, “and let me breathe. I +look at you, you only, while scaling these walls of the gulf; otherwise, +what would become of me? I am such a feeble creature. Do I tire you?” + +“No,” said the being on whose arm she leaned. “But let us go on, Minna; +the place where we are is not firm enough to stand on.” + +Once more the snow creaked sharply beneath the long boards fastened to +their feet, and soon they reached the upper terrace of the first ledge, +clearly defined upon the flank of the precipice. The person whom Minna +had addressed as Seraphitus threw his weight upon his right heel, +arresting the plank--six and a half feet long and narrow as the foot of +a child--which was fastened to his boot by a double thong of leather. +This plank, two inches thick, was covered with reindeer skin, which +bristled against the snow when the foot was raised, and served to stop +the wearer. Seraphitus drew in his left foot, furnished with another +“skee,” which was only two feet long, turned swiftly where he stood, +caught his timid companion in his arms, lifted her in spite of the long +boards on her feet, and placed her on a projecting rock from which he +brushed the snow with his pelisse. + +“You are safe there, Minna; you can tremble at your ease.” + +“We are a third of the way up the Ice-Cap,” she said, looking at the +peak to which she gave the popular name by which it is known in Norway; +“I can hardly believe it.” + +Too much out of breath to say more, she smiled at Seraphitus, who, +without answering, laid his hand upon her heart and listened to its +sounding throbs, rapid as those of a frightened bird. + +“It often beats as fast when I run,” she said. + +Seraphitus inclined his head with a gesture that was neither coldness +nor indifference, and yet, despite the grace which made the movement +almost tender, it none the less bespoke a certain negation, which in a +woman would have seemed an exquisite coquetry. Seraphitus clasped the +young girl in his arms. Minna accepted the caress as an answer to her +words, continuing to gaze at him. As he raised his head, and threw back +with impatient gesture the golden masses of his hair to free his brow, +he saw an expression of joy in the eyes of his companion. + +“Yes, Minna,” he said in a voice whose paternal accents were charming +from the lips of a being who was still adolescent, “Keep your eyes on +me; do not look below you.” + +“Why not?” she asked. + +“You wish to know why? then look!” + +Minna glanced quickly at her feet and cried out suddenly like a child +who sees a tiger. The awful sensation of abysses seized her; one glance +sufficed to communicate its contagion. The fiord, eager for food, +bewildered her with its loud voice ringing in her ears, interposing +between herself and life as though to devour her more surely. From the +crown of her head to her feet and along her spine an icy shudder ran; +then suddenly intolerable heat suffused her nerves, beat in her veins +and overpowered her extremities with electric shocks like those of the +torpedo. Too feeble to resist, she felt herself drawn by a mysterious +power to the depths below, wherein she fancied that she saw some monster +belching its venom, a monster whose magnetic eyes were charming her, +whose open jaws appeared to craunch their prey before they seized it. + +“I die, my Seraphitus, loving none but thee,” she said, making a +mechanical movement to fling herself into the abyss. + +Seraphitus breathed softly on her forehead and eyes. Suddenly, like +a traveller relaxed after a bath, Minna forgot these keen emotions, +already dissipated by that caressing breath which penetrated her body +and filled it with balsamic essences as quickly as the breath itself had +crossed the air. + +“Who art thou?” she said, with a feeling of gentle terror. “Ah, but I +know! thou art my life. How canst thou look into that gulf and not die?” + she added presently. + +Seraphitus left her clinging to the granite rock and placed himself at +the edge of the narrow platform on which they stood, whence his eyes +plunged to the depths of the fiord, defying its dazzling invitation. His +body did not tremble, his brow was white and calm as that of a marble +statue,--an abyss facing an abyss. + +“Seraphitus! dost thou not love me? come back!” she cried. “Thy danger +renews my terror. Who art thou to have such superhuman power at thy +age?” she asked as she felt his arms inclosing her once more. + +“But, Minna,” answered Seraphitus, “you look fearlessly at greater +spaces far than that.” + +Then with raised finger, this strange being pointed upward to the blue +dome, which parting clouds left clear above their heads, where +stars could be seen in open day by virtue of atmospheric laws as yet +unstudied. + +“But what a difference!” she answered smiling. + +“You are right,” he said; “we are born to stretch upward to the +skies. Our native land, like the face of a mother, cannot terrify her +children.” + +His voice vibrated through the being of his companion, who made no +reply. + +“Come! let us go on,” he said. + +The pair darted forward along the narrow paths traced back and forth +upon the mountain, skimming from terrace to terrace, from line to line, +with the rapidity of a barb, that bird of the desert. Presently they +reached an open space, carpeted with turf and moss and flowers, where no +foot had ever trod. + +“Oh, the pretty saeter!” cried Minna, giving to the upland meadow its +Norwegian name. “But how comes it here, at such a height?” + +“Vegetation ceases here, it is true,” said Seraphitus. “These few plants +and flowers are due to that sheltering rock which protects the meadow +from the polar winds. Put that tuft in your bosom, Minna,” he added, +gathering a flower,--“that balmy creation which no eye has ever seen; +keep the solitary matchless flower in memory of this one matchless +morning of your life. You will find no other guide to lead you again to +this saeter.” + +So saying, he gave her the hybrid plant his falcon eye had seen amid the +tufts of gentian acaulis and saxifrages,--a marvel, brought to bloom +by the breath of angels. With girlish eagerness Minna seized the tufted +plant of transparent green, vivid as emerald, which was formed of little +leaves rolled trumpet-wise, brown at the smaller end but changing tint +by tint to their delicately notched edges, which were green. These +leaves were so tightly pressed together that they seemed to blend and +form a mat or cluster of rosettes. Here and there from this green ground +rose pure white stars edged with a line of gold, and from their throats +came crimson anthers but no pistils. A fragrance, blended of roses and +of orange blossoms, yet ethereal and fugitive, gave something as it +were celestial to that mysterious flower, which Seraphitus sadly +contemplated, as though it uttered plaintive thoughts which he alone +could understand. But to Minna this mysterious phenomenon seemed a mere +caprice of nature giving to stone the freshness, softness, and perfume +of plants. + +“Why do you call it matchless? can it not reproduce itself?” she asked, +looking at Seraphitus, who colored and turned away. + +“Let us sit down,” he said presently; “look below you, Minna. See! At +this height you will have no fear. The abyss is so far beneath us that +we no longer have a sense of its depths; it acquires the perspective +uniformity of ocean, the vagueness of clouds, the soft coloring of the +sky. See, the ice of the fiord is a turquoise, the dark pine forests are +mere threads of brown; for us all abysses should be thus adorned.” + +Seraphitus said the words with that fervor of tone and gesture seen +and known only by those who have ascended the highest mountains of the +globe,--a fervor so involuntarily acquired that the haughtiest of men +is forced to regard his guide as a brother, forgetting his own superior +station till he descends to the valleys and the abodes of his kind. +Seraphitus unfastened the skees from Minna’s feet, kneeling before her. +The girl did not notice him, so absorbed was she in the marvellous view +now offered of her native land, whose rocky outlines could here be seen +at a glance. She felt, with deep emotion, the solemn permanence of those +frozen summits, to which words could give no adequate utterance. + +“We have not come here by human power alone,” she said, clasping her +hands. “But perhaps I dream.” + +“You think that facts the causes of which you cannot perceive are +supernatural,” replied her companion. + +“Your replies,” she said, “always bear the stamp of some deep thought. +When I am near you I understand all things without an effort. Ah, I am +free!” + +“If so, you will not need your skees,” he answered. + +“Oh!” she said; “I who would fain unfasten yours and kiss your feet!” + +“Keep such words for Wilfrid,” said Seraphitus, gently. + +“Wilfrid!” cried Minna angrily; then, softening as she glanced at her +companion’s face and trying, but in vain, to take his hand, she added, +“You are never angry, never; you are so hopelessly perfect in all +things.” + +“From which you conclude that I am unfeeling.” + +Minna was startled at this lucid interpretation of her thought. + +“You prove to me, at any rate, that we understand each other,” she said, +with the grace of a loving woman. + +Seraphitus softly shook his head and looked sadly and gently at her. + +“You, who know all things,” said Minna, “tell me why it is that the +timidity I felt below is over now that I have mounted higher. Why do I +dare to look at you for the first time face to face, while lower down I +scarcely dared to give a furtive glance?” + +“Perhaps because we are withdrawn from the pettiness of earth,” he +answered, unfastening his pelisse. + +“Never, never have I seen you so beautiful!” cried Minna, sitting down +on a mossy rock and losing herself in contemplation of the being who +had now guided her to a part of the peak hitherto supposed to be +inaccessible. + +Never, in truth, had Seraphitus shone with so bright a radiance,--the +only word which can render the illumination of his face and the aspect +of his whole person. Was this splendor due to the lustre which the pure +air of mountains and the reflections of the snow give to the complexion? +Was it produced by the inward impulse which excites the body at the +instant when exertion is arrested? Did it come from the sudden contrast +between the glory of the sun and the darkness of the clouds, from whose +shadow the charming couple had just emerged? Perhaps to all these causes +we may add the effect of a phenomenon, one of the noblest which human +nature has to offer. If some able physiologist had studied this being +(who, judging by the pride on his brow and the lightning in his eyes +seemed a youth of about seventeen years of age), and if the student had +sought for the springs of that beaming life beneath the whitest skin +that ever the North bestowed upon her offspring, he would undoubtedly +have believed either in some phosphoric fluid of the nerves shining +beneath the cuticle, or in the constant presence of an inward luminary, +whose rays issued through the being of Seraphitus like a light through +an alabaster vase. Soft and slender as were his hands, ungloved to +remove his companion’s snow-boots, they seemed possessed of a strength +equal to that which the Creator gave to the diaphanous tentacles of the +crab. The fire darting from his vivid glance seemed to struggle with the +beams of the sun, not to take but to give them light. His body, slim and +delicate as that of a woman, gave evidence of one of those natures which +are feeble apparently, but whose strength equals their will, rendering +them at times powerful. Of medium height, Seraphitus appeared to grow in +stature as he turned fully round and seemed about to spring upward. His +hair, curled by a fairy’s hand and waving to the breeze, increased +the illusion produced by this aerial attitude; yet his bearing, wholly +without conscious effort, was the result far more of a moral phenomenon +than of a corporal habit. + +Minna’s imagination seconded this illusion, under the dominion of which +all persons would assuredly have fallen,--an illusion which gave to +Seraphitus the appearance of a vision dreamed of in happy sleep. No +known type conveys an image of that form so majestically made to Minna, +but which to the eyes of a man would have eclipsed in womanly grace the +fairest of Raphael’s creations. That painter of heaven has ever put +a tranquil joy, a loving sweetness, into the lines of his angelic +conceptions; but what soul, unless it contemplated Seraphitus himself, +could have conceived the ineffable emotions imprinted on his face? Who +would have divined, even in the dreams of artists, where all things +become possible, the shadow cast by some mysterious awe upon that brow, +shining with intellect, which seemed to question Heaven and to pity +Earth? The head hovered awhile disdainfully, as some majestic bird whose +cries reverberate on the atmosphere, then bowed itself resignedly, like +the turtledove uttering soft notes of tenderness in the depths of the +silent woods. His complexion was of marvellous whiteness, which brought +out vividly the coral lips, the brown eyebrows, and the silken lashes, +the only colors that trenched upon the paleness of that face, whose +perfect regularity did not detract from the grandeur of the sentiments +expressed in it; nay, thought and emotion were reflected there, without +hindrance or violence, with the majestic and natural gravity which we +delight in attributing to superior beings. That face of purest marble +expressed in all things strength and peace. + +Minna rose to take the hand of Seraphitus, hoping thus to draw him to +her, and to lay on that seductive brow a kiss given more from admiration +than from love; but a glance at the young man’s eyes, which pierced her +as a ray of sunlight penetrates a prism, paralyzed the young girl. She +felt, but without comprehending, a gulf between them; then she turned +away her head and wept. Suddenly a strong hand seized her by the waist, +and a soft voice said to her: “Come!” She obeyed, resting her head, +suddenly revived, upon the heart of her companion, who, regulating his +step to hers with gentle and attentive conformity, led her to a spot +whence they could see the radiant glories of the polar Nature. + +“Before I look, before I listen to you, tell me, Seraphitus, why you +repulse me. Have I displeased you? and how? tell me! I want nothing for +myself; I would that all my earthly goods were yours, for the riches +of my heart are yours already. I would that light came to my eyes only +though your eyes just as my thought is born of your thought. I should +not then fear to offend you, for I should give you back the echoes of +your soul, the words of your heart, day by day,--as we render to God the +meditations with which his spirit nourishes our minds. I would be thine +alone.” + +“Minna, a constant desire is that which shapes our future. Hope on! But +if you would be pure in heart mingle the idea of the All-Powerful with +your affections here below; then you will love all creatures, and your +heart will rise to heights indeed.” + +“I will do all you tell me,” she answered, lifting her eyes to his with +a timid movement. + +“I cannot be your companion,” said Seraphitus sadly. + +He seemed to repress some thoughts, then stretched his arms towards +Christiana, just visible like a speck on the horizon and said:-- + +“Look!” + +“We are very small,” she said. + +“Yes, but we become great through feeling and through intellect,” + answered Seraphitus. “With us, and us alone, Minna, begins the knowledge +of things; the little that we learn of the laws of the visible world +enables us to apprehend the immensity of the worlds invisible. I know +not if the time has come to speak thus to you, but I would, ah, I would +communicate to you the flame of my hopes! Perhaps we may one day be +together in the world where Love never dies.” + +“Why not here and now?” she said, murmuring. + +“Nothing is stable here,” he said, disdainfully. “The passing joys of +earthly love are gleams which reveal to certain souls the coming of +joys more durable; just as the discovery of a single law of nature leads +certain privileged beings to a conception of the system of the universe. +Our fleeting happiness here below is the forerunning proof of another +and a perfect happiness, just as the earth, a fragment of the world, +attests the universe. We cannot measure the vast orbit of the Divine +thought of which we are but an atom as small as God is great; but we +can feel its vastness, we can kneel, adore, and wait. Men ever mislead +themselves in science by not perceiving that all things on their globe +are related and co-ordinated to the general evolution, to a constant +movement and production which bring with them, necessarily, both +advancement and an End. Man himself is not a finished creation; if he +were, God would not Be.” + +“How is it that in thy short life thou hast found the time to learn so +many things?” said the young girl. + +“I remember,” he replied. + +“Thou art nobler than all else I see.” + +“We are the noblest of God’s greatest works. Has He not given us the +faculty of reflecting on Nature; of gathering it within us by thought; +of making it a footstool and stepping-stone from and by which to rise +to Him? We love according to the greater or the lesser portion of heaven +our souls contain. But do not be unjust, Minna; behold the magnificence +spread before you. Ocean expands at your feet like a carpet; the +mountains resemble ampitheatres; heaven’s ether is above them like the +arching folds of a stage curtain. Here we may breathe the thoughts of +God, as it were like a perfume. See! the angry billows which engulf the +ships laden with men seem to us, where we are, mere bubbles; and if we +raise our eyes and look above, all there is blue. Behold that diadem of +stars! Here the tints of earthly impressions disappear; standing on this +nature rarefied by space do you not feel within you something deeper far +than mind, grander than enthusiasm, of greater energy than will? Are you +not conscious of emotions whose interpretation is no longer in us? Do +you not feel your pinions? Let us pray.” + +Seraphitus knelt down and crossed his hands upon his breast, while Minna +fell, weeping, on her knees. Thus they remained for a time, while +the azure dome above their heads grew larger and strong rays of light +enveloped them without their knowledge. + +“Why dost thou not weep when I weep?” said Minna, in a broken voice. + +“They who are all spirit do not weep,” replied Seraphitus rising; “Why +should I weep? I see no longer human wretchedness. Here, Good appears +in all its majesty. There, beneath us, I hear the supplications and the +wailings of that harp of sorrows which vibrates in the hands of captive +souls. Here, I listen to the choir of harps harmonious. There, below, +is hope, the glorious inception of faith; but here is faith--it reigns, +hope realized!” + +“You will never love me; I am too imperfect; you disdain me,” said the +young girl. + +“Minna, the violet hidden at the feet of the oak whispers to itself: +‘The sun does not love me; he comes not.’ The sun says: ‘If my rays +shine upon her she will perish, poor flower.’ Friend of the flower, he +sends his beams through the oak leaves, he veils, he tempers them, and +thus they color the petals of his beloved. I have not veils enough, +I fear lest you see me too closely; you would tremble if you knew me +better. Listen: I have no taste for earthly fruits. Your joys, I know +them all too well, and, like the sated emperors of pagan Rome, I have +reached disgust of all things; I have received the gift of vision. Leave +me! abandon me!” he murmured, sorrowfully. + +Seraphitus turned and seated himself on a projecting rock, dropping his +head upon his breast. + +“Why do you drive me to despair?” said Minna. + +“Go, go!” cried Seraphitus, “I have nothing that you want of me. Your +love is too earthly for my love. Why do you not love Wilfrid? Wilfrid is +a man, tested by passions; he would clasp you in his vigorous arms and +make you feel a hand both broad and strong. His hair is black, his +eyes are full of human thoughts, his heart pours lava in every word he +utters; he could kill you with caresses. Let him be your beloved, your +husband! Yes, thine be Wilfrid!” + +Minna wept aloud. + +“Dare you say that you do not love him?” he went on, in a voice which +pierced her like a dagger. + +“Have mercy, have mercy, my Seraphitus!” + +“Love him, poor child of Earth to which thy destiny has indissolubly +bound thee,” said the strange being, beckoning Minna by a gesture, and +forcing her to the edge of the saeter, whence he pointed downward to a +scene that might well inspire a young girl full of enthusiasm with the +fancy that she stood above this earth. + +“I longed for a companion to the kingdom of Light; I wished to show you +that morsel of mud, I find you bound to it. Farewell. Remain on earth; +enjoy through the senses; obey your nature; turn pale with pallid men; +blush with women; sport with children; pray with the guilty; raise your +eyes to heaven when sorrows overtake you; tremble, hope, throb in all +your pulses; you will have a companion; you can laugh and weep, and give +and receive. I,--I am an exile, far from heaven; a monster, far from +earth. I live of myself and by myself. I feel by the spirit; I breathe +through my brow; I see by thought; I die of impatience and of longing. +No one here below can fulfil my desires or calm my griefs. I have +forgotten how to weep. I am alone. I resign myself, and I wait.” + +Seraphitus looked at the flowery mound on which he had seated Minna; +then he turned and faced the frowning heights, whose pinnacles were +wrapped in clouds; to them he cast, unspoken, the remainder of his +thoughts. + +“Minna, do you hear those delightful strains?” he said after a pause, +with the voice of a dove, for the eagle’s cry was hushed; “it is like +the music of those Eolian harps your poets hang in forests and on the +mountains. Do you see the shadowy figures passing among the clouds, +the winged feet of those who are making ready the gifts of heaven? They +bring refreshment to the soul; the skies are about to open and shed the +flowers of spring upon the earth. See, a gleam is darting from the pole. +Let us fly, let us fly! It is time we go!” + +In a moment their skees were refastened, and the pair descended the +Falberg by the steep slopes which join the mountain to the valleys of +the Sieg. Miraculous perception guided their course, or, to speak more +properly, their flight. When fissures covered with snow intercepted +them, Seraphitus caught Minna in his arms and darted with rapid motion, +lightly as a bird, over the crumbling causeways of the abyss. Sometimes, +while propelling his companion, he deviated to the right or left to +avoid a precipice, a tree, a projecting rock, which he seemed to see +beneath the snow, as an old sailor, familiar with the ocean, discerns +the hidden reefs by the color, the trend, or the eddying of the +water. When they reached the paths of the Siegdahlen, where they could +fearlessly follow a straight line to regain the ice of the fiord, +Seraphitus stopped Minna. + +“You have nothing to say to me?” he asked. + +“I thought you would rather think alone,” she answered respectfully. + +“Let us hasten, Minette; it is almost night,” he said. + +Minna quivered as she heard the voice, now so changed, of her guide,--a +pure voice, like that of a young girl, which dissolved the fantastic +dream through which she had been passing. Seraphitus seemed to be laying +aside his male force and the too keen intellect that flames from his +eyes. Presently the charming pair glided across the fiord and reached +the snow-field which divides the shore from the first range of houses; +then, hurrying forward as daylight faded, they sprang up the hill +toward the parsonage, as though they were mounting the steps of a great +staircase. + +“My father must be anxious,” said Minna. + +“No,” answered Seraphitus. + +As he spoke the couple reached the porch of the humble dwelling where +Monsieur Becker, the pastor of Jarvis, sat reading while awaiting his +daughter for the evening meal. + +“Dear Monsieur Becker,” said Seraphitus, “I have brought Minna back to +you safe and sound.” + +“Thank you, mademoiselle,” said the old man, laying his spectacles on +his book; “you must be very tired.” + +“Oh, no,” said Minna, and as she spoke she felt the soft breath of her +companion on her brow. + +“Dear heart, will you come day after to-morrow evening and take tea with +me?” + +“Gladly, dear.” + +“Monsieur Becker, you will bring her, will you not?” + +“Yes, mademoiselle.” + +Seraphitus inclined his head with a pretty gesture, and bowed to the old +pastor as he left the house. A few moments later he reached the great +courtyard of the Swedish villa. An old servant, over eighty years of +age, appeared in the portico bearing a lantern. Seraphitus slipped off +his snow-shoes with the graceful dexterity of a woman, then darting into +the salon he fell exhausted and motionless on a wide divan covered with +furs. + +“What will you take?” asked the old man, lighting the immensely tall +wax-candles that are used in Norway. + +“Nothing, David, I am too weary.” + +Seraphitus unfastened his pelisse lined with sable, threw it over him, +and fell asleep. The old servant stood for several minutes gazing with +loving eyes at the singular being before him, whose sex it would have +been difficult for any one at that moment to determine. Wrapped as he +was in a formless garment, which resembled equally a woman’s robe and a +man’s mantle, it was impossible not to fancy that the slender feet +which hung at the side of the couch were those of a woman, and equally +impossible not to note how the forehead and the outlines of the head +gave evidence of power brought to its highest pitch. + +“She suffers, and she will not tell me,” thought the old man. “She is +dying, like a flower wilted by the burning sun.” + +And the old man wept. + + + + +CHAPTER II. SERAPHITA + + +Later in the evening David re-entered the salon. + +“I know who it is you have come to announce,” said Seraphita in a sleepy +voice. “Wilfrid may enter.” + +Hearing these words a man suddenly presented himself, crossed the room +and sat down beside her. + +“My dear Seraphita, are you ill?” he said. “You look paler than usual.” + +She turned slowly towards him, tossing back her hair like a pretty woman +whose aching head leaves her no strength even for complaint. + +“I was foolish enough to cross the fiord with Minna,” she said. “We +ascended the Falberg.” + +“Do you mean to kill yourself?” he said with a lover’s terror. + +“No, my good Wilfrid; I took the greatest care of your Minna.” + +Wilfrid struck his hand violently on a table, rose hastily, and made +several steps towards the door with an exclamation full of pain; then he +returned and seemed about to remonstrate. + +“Why this disturbance if you think me ill?” she said. + +“Forgive me, have mercy!” he cried, kneeling beside her. “Speak to me +harshly if you will; exact all that the cruel fancies of a woman lead +you to imagine I least can bear; but oh, my beloved, do not doubt my +love. You take Minna like an axe to hew me down. Have mercy!” + +“Why do you say these things, my friend, when you know that they are +useless?” she replied, with a look which grew in the end so soft that +Wilfrid ceased to behold her eyes, but saw in their place a fluid light, +the shimmer of which was like the last vibrations of an Italian song. + +“Ah! no man dies of anguish!” he murmured. + +“You are suffering?” she said in a voice whose intonations produced upon +his heart the same effect as that of her look. “Would I could help you!” + +“Love me as I love you.” + +“Poor Minna!” she replied. + +“Why am I unarmed!” exclaimed Wilfrid, violently. + +“You are out of temper,” said Seraphita, smiling. “Come, have I not +spoken to you like those Parisian women whose loves you tell of?” + +Wilfrid sat down, crossed his arms, and looked gloomily at Seraphita. “I +forgive you,” he said; “for you know not what you do.” + +“You mistake,” she replied; “every woman from the days of Eve does good +and evil knowingly.” + +“I believe it,” he said. + +“I am sure of it, Wilfrid. Our instinct is precisely that which makes us +perfect. What you men learn, we feel.” + +“Why, then, do you not feel how much I love you?” + +“Because you do not love me.” + +“Good God!” + +“If you did, would you complain of your own sufferings?” + +“You are terrible to-night, Seraphita. You are a demon.” + +“No, but I am gifted with the faculty of comprehending, and it is awful. +Wilfrid, sorrow is a lamp which illumines life.” + +“Why did you ascend the Falberg?” + +“Minna will tell you. I am too weary to talk. You must talk to me,--you +who know so much, who have learned all things and forgotten nothing; you +who have passed through every social test. Talk to me, amuse me, I am +listening.” + +“What can I tell you that you do not know? Besides, the request is +ironical. You allow yourself no intercourse with social life; you +trample on its conventions, its laws, its customs, sentiments, and +sciences; you reduce them all to the proportions such things take when +viewed by you beyond this universe.” + +“Therefore you see, my friend, that I am not a woman. You do wrong +to love me. What! am I to leave the ethereal regions of my pretended +strength, make myself humbly small, cringe like the hapless female of +all species, that you may lift me up? and then, when I, helpless and +broken, ask you for help, when I need your arm, you will repulse me! No, +we can never come to terms.” + +“You are more maliciously unkind to-night than I have ever known you.” + +“Unkind!” she said, with a look which seemed to blend all feelings into +one celestial emotion, “no, I am ill, I suffer, that is all. Leave me, +my friend; it is your manly right. We women should ever please you, +entertain you, be gay in your presence and have no whims save those that +amuse you. Come, what shall I do for you, friend? Shall I sing, shall I +dance, though weariness deprives me of the use of voice and limbs?--Ah! +gentlemen, be we on our deathbeds, we yet must smile to please you; you +call that, methinks, your right. Poor women! I pity them. Tell me, you +who abandon them when they grow old, is it because they have neither +hearts nor souls? Wilfrid, I am a hundred years old; leave me! leave me! +go to Minna!” + +“Oh, my eternal love!” + +“Do you know the meaning of eternity? Be silent, Wilfrid. You desire +me, but you do not love me. Tell me, do I not seem to you like those +coquettish Parisian women?” + +“Certainly I no longer find you the pure celestial maiden I first saw in +the church of Jarvis.” + +At these words Seraphita passed her hands across her brow, and when +she removed them Wilfrid was amazed at the saintly expression that +overspread her face. + +“You are right, my friend,” she said; “I do wrong whenever I set my feet +upon your earth.” + +“Oh, Seraphita, be my star! stay where you can ever bless me with that +clear light!” + +As he spoke, he stretched forth his hand to take that of the young girl, +but she withdrew it, neither disdainfully nor in anger. Wilfrid rose +abruptly and walked to the window that she might not see the tears that +rose to his eyes. + +“Why do you weep?” she said. “You are not a child, Wilfrid. Come back to +me. I wish it. You are annoyed if I show just displeasure. You see that +I am fatigued and ill, yet you force me to think and speak, and listen +to persuasions and ideas that weary me. If you had any real perception +of my nature, you would have made some music, you would have lulled my +feelings--but no, you love me for yourself and not for myself.” + +The storm which convulsed the young man’s heart calmed down at these +words. He slowly approached her, letting his eyes take in the seductive +creature who lay exhausted before him, her head resting in her hand and +her elbow on the couch. + +“You think that I do not love you,” she resumed. “You are mistaken. +Listen to me, Wilfrid. You are beginning to know much; you have suffered +much. Let me explain your thoughts to you. You wished to take my hand +just now”; she rose to a sitting posture, and her graceful motions +seemed to emit light. “When a young girl allows her hand to be taken it +is as though she made a promise, is it not? and ought she not to fulfil +it? You well know that I cannot be yours. Two sentiments divide and +inspire the love of all the women of the earth. Either they devote +themselves to suffering, degraded, and criminal beings whom they desire +to console, uplift, redeem; or they give themselves to superior men, +sublime and strong, whom they adore and seek to comprehend, and by whom +they are often annihilated. You have been degraded, though now you are +purified by the fires of repentance, and to-day you are once more noble; +but I know myself too feeble to be your equal, and too religious to bow +before any power but that On High. I may refer thus to your life, my +friend, for we are in the North, among the clouds, where all things are +abstractions.” + +“You stab me, Seraphita, when you speak like this. It wounds me to hear +you apply the dreadful knowledge with which you strip from all things +human the properties that time and space and form have given them, +and consider them mathematically in the abstract, as geometry treats +substances from which it extracts solidity.” + +“Well, I will respect your wishes, Wilfrid. Let the subject drop. Tell +me what you think of this bearskin rug which my poor David has spread +out.” + +“It is very handsome.” + +“Did you ever see me wear this ‘doucha greka’?” + +She pointed to a pelisse made of cashmere and lined with the skin of the +black fox,--the name she gave it signifying “warm to the soul.” + +“Do you believe that any sovereign has a fur that can equal it?” she +asked. + +“It is worthy of her who wears it.” + +“And whom you think beautiful?” + +“Human words do not apply to her. Heart to heart is the only language I +can use.” + +“Wilfrid, you are kind to soothe my griefs with such sweet words--which +you have said to others.” + +“Farewell!” + +“Stay. I love both you and Minna, believe me. To me you two are as one +being. United thus you can be my brother or, if you will, my sister. +Marry her; let me see you both happy before I leave this world of trial +and of pain. My God! the simplest of women obtain what they ask of a +lover; they whisper ‘Hush!’ and he is silent; ‘Die’ and he dies; ‘Love +me afar’ and he stays at a distance, like courtiers before a king! All +I desire is to see you happy, and you refuse me! Am I then +powerless?--Wilfrid, listen, come nearer to me. Yes, I should grieve to +see you marry Minna but--when I am here no longer, then--promise me to +marry her; heaven destined you for each other.” + +“I listen to you with fascination, Seraphita. Your words are +incomprehensible, but they charm me. What is it you mean to say?” + +“You are right; I forget to be foolish,--to be the poor creature whose +weaknesses gratify you. I torment you, Wilfrid. You came to these +Northern lands for rest, you, worn-out by the impetuous struggle of +genius unrecognized, you, weary with the patient toils of science, you, +who well-nigh dyed your hands in crime and wore the fetters of human +justice--” + +Wilfrid dropped speechless on the carpet. Seraphita breathed softly on +his forehead, and in a moment he fell asleep at her feet. + +“Sleep! rest!” she said, rising. + +She passed her hands over Wilfrid’s brow; then the following sentences +escaped her lips, one by one,--all different in tone and accent, but all +melodious, full of a Goodness that seemed to emanate from her head in +vaporous waves, like the gleams the goddess chastely lays upon Endymion +sleeping. + +“I cannot show myself such as I am to thee, dear Wilfrid,--to thee who +art strong. + +“The hour is come; the hour when the effulgent lights of the future cast +their reflections backward on the soul; the hour when the soul awakes +into freedom. + +“Now am I permitted to tell thee how I love thee. Dost thou not see the +nature of my love, a love without self-interest; a sentiment full of +thee, thee only; a love which follows thee into the future to light that +future for thee--for it is the one True Light. Canst thou now conceive +with what ardor I would have thee leave this life which weighs thee +down, and behold thee nearer than thou art to that world where Love is +never-failing? Can it be aught but suffering to love for one life only? +Hast thou not felt a thirst for the eternal love? Dost thou not feel the +bliss to which a creature rises when, with twin-soul, it loves the Being +who betrays not love, Him before whom we kneel in adoration? + +“Would I had wings to cover thee, Wilfrid; power to give thee strength +to enter now into that world where all the purest joys of purest earthly +attachments are but shadows in the Light that shines, unceasing, to +illumine and rejoice all hearts. + +“Forgive a friendly soul for showing thee the picture of thy sins, in +the charitable hope of soothing the sharp pangs of thy remorse. Listen +to the pardoning choir; refresh thy soul in the dawn now rising for thee +beyond the night of death. Yes, thy life, thy true life is there! + +“May my words now reach thee clothed in the glorious forms of dreams; +may they deck themselves with images glowing and radiant as they hover +round you. Rise, rise, to the height where men can see themselves +distinctly, pressed together though they be like grains of sand upon +a sea-shore. Humanity rolls out like a many-colored ribbon. See the +diverse shades of that flower of the celestial gardens. Behold the +beings who lack intelligence, those who begin to receive it, those who +have passed through trials, those who love, those who follow wisdom and +aspire to the regions of Light! + +“Canst thou comprehend, through this thought made visible, the destiny +of humanity?--whence it came, whither to goeth? Continue steadfast in +the Path. Reaching the end of thy journey thou shalt hear the clarions +of omnipotence sounding the cries of victory in chords of which a single +one would shake the earth, but which are lost in the spaces of a world +that hath neither east nor west. + +“Canst thou comprehend, my poor beloved Tried-one, that unless the +torpor and the veils of sleep had wrapped thee, such sights would rend +and bear away thy mind as the whirlwinds rend and carry into space the +feeble sails, depriving thee forever of thy reason? Dost thou understand +that the Soul itself, raised to its utmost power can scarcely endure in +dreams the burning communications of the Spirit? + +“Speed thy way through the luminous spheres; behold, admire, hasten! +Flying thus thou canst pause or advance without weariness. Like other +men, thou wouldst fain be plunged forever in these spheres of light and +perfume where now thou art, free of thy swooning body, and where thy +thought alone has utterance. Fly! enjoy for a fleeting moment the wings +thou shalt surely win when Love has grown so perfect in thee that thou +hast no senses left; when thy whole being is all mind, all love. The +higher thy flight the less canst thou see the abysses. There are none in +heaven. Look at the friend who speaks to thee; she who holds thee above +this earth in which are all abysses. Look, behold, contemplate me yet a +moment longer, for never again wilt thou see me, save imperfectly as the +pale twilight of this world may show me to thee.” + +Seraphita stood erect, her head with floating hair inclining gently +forward, in that aerial attitude which great painters give to messengers +from heaven; the folds of her raiment fell with the same unspeakable +grace which holds an artist--the man who translates all things into +sentiment--before the exquisite well-known lines of Polyhymnia’s veil. +Then she stretched forth her hand. Wilfrid rose. When he looked at +Seraphita she was lying on the bear’s-skin, her head resting on her +hand, her face calm, her eyes brilliant. Wilfrid gazed at her silently; +but his face betrayed a deferential fear in its almost timid expression. + +“Yes, dear,” he said at last, as though he were answering some question; +“we are separated by worlds. I resign myself; I can only adore you. But +what will become of me, poor and alone!” + +“Wilfrid, you have Minna.” + +He shook his head. + +“Do not be so disdainful; woman understands all things through love; +what she does not understand she feels; what she does not feel she sees; +when she neither sees, nor feels, nor understands, this angel of earth +divines to protect you, and hides her protection beneath the grace of +love.” + +“Seraphita, am I worthy to belong to a woman?” + +“Ah, now,” she said, smiling, “you are suddenly very modest; is it a +snare? A woman is always so touched to see her weakness glorified. Well, +come and take tea with me the day after to-morrow evening; good Monsieur +Becker will be here, and Minna, the purest and most artless creature +I have known on earth. Leave me now, my friend; I need to make long +prayers and expiate my sins.” + +“You, can you commit sin?” + +“Poor friend! if we abuse our power, is not that the sin of pride? I +have been very proud to-day. Now leave me, till to-morrow.” + +“Till to-morrow,” said Wilfrid faintly, casting a long glance at the +being of whom he desired to carry with him an ineffaceable memory. + +Though he wished to go far away, he was held, as it were, outside the +house for some moments, watching the light which shone from all the +windows of the Swedish dwelling. + +“What is the matter with me?” he asked himself. “No, she is not a mere +creature, but a whole creation. Of her world, even through veils and +clouds, I have caught echoes like the memory of sufferings healed, +like the dazzling vertigo of dreams in which we hear the plaints of +generations mingling with the harmonies of some higher sphere where all +is Light and all is Love. Am I awake? Do I still sleep? Are these the +eyes before which the luminous space retreated further and further +indefinitely while the eyes followed it? The night is cold, yet my head +is on fire. I will go to the parsonage. With the pastor and his daughter +I shall recover the balance of my mind.” + +But still he did not leave the spot whence his eyes could plunge into +Seraphita’s salon. The mysterious creature seemed to him the radiating +centre of a luminous circle which formed an atmosphere about her wider +than that of other beings; whoever entered it felt the compelling +influence of, as it were, a vortex of dazzling light and all consuming +thoughts. Forced to struggle against this inexplicable power, Wilfrid +only prevailed after strong efforts; but when he reached and passed the +inclosing wall of the courtyard, he regained his freedom of will, walked +rapidly towards the parsonage, and was soon beneath the high wooden +arch which formed a sort of peristyle to Monsieur Becker’s dwelling. He +opened the first door, against which the wind had driven the snow, and +knocked on the inner one, saying:-- + +“Will you let me spend the evening with you, Monsieur Becker?” + +“Yes,” cried two voices, mingling their intonations. + +Entering the parlor, Wilfrid returned by degrees to real life. He bowed +affectionately to Minna, shook hands with Monsieur Becker, and looked +about at the picture of a home which calmed the convulsions of his +physical nature, in which a phenomenon was taking place analogous to +that which sometimes seizes upon men who have given themselves up +to protracted contemplations. If some strong thought bears upward on +phantasmal wing a man of learning or a poet, isolates him from the +external circumstances which environ him here below, and leads him +forward through illimitable regions where vast arrays of facts become +abstractions, where the greatest works of Nature are but images, then +woe betide him if a sudden noise strikes sharply on his senses and calls +his errant soul back to its prison-house of flesh and bones. The +shock of the reunion of these two powers, body and mind,--one of which +partakes of the unseen qualities of a thunderbolt, while the other +shares with sentient nature that soft resistant force which deifies +destruction,--this shock, this struggle, or, rather let us say, this +painful meeting and co-mingling, gives rise to frightful sufferings. The +body receives back the flame that consumes it; the flame has once more +grasped its prey. This fusion, however, does not take place without +convulsions, explosions, tortures; analogous and visible signs of which +may be seen in chemistry, when two antagonistic substances which science +has united separate. + +For the last few days whenever Wilfrid entered Seraphita’s presence his +body seemed to fall away from him into nothingness. With a single +glance this strange being led him in spirit through the spheres where +meditation leads the learned man, prayer the pious heart, where vision +transports the artist, and sleep the souls of men,--each and all have +their own path to the Height, their own guide to reach it, their own +individual sufferings in the dire return. In that sphere alone all veils +are rent away, and the revelation, the awful flaming certainty of an +unknown world, of which the soul brings back mere fragments to this +lower sphere, stands revealed. To Wilfrid one hour passed with Seraphita +was like the sought-for dreams of Theriakis, in which each knot of +nerves becomes the centre of a radiating delight. But he left her +bruised and wearied as some young girl endeavoring to keep step with a +giant. + +The cold air, with its stinging flagellations, had begun to still +the nervous tremors which followed the reunion of his two natures, so +powerfully disunited for a time; he was drawn towards the parsonage, +then towards Minna, by the sight of the every-day home life for which +he thirsted as the wandering European thirsts for his native land when +nostalgia seizes him amid the fairy scenes of Orient that have seduced +his senses. More weary than he had ever yet been, Wilfrid dropped into +a chair and looked about him for a time, like a man who awakens from +sleep. Monsieur Becker and his daughter accustomed, perhaps, to the +apparent eccentricity of their guest, continued the employments in which +they were engaged. + +The parlor was ornamented with a collection of the shells and insects +of Norway. These curiosities, admirably arranged on a background of the +yellow pine which panelled the room, formed, as it were, a rich tapestry +to which the fumes of tobacco had imparted a mellow tone. At the further +end of the room, opposite to the door, was an immense wrought-iron +stove, carefully polished by the serving-woman till it shone like +burnished steel. Seated in a large tapestried armchair near the stove, +before a table, with his feet in a species of muff, Monsieur Becker was +reading a folio volume which was propped against a pile of other books +as on a desk. At his left stood a jug of beer and a glass, at his right +burned a smoky lamp fed by some species of fish-oil. The pastor seemed +about sixty years of age. His face belonged to a type often painted by +Rembrandt; the same small bright eyes, set in wrinkles and surmounted by +thick gray eyebrows; the same white hair escaping in snowy flakes from a +black velvet cap; the same broad, bald brow, and a contour of face +which the ample chin made almost square; and lastly, the same calm +tranquillity, which, to an observer, denoted the possession of some +inward power, be it the supremacy bestowed by money, or the magisterial +influence of the burgomaster, or the consciousness of art, or the +cubic force of blissful ignorance. This fine old man, whose stout body +proclaimed his vigorous health, was wrapped in a dressing-gown of rough +gray cloth plainly bound. Between his lips was a meerschaum pipe, +from which, at regular intervals, he blew the smoke, following with +abstracted vision its fantastic wreathings,--his mind employed, no +doubt, in assimilating through some meditative process the thoughts of +the author whose works he was studying. + +On the other side of the stove and near a door which communicated with +the kitchen Minna was indistinctly visible in the haze of the good man’s +smoke, to which she was apparently accustomed. Beside her on a little +table were the implements of household work, a pile of napkins, and +another of socks waiting to be mended, also a lamp like that which shone +on the white page of the book in which the pastor was absorbed. Her +fresh young face, with its delicate outline, expressed an infinite +purity which harmonized with the candor of the white brow and the clear +blue eyes. She sat erect, turning slightly toward the lamp for better +light, unconsciously showing as she did so the beauty of her waist and +bust. She was already dressed for the night in a long robe of white +cotton; a cambric cap, without other ornament than a frill of the same, +confined her hair. Though evidently plunged in some inward meditation, +she counted without a mistake the threads of her napkins or the meshes +of her socks. Sitting thus, she presented the most complete image, the +truest type, of the woman destined for terrestrial labor, whose glance +may piece the clouds of the sanctuary while her thought, humble and +charitable, keeps her ever on the level of man. + +Wilfrid had flung himself into a chair between the two tables and +was contemplating with a species of intoxication this picture full of +harmony, to which the clouds of smoke did no despite. The single window +which lighted the parlor during the fine weather was now carefully +closed. An old tapestry, used for a curtain and fastened to a stick, +hung before it in heavy folds. Nothing in the room was picturesque, +nothing brilliant; everything denoted rigorous simplicity, true +heartiness, the ease of unconventional nature, and the habits of a +domestic life which knew neither cares nor troubles. Many a dwelling is +like a dream, the sparkle of passing pleasure seems to hide some ruin +beneath the cold smile of luxury; but this parlor, sublime in reality, +harmonious in tone, diffused the patriarchal ideas of a full and +self-contained existence. The silence was unbroken save by the movements +of the servant in the kitchen engaged in preparing the supper, and +by the sizzling of the dried fish which she was frying in salt butter +according to the custom of the country. + +“Will you smoke a pipe?” said the pastor, seizing a moment when he +thought that Wilfrid might listen to him. + +“Thank you, no, dear Monsieur Becker,” replied the visitor. + +“You seem to suffer more to-day than usual,” said Minna, struck by the +feeble tones of the stranger’s voice. + +“I am always so when I leave the chateau.” + +Minna quivered. + +“A strange being lives there, Monsieur Becker,” he continued after a +pause. “For the six months that I have been in this village I have never +yet dared to question you about her, and even now I do violence to +my feelings in speaking of her. I began by keenly regretting that my +journey in this country was arrested by the winter weather and that I +was forced to remain here. But during the last two months chains have +been forged and riveted which bind me irrevocably to Jarvis, till now +I fear to end my days here. You know how I first met Seraphita, what +impression her look and voice made upon me, and how at last I was +admitted to her home where she receives no one. From the very first day +I have longed to ask you the history of this mysterious being. On that +day began, for me, a series of enchantments.” + +“Enchantments!” cried the pastor shaking the ashes of his pipe into an +earthen-ware dish full of sand, “are there enchantments in these days?” + +“You, who are carefully studying at this moment that volume of the +‘Incantations’ of Jean Wier, will surely understand the explanation of +my sensations if I try to give it to you,” replied Wilfrid. “If we study +Nature attentively in its great evolutions as in its minutest works, we +cannot fail to recognize the possibility of enchantment--giving to that +word its exact significance. Man does not create forces; he employs the +only force that exists and which includes all others namely Motion, the +breath incomprehensible of the sovereign Maker of the universe. Species +are too distinctly separated for the human hand to mingle them. The only +miracle of which man is capable is done through the conjunction of +two antagonistic substances. Gunpowder for instance is germane to a +thunderbolt. As to calling forth a creation, and a sudden one, all +creation demands time, and time neither recedes nor advances at the word +of command. So, in the world without us, plastic nature obeys laws the +order and exercise of which cannot be interfered with by the hand of +man. But after fulfilling, as it were, the function of Matter, it would +be unreasonable not to recognize within us the existence of a gigantic +power, the effects of which are so incommensurable that the known +generations of men have never yet been able to classify them. I do not +speak of man’s faculty of abstraction, of constraining Nature to +confine itself within the Word,--a gigantic act on which the common +mind reflects as little as it does on the nature of Motion, but which, +nevertheless, has led the Indian theosophists to explain creation by +a word to which they give an inverse power. The smallest atom of their +subsistence, namely, the grain of rice, from which a creation issues and +in which alternately creation again is held, presented to their minds so +perfect an image of the creative word, and of the abstractive word, that +to them it was easy to apply the same system to the creation of worlds. +The majority of men content themselves with the grain of rice sown in +the first chapter of all the Geneses. Saint John, when he said the +Word was God only complicated the difficulty. But the fructification, +germination, and efflorescence of our ideas is of little consequence if +we compare that property, shared by many men, with the wholly +individual faculty of communicating to that property, by some mysterious +concentration, forces that are more or less active, of carrying it up +to a third, a ninth, or a twenty-seventh power, of making it thus fasten +upon the masses and obtain magical results by condensing the processes +of nature. + +“What I mean by enchantments,” continued Wilfrid after a moment’s pause, +“are those stupendous actions taking place between two membranes in the +tissue of the brain. We find in the unexplorable nature of the Spiritual +World certain beings armed with these wondrous faculties, comparable +only to the terrible power of certain gases in the physical world, +beings who combine with other beings, penetrate them as active agents, +and produce upon them witchcrafts, charms, against which these helpless +slaves are wholly defenceless; they are, in fact, enchanted, brought +under subjection, reduced to a condition of dreadful vassalage. Such +mysterious beings overpower others with the sceptre and the glory of +a superior nature,--acting upon them at times like the torpedo which +electrifies or paralyzes the fisherman, at other times like a dose of +phosphorous which stimulates life and accelerates its propulsion; or +again, like opium, which puts to sleep corporeal nature, disengages the +spirit from every bond, enables it to float above the world and shows +this earth to the spiritual eye as through a prism, extracting from it +the food most needed; or, yet again, like catalepsy, which deadens +all faculties for the sake of one only vision. Miracles, enchantments, +incantations, witchcrafts, spells, and charms, in short, all those +acts improperly termed supernatural, are only possible and can only be +explained by the despotism with which some spirit compels us to feel the +effects of a mysterious optic which increases, or diminishes, or exalts +creation, moves within us as it pleases, deforms or embellishes all +things to our eyes, tears us from heaven, or drags us to hell,--two +terms by which men agree to express the two extremes of joy and misery. + +“These phenomena are within us, not without us,” Wilfrid went on. “The +being whom we call Seraphita seems to me one of those rare and terrible +spirits to whom power is given to bind men, to crush nature, to enter +into participation of the occult power of God. The course of her +enchantments over me began on that first day, when silence as to her +was imposed upon me against my will. Each time that I have wished to +question you it seemed as though I were about to reveal a secret of +which I ought to be the incorruptible guardian. Whenever I have tried +to speak, a burning seal has been laid upon my lips, and I myself have +become the involuntary minister of these mysteries. You see me here +to-night, for the hundredth time, bruised, defeated, broken, after +leaving the hallucinating sphere which surrounds that young girl, so +gentle, so fragile to both of you, but to me the cruellest of magicians! +Yes, to me she is like a sorcerer holding in her right hand the +invisible wand that moves the globe, and in her left the thunderbolt +that rends asunder all things at her will. No longer can I look upon her +brow; the light of it is insupportable. I skirt the borders of the abyss +of madness too closely to be longer silent. I must speak. I seize this +moment, when courage comes to me, to resist the power which drags me +onward without inquiring whether or not I have the force to follow. Who +is she? Did you know her young? What of her birth? Had she father and +mother, or was she born of the conjunction of ice and sun? She burns and +yet she freeze; she shows herself and then withdraws; she attracts me +and repulses me; she brings me life, she gives me death; I love her and +yet I hate her! I cannot live thus; let me be wholly in heaven or in +hell!” + +Holding his refilled pipe in one hand, and in the other the cover +which he forgot to replace, Monsieur Becker listened to Wilfrid with a +mysterious expression on his face, looking occasionally at his daughter, +who seemed to understand the man’s language as in harmony with the +strange being who inspired it. Wilfrid was splendid to behold at this +moment,--like Hamlet listening to the ghost of his father as it rises +for him alone in the midst of the living. + +“This is certainly the language of a man in love,” said the good pastor, +innocently. + +“In love!” cried Wilfrid, “yes, to common minds. But, dear Monsieur +Becker, no words can express the frenzy which draws me to the feet of +that unearthly being.” + +“Then you do love her?” said Minna, in a tone of reproach. + +“Mademoiselle, I feel such extraordinary agitation when I see her, and +such deep sadness when I see her no more, that in any other man what I +feel would be called love. But that sentiment draws those who feel it +ardently together, whereas between her and me a great gulf lies, whose +icy coldness penetrates my very being in her presence; though the +feeling dies away when I see her no longer. I leave her in despair; I +return to her with ardor,--like men of science who seek a secret from +Nature only to be baffled, or like the painter who would fain put life +upon his canvas and strives with all the resources of his art in the +vain attempt.” + +“Monsieur, all that you say is true,” replied the young girl, artlessly. + +“How can you know, Minna?” asked the old pastor. + +“Ah! my father, had you been with us this morning on the summit of the +Falberg, had you seen him praying, you would not ask me that question. +You would say, like Monsieur Wilfrid, that he saw his Seraphita for the +first time in our temple, ‘It is the Spirit of Prayer.’” + +These words were followed by a moment’s silence. + +“Ah, truly!” said Wilfrid, “she has nothing in common with the creatures +who grovel upon this earth.” + +“On the Falberg!” said the old pastor, “how could you get there?” + +“I do not know,” replied Minna; “the way is like a dream to me, of which +no more than a memory remains. Perhaps I should hardly believe that I +had been there were it not for this tangible proof.” + +She drew the flower from her bosom and showed it to them. All three +gazed at the pretty saxifrage, which was still fresh, and now shone in +the light of the two lamps like a third luminary. + +“This is indeed supernatural,” said the old man, astounded at the sight +of a flower blooming in winter. + +“A mystery!” cried Wilfrid, intoxicated with its perfume. + +“The flower makes me giddy,” said Minna; “I fancy I still hear that +voice,--the music of thought; that I still see the light of that look, +which is Love.” + +“I implore you, my dear Monsieur Becker, tell me the history of +Seraphita,--enigmatical human flower,--whose image is before us in this +mysterious bloom.” + +“My dear friend,” said the old man, emitting a puff of smoke, “to +explain the birth of that being it is absolutely necessary that +I disperse the clouds which envelop the most obscure of Christian +doctrines. It is not easy to make myself clear when speaking of that +incomprehensible revelation,--the last effulgence of faith that has +shone upon our lump of mud. Do you know Swedenborg?” + +“By name only,--of him, of his books, and his religion I know nothing.” + +“Then I must relate to you the whole chronicle of Swedenborg.” + + + + +CHAPTER III. SERAPHITA-SERAPHITUS + + +After a pause, during which the pastor seemed to be gathering his +recollections, he continued in the following words:-- + +“Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Upsala in Sweden, in the month of +January, 1688, according to various authors,--in 1689, according to his +epitaph. His father was Bishop of Skara. Swedenborg lived eighty-five +years; his death occurred in London, March 29, 1772. I use that term to +convey the idea of a simple change of state. According to his disciples, +Swedenborg was seen at Jarvis and in Paris after that date. Allow me, +my dear Monsieur Wilfrid,” said Monsieur Becker, making a gesture to +prevent all interruption, “I relate these facts without either affirming +or denying them. Listen; afterwards you can think and say what you like. +I will inform you when I judge, criticise, and discuss these doctrines, +so as to keep clearly in view my own intellectual neutrality between HIM +and Reason. + +“The life of Swedenborg was divided into two parts,” continued the +pastor. “From 1688 to 1745 Baron Emanuel Swedenborg appeared in the +world as a man of vast learning, esteemed and cherished for his virtues, +always irreproachable and constantly useful. While fulfilling high +public functions in Sweden, he published, between 1709 and 1740, several +important works on mineralogy, physics, mathematics, and astronomy, +which enlightened the world of learning. He originated a method of +building docks suitable for the reception of large vessels, and he +wrote many treatises on various important questions, such as the rise +of tides, the theory of the magnet and its qualities, the motion and +position of the earth and planets, and while Assessor in the Royal +College of Mines, on the proper system of working salt mines. He +discovered means to construct canal-locks or sluices; and he also +discovered and applied the simplest methods of extracting ore and of +working metals. In fact he studied no science without advancing it. In +youth he learned Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, also the oriental languages, +with which he became so familiar that many distinguished scholars +consulted him, and he was able to decipher the vestiges of the oldest +known books of Scripture, namely: ‘The Wars of Jehovah’ and ‘The +Enunciations,’ spoken of by Moses (Numbers xxi. 14, 15, 27-30), also +by Joshua, Jeremiah, and Samuel,--‘The Wars of Jehovah’ being the +historical part and ‘The Enunciations’ the prophetical part of the +Mosaical Books anterior to Genesis. Swedenborg even affirms that ‘the +Book of Jasher,’ the Book of the Righteous, mentioned by Joshua, was +in existence in Eastern Tartary, together with the doctrine of +Correspondences. A Frenchman has lately, so they tell me, justified +these statements of Swedenborg, by the discovery at Bagdad of several +portions of the Bible hitherto unknown to Europe. During the widespread +discussion on animal magnetism which took its rise in Paris, and in +which most men of Western science took an active part about the year +1785, Monsieur le Marquis de Thome vindicated the memory of Swedenborg +by calling attention to certain assertions made by the Commission +appointed by the King of France to investigate the subject. These +gentlemen declared that no theory of magnetism existed, whereas +Swedenborg had studied and promulgated it ever since the year 1720. +Monsieur de Thome seizes this opportunity to show the reason why so many +men of science relegated Swedenborg to oblivion while they delved into +his treasure-house and took his facts to aid their work. ‘Some of the +most illustrious of these men,’ said Monsieur de Thome, alluding to +the ‘Theory of the Earth’ by Buffon, ‘have had the meanness to wear the +plumage of the noble bird and refuse him all acknowledgment’; and he +proved, by masterly quotations drawn from the encyclopaedic works of +Swedenborg, that the great prophet had anticipated by over a century the +slow march of human science. It suffices to read his philosophical and +mineralogical works to be convinced of this. In one passage he is +seen as the precursor of modern chemistry by the announcement that the +productions of organized nature are decomposable and resolve into two +simple principles; also that water, air, and fire are _not elements_. In +another, he goes in a few words to the heart of magnetic mysteries and +deprives Mesmer of the honors of a first knowledge of them. + +“There,” said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a long shelf against the +wall between the stove and the window on which were ranged books of all +sizes, “behold him! here are seventeen works from his pen, of which one, +his ‘Philosophical and Mineralogical Works,’ published in 1734, is in +three folio volumes. These productions, which prove the incontestable +knowledge of Swedenborg, were given to me by Monsieur Seraphitus, his +cousin and the father of Seraphita. + +“In 1740,” continued Monsieur Becker, after a slight pause, “Swedenborg +fell into a state of absolute silence, from which he emerged to bid +farewell to all his earthly occupations; after which his thoughts turned +exclusively to the Spiritual Life. He received the first commands of +heaven in 1745, and he thus relates the nature of the vocation to +which he was called: One evening, in London, after dining with a great +appetite, a thick white mist seemed to fill his room. When the +vapor dispersed a creature in human form rose from one corner of the +apartment, and said in a stern tone, ‘Do not eat so much.’ He refrained. +The next night the same man returned, radiant in light, and said to him, +‘I am sent of God, who has chosen you to explain to men the meaning of +his Word and his Creation. I will tell you what to write.’ The vision +lasted but a few moments. The _angel_ was clothed in purple. During that +night the eyes of his _inner man_ were opened, and he was forced to +look into the heavens, into the world of spirits, and into hell,--three +separate spheres; where he encountered persons of his acquaintance who +had departed from their human form, some long since, others lately. +Thenceforth Swedenborg lived wholly in the spiritual life, remaining in +this world only as the messenger of God. His mission was ridiculed by +the incredulous, but his conduct was plainly that of a being superior +to humanity. In the first place, though limited in means to the bare +necessaries of life, he gave away enormous sums, and publicly, in +several cities, restored the fortunes of great commercial houses +when they were on the brink of failure. No one ever appealed to his +generosity who was not immediately satisfied. A sceptical Englishman, +determined to know the truth, followed him to Paris, and relates that +there his doors stood always open. One day a servant complained of this +apparent negligence, which laid him open to suspicion of thefts +that might be committed by others. ‘He need feel no anxiety,’ said +Swedenborg, smiling. ‘But I do not wonder at his fear; he cannot see the +guardian who protects my door.’ In fact, no matter in what country he +made his abode he never closed his doors, and nothing was ever +stolen from him. At Gottenburg--a town situated some sixty miles from +Stockholm--he announced, eight days before the news arrived by courier, +the conflagration which ravaged Stockholm, and the exact time at which +it took place. The Queen of Sweden wrote to her brother, the King, at +Berlin, that one of her ladies-in-waiting, who was ordered by the courts +to pay a sum of money which she was certain her husband had paid before +his death, went to Swedenborg and begged him to ask her husband where +she could find proof of the payment. The following day Swedenborg, +having done as the lady requested, pointed out the place where the +receipt would be found. He also begged the deceased to appear to +his wife, and the latter saw her husband in a dream, wrapped in a +dressing-gown which he wore just before his death; and he showed her the +paper in the place indicated by Swedenborg, where it had been securely +put away. At another time, embarking from London in a vessel commanded +by Captain Dixon, he overheard a lady asking if there were plenty of +provisions on board. ‘We do not want a great quantity,’ he said; ‘in +eight days and two hours we shall reach Stockholm,’--which actually +happened. This peculiar state of vision as to the things of the +earth--into which Swedenborg could put himself at will, and +which astonished those about him--was, nevertheless, but a feeble +representative of his faculty of looking into heaven. + +“Not the least remarkable of his published visions is that in which he +relates his journeys through the Astral Regions; his descriptions +cannot fail to astonish the reader, partly through the crudity of their +details. A man whose scientific eminence is incontestable, and who +united in his own person powers of conception, will, and imagination, +would surely have invented better if he had invented at all. The +fantastic literature of the East offers nothing that can give an idea +of this astounding work, full of the essence of poetry, if it is +permissible to compare a work of faith with one of oriental fancy. The +transportation of Swedenborg by the Angel who served as guide to this +first journey is told with a sublimity which exceeds, by the distance +which God has placed betwixt the earth and the sun, the great epics of +Klopstock, Milton, Tasso, and Dante. This description, which serves in +fact as an introduction to his work on the Astral Regions, has never +been published; it is among the oral traditions left by Swedenborg to +the three disciples who were nearest to his heart. Monsieur Silverichm +has written them down. Monsieur Seraphitus endeavored more than once to +talk to me about them; but the recollection of his cousin’s words was so +burning a memory that he always stopped short at the first sentence and +became lost in a revery from which I could not rouse him.” + +The old pastor sighed as he continued: “The baron told me that the +argument by which the Angel proved to Swedenborg that these bodies are +not made to wander through space puts all human science out of sight +beneath the grandeur of a divine logic. According to the Seer, the +inhabitants of Jupiter will not cultivate the sciences, which they call +darkness; those of Mercury abhor the expression of ideas by speech, +which seems to them too material,--their language is ocular; those of +Saturn are continually tempted by evil spirits; those of the Moon are as +small as six-year-old children, their voices issue from the abdomen, on +which they crawl; those of Venus are gigantic in height, but stupid, and +live by robbery,--although a part of this latter planet is inhabited by +beings of great sweetness, who live in the love of Good. In short, he +describes the customs and morals of all the peoples attached to the +different globes, and explains the general meaning of their existence as +related to the universe in terms so precise, giving explanations which +agree so well with their visible evolutions in the system of the world, +that some day, perhaps, scientific men will come to drink of these +living waters. + +“Here,” said Monsieur Becker, taking down a book and opening it at a +mark, “here are the words with which he ended this work:-- + +“‘If any man doubts that I was transported through a vast number of +Astral Regions, let him recall my observation of the distances in that +other life, namely, that they exist only in relation to the external +state of man; now, being transformed within like unto the Angelic +Spirits of those Astral Spheres, I was able to understand them.’ + +“The circumstances to which we of this canton owe the presence among +us of Baron Seraphitus, the beloved cousin of Swedenborg, enabled me to +know all the events of the extraordinary life of that prophet. He has +lately been accused of imposture in certain quarters of Europe, and the +public prints reported the following fact based on a letter written +by the Chevalier Baylon. Swedenborg, they said, informed by certain +senators of a secret correspondence of the late Queen of Sweden with her +brother, the Prince of Prussia, revealed his knowledge of the secrets +contained in that correspondence to the Queen, making her believe he +had obtained this knowledge by supernatural means. A man worthy of all +confidence, Monsieur Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer, captain in +the Royal guard and knight of the Sword, answered the calumny with a +convincing letter.” + +The pastor opened a drawer of his table and looked through a number of +papers until he found a gazette which he held out to Wilfrid, asking him +to read aloud the following letter:-- + +Stockholm, May 18, 1788. + + I have read with amazement a letter which purports to relate the + interview of the famous Swedenborg with Queen Louisa-Ulrika. The + circumstances therein stated are wholly false; and I hope the + writer will excuse me for showing him by the following faithful + narration, which can be proved by the testimony of many + distinguished persons then present and still living, how + completely he has been deceived. + + In 1758, shortly after the death of the Prince of Prussia + Swedenborg came to court, where he was in the habit of attending + regularly. He had scarcely entered the queen’s presence before she + said to him: “Well, Mr. Assessor, have you seen my brother?” + Swedenborg answered no, and the queen rejoined: “If you do see + him, greet him for me.” In saying this she meant no more than a + pleasant jest, and had no thought whatever of asking him for + information about her brother. Eight days later (not twenty-four + as stated, nor was the audience a private one), Swedenborg again + came to court, but so early that the queen had not left her + apartment called the White Room, where she was conversing with her + maids-of-honor and other ladies attached to the court. Swedenborg + did not wait until she came forth, but entered the said room and + whispered something in her ear. The queen, overcome with + amazement, was taken ill, and it was some time before she + recovered herself. When she did so she said to those about her: + “Only God and my brother knew the thing that he has just spoken + of.” She admitted that it related to her last correspondence with + the prince on a subject which was known to them alone. I cannot + explain how Swedenborg came to know the contents of that letter, + but I can affirm on my honor, that neither Count H---- (as the + writer of the article states) nor any other person intercepted, or + read, the queen’s letters. The senate allowed her to write to her + brother in perfect security, considering the correspondence as of + no interest to the State. It is evident that the author of the + said article is ignorant of the character of Count H----. This + honored gentleman, who has done many important services to his + country, unites the qualities of a noble heart to gifts of mind, + and his great age has not yet weakened these precious possessions. + During his whole administration he added the weight of scrupulous + integrity to his enlightened policy and openly declared himself + the enemy of all secret intrigues and underhand dealings, which he + regarded as unworthy means to attain an end. Neither did the + writer of that article understand the Assessor Swedenborg. The + only weakness of that essentially honest man was a belief in the + apparition of spirits; but I knew him for many years, and I can + affirm that he was as fully convinced that he met and talked with + spirits as I am that I am writing at this moment. As a citizen and + as a friend his integrity was absolute; he abhorred deception and + led the most exemplary of lives. The version which the Chevalier + Baylon gave of these facts is, therefore, entirely without + justification; the visit stated to have been made to Swedenborg in + the night-time by Count H---- and Count T---- is hereby + contradicted. In conclusion, the writer of the letter may rest + assured that I am not a follower of Swedenborg. The love of truth + alone impels me to give this faithful account of a fact which has + been so often stated with details that are entirely false. I + certify to the truth of what I have written by adding my + signature. + + Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer. + + +“The proofs which Swedenborg gave of his mission to the royal families +of Sweden and Prussia were no doubt the foundation of the belief in his +doctrines which is prevalent at the two courts,” said Monsieur Becker, +putting the gazette into the drawer. “However,” he continued, “I shall +not tell you all the facts of his visible and material life; indeed his +habits prevented them from being fully known. He lived a hidden life; +not seeking either riches or fame. He was even noted for a sort of +repugnance to making proselytes; he opened his mind to few persons, and +never showed his external powers of second-sight to any who were not +eminent in faith, wisdom, and love. He could recognize at a glance the +state of the soul of every person who approached him, and those whom he +desired to reach with his inward language he converted into Seers. After +the year 1745, his disciples never saw him do a single thing from any +human motive. One man alone, a Swedish priest, named Mathesius, set +afloat a story that he went mad in London in 1744. But a eulogium on +Swedenborg prepared with minute care as to all the known events of his +life, was pronounced after his death in 1772 on behalf of the Royal +Academy of Sciences in the Hall of the Nobles at Stockholm, by Monsieur +Sandels, counsellor of the Board of Mines. A declaration made before the +Lord Mayor of London gives the details of his last illness and death, +in which he received the ministrations of Monsieur Ferelius a Swedish +priest of the highest standing, and pastor of the Swedish Church in +London, Mathesius being his assistant. All persons present attested that +so far from denying the value of his writings Swedenborg firmly asserted +their truth. ‘In one hundred years,’ Monsieur Ferelius quotes him as +saying, ‘my doctrine will guide the _Church_.’ He predicted the day +and hour of his death. On that day, Sunday, March 29, 1772, hearing the +clock strike, he asked what time it was. ‘Five o’clock’ was the answer. +‘It is well,’ he answered; ‘thank you, God bless you.’ Ten minutes later +he tranquilly departed, breathing a gentle sigh. Simplicity, moderation, +and solitude were the features of his life. When he had finished writing +any of his books he sailed either for London or for Holland, where he +published them, and never spoke of them again. He published in this +way twenty-seven different treatises, all written, he said, from the +dictation of Angels. Be it true or false, few men have been strong +enough to endure the flames of oral illumination. + +“There they all are,” said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a second shelf +on which were some sixty volumes. “The treatises on which the Divine +Spirit casts its most vivid gleams are seven in number, namely: ‘Heaven +and Hell’; ‘Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine +Wisdom’; ‘Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence’; ‘The +Apocalypse Revealed’; ‘Conjugial Love and its Chaste Delights’; ‘The +True Christian Religion’; and ‘An Exposition of the Internal Sense.’ +Swedenborg’s explanation of the Apocalypse begins with these words,” + said Monsieur Becker, taking down and opening the volume nearest to him: +“‘Herein I have written nothing of mine own; I speak as I am bidden by +the Lord, who said, through the same angel, to John: “Thou shalt not +seal the sayings of this Prophecy.”’ (Revelation xxii. 10.) + +“My dear Monsieur Wilfrid,” said the old man, looking at his guest, “I +often tremble in every limb as I read, during the long winter evenings +the awe-inspiring works in which this man declares with perfect +artlessness the wonders that are revealed to him. ‘I have seen,’ he +says, ‘Heaven and the Angels. The spiritual man sees his spiritual +fellows far better than the terrestrial man sees the men of earth. In +describing the wonders of heaven and beneath the heavens I obey the +Lord’s command. Others have the right to believe me or not as they +choose. I cannot put them into the state in which God has put me; it +is not in my power to enable them to converse with Angels, nor to work +miracles within their understanding; they alone can be the instrument of +their rise to angelic intercourse. It is now twenty-eight years since +I have lived in the Spiritual world with angels, and on earth with men; +for it pleased God to open the eyes of my spirit as he did that of Paul, +and of Daniel and Elisha.’ + +“And yet,” continued the pastor, thoughtfully, “certain persons have +had visions of the spiritual world through the complete detachment which +somnambulism produces between their external form and their inner being. +‘In this state,’ says Swedenborg in his treatise on Angelic Wisdom +(No. 257) ‘Man may rise into the region of celestial light because, his +corporeal senses being abolished, the influence of heaven acts without +hindrance on his inner man.’ Many persons who do not doubt that +Swedenborg received celestial revelations think that his writings are +not all the result of divine inspiration. Others insist on absolute +adherence to him; while admitting his many obscurities, they believe +that the imperfection of earthly language prevented the prophet from +clearly revealing those spiritual visions whose clouds disperse to +the eyes of those whom faith regenerates; for, to use the words of his +greatest disciple, ‘Flesh is but an external propagation.’ To poets and +to writers his presentation of the marvellous is amazing; to Seers it +is simply reality. To some Christians his descriptions have seemed +scandalous. Certain critics have ridiculed the celestial substance +of his temples, his golden palaces, his splendid cities where angels +disport themselves; they laugh at his groves of miraculous trees, his +gardens where the flowers speak and the air is white, and the mystical +stones, the sard, carbuncle, chrysolite, chrysoprase, jacinth, +chalcedony, beryl, the Urim and Thummim, are endowed with motion, +express celestial truths, and reply by variations of light to questions +put to them [‘True Christian Religion,’ 219). Many noble souls will not +admit his spiritual worlds where colors are heard in delightful concert, +where language flames and flashes, where the Word is writ in pointed +spiral letters [‘True Christian Religion,’ 278). Even in the North some +writers have laughed at the gates of pearl, and the diamonds which +stud the floors and walls of his New Jerusalem, where the most ordinary +utensils are made of the rarest substances of the globe. ‘But,’ say his +disciples, ‘because such things are sparsely scattered on this earth +does it follow that they are not abundant in other worlds? On earth +they are terrestrial substances, whereas in heaven they assume celestial +forms and are in keeping with angels.’ In this connection Swedenborg +has used the very words of Jesus Christ, who said, ‘If I have told you +earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of +heavenly things?’ + +“Monsieur,” continued the pastor, with an emphatic gesture, “I have read +the whole of Swedenborg’s works; and I say it with pride, because I have +done it and yet retained my reason. In reading him men either miss his +meaning or become Seers like him. Though I have evaded both extremes, I +have often experienced unheard-of delights, deep emotions, inward joys, +which alone can reveal to us the plenitude of truth,--the evidence of +celestial Light. All things here below seem small indeed when the soul +is lost in the perusal of these Treatises. It is impossible not to be +amazed when we think that in the short space of thirty years this man +wrote and published, on the truths of the Spiritual World, twenty-five +quarto volumes, composed in Latin, of which the shortest has five +hundred pages, all of them printed in small type. He left, they say, +twenty others in London, bequeathed to his nephew, Monsieur Silverichm, +formerly almoner to the King of Sweden. Certainly a man who, between the +ages of twenty and sixty, had already exhausted himself in publishing +a series of encyclopaedical works, must have received supernatural +assistance in composing these later stupendous treatises, at an age, +too, when human vigor is on the wane. You will find in these writings +thousands of propositions, all numbered, none of which have been +refuted. Throughout we see method and precision; the presence of the +spirit issuing and flowing down from a single fact,--the existence of +angels. His ‘True Christian Religion,’ which sums up his whole doctrine +and is vigorous with light, was conceived and written at the age of +eighty-three. In fact, his amazing vigor and omniscience are not denied +by any of his critics, not even by his enemies. + +“Nevertheless,” said Monsieur Becker, slowly, “though I have drunk deep +in this torrent of divine light, God has not opened the eyes of my inner +being, and I judge these writings by the reason of an unregenerated man. +I have often felt that the _inspired_ Swedenborg must have misunderstood +the Angels. I have laughed over certain visions which, according to his +disciples, I ought to have believed with veneration. I have failed to +imagine the spiral writing of the Angels or their golden belts, on +which the gold is of great or lesser thickness. If, for example, this +statement, ‘Some angels are solitary,’ affected me powerfully for a +time, I was, on reflection, unable to reconcile this solitude with their +marriages. I have not understood why the Virgin Mary should continue to +wear blue satin garments in heaven. I have even dared to ask myself why +those gigantic demons, Enakim and Hephilim, came so frequently to fight +the cherubim on the apocalyptic plains of Armageddon; and I cannot +explain to my own mind how Satans can argue with Angels. Monsieur le +Baron Seraphitus assured me that those details concerned only the angels +who live on earth in human form. The visions of the prophet are +often blurred with grotesque figures. One of his spiritual tales, +or ‘Memorable relations,’ as he called them, begins thus: ‘I see the +spirits assembling, they have hats upon their heads.’ In another of +these Memorabilia he receives from heaven a bit of paper, on which he +saw, he says, the hieroglyphics of the primitive peoples, which were +composed of curved lines traced from the finger-rings that are worn in +heaven. However, perhaps I am wrong; possibly the material absurdities +with which his works are strewn have spiritual significations. +Otherwise, how shall we account for the growing influence of his +religion? His church numbers to-day more than seven hundred thousand +believers,--as many in the United States of America as in England, where +there are seven thousand Swedenborgians in the city of Manchester alone. +Many men of high rank in knowledge and in social position in Germany, in +Prussia, and in the Northern kingdoms have publicly adopted the beliefs +of Swedenborg; which, I may remark, are more comforting than those of +all other Christian communions. I wish I had the power to explain to you +clearly in succinct language the leading points of the doctrine on which +Swedenborg founded his church; but I fear such a summary, made from +recollection, would be necessarily defective. I shall, therefore, +allow myself to speak only of those ‘Arcana’ which concern the birth of +Seraphita.” + +Here Monsieur Becker paused, as though composing his mind to gather up +his ideas. Presently he continued, as follows:-- + +“After establishing mathematically that man lives eternally in spheres +of either a lower or a higher grade, Swedenborg applies the term +‘Spiritual Angels’ to beings who in this world are prepared for heaven, +where they become angels. According to him, God has not created angels; +none exist who have not been men upon the earth. The earth is the +nursery-ground of heaven. The Angels are therefore not Angels as +such [‘Angelic Wisdom,’ 57), they are transformed through their close +conjunction with God; which conjunction God never refuses, because the +essence of God is not negative, but essentially active. The spiritual +angels pass through three natures of love, because man is only +regenerated through successive stages [‘True Religion’). First, the +_love of self_: the supreme expression of this love is human genius, +whose works are worshipped. Next, _love of life_: this love produces +prophets,--great men whom the world accepts as guides and proclaims +to be divine. Lastly, _love of heaven_, and this creates the Spiritual +Angel. These angels are, so to speak, the flowers of humanity, which +culminates in them and works for that culmination. They must possess +either the love of heaven or the wisdom of heaven, but always Love +before Wisdom. + +“Thus the transformation of the natural man is into Love. To reach this +first degree, his previous existences must have passed through Hope and +Charity, which prepare him for Faith and Prayer. The ideas acquired +by the exercise of these virtues are transmitted to each of the human +envelopes within which are hidden the metamorphoses of the _inner +being_; for nothing is separate, each existence is necessary to the +other existences. Hope cannot advance without Charity, nor Faith +without Prayer; they are the four fronts of a solid square. ‘One virtue +missing,’ he said, ‘and the Spiritual Angel is like a broken pearl.’ +Each of these existences is therefore a circle in which revolves the +celestial riches of the inner being. The perfection of the Spiritual +Angels comes from this mysterious progression in which nothing is lost +of the high qualities that are successfully acquired to attain each +glorious incarnation; for at each transformation they cast away +unconsciously the flesh and its errors. When the man lives in Love he +has shed all evil passions: Hope, Charity, Faith, and Prayer have, in +the words of Isaiah, purged the dross of his inner being, which can +never more be polluted by earthly affections. Hence the grand saying +of Christ quoted by Saint Matthew, ‘Lay up for yourselves treasures +in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,’ and those still +grander words: ‘If ye were of this world the world would love you, but I +have chosen you out of the world; be ye therefore perfect as your Father +in heaven is perfect.’ + +“The second transformation of man is to Wisdom. Wisdom is the +understanding of celestial things to which the Spirit is brought by +Love. The Spirit of Love has acquired strength, the result of all +vanquished terrestrial passions; it loves God blindly. But the Spirit of +Wisdom has risen to understanding and knows why it loves. The wings of +the one are spread and bear the spirit to God; the wings of the other +are held down by the awe that comes of understanding: the spirit knows +God. The one longs incessantly to see God and to fly to Him; the other +attains to Him and trembles. The union effected between the Spirit of +Love and the Spirit of Wisdom carries the human being into a Divine +state during which time his soul is _woman_ and his body _man_, the last +human manifestation in which the Spirit conquers Form, or Form still +struggles against the Spirit,--for Form, that is, the flesh, is +ignorant, rebels, and desires to continue gross. This supreme trial +creates untold sufferings seen by Heaven alone,--the agony of Christ in +the Garden of Olives. + +“After death the first heaven opens to this dual and purified human +nature. Therefore it is that man dies in despair while the Spirit +dies in ecstasy. Thus, the _natural_, the state of beings not yet +regenerated; the _spiritual_, the state of those who have become Angelic +Spirits, and the _divine_, the state in which the Angel exists before +he breaks from his covering of flesh, are the three degrees of existence +through which man enters heaven. One of Swedenborg’s thoughts expressed +in his own words will explain to you with wonderful clearness the +difference between the _natural_ and the _spiritual_. ‘To the minds of +men,’ he says, ‘the Natural passes into the Spiritual; they regard the +world under its visible aspects, they perceive it only as it can be +realized by their senses. But to the apprehension of Angelic Spirits, +the Spiritual passes into the Natural; they regard the world in its +inward essence and not in its form.’ Thus human sciences are but +analyses of form. The man of science as the world goes is purely +external like his knowledge; his inner being is only used to preserve +his aptitude for the perception of external truths. The Angelic Spirit +goes far beyond that; his knowledge is the thought of which human +science is but the utterance; he derives that knowledge from the Logos, +and learns the law of _correspondences_ by which the world is placed +in unison with heaven. The _word of God_ was wholly written by pure +Correspondences, and covers an esoteric or spiritual meaning, which +according to the science of Correspondences, cannot be understood. +‘There exist,’ says Swedenborg [‘Celestial Doctrine’ 26), ‘innumerable +Arcana within the hidden meaning of the Correspondences. Thus the men +who scoff at the books of the Prophets where the Word is enshrined are +as densely ignorant as those other men who know nothing of a science and +yet ridicule its truths. To know the Correspondences which exist between +the things visible and ponderable in the terrestrial world and the +things invisible and imponderable in the spiritual world, is to hold +heaven within our comprehension. All the objects of the manifold +creations having emanated from God necessarily enfold a hidden meaning; +according, indeed, to the grand thought of Isaiah, ‘The earth is a +garment.’ + +“This mysterious link between Heaven and the smallest atoms of created +matter constitutes what Swedenborg calls a Celestial Arcanum, and +his treatise on the ‘Celestial Arcana’ in which he explains the +correspondences or significances of the Natural with, and to, the +Spiritual, giving, to use the words of Jacob Boehm, the sign and seal +of all things, occupies not less than sixteen volumes containing thirty +thousand propositions. ‘This marvellous knowledge of Correspondences +which the goodness of God granted to Swedenborg,’ says one of his +disciples, ‘is the secret of the interest which draws men to his works. +According to him, all things are derived from heaven, all things lead +back to heaven. His writings are sublime and clear; he speaks in heaven, +and earth hears him. Take one of his sentences by itself and a volume +could be made of it’; and the disciple quotes the following passages +taken from a thousand others that would answer the same purpose. + +“‘The kingdom of heaven,’ says Swedenborg [‘Celestial Arcana’), ‘is the +kingdom of motives. _Action_ is born in heaven, thence into the world, +and, by degrees, to the infinitely remote parts of earth. Terrestrial +effects being thus linked to celestial causes, all things are +_correspondent_ and _significant_. Man is the means of union between the +Natural and the Spiritual.’ + +“The Angelic Spirits therefore know the very nature of the +Correspondences which link to heaven all earthly things; they know, +too, the inner meaning of the prophetic words which foretell their +evolutions. Thus to these Spirits everything here below has its +significance; the tiniest flower is a thought,--a life which corresponds +to certain lineaments of the Great Whole, of which they have a constant +intuition. To them Adultery and the excesses spoken of in Scripture and +by the Prophets, often garbled by self-styled scholars, mean the state +of those souls which in this world persist in tainting themselves with +earthly affections, thus compelling their divorce from Heaven. Clouds +signify the veil of the Most High. Torches, shew-bread, horses and +horsemen, harlots, precious stones, in short, everything named in +Scripture, has to them a clear-cut meaning, and reveals the future of +terrestrial facts in their relation to Heaven. They penetrate the +truths contained in the Revelation of Saint John the divine, which human +science has subsequently demonstrated and proved materially; such, for +instance, as the following [‘big,’ said Swedenborg, ‘with many human +sciences’): ‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven +and the first earth were passed away’ (Revelation xxi. 1). These Spirits +know the supper at which the flesh of kings and the flesh of all men, +free and bond, is eaten, to which an Angel standing in the sun has +bidden them. They see the winged woman, clothed with the sun, and the +mailed man. ‘The horse of the Apocalypse,’ says Swedenborg, ‘is the +visible image of human intellect ridden by Death, for it bears within +itself the elements of its own destruction.’ Moreover, they can +distinguish beings concealed under forms which to ignorant eyes +would seem fantastic. When a man is disposed to receive the prophetic +afflation of Correspondences, it rouses within him a perception of the +Word; he comprehends that the creations are transformations only; his +intellect is sharpened, a burning thirst takes possession of him which +only Heaven can quench. He conceives, according to the greater or lesser +perfection of his inner being, the power of the Angelic Spirits; and he +advances, led by Desire (the least imperfect state of unregenerated man) +towards Hope, the gateway to the world of Spirits, whence he reaches +Prayer, which gives him the Key of Heaven. + +“What being here below would not desire to render himself worthy of +entrance into the sphere of those who live in secret by Love and Wisdom? +Here on earth, during their lifetime, such spirits remain pure; they +neither see, nor think, nor speak like other men. There are two ways by +which perception comes,--one internal, the other external. Man is wholly +external, the Angelic Spirit wholly internal. The Spirit goes to +the depth of Numbers, possesses a full sense of them, knows their +significances. It controls Motion, and by reason of its ubiquity it +shares in all things. ‘An Angel,’ says Swedenborg, ‘is ever present to +a man when desired’ [‘Angelic Wisdom’); for the Angel has the gift of +detaching himself from his body, and he sees into heaven as the +prophets and as Swedenborg himself saw into it. ‘In this state,’ writes +Swedenborg [‘True Religion,’ 136), ‘the spirit of a man may move from +one place to another, his body remaining where it is,--a condition in +which I lived for over twenty-six years.’ It is thus that we should +interpret all Biblical statements which begin, ‘The Spirit led me.’ +Angelic Wisdom is to human wisdom what the innumerable forces of nature +are to its action, which is one. All things live again, and move and +have their being in the Spirit, which is in God. Saint Paul expresses +this truth when he says, ‘In Deo sumus, movemur, et vivimus,’--we live, +we act, we are in God. + +“Earth offers no hindrance to the Angelic Spirit, just as the Word +offers him no obscurity. His approaching divinity enables him to see the +thought of God veiled in the Logos, just as, living by his inner being, +the Spirit is in communion with the hidden meaning of all things on this +earth. Science is the language of the Temporal world, Love is that of +the Spiritual world. Thus man takes note of more than he is able +to explain, while the Angelic Spirit sees and comprehends. Science +depresses man; Love exalts the Angel. Science is still seeking, Love +has found. Man judges Nature according to his own relations to her; the +Angelic Spirit judges it in its relation to Heaven. In short, all things +have a voice for the Spirit. Spirits are in the secret of the harmony of +all creations with each other; they comprehend the spirit of sound, the +spirit of color, the spirit of vegetable life; they can question the +mineral, and the mineral makes answer to their thoughts. What to them +are sciences and the treasures of the earth when they grasp all things +by the eye at all moments, when the worlds which absorb the minds of so +many men are to them but the last step from which they spring to God? +Love of heaven, or the Wisdom of heaven, is made manifest to them by a +circle of light which surrounds them, and is visible to the Elect. +Their innocence, of which that of children is a symbol, possesses, +nevertheless, a knowledge which children have not; they are both +innocent and learned. ‘And,’ says Swedenborg, ‘the innocence of Heaven +makes such an impression upon the soul that those whom it affects keep +a rapturous memory of it which lasts them all their lives, as I myself +have experienced. It is perhaps sufficient,’ he goes on, ‘to have only a +minimum perception of it to be forever changed, to long to enter Heaven +and the sphere of Hope.’ + +“His doctrine of Marriage can be reduced to the following words: ‘The +Lord has taken the beauty and the grace of the life of man and bestowed +them upon woman. When man is not reunited to this beauty and this grace +of his life, he is harsh, sad, and sullen; when he is reunited to them +he is joyful and complete.’ The Angels are ever at the perfect point +of beauty. Marriages are celebrated by wondrous ceremonies. In these +unions, which produce no children, man contributes the _understanding_, +woman the _will_; they become one being, one Flesh here below, and pass +to heaven clothed in the celestial form. On this earth, the natural +attraction of the sexes towards enjoyment is an Effect which allures, +fatigues and disgusts; but in the form celestial the pair, now _one_ in +Spirit find within theirself a ceaseless source of joy. Swedenborg was +led to see these nuptials of the Spirits, which in the words of Saint +Luke (xx. 35) are neither marrying nor giving in marriage, and which +inspire none but spiritual pleasures. An Angel offered to make him +witness of such a marriage and bore him thither on his wings (the wings +are a symbol and not a reality). The Angel clothed him in a wedding +garment and when Swedenborg, finding himself thus robed in light, asked +why, the answer was: ‘For these events, our garments are illuminated; +they shine; they are made nuptial.’ [‘Conjugial Love,’ 19, 20, 21.) Then +he saw the two Angels, one coming from the South, the other from the +East; the Angel of the South was in a chariot drawn by two white horses, +with reins of the color and brilliance of the dawn; but lo, when they +were near him in the sky, chariot and horses vanished. The Angel of the +East, clothed in crimson, and the Angel of the South, in purple, drew +together, like breaths, and mingled: one was the Angel of Love, the +other the Angel of Wisdom. Swedenborg’s guide told him that the two +Angels had been linked together on earth by an inward friendship and +ever united though separated in life by great distances. Consent, the +essence of all good marriage upon earth, is the habitual state of Angels +in Heaven. Love is the light of their world. The eternal rapture of +Angels comes from the faculty that God communicates to them to +render back to Him the joy they feel through Him. This reciprocity of +infinitude forms their life. They become infinite by participating of +the essence of God, who generates Himself by Himself. + +“The immensity of the Heavens where the Angels dwell is such that if man +were endowed with sight as rapid as the darting of light from the sun to +the earth, and if he gazed throughout eternity, his eyes could not reach +the horizon, nor find an end. Light alone can give an idea of the joys +of heaven. ‘It is,’ says Swedenborg [‘Angelic Wisdom,’ 7, 25, 26, 27), +‘a vapor of the virtue of God, a pure emanation of His splendor, beside +which our greatest brilliance is obscurity. It can compass all; it can +renew all, and is never absorbed: it environs the Angel and unites him +to God by infinite joys which multiply infinitely of themselves. This +Light destroys whosoever is not prepared to receive it. No one here +below, nor yet in Heaven can see God and live. This is the meaning of +the saying (Exodus xix. 12, 13, 21-23) “Take heed to yourselves that ye +go not up into the mount--lest ye break through unto the Lord to gaze, +and many perish.” And again (Exodus xxxiv. 29-35), “When Moses came down +from Mount Sinai with the two Tables of testimony in his hand, his face +shone, so that he put a veil upon it when he spake with the people, lest +any of them die.” The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ likewise revealed +the light surrounding the Messengers from on high and the ineffable joys +of the Angels who are forever imbued with it. “His face,” says Saint +Matthew (xvii. 1-5), “did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as +the light--and a bright cloud overshadowed them.”’ + +“When a planet contains only those beings who reject the Lord, when his +word is ignored, then the Angelic Spirits are gathered together by the +four winds, and God sends forth an Exterminating Angel to change the +face of the refractory earth, which in the immensity of this universe is +to Him what an unfruitful seed is to Nature. Approaching the globe, this +Exterminating Angel, borne by a comet, causes the planet to turn upon +its axis, and the lands lately covered by the seas reappear, adorned in +freshness and obedient to the laws proclaimed in Genesis; the Word of +God is once more powerful on this new earth, which everywhere exhibits +the effects of terrestrial waters and celestial flames. The light +brought by the Angel from On High, causes the sun to pale. ‘Then,’ says +Isaiah, (xix. 20) ‘men will hide in the clefts of the rock and roll +themselves in the dust of the earth.’ ‘They will cry to the mountains’ +(Revelation), ‘Fall on us! and to the seas, Swallow us up! Hide us from +the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the +Lamb!’ The Lamb is the great figure and hope of the Angels misjudged and +persecuted here below. Christ himself has said, ‘Blessed are those who +mourn! Blessed are the simple-hearted! Blessed are they that love!’--All +Swedenborg is there! Suffer, Believe, Love. To love truly must we not +suffer? must we not believe? Love begets Strength, Strength bestows +Wisdom, thence Intelligence; for Strength and Wisdom demand Will. To +be intelligent, is not that to Know, to Wish, and to Will,--the three +attributes of the Angelic Spirit? ‘If the universe has a meaning,’ +Monsieur Saint-Martin said to me when I met him during a journey which +he made in Sweden, ‘surely this is the one most worthy of God.’ + +“But, Monsieur,” continued the pastor after a thoughtful pause, “of what +avail to you are these shreds of thoughts taken here and there from +the vast extent of a work of which no true idea can be given except +by comparing it to a river of light, to billows of flame? When a man +plunges into it he is carried away as by an awful current. Dante’s poem +seems but a speck to the reader submerged in the almost Biblical +verses with which Swedenborg renders palpable the Celestial Worlds, +as Beethoven built his palaces of harmony with thousands of notes, as +architects have reared cathedrals with millions of stones. We roll in +soundless depths, where our minds will not always sustain us. Ah, surely +a great and powerful intellect is needed to bring us back, safe and +sound, to our own social beliefs. + +“Swedenborg,” resumed the pastor, “was particularly attached to the +Baron de Seraphitz, whose name, according to an old Swedish custom, had +taken from time immemorial the Latin termination of ‘us.’ The baron was +an ardent disciple of the Swedish prophet, who had opened the eyes of +his Inner-Man and brought him to a life in conformity with the decrees +from On-High. He sought for an Angelic Spirit among women; Swedenborg +found her for him in a vision. His bride was the daughter of a London +shoemaker, in whom, said Swedenborg, the life of Heaven shone, she +having passed through all anterior trials. After the death, that is, the +transformation of the prophet, the baron came to Jarvis to accomplish +his celestial nuptials with the observances of Prayer. As for me, who +am not a Seer, I have only known the terrestrial works of this couple. +Their lives were those of saints whose virtues are the glory of the +Roman Church. They ameliorated the condition of our people; they +supplied them all with means in return for work,--little, perhaps, +but enough for all their wants. Those who lived with them in constant +intercourse never saw them show a sign of anger or impatience; they were +constantly beneficent and gentle, full of courtesy and loving-kindness; +their marriage was the harmony of two souls indissolubly united. Two +eiders winging the same flight, the sound in the echo, the thought in +the word,--these, perhaps, are true images of their union. Every one +here in Jarvis loved them with an affection which I can compare only +to the love of a plant for the sun. The wife was simple in her manners, +beautiful in form, lovely in face, with a dignity of bearing like that +of august personages. In 1783, being then twenty-six years old, she +conceived a child; her pregnancy was to the pair a solemn joy. They +prepared to bid the earth farewell; for they told me they should be +transformed when their child had passed the state of infancy which +needed their fostering care until the strength to exist alone should be +given to her. + +“Their child was born,--the Seraphita we are now concerned with. From +the moment of her conception father and mother lived a still more +solitary life than in the past, lifting themselves up to heaven by +Prayer. They hoped to see Swedenborg, and faith realized their hope. +The day on which Seraphita came into the world Swedenborg appeared in +Jarvis, and filled the room of the new-born child with light. I was told +that he said, ‘The work is accomplished; the Heavens rejoice!’ Sounds of +unknown melodies were heard throughout the house, seeming to come +from the four points of heaven on the wings of the wind. The spirit of +Swedenborg led the father forth to the shores of the fiord and there +quitted him. Certain inhabitants of Jarvis, having approached Monsieur +Seraphitus as he stood on the shore, heard him repeat those blissful +words of Scripture: ‘How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of Him +who is sent of God!’ + +“I had left the parsonage on my way to baptize the infant and name +it, and perform the other duties required by law, when I met the baron +returning to the house. ‘Your ministrations are superfluous,’ he said; +‘our child is to be without name on this earth. You must not baptize in +the waters of an earthly Church one who has just been immersed in the +fires of Heaven. This child will remain a blossom, it will not grow old; +you will see it pass away. You exist, but our child has life; you have +outward senses, the child has none, its being is always inward.’ These +words were uttered in so strange and supernatural a voice that I was +more affected by them than by the shining of his face, from which light +appeared to exude. His appearance realized the phantasmal ideas which we +form of inspired beings as we read the prophesies of the Bible. But such +effects are not rare among our mountains, where the nitre of perpetual +snows produces extraordinary phenomena in the human organization. + +“I asked him the cause of his emotion. ‘Swedenborg came to us; he has +just left me; I have breathed the air of heaven,’ he replied. ‘Under +what form did he appear?’ I said. ‘Under his earthly form; dressed as +he was the last time I saw him in London, at the house of Richard +Shearsmith, Coldbath-fields, in July, 1771. He wore his brown frieze +coat with steel buttons, his waistcoat buttoned to the throat, a white +cravat, and the same magisterial wig rolled and powdered at the sides +and raised high in front, showing his vast and luminous brow, in keeping +with the noble square face, where all is power and tranquillity. I +recognized the large nose with its fiery nostril, the mouth that +ever smiled,--angelic mouth from which these words, the pledge of my +happiness, have just issued, “We shall meet soon.”’ + +“The conviction that shone on the baron’s face forbade all discussion; I +listened in silence. His voice had a contagious heat which made my bosom +burn within me; his fanaticism stirred my heart as the anger of another +makes our nerves vibrate. I followed him in silence to his house, where +I saw the nameless child lying mysteriously folded to its mother’s +breast. The babe heard my step and turned its head toward me; its +eyes were not those of an ordinary child. To give you an idea of the +impression I received, I must say that already they saw and thought. The +childhood of this predestined being was attended by circumstances quite +extraordinary in our climate. For nine years our winters were milder +and our summers longer than usual. This phenomenon gave rise to several +discussions among scientific men; but none of their explanations seemed +sufficient to academicians, and the baron smiled when I told him of +them. The child was never seen in its nudity as other children are; it +was never touched by man or woman, but lived a sacred thing upon the +mother’s breast, and it never cried. If you question old David he will +confirm these facts about his mistress, for whom he feels an adoration +like that of Louis IX. for the saint whose name he bore. + +“At nine years of age the child began to pray; prayer is her life. You +saw her in the church at Christmas, the only day on which she comes +there; she is separated from the other worshippers by a visible space. +If that space does not exist between herself and men she suffers. That +is why she passes nearly all her time alone in the chateau. The events +of her life are unknown; she is seldom seen; her days are spent in the +state of mystical contemplation which was, so Catholic writers tell us, +habitual with the early Christian solitaries, in whom the oral tradition +of Christ’s own words still remained. Her mind, her soul, her body, all +within her is virgin as the snow on those mountains. At ten years of +age she was just what you see her now. When she was nine her father and +mother expired together, without pain or visible malady, after naming +the day and hour at which they would cease to be. Standing at their +feet she looked at them with a calm eye, not showing either sadness, or +grief, or joy, or curiosity. When we approached to remove the two bodies +she said, ‘Carry them away!’ ‘Seraphita,’ I said, for so we called her, +‘are you not affected by the death of your father and your mother +who loved you so much?’ ‘Dead?’ she answered, ‘no, they live in me +forever--That is nothing,’ she pointed without emotion to the bodies +they were bearing away. I then saw her for the third time only since her +birth. In church it is difficult to distinguish her; she stands near +a column which, seen from the pulpit, is in shadow, so that I cannot +observe her features. + +“Of all the servants of the household there remained after the death of +the master and mistress only old David, who, in spite of his eighty-two +years, suffices to wait on his mistress. Some of our Jarvis people tell +wonderful tales about her. These have a certain weight in a land so +essentially conducive to mystery as ours; and I am now studying the +treatise on Incantations by Jean Wier and other works relating to +demonology, where pretended supernatural events are recorded, hoping to +find facts analogous to those which are attributed to her.” + +“Then you do not believe in her?” said Wilfrid. + +“Oh yes, I do,” said the pastor, genially, “I think her a very +capricious girl; a little spoilt by her parents, who turned her head +with the religious ideas I have just revealed to you.” + +Minna shook her head in a way that gently expressed contradiction. + +“Poor girl!” continued the old man, “her parents bequeathed to her that +fatal exaltation of soul which misleads mystics and renders them all +more or less mad. She subjects herself to fasts which horrify poor +David. The good old man is like a sensitive plant which quivers at the +slightest breeze, and glows under the first sun-ray. His mistress, whose +incomprehensible language has become his, is the breeze and the sun-ray +to him; in his eyes her feet are diamonds and her brow is strewn with +stars; she walks environed with a white and luminous atmosphere; her +voice is accompanied by music; she has the gift of rendering herself +invisible. If you ask to see her, he will tell you she has gone to the +_astral regions_. It is difficult to believe such a story, is it not? +You know all miracles bear more or less resemblance to the story of the +Golden Tooth. We have our golden tooth in Jarvis, that is all. Duncker +the fisherman asserts that he has seen her plunge into the fiord and +come up in the shape of an eider-duck, at other times walking on the +billows of a storm. Fergus, who leads the flocks to the saeters, says +that in rainy weather a circle of clear sky can be seen over the Swedish +castle; and that the heavens are always blue above Seraphita’s head when +she is on the mountain. Many women hear the tones of a mighty organ when +Seraphita enters the church, and ask their neighbors earnestly if they +too do not hear them. But my daughter, for whom during the last two +years Seraphita has shown much affection, has never heard this music, +and has never perceived the heavenly perfumes which, they say, make the +air fragrant about her when she moves. Minna, to be sure, has often on +returning from their walks together expressed to me the delight of a +young girl in the beauties of our spring-time, in the spicy odors of +budding larches and pines and the earliest flowers; but after our long +winters what can be more natural than such pleasure? The companionship +of this so-called spirit has nothing so very extraordinary in it, has +it, my child?” + +“The secrets of that spirit are not mine,” said Minna. “Near it I know +all, away from it I know nothing; near that exquisite life I am no +longer myself, far from it I forget all. The time we pass together is +a dream which my memory scarcely retains. I may have heard yet not +remember the music which the women tell of; in that presence, I may have +breathed celestial perfumes, seen the glory of the heavens, and yet be +unable to recollect them here.” + +“What astonishes me most,” resumed the pastor, addressing Wilfrid, “is +to notice that you suffer from being near her.” + +“Near her!” exclaimed the stranger, “she has never so much as let +me touch her hand. When she saw me for the first time her glance +intimidated me; she said: ‘You are welcome here, for you were to come.’ +I fancied that she knew me. I trembled. It is fear that forces me to +believe in her.” + +“With me it is love,” said Minna, without a blush. + +“Are you making fun of me?” said Monsieur Becker, laughing +good-humoredly; “you my daughter, in calling yourself a Spirit of Love, +and you, Monsieur Wilfrid, in pretending to be a Spirit of Wisdom?” + +He drank a glass of beer and so did not see the singular look which +Wilfrid cast upon Minna. + +“Jesting apart,” resumed the old gentleman, “I have been much astonished +to hear that these two mad-caps ascended to the summit of the Falberg; +it must be a girlish exaggeration; they probably went to the crest of a +ledge. It is impossible to reach the peaks of the Falberg.” + +“If so, father,” said Minna, in an agitated voice, “I must have been +under the power of a spirit; for indeed we reached the summit of the +Ice-Cap.” + +“This is really serious,” said Monsieur Becker. “Minna is always +truthful.” + +“Monsieur Becker,” said Wilfrid, “I swear to you that Seraphita +exercises such extraordinary power over me that I know no language in +which I can give you the least idea of it. She has revealed to me things +known to myself alone.” + +“Somnambulism!” said the old man. “A great many such effects are related +by Jean Wier as phenomena easily explained and formerly observed in +Egypt.” + +“Lend me Swedenborg’s theosophical works,” said Wilfrid, “and let me +plunge into those gulfs of light,--you have given me a thirst for them.” + +Monsieur Becker took down a volume and gave it to his guest, who +instantly began to read it. It was about nine o’clock in the evening. +The serving-woman brought in the supper. Minna made tea. The repast +over, each turned silently to his or her occupation; the pastor read the +Incantations; Wilfrid pursued the spirit of Swedenborg; and the young +girl continued to sew, her mind absorbed in recollections. It was a true +Norwegian evening--peaceful, studious, and domestic; full of thoughts, +flowers blooming beneath the snow. Wilfrid, as he devoured the pages of +the prophet, lived by his inner senses only; the pastor, looking up at +times from his book, called Minna’s attention to the absorption of +their guest with an air that was half-serious, half-jesting. To Minna’s +thoughts the face of Seraphitus smiled upon her as it hovered above the +clouds of smoke which enveloped them. The clock struck twelve. Suddenly +the outer door was opened violently. Heavy but hurried steps, the steps +of a terrified old man, were heard in the narrow vestibule between the +two doors; then David burst into the parlor. + +“Danger, danger!” he cried. “Come! come, all! The evil spirits are +unchained! Fiery mitres are on their heads! Demons, Vertumni, Sirens! +they tempt her as Jesus was tempted on the mountain! Come, come! and +drive them away.” + +“Do you not recognize the language of Swedenborg?” said the pastor, +laughing, to Wilfrid. “Here it is; pure from the source.” + +But Wilfrid and Minna were gazing in terror at old David, who, with hair +erect, and eyes distraught, his legs trembling and covered with snow, +for he had come without snow-shoes, stood swaying from side to side, as +if some boisterous wind were shaking him. + +“Is he harmed?” cried Minna. + +“The devils hope and try to conquer her,” replied the old man. + +The words made Wilfrid’s pulses throb. + +“For the last five hours she has stood erect, her eyes raised to heaven +and her arms extended; she suffers, she cries to God. I cannot cross the +barrier; Hell has posted the Vertumni as sentinels. They have set up an +iron wall between her and her old David. She wants me, but what can I +do? Oh, help me! help me! Come and pray!” + +The old man’s despair was terrible to see. + +“The Light of God is defending her,” he went on, with infectious faith, +“but oh! she might yield to violence.” + +“Silence, David! you are raving. This is a matter to be verified. We +will go with you,” said the pastor, “and you shall see that there are no +Vertumni, nor Satans, nor Sirens, in that house.” + +“Your father is blind,” whispered David to Minna. + +Wilfrid, on whom the reading of Swedenborg’s first treatise, which he +had rapidly gone through, had produced a powerful effect, was already in +the corridor putting on his skees; Minna was ready in a few moments, and +both left the old men far behind as they darted forward to the Swedish +castle. + +“Do you hear that cracking sound?” said Wilfrid. + +“The ice of the fiord stirs,” answered Minna; “the spring is coming.” + +Wilfrid was silent. When the two reached the courtyard they were +conscious that they had neither the faculty nor the strength to enter +the house. + +“What think you of her?” asked Wilfrid. + +“See that radiance!” cried Minna, going towards the window of the salon. +“He is there! How beautiful! O my Seraphitus, take me!” + +The exclamation was uttered inwardly. She saw Seraphitus standing erect, +lightly swathed in an opal-tinted mist that disappeared at a little +distance from the body, which seemed almost phosphorescent. + +“How beautiful she is!” cried Wilfrid, mentally. + +Just then Monsieur Becker arrived, followed by David; he saw his +daughter and guest standing before the window; going up to them, he +looked into the salon and said quietly, “Well, my good David, she is +only saying her prayers.” + +“Ah, but try to enter, Monsieur.” + +“Why disturb those who pray?” answered the pastor. + +At this instant the moon, rising above the Falberg, cast its rays upon +the window. All three turned round, attracted by this natural effect +which made them quiver; when they turned back to again look at Seraphita +she had disappeared. + +“How strange!” exclaimed Wilfrid. + +“I hear delightful sounds,” said Minna. + +“Well,” said the pastor, “it is all plain enough; she is going to bed.” + +David had entered the house. The others took their way back in silence; +none of them interpreted the vision in the same manner,--Monsieur Becker +doubted, Minna adored, Wilfrid longed. + +Wilfrid was a man about thirty-six years of age. His figure, though +broadly developed, was not wanting in symmetry. Like most men who +distinguish themselves above their fellows, he was of medium height; his +chest and shoulders were broad, and his neck short,--a characteristic of +those whose hearts are near their heads; his hair was black, thick, and +fine; his eyes, of a yellow brown, had, as it were, a solar brilliancy, +which proclaimed with what avidity his nature aspired to Light. Though +these strong and virile features were defective through the absence +of an inward peace,--granted only to a life without storms or +conflicts,--they plainly showed the inexhaustible resources of impetuous +senses and the appetites of instinct; just as every motion revealed +the perfection of the man’s physical apparatus, the flexibility of +his senses, and their fidelity when brought into play. This man might +contend with savages, and hear, as they do, the tread of enemies in +distant forests; he could follow a scent in the air, a trail on the +ground, or see on the horizon the signal of a friend. His sleep was +light, like that of all creatures who will not allow themselves to be +surprised. His body came quickly into harmony with the climate of any +country where his tempestuous life conducted him. Art and science would +have admired his organization in the light of a human model. Everything +about him was symmetrical and well-balanced,--action and heart, +intelligence and will. At first sight he might be classed among purely +instinctive beings, who give themselves blindly up to the material wants +of life; but in the very morning of his days he had flung himself into +a higher social world, with which his feelings harmonized; study had +widened his mind, reflection had sharpened his power of thought, and the +sciences had enlarged his understanding. He had studied human laws,--the +working of self-interests brought into conflict by the passions, and he +seemed to have early familiarized himself with the abstractions on which +societies rest. He had pored over books,--those deeds of dead humanity; +he had spent whole nights of pleasure in every European capital; he had +slept on fields of battle the night before the combat and the night that +followed victory. His stormy youth may have flung him on the deck of +some corsair and sent him among the contrasting regions of the globe; +thus it was that he knew the actions of a living humanity. He knew the +present and the past,--a double history; that of to-day, that of other +days. Many men have been, like Wilfrid, equally powerful by the Hand, by +the Heart, by the Head; like him, the majority have abused their triple +power. But though this man still held by certain outward liens to the +slimy side of humanity, he belonged also and positively to the sphere +where force is intelligent. In spite of the many veils which enveloped +his soul, there were certain ineffable symptoms of this fact which were +visible to pure spirits, to the eyes of the child whose innocence has +known no breath of evil passions, to the eyes of the old man who has +lived to regain his purity. + +These signs revealed a Cain for whom there was still hope,--one who +seemed as though he were seeking absolution from the ends of the +earth. Minna suspected the galley-slave of glory in the man; Seraphita +recognized him. Both admired and both pitied him. Whence came their +prescience? Nothing could be more simple nor yet more extraordinary. +As soon as we seek to penetrate the secrets of Nature, where nothing +is secret, and where it is only necessary to have the eyes to see, we +perceive that the simple produces the marvellous. + +“Seraphitus,” said Minna one evening a few days after Wilfrid’s arrival +in Jarvis, “you read the soul of this stranger while I have only vague +impressions of it. He chills me or else he excites me; but you seem to +know the cause of this cold and of this heat; tell me what it means, for +you know all about him.” + +“Yes, I have seen the causes,” said Seraphitus, lowing his large +eyelids. + +“By what power?” asked the curious Minna. + +“I have the gift of Specialism,” he answered. “Specialism is an inward +sight which can penetrate all things; you will only understand its full +meaning through a comparison. In the great cities of Europe where works +are produced by which the human Hand seeks to represent the effects of +the moral nature was well as those of the physical nature, there are +glorious men who express ideas in marble. The sculptor acts on the +stone; he fashions it; he puts a realm of ideas into it. There +are statues which the hand of man has endowed with the faculty of +representing the noble side of humanity, or the whole evil side; most +men see in such marbles a human figure and nothing more; a few other +men, a little higher in the scale of being, perceive a fraction of the +thoughts expressed in the statue; but the Initiates in the secrets of +art are of the same intellect as the sculptor; they see in his work +the whole universe of his thought. Such persons are in themselves the +principles of art; they bear within them a mirror which reflects nature +in her slightest manifestations. Well! so it is with me; I have within +me a mirror before which the moral nature, with its causes and effects, +appears and is reflected. Entering thus into the consciousness of others +I am able to divine both the future and the past. How? do you still ask +how? Imagine that the marble statue is the body of a man, a piece of +statuary in which we see the emotion, sentiment, passion, vice or crime, +virtue or repentance which the creating hand has put into it, and +you will then comprehend how it is that I read the soul of this +foreigner--though what I have said does not explain the gift of +Specialism; for to conceive the nature of that gift we must possess it.” + +Though Wilfrid belonged to the two first divisions of humanity, the men +of force and the men of thought, yet his excesses, his tumultuous life, +and his misdeeds had often turned him towards Faith; for doubt has two +sides; a side to the light and a side to the darkness. Wilfrid had too +closely clasped the world under its forms of Matter and of Mind not to +have acquired that thirst for the unknown, that longing to _go beyond_ +which lay their grasp upon the men who know, and wish, and will. +But neither his knowledge, nor his actions, nor his will, had found +direction. He had fled from social life from necessity; as a great +criminal seeks the cloister. Remorse, that virtue of weak beings, +did not touch him. Remorse is impotence, impotence which sins again. +Repentance alone is powerful; it ends all. But in traversing the world, +which he made his cloister, Wilfrid had found no balm for his wounds; he +saw nothing in nature to which he could attach himself. In him, despair +had dried the sources of desire. He was one of those beings who, having +gone through all passions and come out victorious, have nothing more to +raise in their hot-beds, and who, lacking opportunity to put themselves +at the head of their fellow-men to trample under iron heel entire +populations, buy, at the price of a horrible martyrdom, the faculty of +ruining themselves in some belief,--rocks sublime, which await the touch +of a wand that comes not to bring the waters gushing from their far-off +spring. + +Led by a scheme of his restless, inquiring life to the shores of Norway, +the sudden arrival of winter had detained the wanderer at Jarvis. The +day on which, for the first time, he saw Seraphita, the whole past of +his life faded from his mind. The young girl excited emotions which he +had thought could never be revived. The ashes gave forth a lingering +flame at the first murmurings of that voice. Who has ever felt himself +return to youth and purity after growing cold and numb with age and +soiled with impurity? Suddenly, Wilfrid loved as he had never loved; he +loved secretly, with faith, with fear, with inward madness. His life was +stirred to the very source of his being at the mere thought of seeing +Seraphita. As he listened to her he was transported into unknown worlds; +he was mute before her, she magnetized him. There, beneath the snows, +among the glaciers, bloomed the celestial flower to which his hopes, so +long betrayed, aspired; the sight of which awakened ideas of freshness, +purity, and faith which grouped about his soul and lifted it to higher +regions,--as Angels bear to heaven the Elect in those symbolic pictures +inspired by the guardian spirit of a great master. Celestial perfumes +softened the granite hardness of the rocky scene; light endowed with +speech shed its divine melodies on the path of him who looked to heaven. +After emptying the cup of terrestrial love which his teeth had bitten as +he drank it, he saw before him the chalice of salvation where the limpid +waters sparkled, making thirsty for ineffable delights whoever dare +apply his lips burning with a faith so strong that the crystal shall not +be shattered. + +But Wilfrid now encountered the wall of brass for which he had been +seeking up and down the earth. He went impetuously to Seraphita, meaning +to express the whole force and bearing of a passion under which he +bounded like the fabled horse beneath the iron horseman, firm in his +saddle, whom nothing moves while the efforts of the fiery animal only +made the rider heavier and more solid. He sought her to relate his +life,--to prove the grandeur of his soul by the grandeur of his faults, +to show the ruins of his desert. But no sooner had he crossed +her threshold, and found himself within the zone of those eyes of +scintillating azure, that met no limits forward and left none behind, +than he grew calm and submissive, as a lion, springing on his prey in +the plains of Africa, receives from the wings of the wind a message +of love, and stops his bound. A gulf opened before him, into which his +frenzied words fell and disappeared, and from which uprose a voice which +changed his being; he became as a child, a child of sixteen, timid and +frightened before this maiden with serene brow, this white figure whose +inalterable calm was like the cruel impassibility of human justice. The +combat between them had never ceased until this evening, when with a +glance she brought him down, as a falcon making his dizzy spirals in +the air around his prey causes it to fall stupefied to earth, before +carrying it to his eyrie. + +We may note within ourselves many a long struggle the end of which is +one of our own actions,--struggles which are, as it were, the reverse +side of humanity. This reverse side belongs to God; the obverse side to +men. More than once Seraphita had proved to Wilfrid that she knew this +hidden and ever varied side, which is to the majority of men a second +being. Often she said to him in her dove-like voice: “Why all this +vehemence?” when on his way to her he had sworn she should be his. +Wilfrid was, however, strong enough to raise the cry of revolt to which +he had given utterance in Monsieur Becker’s study. The narrative of +the old pastor had calmed him. Sceptical and derisive as he was, he saw +belief like a sidereal brilliance dawning on his life. He asked himself +if Seraphita were not an exile from the higher spheres seeking the +homeward way. The fanciful deifications of all ordinary lovers he could +not give to this lily of Norway in whose divinity he believed. Why lived +she here beside this fiord? What did she? Questions that received no +answer filled his mind. Above all, what was about to happen between +them? What fate had brought him there? To him, Seraphita was the +motionless marble, light nevertheless as a vapor, which Minna had seen +that day poised above the precipices of the Falberg. Could she thus +stand on the edge of all gulfs without danger, without a tremor of the +arching eyebrows, or a quiver of the light of the eye? If his love was +to be without hope, it was not without curiosity. + +From the moment when Wilfrid suspected the ethereal nature of the +enchantress who had told him the secrets of his life in melodious +utterance, he had longed to try to subject her, to keep her to himself, +to tear her from the heaven where, perhaps, she was awaited. Earth and +Humanity seized their prey; he would imitate them. His pride, the only +sentiment through which man can long be exalted, would make him happy in +this triumph for the rest of his life. The idea sent the blood boiling +through his veins, and his heart swelled. If he did not succeed, he +would destroy her,--it is so natural to destroy that which we cannot +possess, to deny what we cannot comprehend, to insult that which we +envy. + +On the morrow, Wilfrid, laden with ideas which the extraordinary events +of the previous night naturally awakened in his mind, resolved to +question David, and went to find him on the pretext of asking after +Seraphita’s health. Though Monsieur Becker spoke of the old servant as +falling into dotage, Wilfrid relied on his own perspicacity to discover +scraps of truth in the torrent of the old man’s rambling talk. + +David had the immovable, undecided, physiognomy of an octogenarian. +Under his white hair lay a forehead lined with wrinkles like the stone +courses of a ruined wall; and his face was furrowed like the bed of a +dried-up torrent. His life seemed to have retreated wholly to the eyes, +where light still shone, though its gleams were obscured by a mistiness +which seemed to indicate either an active mental alienation or the +stupid stare of drunkenness. His slow and heavy movements betrayed the +glacial weight of age, and communicated an icy influence to whoever +allowed themselves to look long at him,--for he possessed the magnetic +force of torpor. His limited intelligence was only roused by the sight, +the hearing, or the recollection of his mistress. She was the soul of +this wholly material fragment of an existence. Any one seeing David +alone by himself would have thought him a corpse; let Seraphita enter, +let her voice be heard, or a mention of her be made, and the dead came +forth from his grave and recovered speech and motion. The dry bones +were not more truly awakened by the divine breath in the valley of +Jehoshaphat, and never was that apocalyptic vision better realized than +in this Lazarus issuing from the sepulchre into life at the voice of +a young girl. His language, which was always figurative and often +incomprehensible, prevented the inhabitants of the village from talking +with him; but they respected a mind that deviated so utterly from common +ways,--a thing which the masses instinctively admire. + +Wilfrid found him in the antechamber, apparently asleep beside the +stove. Like a dog who recognizes a friend of the family, the old man +raised his eyes, saw the foreigner, and did not stir. + +“Where is she?” inquired Wilfrid, sitting down beside him. + +David fluttered his fingers in the air as if to express the flight of a +bird. + +“Does she still suffer?” asked Wilfrid. + +“Beings vowed to Heaven are able so to suffer that suffering does not +lessen their love; this is the mark of the true faith,” answered the old +man, solemnly, like an instrument which, on being touched, gives forth +an accidental note. + +“Who taught you those words?” + +“The Spirit.” + +“What happened to her last night? Did you force your way past the +Vertumni standing sentinel? did you evade the Mammons?” + +“Yes”; answered David, as though awaking from a dream. + +The misty gleam of his eyes melted into a ray that came direct from +the soul and made it by degrees brilliant as that of an eagle, as +intelligent as that of a poet. + +“What did you see?” asked Wilfrid, astonished at this sudden change. + +“I saw Species and Shapes; I heard the Spirit of all things; I beheld +the revolt of the Evil Ones; I listened to the words of the Good. Seven +devils came, and seven archangels descended from on high. The archangels +stood apart and looked on through veils. The devils were close by; they +shone, they acted. Mammon came on his pearly shell in the shape of a +beautiful naked woman; her snowy body dazzled the eye, no human form +ever equalled it; and he said, ‘I am Pleasure; thou shalt possess me!’ +Lucifer, prince of serpents, was there in sovereign robes; his Manhood +was glorious as the beauty of an angel, and he said, ‘Humanity shall be +at thy feet!’ The Queen of misers,--she who gives back naught that she +has ever received,--the Sea, came wrapped in her virent mantle; she +opened her bosom, she showed her gems, she brought forth her treasures +and offered them; waves of sapphire and of emerald came at her bidding; +her hidden wonders stirred, they rose to the surface of her breast, they +spoke; the rarest pearl of Ocean spread its iridescent wings and gave +voice to its marine melodies, saying, ‘Twin daughter of suffering, we +are sisters! await me; let us go together; all I need is to become a +Woman.’ The Bird with the wings of an eagle and the paws of a lion, the +head of a woman and the body of a horse, the Animal, fell down before +her and licked her feet, and promised seven hundred years of plenty to +her best-beloved daughter. Then came the most formidable of all, the +Child, weeping at her knees, and saying, ‘Wilt thou leave me, feeble +and suffering as I am? oh, my mother, stay!’ and he played with her, +and shed languor on the air, and the Heavens themselves had pity for +his wail. The Virgin of pure song brought forth her choirs to relax the +soul. The Kings of the East came with their slaves, their armies, and +their women; the Wounded asked her for succor, the Sorrowful stretched +forth their hands: ‘Do not leave us! do not leave us!’ they cried. I, +too, I cried, ‘Do not leave us! we adore thee! stay!’ Flowers, bursting +from the seed, bathed her in their fragrance which uttered, ‘Stay!’ The +giant Enakim came forth from Jupiter, leading Gold and its friends and +all the Spirits of the Astral Regions which are joined with him, and +they said, ‘We are thine for seven hundred years.’ At last came Death on +his pale horse, crying, ‘I will obey thee!’ One and all fell prostrate +before her. Could you but have seen them! They covered as it were a vast +plain, and they cried aloud to her, ‘We have nurtured thee, thou art our +child; do not abandon us!’ At length Life issued from her Ruby Waters, +and said, ‘I will not leave thee!’ then, finding Seraphita silent, she +flamed upon her as the sun, crying out, ‘I am light!’ ‘_The light_ +is there!’ cried Seraphita, pointing to the clouds where stood the +archangels; but she was wearied out; Desire had wrung her nerves, she +could only cry, ‘My God! my God!’ Ah! many an Angelic Spirit, scaling +the mountain and nigh to the summit, has set his foot upon a rolling +stone which plunged him back into the abyss! All these lost Spirits +adored her constancy; they stood around her,--a choir without a +song,--weeping and whispering, ‘Courage!’ At last she conquered; +Desire--let loose upon her in every Shape and every Species--was +vanquished. She stood in prayer, and when at last her eyes were lifted +she saw the feet of Angels circling in the Heavens.” + +“She saw the feet of Angels?” repeated Wilfrid. + +“Yes,” said the old man. + +“Was it a dream that she told you?” asked Wilfrid. + +“A dream as real as your life,” answered David; “I was there.” + +The calm assurance of the old servant affected Wilfrid powerfully. +He went away asking himself whether these visions were any less +extraordinary than those he had read of in Swedenborg the night before. + +“If Spirits exist, they must act,” he was saying to himself as he +entered the parsonage, where he found Monsieur Becker alone. + +“Dear pastor,” he said, “Seraphita is connected with us in form only, +and even that form is inexplicable. Do not think me a madman or a lover; +a profound conviction cannot be argued with. Convert my belief into +scientific theories, and let us try to enlighten each other. To-morrow +evening we shall both be with her.” + +“What then?” said Monsieur Becker. + +“If her eye ignores space,” replied Wilfrid, “if her thought is an +intelligent sight which enables her to perceive all things in their +essence, and to connect them with the general evolution of the universe, +if, in a word, she sees and knows all, let us seat the Pythoness on her +tripod, let us force this pitiless eagle by threats to spread its wings! +Help me! I breathe a fire which burns my vitals; I must quench it or it +will consume me. I have found a prey at last, and it shall be mine!” + +“The conquest will be difficult,” said the pastor, “because this girl +is--” + +“Is what?” cried Wilfrid. + +“Mad,” said the old man. + +“I will not dispute her madness, but neither must you dispute her +wonderful powers. Dear Monsieur Becker, she has often confounded me with +her learning. Has she travelled?” + +“From her house to the fiord, no further.” + +“Never left this place!” exclaimed Wilfrid. “Then she must have read +immensely.” + +“Not a page, not one iota! I am the only person who possesses any books +in Jarvis. The works of Swedenborg--the only books that were in the +chateau--you see before you. She has never looked into a single one of +them.” + +“Have you tried to talk with her?” + +“What good would that do?” + +“Does no one live with her in that house?” + +“She has no friends but you and Minna, nor any servant except old +David.” + +“It cannot be that she knows nothing of science nor of art.” + +“Who should teach her?” said the pastor. + +“But if she can discuss such matters pertinently, as she has often done +with me, what do you make of it?” + +“The girl may have acquired through years of silence the faculties +enjoyed by Apollonius of Tyana and other pretended sorcerers burned +by the Inquisition, which did not choose to admit the fact of +second-sight.” + +“If she can speak Arabic, what would you say to that?” + +“The history of medical science gives many authentic instances of girls +who have spoken languages entirely unknown to them.” + +“What can I do?” exclaimed Wilfrid. “She knows of secrets in my past +life known only to me.” + +“I shall be curious if she can tell me thoughts that I have confided to +no living person,” said Monsieur Becker. + +Minna entered the room. + +“Well, my daughter, and how is your familiar spirit?” + +“He suffers, father,” she answered, bowing to Wilfrid. “Human passions, +clothed in their false riches, surrounded him all night, and showed him +all the glories of the world. But you think these things mere tales.” + +“Tales as beautiful to those who read them in their brains as the +‘Arabian Nights’ to common minds,” said the pastor, smiling. + +“Did not Satan carry our Savior to the pinnacle of the Temple, and show +him all the kingdoms of the world?” she said. + +“The Evangelists,” replied her father, “did not correct their copies +very carefully, and several versions are in existence.” + +“You believe in the reality of these visions?” said Wilfrid to Minna. + +“Who can doubt when he relates them.” + +“He?” demanded Wilfrid. “Who?” + +“He who is there,” replied Minna, motioning towards the chateau. + +“Are you speaking of Seraphita?” he said. + +The young girl bent her head, and looked at him with an expression of +gentle mischief. + +“You too!” exclaimed Wilfrid, “you take pleasure in confounding me. Who +and what is she? What do you think of her?” + +“What I feel is inexplicable,” said Minna, blushing. + +“You are all crazy!” cried the pastor. + +“Farewell, until to-morrow evening,” said Wilfrid. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE CLOUDS OF THE SANCTUARY + + +There are pageants in which all the material splendors that man arrays +co-operate. Nations of slaves and divers have searched the sands of +ocean and the bowels of earth for the pearls and diamonds which adorn +the spectators. Transmitted as heirlooms from generation to generation, +these treasures have shone on consecrated brows and could be the most +faithful of historians had they speech. They know the joys and sorrows +of the great and those of the small. Everywhere do they go; they are +worn with pride at festivals, carried in despair to usurers, borne off +in triumph amid blood and pillage, enshrined in masterpieces conceived +by art for their protection. None, except the pearl of Cleopatra, +has been lost. The Great and the Fortunate assemble to witness the +coronation of some king, whose trappings are the work of men’s hands, +but the purple of whose raiment is less glorious than that of the +flowers of the field. These festivals, splendid in light, bathed in +music which the hand of man creates, aye, all the triumphs of that hand +are subdued by a thought, crushed by a sentiment. The Mind can illumine +in a man and round a man a light more vivid, can open his ear to more +melodious harmonies, can seat him on clouds of shining constellations +and teach him to question them. The Heart can do still greater things. +Man may come into the presence of one sole being and find in a single +word, a single look, an influence so weighty to bear, of so luminous a +light, so penetrating a sound, that he succumbs and kneels before it. +The most real of all splendors are not in outward things, they are +within us. A single secret of science is a realm of wonders to the man +of learning. Do the trumpets of Power, the jewels of Wealth, the music +of Joy, or a vast concourse of people attend his mental festival? No, he +finds his glory in some dim retreat where, perchance, a pallid suffering +man whispers a single word into his ear; that word, like a torch lighted +in a mine, reveals to him a Science. All human ideas, arrayed in every +attractive form which Mystery can invent surrounded a blind man seated +in a wayside ditch. Three worlds, the Natural, the Spiritual, the +Divine, with all their spheres, opened their portals to a Florentine +exile; he walked attended by the Happy and the Unhappy; by those who +prayed and those who moaned; by angels and by souls in hell. When the +Sent of God, who knew and could accomplish all things, appeared to three +of his disciples it was at eventide, at the common table of the humblest +of inns; and then and there the Light broke forth, shattering Material +Forms, illuminating the Spiritual Faculties, so that they saw him in his +glory, and the earth lay at their feet like a cast-off sandal. + +Monsieur Becker, Wilfrid, and Minna were all under the influence of fear +as they took their way to meet the extraordinary being whom each desired +to question. To them, in their several ways, the Swedish castle had +grown to mean some gigantic representation, some spectacle like those +whose colors and masses are skilfully and harmoniously marshalled by the +poets, and whose personages, imaginary actors to men, are real to +those who begin to penetrate the Spiritual World. On the tiers of this +Coliseum Monsieur Becker seated the gray legions of Doubt, the stern +ideas, the specious formulas of Dispute. He convoked the various +antagonistic worlds of philosophy and religion, and they all appeared, +in the guise of a fleshless shape, like that in which art embodies +Time,--an old man bearing in one hand a scythe, in the other a broken +globe, the human universe. + +Wilfrid had bidden to the scene his earliest illusions and his latest +hopes, human destiny and its conflicts, religion and its conquering +powers. + +Minna saw heaven confusedly by glimpses; love raised a curtain wrought +with mysterious images, and the melodious sounds which met her ear +redoubled her curiosity. + +To all three, therefore, this evening was to be what that other evening +had been for the pilgrims to Emmaus, what a vision was to Dante, an +inspiration to Homer,--to them, three aspects of the world revealed, +veils rent away, doubts dissipated, darkness illumined. Humanity in all +its moods expecting light could not be better represented than here by +this young girl, this man in the vigor of his age, and these old men, +of whom one was learned enough to doubt, the other ignorant enough +to believe. Never was any scene more simple in appearance, nor more +portentous in reality. + +When they entered the room, ushered in by old David, they found +Seraphita standing by a table on which were served the various dishes +which compose a “tea”; a form of collation which in the North takes the +place of wine and its pleasures,--reserved more exclusively for Southern +climes. Certainly nothing proclaimed in her, or in him, a being with the +strange power of appearing under two distinct forms; nothing about her +betrayed the manifold powers which she wielded. Like a careful housewife +attending to the comfort of her guests, she ordered David to put more +wood into the stove. + +“Good evening, my neighbors,” she said. “Dear Monsieur Becker, you do +right to come; you see me living for the last time, perhaps. This winter +has killed me. Will you sit there?” she said to Wilfrid. “And you, +Minna, here?” pointing to a chair beside her. “I see you have brought +your embroidery. Did you invent that stitch? the design is very pretty. +For whom is it,--your father, or monsieur?” she added, turning to +Wilfrid. “Surely we ought to give him, before we part, a remembrance of +the daughters of Norway.” + +“Did you suffer much yesterday?” asked Wilfrid. + +“It was nothing,” she answered; “the suffering gladdened me; it was +necessary, to enable me to leave this life.” + +“Then death does not alarm you?” said Monsieur Becker, smiling, for he +did not think her ill. + +“No, dear pastor; there are two ways of dying: to some, death is +victory, to others, defeat.” + +“Do you think that you have conquered?” asked Minna. + +“I do not know,” she said, “perhaps I have only taken a step in the +path.” + +The lustrous splendor of her brow grew dim, her eyes were veiled beneath +slow-dropping lids; a simple movement which affected the prying guests +and kept them silent. Monsieur Becker was the first to recover courage. + +“Dear child,” he said, “you are truth itself, and you are ever kind. +I would ask of you to-night something other than the dainties of your +tea-table. If we may believe certain persons, you know amazing things; +if this be true, would it not be charitable in you to solve a few of our +doubts?” + +“Ah!” she said smiling, “I walk on the clouds. I visit the depths of +the fiord; the sea is my steed and I bridle it; I know where the singing +flower grows, and the talking light descends, and fragrant colors shine! +I wear the seal of Solomon; I am a fairy; I cast my orders to the wind +which, like an abject slave, fulfils them; my eyes can pierce the earth +and behold its treasures; for lo! am I not the virgin to whom the pearls +dart from their ocean depths and--” + +“--who led me safely to the summit of the Falberg?” said Minna, +interrupting her. + +“Thou! thou too!” exclaimed the strange being, with a luminous glance +at the young girl which filled her soul with trouble. “Had I not the +faculty of reading through your foreheads the desires which have brought +you here, should I be what you think I am?” she said, encircling all +three with her controlling glance, to David’s great satisfaction. The +old man rubbed his hands with pleasure as he left the room. + +“Ah!” she resumed after a pause, “you have come, all of you, with the +curiosity of children. You, my poor Monsieur Becker, have asked yourself +how it was possible that a girl of seventeen should know even a single +one of those secrets which men of science seek with their noses to the +earth,--instead of raising their eyes to heaven. Were I to tell you how +and at what point the plant merges into the animal you would begin +to doubt your doubts. You have plotted to question me; you will admit +that?” + +“Yes, dear Seraphita,” answered Wilfrid; “but the desire is a natural +one to men, is it not?” + +“You will bore this dear child with such topics,” she said, passing her +hand lightly over Minna’s hair with a caressing gesture. + +The young girl raised her eyes and seemed as though she longed to lose +herself in him. + +“Speech is the endowment of us all,” resumed the mysterious creature, +gravely. “Woe to him who keeps silence, even in a desert, believing +that no one hears him; all voices speak and all ears listen here below. +Speech moves the universe. Monsieur Becker, I desire to say nothing +unnecessarily. I know the difficulties that beset your mind; would you +not think it a miracle if I were now to lay bare the past history of +your consciousness? Well, the miracle shall be accomplished. You have +never admitted to yourself the full extent of your doubts. I alone, +immovable in my faith, I can show it to you; I can terrify you with +yourself. + +“You stand on the darkest side of Doubt. You do not believe in +God,--although you know it not,--and all things here below are secondary +to him who rejects the first principle of things. Let us leave aside the +fruitless discussions of false philosophy. The spiritualist generations +made as many and as vain efforts to deny Matter as the materialist +generations have made to deny Spirit. Why such discussions? Does not man +himself offer irrefragable proof of both systems? Do we not find in him +material things and spiritual things? None but a madman can refuse to +see in the human body a fragment of Matter; your natural sciences, when +they decompose it, find little difference between its elements and those +of other animals. On the other hand, the idea produced in man by the +comparison of many objects has never seemed to any one to belong to the +domain of Matter. As to this, I offer no opinion. I am now concerned +with your doubts, not with my certainties. To you, as to the majority of +thinkers, the relations between things, the reality of which is proved +to you by your sensations and which you possess the faculty to discover, +do not seem Material. The Natural universe of things and beings ends, in +man, with the Spiritual universe of similarities or differences which +he perceives among the innumerable forms of Nature,--relations so +multiplied as to seem infinite; for if, up to the present time, no one +has been able to enumerate the separate terrestrial creations, who +can reckon their correlations? Is not the fraction which you know, in +relation to their totality, what a single number is to infinity? Here, +then, you fall into a perception of the infinite which undoubtedly +obliges you to conceive of a purely Spiritual world. + +“Thus man himself offers sufficient proof of the two orders,--Matter +and Spirit. In him culminates a visible finite universe; in him begins a +universe invisible and infinite,--two worlds unknown to each other. Have +the pebbles of the fiord a perception of their combined being? have they +a consciousness of the colors they present to the eye of man? do they +hear the music of the waves that lap them? Let us therefore spring over +and not attempt to sound the abysmal depths presented to our minds in +the union of a Material universe and a Spiritual universe,--a creation +visible, ponderable, tangible, terminating in a creation invisible, +imponderable, intangible; completely dissimilar, separated by the void, +yet united by indisputable bonds and meeting in a being who derives +equally from the one and from the other! Let us mingle in one world +these two worlds, absolutely irreconcilable to your philosophies, but +conjoined by fact. However abstract man may suppose the relation which +binds two things together, the line of junction is perceptible. How? +Where? We are not now in search of the vanishing point where Matter +subtilizes. If such were the question, I cannot see why He who has, by +physical relations, studded with stars at immeasurable distances the +heavens which veil Him, may not have created solid substances, nor why +you deny Him the faculty of giving a body to thought. + +“Thus your invisible moral universe and your visible physical universe +are one and the same matter. We will not separate properties from +substances, nor objects from effects. All that exists, all that presses +upon us and overwhelms us from above or from below, before us or in +us, all that which our eyes and our minds perceive, all these named and +unnamed things compose--in order to fit the problem of Creation to the +measure of your logic--a block of finite Matter; but were it infinite, +God would still not be its master. Now, reasoning with your views, dear +pastor, no matter in what way God the infinite is concerned with this +block of finite Matter, He cannot exist and retain the attributes with +which man invests Him. Seek Him in facts, and He is not; spiritually and +materially, you have made God impossible. Listen to the Word of human +Reason forced to its ultimate conclusions. + +“In bringing God face to face with the Great Whole, we see that only +two states are possible between them,--either God and Matter are +contemporaneous, or God existed alone before Matter. Were +Reason--the light that has guided the human race from the dawn of its +existence--accumulated in one brain, even that mighty brain could not +invent a third mode of being without suppressing both Matter and God. +Let human philosophies pile mountain upon mountain of words and of +ideas, let religions accumulate images and beliefs, revelations and +mysteries, you must face at last this terrible dilemma and choose +between the two propositions which compose it; you have no option, and +one as much as the other leads human reason to Doubt. + +“The problem thus established, what signifies Spirit or Matter? Why +trouble about the march of the worlds in one direction or in another, +since the Being who guides them is shown to be an absurdity? Why +continue to ask whether man is approaching heaven or receding from it, +whether creation is rising towards Spirit or descending towards Matter, +if the questioned universe gives no reply? What signifies theogonies and +their armies, theologies and their dogmas, since whichever side of the +problem is man’s choice, his God exists not? Let us for a moment take up +the first proposition, and suppose God contemporaneous with Matter. +Is subjection to the action or the co-existence of an alien substance +consistent with being God at all? In such a system, would not God become +a secondary agent compelled to organize Matter? If so, who compelled +Him? Between His material gross companion and Himself, who was the +arbiter? Who paid the wages of the six days’ labor imputed to the great +Designer? Has any determining force been found which was neither God nor +Matter? God being regarded as the manufacturer of the machinery of the +worlds, is it not as ridiculous to call Him God as to call the slave who +turns the grindstone a Roman citizen? Besides, another difficulty, as +insoluble to this supreme human reason as it is to God, presents itself. + +“If we carry the problem higher, shall we not be like the Hindus, who +put the world upon a tortoise, the tortoise on an elephant, and do not +know on what the feet of their elephant may rest? This supreme will, +issuing from the contest between God and Matter, this God, this more +than God, can He have existed throughout eternity without willing what +He afterwards willed,--admitting that Eternity can be divided into two +eras. No matter where God is, what becomes of His intuitive intelligence +if He did not know His ultimate thought? Which, then, is the true +Eternity,--the created Eternity or the uncreated? But if God throughout +all time did will the world such as it is, this new necessity, which +harmonizes with the idea of sovereign intelligence, implies the +co-eternity of Matter. Whether Matter be co-eternal by a divine will +necessarily accordant with itself from the beginning, or whether +Matter be co-eternal of its own being, the power of God, which must be +absolute, perishes if His will is circumscribed; for in that case God +would find within Him a determining force which would control Him. Can +He be God if He can no more separate Himself from His creation in a past +eternity than in the coming eternity? + +“This face of the problem is insoluble in its cause. Let us now inquire +into its effects. If a God compelled to have created the world from all +eternity seems inexplicable, He is quite as unintelligible in perpetual +cohesion with His work. God, constrained to live eternally united to His +creation is held down to His first position as workman. Can you conceive +of a God who shall be neither independent of nor dependent on His work? +Could He destroy that work without challenging Himself? Ask yourself, +and decide! Whether He destroys it some day, or whether He never +destroys it, either way is fatal to the attributes without which God +cannot exist. Is the world an experiment? is it a perishable form to +which destruction must come? If it is, is not God inconsistent and +impotent? inconsistent, because He ought to have seen the result before +the attempt,--moreover why should He delay to destroy that which He is +to destroy?--impotent, for how else could He have created an imperfect +man? + +“If an imperfect creation contradicts the faculties which man attributes +to God we are forced back upon the question, Is creation perfect? The +idea is in harmony with that of a God supremely intelligent who could +make no mistakes; but then, what means the degradation of His work, +and its regeneration? Moreover, a perfect world is, necessarily, +indestructible; its forms would not perish, it could neither advance nor +recede, it would revolve in the everlasting circumference from which it +would never issue. In that case God would be dependent on His work; +it would be co-eternal with Him; and so we fall back into one of the +propositions most antagonistic to God. If the world is imperfect, it +can progress; if perfect, it is stationary. On the other hand, if it +be impossible to admit of a progressive God ignorant through a past +eternity of the results of His creative work, can there be a stationary +God? would not that imply the triumph of Matter? would it not be the +greatest of all negations? Under the first hypothesis God perishes +through weakness; under the second through the Force of his inertia. + +“Therefore, to all sincere minds the supposition that Matter, in the +conception and execution of the worlds, is contemporaneous with God, is +to deny God. Forced to choose, in order to govern the nations, between +the two alternatives of the problem, whole generations have preferred +this solution of it. Hence the doctrine of the two principles of +Magianism, brought from Asia and adopted in Europe under the form of +Satan warring with the Eternal Father. But this religious formula and +the innumerable aspects of divinity that have sprung from it are surely +crimes against the Majesty Divine. What other term can we apply to +the belief which sets up as a rival to God a personification of Evil, +striving eternally against the Omnipotent Mind without the possibility +of ultimate triumph? Your statics declare that two Forces thus pitted +against each other are reciprocally rendered null. + +“Do you turn back, therefore, to the other side of the problem, and say +that God pre-existed, original, alone? + +“I will not go over the preceding arguments (which here return in full +force) as to the severance of Eternity into two parts; nor the questions +raised by the progression or the immobility of the worlds; let us +look only at the difficulties inherent to this second theory. If God +pre-existed alone, the world must have emanated from Him; Matter was +therefore drawn from His essence; consequently Matter in itself is +non-existent; all forms are veils to cover the Divine Spirit. If this +be so, the World is Eternal, and also it must be God. Is not this +proposition even more fatal than the former to the attributes conferred +on God by human reason? How can the actual condition of Matter be +explained if we suppose it to issue from the bosom of God and to be +ever united with Him? Is it possible to believe that the All-Powerful, +supremely good in His essence and in His faculties, has engendered +things dissimilar to Himself. Must He not in all things and through all +things be like unto Himself? Can there be in God certain evil parts +of which at some future day he may rid Himself?--a conjecture less +offensive and absurd than terrible, for the reason that it drags back +into Him the two principles which the preceding theory proved to be +inadmissible. God must be ONE; He cannot be divided without renouncing +the most important condition of His existence. It is therefore +impossible to admit of a fraction of God which yet is not God. This +hypothesis seemed so criminal to the Roman Church that she has made the +omnipresence of God in the least particles of the Eucharist an article +of faith. + +“But how then can we imagine an omnipotent mind which does not triumph? +How associate it unless in triumph with Nature? But Nature is not +triumphant; she seeks, combines, remodels, dies, and is born again; she +is even more convulsed when creating than when all was fusion; Nature +suffers, groans, is ignorant, degenerates, does evil; deceives herself, +annihilates herself, disappears, and begins again. If God is associated +with Nature, how can we explain the inoperative indifference of the +divine principle? Wherefore death? How came it that Evil, king of +the earth, was born of a God supremely good in His essence and in His +faculties, who can produce nothing that is not made in His own image? + +“But if, from this relentless conclusion which leads at once to +absurdity, we pass to details, what end are we to assign to the world? +If all is God, all is reciprocally cause and effect; all is _One_ as God +is _One_, and we can perceive neither points of likeness nor points of +difference. Can the real end be a rotation of Matter which subtilizes +and disappears? In whatever sense it were done, would not this +mechanical trick of Matter issuing from God and returning to God seem +a sort of child’s play? Why should God make himself gross with Matter? +Under which form is he most God? Which has the ascendant, Matter or +Spirit, when neither can in any way do wrong? Who can comprehend the +Deity engaged in this perpetual business, by which he divides Himself +into two Natures, one of which knows nothing, while the other knows all? +Can you conceive of God amusing Himself in the form of man, laughing at +His own efforts, dying Friday, to be born again Sunday, and continuing +this play from age to age, knowing the end from all eternity, and +telling nothing to Himself, the Creature, of what He the Creator, does? +The God of the preceding hypothesis, a God so nugatory by the very power +of His inertia, seems the more possible of the two if we are compelled +to choose between the impossibilities with which this God, so dull a +jester, fusillades Himself when two sections of humanity argue face to +face, weapons in hand. + +“However absurd this outcome of the second problem may seem, it +was adopted by half the human race in the sunny lands where smiling +mythologies were created. Those amorous nations were consistent; +with them all was God, even Fear and its dastardy, even crime and its +bacchanals. If we accept pantheism,--the religion of many a great human +genius,--who shall say where the greater reason lies? Is it with the +savage, free in the desert, clothed in his nudity, listening to the sun, +talking to the sea, sublime and always true in his deeds whatever they +may be; or shall we find it in civilized man, who derives his chief +enjoyments through lies; who wrings Nature and all her resources to put +a musket on his shoulder; who employs his intellect to hasten the hour +of his death and to create diseases out of pleasures? When the rake of +pestilence and the ploughshare of war and the demon of desolation have +passed over a corner of the globe and obliterated all things, who will +be found to have the greater reason,--the Nubian savage or the patrician +of Thebes? Your doubts descend the scale, they go from heights to +depths, they embrace all, the end as well as the means. + +“But if the physical world seems inexplicable, the moral world presents +still stronger arguments against God. Where, then, is progress? If all +things are indeed moving toward perfection why do we die young? why do +not nations perpetuate themselves? The world having issued from God and +being contained in God can it be stationary? Do we live once, or do +we live always? If we live once, hurried onward by the march of the +Great-Whole, a knowledge of which has not been given to us, let us act +as we please. If we are eternal, let things take their course. Is the +created being guilty if he exists at the instant of the transitions? If +he sins at the moment of a great transformation will he be punished for +it after being its victim? What becomes of the Divine goodness if we are +not transferred to the regions of the blest--should any such exist? +What becomes of God’s prescience if He is ignorant of the results of the +trials to which He subjects us? What is this alternative offered to man +by all religions,--either to boil in some eternal cauldron or to walk +in white robes, a palm in his hand and a halo round his head? Can it +be that this pagan invention is the final word of God? Where is the +generous soul who does not feel that the calculating virtue which seeks +the eternity of pleasure offered by all religions to whoever fulfils +at stray moments certain fanciful and often unnatural conditions, is +unworthy of man and of God? Is it not a mockery to give to man impetuous +senses and forbid him to satisfy them? Besides, what mean these ascetic +objections if Good and Evil are equally abolished? Does Evil exist? +If substance in all its forms is God, then Evil is God. The faculty of +reasoning as well as the faculty of feeling having been given to man +to use, nothing can be more excusable in him than to seek to know the +meaning of human suffering and the prospects of the future. + +“If these rigid and rigorous arguments lead to such conclusions +confusion must reign. The world would have no fixedness; nothing +would advance, nothing would pause, all would change, nothing would be +destroyed, all would reappear after self-renovation; for if your mind +does not clearly demonstrate to you an end, it is equally impossible to +demonstrate the destruction of the smallest particle of Matter; Matter +can transform but not annihilate itself. + +“Though blind force may provide arguments for the atheist, intelligent +force is inexplicable; for if it emanates from God, why should it meet +with obstacles? ought not its triumph to be immediate? Where is God? +If the living cannot perceive Him, can the dead find Him? Crumble, +ye idolatries and ye religions! Fall, feeble keystones of all social +arches, powerless to retard the decay, the death, the oblivion that +have overtaken all nations however firmly founded! Fall, morality and +justice! our crimes are purely relative; they are divine effects whose +causes we are not allowed to know. All is God. Either we are God or God +is not!--Child of a century whose every year has laid upon your brow, +old man, the ice of its unbelief, here, here is the summing up of your +lifetime of thought, of your science and your reflections! Dear Monsieur +Becker, you have laid your head upon the pillow of Doubt, because it is +the easiest of solutions; acting in this respect with the majority +of mankind, who say in their hearts: ‘Let us think no more of these +problems, since God has not vouchsafed to grant us the algebraic +demonstrations that could solve them, while He has given us so many +other ways to get from earth to heaven.’ + +“Tell me, dear pastor, are not these your secret thoughts? Have I evaded +the point of any? nay, rather, have I not clearly stated all? First, in +the dogma of two principles,--an antagonism in which God perishes for +the reason that being All-Powerful He chose to combat. Secondly, in the +absurd pantheism where, all being God, God exists no longer. These two +sources, from which have flowed all the religions for whose triumph +Earth has toiled and prayed, are equally pernicious. Behold in them the +double-bladed axe with which you decapitate the white old man whom you +enthrone among your painted clouds! And now, to me the axe, I wield it!” + +Monsieur Becker and Wilfrid gazed at the young girl with something like +terror. + +“To believe,” continued Seraphita, in her Woman’s voice, for the Man +had finished speaking, “to believe is a gift. To believe is to feel. +To believe in God we must feel God. This feeling is a possession slowly +acquired by the human being, just as other astonishing powers which you +admire in great men, warriors, artists, scholars, those who know and +those who act, are acquired. Thought, that budget of the relations which +you perceive among created things, is an intellectual language which can +be learned, is it not? Belief, the budget of celestial truths, is also a +language as superior to thought as thought is to instinct. This language +also can be learned. The Believer answers with a single cry, a single +gesture; Faith puts within his hand a flaming sword with which he +pierces and illumines all. The Seer attains to heaven and descends not. +But there are beings who believe and see, who know and will, who love +and pray and wait. Submissive, yet aspiring to the kingdom of light, +they have neither the aloofness of the Believer nor the silence of the +Seer; they listen and reply. To them the doubt of the twilight ages +is not a murderous weapon, but a divining rod; they accept the contest +under every form; they train their tongues to every language; they are +never angered, though they groan; the acrimony of the aggressor is not +in them, but rather the softness and tenuity of light, which penetrates +and warms and illumines. To their eyes Doubt is neither an impiety, nor +a blasphemy, nor a crime, but a transition through which men return upon +their steps in the Darkness, or advance into the Light. This being so, +dear pastor, let us reason together. + +“You do not believe in God? Why? God, to your thinking, is +incomprehensible, inexplicable. Agreed. I will not reply that to +comprehend God in His entirety would be to be God; nor will I tell you +that you deny what seems to you inexplicable so as to give me the right +to affirm that which to me is believable. There is, for you, one +evident fact, which lies within yourself. In you, Matter has ended in +intelligence; can you therefore think that human intelligence will +end in darkness, doubt, and nothingness? God may seem to you +incomprehensible and inexplicable, but you must admit Him to be, in all +things purely physical, a splendid and consistent workman. Why should +His craft stop short at man, His most finished creation? + +“If that question is not convincing, at least it compels meditation. +Happily, although you deny God, you are obliged, in order to establish +your doubts, to admit those double-bladed facts, which kill your +arguments as much as your arguments kill God. We have also admitted that +Matter and Spirit are two creations which do not comprehend each other; +that the spiritual world is formed of infinite relations to which the +finite material world has given rise; that if no one on earth is able +to identify himself by the power of his spirit with the great-whole of +terrestrial creations, still less is he able to rise to the knowledge of +the relations which the spirit perceives between these creations. + +“We might end the argument here in one word, by denying you the faculty +of comprehending God, just as you deny to the pebbles of the fiord the +faculties of counting and of seeing each other. How do you know that the +stones themselves do not deny the existence of man, though man makes +use of them to build his houses? There is one fact that appals +you,--the Infinite; if you feel it within, why will you not admit its +consequences? Can the finite have a perfect knowledge of the infinite? +If you cannot perceive those relations which, according to your own +admission, are infinite, how can you grasp a sense of the far-off end to +which they are converging? Order, the revelation of which is one of your +needs, being infinite, can your limited reason apprehend it? Do not ask +why man does not comprehend that which he is able to perceive, for he is +equally able to perceive that which he does not comprehend. If I prove +to you that your mind ignores that which lies within its compass, will +you grant that it is impossible for it to conceive whatever is beyond +it? This being so, am I not justified in saying to you: ‘One of the two +propositions under which God is annihilated before the tribunal of our +reason must be true, the other is false. Inasmuch as creation exists, +you feel the necessity of an end, and that end should be good, should it +not? Now, if Matter terminates in man by intelligence, why are you not +satisfied to believe that the end of human intelligence is the Light of +the higher spheres, where alone an intuition of that God who seems so +insoluble a problem is obtained? The species which are beneath you have +no conception of the universe, and you have; why should there not be +other species above you more intelligent than your own? Man ought to be +better informed than he is about himself before he spends his strength +in measuring God. Before attacking the stars that light us, and the +higher certainties, ought he not to understand the certainties which are +actually about him?’ + +“But no! to the negations of doubt I ought rather to reply by negations. +Therefore I ask you whether there is anything here below so evident +that I can put faith in it? I will show you in a moment that you believe +firmly in things which act, and yet are not beings; in things which +engender thought, and yet are not spirits; in living abstractions which +the understanding cannot grasp in any shape, which are in fact nowhere, +but which you perceive everywhere; which have, and can have, on name, +but which, nevertheless, you have named; and which, like the God +of flesh upon whom you figure to yourself, remain inexplicable, +incomprehensible, and absurd. I shall also ask you why, after admitting +the existence of these incomprehensible things, you reserve your doubts +for God? + +“You believe, for instance, in Number,--a base on which you have built +the edifice of sciences which you call ‘exact.’ Without Number, what +would become of mathematics? Well, what mysterious being endowed with +the faculty of living forever could utter, and what language would be +compact to word the Number which contains the infinite numbers whose +existence is revealed to you by thought? Ask it of the loftiest human +genius; he might ponder it for a thousand years and what would be his +answer? You know neither where Number begins, nor where it pauses, nor +where it ends. Here you call it Time, there you call it Space. Nothing +exists except by Number. Without it, all would be one and the same +substance; for Number alone differentiates and qualifies substance. +Number is to your Spirit what it is to Matter, an incomprehensible +agent. Will you make a Deity of it? Is it a being? Is it a breath +emanating from God to organize the material universe where nothing +obtains form except by the Divinity which is an effect of Number? The +least as well as the greatest of creations are distinguishable from +each other by quantities, qualities, dimensions, forces,--all attributes +created by Number. The infinitude of Numbers is a fact proved to your +soul, but of which no material proof can be given. The mathematician +himself tells you that the infinite of numbers exists, but cannot be +proved. + +“God, dear pastor, is a Number endowed with motion,--felt, but not seen, +the Believer will tell you. Like the Unit, He begins Number, with which +He has nothing in common. The existence of Number depends on the Unit, +which without being a number engenders Number. God, dear pastor is a +glorious Unit who has nothing in common with His creations but who, +nevertheless, engenders them. Will you not therefore agree with me that +you are just as ignorant of where Number begins and ends as you are of +where created Eternity begins and ends? + +“Why, then, if you believe in Number, do you deny God? Is not Creation +interposed between the Infinite of unorganized substances and the +Infinite of the divine spheres, just as the Unit stands between the +Cipher of the fractions you have lately named Decimals, and the Infinite +of Numbers which you call Wholes? Man alone on earth comprehends Number, +that first step of the peristyle which leads to God, and yet his reason +stumbles on it! What! you can neither measure nor grasp the first +abstraction which God delivers to you, and yet you try to subject His +ends to your own tape-line! Suppose that I plunge you into the abyss of +Motion, the force that organizes Number. If I tell you that the Universe +is naught else than Number and Motion, you would see at once that we +speak two different languages. I understand them both; you understand +neither. + +“Suppose I add that Motion and Number are engendered by the Word, namely +the supreme Reason of Seers and Prophets who in the olden time heard the +Breath of God beneath which Saul fell to the earth. That Word, you +scoff at it, you men, although you well know that all visible works, +societies, monuments, deeds, passions, proceed from the breath of your +own feeble word, and that without that word you would resemble the +African gorilla, the nearest approach to man, the Negro. You believe +firmly in Number and in Motion, a force and a result both inexplicable, +incomprehensible, to the existence of which I may apply the logical +dilemma which, as we have seen, prevents you from believing in God. +Powerful reasoner that you are, you do not need that I should prove to +you that the Infinite must everywhere be like unto Itself, and that, +necessarily, it is One. God alone is Infinite, for surely there cannot +be two Infinities, two Ones. If, to make use of human terms, anything +demonstrated to you here below seems to you infinite, be sure that +within it you will find some one aspect of God. But to continue. + +“You have appropriated to yourself a place in the Infinite of Number; +you have fitted it to your own proportions by creating (if indeed you +did create) arithmetic, the basis on which all things rest, even your +societies. Just as Number--the only thing in which your self-styled +atheists believe--organized physical creations, so arithmetic, in the +employ of Number, organized the moral world. This numeration must +be absolute, like all else that is true in itself; but it is purely +relative, it does not exist absolutely, and no proof can be given of its +reality. In the first place, though Numeration is able to take account +of organized substances, it is powerless in relation to unorganized +forces, the ones being finite and the others infinite. The man who can +conceive the Infinite by his intelligence cannot deal with it in its +entirety; if he could, he would be God. Your Numeration, applying to +things finite and not to the Infinite, is therefore true in relation to +the details which you are able to perceive, and false in relation to +the Whole, which you are unable to perceive. Though Nature is like unto +herself in the organizing force or in her principles which are infinite, +she is not so in her finite effects. Thus you will never find in Nature +two objects identically alike. In the Natural Order two and two never +make four; to do so, four exactly similar units must be had, and you +know how impossible it is to find two leaves alike on the same tree, +or two trees alike of the same species. This axiom of your numeration, +false in visible nature, is equally false in the invisible universe of +your abstractions, where the same variance takes place in your ideas, +which are the things of the visible world extended by means of their +relations; so that the variations here are even more marked than +elsewhere. In fact, all being relative to the temperament, strength, +habits, and customs of individuals, who never resemble each other, the +smallest objects take the color of personal feelings. For instance, man +has been able to create units and to give an equal weight and value to +bits of gold. Well, take the ducat of the rich man and the ducat of the +poor man to a money-changer and they are rated exactly equal, but to +the mind of the thinker one is of greater importance than the other; one +represents a month of comfort, the other an ephemeral caprice. Two and +two, therefore, only make four through a false conception. + +“Again: fraction does not exist in Nature, where what you call a +fragment is a finished whole. Does it not often happen (have you not +many proofs of it?) that the hundredth part of a substance is stronger +than what you term the whole of it? If fraction does not exist in the +Natural Order, still less shall we find it in the Moral Order, where +ideas and sentiments may be as varied as the species of the Vegetable +kingdom and yet be always whole. The theory of fractions is therefore +another signal instance of the servility of your mind. + +“Thus Number, with its infinite minuteness and its infinite expansion, +is a power whose weakest side is known to you, but whose real import +escapes your perception. You have built yourself a hut in the Infinite +of numbers, you have adorned it with hieroglyphics scientifically +arranged and painted, and you cry out, ‘All is here!’ + +“Let us pass from pure, unmingled Number to corporate Number. Your +geometry establishes that a straight line is the shortest way from one +point to another, but your astronomy proves that God has proceeded +by curves. Here, then, we find two truths equally proved by the +same science,--one by the testimony of your senses reinforced by the +telescope, the other by the testimony of your mind; and yet the one +contradicts the other. Man, liable to err, affirms one, and the Maker +of the worlds, whom, so far, you have not detected in error, contradicts +it. Who shall decide between rectalinear and curvilinear geometry? +between the theory of the straight line and that of the curve? If, in +His vast work, the mysterious Artificer, who knows how to reach His ends +miraculously fast, never employs a straight line except to cut off an +angle and so obtain a curve, neither does man himself always rely upon +it. The bullet which he aims direct proceeds by a curve, and when you +wish to strike a certain point in space, you impel your bombshell along +its cruel parabola. None of your men of science have drawn from this +fact the simple deduction that the Curve is the law of the material +worlds and the Straight line that of the Spiritual worlds; one is the +theory of finite creations, the other the theory of the infinite. Man, +who alone in the world has a knowledge of the Infinite, can alone know +the straight line; he alone has the sense of verticality placed in a +special organ. A fondness for the creations of the curve would seem to +be in certain men an indication of the impurity of their nature still +conjoined to the material substances which engender us; and the love of +great souls for the straight line seems to show in them an intuition of +heaven. Between these two lines there is a gulf fixed like that between +the finite and the infinite, between matter and spirit, between man and +the idea, between motion and the object moved, between the creature and +God. Ask Love the Divine to grant you his wings and you can cross that +gulf. Beyond it begins the revelation of the Word. + +“No part of those things which you call material is without its own +meaning; lines are the boundaries of solid parts and imply a force +of action which you suppress in your formulas,--thus rendering those +formulas false in relation to substances taken as a whole. Hence the +constant destruction of the monuments of human labor, which you supply, +unknown to yourselves, with acting properties. Nature has substances; +your science combines only their appearances. At every step Nature +gives the lie to all your laws. Can you find a single one that is not +disproved by a fact? Your Static laws are at the mercy of a thousand +accidents; a fluid can overthrow a solid mountain and prove that the +heaviest substances may be lifted by one that is imponderable. + +“Your laws on Acoustics and Optics are defied by the sounds which you +hear within yourselves in sleep, and by the light of an electric sun +whose rays often overcome you. You know no more how light makes itself +seen within you, than you know the simple and natural process which +changes it on the throats of tropic birds to rubies, sapphires, +emeralds, and opals, or keeps it gray and brown on the breasts of the +same birds under the cloudy skies of Europe, or whitens it here in the +bosom of our polar Nature. You know not how to decide whether color is a +faculty with which all substances are endowed, or an effect produced by +an effluence of light. You admit the saltness of the sea without +being able to prove that the water is salt at its greatest depth. You +recognize the existence of various substances which span what you think +to be the void,--substances which are not tangible under any of the +forms assumed by Matter, although they put themselves in harmony with +Matter in spite of every obstacle. + +“All this being so, you believe in the results of Chemistry, although +that science still knows no way of gauging the changes produced by the +flux and reflux of substances which come and go across your crystals and +your instruments on the impalpable filaments of heat or light conducted +and projected by the affinities of metal or vitrified flint. You obtain +none but dead substances, from which you have driven the unknown force +that holds in check the decomposition of all things here below, and of +which cohesion, attraction, vibration, and polarity are but phenomena. +Life is the thought of substances; bodies are only the means of +fixing life and holding it to its way. If bodies were beings living of +themselves they would be Cause itself, and could not die. + +“When a man discovers the results of the general movement, which is +shared by all creations according to their faculty of absorption, you +proclaim him mighty in science, as though genius consisted in explaining +a thing that is! Genius ought to cast its eyes beyond effects. Your men +of science would laugh if you said to them: ‘There exist such positive +relations between two human beings, one of whom may be here, and +the other in Java, that they can at the same instant feel the same +sensation, and be conscious of so doing; they can question each other +and reply without mistake’; and yet there are mineral substances which +exhibit sympathies as far off from each other as those of which I speak. +You believe in the power of the electricity which you find in the magnet +and you deny that which emanates from the soul! According to you, the +moon, whose influence upon the tides you think fixed, has none whatever +upon the winds, nor upon navigation, nor upon men; she moves the sea, +but she must not affect the sick folk; she has undeniable relations +with one half of humanity, and nothing at all to do with the other half. +These are your vaunted certainties! + +“Let us go a step further. You believe in physics. But your physics +begin, like the Catholic religion, with an _act of faith_. Do they not +pre-suppose some external force distinct from substance to which it +communicates motion? You see its effects, but what is it? where is it? +what is the essence of its nature, its life? has it any limits?--and +yet, you deny God! + +“Thus, the majority of your scientific axioms, true to their relation to +man, are false in relation to the Great Whole. Science is One, but you +have divided it. To know the real meaning of the laws of phenomena must +we not know the correlations which exist between phenomena and the law +of the Whole? There is, in all things, an appearance which strikes +your senses; under that appearance stirs a soul; a body is there and a +faculty is there. Where do you teach the study of the relations which +bind things to each other? Nowhere. Consequently you have nothing +positive. Your strongest certainties rest upon the analysis of material +forms whose essence you persistently ignore. + +“There is a Higher Knowledge of which, too late, some men obtain a +glimpse, though they dare not avow it. Such men comprehend the necessity +of considering substances not merely in their mathematical properties +but also in their entirety, in their occult relations and affinities. +The greatest man among you divined, in his latter days, that all was +reciprocally cause and effect; that the visible worlds were co-ordinated +among themselves and subject to worlds invisible. He groaned at the +recollection of having tried to establish fixed precepts. Counting up +his worlds, like grape-seeds scattered through ether, he had explained +their coherence by the laws of planetary and molecular attraction. +You bowed before that man of science--well! I tell you that he died in +despair. By supposing that the centrifugal and centripetal forces, +which he had invented to explain to himself the universe, were equal, he +stopped the universe; yet he admitted motion in an indeterminate +sense; but supposing those forces unequal, then utter confusion of the +planetary system ensued. His laws therefore were not absolute; some +higher problem existed than the principle on which his false glory +rested. The connection of the stars with one another and the centripetal +action of their internal motion did not deter him from seeking the +parent stalk on which his clusters hung. Alas, poor man! the more he +widened space the heavier his burden grew. He told you how there came +to be equilibrium among the parts, but whither went the whole? His mind +contemplated the vast extent, illimitable to human eyes, filled with +those groups of worlds a mere fraction of which is all our telescopes +can reach, but whose immensity is revealed by the rapidity of light. +This sublime contemplation enabled him to perceive myriads of worlds, +planted in space like flowers in a field, which are born like infants, +grow like men, die as the aged die, and live by assimilating from their +atmosphere the substances suitable for their nourishment,--having +a centre and a principal of life, guaranteeing to each other their +circuits, absorbed and absorbing like plants, and forming a vast Whole +endowed with life and possessing a destiny. + +“At that sight your man of science trembled! He knew that life is +produced by the union of the thing and its principle, that death or +inertia or gravity is produced by a rupture between a thing and the +movement which appertains to it. Then it was that he foresaw the +crumbling of the worlds and their destruction if God should withdraw the +Breath of His Word. He searched the Apocalypse for the traces of that +Word. You thought him mad. Understand him better! He was seeking pardon +for the work of his genius. + +“Wilfrid, you have come here hoping to make me solve equations, or rise +upon a rain-cloud, or plunge into the fiord and reappear a swan. If +science or miracles were the end and object of humanity, Moses would +have bequeathed to you the law of fluxions; Jesus Christ would have +lightened the darkness of your sciences; his apostles would have told +you whence come those vast trains of gas and melted metals, attached +to cores which revolve and solidify as they dart through ether, or +violently enter some system and combine with a star, jostling and +displacing it by the shock, or destroying it by the infiltration of +their deadly gases; Saint Paul, instead of telling you to live in God, +would have explained why food is the secret bond among all creations and +the evident tie between all living Species. In these days the greatest +miracle of all would be the discovery of the squaring of the circle,--a +problem which you hold to be insoluble, but which is doubtless solved in +the march of worlds by the intersection of some mathematical lines whose +course is visible to the eye of spirits who have reached the higher +spheres. Believe me, miracles are in us, not without us. Here natural +facts occur which men call supernatural. God would have been strangely +unjust had he confined the testimony of his power to certain generations +and peoples and denied them to others. The brazen rod belongs to all. +Neither Moses, nor Jacob, nor Zoroaster, nor Paul, nor Pythagoras, nor +Swedenborg, not the humblest Messenger nor the loftiest Prophet of the +Most High are greater than you are capable of being. Only, there come to +nations as to men certain periods when Faith is theirs. + +“If material sciences be the end and object of human effort, tell +me, both of you, would societies,--those great centres where men +congregate,--would they perpetually be dispersed? If civilization were +the object of our Species, would intelligence perish? would it continue +purely individual? The grandeur of all nations that were truly great was +based on exceptions; when the exception ceased their power died. If such +were the End-all, Prophets, Seers, and Messengers of God would have lent +their hand to Science rather than have given it to Belief. Surely they +would have quickened your brains sooner than have touched your hearts! +But no; one and all they came to lead the nations back to God; they +proclaimed the sacred Path in simple words that showed the way to +heaven; all were wrapped in love and faith, all were inspired by that +_word_ which hovers above the inhabitants of earth, enfolding them, +inspiriting them, uplifting them; none were prompted by any human +interest. Your great geniuses, your poets, your kings, your learned men +are engulfed with their cities; while the names of these good pastors of +humanity, ever blessed, have survived all cataclysms. + +“Alas! we cannot understand each other on any point. We are separated by +an abyss. You are on the side of darkness, while I--I live in the light, +the true Light! Is this the word that you ask of me? I say it with joy; +it may change you. Know this: there are sciences of matter and sciences +of spirit. There, where you see substances, I see forces that stretch +one toward another with generating power. To me, the character of bodies +is the indication of their principles and the sign of their properties. +Those principles beget affinities which escape your knowledge, and +which are linked to centres. The different species among which life is +distributed are unfailing streams which correspond unfailingly among +themselves. Each has his own vocation. Man is effect and cause. He is +fed, but he feeds in turn. When you call God a Creator, you dwarf Him. +He did not create, as you think He did, plants or animals or stars. +Could He proceed by a variety of means? Must He not act by unity +of composition? Moreover, He gave forth principles to be developed, +according to His universal law, at the will of the surroundings in which +they were placed. Hence a single substance and motion, a single plant, a +single animal, but correlations everywhere. In fact, all affinities are +linked together by contiguous similitudes; the life of the worlds is +drawn toward the centres by famished aspiration, as you are drawn by +hunger to seek food. + +“To give you an example of affinities linked to similitudes (a secondary +law on which the creations of your thought are based), music, that +celestial art, is the working out of this principle; for is it not a +complement of sounds harmonized by number? Is not sound a modification +of air, compressed, dilated, echoed? You know the composition of +air,--oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. As you cannot obtain sound from +the void, it is plain that music and the human voice are the result of +organized chemical substances, which put themselves in unison with the +same substances prepared within you by your thought, co-ordinated +by means of light, the great nourisher of your globe. Have you ever +meditated on the masses of nitre deposited by the snow, have you ever +observed a thunderstorm and seen the plants breathing in from the air +about them the metal it contains, without concluding that the sun has +fused and distributed the subtle essence which nourishes all things here +below? Swedenborg has said, ‘The earth is a man.’ + +“Your Science, which makes you great in your own eyes, is paltry indeed +beside the light which bathes a Seer. Cease, cease to question me; our +languages are different. For a moment I have used yours to cast, if it +be possible, a ray of faith into your soul; to give you, as it were, the +hem of my garment and draw you up into the regions of Prayer. Can God +abase Himself to you? Is it not for you to rise to Him? If human reason +finds the ladder of its own strength too weak to bring God down to it, +is it not evident that you must find some other path to reach Him? That +Path is in ourselves. The Seer and the Believer find eyes within their +souls more piercing far than eyes that probe the things of earth,--they +see the Dawn. Hear this truth: Your science, let it be never so exact, +your meditations, however bold, your noblest lights are Clouds. Above, +above is the Sanctuary whence the true Light flows.” + +She sat down and remained silent; her calm face bore no sign of the +agitation which orators betray after their least fervid improvisations. + +Wilfrid bent toward Monsieur Becker and said in a low voice, “Who taught +her that?” + +“I do not know,” he answered. + +“He was gentler on the Falberg,” Minna whispered to herself. + +Seraphita passed her hand across her eyes and then she said, smiling:-- + +“You are very thoughtful to-night, gentlemen. You treat Minna and me as +though we were men to whom you must talk politics or commerce; whereas +we are young girls, and you ought to tell us tales while you drink +your tea. That is what we do, Monsieur Wilfrid, in our long Norwegian +evenings. Come, dear pastor, tell me some Saga that I have not +heard,--that of Frithiof, the chronicle that you believe and have so +often promised me. Tell us the story of the peasant lad who owned the +ship that talked and had a soul. Come! I dream of the frigate Ellida, +the fairy with the sails young girls should navigate!” + +“Since we have returned to the regions of Jarvis,” said Wilfrid, whose +eyes were fastened on Seraphita as those of a robber, lurking in the +darkness, fasten on the spot where he knows the jewels lie, “tell me why +you do not marry?” + +“You are all born widows and widowers,” she replied; “but my marriage +was arranged at my birth. I am betrothed.” + +“To whom?” they cried. + +“Ask not my secret,” she said; “I will promise, if our father permits +it, to invite you to these mysterious nuptials.” + +“Will they be soon?” + +“I think so.” + +A long silence followed these words. + +“The spring has come!” said Seraphita, suddenly. “The noise of the +waters and the breaking of the ice begins. Come, let us welcome the +first spring of the new century.” + +She rose, followed by Wilfrid, and together they went to a window which +David had opened. After the long silence of winter, the waters stirred +beneath the ice and resounded through the fiord like music,--for there +are sounds which space refines, so that they reach the ear in waves of +light and freshness. + +“Wilfrid, cease to nourish evil thoughts whose triumph would be hard to +bear. Your desires are easily read in the fire of your eyes. Be kind; +take one step forward in well-doing. Advance beyond the love of man and +sacrifice yourself completely to the happiness of her you love. Obey me; +I will lead you in a path where you shall obtain the distinctions which +you crave, and where Love is infinite indeed.” + +She left him thoughtful. + +“That soft creature!” he said within himself; “is she indeed the +prophetess whose eyes have just flashed lightnings, whose voice has +rung through worlds, whose hand has wielded the axe of doubt against our +sciences? Have we been dreaming? Am I awake?” + +“Minna,” said Seraphita, returning to the young girl, “the eagle swoops +where the carrion lies, but the dove seeks the mountain spring beneath +the peaceful greenery of the glades. The eagle soars to heaven, the dove +descends from it. Cease to venture into regions where thou canst find +no spring of waters, no umbrageous shade. If on the Falberg thou couldst +not gaze into the abyss and live, keep all thy strength for him who will +love thee. Go, poor girl; thou knowest, I am betrothed.” + +Minna rose and followed Seraphita to the window where Wilfrid stood. All +three listened to the Sieg bounding out the rush of the upper waters, +which brought down trees uprooted by the ice; the fiord had regained +its voice; all illusions were dispelled! They rejoiced in Nature as she +burst her bonds and seemed to answer with sublime accord to the Spirit +whose breath had wakened her. + +When the three guests of this mysterious being left the house, they were +filled with the vague sensation which is neither sleep, nor torpor, +nor astonishment, but partakes of the nature of each,--a state that is +neither dusk nor dawn, but which creates a thirst for light. All three +were thinking. + +“I begin to believe that she is indeed a Spirit hidden in human form,” + said Monsieur Becker. + +Wilfrid, re-entering his own apartments, calm and convinced, was unable +to struggle against that influence so divinely majestic. + +Minna said in her heart, “Why will he not let me love him!” + + + + +CHAPTER V. FAREWELL + + +There is in man an almost hopeless phenomenon for thoughtful minds who +seek a meaning in the march of civilization, and who endeavor to give +laws of progression to the movement of intelligence. However portentous +a fact may be, or even supernatural,--if such facts exist,--however +solemnly a miracle may be done in sight of all, the lightning of that +fact, the thunderbolt of that miracle is quickly swallowed up in the +ocean of life, whose surface, scarcely stirred by the brief convulsion, +returns to the level of its habitual flow. + +A Voice is heard from the jaws of an Animal; a Hand writes on the wall +before a feasting Court; an Eye gleams in the slumber of a king, and a +Prophet explains the dream; Death, evoked, rises on the confines of the +luminous sphere were faculties revive; Spirit annihilates Matter at the +foot of that mystic ladder of the Seven Spiritual Worlds, one resting +upon another in space and revealing themselves in shining waves that +break in light upon the steps of the celestial Tabernacle. But however +solemn the inward Revelation, however clear the visible outward Sign, +be sure that on the morrow Balaam doubts both himself and his ass, +Belshazzar and Pharoah call Moses and Daniel to qualify the Word. The +Spirit, descending, bears man above this earth, opens the seas and lets +him see their depths, shows him lost species, wakens dry bones whose +dust is the soil of valleys; the Apostle writes the Apocalypse, and +twenty centuries later human science ratifies his words and turns his +visions into maxims. And what comes of it all? Why this,--that the +peoples live as they have ever lived, as they lived in the first +Olympiad, as they lived on the morrow of Creation, and on the eve of the +great cataclysm. The waves of Doubt have covered all things. The same +floods surge with the same measured motion on the human granite which +serves as a boundary to the ocean of intelligence. When man has inquired +of himself whether he has seen that which he has seen, whether he has +heard the words that entered his ears, whether the facts were facts and +the idea is indeed an idea, then he resumes his wonted bearing, thinks +of his worldly interests, obeys some envoy of death and of oblivion +whose dusky mantle covers like a pall an ancient Humanity of which +the moderns retain no memory. Man never pauses; he goes his round, +he vegetates until the appointed day when his Axe falls. If this wave +force, this pressure of bitter waters prevents all progress, no doubt it +also warns of death. Spirits prepared by faith among the higher souls of +earth can alone perceive the mystic ladder of Jacob. + +After listening to Seraphita’s answer in which (being earnestly +questioned) she unrolled before their eyes a Divine Perspective,--as an +organ fills a church with sonorous sound and reveals a musical universe, +its solemn tones rising to the loftiest arches and playing, like light, +upon their foliated capitals,--Wilfrid returned to his own room, awed +by the sight of a world in ruins, and on those ruins the brilliance of +mysterious lights poured forth in torrents by the hand of a young girl. +On the morrow he still thought of these things, but his awe was gone; he +felt he was neither destroyed nor changed; his passions, his ideas awoke +in full force, fresh and vigorous. He went to breakfast with Monsieur +Becker and found the old man absorbed in the “Treatise on Incantations,” + which he had searched since early morning to convince his guest that +there was nothing unprecedented in all that they had seen and heard at +the Swedish castle. With the childlike trustfulness of a true scholar +he had folded down the pages in which Jean Wier related authentic facts +which proved the possibility of the events that had happened the night +before,--for to learned men an idea is a event, just as the greatest +events often present no idea at all to them. By the time they had +swallowed their fifth cup of tea, these philosophers had come to think +the mysterious scene of the preceding evening wholly natural. The +celestial truths to which they had listened were arguments susceptible +of examination; Seraphita was a girl, more or less eloquent; allowance +must be made for the charms of her voice, her seductive beauty, her +fascinating motions, in short, for all those oratorical arts by which an +actor puts a world of sentiment and thought into phrases which are often +commonplace. + +“Bah!” said the worthy pastor, making a philosophical grimace as he +spread a layer of salt butter on his slice of bread, “the final word of +all these fine enigmas is six feet under ground.” + +“But,” said Wilfrid, sugaring his tea, “I cannot image how a young girl +of seventeen can know so much; what she said was certainly a compact +argument.” + +“Read the account of that Italian woman,” said Monsieur Becker, “who at +the age of twelve spoke forty-two languages, ancient and modern; also +the history of that monk who could guess thought by smell. I can give +you a thousand such cases from Jean Wier and other writers.” + +“I admit all that, dear pastor; but to my thinking, Seraphita would make +a perfect wife.” + +“She is all mind,” said Monsieur Becker, dubiously. + +Several days went by, during which the snow in the valleys melted +gradually away; the green of the forests and of the grass began to show; +Norwegian Nature made ready her wedding garments for her brief bridal +of a day. During this period, when the softened air invited every one +to leave the house, Seraphita remained at home in solitude. When at last +she admitted Minna the latter saw at once the ravages of inward fever; +Seraphita’s voice was hollow, her skin pallid; hitherto a poet might +have compared her lustre to that of diamonds,--now it was that of a +topaz. + +“Have you seen her?” asked Wilfrid, who had wandered around the Swedish +dwelling waiting for Minna’s return. + +“Yes,” answered the young girl, weeping; “We must lose him!” + +“Mademoiselle,” cried Wilfrid, endeavoring to repress the loud tones of +his angry voice, “do not jest with me. You can love Seraphita only +as one young girl can love another, and not with the love which she +inspires in me. You do not know your danger if my jealousy were really +aroused. Why can I not go to her? Is it you who stand in my way?” + +“I do not know by what right you probe my heart,” said Minna, calm +in appearance, but inwardly terrified. “Yes, I love him,” she said, +recovering the courage of her convictions, that she might, for once, +confess the religion of her heart. “But my jealousy, natural as it is +in love, fears no one here below. Alas! I am jealous of a secret feeling +that absorbs him. Between him and me there is a great gulf fixed which +I cannot cross. Would that I knew who loves him best, the stars or I! +which of us would sacrifice our being most eagerly for his happiness! +Why should I not be free to avow my love? In the presence of death we +may declare our feelings,--and Seraphitus is about to die.” + +“Minna, you are mistaken; the siren I so love and long for, she, whom +I have seen, feeble and languid, on her couch of furs, is not a young +man.” + +“Monsieur,” answered Minna, distressfully, “the being whose powerful +hand guided me on the Falberg, who led me to the saeter sheltered +beneath the Ice-Cap, there--” she said, pointing to the peak, “is not +a feeble girl. Ah, had you but heard him prophesying! His poem was the +music of thought. A young girl never uttered those solemn tones of a +voice which stirred my soul.” + +“What certainty have you?” said Wilfrid. + +“None but that of the heart,” answered Minna. + +“And I,” cried Wilfrid, casting on his companion the terrible glance of +the earthly desire that kills, “I, too, know how powerful is her empire +over me, and I will undeceive you.” + +At this moment, while the words were rushing from Wilfrid’s lips as +rapidly as the thoughts surged in his brain, they saw Seraphita coming +towards them from the house, followed by David. The apparition calmed +the man’s excitement. + +“Look,” he said, “could any but a woman move with that grace and +langor?” + +“He suffers; he comes forth for the last time,” said Minna. + +David went back at a sign from his mistress, who advanced towards +Wilfrid and Minna. + +“Let us go to the falls of the Sieg,” she said, expressing one of those +desires which suddenly possess the sick and which the well hasten to +obey. + +A thin white mist covered the valleys around the fiord and the sides +of the mountains, whose icy summits, sparkling like stars, pierced the +vapor and gave it the appearance of a moving milky way. The sun was +visible through the haze like a globe of red fire. Though winter still +lingered, puffs of warm air laden with the scent of the birch-trees, +already adorned with their rosy efflorescence, and of the larches, +whose silken tassels were beginning to appear,--breezes tempered by the +incense and the sighs of earth,--gave token of the glorious Northern +spring, the rapid, fleeting joy of that most melancholy of Natures. +The wind was beginning to lift the veil of mist which half-obscured the +gulf. The birds sang. The bark of the trees where the sun had not yet +dried the clinging hoar-frost shone gayly to the eye in its fantastic +wreathings which trickled away in murmuring rivulets as the warmth +reached them. The three friends walked in silence along the shore. +Wilfrid and Minna alone noticed the magic transformation that was taking +place in the monotonous picture of the winter landscape. Their companion +walked in thought, as though a voice were sounding to her ears in this +concert of Nature. + +Presently they reached the ledge of rocks through which the Sieg had +forced its way, after escaping from the long avenue cut by its waters +in an undulating line through the forest,--a fluvial pathway flanked +by aged firs and roofed with strong-ribbed arches like those of a +cathedral. Looking back from that vantage-ground, the whole extent of +the fiord could be seen at a glance, with the open sea sparkling on the +horizon beyond it like a burnished blade. + +At this moment the mist, rolling away, left the sky blue and clear. +Among the valleys and around the trees flitted the shining fragments,--a +diamond dust swept by the freshening breeze. The torrent rolled on +toward them; along its length a vapor rose, tinted by the sun with every +color of his light; the decomposing rays flashing prismatic fires along +the many-tinted scarf of waters. The rugged ledge on which they stood +was carpeted by several kinds of lichen, forming a noble mat variegated +by moisture and lustrous like the sheen of a silken fabric. Shrubs, +already in bloom, crowned the rocks with garlands. Their waving foliage, +eager for the freshness of the water, drooped its tresses above the +stream; the larches shook their light fringes and played with the pines, +stiff and motionless as aged men. This luxuriant beauty was foiled by +the solemn colonnades of the forest-trees, rising in terraces upon the +mountains, and by the calm sheet of the fiord, lying below, where the +torrent buried its fury and was still. Beyond, the sea hemmed in this +page of Nature, written by the greatest of poets, Chance; to whom the +wild luxuriance of creation when apparently abandoned to itself is +owing. + +The village of Jarvis was a lost point in the landscape, in this +immensity of Nature, sublime at this moment like all things else of +ephemeral life which present a fleeting image of perfection; for, by a +law fatal to no eyes but our own, creations which appear complete--the +love of our heart and the desire of our eyes--have but one spring-tide +here below. Standing on this breast-work of rock these three persons +might well suppose themselves alone in the universe. + +“What beauty!” cried Wilfrid. + +“Nature sings hymns,” said Seraphita. “Is not her music exquisite? Tell +me, Wilfrid, could any of the women you once knew create such a glorious +retreat for herself as this? I am conscious here of a feeling seldom +inspired by the sight of cities, a longing to lie down amid this +quickening verdure. Here, with eyes to heaven and an open heart, lost in +the bosom of immensity, I could hear the sighings of the flower, scarce +budded, which longs for wings, or the cry of the eider grieving that it +can only fly, and remember the desires of man who, issuing from all, +is none the less ever longing. But that, Wilfrid, is only a woman’s +thought. You find seductive fancies in the wreathing mists, the +light embroidered veils which Nature dons like a coy maiden, in this +atmosphere where she perfumes for her spousals the greenery of her +tresses. You seek the naiad’s form amid the gauzy vapors, and to your +thinking my ears should listen only to the virile voice of the Torrent.” + +“But Love is there, like the bee in the calyx of the flower,” replied +Wilfrid, perceiving for the first time a trace of earthly sentiment in +her words, and fancying the moment favorable for an expression of his +passionate tenderness. + +“Always there?” said Seraphita, smiling. Minna had left them for a +moment to gather the blue saxifrages growing on a rock above. + +“Always,” repeated Wilfrid. “Hear me,” he said, with a masterful glance +which was foiled as by a diamond breast-plate. “You know not what I am, +nor what I can be, nor what I will. Do not reject my last entreaty. +Be mine for the good of that world whose happiness you bear upon your +heart. Be mine that my conscience may be pure; that a voice divine +may sound in my ears and infuse Good into the great enterprise I have +undertaken prompted by my hatred to the nations, but which I swear to +accomplish for their benefit if you will walk beside me. What higher +mission can you ask for love? what nobler part can woman aspire to? I +came to Norway to meditate a grand design.” + +“And you will sacrifice its grandeur,” she said, “to an innocent girl +who loves you, and who will lead you in the paths of peace.” + +“What matters sacrifice,” he cried, “if I have you? Hear my secret. I +have gone from end to end of the North,--that great smithy from whose +anvils new races have spread over the earth, like human tides appointed +to refresh the wornout civilizations. I wished to begin my work at some +Northern point, to win the empire which force and intellect must ever +give over a primitive people; to form that people for battle, to drive +them to wars which should ravage Europe like a conflagration, crying +liberty to some, pillage to others, glory here, pleasure there!--I, +myself, remaining an image of Destiny, cruel, implacable, advancing like +the whirlwind, which sucks from the atmosphere the particles that make +the thunderbolt, and falls like a devouring scourge upon the nations. +Europe is at an epoch when she awaits the new Messiah who shall destroy +society and remake it. She can no longer believe except in him who +crushes her under foot. The day is at hand when poets and historians +will justify me, exalt me, and borrow my ideas, mine! And all the while +my triumph will be a jest, written in blood, the jest of my vengeance! +But not here, Seraphita; what I see in the North disgusts me. Hers is +a mere blind force; I thirst for the Indies! I would rather fight a +selfish, cowardly, mercantile government. Besides, it is easier to stir +the imagination of the peoples at the feet of the Caucasus than to argue +with the intellect of the icy lands which here surround me. Therefore am +I tempted to cross the Russian steps and pour my triumphant human tide +through Asia to the Ganges, and overthrow the British rule. Seven men +have done this thing before me in other epochs of the world. I will +emulate them. I will spread Art like the Saracens, hurled by Mohammed +upon Europe. Mine shall be no paltry sovereignty like those that govern +to-day the ancient provinces of the Roman empire, disputing with their +subjects about a customs right! No, nothing can bar my way! Like Genghis +Khan, my feet shall tread a third of the globe, my hand shall grasp +the throat of Asia like Aurung-Zeb. Be my companion! Let me seat thee, +beautiful and noble being, on a throne! I do not doubt success, but live +within my heart and I am sure of it.” + +“I have already reigned,” said Seraphita, coldly. + +The words fell as the axe of a skilful woodman falls at the root of a +young tree and brings it down at a single blow. Men alone can comprehend +the rage that a woman excites in the soul of a man when, after showing +her his strength, his power, his wisdom, his superiority, the capricious +creature bends her head and says, “All that is nothing”; when, unmoved, +she smiles and says, “Such things are known to me,” as though his power +were nought. + +“What!” cried Wilfrid, in despair, “can the riches of art, the riches of +worlds, the splendors of a court--” + +She stopped him by a single inflexion of her lips, and said, “Beings +more powerful than you have offered me far more.” + +“Thou hast no soul,” he cried,--“no soul, if thou art not persuaded by +the thought of comforting a great man, who is willing now to sacrifice +all things to live beside thee in a little house on the shores of a +lake.” + +“But,” she said, “I am loved with a boundless love.” + +“By whom?” cried Wilfrid, approaching Seraphita with a frenzied +movement, as if to fling her into the foaming basin of the Sieg. + +She looked at him and slowly extended her arm, pointing to Minna, who +now sprang towards her, fair and glowing and lovely as the flowers she +held in her hand. + +“Child!” said Seraphitus, advancing to meet her. + +Wilfrid remained where she left him, motionless as the rock on which he +stood, lost in thought, longing to let himself go into the torrent +of the Sieg, like the fallen trees which hurried past his eyes and +disappeared in the bosom of the gulf. + +“I gathered them for you,” said Minna, offering the bunch of saxifrages +to the being she adored. “One of them, see, this one,” she added, +selecting a flower, “is like that you found on the Falberg.” + +Seraphitus looked alternately at the flower and at Minna. + +“Why question me? Dost thou doubt me?” + +“No,” said the young girl, “my trust in you is infinite. You are +more beautiful to look upon than this glorious nature, but your mind +surpasses in intellect that of all humanity. When I have been with you I +seem to have prayed to God. I long--” + +“For what?” said Seraphitus, with a glance that revealed to the young +girl the vast distance which separated them. + +“To suffer in your stead.” + +“Ah, dangerous being!” cried Seraphitus in his heart. “Is it wrong, oh +my God! to desire to offer her to Thee? Dost thou remember, Minna, +what I said to thee up there?” he added, pointing to the summit of the +Ice-Cap. + +“He is terrible again,” thought Minna, trembling with fear. + +The voice of the Sieg accompanied the thoughts of the three beings +united on this platform of projecting rock, but separated in soul by the +abysses of the Spiritual World. + +“Seraphitus! teach me,” said Minna in a silvery voice, soft as the +motion of a sensitive plant, “teach me how to cease to love you. Who +could fail to admire you; love is an admiration that never wearies.” + +“Poor child!” said Seraphitus, turning pale; “there is but one whom thou +canst love in that way.” + +“Who?” asked Minna. + +“Thou shalt know hereafter,” he said, in the feeble voice of a man who +lies down to die. + +“Help, help! he is dying!” cried Minna. + +Wilfrid ran towards them. Seeing Seraphita as she lay on a fragment of +gneiss, where time had cast its velvet mantle of lustrous lichen and +tawny mosses now burnished in the sunlight, he whispered softly, “How +beautiful she is!” + +“One other look! the last that I shall ever cast upon this nature in +travail,” said Seraphitus, rallying her strength and rising to her feet. + +She advanced to the edge of the rocky platform, whence her eyes took in +the scenery of that grand and glorious landscape, so verdant, flowery, +and animated, yet so lately buried in its winding-sheet of snow. + +“Farewell,” she said, “farewell, home of Earth, warmed by the fires of +Love; where all things press with ardent force from the centre to the +extremities; where the extremities are gathered up, like a woman’s hair, +to weave the mysterious braid which binds us in that invisible ether to +the Thought Divine! + +“Behold the man bending above that furrow moistened with his tears, +who lifts his head for an instant to question Heaven; behold the woman +gathering her children that she may feed them with her milk; see him +who lashes the ropes in the height of the gale; see her who sits in the +hollow of the rocks, awaiting the father! Behold all they who stretch +their hands in want after a lifetime spent in thankless toil. To all +peace and courage, and to all farewell! + +“Hear you the cry of the soldier, dying nameless and unknown? the wail +of the man deceived who weeps in the desert? To them peace and courage; +to all farewell! + +“Farewell, you who die for the kings of the earth! Farewell, ye people +without a country and ye countries without a people, each, with a mutual +want. Above all, farewell to Thee who knew not where to lay Thy head, +Exile divine! Farewell, mothers beside your dying sons! Farewell, ye +Little Ones, ye Feeble, ye Suffering, you whose sorrows I have so often +borne! Farewell, all ye who have descended into the sphere of Instinct +that you may suffer there for others! + +“Farewell, ye mariners who seek the Orient through the thick darkness of +your abstractions, vast as principles! Farewell, martyrs of thought, +led by thought into the presence of the True Light. Farewell, regions +of study where mine ears can hear the plaint of genius neglected and +insulted, the sigh of the patient scholar to whom enlightenment comes +too late! + +“I see the angelic choir, the wafting of perfumes, the incense of the +heart of those who go their way consoling, praying, imparting celestial +balm and living light to suffering souls! Courage, ye choir of Love! +you to whom the peoples cry, ‘Comfort us, comfort us, defend us!’ To you +courage! and farewell! + +“Farewell, ye granite rocks that shall bloom a flower; farewell, flower +that becomes a dove; farewell, dove that shalt be woman; farewell, +woman, who art Suffering, man, who art Belief! Farewell, you who shall +be all love, all prayer!” + +Broken with fatigue, this inexplicable being leaned for the first time +on Wilfrid and on Minna to be taken home. Wilfrid and Minna felt +the shock of a mysterious contact in and through the being who thus +connected them. They had scarcely advanced a few steps when David +met them, weeping. “She will die,” he said, “why have you brought her +hither?” + +The old man raised her in his arms with the vigor of youth and bore her +to the gate of the Swedish castle like an eagle bearing a white lamb to +his mountain eyrie. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. THE PATH TO HEAVEN + + +The day succeeding that on which Seraphita foresaw her death and bade +farewell to Earth, as a prisoner looks round his dungeon before leaving +it forever, she suffered pains which obliged her to remain in the +helpless immobility of those whose pangs are great. Wilfrid and Minna +went to see her, and found her lying on her couch of furs. Still veiled +in flesh, her soul shone through that veil, which grew more and more +transparent day by day. The progress of the Spirit, piercing the last +obstacle between itself and the Infinite, was called an illness, the +hour of Life went by the name of death. David wept as he watched +her sufferings; unreasonable as a child, he would not listen to his +mistress’s consolations. Monsieur Becker wished Seraphita to try +remedies; but all were useless. + +One morning she sent for the two beings whom she loved, telling them +that this would be the last of her bad days. Wilfrid and Minna came in +terror, knowing well that they were about to lose her. Seraphita smiled +to them as one departing to a better world; her head drooped like a +flower heavy with dew, which opens its calyx for the last time to waft +its fragrance on the breeze. She looked at these friends with a sadness +that was for them, not for herself; she thought no longer of herself, +and they felt this with a grief mingled with gratitude which they were +unable to express. Wilfrid stood silent and motionless, lost in thoughts +excited by events whose vast bearings enabled him to conceive of some +illimitable immensity. + +Emboldened by the weakness of the being lately so powerful, or perhaps +by the fear of losing him forever, Minna bent down over the couch and +said, “Seraphitus, let me follow thee!” + +“Can I forbid thee?” + +“Why will thou not love me enough to stay with me?” + +“I can love nothing here.” + +“What canst thou love?” + +“Heaven.” + +“Is it worthy of heaven to despise the creatures of God?” + +“Minna, can we love two beings at once? Would our beloved be indeed our +beloved if he did not fill our hearts? Must he not be the first, the +last, the only one? She who is all love, must she not leave the world +for her beloved? Human ties are but a memory, she has no ties except to +him! Her soul is hers no longer; it is his. If she keeps within her +soul anything that is not his, does she love? No, she loves not. To +love feebly, is that to love at all? The voice of her beloved makes her +joyful; it flows through her veins in a crimson tide more glowing far +than blood; his glance is the light that penetrates her; her being melts +into his being. He is warm to her soul. He is the light that lightens; +near to him there is neither cold nor darkness. He is never absent, he +is always with us; we think in him, to him, by him! Minna, that is how I +love him.” + +“Love whom?” said Minna, tortured with sudden jealousy. + +“God,” replied Seraphitus, his voice glowing in their souls like fires +of liberty from peak to peak upon the mountains,--“God, who does not +betray us! God, who will never abandon us! who crowns our wishes; who +satisfies His creatures with joy--joy unalloyed and infinite! God, +who never wearies but ever smiles! God, who pours into the soul fresh +treasures day by day; who purifies and leaves no bitterness; who is all +harmony, all flame! God, who has placed Himself within our hearts to +blossom there; who hearkens to our prayers; who does not stand aloof +when we are His, but gives His presence absolutely! He who revives us, +magnifies us, and multiplies us in Himself; _God_! Minna, I love thee +because thou mayst be His! I love thee because if thou come to Him thou +wilt be mine.” + +“Lead me to Him,” cried Minna, kneeling down; “take me by the hand; I +will not leave thee!” + +“Lead us, Seraphita!” cried Wilfrid, coming to Minna’s side with an +impetuous movement. “Yes, thou hast given me a thirst for Light, a +thirst for the Word. I am parched with the Love thou hast put into my +heart; I desire to keep thy soul in mine; thy will is mine; I will do +whatsoever thou biddest me. Since I cannot obtain thee, I will keep thy +will and all the thoughts that thou hast given me. If I may not unite +myself with thee except by the power of my spirit, I will cling to thee +in soul as the flame to what it laps. Speak!” + +“Angel!” exclaimed the mysterious being, enfolding them both in +one glance, as it were with an azure mantle, “Heaven shall by thine +heritage!” + +Silence fell among them after these words, which sounded in the souls of +the man and of the woman like the first notes of some celestial harmony. + +“If you would teach your feet to tread the Path to heaven, know that +the way is hard at first,” said the weary sufferer; “God wills that you +shall seek Him for Himself. In that sense, He is jealous; He demands +your whole self. But when you have given Him yourself, never, never will +He abandon you. I leave with you the keys of the kingdom of His Light, +where evermore you shall dwell in the bosom of the Father, in the heart +of the Bridegroom. No sentinels guard the approaches, you may enter +where you will; His palaces, His treasures, His sceptre, all are +free. ‘Take them!’ He says. But--you must _will_ to go there. Like +one preparing for a journey, a man must leave his home, renounce his +projects, bid farewell to friends, to father, mother, sister, even +to the helpless brother who cries after him,--yes, farewell to them +eternally; you will no more return than did the martyrs on their way to +the stake. You must strip yourself of every sentiment, of everything to +which man clings. Unless you do this you are but half-hearted in your +enterprise. + +“Do for God what you do for your ambitious projects, what you do in +consecrating yourself to Art, what you have done when you loved a human +creature or sought some secret of human science. Is not God the whole +of science, the all of love, the source of poetry? Surely His riches +are worthy of being coveted! His treasure is inexhaustible, His poem +infinite, His love immutable, His science sure and darkened by no +mysteries. Be anxious for nothing, He will give you all. Yes, in His +heart are treasures with which the petty joys you lose on earth are not +to be compared. What I tell you is true; you shall possess His power; +you may use it as you would use the gifts of lover or mistress. Alas! +men doubt, they lack faith, and will, and persistence. If some set their +feet in the path, they look behind them and presently turn back. Few +decide between the two extremes,--to go or stay, heaven or the mire. All +hesitate. Weakness leads astray, passion allures into dangerous paths, +vice becomes habitual, man flounders in the mud and makes no progress +towards a better state. + +“All human beings go through a previous life in the sphere of Instinct, +where they are brought to see the worthlessness of earthly treasures, +to amass which they gave themselves such untold pains! Who can tell how +many times the human being lives in the sphere of Instinct before he +is prepared to enter the sphere of Abstractions, where thought expends +itself on erring science, where mind wearies at last of human language? +for, when Matter is exhausted, Spirit enters. Who knows how many fleshly +forms the heir of heaven occupies before he can be brought to understand +the value of that silence and solitude whose starry plains are but the +vestibule of Spiritual Worlds? He feels his way amid the void, makes +trial of nothingness, and then at last his eyes revert upon the Path. +Then follow other existences,--all to be lived to reach the place +where Light effulgent shines. Death is the post-house of the journey. A +lifetime may be needed merely to gain the virtues which annul the +errors of man’s preceding life. First comes the life of suffering, whose +tortures create a thirst for love. Next the life of love and devotion +to the creature, teaching devotion to the Creator,--a life where the +virtues of love, its martyrdoms, its joys followed by sorrows, its +angelic hopes, its patience, its resignation, excite an appetite for +things divine. Then follows the life which seeks in silence the traces +of the Word; in which the soul grows humble and charitable. Next the +life of longing; and lastly, the life of prayer. In that is the noonday +sun; there are the flowers, there the harvest! + +“The virtues we acquire, which develop slowly within us, are +the invisible links that bind each one of our existences to the +others,--existences which the spirit alone remembers, for Matter has no +memory for spiritual things. Thought alone holds the tradition of the +bygone life. The endless legacy of the past to the present is the secret +source of human genius. Some receive the gift of form, some the gift +of numbers, others the gift of harmony. All these gifts are steps of +progress in the Path of Light. Yes, he who possesses a single one of +them touches at that point the Infinite. Earth has divided the Word--of +which I here reveal some syllables--into particles, she has reduced it +to dust and has scattered it through her works, her dogmas, her poems. +If some impalpable grain shines like a diamond in a human work, men cry: +‘How grand! how true! how glorious!’ That fragment vibrates in their +souls and wakes a presentiment of heaven: to some, a melody that +weans from earth; to others, the solitude that draws to God. To all, +whatsoever sends us back upon ourselves, whatsoever strikes us down and +crushes us, lifts or abases us,--_that_ is but a syllable of the Divine +Word. + +“When a human soul draws its first furrow straight, the rest will follow +surely. One thought borne inward, one prayer uplifted, one suffering +endured, one echo of the Word within us, and our souls are forever +changed. All ends in God; and many are the ways to find Him by walking +straight before us. When the happy day arrives in which you set your +feet upon the Path and begin your pilgrimage, the world will know +nothing of it; earth no longer understands you; you no longer understand +each other. Men who attain a knowledge of these things, who lisp a few +syllables of the Word, often have not where to lay their head; hunted +like beasts they perish on the scaffold, to the joy of assembled +peoples, while Angels open to them the gates of heaven. Therefore, your +destiny is a secret between yourself and God, just as love is a secret +between two hearts. You may be the buried treasure, trodden under the +feet of men thirsting for gold yet all-unknowing that you are there +beneath them. + +“Henceforth your existence becomes a thing of ceaseless activity; each +act has a meaning which connects you with God, just as in love your +actions and your thoughts are filled with the loved one. But love and +its joys, love and its pleasures limited by the senses, are but the +imperfect image of the love which unites you to your celestial Spouse. +All earthly joy is mixed with anguish, with discontent. If love ought +not to pall then death should end it while its flame is high, so that +we see no ashes. But in God our wretchedness becomes delight, joy lives +upon itself and multiplies, and grows, and has no limit. In the Earthly +life our fleeting love is ended by tribulation; in the Spiritual life +the tribulations of a day end in joys unending. The soul is ceaselessly +joyful. We feel God with us, in us; He gives a sacred savor to all +things; He shines in the soul; He imparts to us His sweetness; He stills +our interest in the world viewed for ourselves; He quickens our interest +in it viewed for His sake, and grants us the exercise of His power upon +it. In His name we do the works which He inspires, we act for Him, we +have no self except in Him, we love His creatures with undying love, we +dry their tears and long to bring them unto Him, as a loving woman longs +to see the inhabitants of earth obey her well-beloved. + +“The final life, the fruition of all other lives, to which the powers +of the soul have tended, and whose merits open the Sacred Portals to +perfected man, is the life of Prayer. Who can make you comprehend the +grandeur, the majesty, the might of Prayer? May my voice, these words of +mine, ring in your hearts and change them. Be now, here, what you may +be after cruel trial! There are privileged beings, Prophets, Seers, +Messengers, and Martyrs, all those who suffer for the Word and who +proclaim it; such souls spring at a bound across the human sphere and +rise at once to Prayer. So, too, with those whose souls receive the fire +of Faith. Be one of those brave souls! God welcomes boldness. He loves +to be taken by violence; He will never reject those who force their way +to Him. Know this! desire, the torrent of your will, is so all-powerful +that a single emission of it, made with force, can obtain all; a single +cry, uttered under the pressure of Faith, suffices. Be one of such +beings, full of force, of will, of love! Be conquerors on the earth! Let +the hunger and thirst of God possess you. Fly to Him as the hart panting +for the water-brooks. Desire shall lend you its wings; tears, those +blossoms of repentance, shall be the celestial baptism from which your +nature will issue purified. Cast yourself on the breast of the stream in +Prayer! Silence and meditation are the means of following the Way. God +reveals Himself, unfailingly, to the solitary, thoughtful seeker. + +“It is thus that the separation takes place between Matter, which so +long has wrapped its darkness round you, and Spirit, which was in you +from the beginning, the light which lighted you and now brings noon-day +to your soul. Yes, your broken heart shall receive the light; the light +shall bathe it. Then you will no longer feel convictions, they will +have changed to certainties. The Poet utters; the Thinker meditates; the +Righteous acts; but he who stands upon the borders of the Divine World +prays; and his prayer is word, thought, action, in one! Yes, prayer +includes all, contains all; it completes nature, for it reveals to you +the mind within it and its progression. White and shining virgin of all +human virtues, ark of the covenant between earth and heaven, tender and +strong companion partaking of the lion and of the lamb, Prayer! Prayer +will give you the key of heaven! Bold and pure as innocence, strong, +like all that is single and simple, this glorious, invincible Queen +rests, nevertheless, on the material world; she takes possession of it; +like the sun, she clasps it in a circle of light. The universe belongs +to him who wills, who knows, who prays; but he must will, he must know, +he must pray; in a word, he must possess force, wisdom, and faith. + +“Therefore Prayer, issuing from so many trials, is the consummation +of all truths, all powers, all feelings. Fruit of the laborious, +progressive, continued development of natural properties and faculties +vitalized anew by the divine breath of the Word, Prayer has occult +activity; it is the final worship--not the material worship of images, +nor the spiritual worship of formulas, but the worship of the Divine +World. We say no prayers,--prayer forms within us; it is a faculty which +acts of itself; it has attained a way of action which lifts it outside +of forms; it links the soul to God, with whom we unite as the root of +the tree unites with the soil; our veins draw life from the principle of +life, and we live by the life of the universe. Prayer bestows external +conviction by making us penetrate the Material World through the +cohesion of all our faculties with the elementary substances; it bestows +internal conviction by developing our essence and mingling it with that +of the Spiritual Worlds. To be able to pray thus, you must attain to an +utter abandonment of flesh; you must acquire through the fires of the +furnace the purity of the diamond; for this complete communion with the +Divine is obtained only in absolute repose, where storms and conflicts +are at rest. + +“Yes, Prayer--the aspiration of the soul freed absolutely from the +body--bears all forces within it, and applies them to the constant and +perseverant union of the Visible and the Invisible. When you possess +the faculty of praying without weariness, with love, with force, with +certainty, with intelligence, your spiritualized nature will presently +be invested with power. Like a rushing wind, like a thunderbolt, it cuts +its way through all things and shares the power of God. The quickness +of the Spirit becomes yours; in an instant you may pass from region to +region; like the Word itself, you are transported from the ends of the +world to other worlds. Harmony exists, and you are part of it! Light is +there and your eyes possess it! Melody is heard and you echo it! Under +such conditions, you feel your perceptions developing, widening; the +eyes of your mind reach to vast distances. There is, in truth, neither +time nor place to the Spirit; space and duration are proportions created +for Matter; spirit and matter have naught in common. + +“Though these things take place in stillness, in silence, without +agitation, without external movement, yet Prayer is all action; but it +is spiritual action, stripped of substantiality, and reduced, like +the motion of the worlds, to an invisible pure force. It penetrates +everywhere like light; it gives vitality to souls that come beneath its +rays, as Nature beneath the sun. It resuscitates virtue, purifies and +sanctifies all actions, peoples solitude, and gives a foretaste of +eternal joys. When you have once felt the delights of the divine +intoxication which comes of this internal travail, then all is yours! +once take the lute on which we sing to God within your hands, and you +will never part with it. Hence the solitude in which Angelic Spirits +live; hence their disdain of human joys. They are withdrawn from those +who must die to live; they hear the language of such beings, but they no +longer understand their ideas; they wonder at their movements, at +what the world terms policies, material laws, societies. For them all +mysteries are over; truth, and truth alone, is theirs. They who have +reached the point where their eyes discern the Sacred Portals, who, not +looking back, not uttering one regret, contemplate worlds and comprehend +their destinies, such as they keep silence, wait, and bear their final +struggles. The worst of all those struggles is the last; at the zenith +of all virtue is Resignation,--to be an exile and not lament, no longer +to delight in earthly things and yet to smile, to belong to God and yet +to stay with men! You hear the voice that cries to you, ‘Advance!’ Often +celestial visions of descending Angels compass you about with songs +of praise; then, tearless, uncomplaining, must you watch them as they +reascent the skies! To murmur is to forfeit all. Resignation is a fruit +that ripens at the gates of heaven. How powerful, how glorious the calm +smile, the pure brow of the resigned human creature. Radiant is the +light of that brow. They who live in its atmosphere grow purer. That +calm glance penetrates and softens. More eloquent by silence than the +prophet by speech, such beings triumph by their simple presence. Their +ears are quick to hear as a faithful dog listening for his master. +Brighter than hope, stronger than love, higher than faith, that creature +of resignation is the virgin standing on the earth, who holds for a +moment the conquered palm, then, rising heavenward, leaves behind her +the imprint of her white, pure feet. When she has passed away men flock +around and cry, ‘See! See!’ Sometimes God holds her still in sight,--a +figure to whose feet creep Forms and Species of Animality to be shown +their way. She wafts the light exhaling from her hair, and they see; she +speaks, and they hear. ‘A miracle!’ they cry. Often she triumphs in the +name of God; frightened men deny her and put her to death; smiling, she +lays down her sword and goes to the stake, having saved the Peoples. +How many a pardoned Angel has passed from martyrdom to heaven! Sinai, +Golgotha are not in this place nor in that; Angels are crucified +in every place, in every sphere. Sighs pierce to God from the whole +universe. This earth on which we live is but a single sheaf of the great +harvest; humanity is but a species in the vast garden where the flowers +of heaven are cultivated. Everywhere God is like unto Himself, and +everywhere, by prayer, it is easy to reach Him.” + +With these words, which fell from the lips of another Hagar in the +wilderness, burning the souls of the hearers as the live coal of the +word inflamed Isaiah, this mysterious being paused as though to gather +some remaining strength. Wilfrid and Minna dared not speak. Suddenly HE +lifted himself up to die:-- + +“Soul of all things, oh my God, thou whom I love for Thyself! Thou, +Judge and Father, receive a love which has no limit. Give me of thine +essence and thy faculties that I be wholly thine! Take me, that I no +longer be myself! Am I not purified? then cast me back into the furnace! +If I be not yet proved in the fire, make me some nurturing ploughshare, +or the Sword of victory! Grant me a glorious martyrdom in which to +proclaim thy Word! Rejected, I will bless thy justice. But if excess +of love may win in a moment that which hard and patient labor cannot +attain, then bear me upward in thy chariot of fire! Grant me triumph, or +further trial, still will I bless thee! To suffer for thee, is not that +to triumph? Take me, seize me, bear me away! nay, if thou wilt, reject +me! Thou art He who can do no evil. Ah!” he cried, after a pause, “the +bonds are breaking. + +“Spirits of the pure, ye sacred flock, come forth from the hidden +places, come on the surface of the luminous waves! The hour now is; +come, assemble! Let us sing at the gates of the Sanctuary; our songs +shall drive away the final clouds. With one accord let us hail the Dawn +of the Eternal Day. Behold the rising of the one True Light! Ah, why may +I not take with me these my friends! Farewell, poor earth, Farewell!” + + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE ASSUMPTION + + +The last psalm was uttered neither by word, look, nor gesture, nor by +any of those signs which men employ to communicate their thoughts, but +as the soul speaks to itself; for at the moment when Seraphita revealed +herself in her true nature, her thoughts were no longer enslaved by +human words. The violence of that last prayer had burst her bonds. Her +soul, like a white dove, remained for an instant poised above the body +whose exhausted substances were about to be annihilated. + +The aspiration of the Soul toward heaven was so contagious that Wilfrid +and Minna, beholding those radiant scintillations of Life, perceived not +Death. + +They had fallen on their knees when _he_ had turned toward his Orient, +and they shared his ecstasy. + +The fear of the Lord, which creates man a second time, purging away his +dross, mastered their hearts. + +Their eyes, veiled to the things of Earth, were opened to the Brightness +of Heaven. + +Though, like the Seers of old called Prophets by men, they were filled +with the terror of the Most High, yet like them they continued firm +when they found themselves within the radiance where the Glory of the +_Spirit_ shone. + +The veil of flesh, which, until now, had hidden that glory from their +eyes, dissolved imperceptibly away, and left them free to behold the +Divine substance. + +They stood in the twilight of the Coming Dawn, whose feeble rays +prepared them to look upon the True Light, to hear the Living Word, and +yet not die. + +In this state they began to perceive the immeasurable differences which +separate the things of earth from the things of Heaven. + +_Life_, on the borders of which they stood, leaning upon each other, +trembling and illuminated, like two children standing under shelter +in presence of a conflagration, That Life offered no lodgment to the +senses. + +The ideas they used to interpret their vision to themselves were to +the things seen what the visible senses of a man are to his soul, the +material covering of a divine essence. + +The departing _spirit_ was above them, shedding incense without odor, +melody without sound. About them, where they stood, were neither +surfaces, nor angles, nor atmosphere. + +They dared neither question him nor contemplate him; they stood in the +shadow of that Presence as beneath the burning rays of a tropical sun, +fearing to raise their eyes lest the light should blast them. + +They knew they were beside him, without being able to perceive how it +was that they stood, as in a dream, on the confines of the Visible and +the Invisible, nor how they had lost sight of the Visible and how they +beheld the Invisible. + +To each other they said: “If he touches us, we can die!” But the +_spirit_ was now within the Infinite, and they knew not that neither +time, nor space, nor death, existed there, and that a great gulf lay +between them, although they thought themselves beside him. + +Their souls were not prepared to receive in its fulness a knowledge +of the faculties of that Life; they could have only faint and confused +perceptions of it, suited to their weakness. + +Were it not so, the thunder of the _Living Word_, whose far-off tones +now reached their ears, and whose meaning entered their souls as life +unites with body,--one echo of that Word would have consumed their being +as a whirlwind of fire laps up a fragile straw. + +Therefore they saw only that which their nature, sustained by the +strength of the _spirit_, permitted them to see; they heard that only +which they were able to hear. + +And yet, though thus protected, they shuddered when the Voice of the +anguished soul broke forth above them--the prayer of the _Spirit_ +awaiting Life and imploring it with a cry. + +That cry froze them to the very marrow of their bones. + +The _Spirit_ knocked at the _sacred portal_. “What wilt thou?” answered +a _choir_, whose question echoed among the worlds. “To go to God.” “Hast +thou conquered?” “I have conquered the flesh through abstinence, I +have conquered false knowledge by humility, I have conquered pride by +charity, I have conquered the earth by love; I have paid my dues by +suffering, I am purified in the fires of faith, I have longed for Life +by prayer: I wait in adoration, and I am resigned.” + +No answer came. + +“God’s will be done!” answered the _Spirit_, believing that he was about +to be rejected. + +His tears flowed and fell like dew upon the heads of the two kneeling +witnesses, who trembled before the justice of God. + +Suddenly the trumpets sounded,--the last trumpets of Victory won by the +_Angel_ in this last trial. The reverberation passed through space +as sound through its echo, filling it, and shaking the universe which +Wilfrid and Minna felt like an atom beneath their feet. They trembled +under an anguish caused by the dread of the mystery about to be +accomplished. + +A great movement took place, as though the Eternal Legions, putting +themselves in motion, were passing upward in spiral columns. The worlds +revolved like clouds driven by a furious wind. It was all rapid. + +Suddenly the veils were rent away. They saw on high as it were a star, +incomparably more lustrous than the most luminous of material stars, +which detached itself, and fell like a thunderbolt, dazzling as +lightning. Its passage paled the faces of the pair, who thought it to be +_the Light_ Itself. + +It was the Messenger of good tidings, the plume of whose helmet was a +flame of Life. + +Behind him lay the swath of his way gleaming with a flood of the lights +through which he passed. + +He bore a palm and a sword. He touched the _Spirit_ with the palm, and +the _Spirit_ was transfigured. Its white wings noiselessly unfolded. + +This communication of _the Light_, changing the _Spirit_ into a _Seraph_ +and clothing it with a glorious form, a celestial armor, poured down +such effulgent rays that the two Seers were paralyzed. + +Like the three apostles to whom Jesus showed himself, they felt the +dead weight of their bodies which denied them a complete and cloudless +intuition of _the Word_ and _the True Life_. + +They comprehended the nakedness of their souls; they were able +to measure the poverty of their light by comparing it--a humbling +task--with the halo of the _Seraph_. + +A passionate desire to plunge back into the mire of earth and suffer +trial took possession of them,--trial through which they might +victoriously utter at the _sacred gates_ the words of that radiant +_Seraph_. + +The _Seraph_ knelt before the _Sanctuary_, beholding it, at last, face +to face; and he said, raising his hands thitherward, “Grant that these +two may have further sight; they will love the Lord and proclaim His +word.” + +At this prayer a veil fell. Whether it were that the hidden force which +held the Seers had momentarily annihilated their physical bodies, or +that it raised their spirits above those bodies, certain it is that they +felt within them a rending of the pure from the impure. + +The tears of the _Seraph_ rose about them like a vapor, which hid the +lower worlds from their knowledge, held them in its folds, bore them +upwards, gave them forgetfulness of earthly meanings and the power of +comprehending the meanings of things divine. + +The True Light shone; it illumined the Creations, which seemed to them +barren when they saw the source from which all worlds--Terrestrial, +Spiritual, and Divine-derived their Motion. + +Each world possessed a centre to which converged all points of its +circumference. These worlds were themselves the points which moved +toward the centre of their system. Each system had its centre in great +celestial regions which communicated with the flaming and quenchless +_motor of all that is_. + +Thus, from the greatest to the smallest of the worlds, and from the +smallest of the worlds to the smallest portion of the beings who compose +it, all was individual, and all was, nevertheless, One and indivisible. + +What was the design of the Being, fixed in His essence and in His +faculties, who transmitted that essence and those faculties without +losing them? who manifested them outside of Himself without separating +them from Himself? who rendered his creations outside of Himself fixed +in their essence and mutable in their form? The pair thus called to the +celestial festival could only see the order and arrangement of created +beings and admire the immediate result. The Angels alone see more. They +know the means; they comprehend the final end. + +But what the two Elect were granted power to contemplate, what they were +able to bring back as a testimony which enlightened their minds forever +after, was the proof of the action of the Worlds and of Beings; the +consciousness of the effort with which they all converge to the Result. + +They heard the divers parts of the Infinite forming one living +melody; and each time that the accord made itself felt like a mighty +respiration, the Worlds drawn by the concordant movement inclined +themselves toward the Supreme Being who, from His impenetrable centre, +issued all things and recalled all things to Himself. + +This ceaseless alternation of voices and silence seemed the rhythm of +the sacred hymn which resounds and prolongs its sound from age to age. + +Wilfrid and Minna were enabled to understand some of the mysterious +sayings of Him who had appeared on earth in the form which to each of +them had rendered him comprehensible,--to one Seraphitus, to the other +Seraphita,--for they saw that all was homogeneous in the sphere where he +now was. + +Light gave birth to melody, melody gave birth to light; colors were +light and melody; motion was a Number endowed with Utterance; all +things were at once sonorous, diaphanous, and mobile; so that each +interpenetrated the other, the whole vast area was unobstructed and the +Angels could survey it from the depths of the Infinite. + +They perceived the puerility of human sciences, of which he had spoken +to them. + +The scene was to them a prospect without horizon, a boundless space into +which an all-consuming desire prompted them to plunge. But, fastened to +their miserable bodies, they had the desire without the power to fulfil +it. + +The _Seraph_, preparing for his flight, no longer looked towards them; +he had nothing now in common with Earth. + +Upward he rose; the shadow of his luminous presence covered the two +Seers like a merciful veil, enabling them to raise their eyes and see +him, rising in his glory to Heaven in company with the glad Archangel. + +He rose as the sun from the bosom of the Eastern waves; but, more +majestic than the orb and vowed to higher destinies, he could not be +enchained like inferior creations in the spiral movement of the worlds; +he followed the line of the Infinite, pointing without deviation to the +One Centre, there to enter his eternal life,--to receive there, in his +faculties and in his essence, the power to enjoy through Love, and the +gift of comprehending through Wisdom. + +The scene which suddenly unveiled itself to the eyes of the two Seers +crushed them with a sense of its vastness; they felt like atoms, whose +minuteness was not to be compared even to the smallest particle which +the infinite of divisibility enabled the mind of man to imagine, brought +into the presence of the infinite of Numbers, which God alone can +comprehend as He alone can comprehend Himself. + +Strength and Love! what heights, what depths in those two entities, whom +the _Seraph’s_ first prayer placed like two links, as it were, to unite +the immensities of the lower worlds with the immensity of the higher +universe! + +They comprehended the invisible ties by which the material worlds are +bound to the spiritual worlds. Remembering the sublime efforts of human +genius, they were able to perceive the principle of all melody in the +songs of heaven which gave sensations of color, of perfume, of thought, +which recalled the innumerable details of all creations, as the songs of +earth revive the infinite memories of love. + +Brought by the exaltation of their faculties to a point that cannot +be described in any language, they were able to cast their eyes for an +instant into the Divine World. There all was Rejoicing. + +Myriads of angels were flocking together, without confusion; all alike +yet all dissimilar, simple as the flower of the fields, majestic as the +universe. + +Wilfrid and Minna saw neither their coming nor their going; they +appeared suddenly in the Infinite and filled it with their presence, as +the stars shine in the invisible ether. + +The scintillations of their united diadems illumined space like the +fires of the sky at dawn upon the mountains. Waves of light flowed from +their hair, and their movements created tremulous undulations in space +like the billows of a phosphorescent sea. + +The two Seers beheld the _Seraph_ dimly in the midst of the immortal +legions. Suddenly, as though all the arrows of a quiver had darted +together, the Spirits swept away with a breath the last vestiges of the +human form; as the _Seraph_ rose he became yet purer; soon he seemed +to them but a faint outline of what he had been at the moment of his +transfiguration,--lines of fire without shadow. + +Higher he rose, receiving from circle to circle some new gift, while the +sign of his election was transmitted to each sphere into which, more and +more purified, he entered. + +No voice was silent; the hymn diffused and multiplied itself in all its +modulations:-- + +“Hail to him who enters living! Come, flower of the Worlds! diamond from +the fires of suffering! pearl without spot, desire without flesh, new +link of earth and heaven, be Light! Conquering spirit, Queen of the +world, come for thy crown! Victor of earth, receive thy diadem! Thou art +of us!” + +The virtues of the _Seraph_ shone forth in all their beauty. + +His earliest desire for heaven re-appeared, tender as childhood. +The deeds of his life, like constellations, adorned him with their +brightness. His acts of faith shone like the Jacinth of heaven, the +color of sidereal fires. The pearls of Charity were upon him,--a chaplet +of garnered tears! Love divine surrounded him with roses; and the +whiteness of his Resignation obliterated all earthly trace. + +Soon, to the eyes of the Seers, he was but a point of flame, growing +brighter and brighter as its motion was lost in the melodious +acclamations which welcomed his entrance into heaven. + +The celestial accents made the two exiles weep. + +Suddenly a silence as of death spread like a mourning veil from the +first to the highest sphere, throwing Wilfrid and Minna into a state of +intolerable expectation. + +At this moment the _Seraph_ was lost to sight within the _sanctuary_, +receiving there the gift of Life Eternal. + +A movement of adoration made by the Host of heaven filled the two Seers +with ecstasy mingled with terror. They felt that all were prostrate +before the Throne, in all the spheres, in the Spheres Divine, in the +Spiritual Spheres, and in the Worlds of Darkness. + +The Angels bent the knee to celebrate the _Seraph’s_ glory; the Spirits +bent the knee in token of their impatience; others bent the knee in the +dark abysses, shuddering with awe. + +A mighty cry of joy gushed forth, as the spring gushes forth to its +millions of flowering herbs sparkling with diamond dew-drops in the +sunlight; at that instant the _Seraph_ reappeared, effulgent, crying, +“_Eternal! Eternal! Eternal_!” + +The universe heard the cry and understood it; it penetrated the spheres +as God penetrates them; it took possession of the infinite; the Seven +Divine Worlds heard the Voice and answered. + +A mighty movement was perceptible, as though whole planets, purified, +were rising in dazzling light to become Eternal. + +Had the _Seraph_ obtained, as a first mission, the work of calling to +God the creations permeated by His Word? + +But already the sublime _hallelujah_ was sounding in the ear of the +desolate ones as the distant undulations of an ended melody. Already +the celestial lights were fading like the gold and crimson tints of a +setting sun. Death and Impurity recovered their prey. + +As the two mortals re-entered the prison of flesh, from which their +spirit had momentarily been delivered by some priceless sleep, they felt +like those who wake after a night of brilliant dreams, the memory +of which still lingers in their soul, though their body retains no +consciousness of them, and human language is unable to give utterance to +them. + +The deep darkness of the sphere that was now about them was that of the +sun of the visible worlds. + +“Let us descend to those lower regions,” said Wilfrid. + +“Let us do what he told us to do,” answered Minna. “We have seen the +worlds on their march to God; we know the Path. Our diadem of stars is +There.” + +Floating downward through the abysses, they re-entered the dust of the +lesser worlds, and saw the Earth, like a subterranean cavern, suddenly +illuminated to their eyes by the light which their souls brought with +them, and which still environed them in a cloud of the paling harmonies +of heaven. The sight was that which of old struck the inner eyes +of Seers and Prophets. Ministers of all religions, Preachers of all +pretended truths, Kings consecrated by Force and Terror, Warriors and +Mighty men apportioning the Peoples among them, the Learned and the Rich +standing above the suffering, noisy crowd, and noisily grinding them +beneath their feet,--all were there, accompanied by their wives and +servants; all were robed in stuffs of gold and silver and azure studded +with pearls and gems torn from the bowels of Earth, stolen from the +depths of Ocean, for which Humanity had toiled throughout the centuries, +sweating and blaspheming. But these treasures, these splendors, +constructed of blood, seemed worn-out rags to the eyes of the two +Exiles. “What do you there, in motionless ranks?” cried Wilfrid. They +answered not. “What do you there, motionless?” They answered not. +Wilfrid waved his hands over them, crying in a loud voice, “What do you +there, in motionless ranks?” All, with unanimous action, opened their +garments and gave to sight their withered bodies, eaten with worms, +putrefied, crumbling to dust, rotten with horrible diseases. + +“You lead the nations to Death,” Wilfrid said to them. “You have +depraved the earth, perverted the Word, prostituted justice. After +devouring the grass of the fields you have killed the lambs of the fold. +Do you think yourself justified because of your sores? I will warn my +brethren who have ears to hear the Voice, and they will come and drink +of the spring of Living Waters which you have hidden.” + +“Let us save our strength for Prayer,” said Minna. “Wilfrid, thy mission +is not that of the Prophets or the Avenger or the Messenger; we are +still on the confines of the lowest sphere; let us endeavor to rise +through space on the wings of Prayer.” + +“Thou shalt be all my love!” + +“Thou shalt be all my strength!” + +“We have seen the Mysteries; we are, each to the other, the only being +here below to whom Joy and Sadness are comprehensible; let us pray, +therefore: we know the Path, let us walk in it.” + +“Give me thy hand,” said the Young Girl, “if we walk together, the way +will be to me less hard and long.” + +“With thee, with thee alone,” replied the Man, “can I cross the awful +solitude without complaint.” + +“Together we will go to Heaven,” she said. + +The clouds gathered and formed a darksome dais. Suddenly the pair found +themselves kneeling beside a body which old David was guarding from +curious eyes, resolved to bury it himself. + +Beyond those walls the first summer of the nineteenth century shone +forth in all its glory. The two lovers believed they heard a Voice +in the sun-rays. They breathed a celestial essence from the new-born +flowers. Holding each other by the hand, they said, “That illimitable +ocean which shines below us is but an image of what we saw above.” + +“Where are you going?” asked Monsieur Becker. + +“To God,” they answered. “Come with us, father.” + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seraphita, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1432 *** diff --git a/1432-h/1432-h.htm b/1432-h/1432-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..e353481 --- /dev/null +++ b/1432-h/1432-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,5959 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Seraphita, by Honore de Balzac + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1432 ***</div> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + SERAPHITA + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Honore De Balzac + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + DEDICATION + + To Madame Eveline de Hanska, nee Comtesse Rzewuska. + + Madame,—Here is the work which you asked of me. I am happy, in + thus dedicating it, to offer you a proof of the respectful + affection you allow me to bear you. If I am reproached for + impotence in this attempt to draw from the depths of mysticism a + book which seeks to give, in the lucid transparency of our + beautiful language, the luminous poesy of the Orient, to you the + blame! Did you not command this struggle (resembling that of + Jacob) by telling me that the most imperfect sketch of this + Figure, dreamed of by you, as it has been by me since childhood, + would still be something to you? + + Here, then, it is,—that something. Would that this book could + belong exclusively to noble spirits, preserved like yours from + worldly pettiness by solitude! THEY would know how to give to it + the melodious rhythm that it lacks, which might have made it, in + the hands of a poet, the glorious epic that France still awaits. + But from me they must accept it as one of those sculptured + balustrades, carved by a hand of faith, on which the pilgrims + lean, in the choir of some glorious church, to think upon the end + of man. + + I am, madame, with respect, + Your devoted servant, + De Balzac. +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <h3> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> SERAPHITA </a> + </h3> + <h3> + </h3> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> + </td> + <td> + SERAPHITUS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> + </td> + <td> + SERAPHITA + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> + </td> + <td> + SERAPHITA-SERAPHITUS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE CLOUDS OF THE SANCTUARY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> + </td> + <td> + FAREWELL + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE PATH TO HEAVEN + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE ASSUMPTION + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + SERAPHITA + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. SERAPHITUS + </h2> + <p> + As the eye glances over a map of the coasts of Norway, can the imagination + fail to marvel at their fantastic indentations and serrated edges, like a + granite lace, against which the surges of the North Sea roar incessantly? + Who has not dreamed of the majestic sights to be seen on those beachless + shores, of that multitude of creeks and inlets and little bays, no two of + them alike, yet all trackless abysses? We may almost fancy that Nature + took pleasure in recording by ineffaceable hieroglyphics the symbol of + Norwegian life, bestowing on these coasts the conformation of a fish’s + spine, fishery being the staple commerce of the country, and well-nigh the + only means of living of the hardy men who cling like tufts of lichen to + the arid cliffs. Here, through fourteen degrees of longitude, barely seven + hundred thousand souls maintain existence. Thanks to perils devoid of + glory, to year-long snows which clothe the Norway peaks and guard them + from profaning foot of traveller, these sublime beauties are virgin still; + they will be seen to harmonize with human phenomena, also virgin—at + least to poetry—which here took place, the history of which it is + our purpose to relate. + </p> + <p> + If one of these inlets, mere fissures to the eyes of the eider-ducks, is + wide enough for the sea not to freeze between the prison-walls of rock + against which it surges, the country-people call the little bay a “fiord,”—a + word which geographers of every nation have adopted into their respective + languages. Though a certain resemblance exists among all these fiords, + each has its own characteristics. The sea has everywhere forced its way as + through a breach, yet the rocks about each fissure are diversely rent, and + their tumultuous precipices defy the rules of geometric law. Here the + scarp is dentelled like a saw; there the narrow ledges barely allow the + snow to lodge or the noble crests of the Northern pines to spread + themselves; farther on, some convulsion of Nature may have rounded a + coquettish curve into a lovely valley flanked in rising terraces with + black-plumed pines. Truly we are tempted to call this land the Switzerland + of Ocean. + </p> + <p> + Midway between Trondhjem and Christiansand lies an inlet called the + Strom-fiord. If the Strom-fiord is not the loveliest of these rocky + landscapes, it has the merit of displaying the terrestrial grandeurs of + Norway, and of enshrining the scenes of a history that is indeed + celestial. + </p> + <p> + The general outline of the Strom-fiord seems at first sight to be that of + a funnel washed out by the sea. The passage which the waves have forced + present to the eye an image of the eternal struggle between old Ocean and + the granite rock,—two creations of equal power, one through inertia, + the other by ceaseless motion. Reefs of fantastic shape run out on either + side, and bar the way of ships and forbid their entrance. The intrepid + sons of Norway cross these reefs on foot, springing from rock to rock, + undismayed at the abyss—a hundred fathoms deep and only six feet + wide—which yawns beneath them. Here a tottering block of gneiss + falling athwart two rocks gives an uncertain footway; there the hunters or + the fishermen, carrying their loads, have flung the stems of fir-trees in + guise of bridges, to join the projecting reefs, around and beneath which + the surges roar incessantly. This dangerous entrance to the little bay + bears obliquely to the right with a serpentine movement, and there + encounters a mountain rising some twenty-five hundred feet above + sea-level, the base of which is a vertical palisade of solid rock more + than a mile and a half long, the inflexible granite nowhere yielding to + clefts or undulations until it reaches a height of two hundred feet above + the water. Rushing violently in, the sea is driven back with equal + violence by the inert force of the mountain to the opposite shore, gently + curved by the spent force of the retreating waves. + </p> + <p> + The fiord is closed at the upper end by a vast gneiss formation crowned + with forests, down which a river plunges in cascades, becomes a torrent + when the snows are melting, spreads into a sheet of waters, and then falls + with a roar into the bay,—vomiting as it does so the hoary pines and + the aged larches washed down from the forests and scarce seen amid the + foam. These trees plunge headlong into the fiord and reappear after a time + on the surface, clinging together and forming islets which float ashore on + the beaches, where the inhabitants of a village on the left bank of the + Strom-fiord gather them up, split, broken (though sometimes whole), and + always stripped of bark and branches. The mountain which receives at its + base the assaults of Ocean, and at its summit the buffeting of the wild + North wind, is called the Falberg. Its crest, wrapped at all seasons in a + mantle of snow and ice, is the sharpest peak of Norway; its proximity to + the pole produces, at the height of eighteen hundred feet, a degree of + cold equal to that of the highest mountains of the globe. The summit of + this rocky mass, rising sheer from the fiord on one side, slopes gradually + downward to the east, where it joins the declivities of the Sieg and forms + a series of terraced valleys, the chilly temperature of which allows no + growth but that of shrubs and stunted trees. + </p> + <p> + The upper end of the fiord, where the waters enter it as they come down + from the forest, is called the Siegdahlen,—a word which may be held + to mean “the shedding of the Sieg,”—the river itself receiving that + name. The curving shore opposite to the face of the Falberg is the valley + of Jarvis,—a smiling scene overlooked by hills clothed with firs, + birch-trees, and larches, mingled with a few oaks and beeches, the richest + coloring of all the varied tapestries which Nature in these northern + regions spreads upon the surface of her rugged rocks. The eye can readily + mark the line where the soil, warmed by the rays of the sun, bears + cultivation and shows the native growth of the Norwegian flora. Here the + expanse of the fiord is broad enough to allow the sea, dashed back by the + Falberg, to spend its expiring force in gentle murmurs upon the lower + slope of these hills,—a shore bordered with finest sand, strewn with + mica and sparkling pebbles, porphyry, and marbles of a thousand tints, + brought from Sweden by the river floods, together with ocean waifs, + shells, and flowers of the sea driven in by tempests, whether of the Pole + or Tropics. + </p> + <p> + At the foot of the hills of Jarvis lies a village of some two hundred + wooden houses, where an isolated population lives like a swarm of bees in + a forest, without increasing or diminishing; vegetating happily, while + wringing their means of living from the breast of a stern Nature. The + almost unknown existence of the little hamlet is readily accounted for. + Few of its inhabitants were bold enough to risk their lives among the + reefs to reach the deep-sea fishing,—the staple industry of + Norwegians on the least dangerous portions of their coast. The fish of the + fiord were numerous enough to suffice, in part at least, for the + sustenance of the inhabitants; the valley pastures provided milk and + butter; a certain amount of fruitful, well-tilled soil yielded rye and + hemp and vegetables, which necessity taught the people to protect against + the severity of the cold and the fleeting but terrible heat of the sun + with the shrewd ability which Norwegians display in the two-fold struggle. + The difficulty of communication with the outer world, either by land where + the roads are impassable, or by sea where none but tiny boats can thread + their way through the maritime defiles that guard the entrance to the bay, + hinder these people from growing rich by the sale of their timber. It + would cost enormous sums to either blast a channel out to sea or construct + a way to the interior. The roads from Christiana to Trondhjem all turn + toward the Strom-fiord, and cross the Sieg by a bridge some score of miles + above its fall into the bay. The country to the north, between Jarvis and + Trondhjem, is covered with impenetrable forests, while to the south the + Falberg is nearly as much separated from Christiana by inaccessible + precipices. The village of Jarvis might perhaps have communicated with the + interior of Norway and Sweden by the river Sieg; but to do this and to be + thus brought into contact with civilization, the Strom-fiord needed the + presence of a man of genius. Such a man did actually appear there,—a + poet, a Swede of great religious fervor, who died admiring, even + reverencing this region as one of the noblest works of the Creator. + </p> + <p> + Minds endowed by study with an inward sight, and whose quick perceptions + bring before the soul, as though painted on a canvas, the contrasting + scenery of this universe, will now apprehend the general features of the + Strom-fiord. They alone, perhaps, can thread their way through the + tortuous channels of the reef, or flee with the battling waves to the + everlasting rebuff of the Falberg whose white peaks mingle with the + vaporous clouds of the pearl-gray sky, or watch with delight the curving + sheet of waters, or hear the rushing of the Sieg as it hangs for an + instant in long fillets and then falls over a picturesque abatis of noble + trees toppled confusedly together, sometimes upright, sometimes + half-sunken beneath the rocks. It may be that such minds alone can dwell + upon the smiling scenes nestling among the lower hills of Jarvis; where + the luscious Northern vegetables spring up in families, in myriads, where + the white birches bend, graceful as maidens, where colonnades of beeches + rear their boles mossy with the growth of centuries, where shades of green + contrast, and white clouds float amid the blackness of the distant pines, + and tracts of many-tinted crimson and purple shrubs are shaded endlessly; + in short, where blend all colors, all perfumes of a flora whose wonders + are still ignored. Widen the boundaries of this limited ampitheatre, + spring upward to the clouds, lose yourself among the rocks where the seals + are lying and even then your thought cannot compass the wealth of beauty + nor the poetry of this Norwegian coast. Can your thought be as vast as the + ocean that bounds it? as weird as the fantastic forms drawn by these + forests, these clouds, these shadows, these changeful lights? + </p> + <p> + Do you see above the meadows on that lowest slope which undulates around + the higher hills of Jarvis two or three hundred houses roofed with + “noever,” a sort of thatch made of birch-bark,—frail houses, long + and low, looking like silk-worms on a mulberry-leaf tossed hither by the + winds? Above these humble, peaceful dwellings stands the church, built + with a simplicity in keeping with the poverty of the villagers. A + graveyard surrounds the chancel, and a little farther on you see the + parsonage. Higher up, on a projection of the mountain is a dwelling-house, + the only one of stone; for which reason the inhabitants of the village + call it “the Swedish Castle.” In fact, a wealthy Swede settled in Jarvis + about thirty years before this history begins, and did his best to + ameliorate its condition. This little house, certainly not a castle, built + with the intention of leading the inhabitants to build others like it, was + noticeable for its solidity and for the wall that inclosed it, a rare + thing in Norway where, notwithstanding the abundance of stone, wood alone + is used for all fences, even those of fields. This Swedish house, thus + protected against the climate, stood on rising ground in the centre of an + immense courtyard. The windows were sheltered by those projecting + pent-house roofs supported by squared trunks of trees which give so + patriarchal an air to Northern dwellings. From beneath them the eye could + see the savage nudity of the Falberg, or compare the infinitude of the + open sea with the tiny drop of water in the foaming fiord; the ear could + hear the flowing of the Sieg, whose white sheet far away looked motionless + as it fell into its granite cup edged for miles around with glaciers,—in + short, from this vantage ground the whole landscape whereon our simple yet + superhuman drama was about to be enacted could be seen and noted. + </p> + <p> + The winter of 1799-1800 was one of the most severe ever known to + Europeans. The Norwegian sea was frozen in all the fiords, where, as a + usual thing, the violence of the surf kept the ice from forming. A wind, + whose effects were like those of the Spanish levanter, swept the ice of + the Strom-fiord, driving the snow to the upper end of the gulf. Seldom + indeed could the people of Jarvis see the mirror of frozen waters + reflecting the colors of the sky; a wondrous site in the bosom of these + mountains when all other aspects of nature are levelled beneath successive + sheets of snow, and crests and valleys are alike mere folds of the vast + mantle flung by winter across a landscape at once so mournfully dazzling + and so monotonous. The falling volume of the Sieg, suddenly frozen, formed + an immense arcade beneath which the inhabitants might have crossed under + shelter from the blast had any dared to risk themselves inland. But the + dangers of every step away from their own surroundings kept even the + boldest hunters in their homes, afraid lest the narrow paths along the + precipices, the clefts and fissures among the rocks, might be + unrecognizable beneath the snow. + </p> + <p> + Thus it was that no human creature gave life to the white desert where + Boreas reigned, his voice alone resounding at distant intervals. The sky, + nearly always gray, gave tones of polished steel to the ice of the fiord. + Perchance some ancient eider-duck crossed the expanse, trusting to the + warm down beneath which dream, in other lands, the luxurious rich, little + knowing of the dangers through which their luxury has come to them. Like + the Bedouin of the desert who darts alone across the sands of Africa, the + bird is neither seen nor heard; the torpid atmosphere, deprived of its + electrical conditions, echoes neither the whirr of its wings nor its + joyous notes. Besides, what human eye was strong enough to bear the + glitter of those pinnacles adorned with sparkling crystals, or the sharp + reflections of the snow, iridescent on the summits in the rays of a pallid + sun which infrequently appeared, like a dying man seeking to make known + that he still lives. Often, when the flocks of gray clouds, driven in + squadrons athwart the mountains and among the tree-tops, hid the sky with + their triple veils Earth, lacking the celestial lights, lit herself by + herself. + </p> + <p> + Here, then, we meet the majesty of Cold, seated eternally at the pole in + that regal silence which is the attribute of all absolute monarchy. Every + extreme principle carries with it an appearance of negation and the + symptoms of death; for is not life the struggle of two forces? Here in + this Northern nature nothing lived. One sole power—the unproductive + power of ice—reigned unchallenged. The roar of the open sea no + longer reached the deaf, dumb inlet, where during one short season of the + year Nature made haste to produce the slender harvests necessary for the + food of the patient people. A few tall pine-trees lifted their black + pyramids garlanded with snow, and the form of their long branches and + depending shoots completed the mourning garments of those solemn heights. + </p> + <p> + Each household gathered in its chimney-corner, in houses carefully closed + from the outer air, and well supplied with biscuit, melted butter, dried + fish, and other provisions laid in for the seven-months winter. The very + smoke of these dwellings was hardly seen, half-hidden as they were beneath + the snow, against the weight of which they were protected by long planks + reaching from the roof and fastened at some distance to solid blocks on + the ground, forming a covered way around each building. + </p> + <p> + During these terrible winter months the women spun and dyed the woollen + stuffs and the linen fabrics with which they clothed their families, while + the men read, or fell into those endless meditations which have given + birth to so many profound theories, to the mystic dreams of the North, to + its beliefs, to its studies (so full and so complete in one science, at + least, sounded as with a plummet), to its manners and its morals, + half-monastic, which force the soul to react and feed upon itself and make + the Norwegian peasant a being apart among the peoples of Europe. + </p> + <p> + Such was the condition of the Strom-fiord in the first year of the + nineteenth century and about the middle of the month of May. + </p> + <p> + On a morning when the sun burst forth upon this landscape, lighting the + fires of the ephemeral diamonds produced by crystallizations of the snow + and ice, two beings crossed the fiord and flew along the base of the + Falberg, rising thence from ledge to ledge toward the summit. What were + they? human creatures, or two arrows? They might have been taken for + eider-ducks sailing in consort before the wind. Not the boldest hunter nor + the most superstitious fisherman would have attributed to human beings the + power to move safely along the slender lines traced beneath the snow by + the granite ledges, where yet this couple glided with the terrifying + dexterity of somnambulists who, forgetting their own weight and the + dangers of the slightest deviation, hurry along a ridge-pole and keep + their equilibrium by the power of some mysterious force. + </p> + <p> + “Stop me, Seraphitus,” said a pale young girl, “and let me breathe. I look + at you, you only, while scaling these walls of the gulf; otherwise, what + would become of me? I am such a feeble creature. Do I tire you?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said the being on whose arm she leaned. “But let us go on, Minna; + the place where we are is not firm enough to stand on.” + </p> + <p> + Once more the snow creaked sharply beneath the long boards fastened to + their feet, and soon they reached the upper terrace of the first ledge, + clearly defined upon the flank of the precipice. The person whom Minna had + addressed as Seraphitus threw his weight upon his right heel, arresting + the plank—six and a half feet long and narrow as the foot of a child—which + was fastened to his boot by a double thong of leather. This plank, two + inches thick, was covered with reindeer skin, which bristled against the + snow when the foot was raised, and served to stop the wearer. Seraphitus + drew in his left foot, furnished with another “skee,” which was only two + feet long, turned swiftly where he stood, caught his timid companion in + his arms, lifted her in spite of the long boards on her feet, and placed + her on a projecting rock from which he brushed the snow with his pelisse. + </p> + <p> + “You are safe there, Minna; you can tremble at your ease.” + </p> + <p> + “We are a third of the way up the Ice-Cap,” she said, looking at the peak + to which she gave the popular name by which it is known in Norway; “I can + hardly believe it.” + </p> + <p> + Too much out of breath to say more, she smiled at Seraphitus, who, without + answering, laid his hand upon her heart and listened to its sounding + throbs, rapid as those of a frightened bird. + </p> + <p> + “It often beats as fast when I run,” she said. + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus inclined his head with a gesture that was neither coldness nor + indifference, and yet, despite the grace which made the movement almost + tender, it none the less bespoke a certain negation, which in a woman + would have seemed an exquisite coquetry. Seraphitus clasped the young girl + in his arms. Minna accepted the caress as an answer to her words, + continuing to gaze at him. As he raised his head, and threw back with + impatient gesture the golden masses of his hair to free his brow, he saw + an expression of joy in the eyes of his companion. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Minna,” he said in a voice whose paternal accents were charming from + the lips of a being who was still adolescent, “Keep your eyes on me; do + not look below you.” + </p> + <p> + “Why not?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “You wish to know why? then look!” + </p> + <p> + Minna glanced quickly at her feet and cried out suddenly like a child who + sees a tiger. The awful sensation of abysses seized her; one glance + sufficed to communicate its contagion. The fiord, eager for food, + bewildered her with its loud voice ringing in her ears, interposing + between herself and life as though to devour her more surely. From the + crown of her head to her feet and along her spine an icy shudder ran; then + suddenly intolerable heat suffused her nerves, beat in her veins and + overpowered her extremities with electric shocks like those of the + torpedo. Too feeble to resist, she felt herself drawn by a mysterious + power to the depths below, wherein she fancied that she saw some monster + belching its venom, a monster whose magnetic eyes were charming her, whose + open jaws appeared to craunch their prey before they seized it. + </p> + <p> + “I die, my Seraphitus, loving none but thee,” she said, making a + mechanical movement to fling herself into the abyss. + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus breathed softly on her forehead and eyes. Suddenly, like a + traveller relaxed after a bath, Minna forgot these keen emotions, already + dissipated by that caressing breath which penetrated her body and filled + it with balsamic essences as quickly as the breath itself had crossed the + air. + </p> + <p> + “Who art thou?” she said, with a feeling of gentle terror. “Ah, but I + know! thou art my life. How canst thou look into that gulf and not die?” + she added presently. + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus left her clinging to the granite rock and placed himself at the + edge of the narrow platform on which they stood, whence his eyes plunged + to the depths of the fiord, defying its dazzling invitation. His body did + not tremble, his brow was white and calm as that of a marble statue,—an + abyss facing an abyss. + </p> + <p> + “Seraphitus! dost thou not love me? come back!” she cried. “Thy danger + renews my terror. Who art thou to have such superhuman power at thy age?” + she asked as she felt his arms inclosing her once more. + </p> + <p> + “But, Minna,” answered Seraphitus, “you look fearlessly at greater spaces + far than that.” + </p> + <p> + Then with raised finger, this strange being pointed upward to the blue + dome, which parting clouds left clear above their heads, where stars could + be seen in open day by virtue of atmospheric laws as yet unstudied. + </p> + <p> + “But what a difference!” she answered smiling. + </p> + <p> + “You are right,” he said; “we are born to stretch upward to the skies. Our + native land, like the face of a mother, cannot terrify her children.” + </p> + <p> + His voice vibrated through the being of his companion, who made no reply. + </p> + <p> + “Come! let us go on,” he said. + </p> + <p> + The pair darted forward along the narrow paths traced back and forth upon + the mountain, skimming from terrace to terrace, from line to line, with + the rapidity of a barb, that bird of the desert. Presently they reached an + open space, carpeted with turf and moss and flowers, where no foot had + ever trod. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, the pretty saeter!” cried Minna, giving to the upland meadow its + Norwegian name. “But how comes it here, at such a height?” + </p> + <p> + “Vegetation ceases here, it is true,” said Seraphitus. “These few plants + and flowers are due to that sheltering rock which protects the meadow from + the polar winds. Put that tuft in your bosom, Minna,” he added, gathering + a flower,—“that balmy creation which no eye has ever seen; keep the + solitary matchless flower in memory of this one matchless morning of your + life. You will find no other guide to lead you again to this saeter.” + </p> + <p> + So saying, he gave her the hybrid plant his falcon eye had seen amid the + tufts of gentian acaulis and saxifrages,—a marvel, brought to bloom + by the breath of angels. With girlish eagerness Minna seized the tufted + plant of transparent green, vivid as emerald, which was formed of little + leaves rolled trumpet-wise, brown at the smaller end but changing tint by + tint to their delicately notched edges, which were green. These leaves + were so tightly pressed together that they seemed to blend and form a mat + or cluster of rosettes. Here and there from this green ground rose pure + white stars edged with a line of gold, and from their throats came crimson + anthers but no pistils. A fragrance, blended of roses and of orange + blossoms, yet ethereal and fugitive, gave something as it were celestial + to that mysterious flower, which Seraphitus sadly contemplated, as though + it uttered plaintive thoughts which he alone could understand. But to + Minna this mysterious phenomenon seemed a mere caprice of nature giving to + stone the freshness, softness, and perfume of plants. + </p> + <p> + “Why do you call it matchless? can it not reproduce itself?” she asked, + looking at Seraphitus, who colored and turned away. + </p> + <p> + “Let us sit down,” he said presently; “look below you, Minna. See! At this + height you will have no fear. The abyss is so far beneath us that we no + longer have a sense of its depths; it acquires the perspective uniformity + of ocean, the vagueness of clouds, the soft coloring of the sky. See, the + ice of the fiord is a turquoise, the dark pine forests are mere threads of + brown; for us all abysses should be thus adorned.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus said the words with that fervor of tone and gesture seen and + known only by those who have ascended the highest mountains of the globe,—a + fervor so involuntarily acquired that the haughtiest of men is forced to + regard his guide as a brother, forgetting his own superior station till he + descends to the valleys and the abodes of his kind. Seraphitus unfastened + the skees from Minna’s feet, kneeling before her. The girl did not notice + him, so absorbed was she in the marvellous view now offered of her native + land, whose rocky outlines could here be seen at a glance. She felt, with + deep emotion, the solemn permanence of those frozen summits, to which + words could give no adequate utterance. + </p> + <p> + “We have not come here by human power alone,” she said, clasping her + hands. “But perhaps I dream.” + </p> + <p> + “You think that facts the causes of which you cannot perceive are + supernatural,” replied her companion. + </p> + <p> + “Your replies,” she said, “always bear the stamp of some deep thought. + When I am near you I understand all things without an effort. Ah, I am + free!” + </p> + <p> + “If so, you will not need your skees,” he answered. + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” she said; “I who would fain unfasten yours and kiss your feet!” + </p> + <p> + “Keep such words for Wilfrid,” said Seraphitus, gently. + </p> + <p> + “Wilfrid!” cried Minna angrily; then, softening as she glanced at her + companion’s face and trying, but in vain, to take his hand, she added, + “You are never angry, never; you are so hopelessly perfect in all things.” + </p> + <p> + “From which you conclude that I am unfeeling.” + </p> + <p> + Minna was startled at this lucid interpretation of her thought. + </p> + <p> + “You prove to me, at any rate, that we understand each other,” she said, + with the grace of a loving woman. + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus softly shook his head and looked sadly and gently at her. + </p> + <p> + “You, who know all things,” said Minna, “tell me why it is that the + timidity I felt below is over now that I have mounted higher. Why do I + dare to look at you for the first time face to face, while lower down I + scarcely dared to give a furtive glance?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps because we are withdrawn from the pettiness of earth,” he + answered, unfastening his pelisse. + </p> + <p> + “Never, never have I seen you so beautiful!” cried Minna, sitting down on + a mossy rock and losing herself in contemplation of the being who had now + guided her to a part of the peak hitherto supposed to be inaccessible. + </p> + <p> + Never, in truth, had Seraphitus shone with so bright a radiance,—the + only word which can render the illumination of his face and the aspect of + his whole person. Was this splendor due to the lustre which the pure air + of mountains and the reflections of the snow give to the complexion? Was + it produced by the inward impulse which excites the body at the instant + when exertion is arrested? Did it come from the sudden contrast between + the glory of the sun and the darkness of the clouds, from whose shadow the + charming couple had just emerged? Perhaps to all these causes we may add + the effect of a phenomenon, one of the noblest which human nature has to + offer. If some able physiologist had studied this being (who, judging by + the pride on his brow and the lightning in his eyes seemed a youth of + about seventeen years of age), and if the student had sought for the + springs of that beaming life beneath the whitest skin that ever the North + bestowed upon her offspring, he would undoubtedly have believed either in + some phosphoric fluid of the nerves shining beneath the cuticle, or in the + constant presence of an inward luminary, whose rays issued through the + being of Seraphitus like a light through an alabaster vase. Soft and + slender as were his hands, ungloved to remove his companion’s snow-boots, + they seemed possessed of a strength equal to that which the Creator gave + to the diaphanous tentacles of the crab. The fire darting from his vivid + glance seemed to struggle with the beams of the sun, not to take but to + give them light. His body, slim and delicate as that of a woman, gave + evidence of one of those natures which are feeble apparently, but whose + strength equals their will, rendering them at times powerful. Of medium + height, Seraphitus appeared to grow in stature as he turned fully round + and seemed about to spring upward. His hair, curled by a fairy’s hand and + waving to the breeze, increased the illusion produced by this aerial + attitude; yet his bearing, wholly without conscious effort, was the result + far more of a moral phenomenon than of a corporal habit. + </p> + <p> + Minna’s imagination seconded this illusion, under the dominion of which + all persons would assuredly have fallen,—an illusion which gave to + Seraphitus the appearance of a vision dreamed of in happy sleep. No known + type conveys an image of that form so majestically made to Minna, but + which to the eyes of a man would have eclipsed in womanly grace the + fairest of Raphael’s creations. That painter of heaven has ever put a + tranquil joy, a loving sweetness, into the lines of his angelic + conceptions; but what soul, unless it contemplated Seraphitus himself, + could have conceived the ineffable emotions imprinted on his face? Who + would have divined, even in the dreams of artists, where all things become + possible, the shadow cast by some mysterious awe upon that brow, shining + with intellect, which seemed to question Heaven and to pity Earth? The + head hovered awhile disdainfully, as some majestic bird whose cries + reverberate on the atmosphere, then bowed itself resignedly, like the + turtledove uttering soft notes of tenderness in the depths of the silent + woods. His complexion was of marvellous whiteness, which brought out + vividly the coral lips, the brown eyebrows, and the silken lashes, the + only colors that trenched upon the paleness of that face, whose perfect + regularity did not detract from the grandeur of the sentiments expressed + in it; nay, thought and emotion were reflected there, without hindrance or + violence, with the majestic and natural gravity which we delight in + attributing to superior beings. That face of purest marble expressed in + all things strength and peace. + </p> + <p> + Minna rose to take the hand of Seraphitus, hoping thus to draw him to her, + and to lay on that seductive brow a kiss given more from admiration than + from love; but a glance at the young man’s eyes, which pierced her as a + ray of sunlight penetrates a prism, paralyzed the young girl. She felt, + but without comprehending, a gulf between them; then she turned away her + head and wept. Suddenly a strong hand seized her by the waist, and a soft + voice said to her: “Come!” She obeyed, resting her head, suddenly revived, + upon the heart of her companion, who, regulating his step to hers with + gentle and attentive conformity, led her to a spot whence they could see + the radiant glories of the polar Nature. + </p> + <p> + “Before I look, before I listen to you, tell me, Seraphitus, why you + repulse me. Have I displeased you? and how? tell me! I want nothing for + myself; I would that all my earthly goods were yours, for the riches of my + heart are yours already. I would that light came to my eyes only though + your eyes just as my thought is born of your thought. I should not then + fear to offend you, for I should give you back the echoes of your soul, + the words of your heart, day by day,—as we render to God the + meditations with which his spirit nourishes our minds. I would be thine + alone.” + </p> + <p> + “Minna, a constant desire is that which shapes our future. Hope on! But if + you would be pure in heart mingle the idea of the All-Powerful with your + affections here below; then you will love all creatures, and your heart + will rise to heights indeed.” + </p> + <p> + “I will do all you tell me,” she answered, lifting her eyes to his with a + timid movement. + </p> + <p> + “I cannot be your companion,” said Seraphitus sadly. + </p> + <p> + He seemed to repress some thoughts, then stretched his arms towards + Christiana, just visible like a speck on the horizon and said:— + </p> + <p> + “Look!” + </p> + <p> + “We are very small,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, but we become great through feeling and through intellect,” answered + Seraphitus. “With us, and us alone, Minna, begins the knowledge of things; + the little that we learn of the laws of the visible world enables us to + apprehend the immensity of the worlds invisible. I know not if the time + has come to speak thus to you, but I would, ah, I would communicate to you + the flame of my hopes! Perhaps we may one day be together in the world + where Love never dies.” + </p> + <p> + “Why not here and now?” she said, murmuring. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing is stable here,” he said, disdainfully. “The passing joys of + earthly love are gleams which reveal to certain souls the coming of joys + more durable; just as the discovery of a single law of nature leads + certain privileged beings to a conception of the system of the universe. + Our fleeting happiness here below is the forerunning proof of another and + a perfect happiness, just as the earth, a fragment of the world, attests + the universe. We cannot measure the vast orbit of the Divine thought of + which we are but an atom as small as God is great; but we can feel its + vastness, we can kneel, adore, and wait. Men ever mislead themselves in + science by not perceiving that all things on their globe are related and + co-ordinated to the general evolution, to a constant movement and + production which bring with them, necessarily, both advancement and an + End. Man himself is not a finished creation; if he were, God would not + Be.” + </p> + <p> + “How is it that in thy short life thou hast found the time to learn so + many things?” said the young girl. + </p> + <p> + “I remember,” he replied. + </p> + <p> + “Thou art nobler than all else I see.” + </p> + <p> + “We are the noblest of God’s greatest works. Has He not given us the + faculty of reflecting on Nature; of gathering it within us by thought; of + making it a footstool and stepping-stone from and by which to rise to Him? + We love according to the greater or the lesser portion of heaven our souls + contain. But do not be unjust, Minna; behold the magnificence spread + before you. Ocean expands at your feet like a carpet; the mountains + resemble ampitheatres; heaven’s ether is above them like the arching folds + of a stage curtain. Here we may breathe the thoughts of God, as it were + like a perfume. See! the angry billows which engulf the ships laden with + men seem to us, where we are, mere bubbles; and if we raise our eyes and + look above, all there is blue. Behold that diadem of stars! Here the tints + of earthly impressions disappear; standing on this nature rarefied by + space do you not feel within you something deeper far than mind, grander + than enthusiasm, of greater energy than will? Are you not conscious of + emotions whose interpretation is no longer in us? Do you not feel your + pinions? Let us pray.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus knelt down and crossed his hands upon his breast, while Minna + fell, weeping, on her knees. Thus they remained for a time, while the + azure dome above their heads grew larger and strong rays of light + enveloped them without their knowledge. + </p> + <p> + “Why dost thou not weep when I weep?” said Minna, in a broken voice. + </p> + <p> + “They who are all spirit do not weep,” replied Seraphitus rising; “Why + should I weep? I see no longer human wretchedness. Here, Good appears in + all its majesty. There, beneath us, I hear the supplications and the + wailings of that harp of sorrows which vibrates in the hands of captive + souls. Here, I listen to the choir of harps harmonious. There, below, is + hope, the glorious inception of faith; but here is faith—it reigns, + hope realized!” + </p> + <p> + “You will never love me; I am too imperfect; you disdain me,” said the + young girl. + </p> + <p> + “Minna, the violet hidden at the feet of the oak whispers to itself: ‘The + sun does not love me; he comes not.’ The sun says: ‘If my rays shine upon + her she will perish, poor flower.’ Friend of the flower, he sends his + beams through the oak leaves, he veils, he tempers them, and thus they + color the petals of his beloved. I have not veils enough, I fear lest you + see me too closely; you would tremble if you knew me better. Listen: I + have no taste for earthly fruits. Your joys, I know them all too well, + and, like the sated emperors of pagan Rome, I have reached disgust of all + things; I have received the gift of vision. Leave me! abandon me!” he + murmured, sorrowfully. + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus turned and seated himself on a projecting rock, dropping his + head upon his breast. + </p> + <p> + “Why do you drive me to despair?” said Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Go, go!” cried Seraphitus, “I have nothing that you want of me. Your love + is too earthly for my love. Why do you not love Wilfrid? Wilfrid is a man, + tested by passions; he would clasp you in his vigorous arms and make you + feel a hand both broad and strong. His hair is black, his eyes are full of + human thoughts, his heart pours lava in every word he utters; he could + kill you with caresses. Let him be your beloved, your husband! Yes, thine + be Wilfrid!” + </p> + <p> + Minna wept aloud. + </p> + <p> + “Dare you say that you do not love him?” he went on, in a voice which + pierced her like a dagger. + </p> + <p> + “Have mercy, have mercy, my Seraphitus!” + </p> + <p> + “Love him, poor child of Earth to which thy destiny has indissolubly bound + thee,” said the strange being, beckoning Minna by a gesture, and forcing + her to the edge of the saeter, whence he pointed downward to a scene that + might well inspire a young girl full of enthusiasm with the fancy that she + stood above this earth. + </p> + <p> + “I longed for a companion to the kingdom of Light; I wished to show you + that morsel of mud, I find you bound to it. Farewell. Remain on earth; + enjoy through the senses; obey your nature; turn pale with pallid men; + blush with women; sport with children; pray with the guilty; raise your + eyes to heaven when sorrows overtake you; tremble, hope, throb in all your + pulses; you will have a companion; you can laugh and weep, and give and + receive. I,—I am an exile, far from heaven; a monster, far from + earth. I live of myself and by myself. I feel by the spirit; I breathe + through my brow; I see by thought; I die of impatience and of longing. No + one here below can fulfil my desires or calm my griefs. I have forgotten + how to weep. I am alone. I resign myself, and I wait.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus looked at the flowery mound on which he had seated Minna; then + he turned and faced the frowning heights, whose pinnacles were wrapped in + clouds; to them he cast, unspoken, the remainder of his thoughts. + </p> + <p> + “Minna, do you hear those delightful strains?” he said after a pause, with + the voice of a dove, for the eagle’s cry was hushed; “it is like the music + of those Eolian harps your poets hang in forests and on the mountains. Do + you see the shadowy figures passing among the clouds, the winged feet of + those who are making ready the gifts of heaven? They bring refreshment to + the soul; the skies are about to open and shed the flowers of spring upon + the earth. See, a gleam is darting from the pole. Let us fly, let us fly! + It is time we go!” + </p> + <p> + In a moment their skees were refastened, and the pair descended the + Falberg by the steep slopes which join the mountain to the valleys of the + Sieg. Miraculous perception guided their course, or, to speak more + properly, their flight. When fissures covered with snow intercepted them, + Seraphitus caught Minna in his arms and darted with rapid motion, lightly + as a bird, over the crumbling causeways of the abyss. Sometimes, while + propelling his companion, he deviated to the right or left to avoid a + precipice, a tree, a projecting rock, which he seemed to see beneath the + snow, as an old sailor, familiar with the ocean, discerns the hidden reefs + by the color, the trend, or the eddying of the water. When they reached + the paths of the Siegdahlen, where they could fearlessly follow a straight + line to regain the ice of the fiord, Seraphitus stopped Minna. + </p> + <p> + “You have nothing to say to me?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “I thought you would rather think alone,” she answered respectfully. + </p> + <p> + “Let us hasten, Minette; it is almost night,” he said. + </p> + <p> + Minna quivered as she heard the voice, now so changed, of her guide,—a + pure voice, like that of a young girl, which dissolved the fantastic dream + through which she had been passing. Seraphitus seemed to be laying aside + his male force and the too keen intellect that flames from his eyes. + Presently the charming pair glided across the fiord and reached the + snow-field which divides the shore from the first range of houses; then, + hurrying forward as daylight faded, they sprang up the hill toward the + parsonage, as though they were mounting the steps of a great staircase. + </p> + <p> + “My father must be anxious,” said Minna. + </p> + <p> + “No,” answered Seraphitus. + </p> + <p> + As he spoke the couple reached the porch of the humble dwelling where + Monsieur Becker, the pastor of Jarvis, sat reading while awaiting his + daughter for the evening meal. + </p> + <p> + “Dear Monsieur Becker,” said Seraphitus, “I have brought Minna back to you + safe and sound.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you, mademoiselle,” said the old man, laying his spectacles on his + book; “you must be very tired.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no,” said Minna, and as she spoke she felt the soft breath of her + companion on her brow. + </p> + <p> + “Dear heart, will you come day after to-morrow evening and take tea with + me?” + </p> + <p> + “Gladly, dear.” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur Becker, you will bring her, will you not?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, mademoiselle.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus inclined his head with a pretty gesture, and bowed to the old + pastor as he left the house. A few moments later he reached the great + courtyard of the Swedish villa. An old servant, over eighty years of age, + appeared in the portico bearing a lantern. Seraphitus slipped off his + snow-shoes with the graceful dexterity of a woman, then darting into the + salon he fell exhausted and motionless on a wide divan covered with furs. + </p> + <p> + “What will you take?” asked the old man, lighting the immensely tall + wax-candles that are used in Norway. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing, David, I am too weary.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus unfastened his pelisse lined with sable, threw it over him, and + fell asleep. The old servant stood for several minutes gazing with loving + eyes at the singular being before him, whose sex it would have been + difficult for any one at that moment to determine. Wrapped as he was in a + formless garment, which resembled equally a woman’s robe and a man’s + mantle, it was impossible not to fancy that the slender feet which hung at + the side of the couch were those of a woman, and equally impossible not to + note how the forehead and the outlines of the head gave evidence of power + brought to its highest pitch. + </p> + <p> + “She suffers, and she will not tell me,” thought the old man. “She is + dying, like a flower wilted by the burning sun.” + </p> + <p> + And the old man wept. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. SERAPHITA + </h2> + <p> + Later in the evening David re-entered the salon. + </p> + <p> + “I know who it is you have come to announce,” said Seraphita in a sleepy + voice. “Wilfrid may enter.” + </p> + <p> + Hearing these words a man suddenly presented himself, crossed the room and + sat down beside her. + </p> + <p> + “My dear Seraphita, are you ill?” he said. “You look paler than usual.” + </p> + <p> + She turned slowly towards him, tossing back her hair like a pretty woman + whose aching head leaves her no strength even for complaint. + </p> + <p> + “I was foolish enough to cross the fiord with Minna,” she said. “We + ascended the Falberg.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you mean to kill yourself?” he said with a lover’s terror. + </p> + <p> + “No, my good Wilfrid; I took the greatest care of your Minna.” + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid struck his hand violently on a table, rose hastily, and made + several steps towards the door with an exclamation full of pain; then he + returned and seemed about to remonstrate. + </p> + <p> + “Why this disturbance if you think me ill?” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Forgive me, have mercy!” he cried, kneeling beside her. “Speak to me + harshly if you will; exact all that the cruel fancies of a woman lead you + to imagine I least can bear; but oh, my beloved, do not doubt my love. You + take Minna like an axe to hew me down. Have mercy!” + </p> + <p> + “Why do you say these things, my friend, when you know that they are + useless?” she replied, with a look which grew in the end so soft that + Wilfrid ceased to behold her eyes, but saw in their place a fluid light, + the shimmer of which was like the last vibrations of an Italian song. + </p> + <p> + “Ah! no man dies of anguish!” he murmured. + </p> + <p> + “You are suffering?” she said in a voice whose intonations produced upon + his heart the same effect as that of her look. “Would I could help you!” + </p> + <p> + “Love me as I love you.” + </p> + <p> + “Poor Minna!” she replied. + </p> + <p> + “Why am I unarmed!” exclaimed Wilfrid, violently. + </p> + <p> + “You are out of temper,” said Seraphita, smiling. “Come, have I not spoken + to you like those Parisian women whose loves you tell of?” + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid sat down, crossed his arms, and looked gloomily at Seraphita. “I + forgive you,” he said; “for you know not what you do.” + </p> + <p> + “You mistake,” she replied; “every woman from the days of Eve does good + and evil knowingly.” + </p> + <p> + “I believe it,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “I am sure of it, Wilfrid. Our instinct is precisely that which makes us + perfect. What you men learn, we feel.” + </p> + <p> + “Why, then, do you not feel how much I love you?” + </p> + <p> + “Because you do not love me.” + </p> + <p> + “Good God!” + </p> + <p> + “If you did, would you complain of your own sufferings?” + </p> + <p> + “You are terrible to-night, Seraphita. You are a demon.” + </p> + <p> + “No, but I am gifted with the faculty of comprehending, and it is awful. + Wilfrid, sorrow is a lamp which illumines life.” + </p> + <p> + “Why did you ascend the Falberg?” + </p> + <p> + “Minna will tell you. I am too weary to talk. You must talk to me,—you + who know so much, who have learned all things and forgotten nothing; you + who have passed through every social test. Talk to me, amuse me, I am + listening.” + </p> + <p> + “What can I tell you that you do not know? Besides, the request is + ironical. You allow yourself no intercourse with social life; you trample + on its conventions, its laws, its customs, sentiments, and sciences; you + reduce them all to the proportions such things take when viewed by you + beyond this universe.” + </p> + <p> + “Therefore you see, my friend, that I am not a woman. You do wrong to love + me. What! am I to leave the ethereal regions of my pretended strength, + make myself humbly small, cringe like the hapless female of all species, + that you may lift me up? and then, when I, helpless and broken, ask you + for help, when I need your arm, you will repulse me! No, we can never come + to terms.” + </p> + <p> + “You are more maliciously unkind to-night than I have ever known you.” + </p> + <p> + “Unkind!” she said, with a look which seemed to blend all feelings into + one celestial emotion, “no, I am ill, I suffer, that is all. Leave me, my + friend; it is your manly right. We women should ever please you, entertain + you, be gay in your presence and have no whims save those that amuse you. + Come, what shall I do for you, friend? Shall I sing, shall I dance, though + weariness deprives me of the use of voice and limbs?—Ah! gentlemen, + be we on our deathbeds, we yet must smile to please you; you call that, + methinks, your right. Poor women! I pity them. Tell me, you who abandon + them when they grow old, is it because they have neither hearts nor souls? + Wilfrid, I am a hundred years old; leave me! leave me! go to Minna!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my eternal love!” + </p> + <p> + “Do you know the meaning of eternity? Be silent, Wilfrid. You desire me, + but you do not love me. Tell me, do I not seem to you like those + coquettish Parisian women?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly I no longer find you the pure celestial maiden I first saw in + the church of Jarvis.” + </p> + <p> + At these words Seraphita passed her hands across her brow, and when she + removed them Wilfrid was amazed at the saintly expression that overspread + her face. + </p> + <p> + “You are right, my friend,” she said; “I do wrong whenever I set my feet + upon your earth.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Seraphita, be my star! stay where you can ever bless me with that + clear light!” + </p> + <p> + As he spoke, he stretched forth his hand to take that of the young girl, + but she withdrew it, neither disdainfully nor in anger. Wilfrid rose + abruptly and walked to the window that she might not see the tears that + rose to his eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Why do you weep?” she said. “You are not a child, Wilfrid. Come back to + me. I wish it. You are annoyed if I show just displeasure. You see that I + am fatigued and ill, yet you force me to think and speak, and listen to + persuasions and ideas that weary me. If you had any real perception of my + nature, you would have made some music, you would have lulled my feelings—but + no, you love me for yourself and not for myself.” + </p> + <p> + The storm which convulsed the young man’s heart calmed down at these + words. He slowly approached her, letting his eyes take in the seductive + creature who lay exhausted before him, her head resting in her hand and + her elbow on the couch. + </p> + <p> + “You think that I do not love you,” she resumed. “You are mistaken. Listen + to me, Wilfrid. You are beginning to know much; you have suffered much. + Let me explain your thoughts to you. You wished to take my hand just now”; + she rose to a sitting posture, and her graceful motions seemed to emit + light. “When a young girl allows her hand to be taken it is as though she + made a promise, is it not? and ought she not to fulfil it? You well know + that I cannot be yours. Two sentiments divide and inspire the love of all + the women of the earth. Either they devote themselves to suffering, + degraded, and criminal beings whom they desire to console, uplift, redeem; + or they give themselves to superior men, sublime and strong, whom they + adore and seek to comprehend, and by whom they are often annihilated. You + have been degraded, though now you are purified by the fires of + repentance, and to-day you are once more noble; but I know myself too + feeble to be your equal, and too religious to bow before any power but + that On High. I may refer thus to your life, my friend, for we are in the + North, among the clouds, where all things are abstractions.” + </p> + <p> + “You stab me, Seraphita, when you speak like this. It wounds me to hear + you apply the dreadful knowledge with which you strip from all things + human the properties that time and space and form have given them, and + consider them mathematically in the abstract, as geometry treats + substances from which it extracts solidity.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I will respect your wishes, Wilfrid. Let the subject drop. Tell me + what you think of this bearskin rug which my poor David has spread out.” + </p> + <p> + “It is very handsome.” + </p> + <p> + “Did you ever see me wear this ‘doucha greka’?” + </p> + <p> + She pointed to a pelisse made of cashmere and lined with the skin of the + black fox,—the name she gave it signifying “warm to the soul.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you believe that any sovereign has a fur that can equal it?” she + asked. + </p> + <p> + “It is worthy of her who wears it.” + </p> + <p> + “And whom you think beautiful?” + </p> + <p> + “Human words do not apply to her. Heart to heart is the only language I + can use.” + </p> + <p> + “Wilfrid, you are kind to soothe my griefs with such sweet words—which + you have said to others.” + </p> + <p> + “Farewell!” + </p> + <p> + “Stay. I love both you and Minna, believe me. To me you two are as one + being. United thus you can be my brother or, if you will, my sister. Marry + her; let me see you both happy before I leave this world of trial and of + pain. My God! the simplest of women obtain what they ask of a lover; they + whisper ‘Hush!’ and he is silent; ‘Die’ and he dies; ‘Love me afar’ and he + stays at a distance, like courtiers before a king! All I desire is to see + you happy, and you refuse me! Am I then powerless?—Wilfrid, listen, + come nearer to me. Yes, I should grieve to see you marry Minna but—when + I am here no longer, then—promise me to marry her; heaven destined + you for each other.” + </p> + <p> + “I listen to you with fascination, Seraphita. Your words are + incomprehensible, but they charm me. What is it you mean to say?” + </p> + <p> + “You are right; I forget to be foolish,—to be the poor creature + whose weaknesses gratify you. I torment you, Wilfrid. You came to these + Northern lands for rest, you, worn-out by the impetuous struggle of genius + unrecognized, you, weary with the patient toils of science, you, who + well-nigh dyed your hands in crime and wore the fetters of human justice—” + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid dropped speechless on the carpet. Seraphita breathed softly on his + forehead, and in a moment he fell asleep at her feet. + </p> + <p> + “Sleep! rest!” she said, rising. + </p> + <p> + She passed her hands over Wilfrid’s brow; then the following sentences + escaped her lips, one by one,—all different in tone and accent, but + all melodious, full of a Goodness that seemed to emanate from her head in + vaporous waves, like the gleams the goddess chastely lays upon Endymion + sleeping. + </p> + <p> + “I cannot show myself such as I am to thee, dear Wilfrid,—to thee + who art strong. + </p> + <p> + “The hour is come; the hour when the effulgent lights of the future cast + their reflections backward on the soul; the hour when the soul awakes into + freedom. + </p> + <p> + “Now am I permitted to tell thee how I love thee. Dost thou not see the + nature of my love, a love without self-interest; a sentiment full of thee, + thee only; a love which follows thee into the future to light that future + for thee—for it is the one True Light. Canst thou now conceive with + what ardor I would have thee leave this life which weighs thee down, and + behold thee nearer than thou art to that world where Love is + never-failing? Can it be aught but suffering to love for one life only? + Hast thou not felt a thirst for the eternal love? Dost thou not feel the + bliss to which a creature rises when, with twin-soul, it loves the Being + who betrays not love, Him before whom we kneel in adoration? + </p> + <p> + “Would I had wings to cover thee, Wilfrid; power to give thee strength to + enter now into that world where all the purest joys of purest earthly + attachments are but shadows in the Light that shines, unceasing, to + illumine and rejoice all hearts. + </p> + <p> + “Forgive a friendly soul for showing thee the picture of thy sins, in the + charitable hope of soothing the sharp pangs of thy remorse. Listen to the + pardoning choir; refresh thy soul in the dawn now rising for thee beyond + the night of death. Yes, thy life, thy true life is there! + </p> + <p> + “May my words now reach thee clothed in the glorious forms of dreams; may + they deck themselves with images glowing and radiant as they hover round + you. Rise, rise, to the height where men can see themselves distinctly, + pressed together though they be like grains of sand upon a sea-shore. + Humanity rolls out like a many-colored ribbon. See the diverse shades of + that flower of the celestial gardens. Behold the beings who lack + intelligence, those who begin to receive it, those who have passed through + trials, those who love, those who follow wisdom and aspire to the regions + of Light! + </p> + <p> + “Canst thou comprehend, through this thought made visible, the destiny of + humanity?—whence it came, whither to goeth? Continue steadfast in + the Path. Reaching the end of thy journey thou shalt hear the clarions of + omnipotence sounding the cries of victory in chords of which a single one + would shake the earth, but which are lost in the spaces of a world that + hath neither east nor west. + </p> + <p> + “Canst thou comprehend, my poor beloved Tried-one, that unless the torpor + and the veils of sleep had wrapped thee, such sights would rend and bear + away thy mind as the whirlwinds rend and carry into space the feeble + sails, depriving thee forever of thy reason? Dost thou understand that the + Soul itself, raised to its utmost power can scarcely endure in dreams the + burning communications of the Spirit? + </p> + <p> + “Speed thy way through the luminous spheres; behold, admire, hasten! + Flying thus thou canst pause or advance without weariness. Like other men, + thou wouldst fain be plunged forever in these spheres of light and perfume + where now thou art, free of thy swooning body, and where thy thought alone + has utterance. Fly! enjoy for a fleeting moment the wings thou shalt + surely win when Love has grown so perfect in thee that thou hast no senses + left; when thy whole being is all mind, all love. The higher thy flight + the less canst thou see the abysses. There are none in heaven. Look at the + friend who speaks to thee; she who holds thee above this earth in which + are all abysses. Look, behold, contemplate me yet a moment longer, for + never again wilt thou see me, save imperfectly as the pale twilight of + this world may show me to thee.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphita stood erect, her head with floating hair inclining gently + forward, in that aerial attitude which great painters give to messengers + from heaven; the folds of her raiment fell with the same unspeakable grace + which holds an artist—the man who translates all things into + sentiment—before the exquisite well-known lines of Polyhymnia’s + veil. Then she stretched forth her hand. Wilfrid rose. When he looked at + Seraphita she was lying on the bear’s-skin, her head resting on her hand, + her face calm, her eyes brilliant. Wilfrid gazed at her silently; but his + face betrayed a deferential fear in its almost timid expression. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, dear,” he said at last, as though he were answering some question; + “we are separated by worlds. I resign myself; I can only adore you. But + what will become of me, poor and alone!” + </p> + <p> + “Wilfrid, you have Minna.” + </p> + <p> + He shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “Do not be so disdainful; woman understands all things through love; what + she does not understand she feels; what she does not feel she sees; when + she neither sees, nor feels, nor understands, this angel of earth divines + to protect you, and hides her protection beneath the grace of love.” + </p> + <p> + “Seraphita, am I worthy to belong to a woman?” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, now,” she said, smiling, “you are suddenly very modest; is it a + snare? A woman is always so touched to see her weakness glorified. Well, + come and take tea with me the day after to-morrow evening; good Monsieur + Becker will be here, and Minna, the purest and most artless creature I + have known on earth. Leave me now, my friend; I need to make long prayers + and expiate my sins.” + </p> + <p> + “You, can you commit sin?” + </p> + <p> + “Poor friend! if we abuse our power, is not that the sin of pride? I have + been very proud to-day. Now leave me, till to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + “Till to-morrow,” said Wilfrid faintly, casting a long glance at the being + of whom he desired to carry with him an ineffaceable memory. + </p> + <p> + Though he wished to go far away, he was held, as it were, outside the + house for some moments, watching the light which shone from all the + windows of the Swedish dwelling. + </p> + <p> + “What is the matter with me?” he asked himself. “No, she is not a mere + creature, but a whole creation. Of her world, even through veils and + clouds, I have caught echoes like the memory of sufferings healed, like + the dazzling vertigo of dreams in which we hear the plaints of generations + mingling with the harmonies of some higher sphere where all is Light and + all is Love. Am I awake? Do I still sleep? Are these the eyes before which + the luminous space retreated further and further indefinitely while the + eyes followed it? The night is cold, yet my head is on fire. I will go to + the parsonage. With the pastor and his daughter I shall recover the + balance of my mind.” + </p> + <p> + But still he did not leave the spot whence his eyes could plunge into + Seraphita’s salon. The mysterious creature seemed to him the radiating + centre of a luminous circle which formed an atmosphere about her wider + than that of other beings; whoever entered it felt the compelling + influence of, as it were, a vortex of dazzling light and all consuming + thoughts. Forced to struggle against this inexplicable power, Wilfrid only + prevailed after strong efforts; but when he reached and passed the + inclosing wall of the courtyard, he regained his freedom of will, walked + rapidly towards the parsonage, and was soon beneath the high wooden arch + which formed a sort of peristyle to Monsieur Becker’s dwelling. He opened + the first door, against which the wind had driven the snow, and knocked on + the inner one, saying:— + </p> + <p> + “Will you let me spend the evening with you, Monsieur Becker?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” cried two voices, mingling their intonations. + </p> + <p> + Entering the parlor, Wilfrid returned by degrees to real life. He bowed + affectionately to Minna, shook hands with Monsieur Becker, and looked + about at the picture of a home which calmed the convulsions of his + physical nature, in which a phenomenon was taking place analogous to that + which sometimes seizes upon men who have given themselves up to protracted + contemplations. If some strong thought bears upward on phantasmal wing a + man of learning or a poet, isolates him from the external circumstances + which environ him here below, and leads him forward through illimitable + regions where vast arrays of facts become abstractions, where the greatest + works of Nature are but images, then woe betide him if a sudden noise + strikes sharply on his senses and calls his errant soul back to its + prison-house of flesh and bones. The shock of the reunion of these two + powers, body and mind,—one of which partakes of the unseen qualities + of a thunderbolt, while the other shares with sentient nature that soft + resistant force which deifies destruction,—this shock, this + struggle, or, rather let us say, this painful meeting and co-mingling, + gives rise to frightful sufferings. The body receives back the flame that + consumes it; the flame has once more grasped its prey. This fusion, + however, does not take place without convulsions, explosions, tortures; + analogous and visible signs of which may be seen in chemistry, when two + antagonistic substances which science has united separate. + </p> + <p> + For the last few days whenever Wilfrid entered Seraphita’s presence his + body seemed to fall away from him into nothingness. With a single glance + this strange being led him in spirit through the spheres where meditation + leads the learned man, prayer the pious heart, where vision transports the + artist, and sleep the souls of men,—each and all have their own path + to the Height, their own guide to reach it, their own individual + sufferings in the dire return. In that sphere alone all veils are rent + away, and the revelation, the awful flaming certainty of an unknown world, + of which the soul brings back mere fragments to this lower sphere, stands + revealed. To Wilfrid one hour passed with Seraphita was like the + sought-for dreams of Theriakis, in which each knot of nerves becomes the + centre of a radiating delight. But he left her bruised and wearied as some + young girl endeavoring to keep step with a giant. + </p> + <p> + The cold air, with its stinging flagellations, had begun to still the + nervous tremors which followed the reunion of his two natures, so + powerfully disunited for a time; he was drawn towards the parsonage, then + towards Minna, by the sight of the every-day home life for which he + thirsted as the wandering European thirsts for his native land when + nostalgia seizes him amid the fairy scenes of Orient that have seduced his + senses. More weary than he had ever yet been, Wilfrid dropped into a chair + and looked about him for a time, like a man who awakens from sleep. + Monsieur Becker and his daughter accustomed, perhaps, to the apparent + eccentricity of their guest, continued the employments in which they were + engaged. + </p> + <p> + The parlor was ornamented with a collection of the shells and insects of + Norway. These curiosities, admirably arranged on a background of the + yellow pine which panelled the room, formed, as it were, a rich tapestry + to which the fumes of tobacco had imparted a mellow tone. At the further + end of the room, opposite to the door, was an immense wrought-iron stove, + carefully polished by the serving-woman till it shone like burnished + steel. Seated in a large tapestried armchair near the stove, before a + table, with his feet in a species of muff, Monsieur Becker was reading a + folio volume which was propped against a pile of other books as on a desk. + At his left stood a jug of beer and a glass, at his right burned a smoky + lamp fed by some species of fish-oil. The pastor seemed about sixty years + of age. His face belonged to a type often painted by Rembrandt; the same + small bright eyes, set in wrinkles and surmounted by thick gray eyebrows; + the same white hair escaping in snowy flakes from a black velvet cap; the + same broad, bald brow, and a contour of face which the ample chin made + almost square; and lastly, the same calm tranquillity, which, to an + observer, denoted the possession of some inward power, be it the supremacy + bestowed by money, or the magisterial influence of the burgomaster, or the + consciousness of art, or the cubic force of blissful ignorance. This fine + old man, whose stout body proclaimed his vigorous health, was wrapped in a + dressing-gown of rough gray cloth plainly bound. Between his lips was a + meerschaum pipe, from which, at regular intervals, he blew the smoke, + following with abstracted vision its fantastic wreathings,—his mind + employed, no doubt, in assimilating through some meditative process the + thoughts of the author whose works he was studying. + </p> + <p> + On the other side of the stove and near a door which communicated with the + kitchen Minna was indistinctly visible in the haze of the good man’s + smoke, to which she was apparently accustomed. Beside her on a little + table were the implements of household work, a pile of napkins, and + another of socks waiting to be mended, also a lamp like that which shone + on the white page of the book in which the pastor was absorbed. Her fresh + young face, with its delicate outline, expressed an infinite purity which + harmonized with the candor of the white brow and the clear blue eyes. She + sat erect, turning slightly toward the lamp for better light, + unconsciously showing as she did so the beauty of her waist and bust. She + was already dressed for the night in a long robe of white cotton; a + cambric cap, without other ornament than a frill of the same, confined her + hair. Though evidently plunged in some inward meditation, she counted + without a mistake the threads of her napkins or the meshes of her socks. + Sitting thus, she presented the most complete image, the truest type, of + the woman destined for terrestrial labor, whose glance may piece the + clouds of the sanctuary while her thought, humble and charitable, keeps + her ever on the level of man. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid had flung himself into a chair between the two tables and was + contemplating with a species of intoxication this picture full of harmony, + to which the clouds of smoke did no despite. The single window which + lighted the parlor during the fine weather was now carefully closed. An + old tapestry, used for a curtain and fastened to a stick, hung before it + in heavy folds. Nothing in the room was picturesque, nothing brilliant; + everything denoted rigorous simplicity, true heartiness, the ease of + unconventional nature, and the habits of a domestic life which knew + neither cares nor troubles. Many a dwelling is like a dream, the sparkle + of passing pleasure seems to hide some ruin beneath the cold smile of + luxury; but this parlor, sublime in reality, harmonious in tone, diffused + the patriarchal ideas of a full and self-contained existence. The silence + was unbroken save by the movements of the servant in the kitchen engaged + in preparing the supper, and by the sizzling of the dried fish which she + was frying in salt butter according to the custom of the country. + </p> + <p> + “Will you smoke a pipe?” said the pastor, seizing a moment when he thought + that Wilfrid might listen to him. + </p> + <p> + “Thank you, no, dear Monsieur Becker,” replied the visitor. + </p> + <p> + “You seem to suffer more to-day than usual,” said Minna, struck by the + feeble tones of the stranger’s voice. + </p> + <p> + “I am always so when I leave the chateau.” + </p> + <p> + Minna quivered. + </p> + <p> + “A strange being lives there, Monsieur Becker,” he continued after a + pause. “For the six months that I have been in this village I have never + yet dared to question you about her, and even now I do violence to my + feelings in speaking of her. I began by keenly regretting that my journey + in this country was arrested by the winter weather and that I was forced + to remain here. But during the last two months chains have been forged and + riveted which bind me irrevocably to Jarvis, till now I fear to end my + days here. You know how I first met Seraphita, what impression her look + and voice made upon me, and how at last I was admitted to her home where + she receives no one. From the very first day I have longed to ask you the + history of this mysterious being. On that day began, for me, a series of + enchantments.” + </p> + <p> + “Enchantments!” cried the pastor shaking the ashes of his pipe into an + earthen-ware dish full of sand, “are there enchantments in these days?” + </p> + <p> + “You, who are carefully studying at this moment that volume of the + ‘Incantations’ of Jean Wier, will surely understand the explanation of my + sensations if I try to give it to you,” replied Wilfrid. “If we study + Nature attentively in its great evolutions as in its minutest works, we + cannot fail to recognize the possibility of enchantment—giving to + that word its exact significance. Man does not create forces; he employs + the only force that exists and which includes all others namely Motion, + the breath incomprehensible of the sovereign Maker of the universe. + Species are too distinctly separated for the human hand to mingle them. + The only miracle of which man is capable is done through the conjunction + of two antagonistic substances. Gunpowder for instance is germane to a + thunderbolt. As to calling forth a creation, and a sudden one, all + creation demands time, and time neither recedes nor advances at the word + of command. So, in the world without us, plastic nature obeys laws the + order and exercise of which cannot be interfered with by the hand of man. + But after fulfilling, as it were, the function of Matter, it would be + unreasonable not to recognize within us the existence of a gigantic power, + the effects of which are so incommensurable that the known generations of + men have never yet been able to classify them. I do not speak of man’s + faculty of abstraction, of constraining Nature to confine itself within + the Word,—a gigantic act on which the common mind reflects as little + as it does on the nature of Motion, but which, nevertheless, has led the + Indian theosophists to explain creation by a word to which they give an + inverse power. The smallest atom of their subsistence, namely, the grain + of rice, from which a creation issues and in which alternately creation + again is held, presented to their minds so perfect an image of the + creative word, and of the abstractive word, that to them it was easy to + apply the same system to the creation of worlds. The majority of men + content themselves with the grain of rice sown in the first chapter of all + the Geneses. Saint John, when he said the Word was God only complicated + the difficulty. But the fructification, germination, and efflorescence of + our ideas is of little consequence if we compare that property, shared by + many men, with the wholly individual faculty of communicating to that + property, by some mysterious concentration, forces that are more or less + active, of carrying it up to a third, a ninth, or a twenty-seventh power, + of making it thus fasten upon the masses and obtain magical results by + condensing the processes of nature. + </p> + <p> + “What I mean by enchantments,” continued Wilfrid after a moment’s pause, + “are those stupendous actions taking place between two membranes in the + tissue of the brain. We find in the unexplorable nature of the Spiritual + World certain beings armed with these wondrous faculties, comparable only + to the terrible power of certain gases in the physical world, beings who + combine with other beings, penetrate them as active agents, and produce + upon them witchcrafts, charms, against which these helpless slaves are + wholly defenceless; they are, in fact, enchanted, brought under + subjection, reduced to a condition of dreadful vassalage. Such mysterious + beings overpower others with the sceptre and the glory of a superior + nature,—acting upon them at times like the torpedo which electrifies + or paralyzes the fisherman, at other times like a dose of phosphorous + which stimulates life and accelerates its propulsion; or again, like + opium, which puts to sleep corporeal nature, disengages the spirit from + every bond, enables it to float above the world and shows this earth to + the spiritual eye as through a prism, extracting from it the food most + needed; or, yet again, like catalepsy, which deadens all faculties for the + sake of one only vision. Miracles, enchantments, incantations, + witchcrafts, spells, and charms, in short, all those acts improperly + termed supernatural, are only possible and can only be explained by the + despotism with which some spirit compels us to feel the effects of a + mysterious optic which increases, or diminishes, or exalts creation, moves + within us as it pleases, deforms or embellishes all things to our eyes, + tears us from heaven, or drags us to hell,—two terms by which men + agree to express the two extremes of joy and misery. + </p> + <p> + “These phenomena are within us, not without us,” Wilfrid went on. “The + being whom we call Seraphita seems to me one of those rare and terrible + spirits to whom power is given to bind men, to crush nature, to enter into + participation of the occult power of God. The course of her enchantments + over me began on that first day, when silence as to her was imposed upon + me against my will. Each time that I have wished to question you it seemed + as though I were about to reveal a secret of which I ought to be the + incorruptible guardian. Whenever I have tried to speak, a burning seal has + been laid upon my lips, and I myself have become the involuntary minister + of these mysteries. You see me here to-night, for the hundredth time, + bruised, defeated, broken, after leaving the hallucinating sphere which + surrounds that young girl, so gentle, so fragile to both of you, but to me + the cruellest of magicians! Yes, to me she is like a sorcerer holding in + her right hand the invisible wand that moves the globe, and in her left + the thunderbolt that rends asunder all things at her will. No longer can I + look upon her brow; the light of it is insupportable. I skirt the borders + of the abyss of madness too closely to be longer silent. I must speak. I + seize this moment, when courage comes to me, to resist the power which + drags me onward without inquiring whether or not I have the force to + follow. Who is she? Did you know her young? What of her birth? Had she + father and mother, or was she born of the conjunction of ice and sun? She + burns and yet she freeze; she shows herself and then withdraws; she + attracts me and repulses me; she brings me life, she gives me death; I + love her and yet I hate her! I cannot live thus; let me be wholly in + heaven or in hell!” + </p> + <p> + Holding his refilled pipe in one hand, and in the other the cover which he + forgot to replace, Monsieur Becker listened to Wilfrid with a mysterious + expression on his face, looking occasionally at his daughter, who seemed + to understand the man’s language as in harmony with the strange being who + inspired it. Wilfrid was splendid to behold at this moment,—like + Hamlet listening to the ghost of his father as it rises for him alone in + the midst of the living. + </p> + <p> + “This is certainly the language of a man in love,” said the good pastor, + innocently. + </p> + <p> + “In love!” cried Wilfrid, “yes, to common minds. But, dear Monsieur + Becker, no words can express the frenzy which draws me to the feet of that + unearthly being.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you do love her?” said Minna, in a tone of reproach. + </p> + <p> + “Mademoiselle, I feel such extraordinary agitation when I see her, and + such deep sadness when I see her no more, that in any other man what I + feel would be called love. But that sentiment draws those who feel it + ardently together, whereas between her and me a great gulf lies, whose icy + coldness penetrates my very being in her presence; though the feeling dies + away when I see her no longer. I leave her in despair; I return to her + with ardor,—like men of science who seek a secret from Nature only + to be baffled, or like the painter who would fain put life upon his canvas + and strives with all the resources of his art in the vain attempt.” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur, all that you say is true,” replied the young girl, artlessly. + </p> + <p> + “How can you know, Minna?” asked the old pastor. + </p> + <p> + “Ah! my father, had you been with us this morning on the summit of the + Falberg, had you seen him praying, you would not ask me that question. You + would say, like Monsieur Wilfrid, that he saw his Seraphita for the first + time in our temple, ‘It is the Spirit of Prayer.’” + </p> + <p> + These words were followed by a moment’s silence. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, truly!” said Wilfrid, “she has nothing in common with the creatures + who grovel upon this earth.” + </p> + <p> + “On the Falberg!” said the old pastor, “how could you get there?” + </p> + <p> + “I do not know,” replied Minna; “the way is like a dream to me, of which + no more than a memory remains. Perhaps I should hardly believe that I had + been there were it not for this tangible proof.” + </p> + <p> + She drew the flower from her bosom and showed it to them. All three gazed + at the pretty saxifrage, which was still fresh, and now shone in the light + of the two lamps like a third luminary. + </p> + <p> + “This is indeed supernatural,” said the old man, astounded at the sight of + a flower blooming in winter. + </p> + <p> + “A mystery!” cried Wilfrid, intoxicated with its perfume. + </p> + <p> + “The flower makes me giddy,” said Minna; “I fancy I still hear that voice,—the + music of thought; that I still see the light of that look, which is Love.” + </p> + <p> + “I implore you, my dear Monsieur Becker, tell me the history of Seraphita,—enigmatical + human flower,—whose image is before us in this mysterious bloom.” + </p> + <p> + “My dear friend,” said the old man, emitting a puff of smoke, “to explain + the birth of that being it is absolutely necessary that I disperse the + clouds which envelop the most obscure of Christian doctrines. It is not + easy to make myself clear when speaking of that incomprehensible + revelation,—the last effulgence of faith that has shone upon our + lump of mud. Do you know Swedenborg?” + </p> + <p> + “By name only,—of him, of his books, and his religion I know + nothing.” + </p> + <p> + “Then I must relate to you the whole chronicle of Swedenborg.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. SERAPHITA-SERAPHITUS + </h2> + <p> + After a pause, during which the pastor seemed to be gathering his + recollections, he continued in the following words:— + </p> + <p> + “Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Upsala in Sweden, in the month of January, + 1688, according to various authors,—in 1689, according to his + epitaph. His father was Bishop of Skara. Swedenborg lived eighty-five + years; his death occurred in London, March 29, 1772. I use that term to + convey the idea of a simple change of state. According to his disciples, + Swedenborg was seen at Jarvis and in Paris after that date. Allow me, my + dear Monsieur Wilfrid,” said Monsieur Becker, making a gesture to prevent + all interruption, “I relate these facts without either affirming or + denying them. Listen; afterwards you can think and say what you like. I + will inform you when I judge, criticise, and discuss these doctrines, so + as to keep clearly in view my own intellectual neutrality between HIM and + Reason. + </p> + <p> + “The life of Swedenborg was divided into two parts,” continued the pastor. + “From 1688 to 1745 Baron Emanuel Swedenborg appeared in the world as a man + of vast learning, esteemed and cherished for his virtues, always + irreproachable and constantly useful. While fulfilling high public + functions in Sweden, he published, between 1709 and 1740, several + important works on mineralogy, physics, mathematics, and astronomy, which + enlightened the world of learning. He originated a method of building + docks suitable for the reception of large vessels, and he wrote many + treatises on various important questions, such as the rise of tides, the + theory of the magnet and its qualities, the motion and position of the + earth and planets, and while Assessor in the Royal College of Mines, on + the proper system of working salt mines. He discovered means to construct + canal-locks or sluices; and he also discovered and applied the simplest + methods of extracting ore and of working metals. In fact he studied no + science without advancing it. In youth he learned Hebrew, Greek, and + Latin, also the oriental languages, with which he became so familiar that + many distinguished scholars consulted him, and he was able to decipher the + vestiges of the oldest known books of Scripture, namely: ‘The Wars of + Jehovah’ and ‘The Enunciations,’ spoken of by Moses (Numbers xxi. 14, 15, + 27-30), also by Joshua, Jeremiah, and Samuel,—‘The Wars of Jehovah’ + being the historical part and ‘The Enunciations’ the prophetical part of + the Mosaical Books anterior to Genesis. Swedenborg even affirms that ‘the + Book of Jasher,’ the Book of the Righteous, mentioned by Joshua, was in + existence in Eastern Tartary, together with the doctrine of + Correspondences. A Frenchman has lately, so they tell me, justified these + statements of Swedenborg, by the discovery at Bagdad of several portions + of the Bible hitherto unknown to Europe. During the widespread discussion + on animal magnetism which took its rise in Paris, and in which most men of + Western science took an active part about the year 1785, Monsieur le + Marquis de Thome vindicated the memory of Swedenborg by calling attention + to certain assertions made by the Commission appointed by the King of + France to investigate the subject. These gentlemen declared that no theory + of magnetism existed, whereas Swedenborg had studied and promulgated it + ever since the year 1720. Monsieur de Thome seizes this opportunity to + show the reason why so many men of science relegated Swedenborg to + oblivion while they delved into his treasure-house and took his facts to + aid their work. ‘Some of the most illustrious of these men,’ said Monsieur + de Thome, alluding to the ‘Theory of the Earth’ by Buffon, ‘have had the + meanness to wear the plumage of the noble bird and refuse him all + acknowledgment’; and he proved, by masterly quotations drawn from the + encyclopaedic works of Swedenborg, that the great prophet had anticipated + by over a century the slow march of human science. It suffices to read his + philosophical and mineralogical works to be convinced of this. In one + passage he is seen as the precursor of modern chemistry by the + announcement that the productions of organized nature are decomposable and + resolve into two simple principles; also that water, air, and fire are <i>not + elements</i>. In another, he goes in a few words to the heart of magnetic + mysteries and deprives Mesmer of the honors of a first knowledge of them. + </p> + <p> + “There,” said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a long shelf against the wall + between the stove and the window on which were ranged books of all sizes, + “behold him! here are seventeen works from his pen, of which one, his + ‘Philosophical and Mineralogical Works,’ published in 1734, is in three + folio volumes. These productions, which prove the incontestable knowledge + of Swedenborg, were given to me by Monsieur Seraphitus, his cousin and the + father of Seraphita. + </p> + <p> + “In 1740,” continued Monsieur Becker, after a slight pause, “Swedenborg + fell into a state of absolute silence, from which he emerged to bid + farewell to all his earthly occupations; after which his thoughts turned + exclusively to the Spiritual Life. He received the first commands of + heaven in 1745, and he thus relates the nature of the vocation to which he + was called: One evening, in London, after dining with a great appetite, a + thick white mist seemed to fill his room. When the vapor dispersed a + creature in human form rose from one corner of the apartment, and said in + a stern tone, ‘Do not eat so much.’ He refrained. The next night the same + man returned, radiant in light, and said to him, ‘I am sent of God, who + has chosen you to explain to men the meaning of his Word and his Creation. + I will tell you what to write.’ The vision lasted but a few moments. The + <i>angel</i> was clothed in purple. During that night the eyes of his <i>inner + man</i> were opened, and he was forced to look into the heavens, into the + world of spirits, and into hell,—three separate spheres; where he + encountered persons of his acquaintance who had departed from their human + form, some long since, others lately. Thenceforth Swedenborg lived wholly + in the spiritual life, remaining in this world only as the messenger of + God. His mission was ridiculed by the incredulous, but his conduct was + plainly that of a being superior to humanity. In the first place, though + limited in means to the bare necessaries of life, he gave away enormous + sums, and publicly, in several cities, restored the fortunes of great + commercial houses when they were on the brink of failure. No one ever + appealed to his generosity who was not immediately satisfied. A sceptical + Englishman, determined to know the truth, followed him to Paris, and + relates that there his doors stood always open. One day a servant + complained of this apparent negligence, which laid him open to suspicion + of thefts that might be committed by others. ‘He need feel no anxiety,’ + said Swedenborg, smiling. ‘But I do not wonder at his fear; he cannot see + the guardian who protects my door.’ In fact, no matter in what country he + made his abode he never closed his doors, and nothing was ever stolen from + him. At Gottenburg—a town situated some sixty miles from Stockholm—he + announced, eight days before the news arrived by courier, the + conflagration which ravaged Stockholm, and the exact time at which it took + place. The Queen of Sweden wrote to her brother, the King, at Berlin, that + one of her ladies-in-waiting, who was ordered by the courts to pay a sum + of money which she was certain her husband had paid before his death, went + to Swedenborg and begged him to ask her husband where she could find proof + of the payment. The following day Swedenborg, having done as the lady + requested, pointed out the place where the receipt would be found. He also + begged the deceased to appear to his wife, and the latter saw her husband + in a dream, wrapped in a dressing-gown which he wore just before his + death; and he showed her the paper in the place indicated by Swedenborg, + where it had been securely put away. At another time, embarking from + London in a vessel commanded by Captain Dixon, he overheard a lady asking + if there were plenty of provisions on board. ‘We do not want a great + quantity,’ he said; ‘in eight days and two hours we shall reach + Stockholm,’—which actually happened. This peculiar state of vision + as to the things of the earth—into which Swedenborg could put + himself at will, and which astonished those about him—was, + nevertheless, but a feeble representative of his faculty of looking into + heaven. + </p> + <p> + “Not the least remarkable of his published visions is that in which he + relates his journeys through the Astral Regions; his descriptions cannot + fail to astonish the reader, partly through the crudity of their details. + A man whose scientific eminence is incontestable, and who united in his + own person powers of conception, will, and imagination, would surely have + invented better if he had invented at all. The fantastic literature of the + East offers nothing that can give an idea of this astounding work, full of + the essence of poetry, if it is permissible to compare a work of faith + with one of oriental fancy. The transportation of Swedenborg by the Angel + who served as guide to this first journey is told with a sublimity which + exceeds, by the distance which God has placed betwixt the earth and the + sun, the great epics of Klopstock, Milton, Tasso, and Dante. This + description, which serves in fact as an introduction to his work on the + Astral Regions, has never been published; it is among the oral traditions + left by Swedenborg to the three disciples who were nearest to his heart. + Monsieur Silverichm has written them down. Monsieur Seraphitus endeavored + more than once to talk to me about them; but the recollection of his + cousin’s words was so burning a memory that he always stopped short at the + first sentence and became lost in a revery from which I could not rouse + him.” + </p> + <p> + The old pastor sighed as he continued: “The baron told me that the + argument by which the Angel proved to Swedenborg that these bodies are not + made to wander through space puts all human science out of sight beneath + the grandeur of a divine logic. According to the Seer, the inhabitants of + Jupiter will not cultivate the sciences, which they call darkness; those + of Mercury abhor the expression of ideas by speech, which seems to them + too material,—their language is ocular; those of Saturn are + continually tempted by evil spirits; those of the Moon are as small as + six-year-old children, their voices issue from the abdomen, on which they + crawl; those of Venus are gigantic in height, but stupid, and live by + robbery,—although a part of this latter planet is inhabited by + beings of great sweetness, who live in the love of Good. In short, he + describes the customs and morals of all the peoples attached to the + different globes, and explains the general meaning of their existence as + related to the universe in terms so precise, giving explanations which + agree so well with their visible evolutions in the system of the world, + that some day, perhaps, scientific men will come to drink of these living + waters. + </p> + <p> + “Here,” said Monsieur Becker, taking down a book and opening it at a mark, + “here are the words with which he ended this work:— + </p> + <p> + “‘If any man doubts that I was transported through a vast number of Astral + Regions, let him recall my observation of the distances in that other + life, namely, that they exist only in relation to the external state of + man; now, being transformed within like unto the Angelic Spirits of those + Astral Spheres, I was able to understand them.’ + </p> + <p> + “The circumstances to which we of this canton owe the presence among us of + Baron Seraphitus, the beloved cousin of Swedenborg, enabled me to know all + the events of the extraordinary life of that prophet. He has lately been + accused of imposture in certain quarters of Europe, and the public prints + reported the following fact based on a letter written by the Chevalier + Baylon. Swedenborg, they said, informed by certain senators of a secret + correspondence of the late Queen of Sweden with her brother, the Prince of + Prussia, revealed his knowledge of the secrets contained in that + correspondence to the Queen, making her believe he had obtained this + knowledge by supernatural means. A man worthy of all confidence, Monsieur + Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer, captain in the Royal guard and knight of + the Sword, answered the calumny with a convincing letter.” + </p> + <p> + The pastor opened a drawer of his table and looked through a number of + papers until he found a gazette which he held out to Wilfrid, asking him + to read aloud the following letter:— + </p> + <p> + Stockholm, May 18, 1788. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I have read with amazement a letter which purports to relate the + interview of the famous Swedenborg with Queen Louisa-Ulrika. The + circumstances therein stated are wholly false; and I hope the + writer will excuse me for showing him by the following faithful + narration, which can be proved by the testimony of many + distinguished persons then present and still living, how + completely he has been deceived. + + In 1758, shortly after the death of the Prince of Prussia + Swedenborg came to court, where he was in the habit of attending + regularly. He had scarcely entered the queen’s presence before she + said to him: “Well, Mr. Assessor, have you seen my brother?” + Swedenborg answered no, and the queen rejoined: “If you do see + him, greet him for me.” In saying this she meant no more than a + pleasant jest, and had no thought whatever of asking him for + information about her brother. Eight days later (not twenty-four + as stated, nor was the audience a private one), Swedenborg again + came to court, but so early that the queen had not left her + apartment called the White Room, where she was conversing with her + maids-of-honor and other ladies attached to the court. Swedenborg + did not wait until she came forth, but entered the said room and + whispered something in her ear. The queen, overcome with + amazement, was taken ill, and it was some time before she + recovered herself. When she did so she said to those about her: + “Only God and my brother knew the thing that he has just spoken + of.” She admitted that it related to her last correspondence with + the prince on a subject which was known to them alone. I cannot + explain how Swedenborg came to know the contents of that letter, + but I can affirm on my honor, that neither Count H—— (as the + writer of the article states) nor any other person intercepted, or + read, the queen’s letters. The senate allowed her to write to her + brother in perfect security, considering the correspondence as of + no interest to the State. It is evident that the author of the + said article is ignorant of the character of Count H——. This + honored gentleman, who has done many important services to his + country, unites the qualities of a noble heart to gifts of mind, + and his great age has not yet weakened these precious possessions. + During his whole administration he added the weight of scrupulous + integrity to his enlightened policy and openly declared himself + the enemy of all secret intrigues and underhand dealings, which he + regarded as unworthy means to attain an end. Neither did the + writer of that article understand the Assessor Swedenborg. The + only weakness of that essentially honest man was a belief in the + apparition of spirits; but I knew him for many years, and I can + affirm that he was as fully convinced that he met and talked with + spirits as I am that I am writing at this moment. As a citizen and + as a friend his integrity was absolute; he abhorred deception and + led the most exemplary of lives. The version which the Chevalier + Baylon gave of these facts is, therefore, entirely without + justification; the visit stated to have been made to Swedenborg in + the night-time by Count H—— and Count T—— is hereby + contradicted. In conclusion, the writer of the letter may rest + assured that I am not a follower of Swedenborg. The love of truth + alone impels me to give this faithful account of a fact which has + been so often stated with details that are entirely false. I + certify to the truth of what I have written by adding my + signature. + + Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer. +</pre> + <p> + “The proofs which Swedenborg gave of his mission to the royal families of + Sweden and Prussia were no doubt the foundation of the belief in his + doctrines which is prevalent at the two courts,” said Monsieur Becker, + putting the gazette into the drawer. “However,” he continued, “I shall not + tell you all the facts of his visible and material life; indeed his habits + prevented them from being fully known. He lived a hidden life; not seeking + either riches or fame. He was even noted for a sort of repugnance to + making proselytes; he opened his mind to few persons, and never showed his + external powers of second-sight to any who were not eminent in faith, + wisdom, and love. He could recognize at a glance the state of the soul of + every person who approached him, and those whom he desired to reach with + his inward language he converted into Seers. After the year 1745, his + disciples never saw him do a single thing from any human motive. One man + alone, a Swedish priest, named Mathesius, set afloat a story that he went + mad in London in 1744. But a eulogium on Swedenborg prepared with minute + care as to all the known events of his life, was pronounced after his + death in 1772 on behalf of the Royal Academy of Sciences in the Hall of + the Nobles at Stockholm, by Monsieur Sandels, counsellor of the Board of + Mines. A declaration made before the Lord Mayor of London gives the + details of his last illness and death, in which he received the + ministrations of Monsieur Ferelius a Swedish priest of the highest + standing, and pastor of the Swedish Church in London, Mathesius being his + assistant. All persons present attested that so far from denying the value + of his writings Swedenborg firmly asserted their truth. ‘In one hundred + years,’ Monsieur Ferelius quotes him as saying, ‘my doctrine will guide + the <i>Church</i>.’ He predicted the day and hour of his death. On that + day, Sunday, March 29, 1772, hearing the clock strike, he asked what time + it was. ‘Five o’clock’ was the answer. ‘It is well,’ he answered; ‘thank + you, God bless you.’ Ten minutes later he tranquilly departed, breathing a + gentle sigh. Simplicity, moderation, and solitude were the features of his + life. When he had finished writing any of his books he sailed either for + London or for Holland, where he published them, and never spoke of them + again. He published in this way twenty-seven different treatises, all + written, he said, from the dictation of Angels. Be it true or false, few + men have been strong enough to endure the flames of oral illumination. + </p> + <p> + “There they all are,” said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a second shelf on + which were some sixty volumes. “The treatises on which the Divine Spirit + casts its most vivid gleams are seven in number, namely: ‘Heaven and + Hell’; ‘Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom’; + ‘Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence’; ‘The Apocalypse + Revealed’; ‘Conjugial Love and its Chaste Delights’; ‘The True Christian + Religion’; and ‘An Exposition of the Internal Sense.’ Swedenborg’s + explanation of the Apocalypse begins with these words,” said Monsieur + Becker, taking down and opening the volume nearest to him: “‘Herein I have + written nothing of mine own; I speak as I am bidden by the Lord, who said, + through the same angel, to John: “Thou shalt not seal the sayings of this + Prophecy.”’ (Revelation xxii. 10.) + </p> + <p> + “My dear Monsieur Wilfrid,” said the old man, looking at his guest, “I + often tremble in every limb as I read, during the long winter evenings the + awe-inspiring works in which this man declares with perfect artlessness + the wonders that are revealed to him. ‘I have seen,’ he says, ‘Heaven and + the Angels. The spiritual man sees his spiritual fellows far better than + the terrestrial man sees the men of earth. In describing the wonders of + heaven and beneath the heavens I obey the Lord’s command. Others have the + right to believe me or not as they choose. I cannot put them into the + state in which God has put me; it is not in my power to enable them to + converse with Angels, nor to work miracles within their understanding; + they alone can be the instrument of their rise to angelic intercourse. It + is now twenty-eight years since I have lived in the Spiritual world with + angels, and on earth with men; for it pleased God to open the eyes of my + spirit as he did that of Paul, and of Daniel and Elisha.’ + </p> + <p> + “And yet,” continued the pastor, thoughtfully, “certain persons have had + visions of the spiritual world through the complete detachment which + somnambulism produces between their external form and their inner being. + ‘In this state,’ says Swedenborg in his treatise on Angelic Wisdom (No. + 257) ‘Man may rise into the region of celestial light because, his + corporeal senses being abolished, the influence of heaven acts without + hindrance on his inner man.’ Many persons who do not doubt that Swedenborg + received celestial revelations think that his writings are not all the + result of divine inspiration. Others insist on absolute adherence to him; + while admitting his many obscurities, they believe that the imperfection + of earthly language prevented the prophet from clearly revealing those + spiritual visions whose clouds disperse to the eyes of those whom faith + regenerates; for, to use the words of his greatest disciple, ‘Flesh is but + an external propagation.’ To poets and to writers his presentation of the + marvellous is amazing; to Seers it is simply reality. To some Christians + his descriptions have seemed scandalous. Certain critics have ridiculed + the celestial substance of his temples, his golden palaces, his splendid + cities where angels disport themselves; they laugh at his groves of + miraculous trees, his gardens where the flowers speak and the air is + white, and the mystical stones, the sard, carbuncle, chrysolite, + chrysoprase, jacinth, chalcedony, beryl, the Urim and Thummim, are endowed + with motion, express celestial truths, and reply by variations of light to + questions put to them (‘True Christian Religion,’ 219). Many noble souls + will not admit his spiritual worlds where colors are heard in delightful + concert, where language flames and flashes, where the Word is writ in + pointed spiral letters (‘True Christian Religion,’ 278). Even in the North + some writers have laughed at the gates of pearl, and the diamonds which + stud the floors and walls of his New Jerusalem, where the most ordinary + utensils are made of the rarest substances of the globe. ‘But,’ say his + disciples, ‘because such things are sparsely scattered on this earth does + it follow that they are not abundant in other worlds? On earth they are + terrestrial substances, whereas in heaven they assume celestial forms and + are in keeping with angels.’ In this connection Swedenborg has used the + very words of Jesus Christ, who said, ‘If I have told you earthly things + and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly + things?’ + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur,” continued the pastor, with an emphatic gesture, “I have read + the whole of Swedenborg’s works; and I say it with pride, because I have + done it and yet retained my reason. In reading him men either miss his + meaning or become Seers like him. Though I have evaded both extremes, I + have often experienced unheard-of delights, deep emotions, inward joys, + which alone can reveal to us the plenitude of truth,—the evidence of + celestial Light. All things here below seem small indeed when the soul is + lost in the perusal of these Treatises. It is impossible not to be amazed + when we think that in the short space of thirty years this man wrote and + published, on the truths of the Spiritual World, twenty-five quarto + volumes, composed in Latin, of which the shortest has five hundred pages, + all of them printed in small type. He left, they say, twenty others in + London, bequeathed to his nephew, Monsieur Silverichm, formerly almoner to + the King of Sweden. Certainly a man who, between the ages of twenty and + sixty, had already exhausted himself in publishing a series of + encyclopaedical works, must have received supernatural assistance in + composing these later stupendous treatises, at an age, too, when human + vigor is on the wane. You will find in these writings thousands of + propositions, all numbered, none of which have been refuted. Throughout we + see method and precision; the presence of the spirit issuing and flowing + down from a single fact,—the existence of angels. His ‘True + Christian Religion,’ which sums up his whole doctrine and is vigorous with + light, was conceived and written at the age of eighty-three. In fact, his + amazing vigor and omniscience are not denied by any of his critics, not + even by his enemies. + </p> + <p> + “Nevertheless,” said Monsieur Becker, slowly, “though I have drunk deep in + this torrent of divine light, God has not opened the eyes of my inner + being, and I judge these writings by the reason of an unregenerated man. I + have often felt that the <i>inspired</i> Swedenborg must have + misunderstood the Angels. I have laughed over certain visions which, + according to his disciples, I ought to have believed with veneration. I + have failed to imagine the spiral writing of the Angels or their golden + belts, on which the gold is of great or lesser thickness. If, for example, + this statement, ‘Some angels are solitary,’ affected me powerfully for a + time, I was, on reflection, unable to reconcile this solitude with their + marriages. I have not understood why the Virgin Mary should continue to + wear blue satin garments in heaven. I have even dared to ask myself why + those gigantic demons, Enakim and Hephilim, came so frequently to fight + the cherubim on the apocalyptic plains of Armageddon; and I cannot explain + to my own mind how Satans can argue with Angels. Monsieur le Baron + Seraphitus assured me that those details concerned only the angels who + live on earth in human form. The visions of the prophet are often blurred + with grotesque figures. One of his spiritual tales, or ‘Memorable + relations,’ as he called them, begins thus: ‘I see the spirits assembling, + they have hats upon their heads.’ In another of these Memorabilia he + receives from heaven a bit of paper, on which he saw, he says, the + hieroglyphics of the primitive peoples, which were composed of curved + lines traced from the finger-rings that are worn in heaven. However, + perhaps I am wrong; possibly the material absurdities with which his works + are strewn have spiritual significations. Otherwise, how shall we account + for the growing influence of his religion? His church numbers to-day more + than seven hundred thousand believers,—as many in the United States + of America as in England, where there are seven thousand Swedenborgians in + the city of Manchester alone. Many men of high rank in knowledge and in + social position in Germany, in Prussia, and in the Northern kingdoms have + publicly adopted the beliefs of Swedenborg; which, I may remark, are more + comforting than those of all other Christian communions. I wish I had the + power to explain to you clearly in succinct language the leading points of + the doctrine on which Swedenborg founded his church; but I fear such a + summary, made from recollection, would be necessarily defective. I shall, + therefore, allow myself to speak only of those ‘Arcana’ which concern the + birth of Seraphita.” + </p> + <p> + Here Monsieur Becker paused, as though composing his mind to gather up his + ideas. Presently he continued, as follows:— + </p> + <p> + “After establishing mathematically that man lives eternally in spheres of + either a lower or a higher grade, Swedenborg applies the term ‘Spiritual + Angels’ to beings who in this world are prepared for heaven, where they + become angels. According to him, God has not created angels; none exist + who have not been men upon the earth. The earth is the nursery-ground of + heaven. The Angels are therefore not Angels as such (‘Angelic Wisdom,’ + 57), they are transformed through their close conjunction with God; which + conjunction God never refuses, because the essence of God is not negative, + but essentially active. The spiritual angels pass through three natures of + love, because man is only regenerated through successive stages (‘True + Religion’). First, the <i>love of self</i>: the supreme expression of this + love is human genius, whose works are worshipped. Next, <i>love of life</i>: + this love produces prophets,—great men whom the world accepts as + guides and proclaims to be divine. Lastly, <i>love of heaven</i>, and this + creates the Spiritual Angel. These angels are, so to speak, the flowers of + humanity, which culminates in them and works for that culmination. They + must possess either the love of heaven or the wisdom of heaven, but always + Love before Wisdom. + </p> + <p> + “Thus the transformation of the natural man is into Love. To reach this + first degree, his previous existences must have passed through Hope and + Charity, which prepare him for Faith and Prayer. The ideas acquired by the + exercise of these virtues are transmitted to each of the human envelopes + within which are hidden the metamorphoses of the <i>inner being</i>; for + nothing is separate, each existence is necessary to the other existences. + Hope cannot advance without Charity, nor Faith without Prayer; they are + the four fronts of a solid square. ‘One virtue missing,’ he said, ‘and the + Spiritual Angel is like a broken pearl.’ Each of these existences is + therefore a circle in which revolves the celestial riches of the inner + being. The perfection of the Spiritual Angels comes from this mysterious + progression in which nothing is lost of the high qualities that are + successfully acquired to attain each glorious incarnation; for at each + transformation they cast away unconsciously the flesh and its errors. When + the man lives in Love he has shed all evil passions: Hope, Charity, Faith, + and Prayer have, in the words of Isaiah, purged the dross of his inner + being, which can never more be polluted by earthly affections. Hence the + grand saying of Christ quoted by Saint Matthew, ‘Lay up for yourselves + treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,’ and those + still grander words: ‘If ye were of this world the world would love you, + but I have chosen you out of the world; be ye therefore perfect as your + Father in heaven is perfect.’ + </p> + <p> + “The second transformation of man is to Wisdom. Wisdom is the + understanding of celestial things to which the Spirit is brought by Love. + The Spirit of Love has acquired strength, the result of all vanquished + terrestrial passions; it loves God blindly. But the Spirit of Wisdom has + risen to understanding and knows why it loves. The wings of the one are + spread and bear the spirit to God; the wings of the other are held down by + the awe that comes of understanding: the spirit knows God. The one longs + incessantly to see God and to fly to Him; the other attains to Him and + trembles. The union effected between the Spirit of Love and the Spirit of + Wisdom carries the human being into a Divine state during which time his + soul is <i>woman</i> and his body <i>man</i>, the last human manifestation + in which the Spirit conquers Form, or Form still struggles against the + Spirit,—for Form, that is, the flesh, is ignorant, rebels, and + desires to continue gross. This supreme trial creates untold sufferings + seen by Heaven alone,—the agony of Christ in the Garden of Olives. + </p> + <p> + “After death the first heaven opens to this dual and purified human + nature. Therefore it is that man dies in despair while the Spirit dies in + ecstasy. Thus, the <i>natural</i>, the state of beings not yet + regenerated; the <i>spiritual</i>, the state of those who have become + Angelic Spirits, and the <i>divine</i>, the state in which the Angel + exists before he breaks from his covering of flesh, are the three degrees + of existence through which man enters heaven. One of Swedenborg’s thoughts + expressed in his own words will explain to you with wonderful clearness + the difference between the <i>natural</i> and the <i>spiritual</i>. ‘To + the minds of men,’ he says, ‘the Natural passes into the Spiritual; they + regard the world under its visible aspects, they perceive it only as it + can be realized by their senses. But to the apprehension of Angelic + Spirits, the Spiritual passes into the Natural; they regard the world in + its inward essence and not in its form.’ Thus human sciences are but + analyses of form. The man of science as the world goes is purely external + like his knowledge; his inner being is only used to preserve his aptitude + for the perception of external truths. The Angelic Spirit goes far beyond + that; his knowledge is the thought of which human science is but the + utterance; he derives that knowledge from the Logos, and learns the law of + <i>correspondences</i> by which the world is placed in unison with heaven. + The <i>word of God</i> was wholly written by pure Correspondences, and + covers an esoteric or spiritual meaning, which according to the science of + Correspondences, cannot be understood. ‘There exist,’ says Swedenborg + (‘Celestial Doctrine’ 26), ‘innumerable Arcana within the hidden meaning + of the Correspondences. Thus the men who scoff at the books of the + Prophets where the Word is enshrined are as densely ignorant as those + other men who know nothing of a science and yet ridicule its truths. To + know the Correspondences which exist between the things visible and + ponderable in the terrestrial world and the things invisible and + imponderable in the spiritual world, is to hold heaven within our + comprehension. All the objects of the manifold creations having emanated + from God necessarily enfold a hidden meaning; according, indeed, to the + grand thought of Isaiah, ‘The earth is a garment.’ + </p> + <p> + “This mysterious link between Heaven and the smallest atoms of created + matter constitutes what Swedenborg calls a Celestial Arcanum, and his + treatise on the ‘Celestial Arcana’ in which he explains the + correspondences or significances of the Natural with, and to, the + Spiritual, giving, to use the words of Jacob Boehm, the sign and seal of + all things, occupies not less than sixteen volumes containing thirty + thousand propositions. ‘This marvellous knowledge of Correspondences which + the goodness of God granted to Swedenborg,’ says one of his disciples, ‘is + the secret of the interest which draws men to his works. According to him, + all things are derived from heaven, all things lead back to heaven. His + writings are sublime and clear; he speaks in heaven, and earth hears him. + Take one of his sentences by itself and a volume could be made of it’; and + the disciple quotes the following passages taken from a thousand others + that would answer the same purpose. + </p> + <p> + “‘The kingdom of heaven,’ says Swedenborg (‘Celestial Arcana’), ‘is the + kingdom of motives. <i>Action</i> is born in heaven, thence into the + world, and, by degrees, to the infinitely remote parts of earth. + Terrestrial effects being thus linked to celestial causes, all things are + <i>correspondent</i> and <i>significant</i>. Man is the means of union + between the Natural and the Spiritual.’ + </p> + <p> + “The Angelic Spirits therefore know the very nature of the Correspondences + which link to heaven all earthly things; they know, too, the inner meaning + of the prophetic words which foretell their evolutions. Thus to these + Spirits everything here below has its significance; the tiniest flower is + a thought,—a life which corresponds to certain lineaments of the + Great Whole, of which they have a constant intuition. To them Adultery and + the excesses spoken of in Scripture and by the Prophets, often garbled by + self-styled scholars, mean the state of those souls which in this world + persist in tainting themselves with earthly affections, thus compelling + their divorce from Heaven. Clouds signify the veil of the Most High. + Torches, shew-bread, horses and horsemen, harlots, precious stones, in + short, everything named in Scripture, has to them a clear-cut meaning, and + reveals the future of terrestrial facts in their relation to Heaven. They + penetrate the truths contained in the Revelation of Saint John the divine, + which human science has subsequently demonstrated and proved materially; + such, for instance, as the following (‘big,’ said Swedenborg, ‘with many + human sciences’): ‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first + heaven and the first earth were passed away’ (Revelation xxi. 1). These + Spirits know the supper at which the flesh of kings and the flesh of all + men, free and bond, is eaten, to which an Angel standing in the sun has + bidden them. They see the winged woman, clothed with the sun, and the + mailed man. ‘The horse of the Apocalypse,’ says Swedenborg, ‘is the + visible image of human intellect ridden by Death, for it bears within + itself the elements of its own destruction.’ Moreover, they can + distinguish beings concealed under forms which to ignorant eyes would seem + fantastic. When a man is disposed to receive the prophetic afflation of + Correspondences, it rouses within him a perception of the Word; he + comprehends that the creations are transformations only; his intellect is + sharpened, a burning thirst takes possession of him which only Heaven can + quench. He conceives, according to the greater or lesser perfection of his + inner being, the power of the Angelic Spirits; and he advances, led by + Desire (the least imperfect state of unregenerated man) towards Hope, the + gateway to the world of Spirits, whence he reaches Prayer, which gives him + the Key of Heaven. + </p> + <p> + “What being here below would not desire to render himself worthy of + entrance into the sphere of those who live in secret by Love and Wisdom? + Here on earth, during their lifetime, such spirits remain pure; they + neither see, nor think, nor speak like other men. There are two ways by + which perception comes,—one internal, the other external. Man is + wholly external, the Angelic Spirit wholly internal. The Spirit goes to + the depth of Numbers, possesses a full sense of them, knows their + significances. It controls Motion, and by reason of its ubiquity it shares + in all things. ‘An Angel,’ says Swedenborg, ‘is ever present to a man when + desired’ (‘Angelic Wisdom’); for the Angel has the gift of detaching + himself from his body, and he sees into heaven as the prophets and as + Swedenborg himself saw into it. ‘In this state,’ writes Swedenborg (‘True + Religion,’ 136), ‘the spirit of a man may move from one place to another, + his body remaining where it is,—a condition in which I lived for + over twenty-six years.’ It is thus that we should interpret all Biblical + statements which begin, ‘The Spirit led me.’ Angelic Wisdom is to human + wisdom what the innumerable forces of nature are to its action, which is + one. All things live again, and move and have their being in the Spirit, + which is in God. Saint Paul expresses this truth when he says, ‘In Deo + sumus, movemur, et vivimus,’—we live, we act, we are in God. + </p> + <p> + “Earth offers no hindrance to the Angelic Spirit, just as the Word offers + him no obscurity. His approaching divinity enables him to see the thought + of God veiled in the Logos, just as, living by his inner being, the Spirit + is in communion with the hidden meaning of all things on this earth. + Science is the language of the Temporal world, Love is that of the + Spiritual world. Thus man takes note of more than he is able to explain, + while the Angelic Spirit sees and comprehends. Science depresses man; Love + exalts the Angel. Science is still seeking, Love has found. Man judges + Nature according to his own relations to her; the Angelic Spirit judges it + in its relation to Heaven. In short, all things have a voice for the + Spirit. Spirits are in the secret of the harmony of all creations with + each other; they comprehend the spirit of sound, the spirit of color, the + spirit of vegetable life; they can question the mineral, and the mineral + makes answer to their thoughts. What to them are sciences and the + treasures of the earth when they grasp all things by the eye at all + moments, when the worlds which absorb the minds of so many men are to them + but the last step from which they spring to God? Love of heaven, or the + Wisdom of heaven, is made manifest to them by a circle of light which + surrounds them, and is visible to the Elect. Their innocence, of which + that of children is a symbol, possesses, nevertheless, a knowledge which + children have not; they are both innocent and learned. ‘And,’ says + Swedenborg, ‘the innocence of Heaven makes such an impression upon the + soul that those whom it affects keep a rapturous memory of it which lasts + them all their lives, as I myself have experienced. It is perhaps + sufficient,’ he goes on, ‘to have only a minimum perception of it to be + forever changed, to long to enter Heaven and the sphere of Hope.’ + </p> + <p> + “His doctrine of Marriage can be reduced to the following words: ‘The Lord + has taken the beauty and the grace of the life of man and bestowed them + upon woman. When man is not reunited to this beauty and this grace of his + life, he is harsh, sad, and sullen; when he is reunited to them he is + joyful and complete.’ The Angels are ever at the perfect point of beauty. + Marriages are celebrated by wondrous ceremonies. In these unions, which + produce no children, man contributes the <i>understanding</i>, woman the + <i>will</i>; they become one being, one Flesh here below, and pass to + heaven clothed in the celestial form. On this earth, the natural + attraction of the sexes towards enjoyment is an Effect which allures, + fatigues and disgusts; but in the form celestial the pair, now <i>one</i> + in Spirit find within theirself a ceaseless source of joy. Swedenborg was + led to see these nuptials of the Spirits, which in the words of Saint Luke + (xx. 35) are neither marrying nor giving in marriage, and which inspire + none but spiritual pleasures. An Angel offered to make him witness of such + a marriage and bore him thither on his wings (the wings are a symbol and + not a reality). The Angel clothed him in a wedding garment and when + Swedenborg, finding himself thus robed in light, asked why, the answer + was: ‘For these events, our garments are illuminated; they shine; they are + made nuptial.’ (‘Conjugial Love,’ 19, 20, 21.) Then he saw the two Angels, + one coming from the South, the other from the East; the Angel of the South + was in a chariot drawn by two white horses, with reins of the color and + brilliance of the dawn; but lo, when they were near him in the sky, + chariot and horses vanished. The Angel of the East, clothed in crimson, + and the Angel of the South, in purple, drew together, like breaths, and + mingled: one was the Angel of Love, the other the Angel of Wisdom. + Swedenborg’s guide told him that the two Angels had been linked together + on earth by an inward friendship and ever united though separated in life + by great distances. Consent, the essence of all good marriage upon earth, + is the habitual state of Angels in Heaven. Love is the light of their + world. The eternal rapture of Angels comes from the faculty that God + communicates to them to render back to Him the joy they feel through Him. + This reciprocity of infinitude forms their life. They become infinite by + participating of the essence of God, who generates Himself by Himself. + </p> + <p> + “The immensity of the Heavens where the Angels dwell is such that if man + were endowed with sight as rapid as the darting of light from the sun to + the earth, and if he gazed throughout eternity, his eyes could not reach + the horizon, nor find an end. Light alone can give an idea of the joys of + heaven. ‘It is,’ says Swedenborg (‘Angelic Wisdom,’ 7, 25, 26, 27), ‘a + vapor of the virtue of God, a pure emanation of His splendor, beside which + our greatest brilliance is obscurity. It can compass all; it can renew + all, and is never absorbed: it environs the Angel and unites him to God by + infinite joys which multiply infinitely of themselves. This Light destroys + whosoever is not prepared to receive it. No one here below, nor yet in + Heaven can see God and live. This is the meaning of the saying (Exodus + xix. 12, 13, 21-23) “Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the + mount—lest ye break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many perish.” + And again (Exodus xxxiv. 29-35), “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai + with the two Tables of testimony in his hand, his face shone, so that he + put a veil upon it when he spake with the people, lest any of them die.” + The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ likewise revealed the light + surrounding the Messengers from on high and the ineffable joys of the + Angels who are forever imbued with it. “His face,” says Saint Matthew + (xvii. 1-5), “did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the light—and + a bright cloud overshadowed them.”’ + </p> + <p> + “When a planet contains only those beings who reject the Lord, when his + word is ignored, then the Angelic Spirits are gathered together by the + four winds, and God sends forth an Exterminating Angel to change the face + of the refractory earth, which in the immensity of this universe is to Him + what an unfruitful seed is to Nature. Approaching the globe, this + Exterminating Angel, borne by a comet, causes the planet to turn upon its + axis, and the lands lately covered by the seas reappear, adorned in + freshness and obedient to the laws proclaimed in Genesis; the Word of God + is once more powerful on this new earth, which everywhere exhibits the + effects of terrestrial waters and celestial flames. The light brought by + the Angel from On High, causes the sun to pale. ‘Then,’ says Isaiah, (xix. + 20) ‘men will hide in the clefts of the rock and roll themselves in the + dust of the earth.’ ‘They will cry to the mountains’ (Revelation), ‘Fall + on us! and to the seas, Swallow us up! Hide us from the face of Him that + sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb!’ The Lamb is the + great figure and hope of the Angels misjudged and persecuted here below. + Christ himself has said, ‘Blessed are those who mourn! Blessed are the + simple-hearted! Blessed are they that love!’—All Swedenborg is + there! Suffer, Believe, Love. To love truly must we not suffer? must we + not believe? Love begets Strength, Strength bestows Wisdom, thence + Intelligence; for Strength and Wisdom demand Will. To be intelligent, is + not that to Know, to Wish, and to Will,—the three attributes of the + Angelic Spirit? ‘If the universe has a meaning,’ Monsieur Saint-Martin + said to me when I met him during a journey which he made in Sweden, + ‘surely this is the one most worthy of God.’ + </p> + <p> + “But, Monsieur,” continued the pastor after a thoughtful pause, “of what + avail to you are these shreds of thoughts taken here and there from the + vast extent of a work of which no true idea can be given except by + comparing it to a river of light, to billows of flame? When a man plunges + into it he is carried away as by an awful current. Dante’s poem seems but + a speck to the reader submerged in the almost Biblical verses with which + Swedenborg renders palpable the Celestial Worlds, as Beethoven built his + palaces of harmony with thousands of notes, as architects have reared + cathedrals with millions of stones. We roll in soundless depths, where our + minds will not always sustain us. Ah, surely a great and powerful + intellect is needed to bring us back, safe and sound, to our own social + beliefs. + </p> + <p> + “Swedenborg,” resumed the pastor, “was particularly attached to the Baron + de Seraphitz, whose name, according to an old Swedish custom, had taken + from time immemorial the Latin termination of ‘us.’ The baron was an + ardent disciple of the Swedish prophet, who had opened the eyes of his + Inner-Man and brought him to a life in conformity with the decrees from + On-High. He sought for an Angelic Spirit among women; Swedenborg found her + for him in a vision. His bride was the daughter of a London shoemaker, in + whom, said Swedenborg, the life of Heaven shone, she having passed through + all anterior trials. After the death, that is, the transformation of the + prophet, the baron came to Jarvis to accomplish his celestial nuptials + with the observances of Prayer. As for me, who am not a Seer, I have only + known the terrestrial works of this couple. Their lives were those of + saints whose virtues are the glory of the Roman Church. They ameliorated + the condition of our people; they supplied them all with means in return + for work,—little, perhaps, but enough for all their wants. Those who + lived with them in constant intercourse never saw them show a sign of + anger or impatience; they were constantly beneficent and gentle, full of + courtesy and loving-kindness; their marriage was the harmony of two souls + indissolubly united. Two eiders winging the same flight, the sound in the + echo, the thought in the word,—these, perhaps, are true images of + their union. Every one here in Jarvis loved them with an affection which I + can compare only to the love of a plant for the sun. The wife was simple + in her manners, beautiful in form, lovely in face, with a dignity of + bearing like that of august personages. In 1783, being then twenty-six + years old, she conceived a child; her pregnancy was to the pair a solemn + joy. They prepared to bid the earth farewell; for they told me they should + be transformed when their child had passed the state of infancy which + needed their fostering care until the strength to exist alone should be + given to her. + </p> + <p> + “Their child was born,—the Seraphita we are now concerned with. From + the moment of her conception father and mother lived a still more solitary + life than in the past, lifting themselves up to heaven by Prayer. They + hoped to see Swedenborg, and faith realized their hope. The day on which + Seraphita came into the world Swedenborg appeared in Jarvis, and filled + the room of the new-born child with light. I was told that he said, ‘The + work is accomplished; the Heavens rejoice!’ Sounds of unknown melodies + were heard throughout the house, seeming to come from the four points of + heaven on the wings of the wind. The spirit of Swedenborg led the father + forth to the shores of the fiord and there quitted him. Certain + inhabitants of Jarvis, having approached Monsieur Seraphitus as he stood + on the shore, heard him repeat those blissful words of Scripture: ‘How + beautiful on the mountains are the feet of Him who is sent of God!’ + </p> + <p> + “I had left the parsonage on my way to baptize the infant and name it, and + perform the other duties required by law, when I met the baron returning + to the house. ‘Your ministrations are superfluous,’ he said; ‘our child is + to be without name on this earth. You must not baptize in the waters of an + earthly Church one who has just been immersed in the fires of Heaven. This + child will remain a blossom, it will not grow old; you will see it pass + away. You exist, but our child has life; you have outward senses, the + child has none, its being is always inward.’ These words were uttered in + so strange and supernatural a voice that I was more affected by them than + by the shining of his face, from which light appeared to exude. His + appearance realized the phantasmal ideas which we form of inspired beings + as we read the prophesies of the Bible. But such effects are not rare + among our mountains, where the nitre of perpetual snows produces + extraordinary phenomena in the human organization. + </p> + <p> + “I asked him the cause of his emotion. ‘Swedenborg came to us; he has just + left me; I have breathed the air of heaven,’ he replied. ‘Under what form + did he appear?’ I said. ‘Under his earthly form; dressed as he was the + last time I saw him in London, at the house of Richard Shearsmith, + Coldbath-fields, in July, 1771. He wore his brown frieze coat with steel + buttons, his waistcoat buttoned to the throat, a white cravat, and the + same magisterial wig rolled and powdered at the sides and raised high in + front, showing his vast and luminous brow, in keeping with the noble + square face, where all is power and tranquillity. I recognized the large + nose with its fiery nostril, the mouth that ever smiled,—angelic + mouth from which these words, the pledge of my happiness, have just + issued, “We shall meet soon.”’ + </p> + <p> + “The conviction that shone on the baron’s face forbade all discussion; I + listened in silence. His voice had a contagious heat which made my bosom + burn within me; his fanaticism stirred my heart as the anger of another + makes our nerves vibrate. I followed him in silence to his house, where I + saw the nameless child lying mysteriously folded to its mother’s breast. + The babe heard my step and turned its head toward me; its eyes were not + those of an ordinary child. To give you an idea of the impression I + received, I must say that already they saw and thought. The childhood of + this predestined being was attended by circumstances quite extraordinary + in our climate. For nine years our winters were milder and our summers + longer than usual. This phenomenon gave rise to several discussions among + scientific men; but none of their explanations seemed sufficient to + academicians, and the baron smiled when I told him of them. The child was + never seen in its nudity as other children are; it was never touched by + man or woman, but lived a sacred thing upon the mother’s breast, and it + never cried. If you question old David he will confirm these facts about + his mistress, for whom he feels an adoration like that of Louis IX. for + the saint whose name he bore. + </p> + <p> + “At nine years of age the child began to pray; prayer is her life. You saw + her in the church at Christmas, the only day on which she comes there; she + is separated from the other worshippers by a visible space. If that space + does not exist between herself and men she suffers. That is why she passes + nearly all her time alone in the chateau. The events of her life are + unknown; she is seldom seen; her days are spent in the state of mystical + contemplation which was, so Catholic writers tell us, habitual with the + early Christian solitaries, in whom the oral tradition of Christ’s own + words still remained. Her mind, her soul, her body, all within her is + virgin as the snow on those mountains. At ten years of age she was just + what you see her now. When she was nine her father and mother expired + together, without pain or visible malady, after naming the day and hour at + which they would cease to be. Standing at their feet she looked at them + with a calm eye, not showing either sadness, or grief, or joy, or + curiosity. When we approached to remove the two bodies she said, ‘Carry + them away!’ ‘Seraphita,’ I said, for so we called her, ‘are you not + affected by the death of your father and your mother who loved you so + much?’ ‘Dead?’ she answered, ‘no, they live in me forever—That is + nothing,’ she pointed without emotion to the bodies they were bearing + away. I then saw her for the third time only since her birth. In church it + is difficult to distinguish her; she stands near a column which, seen from + the pulpit, is in shadow, so that I cannot observe her features. + </p> + <p> + “Of all the servants of the household there remained after the death of + the master and mistress only old David, who, in spite of his eighty-two + years, suffices to wait on his mistress. Some of our Jarvis people tell + wonderful tales about her. These have a certain weight in a land so + essentially conducive to mystery as ours; and I am now studying the + treatise on Incantations by Jean Wier and other works relating to + demonology, where pretended supernatural events are recorded, hoping to + find facts analogous to those which are attributed to her.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you do not believe in her?” said Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes, I do,” said the pastor, genially, “I think her a very capricious + girl; a little spoilt by her parents, who turned her head with the + religious ideas I have just revealed to you.” + </p> + <p> + Minna shook her head in a way that gently expressed contradiction. + </p> + <p> + “Poor girl!” continued the old man, “her parents bequeathed to her that + fatal exaltation of soul which misleads mystics and renders them all more + or less mad. She subjects herself to fasts which horrify poor David. The + good old man is like a sensitive plant which quivers at the slightest + breeze, and glows under the first sun-ray. His mistress, whose + incomprehensible language has become his, is the breeze and the sun-ray to + him; in his eyes her feet are diamonds and her brow is strewn with stars; + she walks environed with a white and luminous atmosphere; her voice is + accompanied by music; she has the gift of rendering herself invisible. If + you ask to see her, he will tell you she has gone to the <i>astral regions</i>. + It is difficult to believe such a story, is it not? You know all miracles + bear more or less resemblance to the story of the Golden Tooth. We have + our golden tooth in Jarvis, that is all. Duncker the fisherman asserts + that he has seen her plunge into the fiord and come up in the shape of an + eider-duck, at other times walking on the billows of a storm. Fergus, who + leads the flocks to the saeters, says that in rainy weather a circle of + clear sky can be seen over the Swedish castle; and that the heavens are + always blue above Seraphita’s head when she is on the mountain. Many women + hear the tones of a mighty organ when Seraphita enters the church, and ask + their neighbors earnestly if they too do not hear them. But my daughter, + for whom during the last two years Seraphita has shown much affection, has + never heard this music, and has never perceived the heavenly perfumes + which, they say, make the air fragrant about her when she moves. Minna, to + be sure, has often on returning from their walks together expressed to me + the delight of a young girl in the beauties of our spring-time, in the + spicy odors of budding larches and pines and the earliest flowers; but + after our long winters what can be more natural than such pleasure? The + companionship of this so-called spirit has nothing so very extraordinary + in it, has it, my child?” + </p> + <p> + “The secrets of that spirit are not mine,” said Minna. “Near it I know + all, away from it I know nothing; near that exquisite life I am no longer + myself, far from it I forget all. The time we pass together is a dream + which my memory scarcely retains. I may have heard yet not remember the + music which the women tell of; in that presence, I may have breathed + celestial perfumes, seen the glory of the heavens, and yet be unable to + recollect them here.” + </p> + <p> + “What astonishes me most,” resumed the pastor, addressing Wilfrid, “is to + notice that you suffer from being near her.” + </p> + <p> + “Near her!” exclaimed the stranger, “she has never so much as let me touch + her hand. When she saw me for the first time her glance intimidated me; + she said: ‘You are welcome here, for you were to come.’ I fancied that she + knew me. I trembled. It is fear that forces me to believe in her.” + </p> + <p> + “With me it is love,” said Minna, without a blush. + </p> + <p> + “Are you making fun of me?” said Monsieur Becker, laughing good-humoredly; + “you my daughter, in calling yourself a Spirit of Love, and you, Monsieur + Wilfrid, in pretending to be a Spirit of Wisdom?” + </p> + <p> + He drank a glass of beer and so did not see the singular look which + Wilfrid cast upon Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Jesting apart,” resumed the old gentleman, “I have been much astonished + to hear that these two mad-caps ascended to the summit of the Falberg; it + must be a girlish exaggeration; they probably went to the crest of a + ledge. It is impossible to reach the peaks of the Falberg.” + </p> + <p> + “If so, father,” said Minna, in an agitated voice, “I must have been under + the power of a spirit; for indeed we reached the summit of the Ice-Cap.” + </p> + <p> + “This is really serious,” said Monsieur Becker. “Minna is always + truthful.” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur Becker,” said Wilfrid, “I swear to you that Seraphita exercises + such extraordinary power over me that I know no language in which I can + give you the least idea of it. She has revealed to me things known to + myself alone.” + </p> + <p> + “Somnambulism!” said the old man. “A great many such effects are related + by Jean Wier as phenomena easily explained and formerly observed in + Egypt.” + </p> + <p> + “Lend me Swedenborg’s theosophical works,” said Wilfrid, “and let me + plunge into those gulfs of light,—you have given me a thirst for + them.” + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Becker took down a volume and gave it to his guest, who instantly + began to read it. It was about nine o’clock in the evening. The + serving-woman brought in the supper. Minna made tea. The repast over, each + turned silently to his or her occupation; the pastor read the + Incantations; Wilfrid pursued the spirit of Swedenborg; and the young girl + continued to sew, her mind absorbed in recollections. It was a true + Norwegian evening—peaceful, studious, and domestic; full of + thoughts, flowers blooming beneath the snow. Wilfrid, as he devoured the + pages of the prophet, lived by his inner senses only; the pastor, looking + up at times from his book, called Minna’s attention to the absorption of + their guest with an air that was half-serious, half-jesting. To Minna’s + thoughts the face of Seraphitus smiled upon her as it hovered above the + clouds of smoke which enveloped them. The clock struck twelve. Suddenly + the outer door was opened violently. Heavy but hurried steps, the steps of + a terrified old man, were heard in the narrow vestibule between the two + doors; then David burst into the parlor. + </p> + <p> + “Danger, danger!” he cried. “Come! come, all! The evil spirits are + unchained! Fiery mitres are on their heads! Demons, Vertumni, Sirens! they + tempt her as Jesus was tempted on the mountain! Come, come! and drive them + away.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you not recognize the language of Swedenborg?” said the pastor, + laughing, to Wilfrid. “Here it is; pure from the source.” + </p> + <p> + But Wilfrid and Minna were gazing in terror at old David, who, with hair + erect, and eyes distraught, his legs trembling and covered with snow, for + he had come without snow-shoes, stood swaying from side to side, as if + some boisterous wind were shaking him. + </p> + <p> + “Is he harmed?” cried Minna. + </p> + <p> + “The devils hope and try to conquer her,” replied the old man. + </p> + <p> + The words made Wilfrid’s pulses throb. + </p> + <p> + “For the last five hours she has stood erect, her eyes raised to heaven + and her arms extended; she suffers, she cries to God. I cannot cross the + barrier; Hell has posted the Vertumni as sentinels. They have set up an + iron wall between her and her old David. She wants me, but what can I do? + Oh, help me! help me! Come and pray!” + </p> + <p> + The old man’s despair was terrible to see. + </p> + <p> + “The Light of God is defending her,” he went on, with infectious faith, + “but oh! she might yield to violence.” + </p> + <p> + “Silence, David! you are raving. This is a matter to be verified. We will + go with you,” said the pastor, “and you shall see that there are no + Vertumni, nor Satans, nor Sirens, in that house.” + </p> + <p> + “Your father is blind,” whispered David to Minna. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid, on whom the reading of Swedenborg’s first treatise, which he had + rapidly gone through, had produced a powerful effect, was already in the + corridor putting on his skees; Minna was ready in a few moments, and both + left the old men far behind as they darted forward to the Swedish castle. + </p> + <p> + “Do you hear that cracking sound?” said Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “The ice of the fiord stirs,” answered Minna; “the spring is coming.” + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid was silent. When the two reached the courtyard they were conscious + that they had neither the faculty nor the strength to enter the house. + </p> + <p> + “What think you of her?” asked Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “See that radiance!” cried Minna, going towards the window of the salon. + “He is there! How beautiful! O my Seraphitus, take me!” + </p> + <p> + The exclamation was uttered inwardly. She saw Seraphitus standing erect, + lightly swathed in an opal-tinted mist that disappeared at a little + distance from the body, which seemed almost phosphorescent. + </p> + <p> + “How beautiful she is!” cried Wilfrid, mentally. + </p> + <p> + Just then Monsieur Becker arrived, followed by David; he saw his daughter + and guest standing before the window; going up to them, he looked into the + salon and said quietly, “Well, my good David, she is only saying her + prayers.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, but try to enter, Monsieur.” + </p> + <p> + “Why disturb those who pray?” answered the pastor. + </p> + <p> + At this instant the moon, rising above the Falberg, cast its rays upon the + window. All three turned round, attracted by this natural effect which + made them quiver; when they turned back to again look at Seraphita she had + disappeared. + </p> + <p> + “How strange!” exclaimed Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “I hear delightful sounds,” said Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said the pastor, “it is all plain enough; she is going to bed.” + </p> + <p> + David had entered the house. The others took their way back in silence; + none of them interpreted the vision in the same manner,—Monsieur + Becker doubted, Minna adored, Wilfrid longed. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid was a man about thirty-six years of age. His figure, though + broadly developed, was not wanting in symmetry. Like most men who + distinguish themselves above their fellows, he was of medium height; his + chest and shoulders were broad, and his neck short,—a characteristic + of those whose hearts are near their heads; his hair was black, thick, and + fine; his eyes, of a yellow brown, had, as it were, a solar brilliancy, + which proclaimed with what avidity his nature aspired to Light. Though + these strong and virile features were defective through the absence of an + inward peace,—granted only to a life without storms or conflicts,—they + plainly showed the inexhaustible resources of impetuous senses and the + appetites of instinct; just as every motion revealed the perfection of the + man’s physical apparatus, the flexibility of his senses, and their + fidelity when brought into play. This man might contend with savages, and + hear, as they do, the tread of enemies in distant forests; he could follow + a scent in the air, a trail on the ground, or see on the horizon the + signal of a friend. His sleep was light, like that of all creatures who + will not allow themselves to be surprised. His body came quickly into + harmony with the climate of any country where his tempestuous life + conducted him. Art and science would have admired his organization in the + light of a human model. Everything about him was symmetrical and + well-balanced,—action and heart, intelligence and will. At first + sight he might be classed among purely instinctive beings, who give + themselves blindly up to the material wants of life; but in the very + morning of his days he had flung himself into a higher social world, with + which his feelings harmonized; study had widened his mind, reflection had + sharpened his power of thought, and the sciences had enlarged his + understanding. He had studied human laws,—the working of + self-interests brought into conflict by the passions, and he seemed to + have early familiarized himself with the abstractions on which societies + rest. He had pored over books,—those deeds of dead humanity; he had + spent whole nights of pleasure in every European capital; he had slept on + fields of battle the night before the combat and the night that followed + victory. His stormy youth may have flung him on the deck of some corsair + and sent him among the contrasting regions of the globe; thus it was that + he knew the actions of a living humanity. He knew the present and the + past,—a double history; that of to-day, that of other days. Many men + have been, like Wilfrid, equally powerful by the Hand, by the Heart, by + the Head; like him, the majority have abused their triple power. But + though this man still held by certain outward liens to the slimy side of + humanity, he belonged also and positively to the sphere where force is + intelligent. In spite of the many veils which enveloped his soul, there + were certain ineffable symptoms of this fact which were visible to pure + spirits, to the eyes of the child whose innocence has known no breath of + evil passions, to the eyes of the old man who has lived to regain his + purity. + </p> + <p> + These signs revealed a Cain for whom there was still hope,—one who + seemed as though he were seeking absolution from the ends of the earth. + Minna suspected the galley-slave of glory in the man; Seraphita recognized + him. Both admired and both pitied him. Whence came their prescience? + Nothing could be more simple nor yet more extraordinary. As soon as we + seek to penetrate the secrets of Nature, where nothing is secret, and + where it is only necessary to have the eyes to see, we perceive that the + simple produces the marvellous. + </p> + <p> + “Seraphitus,” said Minna one evening a few days after Wilfrid’s arrival in + Jarvis, “you read the soul of this stranger while I have only vague + impressions of it. He chills me or else he excites me; but you seem to + know the cause of this cold and of this heat; tell me what it means, for + you know all about him.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I have seen the causes,” said Seraphitus, lowing his large eyelids. + </p> + <p> + “By what power?” asked the curious Minna. + </p> + <p> + “I have the gift of Specialism,” he answered. “Specialism is an inward + sight which can penetrate all things; you will only understand its full + meaning through a comparison. In the great cities of Europe where works + are produced by which the human Hand seeks to represent the effects of the + moral nature was well as those of the physical nature, there are glorious + men who express ideas in marble. The sculptor acts on the stone; he + fashions it; he puts a realm of ideas into it. There are statues which the + hand of man has endowed with the faculty of representing the noble side of + humanity, or the whole evil side; most men see in such marbles a human + figure and nothing more; a few other men, a little higher in the scale of + being, perceive a fraction of the thoughts expressed in the statue; but + the Initiates in the secrets of art are of the same intellect as the + sculptor; they see in his work the whole universe of his thought. Such + persons are in themselves the principles of art; they bear within them a + mirror which reflects nature in her slightest manifestations. Well! so it + is with me; I have within me a mirror before which the moral nature, with + its causes and effects, appears and is reflected. Entering thus into the + consciousness of others I am able to divine both the future and the past. + How? do you still ask how? Imagine that the marble statue is the body of a + man, a piece of statuary in which we see the emotion, sentiment, passion, + vice or crime, virtue or repentance which the creating hand has put into + it, and you will then comprehend how it is that I read the soul of this + foreigner—though what I have said does not explain the gift of + Specialism; for to conceive the nature of that gift we must possess it.” + </p> + <p> + Though Wilfrid belonged to the two first divisions of humanity, the men of + force and the men of thought, yet his excesses, his tumultuous life, and + his misdeeds had often turned him towards Faith; for doubt has two sides; + a side to the light and a side to the darkness. Wilfrid had too closely + clasped the world under its forms of Matter and of Mind not to have + acquired that thirst for the unknown, that longing to <i>go beyond</i> + which lay their grasp upon the men who know, and wish, and will. But + neither his knowledge, nor his actions, nor his will, had found direction. + He had fled from social life from necessity; as a great criminal seeks the + cloister. Remorse, that virtue of weak beings, did not touch him. Remorse + is impotence, impotence which sins again. Repentance alone is powerful; it + ends all. But in traversing the world, which he made his cloister, Wilfrid + had found no balm for his wounds; he saw nothing in nature to which he + could attach himself. In him, despair had dried the sources of desire. He + was one of those beings who, having gone through all passions and come out + victorious, have nothing more to raise in their hot-beds, and who, lacking + opportunity to put themselves at the head of their fellow-men to trample + under iron heel entire populations, buy, at the price of a horrible + martyrdom, the faculty of ruining themselves in some belief,—rocks + sublime, which await the touch of a wand that comes not to bring the + waters gushing from their far-off spring. + </p> + <p> + Led by a scheme of his restless, inquiring life to the shores of Norway, + the sudden arrival of winter had detained the wanderer at Jarvis. The day + on which, for the first time, he saw Seraphita, the whole past of his life + faded from his mind. The young girl excited emotions which he had thought + could never be revived. The ashes gave forth a lingering flame at the + first murmurings of that voice. Who has ever felt himself return to youth + and purity after growing cold and numb with age and soiled with impurity? + Suddenly, Wilfrid loved as he had never loved; he loved secretly, with + faith, with fear, with inward madness. His life was stirred to the very + source of his being at the mere thought of seeing Seraphita. As he + listened to her he was transported into unknown worlds; he was mute before + her, she magnetized him. There, beneath the snows, among the glaciers, + bloomed the celestial flower to which his hopes, so long betrayed, + aspired; the sight of which awakened ideas of freshness, purity, and faith + which grouped about his soul and lifted it to higher regions,—as + Angels bear to heaven the Elect in those symbolic pictures inspired by the + guardian spirit of a great master. Celestial perfumes softened the granite + hardness of the rocky scene; light endowed with speech shed its divine + melodies on the path of him who looked to heaven. After emptying the cup + of terrestrial love which his teeth had bitten as he drank it, he saw + before him the chalice of salvation where the limpid waters sparkled, + making thirsty for ineffable delights whoever dare apply his lips burning + with a faith so strong that the crystal shall not be shattered. + </p> + <p> + But Wilfrid now encountered the wall of brass for which he had been + seeking up and down the earth. He went impetuously to Seraphita, meaning + to express the whole force and bearing of a passion under which he bounded + like the fabled horse beneath the iron horseman, firm in his saddle, whom + nothing moves while the efforts of the fiery animal only made the rider + heavier and more solid. He sought her to relate his life,—to prove + the grandeur of his soul by the grandeur of his faults, to show the ruins + of his desert. But no sooner had he crossed her threshold, and found + himself within the zone of those eyes of scintillating azure, that met no + limits forward and left none behind, than he grew calm and submissive, as + a lion, springing on his prey in the plains of Africa, receives from the + wings of the wind a message of love, and stops his bound. A gulf opened + before him, into which his frenzied words fell and disappeared, and from + which uprose a voice which changed his being; he became as a child, a + child of sixteen, timid and frightened before this maiden with serene + brow, this white figure whose inalterable calm was like the cruel + impassibility of human justice. The combat between them had never ceased + until this evening, when with a glance she brought him down, as a falcon + making his dizzy spirals in the air around his prey causes it to fall + stupefied to earth, before carrying it to his eyrie. + </p> + <p> + We may note within ourselves many a long struggle the end of which is one + of our own actions,—struggles which are, as it were, the reverse + side of humanity. This reverse side belongs to God; the obverse side to + men. More than once Seraphita had proved to Wilfrid that she knew this + hidden and ever varied side, which is to the majority of men a second + being. Often she said to him in her dove-like voice: “Why all this + vehemence?” when on his way to her he had sworn she should be his. Wilfrid + was, however, strong enough to raise the cry of revolt to which he had + given utterance in Monsieur Becker’s study. The narrative of the old + pastor had calmed him. Sceptical and derisive as he was, he saw belief + like a sidereal brilliance dawning on his life. He asked himself if + Seraphita were not an exile from the higher spheres seeking the homeward + way. The fanciful deifications of all ordinary lovers he could not give to + this lily of Norway in whose divinity he believed. Why lived she here + beside this fiord? What did she? Questions that received no answer filled + his mind. Above all, what was about to happen between them? What fate had + brought him there? To him, Seraphita was the motionless marble, light + nevertheless as a vapor, which Minna had seen that day poised above the + precipices of the Falberg. Could she thus stand on the edge of all gulfs + without danger, without a tremor of the arching eyebrows, or a quiver of + the light of the eye? If his love was to be without hope, it was not + without curiosity. + </p> + <p> + From the moment when Wilfrid suspected the ethereal nature of the + enchantress who had told him the secrets of his life in melodious + utterance, he had longed to try to subject her, to keep her to himself, to + tear her from the heaven where, perhaps, she was awaited. Earth and + Humanity seized their prey; he would imitate them. His pride, the only + sentiment through which man can long be exalted, would make him happy in + this triumph for the rest of his life. The idea sent the blood boiling + through his veins, and his heart swelled. If he did not succeed, he would + destroy her,—it is so natural to destroy that which we cannot + possess, to deny what we cannot comprehend, to insult that which we envy. + </p> + <p> + On the morrow, Wilfrid, laden with ideas which the extraordinary events of + the previous night naturally awakened in his mind, resolved to question + David, and went to find him on the pretext of asking after Seraphita’s + health. Though Monsieur Becker spoke of the old servant as falling into + dotage, Wilfrid relied on his own perspicacity to discover scraps of truth + in the torrent of the old man’s rambling talk. + </p> + <p> + David had the immovable, undecided, physiognomy of an octogenarian. Under + his white hair lay a forehead lined with wrinkles like the stone courses + of a ruined wall; and his face was furrowed like the bed of a dried-up + torrent. His life seemed to have retreated wholly to the eyes, where light + still shone, though its gleams were obscured by a mistiness which seemed + to indicate either an active mental alienation or the stupid stare of + drunkenness. His slow and heavy movements betrayed the glacial weight of + age, and communicated an icy influence to whoever allowed themselves to + look long at him,—for he possessed the magnetic force of torpor. His + limited intelligence was only roused by the sight, the hearing, or the + recollection of his mistress. She was the soul of this wholly material + fragment of an existence. Any one seeing David alone by himself would have + thought him a corpse; let Seraphita enter, let her voice be heard, or a + mention of her be made, and the dead came forth from his grave and + recovered speech and motion. The dry bones were not more truly awakened by + the divine breath in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and never was that + apocalyptic vision better realized than in this Lazarus issuing from the + sepulchre into life at the voice of a young girl. His language, which was + always figurative and often incomprehensible, prevented the inhabitants of + the village from talking with him; but they respected a mind that deviated + so utterly from common ways,—a thing which the masses instinctively + admire. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid found him in the antechamber, apparently asleep beside the stove. + Like a dog who recognizes a friend of the family, the old man raised his + eyes, saw the foreigner, and did not stir. + </p> + <p> + “Where is she?” inquired Wilfrid, sitting down beside him. + </p> + <p> + David fluttered his fingers in the air as if to express the flight of a + bird. + </p> + <p> + “Does she still suffer?” asked Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “Beings vowed to Heaven are able so to suffer that suffering does not + lessen their love; this is the mark of the true faith,” answered the old + man, solemnly, like an instrument which, on being touched, gives forth an + accidental note. + </p> + <p> + “Who taught you those words?” + </p> + <p> + “The Spirit.” + </p> + <p> + “What happened to her last night? Did you force your way past the Vertumni + standing sentinel? did you evade the Mammons?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes”; answered David, as though awaking from a dream. + </p> + <p> + The misty gleam of his eyes melted into a ray that came direct from the + soul and made it by degrees brilliant as that of an eagle, as intelligent + as that of a poet. + </p> + <p> + “What did you see?” asked Wilfrid, astonished at this sudden change. + </p> + <p> + “I saw Species and Shapes; I heard the Spirit of all things; I beheld the + revolt of the Evil Ones; I listened to the words of the Good. Seven devils + came, and seven archangels descended from on high. The archangels stood + apart and looked on through veils. The devils were close by; they shone, + they acted. Mammon came on his pearly shell in the shape of a beautiful + naked woman; her snowy body dazzled the eye, no human form ever equalled + it; and he said, ‘I am Pleasure; thou shalt possess me!’ Lucifer, prince + of serpents, was there in sovereign robes; his Manhood was glorious as the + beauty of an angel, and he said, ‘Humanity shall be at thy feet!’ The + Queen of misers,—she who gives back naught that she has ever + received,—the Sea, came wrapped in her virent mantle; she opened her + bosom, she showed her gems, she brought forth her treasures and offered + them; waves of sapphire and of emerald came at her bidding; her hidden + wonders stirred, they rose to the surface of her breast, they spoke; the + rarest pearl of Ocean spread its iridescent wings and gave voice to its + marine melodies, saying, ‘Twin daughter of suffering, we are sisters! + await me; let us go together; all I need is to become a Woman.’ The Bird + with the wings of an eagle and the paws of a lion, the head of a woman and + the body of a horse, the Animal, fell down before her and licked her feet, + and promised seven hundred years of plenty to her best-beloved daughter. + Then came the most formidable of all, the Child, weeping at her knees, and + saying, ‘Wilt thou leave me, feeble and suffering as I am? oh, my mother, + stay!’ and he played with her, and shed languor on the air, and the + Heavens themselves had pity for his wail. The Virgin of pure song brought + forth her choirs to relax the soul. The Kings of the East came with their + slaves, their armies, and their women; the Wounded asked her for succor, + the Sorrowful stretched forth their hands: ‘Do not leave us! do not leave + us!’ they cried. I, too, I cried, ‘Do not leave us! we adore thee! stay!’ + Flowers, bursting from the seed, bathed her in their fragrance which + uttered, ‘Stay!’ The giant Enakim came forth from Jupiter, leading Gold + and its friends and all the Spirits of the Astral Regions which are joined + with him, and they said, ‘We are thine for seven hundred years.’ At last + came Death on his pale horse, crying, ‘I will obey thee!’ One and all fell + prostrate before her. Could you but have seen them! They covered as it + were a vast plain, and they cried aloud to her, ‘We have nurtured thee, + thou art our child; do not abandon us!’ At length Life issued from her + Ruby Waters, and said, ‘I will not leave thee!’ then, finding Seraphita + silent, she flamed upon her as the sun, crying out, ‘I am light!’ ‘<i>The + light</i> is there!’ cried Seraphita, pointing to the clouds where stood + the archangels; but she was wearied out; Desire had wrung her nerves, she + could only cry, ‘My God! my God!’ Ah! many an Angelic Spirit, scaling the + mountain and nigh to the summit, has set his foot upon a rolling stone + which plunged him back into the abyss! All these lost Spirits adored her + constancy; they stood around her,—a choir without a song,—weeping + and whispering, ‘Courage!’ At last she conquered; Desire—let loose + upon her in every Shape and every Species—was vanquished. She stood + in prayer, and when at last her eyes were lifted she saw the feet of + Angels circling in the Heavens.” + </p> + <p> + “She saw the feet of Angels?” repeated Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said the old man. + </p> + <p> + “Was it a dream that she told you?” asked Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “A dream as real as your life,” answered David; “I was there.” + </p> + <p> + The calm assurance of the old servant affected Wilfrid powerfully. He went + away asking himself whether these visions were any less extraordinary than + those he had read of in Swedenborg the night before. + </p> + <p> + “If Spirits exist, they must act,” he was saying to himself as he entered + the parsonage, where he found Monsieur Becker alone. + </p> + <p> + “Dear pastor,” he said, “Seraphita is connected with us in form only, and + even that form is inexplicable. Do not think me a madman or a lover; a + profound conviction cannot be argued with. Convert my belief into + scientific theories, and let us try to enlighten each other. To-morrow + evening we shall both be with her.” + </p> + <p> + “What then?” said Monsieur Becker. + </p> + <p> + “If her eye ignores space,” replied Wilfrid, “if her thought is an + intelligent sight which enables her to perceive all things in their + essence, and to connect them with the general evolution of the universe, + if, in a word, she sees and knows all, let us seat the Pythoness on her + tripod, let us force this pitiless eagle by threats to spread its wings! + Help me! I breathe a fire which burns my vitals; I must quench it or it + will consume me. I have found a prey at last, and it shall be mine!” + </p> + <p> + “The conquest will be difficult,” said the pastor, “because this girl is—” + </p> + <p> + “Is what?” cried Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “Mad,” said the old man. + </p> + <p> + “I will not dispute her madness, but neither must you dispute her + wonderful powers. Dear Monsieur Becker, she has often confounded me with + her learning. Has she travelled?” + </p> + <p> + “From her house to the fiord, no further.” + </p> + <p> + “Never left this place!” exclaimed Wilfrid. “Then she must have read + immensely.” + </p> + <p> + “Not a page, not one iota! I am the only person who possesses any books in + Jarvis. The works of Swedenborg—the only books that were in the + chateau—you see before you. She has never looked into a single one + of them.” + </p> + <p> + “Have you tried to talk with her?” + </p> + <p> + “What good would that do?” + </p> + <p> + “Does no one live with her in that house?” + </p> + <p> + “She has no friends but you and Minna, nor any servant except old David.” + </p> + <p> + “It cannot be that she knows nothing of science nor of art.” + </p> + <p> + “Who should teach her?” said the pastor. + </p> + <p> + “But if she can discuss such matters pertinently, as she has often done + with me, what do you make of it?” + </p> + <p> + “The girl may have acquired through years of silence the faculties enjoyed + by Apollonius of Tyana and other pretended sorcerers burned by the + Inquisition, which did not choose to admit the fact of second-sight.” + </p> + <p> + “If she can speak Arabic, what would you say to that?” + </p> + <p> + “The history of medical science gives many authentic instances of girls + who have spoken languages entirely unknown to them.” + </p> + <p> + “What can I do?” exclaimed Wilfrid. “She knows of secrets in my past life + known only to me.” + </p> + <p> + “I shall be curious if she can tell me thoughts that I have confided to no + living person,” said Monsieur Becker. + </p> + <p> + Minna entered the room. + </p> + <p> + “Well, my daughter, and how is your familiar spirit?” + </p> + <p> + “He suffers, father,” she answered, bowing to Wilfrid. “Human passions, + clothed in their false riches, surrounded him all night, and showed him + all the glories of the world. But you think these things mere tales.” + </p> + <p> + “Tales as beautiful to those who read them in their brains as the ‘Arabian + Nights’ to common minds,” said the pastor, smiling. + </p> + <p> + “Did not Satan carry our Savior to the pinnacle of the Temple, and show + him all the kingdoms of the world?” she said. + </p> + <p> + “The Evangelists,” replied her father, “did not correct their copies very + carefully, and several versions are in existence.” + </p> + <p> + “You believe in the reality of these visions?” said Wilfrid to Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Who can doubt when he relates them.” + </p> + <p> + “He?” demanded Wilfrid. “Who?” + </p> + <p> + “He who is there,” replied Minna, motioning towards the chateau. + </p> + <p> + “Are you speaking of Seraphita?” he said. + </p> + <p> + The young girl bent her head, and looked at him with an expression of + gentle mischief. + </p> + <p> + “You too!” exclaimed Wilfrid, “you take pleasure in confounding me. Who + and what is she? What do you think of her?” + </p> + <p> + “What I feel is inexplicable,” said Minna, blushing. + </p> + <p> + “You are all crazy!” cried the pastor. + </p> + <p> + “Farewell, until to-morrow evening,” said Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. THE CLOUDS OF THE SANCTUARY + </h2> + <p> + There are pageants in which all the material splendors that man arrays + co-operate. Nations of slaves and divers have searched the sands of ocean + and the bowels of earth for the pearls and diamonds which adorn the + spectators. Transmitted as heirlooms from generation to generation, these + treasures have shone on consecrated brows and could be the most faithful + of historians had they speech. They know the joys and sorrows of the great + and those of the small. Everywhere do they go; they are worn with pride at + festivals, carried in despair to usurers, borne off in triumph amid blood + and pillage, enshrined in masterpieces conceived by art for their + protection. None, except the pearl of Cleopatra, has been lost. The Great + and the Fortunate assemble to witness the coronation of some king, whose + trappings are the work of men’s hands, but the purple of whose raiment is + less glorious than that of the flowers of the field. These festivals, + splendid in light, bathed in music which the hand of man creates, aye, all + the triumphs of that hand are subdued by a thought, crushed by a + sentiment. The Mind can illumine in a man and round a man a light more + vivid, can open his ear to more melodious harmonies, can seat him on + clouds of shining constellations and teach him to question them. The Heart + can do still greater things. Man may come into the presence of one sole + being and find in a single word, a single look, an influence so weighty to + bear, of so luminous a light, so penetrating a sound, that he succumbs and + kneels before it. The most real of all splendors are not in outward + things, they are within us. A single secret of science is a realm of + wonders to the man of learning. Do the trumpets of Power, the jewels of + Wealth, the music of Joy, or a vast concourse of people attend his mental + festival? No, he finds his glory in some dim retreat where, perchance, a + pallid suffering man whispers a single word into his ear; that word, like + a torch lighted in a mine, reveals to him a Science. All human ideas, + arrayed in every attractive form which Mystery can invent surrounded a + blind man seated in a wayside ditch. Three worlds, the Natural, the + Spiritual, the Divine, with all their spheres, opened their portals to a + Florentine exile; he walked attended by the Happy and the Unhappy; by + those who prayed and those who moaned; by angels and by souls in hell. + When the Sent of God, who knew and could accomplish all things, appeared + to three of his disciples it was at eventide, at the common table of the + humblest of inns; and then and there the Light broke forth, shattering + Material Forms, illuminating the Spiritual Faculties, so that they saw him + in his glory, and the earth lay at their feet like a cast-off sandal. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Becker, Wilfrid, and Minna were all under the influence of fear + as they took their way to meet the extraordinary being whom each desired + to question. To them, in their several ways, the Swedish castle had grown + to mean some gigantic representation, some spectacle like those whose + colors and masses are skilfully and harmoniously marshalled by the poets, + and whose personages, imaginary actors to men, are real to those who begin + to penetrate the Spiritual World. On the tiers of this Coliseum Monsieur + Becker seated the gray legions of Doubt, the stern ideas, the specious + formulas of Dispute. He convoked the various antagonistic worlds of + philosophy and religion, and they all appeared, in the guise of a + fleshless shape, like that in which art embodies Time,—an old man + bearing in one hand a scythe, in the other a broken globe, the human + universe. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid had bidden to the scene his earliest illusions and his latest + hopes, human destiny and its conflicts, religion and its conquering + powers. + </p> + <p> + Minna saw heaven confusedly by glimpses; love raised a curtain wrought + with mysterious images, and the melodious sounds which met her ear + redoubled her curiosity. + </p> + <p> + To all three, therefore, this evening was to be what that other evening + had been for the pilgrims to Emmaus, what a vision was to Dante, an + inspiration to Homer,—to them, three aspects of the world revealed, + veils rent away, doubts dissipated, darkness illumined. Humanity in all + its moods expecting light could not be better represented than here by + this young girl, this man in the vigor of his age, and these old men, of + whom one was learned enough to doubt, the other ignorant enough to + believe. Never was any scene more simple in appearance, nor more + portentous in reality. + </p> + <p> + When they entered the room, ushered in by old David, they found Seraphita + standing by a table on which were served the various dishes which compose + a “tea”; a form of collation which in the North takes the place of wine + and its pleasures,—reserved more exclusively for Southern climes. + Certainly nothing proclaimed in her, or in him, a being with the strange + power of appearing under two distinct forms; nothing about her betrayed + the manifold powers which she wielded. Like a careful housewife attending + to the comfort of her guests, she ordered David to put more wood into the + stove. + </p> + <p> + “Good evening, my neighbors,” she said. “Dear Monsieur Becker, you do + right to come; you see me living for the last time, perhaps. This winter + has killed me. Will you sit there?” she said to Wilfrid. “And you, Minna, + here?” pointing to a chair beside her. “I see you have brought your + embroidery. Did you invent that stitch? the design is very pretty. For + whom is it,—your father, or monsieur?” she added, turning to + Wilfrid. “Surely we ought to give him, before we part, a remembrance of + the daughters of Norway.” + </p> + <p> + “Did you suffer much yesterday?” asked Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “It was nothing,” she answered; “the suffering gladdened me; it was + necessary, to enable me to leave this life.” + </p> + <p> + “Then death does not alarm you?” said Monsieur Becker, smiling, for he did + not think her ill. + </p> + <p> + “No, dear pastor; there are two ways of dying: to some, death is victory, + to others, defeat.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you think that you have conquered?” asked Minna. + </p> + <p> + “I do not know,” she said, “perhaps I have only taken a step in the path.” + </p> + <p> + The lustrous splendor of her brow grew dim, her eyes were veiled beneath + slow-dropping lids; a simple movement which affected the prying guests and + kept them silent. Monsieur Becker was the first to recover courage. + </p> + <p> + “Dear child,” he said, “you are truth itself, and you are ever kind. I + would ask of you to-night something other than the dainties of your + tea-table. If we may believe certain persons, you know amazing things; if + this be true, would it not be charitable in you to solve a few of our + doubts?” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” she said smiling, “I walk on the clouds. I visit the depths of the + fiord; the sea is my steed and I bridle it; I know where the singing + flower grows, and the talking light descends, and fragrant colors shine! I + wear the seal of Solomon; I am a fairy; I cast my orders to the wind + which, like an abject slave, fulfils them; my eyes can pierce the earth + and behold its treasures; for lo! am I not the virgin to whom the pearls + dart from their ocean depths and—” + </p> + <p> + “—who led me safely to the summit of the Falberg?” said Minna, + interrupting her. + </p> + <p> + “Thou! thou too!” exclaimed the strange being, with a luminous glance at + the young girl which filled her soul with trouble. “Had I not the faculty + of reading through your foreheads the desires which have brought you here, + should I be what you think I am?” she said, encircling all three with her + controlling glance, to David’s great satisfaction. The old man rubbed his + hands with pleasure as he left the room. + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” she resumed after a pause, “you have come, all of you, with the + curiosity of children. You, my poor Monsieur Becker, have asked yourself + how it was possible that a girl of seventeen should know even a single one + of those secrets which men of science seek with their noses to the earth,—instead + of raising their eyes to heaven. Were I to tell you how and at what point + the plant merges into the animal you would begin to doubt your doubts. You + have plotted to question me; you will admit that?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, dear Seraphita,” answered Wilfrid; “but the desire is a natural one + to men, is it not?” + </p> + <p> + “You will bore this dear child with such topics,” she said, passing her + hand lightly over Minna’s hair with a caressing gesture. + </p> + <p> + The young girl raised her eyes and seemed as though she longed to lose + herself in him. + </p> + <p> + “Speech is the endowment of us all,” resumed the mysterious creature, + gravely. “Woe to him who keeps silence, even in a desert, believing that + no one hears him; all voices speak and all ears listen here below. Speech + moves the universe. Monsieur Becker, I desire to say nothing + unnecessarily. I know the difficulties that beset your mind; would you not + think it a miracle if I were now to lay bare the past history of your + consciousness? Well, the miracle shall be accomplished. You have never + admitted to yourself the full extent of your doubts. I alone, immovable in + my faith, I can show it to you; I can terrify you with yourself. + </p> + <p> + “You stand on the darkest side of Doubt. You do not believe in God,—although + you know it not,—and all things here below are secondary to him who + rejects the first principle of things. Let us leave aside the fruitless + discussions of false philosophy. The spiritualist generations made as many + and as vain efforts to deny Matter as the materialist generations have + made to deny Spirit. Why such discussions? Does not man himself offer + irrefragable proof of both systems? Do we not find in him material things + and spiritual things? None but a madman can refuse to see in the human + body a fragment of Matter; your natural sciences, when they decompose it, + find little difference between its elements and those of other animals. On + the other hand, the idea produced in man by the comparison of many objects + has never seemed to any one to belong to the domain of Matter. As to this, + I offer no opinion. I am now concerned with your doubts, not with my + certainties. To you, as to the majority of thinkers, the relations between + things, the reality of which is proved to you by your sensations and which + you possess the faculty to discover, do not seem Material. The Natural + universe of things and beings ends, in man, with the Spiritual universe of + similarities or differences which he perceives among the innumerable forms + of Nature,—relations so multiplied as to seem infinite; for if, up + to the present time, no one has been able to enumerate the separate + terrestrial creations, who can reckon their correlations? Is not the + fraction which you know, in relation to their totality, what a single + number is to infinity? Here, then, you fall into a perception of the + infinite which undoubtedly obliges you to conceive of a purely Spiritual + world. + </p> + <p> + “Thus man himself offers sufficient proof of the two orders,—Matter + and Spirit. In him culminates a visible finite universe; in him begins a + universe invisible and infinite,—two worlds unknown to each other. + Have the pebbles of the fiord a perception of their combined being? have + they a consciousness of the colors they present to the eye of man? do they + hear the music of the waves that lap them? Let us therefore spring over + and not attempt to sound the abysmal depths presented to our minds in the + union of a Material universe and a Spiritual universe,—a creation + visible, ponderable, tangible, terminating in a creation invisible, + imponderable, intangible; completely dissimilar, separated by the void, + yet united by indisputable bonds and meeting in a being who derives + equally from the one and from the other! Let us mingle in one world these + two worlds, absolutely irreconcilable to your philosophies, but conjoined + by fact. However abstract man may suppose the relation which binds two + things together, the line of junction is perceptible. How? Where? We are + not now in search of the vanishing point where Matter subtilizes. If such + were the question, I cannot see why He who has, by physical relations, + studded with stars at immeasurable distances the heavens which veil Him, + may not have created solid substances, nor why you deny Him the faculty of + giving a body to thought. + </p> + <p> + “Thus your invisible moral universe and your visible physical universe are + one and the same matter. We will not separate properties from substances, + nor objects from effects. All that exists, all that presses upon us and + overwhelms us from above or from below, before us or in us, all that which + our eyes and our minds perceive, all these named and unnamed things + compose—in order to fit the problem of Creation to the measure of + your logic—a block of finite Matter; but were it infinite, God would + still not be its master. Now, reasoning with your views, dear pastor, no + matter in what way God the infinite is concerned with this block of finite + Matter, He cannot exist and retain the attributes with which man invests + Him. Seek Him in facts, and He is not; spiritually and materially, you + have made God impossible. Listen to the Word of human Reason forced to its + ultimate conclusions. + </p> + <p> + “In bringing God face to face with the Great Whole, we see that only two + states are possible between them,—either God and Matter are + contemporaneous, or God existed alone before Matter. Were Reason—the + light that has guided the human race from the dawn of its existence—accumulated + in one brain, even that mighty brain could not invent a third mode of + being without suppressing both Matter and God. Let human philosophies pile + mountain upon mountain of words and of ideas, let religions accumulate + images and beliefs, revelations and mysteries, you must face at last this + terrible dilemma and choose between the two propositions which compose it; + you have no option, and one as much as the other leads human reason to + Doubt. + </p> + <p> + “The problem thus established, what signifies Spirit or Matter? Why + trouble about the march of the worlds in one direction or in another, + since the Being who guides them is shown to be an absurdity? Why continue + to ask whether man is approaching heaven or receding from it, whether + creation is rising towards Spirit or descending towards Matter, if the + questioned universe gives no reply? What signifies theogonies and their + armies, theologies and their dogmas, since whichever side of the problem + is man’s choice, his God exists not? Let us for a moment take up the first + proposition, and suppose God contemporaneous with Matter. Is subjection to + the action or the co-existence of an alien substance consistent with being + God at all? In such a system, would not God become a secondary agent + compelled to organize Matter? If so, who compelled Him? Between His + material gross companion and Himself, who was the arbiter? Who paid the + wages of the six days’ labor imputed to the great Designer? Has any + determining force been found which was neither God nor Matter? God being + regarded as the manufacturer of the machinery of the worlds, is it not as + ridiculous to call Him God as to call the slave who turns the grindstone a + Roman citizen? Besides, another difficulty, as insoluble to this supreme + human reason as it is to God, presents itself. + </p> + <p> + “If we carry the problem higher, shall we not be like the Hindus, who put + the world upon a tortoise, the tortoise on an elephant, and do not know on + what the feet of their elephant may rest? This supreme will, issuing from + the contest between God and Matter, this God, this more than God, can He + have existed throughout eternity without willing what He afterwards + willed,—admitting that Eternity can be divided into two eras. No + matter where God is, what becomes of His intuitive intelligence if He did + not know His ultimate thought? Which, then, is the true Eternity,—the + created Eternity or the uncreated? But if God throughout all time did will + the world such as it is, this new necessity, which harmonizes with the + idea of sovereign intelligence, implies the co-eternity of Matter. Whether + Matter be co-eternal by a divine will necessarily accordant with itself + from the beginning, or whether Matter be co-eternal of its own being, the + power of God, which must be absolute, perishes if His will is + circumscribed; for in that case God would find within Him a determining + force which would control Him. Can He be God if He can no more separate + Himself from His creation in a past eternity than in the coming eternity? + </p> + <p> + “This face of the problem is insoluble in its cause. Let us now inquire + into its effects. If a God compelled to have created the world from all + eternity seems inexplicable, He is quite as unintelligible in perpetual + cohesion with His work. God, constrained to live eternally united to His + creation is held down to His first position as workman. Can you conceive + of a God who shall be neither independent of nor dependent on His work? + Could He destroy that work without challenging Himself? Ask yourself, and + decide! Whether He destroys it some day, or whether He never destroys it, + either way is fatal to the attributes without which God cannot exist. Is + the world an experiment? is it a perishable form to which destruction must + come? If it is, is not God inconsistent and impotent? inconsistent, + because He ought to have seen the result before the attempt,—moreover + why should He delay to destroy that which He is to destroy?—impotent, + for how else could He have created an imperfect man? + </p> + <p> + “If an imperfect creation contradicts the faculties which man attributes + to God we are forced back upon the question, Is creation perfect? The idea + is in harmony with that of a God supremely intelligent who could make no + mistakes; but then, what means the degradation of His work, and its + regeneration? Moreover, a perfect world is, necessarily, indestructible; + its forms would not perish, it could neither advance nor recede, it would + revolve in the everlasting circumference from which it would never issue. + In that case God would be dependent on His work; it would be co-eternal + with Him; and so we fall back into one of the propositions most + antagonistic to God. If the world is imperfect, it can progress; if + perfect, it is stationary. On the other hand, if it be impossible to admit + of a progressive God ignorant through a past eternity of the results of + His creative work, can there be a stationary God? would not that imply the + triumph of Matter? would it not be the greatest of all negations? Under + the first hypothesis God perishes through weakness; under the second + through the Force of his inertia. + </p> + <p> + “Therefore, to all sincere minds the supposition that Matter, in the + conception and execution of the worlds, is contemporaneous with God, is to + deny God. Forced to choose, in order to govern the nations, between the + two alternatives of the problem, whole generations have preferred this + solution of it. Hence the doctrine of the two principles of Magianism, + brought from Asia and adopted in Europe under the form of Satan warring + with the Eternal Father. But this religious formula and the innumerable + aspects of divinity that have sprung from it are surely crimes against the + Majesty Divine. What other term can we apply to the belief which sets up + as a rival to God a personification of Evil, striving eternally against + the Omnipotent Mind without the possibility of ultimate triumph? Your + statics declare that two Forces thus pitted against each other are + reciprocally rendered null. + </p> + <p> + “Do you turn back, therefore, to the other side of the problem, and say + that God pre-existed, original, alone? + </p> + <p> + “I will not go over the preceding arguments (which here return in full + force) as to the severance of Eternity into two parts; nor the questions + raised by the progression or the immobility of the worlds; let us look + only at the difficulties inherent to this second theory. If God + pre-existed alone, the world must have emanated from Him; Matter was + therefore drawn from His essence; consequently Matter in itself is + non-existent; all forms are veils to cover the Divine Spirit. If this be + so, the World is Eternal, and also it must be God. Is not this proposition + even more fatal than the former to the attributes conferred on God by + human reason? How can the actual condition of Matter be explained if we + suppose it to issue from the bosom of God and to be ever united with Him? + Is it possible to believe that the All-Powerful, supremely good in His + essence and in His faculties, has engendered things dissimilar to Himself. + Must He not in all things and through all things be like unto Himself? Can + there be in God certain evil parts of which at some future day he may rid + Himself?—a conjecture less offensive and absurd than terrible, for + the reason that it drags back into Him the two principles which the + preceding theory proved to be inadmissible. God must be ONE; He cannot be + divided without renouncing the most important condition of His existence. + It is therefore impossible to admit of a fraction of God which yet is not + God. This hypothesis seemed so criminal to the Roman Church that she has + made the omnipresence of God in the least particles of the Eucharist an + article of faith. + </p> + <p> + “But how then can we imagine an omnipotent mind which does not triumph? + How associate it unless in triumph with Nature? But Nature is not + triumphant; she seeks, combines, remodels, dies, and is born again; she is + even more convulsed when creating than when all was fusion; Nature + suffers, groans, is ignorant, degenerates, does evil; deceives herself, + annihilates herself, disappears, and begins again. If God is associated + with Nature, how can we explain the inoperative indifference of the divine + principle? Wherefore death? How came it that Evil, king of the earth, was + born of a God supremely good in His essence and in His faculties, who can + produce nothing that is not made in His own image? + </p> + <p> + “But if, from this relentless conclusion which leads at once to absurdity, + we pass to details, what end are we to assign to the world? If all is God, + all is reciprocally cause and effect; all is <i>One</i> as God is <i>One</i>, + and we can perceive neither points of likeness nor points of difference. + Can the real end be a rotation of Matter which subtilizes and disappears? + In whatever sense it were done, would not this mechanical trick of Matter + issuing from God and returning to God seem a sort of child’s play? Why + should God make himself gross with Matter? Under which form is he most + God? Which has the ascendant, Matter or Spirit, when neither can in any + way do wrong? Who can comprehend the Deity engaged in this perpetual + business, by which he divides Himself into two Natures, one of which knows + nothing, while the other knows all? Can you conceive of God amusing + Himself in the form of man, laughing at His own efforts, dying Friday, to + be born again Sunday, and continuing this play from age to age, knowing + the end from all eternity, and telling nothing to Himself, the Creature, + of what He the Creator, does? The God of the preceding hypothesis, a God + so nugatory by the very power of His inertia, seems the more possible of + the two if we are compelled to choose between the impossibilities with + which this God, so dull a jester, fusillades Himself when two sections of + humanity argue face to face, weapons in hand. + </p> + <p> + “However absurd this outcome of the second problem may seem, it was + adopted by half the human race in the sunny lands where smiling + mythologies were created. Those amorous nations were consistent; with them + all was God, even Fear and its dastardy, even crime and its bacchanals. If + we accept pantheism,—the religion of many a great human genius,—who + shall say where the greater reason lies? Is it with the savage, free in + the desert, clothed in his nudity, listening to the sun, talking to the + sea, sublime and always true in his deeds whatever they may be; or shall + we find it in civilized man, who derives his chief enjoyments through + lies; who wrings Nature and all her resources to put a musket on his + shoulder; who employs his intellect to hasten the hour of his death and to + create diseases out of pleasures? When the rake of pestilence and the + ploughshare of war and the demon of desolation have passed over a corner + of the globe and obliterated all things, who will be found to have the + greater reason,—the Nubian savage or the patrician of Thebes? Your + doubts descend the scale, they go from heights to depths, they embrace + all, the end as well as the means. + </p> + <p> + “But if the physical world seems inexplicable, the moral world presents + still stronger arguments against God. Where, then, is progress? If all + things are indeed moving toward perfection why do we die young? why do not + nations perpetuate themselves? The world having issued from God and being + contained in God can it be stationary? Do we live once, or do we live + always? If we live once, hurried onward by the march of the Great-Whole, a + knowledge of which has not been given to us, let us act as we please. If + we are eternal, let things take their course. Is the created being guilty + if he exists at the instant of the transitions? If he sins at the moment + of a great transformation will he be punished for it after being its + victim? What becomes of the Divine goodness if we are not transferred to + the regions of the blest—should any such exist? What becomes of + God’s prescience if He is ignorant of the results of the trials to which + He subjects us? What is this alternative offered to man by all religions,—either + to boil in some eternal cauldron or to walk in white robes, a palm in his + hand and a halo round his head? Can it be that this pagan invention is the + final word of God? Where is the generous soul who does not feel that the + calculating virtue which seeks the eternity of pleasure offered by all + religions to whoever fulfils at stray moments certain fanciful and often + unnatural conditions, is unworthy of man and of God? Is it not a mockery + to give to man impetuous senses and forbid him to satisfy them? Besides, + what mean these ascetic objections if Good and Evil are equally abolished? + Does Evil exist? If substance in all its forms is God, then Evil is God. + The faculty of reasoning as well as the faculty of feeling having been + given to man to use, nothing can be more excusable in him than to seek to + know the meaning of human suffering and the prospects of the future. + </p> + <p> + “If these rigid and rigorous arguments lead to such conclusions confusion + must reign. The world would have no fixedness; nothing would advance, + nothing would pause, all would change, nothing would be destroyed, all + would reappear after self-renovation; for if your mind does not clearly + demonstrate to you an end, it is equally impossible to demonstrate the + destruction of the smallest particle of Matter; Matter can transform but + not annihilate itself. + </p> + <p> + “Though blind force may provide arguments for the atheist, intelligent + force is inexplicable; for if it emanates from God, why should it meet + with obstacles? ought not its triumph to be immediate? Where is God? If + the living cannot perceive Him, can the dead find Him? Crumble, ye + idolatries and ye religions! Fall, feeble keystones of all social arches, + powerless to retard the decay, the death, the oblivion that have overtaken + all nations however firmly founded! Fall, morality and justice! our crimes + are purely relative; they are divine effects whose causes we are not + allowed to know. All is God. Either we are God or God is not!—Child + of a century whose every year has laid upon your brow, old man, the ice of + its unbelief, here, here is the summing up of your lifetime of thought, of + your science and your reflections! Dear Monsieur Becker, you have laid + your head upon the pillow of Doubt, because it is the easiest of + solutions; acting in this respect with the majority of mankind, who say in + their hearts: ‘Let us think no more of these problems, since God has not + vouchsafed to grant us the algebraic demonstrations that could solve them, + while He has given us so many other ways to get from earth to heaven.’ + </p> + <p> + “Tell me, dear pastor, are not these your secret thoughts? Have I evaded + the point of any? nay, rather, have I not clearly stated all? First, in + the dogma of two principles,—an antagonism in which God perishes for + the reason that being All-Powerful He chose to combat. Secondly, in the + absurd pantheism where, all being God, God exists no longer. These two + sources, from which have flowed all the religions for whose triumph Earth + has toiled and prayed, are equally pernicious. Behold in them the + double-bladed axe with which you decapitate the white old man whom you + enthrone among your painted clouds! And now, to me the axe, I wield it!” + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Becker and Wilfrid gazed at the young girl with something like + terror. + </p> + <p> + “To believe,” continued Seraphita, in her Woman’s voice, for the Man had + finished speaking, “to believe is a gift. To believe is to feel. To + believe in God we must feel God. This feeling is a possession slowly + acquired by the human being, just as other astonishing powers which you + admire in great men, warriors, artists, scholars, those who know and those + who act, are acquired. Thought, that budget of the relations which you + perceive among created things, is an intellectual language which can be + learned, is it not? Belief, the budget of celestial truths, is also a + language as superior to thought as thought is to instinct. This language + also can be learned. The Believer answers with a single cry, a single + gesture; Faith puts within his hand a flaming sword with which he pierces + and illumines all. The Seer attains to heaven and descends not. But there + are beings who believe and see, who know and will, who love and pray and + wait. Submissive, yet aspiring to the kingdom of light, they have neither + the aloofness of the Believer nor the silence of the Seer; they listen and + reply. To them the doubt of the twilight ages is not a murderous weapon, + but a divining rod; they accept the contest under every form; they train + their tongues to every language; they are never angered, though they + groan; the acrimony of the aggressor is not in them, but rather the + softness and tenuity of light, which penetrates and warms and illumines. + To their eyes Doubt is neither an impiety, nor a blasphemy, nor a crime, + but a transition through which men return upon their steps in the + Darkness, or advance into the Light. This being so, dear pastor, let us + reason together. + </p> + <p> + “You do not believe in God? Why? God, to your thinking, is + incomprehensible, inexplicable. Agreed. I will not reply that to + comprehend God in His entirety would be to be God; nor will I tell you + that you deny what seems to you inexplicable so as to give me the right to + affirm that which to me is believable. There is, for you, one evident + fact, which lies within yourself. In you, Matter has ended in + intelligence; can you therefore think that human intelligence will end in + darkness, doubt, and nothingness? God may seem to you incomprehensible and + inexplicable, but you must admit Him to be, in all things purely physical, + a splendid and consistent workman. Why should His craft stop short at man, + His most finished creation? + </p> + <p> + “If that question is not convincing, at least it compels meditation. + Happily, although you deny God, you are obliged, in order to establish + your doubts, to admit those double-bladed facts, which kill your arguments + as much as your arguments kill God. We have also admitted that Matter and + Spirit are two creations which do not comprehend each other; that the + spiritual world is formed of infinite relations to which the finite + material world has given rise; that if no one on earth is able to identify + himself by the power of his spirit with the great-whole of terrestrial + creations, still less is he able to rise to the knowledge of the relations + which the spirit perceives between these creations. + </p> + <p> + “We might end the argument here in one word, by denying you the faculty of + comprehending God, just as you deny to the pebbles of the fiord the + faculties of counting and of seeing each other. How do you know that the + stones themselves do not deny the existence of man, though man makes use + of them to build his houses? There is one fact that appals you,—the + Infinite; if you feel it within, why will you not admit its consequences? + Can the finite have a perfect knowledge of the infinite? If you cannot + perceive those relations which, according to your own admission, are + infinite, how can you grasp a sense of the far-off end to which they are + converging? Order, the revelation of which is one of your needs, being + infinite, can your limited reason apprehend it? Do not ask why man does + not comprehend that which he is able to perceive, for he is equally able + to perceive that which he does not comprehend. If I prove to you that your + mind ignores that which lies within its compass, will you grant that it is + impossible for it to conceive whatever is beyond it? This being so, am I + not justified in saying to you: ‘One of the two propositions under which + God is annihilated before the tribunal of our reason must be true, the + other is false. Inasmuch as creation exists, you feel the necessity of an + end, and that end should be good, should it not? Now, if Matter terminates + in man by intelligence, why are you not satisfied to believe that the end + of human intelligence is the Light of the higher spheres, where alone an + intuition of that God who seems so insoluble a problem is obtained? The + species which are beneath you have no conception of the universe, and you + have; why should there not be other species above you more intelligent + than your own? Man ought to be better informed than he is about himself + before he spends his strength in measuring God. Before attacking the stars + that light us, and the higher certainties, ought he not to understand the + certainties which are actually about him?’ + </p> + <p> + “But no! to the negations of doubt I ought rather to reply by negations. + Therefore I ask you whether there is anything here below so evident that I + can put faith in it? I will show you in a moment that you believe firmly + in things which act, and yet are not beings; in things which engender + thought, and yet are not spirits; in living abstractions which the + understanding cannot grasp in any shape, which are in fact nowhere, but + which you perceive everywhere; which have, and can have, on name, but + which, nevertheless, you have named; and which, like the God of flesh upon + whom you figure to yourself, remain inexplicable, incomprehensible, and + absurd. I shall also ask you why, after admitting the existence of these + incomprehensible things, you reserve your doubts for God? + </p> + <p> + “You believe, for instance, in Number,—a base on which you have + built the edifice of sciences which you call ‘exact.’ Without Number, what + would become of mathematics? Well, what mysterious being endowed with the + faculty of living forever could utter, and what language would be compact + to word the Number which contains the infinite numbers whose existence is + revealed to you by thought? Ask it of the loftiest human genius; he might + ponder it for a thousand years and what would be his answer? You know + neither where Number begins, nor where it pauses, nor where it ends. Here + you call it Time, there you call it Space. Nothing exists except by + Number. Without it, all would be one and the same substance; for Number + alone differentiates and qualifies substance. Number is to your Spirit + what it is to Matter, an incomprehensible agent. Will you make a Deity of + it? Is it a being? Is it a breath emanating from God to organize the + material universe where nothing obtains form except by the Divinity which + is an effect of Number? The least as well as the greatest of creations are + distinguishable from each other by quantities, qualities, dimensions, + forces,—all attributes created by Number. The infinitude of Numbers + is a fact proved to your soul, but of which no material proof can be + given. The mathematician himself tells you that the infinite of numbers + exists, but cannot be proved. + </p> + <p> + “God, dear pastor, is a Number endowed with motion,—felt, but not + seen, the Believer will tell you. Like the Unit, He begins Number, with + which He has nothing in common. The existence of Number depends on the + Unit, which without being a number engenders Number. God, dear pastor is a + glorious Unit who has nothing in common with His creations but who, + nevertheless, engenders them. Will you not therefore agree with me that + you are just as ignorant of where Number begins and ends as you are of + where created Eternity begins and ends? + </p> + <p> + “Why, then, if you believe in Number, do you deny God? Is not Creation + interposed between the Infinite of unorganized substances and the Infinite + of the divine spheres, just as the Unit stands between the Cipher of the + fractions you have lately named Decimals, and the Infinite of Numbers + which you call Wholes? Man alone on earth comprehends Number, that first + step of the peristyle which leads to God, and yet his reason stumbles on + it! What! you can neither measure nor grasp the first abstraction which + God delivers to you, and yet you try to subject His ends to your own + tape-line! Suppose that I plunge you into the abyss of Motion, the force + that organizes Number. If I tell you that the Universe is naught else than + Number and Motion, you would see at once that we speak two different + languages. I understand them both; you understand neither. + </p> + <p> + “Suppose I add that Motion and Number are engendered by the Word, namely + the supreme Reason of Seers and Prophets who in the olden time heard the + Breath of God beneath which Saul fell to the earth. That Word, you scoff + at it, you men, although you well know that all visible works, societies, + monuments, deeds, passions, proceed from the breath of your own feeble + word, and that without that word you would resemble the African gorilla, + the nearest approach to man, the Negro. You believe firmly in Number and + in Motion, a force and a result both inexplicable, incomprehensible, to + the existence of which I may apply the logical dilemma which, as we have + seen, prevents you from believing in God. Powerful reasoner that you are, + you do not need that I should prove to you that the Infinite must + everywhere be like unto Itself, and that, necessarily, it is One. God + alone is Infinite, for surely there cannot be two Infinities, two Ones. + If, to make use of human terms, anything demonstrated to you here below + seems to you infinite, be sure that within it you will find some one + aspect of God. But to continue. + </p> + <p> + “You have appropriated to yourself a place in the Infinite of Number; you + have fitted it to your own proportions by creating (if indeed you did + create) arithmetic, the basis on which all things rest, even your + societies. Just as Number—the only thing in which your self-styled + atheists believe—organized physical creations, so arithmetic, in the + employ of Number, organized the moral world. This numeration must be + absolute, like all else that is true in itself; but it is purely relative, + it does not exist absolutely, and no proof can be given of its reality. In + the first place, though Numeration is able to take account of organized + substances, it is powerless in relation to unorganized forces, the ones + being finite and the others infinite. The man who can conceive the + Infinite by his intelligence cannot deal with it in its entirety; if he + could, he would be God. Your Numeration, applying to things finite and not + to the Infinite, is therefore true in relation to the details which you + are able to perceive, and false in relation to the Whole, which you are + unable to perceive. Though Nature is like unto herself in the organizing + force or in her principles which are infinite, she is not so in her finite + effects. Thus you will never find in Nature two objects identically alike. + In the Natural Order two and two never make four; to do so, four exactly + similar units must be had, and you know how impossible it is to find two + leaves alike on the same tree, or two trees alike of the same species. + This axiom of your numeration, false in visible nature, is equally false + in the invisible universe of your abstractions, where the same variance + takes place in your ideas, which are the things of the visible world + extended by means of their relations; so that the variations here are even + more marked than elsewhere. In fact, all being relative to the + temperament, strength, habits, and customs of individuals, who never + resemble each other, the smallest objects take the color of personal + feelings. For instance, man has been able to create units and to give an + equal weight and value to bits of gold. Well, take the ducat of the rich + man and the ducat of the poor man to a money-changer and they are rated + exactly equal, but to the mind of the thinker one is of greater importance + than the other; one represents a month of comfort, the other an ephemeral + caprice. Two and two, therefore, only make four through a false + conception. + </p> + <p> + “Again: fraction does not exist in Nature, where what you call a fragment + is a finished whole. Does it not often happen (have you not many proofs of + it?) that the hundredth part of a substance is stronger than what you term + the whole of it? If fraction does not exist in the Natural Order, still + less shall we find it in the Moral Order, where ideas and sentiments may + be as varied as the species of the Vegetable kingdom and yet be always + whole. The theory of fractions is therefore another signal instance of the + servility of your mind. + </p> + <p> + “Thus Number, with its infinite minuteness and its infinite expansion, is + a power whose weakest side is known to you, but whose real import escapes + your perception. You have built yourself a hut in the Infinite of numbers, + you have adorned it with hieroglyphics scientifically arranged and + painted, and you cry out, ‘All is here!’ + </p> + <p> + “Let us pass from pure, unmingled Number to corporate Number. Your + geometry establishes that a straight line is the shortest way from one + point to another, but your astronomy proves that God has proceeded by + curves. Here, then, we find two truths equally proved by the same science,—one + by the testimony of your senses reinforced by the telescope, the other by + the testimony of your mind; and yet the one contradicts the other. Man, + liable to err, affirms one, and the Maker of the worlds, whom, so far, you + have not detected in error, contradicts it. Who shall decide between + rectalinear and curvilinear geometry? between the theory of the straight + line and that of the curve? If, in His vast work, the mysterious + Artificer, who knows how to reach His ends miraculously fast, never + employs a straight line except to cut off an angle and so obtain a curve, + neither does man himself always rely upon it. The bullet which he aims + direct proceeds by a curve, and when you wish to strike a certain point in + space, you impel your bombshell along its cruel parabola. None of your men + of science have drawn from this fact the simple deduction that the Curve + is the law of the material worlds and the Straight line that of the + Spiritual worlds; one is the theory of finite creations, the other the + theory of the infinite. Man, who alone in the world has a knowledge of the + Infinite, can alone know the straight line; he alone has the sense of + verticality placed in a special organ. A fondness for the creations of the + curve would seem to be in certain men an indication of the impurity of + their nature still conjoined to the material substances which engender us; + and the love of great souls for the straight line seems to show in them an + intuition of heaven. Between these two lines there is a gulf fixed like + that between the finite and the infinite, between matter and spirit, + between man and the idea, between motion and the object moved, between the + creature and God. Ask Love the Divine to grant you his wings and you can + cross that gulf. Beyond it begins the revelation of the Word. + </p> + <p> + “No part of those things which you call material is without its own + meaning; lines are the boundaries of solid parts and imply a force of + action which you suppress in your formulas,—thus rendering those + formulas false in relation to substances taken as a whole. Hence the + constant destruction of the monuments of human labor, which you supply, + unknown to yourselves, with acting properties. Nature has substances; your + science combines only their appearances. At every step Nature gives the + lie to all your laws. Can you find a single one that is not disproved by a + fact? Your Static laws are at the mercy of a thousand accidents; a fluid + can overthrow a solid mountain and prove that the heaviest substances may + be lifted by one that is imponderable. + </p> + <p> + “Your laws on Acoustics and Optics are defied by the sounds which you hear + within yourselves in sleep, and by the light of an electric sun whose rays + often overcome you. You know no more how light makes itself seen within + you, than you know the simple and natural process which changes it on the + throats of tropic birds to rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and opals, or + keeps it gray and brown on the breasts of the same birds under the cloudy + skies of Europe, or whitens it here in the bosom of our polar Nature. You + know not how to decide whether color is a faculty with which all + substances are endowed, or an effect produced by an effluence of light. + You admit the saltness of the sea without being able to prove that the + water is salt at its greatest depth. You recognize the existence of + various substances which span what you think to be the void,—substances + which are not tangible under any of the forms assumed by Matter, although + they put themselves in harmony with Matter in spite of every obstacle. + </p> + <p> + “All this being so, you believe in the results of Chemistry, although that + science still knows no way of gauging the changes produced by the flux and + reflux of substances which come and go across your crystals and your + instruments on the impalpable filaments of heat or light conducted and + projected by the affinities of metal or vitrified flint. You obtain none + but dead substances, from which you have driven the unknown force that + holds in check the decomposition of all things here below, and of which + cohesion, attraction, vibration, and polarity are but phenomena. Life is + the thought of substances; bodies are only the means of fixing life and + holding it to its way. If bodies were beings living of themselves they + would be Cause itself, and could not die. + </p> + <p> + “When a man discovers the results of the general movement, which is shared + by all creations according to their faculty of absorption, you proclaim + him mighty in science, as though genius consisted in explaining a thing + that is! Genius ought to cast its eyes beyond effects. Your men of science + would laugh if you said to them: ‘There exist such positive relations + between two human beings, one of whom may be here, and the other in Java, + that they can at the same instant feel the same sensation, and be + conscious of so doing; they can question each other and reply without + mistake’; and yet there are mineral substances which exhibit sympathies as + far off from each other as those of which I speak. You believe in the + power of the electricity which you find in the magnet and you deny that + which emanates from the soul! According to you, the moon, whose influence + upon the tides you think fixed, has none whatever upon the winds, nor upon + navigation, nor upon men; she moves the sea, but she must not affect the + sick folk; she has undeniable relations with one half of humanity, and + nothing at all to do with the other half. These are your vaunted + certainties! + </p> + <p> + “Let us go a step further. You believe in physics. But your physics begin, + like the Catholic religion, with an <i>act of faith</i>. Do they not + pre-suppose some external force distinct from substance to which it + communicates motion? You see its effects, but what is it? where is it? + what is the essence of its nature, its life? has it any limits?—and + yet, you deny God! + </p> + <p> + “Thus, the majority of your scientific axioms, true to their relation to + man, are false in relation to the Great Whole. Science is One, but you + have divided it. To know the real meaning of the laws of phenomena must we + not know the correlations which exist between phenomena and the law of the + Whole? There is, in all things, an appearance which strikes your senses; + under that appearance stirs a soul; a body is there and a faculty is + there. Where do you teach the study of the relations which bind things to + each other? Nowhere. Consequently you have nothing positive. Your + strongest certainties rest upon the analysis of material forms whose + essence you persistently ignore. + </p> + <p> + “There is a Higher Knowledge of which, too late, some men obtain a + glimpse, though they dare not avow it. Such men comprehend the necessity + of considering substances not merely in their mathematical properties but + also in their entirety, in their occult relations and affinities. The + greatest man among you divined, in his latter days, that all was + reciprocally cause and effect; that the visible worlds were co-ordinated + among themselves and subject to worlds invisible. He groaned at the + recollection of having tried to establish fixed precepts. Counting up his + worlds, like grape-seeds scattered through ether, he had explained their + coherence by the laws of planetary and molecular attraction. You bowed + before that man of science—well! I tell you that he died in despair. + By supposing that the centrifugal and centripetal forces, which he had + invented to explain to himself the universe, were equal, he stopped the + universe; yet he admitted motion in an indeterminate sense; but supposing + those forces unequal, then utter confusion of the planetary system ensued. + His laws therefore were not absolute; some higher problem existed than the + principle on which his false glory rested. The connection of the stars + with one another and the centripetal action of their internal motion did + not deter him from seeking the parent stalk on which his clusters hung. + Alas, poor man! the more he widened space the heavier his burden grew. He + told you how there came to be equilibrium among the parts, but whither + went the whole? His mind contemplated the vast extent, illimitable to + human eyes, filled with those groups of worlds a mere fraction of which is + all our telescopes can reach, but whose immensity is revealed by the + rapidity of light. This sublime contemplation enabled him to perceive + myriads of worlds, planted in space like flowers in a field, which are + born like infants, grow like men, die as the aged die, and live by + assimilating from their atmosphere the substances suitable for their + nourishment,—having a centre and a principal of life, guaranteeing + to each other their circuits, absorbed and absorbing like plants, and + forming a vast Whole endowed with life and possessing a destiny. + </p> + <p> + “At that sight your man of science trembled! He knew that life is produced + by the union of the thing and its principle, that death or inertia or + gravity is produced by a rupture between a thing and the movement which + appertains to it. Then it was that he foresaw the crumbling of the worlds + and their destruction if God should withdraw the Breath of His Word. He + searched the Apocalypse for the traces of that Word. You thought him mad. + Understand him better! He was seeking pardon for the work of his genius. + </p> + <p> + “Wilfrid, you have come here hoping to make me solve equations, or rise + upon a rain-cloud, or plunge into the fiord and reappear a swan. If + science or miracles were the end and object of humanity, Moses would have + bequeathed to you the law of fluxions; Jesus Christ would have lightened + the darkness of your sciences; his apostles would have told you whence + come those vast trains of gas and melted metals, attached to cores which + revolve and solidify as they dart through ether, or violently enter some + system and combine with a star, jostling and displacing it by the shock, + or destroying it by the infiltration of their deadly gases; Saint Paul, + instead of telling you to live in God, would have explained why food is + the secret bond among all creations and the evident tie between all living + Species. In these days the greatest miracle of all would be the discovery + of the squaring of the circle,—a problem which you hold to be + insoluble, but which is doubtless solved in the march of worlds by the + intersection of some mathematical lines whose course is visible to the eye + of spirits who have reached the higher spheres. Believe me, miracles are + in us, not without us. Here natural facts occur which men call + supernatural. God would have been strangely unjust had he confined the + testimony of his power to certain generations and peoples and denied them + to others. The brazen rod belongs to all. Neither Moses, nor Jacob, nor + Zoroaster, nor Paul, nor Pythagoras, nor Swedenborg, not the humblest + Messenger nor the loftiest Prophet of the Most High are greater than you + are capable of being. Only, there come to nations as to men certain + periods when Faith is theirs. + </p> + <p> + “If material sciences be the end and object of human effort, tell me, both + of you, would societies,—those great centres where men congregate,—would + they perpetually be dispersed? If civilization were the object of our + Species, would intelligence perish? would it continue purely individual? + The grandeur of all nations that were truly great was based on exceptions; + when the exception ceased their power died. If such were the End-all, + Prophets, Seers, and Messengers of God would have lent their hand to + Science rather than have given it to Belief. Surely they would have + quickened your brains sooner than have touched your hearts! But no; one + and all they came to lead the nations back to God; they proclaimed the + sacred Path in simple words that showed the way to heaven; all were + wrapped in love and faith, all were inspired by that <i>word</i> which + hovers above the inhabitants of earth, enfolding them, inspiriting them, + uplifting them; none were prompted by any human interest. Your great + geniuses, your poets, your kings, your learned men are engulfed with their + cities; while the names of these good pastors of humanity, ever blessed, + have survived all cataclysms. + </p> + <p> + “Alas! we cannot understand each other on any point. We are separated by + an abyss. You are on the side of darkness, while I—I live in the + light, the true Light! Is this the word that you ask of me? I say it with + joy; it may change you. Know this: there are sciences of matter and + sciences of spirit. There, where you see substances, I see forces that + stretch one toward another with generating power. To me, the character of + bodies is the indication of their principles and the sign of their + properties. Those principles beget affinities which escape your knowledge, + and which are linked to centres. The different species among which life is + distributed are unfailing streams which correspond unfailingly among + themselves. Each has his own vocation. Man is effect and cause. He is fed, + but he feeds in turn. When you call God a Creator, you dwarf Him. He did + not create, as you think He did, plants or animals or stars. Could He + proceed by a variety of means? Must He not act by unity of composition? + Moreover, He gave forth principles to be developed, according to His + universal law, at the will of the surroundings in which they were placed. + Hence a single substance and motion, a single plant, a single animal, but + correlations everywhere. In fact, all affinities are linked together by + contiguous similitudes; the life of the worlds is drawn toward the centres + by famished aspiration, as you are drawn by hunger to seek food. + </p> + <p> + “To give you an example of affinities linked to similitudes (a secondary + law on which the creations of your thought are based), music, that + celestial art, is the working out of this principle; for is it not a + complement of sounds harmonized by number? Is not sound a modification of + air, compressed, dilated, echoed? You know the composition of air,—oxygen, + nitrogen, and carbon. As you cannot obtain sound from the void, it is + plain that music and the human voice are the result of organized chemical + substances, which put themselves in unison with the same substances + prepared within you by your thought, co-ordinated by means of light, the + great nourisher of your globe. Have you ever meditated on the masses of + nitre deposited by the snow, have you ever observed a thunderstorm and + seen the plants breathing in from the air about them the metal it + contains, without concluding that the sun has fused and distributed the + subtle essence which nourishes all things here below? Swedenborg has said, + ‘The earth is a man.’ + </p> + <p> + “Your Science, which makes you great in your own eyes, is paltry indeed + beside the light which bathes a Seer. Cease, cease to question me; our + languages are different. For a moment I have used yours to cast, if it be + possible, a ray of faith into your soul; to give you, as it were, the hem + of my garment and draw you up into the regions of Prayer. Can God abase + Himself to you? Is it not for you to rise to Him? If human reason finds + the ladder of its own strength too weak to bring God down to it, is it not + evident that you must find some other path to reach Him? That Path is in + ourselves. The Seer and the Believer find eyes within their souls more + piercing far than eyes that probe the things of earth,—they see the + Dawn. Hear this truth: Your science, let it be never so exact, your + meditations, however bold, your noblest lights are Clouds. Above, above is + the Sanctuary whence the true Light flows.” + </p> + <p> + She sat down and remained silent; her calm face bore no sign of the + agitation which orators betray after their least fervid improvisations. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid bent toward Monsieur Becker and said in a low voice, “Who taught + her that?” + </p> + <p> + “I do not know,” he answered. + </p> + <p> + “He was gentler on the Falberg,” Minna whispered to herself. + </p> + <p> + Seraphita passed her hand across her eyes and then she said, smiling:— + </p> + <p> + “You are very thoughtful to-night, gentlemen. You treat Minna and me as + though we were men to whom you must talk politics or commerce; whereas we + are young girls, and you ought to tell us tales while you drink your tea. + That is what we do, Monsieur Wilfrid, in our long Norwegian evenings. + Come, dear pastor, tell me some Saga that I have not heard,—that of + Frithiof, the chronicle that you believe and have so often promised me. + Tell us the story of the peasant lad who owned the ship that talked and + had a soul. Come! I dream of the frigate Ellida, the fairy with the sails + young girls should navigate!” + </p> + <p> + “Since we have returned to the regions of Jarvis,” said Wilfrid, whose + eyes were fastened on Seraphita as those of a robber, lurking in the + darkness, fasten on the spot where he knows the jewels lie, “tell me why + you do not marry?” + </p> + <p> + “You are all born widows and widowers,” she replied; “but my marriage was + arranged at my birth. I am betrothed.” + </p> + <p> + “To whom?” they cried. + </p> + <p> + “Ask not my secret,” she said; “I will promise, if our father permits it, + to invite you to these mysterious nuptials.” + </p> + <p> + “Will they be soon?” + </p> + <p> + “I think so.” + </p> + <p> + A long silence followed these words. + </p> + <p> + “The spring has come!” said Seraphita, suddenly. “The noise of the waters + and the breaking of the ice begins. Come, let us welcome the first spring + of the new century.” + </p> + <p> + She rose, followed by Wilfrid, and together they went to a window which + David had opened. After the long silence of winter, the waters stirred + beneath the ice and resounded through the fiord like music,—for + there are sounds which space refines, so that they reach the ear in waves + of light and freshness. + </p> + <p> + “Wilfrid, cease to nourish evil thoughts whose triumph would be hard to + bear. Your desires are easily read in the fire of your eyes. Be kind; take + one step forward in well-doing. Advance beyond the love of man and + sacrifice yourself completely to the happiness of her you love. Obey me; I + will lead you in a path where you shall obtain the distinctions which you + crave, and where Love is infinite indeed.” + </p> + <p> + She left him thoughtful. + </p> + <p> + “That soft creature!” he said within himself; “is she indeed the + prophetess whose eyes have just flashed lightnings, whose voice has rung + through worlds, whose hand has wielded the axe of doubt against our + sciences? Have we been dreaming? Am I awake?” + </p> + <p> + “Minna,” said Seraphita, returning to the young girl, “the eagle swoops + where the carrion lies, but the dove seeks the mountain spring beneath the + peaceful greenery of the glades. The eagle soars to heaven, the dove + descends from it. Cease to venture into regions where thou canst find no + spring of waters, no umbrageous shade. If on the Falberg thou couldst not + gaze into the abyss and live, keep all thy strength for him who will love + thee. Go, poor girl; thou knowest, I am betrothed.” + </p> + <p> + Minna rose and followed Seraphita to the window where Wilfrid stood. All + three listened to the Sieg bounding out the rush of the upper waters, + which brought down trees uprooted by the ice; the fiord had regained its + voice; all illusions were dispelled! They rejoiced in Nature as she burst + her bonds and seemed to answer with sublime accord to the Spirit whose + breath had wakened her. + </p> + <p> + When the three guests of this mysterious being left the house, they were + filled with the vague sensation which is neither sleep, nor torpor, nor + astonishment, but partakes of the nature of each,—a state that is + neither dusk nor dawn, but which creates a thirst for light. All three + were thinking. + </p> + <p> + “I begin to believe that she is indeed a Spirit hidden in human form,” + said Monsieur Becker. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid, re-entering his own apartments, calm and convinced, was unable to + struggle against that influence so divinely majestic. + </p> + <p> + Minna said in her heart, “Why will he not let me love him!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. FAREWELL + </h2> + <p> + There is in man an almost hopeless phenomenon for thoughtful minds who + seek a meaning in the march of civilization, and who endeavor to give laws + of progression to the movement of intelligence. However portentous a fact + may be, or even supernatural,—if such facts exist,—however + solemnly a miracle may be done in sight of all, the lightning of that + fact, the thunderbolt of that miracle is quickly swallowed up in the ocean + of life, whose surface, scarcely stirred by the brief convulsion, returns + to the level of its habitual flow. + </p> + <p> + A Voice is heard from the jaws of an Animal; a Hand writes on the wall + before a feasting Court; an Eye gleams in the slumber of a king, and a + Prophet explains the dream; Death, evoked, rises on the confines of the + luminous sphere were faculties revive; Spirit annihilates Matter at the + foot of that mystic ladder of the Seven Spiritual Worlds, one resting upon + another in space and revealing themselves in shining waves that break in + light upon the steps of the celestial Tabernacle. But however solemn the + inward Revelation, however clear the visible outward Sign, be sure that on + the morrow Balaam doubts both himself and his ass, Belshazzar and Pharoah + call Moses and Daniel to qualify the Word. The Spirit, descending, bears + man above this earth, opens the seas and lets him see their depths, shows + him lost species, wakens dry bones whose dust is the soil of valleys; the + Apostle writes the Apocalypse, and twenty centuries later human science + ratifies his words and turns his visions into maxims. And what comes of it + all? Why this,—that the peoples live as they have ever lived, as + they lived in the first Olympiad, as they lived on the morrow of Creation, + and on the eve of the great cataclysm. The waves of Doubt have covered all + things. The same floods surge with the same measured motion on the human + granite which serves as a boundary to the ocean of intelligence. When man + has inquired of himself whether he has seen that which he has seen, + whether he has heard the words that entered his ears, whether the facts + were facts and the idea is indeed an idea, then he resumes his wonted + bearing, thinks of his worldly interests, obeys some envoy of death and of + oblivion whose dusky mantle covers like a pall an ancient Humanity of + which the moderns retain no memory. Man never pauses; he goes his round, + he vegetates until the appointed day when his Axe falls. If this wave + force, this pressure of bitter waters prevents all progress, no doubt it + also warns of death. Spirits prepared by faith among the higher souls of + earth can alone perceive the mystic ladder of Jacob. + </p> + <p> + After listening to Seraphita’s answer in which (being earnestly + questioned) she unrolled before their eyes a Divine Perspective,—as + an organ fills a church with sonorous sound and reveals a musical + universe, its solemn tones rising to the loftiest arches and playing, like + light, upon their foliated capitals,—Wilfrid returned to his own + room, awed by the sight of a world in ruins, and on those ruins the + brilliance of mysterious lights poured forth in torrents by the hand of a + young girl. On the morrow he still thought of these things, but his awe + was gone; he felt he was neither destroyed nor changed; his passions, his + ideas awoke in full force, fresh and vigorous. He went to breakfast with + Monsieur Becker and found the old man absorbed in the “Treatise on + Incantations,” which he had searched since early morning to convince his + guest that there was nothing unprecedented in all that they had seen and + heard at the Swedish castle. With the childlike trustfulness of a true + scholar he had folded down the pages in which Jean Wier related authentic + facts which proved the possibility of the events that had happened the + night before,—for to learned men an idea is a event, just as the + greatest events often present no idea at all to them. By the time they had + swallowed their fifth cup of tea, these philosophers had come to think the + mysterious scene of the preceding evening wholly natural. The celestial + truths to which they had listened were arguments susceptible of + examination; Seraphita was a girl, more or less eloquent; allowance must + be made for the charms of her voice, her seductive beauty, her fascinating + motions, in short, for all those oratorical arts by which an actor puts a + world of sentiment and thought into phrases which are often commonplace. + </p> + <p> + “Bah!” said the worthy pastor, making a philosophical grimace as he spread + a layer of salt butter on his slice of bread, “the final word of all these + fine enigmas is six feet under ground.” + </p> + <p> + “But,” said Wilfrid, sugaring his tea, “I cannot image how a young girl of + seventeen can know so much; what she said was certainly a compact + argument.” + </p> + <p> + “Read the account of that Italian woman,” said Monsieur Becker, “who at + the age of twelve spoke forty-two languages, ancient and modern; also the + history of that monk who could guess thought by smell. I can give you a + thousand such cases from Jean Wier and other writers.” + </p> + <p> + “I admit all that, dear pastor; but to my thinking, Seraphita would make a + perfect wife.” + </p> + <p> + “She is all mind,” said Monsieur Becker, dubiously. + </p> + <p> + Several days went by, during which the snow in the valleys melted + gradually away; the green of the forests and of the grass began to show; + Norwegian Nature made ready her wedding garments for her brief bridal of a + day. During this period, when the softened air invited every one to leave + the house, Seraphita remained at home in solitude. When at last she + admitted Minna the latter saw at once the ravages of inward fever; + Seraphita’s voice was hollow, her skin pallid; hitherto a poet might have + compared her lustre to that of diamonds,—now it was that of a topaz. + </p> + <p> + “Have you seen her?” asked Wilfrid, who had wandered around the Swedish + dwelling waiting for Minna’s return. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” answered the young girl, weeping; “We must lose him!” + </p> + <p> + “Mademoiselle,” cried Wilfrid, endeavoring to repress the loud tones of + his angry voice, “do not jest with me. You can love Seraphita only as one + young girl can love another, and not with the love which she inspires in + me. You do not know your danger if my jealousy were really aroused. Why + can I not go to her? Is it you who stand in my way?” + </p> + <p> + “I do not know by what right you probe my heart,” said Minna, calm in + appearance, but inwardly terrified. “Yes, I love him,” she said, + recovering the courage of her convictions, that she might, for once, + confess the religion of her heart. “But my jealousy, natural as it is in + love, fears no one here below. Alas! I am jealous of a secret feeling that + absorbs him. Between him and me there is a great gulf fixed which I cannot + cross. Would that I knew who loves him best, the stars or I! which of us + would sacrifice our being most eagerly for his happiness! Why should I not + be free to avow my love? In the presence of death we may declare our + feelings,—and Seraphitus is about to die.” + </p> + <p> + “Minna, you are mistaken; the siren I so love and long for, she, whom I + have seen, feeble and languid, on her couch of furs, is not a young man.” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur,” answered Minna, distressfully, “the being whose powerful hand + guided me on the Falberg, who led me to the saeter sheltered beneath the + Ice-Cap, there—” she said, pointing to the peak, “is not a feeble + girl. Ah, had you but heard him prophesying! His poem was the music of + thought. A young girl never uttered those solemn tones of a voice which + stirred my soul.” + </p> + <p> + “What certainty have you?” said Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “None but that of the heart,” answered Minna. + </p> + <p> + “And I,” cried Wilfrid, casting on his companion the terrible glance of + the earthly desire that kills, “I, too, know how powerful is her empire + over me, and I will undeceive you.” + </p> + <p> + At this moment, while the words were rushing from Wilfrid’s lips as + rapidly as the thoughts surged in his brain, they saw Seraphita coming + towards them from the house, followed by David. The apparition calmed the + man’s excitement. + </p> + <p> + “Look,” he said, “could any but a woman move with that grace and langor?” + </p> + <p> + “He suffers; he comes forth for the last time,” said Minna. + </p> + <p> + David went back at a sign from his mistress, who advanced towards Wilfrid + and Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Let us go to the falls of the Sieg,” she said, expressing one of those + desires which suddenly possess the sick and which the well hasten to obey. + </p> + <p> + A thin white mist covered the valleys around the fiord and the sides of + the mountains, whose icy summits, sparkling like stars, pierced the vapor + and gave it the appearance of a moving milky way. The sun was visible + through the haze like a globe of red fire. Though winter still lingered, + puffs of warm air laden with the scent of the birch-trees, already adorned + with their rosy efflorescence, and of the larches, whose silken tassels + were beginning to appear,—breezes tempered by the incense and the + sighs of earth,—gave token of the glorious Northern spring, the + rapid, fleeting joy of that most melancholy of Natures. The wind was + beginning to lift the veil of mist which half-obscured the gulf. The birds + sang. The bark of the trees where the sun had not yet dried the clinging + hoar-frost shone gayly to the eye in its fantastic wreathings which + trickled away in murmuring rivulets as the warmth reached them. The three + friends walked in silence along the shore. Wilfrid and Minna alone noticed + the magic transformation that was taking place in the monotonous picture + of the winter landscape. Their companion walked in thought, as though a + voice were sounding to her ears in this concert of Nature. + </p> + <p> + Presently they reached the ledge of rocks through which the Sieg had + forced its way, after escaping from the long avenue cut by its waters in + an undulating line through the forest,—a fluvial pathway flanked by + aged firs and roofed with strong-ribbed arches like those of a cathedral. + Looking back from that vantage-ground, the whole extent of the fiord could + be seen at a glance, with the open sea sparkling on the horizon beyond it + like a burnished blade. + </p> + <p> + At this moment the mist, rolling away, left the sky blue and clear. Among + the valleys and around the trees flitted the shining fragments,—a + diamond dust swept by the freshening breeze. The torrent rolled on toward + them; along its length a vapor rose, tinted by the sun with every color of + his light; the decomposing rays flashing prismatic fires along the + many-tinted scarf of waters. The rugged ledge on which they stood was + carpeted by several kinds of lichen, forming a noble mat variegated by + moisture and lustrous like the sheen of a silken fabric. Shrubs, already + in bloom, crowned the rocks with garlands. Their waving foliage, eager for + the freshness of the water, drooped its tresses above the stream; the + larches shook their light fringes and played with the pines, stiff and + motionless as aged men. This luxuriant beauty was foiled by the solemn + colonnades of the forest-trees, rising in terraces upon the mountains, and + by the calm sheet of the fiord, lying below, where the torrent buried its + fury and was still. Beyond, the sea hemmed in this page of Nature, written + by the greatest of poets, Chance; to whom the wild luxuriance of creation + when apparently abandoned to itself is owing. + </p> + <p> + The village of Jarvis was a lost point in the landscape, in this immensity + of Nature, sublime at this moment like all things else of ephemeral life + which present a fleeting image of perfection; for, by a law fatal to no + eyes but our own, creations which appear complete—the love of our + heart and the desire of our eyes—have but one spring-tide here + below. Standing on this breast-work of rock these three persons might well + suppose themselves alone in the universe. + </p> + <p> + “What beauty!” cried Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “Nature sings hymns,” said Seraphita. “Is not her music exquisite? Tell + me, Wilfrid, could any of the women you once knew create such a glorious + retreat for herself as this? I am conscious here of a feeling seldom + inspired by the sight of cities, a longing to lie down amid this + quickening verdure. Here, with eyes to heaven and an open heart, lost in + the bosom of immensity, I could hear the sighings of the flower, scarce + budded, which longs for wings, or the cry of the eider grieving that it + can only fly, and remember the desires of man who, issuing from all, is + none the less ever longing. But that, Wilfrid, is only a woman’s thought. + You find seductive fancies in the wreathing mists, the light embroidered + veils which Nature dons like a coy maiden, in this atmosphere where she + perfumes for her spousals the greenery of her tresses. You seek the + naiad’s form amid the gauzy vapors, and to your thinking my ears should + listen only to the virile voice of the Torrent.” + </p> + <p> + “But Love is there, like the bee in the calyx of the flower,” replied + Wilfrid, perceiving for the first time a trace of earthly sentiment in her + words, and fancying the moment favorable for an expression of his + passionate tenderness. + </p> + <p> + “Always there?” said Seraphita, smiling. Minna had left them for a moment + to gather the blue saxifrages growing on a rock above. + </p> + <p> + “Always,” repeated Wilfrid. “Hear me,” he said, with a masterful glance + which was foiled as by a diamond breast-plate. “You know not what I am, + nor what I can be, nor what I will. Do not reject my last entreaty. Be + mine for the good of that world whose happiness you bear upon your heart. + Be mine that my conscience may be pure; that a voice divine may sound in + my ears and infuse Good into the great enterprise I have undertaken + prompted by my hatred to the nations, but which I swear to accomplish for + their benefit if you will walk beside me. What higher mission can you ask + for love? what nobler part can woman aspire to? I came to Norway to + meditate a grand design.” + </p> + <p> + “And you will sacrifice its grandeur,” she said, “to an innocent girl who + loves you, and who will lead you in the paths of peace.” + </p> + <p> + “What matters sacrifice,” he cried, “if I have you? Hear my secret. I have + gone from end to end of the North,—that great smithy from whose + anvils new races have spread over the earth, like human tides appointed to + refresh the wornout civilizations. I wished to begin my work at some + Northern point, to win the empire which force and intellect must ever give + over a primitive people; to form that people for battle, to drive them to + wars which should ravage Europe like a conflagration, crying liberty to + some, pillage to others, glory here, pleasure there!—I, myself, + remaining an image of Destiny, cruel, implacable, advancing like the + whirlwind, which sucks from the atmosphere the particles that make the + thunderbolt, and falls like a devouring scourge upon the nations. Europe + is at an epoch when she awaits the new Messiah who shall destroy society + and remake it. She can no longer believe except in him who crushes her + under foot. The day is at hand when poets and historians will justify me, + exalt me, and borrow my ideas, mine! And all the while my triumph will be + a jest, written in blood, the jest of my vengeance! But not here, + Seraphita; what I see in the North disgusts me. Hers is a mere blind + force; I thirst for the Indies! I would rather fight a selfish, cowardly, + mercantile government. Besides, it is easier to stir the imagination of + the peoples at the feet of the Caucasus than to argue with the intellect + of the icy lands which here surround me. Therefore am I tempted to cross + the Russian steps and pour my triumphant human tide through Asia to the + Ganges, and overthrow the British rule. Seven men have done this thing + before me in other epochs of the world. I will emulate them. I will spread + Art like the Saracens, hurled by Mohammed upon Europe. Mine shall be no + paltry sovereignty like those that govern to-day the ancient provinces of + the Roman empire, disputing with their subjects about a customs right! No, + nothing can bar my way! Like Genghis Khan, my feet shall tread a third of + the globe, my hand shall grasp the throat of Asia like Aurung-Zeb. Be my + companion! Let me seat thee, beautiful and noble being, on a throne! I do + not doubt success, but live within my heart and I am sure of it.” + </p> + <p> + “I have already reigned,” said Seraphita, coldly. + </p> + <p> + The words fell as the axe of a skilful woodman falls at the root of a + young tree and brings it down at a single blow. Men alone can comprehend + the rage that a woman excites in the soul of a man when, after showing her + his strength, his power, his wisdom, his superiority, the capricious + creature bends her head and says, “All that is nothing”; when, unmoved, + she smiles and says, “Such things are known to me,” as though his power + were nought. + </p> + <p> + “What!” cried Wilfrid, in despair, “can the riches of art, the riches of + worlds, the splendors of a court—” + </p> + <p> + She stopped him by a single inflexion of her lips, and said, “Beings more + powerful than you have offered me far more.” + </p> + <p> + “Thou hast no soul,” he cried,—“no soul, if thou art not persuaded + by the thought of comforting a great man, who is willing now to sacrifice + all things to live beside thee in a little house on the shores of a lake.” + </p> + <p> + “But,” she said, “I am loved with a boundless love.” + </p> + <p> + “By whom?” cried Wilfrid, approaching Seraphita with a frenzied movement, + as if to fling her into the foaming basin of the Sieg. + </p> + <p> + She looked at him and slowly extended her arm, pointing to Minna, who now + sprang towards her, fair and glowing and lovely as the flowers she held in + her hand. + </p> + <p> + “Child!” said Seraphitus, advancing to meet her. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid remained where she left him, motionless as the rock on which he + stood, lost in thought, longing to let himself go into the torrent of the + Sieg, like the fallen trees which hurried past his eyes and disappeared in + the bosom of the gulf. + </p> + <p> + “I gathered them for you,” said Minna, offering the bunch of saxifrages to + the being she adored. “One of them, see, this one,” she added, selecting a + flower, “is like that you found on the Falberg.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus looked alternately at the flower and at Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Why question me? Dost thou doubt me?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said the young girl, “my trust in you is infinite. You are more + beautiful to look upon than this glorious nature, but your mind surpasses + in intellect that of all humanity. When I have been with you I seem to + have prayed to God. I long—” + </p> + <p> + “For what?” said Seraphitus, with a glance that revealed to the young girl + the vast distance which separated them. + </p> + <p> + “To suffer in your stead.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, dangerous being!” cried Seraphitus in his heart. “Is it wrong, oh my + God! to desire to offer her to Thee? Dost thou remember, Minna, what I + said to thee up there?” he added, pointing to the summit of the Ice-Cap. + </p> + <p> + “He is terrible again,” thought Minna, trembling with fear. + </p> + <p> + The voice of the Sieg accompanied the thoughts of the three beings united + on this platform of projecting rock, but separated in soul by the abysses + of the Spiritual World. + </p> + <p> + “Seraphitus! teach me,” said Minna in a silvery voice, soft as the motion + of a sensitive plant, “teach me how to cease to love you. Who could fail + to admire you; love is an admiration that never wearies.” + </p> + <p> + “Poor child!” said Seraphitus, turning pale; “there is but one whom thou + canst love in that way.” + </p> + <p> + “Who?” asked Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Thou shalt know hereafter,” he said, in the feeble voice of a man who + lies down to die. + </p> + <p> + “Help, help! he is dying!” cried Minna. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid ran towards them. Seeing Seraphita as she lay on a fragment of + gneiss, where time had cast its velvet mantle of lustrous lichen and tawny + mosses now burnished in the sunlight, he whispered softly, “How beautiful + she is!” + </p> + <p> + “One other look! the last that I shall ever cast upon this nature in + travail,” said Seraphitus, rallying her strength and rising to her feet. + </p> + <p> + She advanced to the edge of the rocky platform, whence her eyes took in + the scenery of that grand and glorious landscape, so verdant, flowery, and + animated, yet so lately buried in its winding-sheet of snow. + </p> + <p> + “Farewell,” she said, “farewell, home of Earth, warmed by the fires of + Love; where all things press with ardent force from the centre to the + extremities; where the extremities are gathered up, like a woman’s hair, + to weave the mysterious braid which binds us in that invisible ether to + the Thought Divine! + </p> + <p> + “Behold the man bending above that furrow moistened with his tears, who + lifts his head for an instant to question Heaven; behold the woman + gathering her children that she may feed them with her milk; see him who + lashes the ropes in the height of the gale; see her who sits in the hollow + of the rocks, awaiting the father! Behold all they who stretch their hands + in want after a lifetime spent in thankless toil. To all peace and + courage, and to all farewell! + </p> + <p> + “Hear you the cry of the soldier, dying nameless and unknown? the wail of + the man deceived who weeps in the desert? To them peace and courage; to + all farewell! + </p> + <p> + “Farewell, you who die for the kings of the earth! Farewell, ye people + without a country and ye countries without a people, each, with a mutual + want. Above all, farewell to Thee who knew not where to lay Thy head, + Exile divine! Farewell, mothers beside your dying sons! Farewell, ye + Little Ones, ye Feeble, ye Suffering, you whose sorrows I have so often + borne! Farewell, all ye who have descended into the sphere of Instinct + that you may suffer there for others! + </p> + <p> + “Farewell, ye mariners who seek the Orient through the thick darkness of + your abstractions, vast as principles! Farewell, martyrs of thought, led + by thought into the presence of the True Light. Farewell, regions of study + where mine ears can hear the plaint of genius neglected and insulted, the + sigh of the patient scholar to whom enlightenment comes too late! + </p> + <p> + “I see the angelic choir, the wafting of perfumes, the incense of the + heart of those who go their way consoling, praying, imparting celestial + balm and living light to suffering souls! Courage, ye choir of Love! you + to whom the peoples cry, ‘Comfort us, comfort us, defend us!’ To you + courage! and farewell! + </p> + <p> + “Farewell, ye granite rocks that shall bloom a flower; farewell, flower + that becomes a dove; farewell, dove that shalt be woman; farewell, woman, + who art Suffering, man, who art Belief! Farewell, you who shall be all + love, all prayer!” + </p> + <p> + Broken with fatigue, this inexplicable being leaned for the first time on + Wilfrid and on Minna to be taken home. Wilfrid and Minna felt the shock of + a mysterious contact in and through the being who thus connected them. + They had scarcely advanced a few steps when David met them, weeping. “She + will die,” he said, “why have you brought her hither?” + </p> + <p> + The old man raised her in his arms with the vigor of youth and bore her to + the gate of the Swedish castle like an eagle bearing a white lamb to his + mountain eyrie. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. THE PATH TO HEAVEN + </h2> + <p> + The day succeeding that on which Seraphita foresaw her death and bade + farewell to Earth, as a prisoner looks round his dungeon before leaving it + forever, she suffered pains which obliged her to remain in the helpless + immobility of those whose pangs are great. Wilfrid and Minna went to see + her, and found her lying on her couch of furs. Still veiled in flesh, her + soul shone through that veil, which grew more and more transparent day by + day. The progress of the Spirit, piercing the last obstacle between itself + and the Infinite, was called an illness, the hour of Life went by the name + of death. David wept as he watched her sufferings; unreasonable as a + child, he would not listen to his mistress’s consolations. Monsieur Becker + wished Seraphita to try remedies; but all were useless. + </p> + <p> + One morning she sent for the two beings whom she loved, telling them that + this would be the last of her bad days. Wilfrid and Minna came in terror, + knowing well that they were about to lose her. Seraphita smiled to them as + one departing to a better world; her head drooped like a flower heavy with + dew, which opens its calyx for the last time to waft its fragrance on the + breeze. She looked at these friends with a sadness that was for them, not + for herself; she thought no longer of herself, and they felt this with a + grief mingled with gratitude which they were unable to express. Wilfrid + stood silent and motionless, lost in thoughts excited by events whose vast + bearings enabled him to conceive of some illimitable immensity. + </p> + <p> + Emboldened by the weakness of the being lately so powerful, or perhaps by + the fear of losing him forever, Minna bent down over the couch and said, + “Seraphitus, let me follow thee!” + </p> + <p> + “Can I forbid thee?” + </p> + <p> + “Why will thou not love me enough to stay with me?” + </p> + <p> + “I can love nothing here.” + </p> + <p> + “What canst thou love?” + </p> + <p> + “Heaven.” + </p> + <p> + “Is it worthy of heaven to despise the creatures of God?” + </p> + <p> + “Minna, can we love two beings at once? Would our beloved be indeed our + beloved if he did not fill our hearts? Must he not be the first, the last, + the only one? She who is all love, must she not leave the world for her + beloved? Human ties are but a memory, she has no ties except to him! Her + soul is hers no longer; it is his. If she keeps within her soul anything + that is not his, does she love? No, she loves not. To love feebly, is that + to love at all? The voice of her beloved makes her joyful; it flows + through her veins in a crimson tide more glowing far than blood; his + glance is the light that penetrates her; her being melts into his being. + He is warm to her soul. He is the light that lightens; near to him there + is neither cold nor darkness. He is never absent, he is always with us; we + think in him, to him, by him! Minna, that is how I love him.” + </p> + <p> + “Love whom?” said Minna, tortured with sudden jealousy. + </p> + <p> + “God,” replied Seraphitus, his voice glowing in their souls like fires of + liberty from peak to peak upon the mountains,—“God, who does not + betray us! God, who will never abandon us! who crowns our wishes; who + satisfies His creatures with joy—joy unalloyed and infinite! God, + who never wearies but ever smiles! God, who pours into the soul fresh + treasures day by day; who purifies and leaves no bitterness; who is all + harmony, all flame! God, who has placed Himself within our hearts to + blossom there; who hearkens to our prayers; who does not stand aloof when + we are His, but gives His presence absolutely! He who revives us, + magnifies us, and multiplies us in Himself; <i>God</i>! Minna, I love thee + because thou mayst be His! I love thee because if thou come to Him thou + wilt be mine.” + </p> + <p> + “Lead me to Him,” cried Minna, kneeling down; “take me by the hand; I will + not leave thee!” + </p> + <p> + “Lead us, Seraphita!” cried Wilfrid, coming to Minna’s side with an + impetuous movement. “Yes, thou hast given me a thirst for Light, a thirst + for the Word. I am parched with the Love thou hast put into my heart; I + desire to keep thy soul in mine; thy will is mine; I will do whatsoever + thou biddest me. Since I cannot obtain thee, I will keep thy will and all + the thoughts that thou hast given me. If I may not unite myself with thee + except by the power of my spirit, I will cling to thee in soul as the + flame to what it laps. Speak!” + </p> + <p> + “Angel!” exclaimed the mysterious being, enfolding them both in one + glance, as it were with an azure mantle, “Heaven shall by thine heritage!” + </p> + <p> + Silence fell among them after these words, which sounded in the souls of + the man and of the woman like the first notes of some celestial harmony. + </p> + <p> + “If you would teach your feet to tread the Path to heaven, know that the + way is hard at first,” said the weary sufferer; “God wills that you shall + seek Him for Himself. In that sense, He is jealous; He demands your whole + self. But when you have given Him yourself, never, never will He abandon + you. I leave with you the keys of the kingdom of His Light, where evermore + you shall dwell in the bosom of the Father, in the heart of the + Bridegroom. No sentinels guard the approaches, you may enter where you + will; His palaces, His treasures, His sceptre, all are free. ‘Take them!’ + He says. But—you must <i>will</i> to go there. Like one preparing + for a journey, a man must leave his home, renounce his projects, bid + farewell to friends, to father, mother, sister, even to the helpless + brother who cries after him,—yes, farewell to them eternally; you + will no more return than did the martyrs on their way to the stake. You + must strip yourself of every sentiment, of everything to which man clings. + Unless you do this you are but half-hearted in your enterprise. + </p> + <p> + “Do for God what you do for your ambitious projects, what you do in + consecrating yourself to Art, what you have done when you loved a human + creature or sought some secret of human science. Is not God the whole of + science, the all of love, the source of poetry? Surely His riches are + worthy of being coveted! His treasure is inexhaustible, His poem infinite, + His love immutable, His science sure and darkened by no mysteries. Be + anxious for nothing, He will give you all. Yes, in His heart are treasures + with which the petty joys you lose on earth are not to be compared. What I + tell you is true; you shall possess His power; you may use it as you would + use the gifts of lover or mistress. Alas! men doubt, they lack faith, and + will, and persistence. If some set their feet in the path, they look + behind them and presently turn back. Few decide between the two extremes,—to + go or stay, heaven or the mire. All hesitate. Weakness leads astray, + passion allures into dangerous paths, vice becomes habitual, man flounders + in the mud and makes no progress towards a better state. + </p> + <p> + “All human beings go through a previous life in the sphere of Instinct, + where they are brought to see the worthlessness of earthly treasures, to + amass which they gave themselves such untold pains! Who can tell how many + times the human being lives in the sphere of Instinct before he is + prepared to enter the sphere of Abstractions, where thought expends itself + on erring science, where mind wearies at last of human language? for, when + Matter is exhausted, Spirit enters. Who knows how many fleshly forms the + heir of heaven occupies before he can be brought to understand the value + of that silence and solitude whose starry plains are but the vestibule of + Spiritual Worlds? He feels his way amid the void, makes trial of + nothingness, and then at last his eyes revert upon the Path. Then follow + other existences,—all to be lived to reach the place where Light + effulgent shines. Death is the post-house of the journey. A lifetime may + be needed merely to gain the virtues which annul the errors of man’s + preceding life. First comes the life of suffering, whose tortures create a + thirst for love. Next the life of love and devotion to the creature, + teaching devotion to the Creator,—a life where the virtues of love, + its martyrdoms, its joys followed by sorrows, its angelic hopes, its + patience, its resignation, excite an appetite for things divine. Then + follows the life which seeks in silence the traces of the Word; in which + the soul grows humble and charitable. Next the life of longing; and + lastly, the life of prayer. In that is the noonday sun; there are the + flowers, there the harvest! + </p> + <p> + “The virtues we acquire, which develop slowly within us, are the invisible + links that bind each one of our existences to the others,—existences + which the spirit alone remembers, for Matter has no memory for spiritual + things. Thought alone holds the tradition of the bygone life. The endless + legacy of the past to the present is the secret source of human genius. + Some receive the gift of form, some the gift of numbers, others the gift + of harmony. All these gifts are steps of progress in the Path of Light. + Yes, he who possesses a single one of them touches at that point the + Infinite. Earth has divided the Word—of which I here reveal some + syllables—into particles, she has reduced it to dust and has + scattered it through her works, her dogmas, her poems. If some impalpable + grain shines like a diamond in a human work, men cry: ‘How grand! how + true! how glorious!’ That fragment vibrates in their souls and wakes a + presentiment of heaven: to some, a melody that weans from earth; to + others, the solitude that draws to God. To all, whatsoever sends us back + upon ourselves, whatsoever strikes us down and crushes us, lifts or abases + us,—<i>that</i> is but a syllable of the Divine Word. + </p> + <p> + “When a human soul draws its first furrow straight, the rest will follow + surely. One thought borne inward, one prayer uplifted, one suffering + endured, one echo of the Word within us, and our souls are forever + changed. All ends in God; and many are the ways to find Him by walking + straight before us. When the happy day arrives in which you set your feet + upon the Path and begin your pilgrimage, the world will know nothing of + it; earth no longer understands you; you no longer understand each other. + Men who attain a knowledge of these things, who lisp a few syllables of + the Word, often have not where to lay their head; hunted like beasts they + perish on the scaffold, to the joy of assembled peoples, while Angels open + to them the gates of heaven. Therefore, your destiny is a secret between + yourself and God, just as love is a secret between two hearts. You may be + the buried treasure, trodden under the feet of men thirsting for gold yet + all-unknowing that you are there beneath them. + </p> + <p> + “Henceforth your existence becomes a thing of ceaseless activity; each act + has a meaning which connects you with God, just as in love your actions + and your thoughts are filled with the loved one. But love and its joys, + love and its pleasures limited by the senses, are but the imperfect image + of the love which unites you to your celestial Spouse. All earthly joy is + mixed with anguish, with discontent. If love ought not to pall then death + should end it while its flame is high, so that we see no ashes. But in God + our wretchedness becomes delight, joy lives upon itself and multiplies, + and grows, and has no limit. In the Earthly life our fleeting love is + ended by tribulation; in the Spiritual life the tribulations of a day end + in joys unending. The soul is ceaselessly joyful. We feel God with us, in + us; He gives a sacred savor to all things; He shines in the soul; He + imparts to us His sweetness; He stills our interest in the world viewed + for ourselves; He quickens our interest in it viewed for His sake, and + grants us the exercise of His power upon it. In His name we do the works + which He inspires, we act for Him, we have no self except in Him, we love + His creatures with undying love, we dry their tears and long to bring them + unto Him, as a loving woman longs to see the inhabitants of earth obey her + well-beloved. + </p> + <p> + “The final life, the fruition of all other lives, to which the powers of + the soul have tended, and whose merits open the Sacred Portals to + perfected man, is the life of Prayer. Who can make you comprehend the + grandeur, the majesty, the might of Prayer? May my voice, these words of + mine, ring in your hearts and change them. Be now, here, what you may be + after cruel trial! There are privileged beings, Prophets, Seers, + Messengers, and Martyrs, all those who suffer for the Word and who + proclaim it; such souls spring at a bound across the human sphere and rise + at once to Prayer. So, too, with those whose souls receive the fire of + Faith. Be one of those brave souls! God welcomes boldness. He loves to be + taken by violence; He will never reject those who force their way to Him. + Know this! desire, the torrent of your will, is so all-powerful that a + single emission of it, made with force, can obtain all; a single cry, + uttered under the pressure of Faith, suffices. Be one of such beings, full + of force, of will, of love! Be conquerors on the earth! Let the hunger and + thirst of God possess you. Fly to Him as the hart panting for the + water-brooks. Desire shall lend you its wings; tears, those blossoms of + repentance, shall be the celestial baptism from which your nature will + issue purified. Cast yourself on the breast of the stream in Prayer! + Silence and meditation are the means of following the Way. God reveals + Himself, unfailingly, to the solitary, thoughtful seeker. + </p> + <p> + “It is thus that the separation takes place between Matter, which so long + has wrapped its darkness round you, and Spirit, which was in you from the + beginning, the light which lighted you and now brings noon-day to your + soul. Yes, your broken heart shall receive the light; the light shall + bathe it. Then you will no longer feel convictions, they will have changed + to certainties. The Poet utters; the Thinker meditates; the Righteous + acts; but he who stands upon the borders of the Divine World prays; and + his prayer is word, thought, action, in one! Yes, prayer includes all, + contains all; it completes nature, for it reveals to you the mind within + it and its progression. White and shining virgin of all human virtues, ark + of the covenant between earth and heaven, tender and strong companion + partaking of the lion and of the lamb, Prayer! Prayer will give you the + key of heaven! Bold and pure as innocence, strong, like all that is single + and simple, this glorious, invincible Queen rests, nevertheless, on the + material world; she takes possession of it; like the sun, she clasps it in + a circle of light. The universe belongs to him who wills, who knows, who + prays; but he must will, he must know, he must pray; in a word, he must + possess force, wisdom, and faith. + </p> + <p> + “Therefore Prayer, issuing from so many trials, is the consummation of all + truths, all powers, all feelings. Fruit of the laborious, progressive, + continued development of natural properties and faculties vitalized anew + by the divine breath of the Word, Prayer has occult activity; it is the + final worship—not the material worship of images, nor the spiritual + worship of formulas, but the worship of the Divine World. We say no + prayers,—prayer forms within us; it is a faculty which acts of + itself; it has attained a way of action which lifts it outside of forms; + it links the soul to God, with whom we unite as the root of the tree + unites with the soil; our veins draw life from the principle of life, and + we live by the life of the universe. Prayer bestows external conviction by + making us penetrate the Material World through the cohesion of all our + faculties with the elementary substances; it bestows internal conviction + by developing our essence and mingling it with that of the Spiritual + Worlds. To be able to pray thus, you must attain to an utter abandonment + of flesh; you must acquire through the fires of the furnace the purity of + the diamond; for this complete communion with the Divine is obtained only + in absolute repose, where storms and conflicts are at rest. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Prayer—the aspiration of the soul freed absolutely from the + body—bears all forces within it, and applies them to the constant + and perseverant union of the Visible and the Invisible. When you possess + the faculty of praying without weariness, with love, with force, with + certainty, with intelligence, your spiritualized nature will presently be + invested with power. Like a rushing wind, like a thunderbolt, it cuts its + way through all things and shares the power of God. The quickness of the + Spirit becomes yours; in an instant you may pass from region to region; + like the Word itself, you are transported from the ends of the world to + other worlds. Harmony exists, and you are part of it! Light is there and + your eyes possess it! Melody is heard and you echo it! Under such + conditions, you feel your perceptions developing, widening; the eyes of + your mind reach to vast distances. There is, in truth, neither time nor + place to the Spirit; space and duration are proportions created for + Matter; spirit and matter have naught in common. + </p> + <p> + “Though these things take place in stillness, in silence, without + agitation, without external movement, yet Prayer is all action; but it is + spiritual action, stripped of substantiality, and reduced, like the motion + of the worlds, to an invisible pure force. It penetrates everywhere like + light; it gives vitality to souls that come beneath its rays, as Nature + beneath the sun. It resuscitates virtue, purifies and sanctifies all + actions, peoples solitude, and gives a foretaste of eternal joys. When you + have once felt the delights of the divine intoxication which comes of this + internal travail, then all is yours! once take the lute on which we sing + to God within your hands, and you will never part with it. Hence the + solitude in which Angelic Spirits live; hence their disdain of human joys. + They are withdrawn from those who must die to live; they hear the language + of such beings, but they no longer understand their ideas; they wonder at + their movements, at what the world terms policies, material laws, + societies. For them all mysteries are over; truth, and truth alone, is + theirs. They who have reached the point where their eyes discern the + Sacred Portals, who, not looking back, not uttering one regret, + contemplate worlds and comprehend their destinies, such as they keep + silence, wait, and bear their final struggles. The worst of all those + struggles is the last; at the zenith of all virtue is Resignation,—to + be an exile and not lament, no longer to delight in earthly things and yet + to smile, to belong to God and yet to stay with men! You hear the voice + that cries to you, ‘Advance!’ Often celestial visions of descending Angels + compass you about with songs of praise; then, tearless, uncomplaining, + must you watch them as they reascent the skies! To murmur is to forfeit + all. Resignation is a fruit that ripens at the gates of heaven. How + powerful, how glorious the calm smile, the pure brow of the resigned human + creature. Radiant is the light of that brow. They who live in its + atmosphere grow purer. That calm glance penetrates and softens. More + eloquent by silence than the prophet by speech, such beings triumph by + their simple presence. Their ears are quick to hear as a faithful dog + listening for his master. Brighter than hope, stronger than love, higher + than faith, that creature of resignation is the virgin standing on the + earth, who holds for a moment the conquered palm, then, rising heavenward, + leaves behind her the imprint of her white, pure feet. When she has passed + away men flock around and cry, ‘See! See!’ Sometimes God holds her still + in sight,—a figure to whose feet creep Forms and Species of + Animality to be shown their way. She wafts the light exhaling from her + hair, and they see; she speaks, and they hear. ‘A miracle!’ they cry. + Often she triumphs in the name of God; frightened men deny her and put her + to death; smiling, she lays down her sword and goes to the stake, having + saved the Peoples. How many a pardoned Angel has passed from martyrdom to + heaven! Sinai, Golgotha are not in this place nor in that; Angels are + crucified in every place, in every sphere. Sighs pierce to God from the + whole universe. This earth on which we live is but a single sheaf of the + great harvest; humanity is but a species in the vast garden where the + flowers of heaven are cultivated. Everywhere God is like unto Himself, and + everywhere, by prayer, it is easy to reach Him.” + </p> + <p> + With these words, which fell from the lips of another Hagar in the + wilderness, burning the souls of the hearers as the live coal of the word + inflamed Isaiah, this mysterious being paused as though to gather some + remaining strength. Wilfrid and Minna dared not speak. Suddenly HE lifted + himself up to die:— + </p> + <p> + “Soul of all things, oh my God, thou whom I love for Thyself! Thou, Judge + and Father, receive a love which has no limit. Give me of thine essence + and thy faculties that I be wholly thine! Take me, that I no longer be + myself! Am I not purified? then cast me back into the furnace! If I be not + yet proved in the fire, make me some nurturing ploughshare, or the Sword + of victory! Grant me a glorious martyrdom in which to proclaim thy Word! + Rejected, I will bless thy justice. But if excess of love may win in a + moment that which hard and patient labor cannot attain, then bear me + upward in thy chariot of fire! Grant me triumph, or further trial, still + will I bless thee! To suffer for thee, is not that to triumph? Take me, + seize me, bear me away! nay, if thou wilt, reject me! Thou art He who can + do no evil. Ah!” he cried, after a pause, “the bonds are breaking. + </p> + <p> + “Spirits of the pure, ye sacred flock, come forth from the hidden places, + come on the surface of the luminous waves! The hour now is; come, + assemble! Let us sing at the gates of the Sanctuary; our songs shall drive + away the final clouds. With one accord let us hail the Dawn of the Eternal + Day. Behold the rising of the one True Light! Ah, why may I not take with + me these my friends! Farewell, poor earth, Farewell!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. THE ASSUMPTION + </h2> + <p> + The last psalm was uttered neither by word, look, nor gesture, nor by any + of those signs which men employ to communicate their thoughts, but as the + soul speaks to itself; for at the moment when Seraphita revealed herself + in her true nature, her thoughts were no longer enslaved by human words. + The violence of that last prayer had burst her bonds. Her soul, like a + white dove, remained for an instant poised above the body whose exhausted + substances were about to be annihilated. + </p> + <p> + The aspiration of the Soul toward heaven was so contagious that Wilfrid + and Minna, beholding those radiant scintillations of Life, perceived not + Death. + </p> + <p> + They had fallen on their knees when <i>he</i> had turned toward his + Orient, and they shared his ecstasy. + </p> + <p> + The fear of the Lord, which creates man a second time, purging away his + dross, mastered their hearts. + </p> + <p> + Their eyes, veiled to the things of Earth, were opened to the Brightness + of Heaven. + </p> + <p> + Though, like the Seers of old called Prophets by men, they were filled + with the terror of the Most High, yet like them they continued firm when + they found themselves within the radiance where the Glory of the <i>Spirit</i> + shone. + </p> + <p> + The veil of flesh, which, until now, had hidden that glory from their + eyes, dissolved imperceptibly away, and left them free to behold the + Divine substance. + </p> + <p> + They stood in the twilight of the Coming Dawn, whose feeble rays prepared + them to look upon the True Light, to hear the Living Word, and yet not + die. + </p> + <p> + In this state they began to perceive the immeasurable differences which + separate the things of earth from the things of Heaven. + </p> + <p> + <i>Life</i>, on the borders of which they stood, leaning upon each other, + trembling and illuminated, like two children standing under shelter in + presence of a conflagration, That Life offered no lodgment to the senses. + </p> + <p> + The ideas they used to interpret their vision to themselves were to the + things seen what the visible senses of a man are to his soul, the material + covering of a divine essence. + </p> + <p> + The departing <i>spirit</i> was above them, shedding incense without odor, + melody without sound. About them, where they stood, were neither surfaces, + nor angles, nor atmosphere. + </p> + <p> + They dared neither question him nor contemplate him; they stood in the + shadow of that Presence as beneath the burning rays of a tropical sun, + fearing to raise their eyes lest the light should blast them. + </p> + <p> + They knew they were beside him, without being able to perceive how it was + that they stood, as in a dream, on the confines of the Visible and the + Invisible, nor how they had lost sight of the Visible and how they beheld + the Invisible. + </p> + <p> + To each other they said: “If he touches us, we can die!” But the <i>spirit</i> + was now within the Infinite, and they knew not that neither time, nor + space, nor death, existed there, and that a great gulf lay between them, + although they thought themselves beside him. + </p> + <p> + Their souls were not prepared to receive in its fulness a knowledge of the + faculties of that Life; they could have only faint and confused + perceptions of it, suited to their weakness. + </p> + <p> + Were it not so, the thunder of the <i>Living Word</i>, whose far-off tones + now reached their ears, and whose meaning entered their souls as life + unites with body,—one echo of that Word would have consumed their + being as a whirlwind of fire laps up a fragile straw. + </p> + <p> + Therefore they saw only that which their nature, sustained by the strength + of the <i>spirit</i>, permitted them to see; they heard that only which + they were able to hear. + </p> + <p> + And yet, though thus protected, they shuddered when the Voice of the + anguished soul broke forth above them—the prayer of the <i>Spirit</i> + awaiting Life and imploring it with a cry. + </p> + <p> + That cry froze them to the very marrow of their bones. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Spirit</i> knocked at the <i>sacred portal</i>. “What wilt thou?” + answered a <i>choir</i>, whose question echoed among the worlds. “To go to + God.” “Hast thou conquered?” “I have conquered the flesh through + abstinence, I have conquered false knowledge by humility, I have conquered + pride by charity, I have conquered the earth by love; I have paid my dues + by suffering, I am purified in the fires of faith, I have longed for Life + by prayer: I wait in adoration, and I am resigned.” + </p> + <p> + No answer came. + </p> + <p> + “God’s will be done!” answered the <i>Spirit</i>, believing that he was + about to be rejected. + </p> + <p> + His tears flowed and fell like dew upon the heads of the two kneeling + witnesses, who trembled before the justice of God. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly the trumpets sounded,—the last trumpets of Victory won by + the <i>Angel</i> in this last trial. The reverberation passed through + space as sound through its echo, filling it, and shaking the universe + which Wilfrid and Minna felt like an atom beneath their feet. They + trembled under an anguish caused by the dread of the mystery about to be + accomplished. + </p> + <p> + A great movement took place, as though the Eternal Legions, putting + themselves in motion, were passing upward in spiral columns. The worlds + revolved like clouds driven by a furious wind. It was all rapid. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly the veils were rent away. They saw on high as it were a star, + incomparably more lustrous than the most luminous of material stars, which + detached itself, and fell like a thunderbolt, dazzling as lightning. Its + passage paled the faces of the pair, who thought it to be <i>the Light</i> + Itself. + </p> + <p> + It was the Messenger of good tidings, the plume of whose helmet was a + flame of Life. + </p> + <p> + Behind him lay the swath of his way gleaming with a flood of the lights + through which he passed. + </p> + <p> + He bore a palm and a sword. He touched the <i>Spirit</i> with the palm, + and the <i>Spirit</i> was transfigured. Its white wings noiselessly + unfolded. + </p> + <p> + This communication of <i>the Light</i>, changing the <i>Spirit</i> into a + <i>Seraph</i> and clothing it with a glorious form, a celestial armor, + poured down such effulgent rays that the two Seers were paralyzed. + </p> + <p> + Like the three apostles to whom Jesus showed himself, they felt the dead + weight of their bodies which denied them a complete and cloudless + intuition of <i>the Word</i> and <i>the True Life</i>. + </p> + <p> + They comprehended the nakedness of their souls; they were able to measure + the poverty of their light by comparing it—a humbling task—with + the halo of the <i>Seraph</i>. + </p> + <p> + A passionate desire to plunge back into the mire of earth and suffer trial + took possession of them,—trial through which they might victoriously + utter at the <i>sacred gates</i> the words of that radiant <i>Seraph</i>. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Seraph</i> knelt before the <i>Sanctuary</i>, beholding it, at + last, face to face; and he said, raising his hands thitherward, “Grant + that these two may have further sight; they will love the Lord and + proclaim His word.” + </p> + <p> + At this prayer a veil fell. Whether it were that the hidden force which + held the Seers had momentarily annihilated their physical bodies, or that + it raised their spirits above those bodies, certain it is that they felt + within them a rending of the pure from the impure. + </p> + <p> + The tears of the <i>Seraph</i> rose about them like a vapor, which hid the + lower worlds from their knowledge, held them in its folds, bore them + upwards, gave them forgetfulness of earthly meanings and the power of + comprehending the meanings of things divine. + </p> + <p> + The True Light shone; it illumined the Creations, which seemed to them + barren when they saw the source from which all worlds—Terrestrial, + Spiritual, and Divine-derived their Motion. + </p> + <p> + Each world possessed a centre to which converged all points of its + circumference. These worlds were themselves the points which moved toward + the centre of their system. Each system had its centre in great celestial + regions which communicated with the flaming and quenchless <i>motor of all + that is</i>. + </p> + <p> + Thus, from the greatest to the smallest of the worlds, and from the + smallest of the worlds to the smallest portion of the beings who compose + it, all was individual, and all was, nevertheless, One and indivisible. + </p> + <p> + What was the design of the Being, fixed in His essence and in His + faculties, who transmitted that essence and those faculties without losing + them? who manifested them outside of Himself without separating them from + Himself? who rendered his creations outside of Himself fixed in their + essence and mutable in their form? The pair thus called to the celestial + festival could only see the order and arrangement of created beings and + admire the immediate result. The Angels alone see more. They know the + means; they comprehend the final end. + </p> + <p> + But what the two Elect were granted power to contemplate, what they were + able to bring back as a testimony which enlightened their minds forever + after, was the proof of the action of the Worlds and of Beings; the + consciousness of the effort with which they all converge to the Result. + </p> + <p> + They heard the divers parts of the Infinite forming one living melody; and + each time that the accord made itself felt like a mighty respiration, the + Worlds drawn by the concordant movement inclined themselves toward the + Supreme Being who, from His impenetrable centre, issued all things and + recalled all things to Himself. + </p> + <p> + This ceaseless alternation of voices and silence seemed the rhythm of the + sacred hymn which resounds and prolongs its sound from age to age. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid and Minna were enabled to understand some of the mysterious + sayings of Him who had appeared on earth in the form which to each of them + had rendered him comprehensible,—to one Seraphitus, to the other + Seraphita,—for they saw that all was homogeneous in the sphere where + he now was. + </p> + <p> + Light gave birth to melody, melody gave birth to light; colors were light + and melody; motion was a Number endowed with Utterance; all things were at + once sonorous, diaphanous, and mobile; so that each interpenetrated the + other, the whole vast area was unobstructed and the Angels could survey it + from the depths of the Infinite. + </p> + <p> + They perceived the puerility of human sciences, of which he had spoken to + them. + </p> + <p> + The scene was to them a prospect without horizon, a boundless space into + which an all-consuming desire prompted them to plunge. But, fastened to + their miserable bodies, they had the desire without the power to fulfil + it. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Seraph</i>, preparing for his flight, no longer looked towards + them; he had nothing now in common with Earth. + </p> + <p> + Upward he rose; the shadow of his luminous presence covered the two Seers + like a merciful veil, enabling them to raise their eyes and see him, + rising in his glory to Heaven in company with the glad Archangel. + </p> + <p> + He rose as the sun from the bosom of the Eastern waves; but, more majestic + than the orb and vowed to higher destinies, he could not be enchained like + inferior creations in the spiral movement of the worlds; he followed the + line of the Infinite, pointing without deviation to the One Centre, there + to enter his eternal life,—to receive there, in his faculties and in + his essence, the power to enjoy through Love, and the gift of + comprehending through Wisdom. + </p> + <p> + The scene which suddenly unveiled itself to the eyes of the two Seers + crushed them with a sense of its vastness; they felt like atoms, whose + minuteness was not to be compared even to the smallest particle which the + infinite of divisibility enabled the mind of man to imagine, brought into + the presence of the infinite of Numbers, which God alone can comprehend as + He alone can comprehend Himself. + </p> + <p> + Strength and Love! what heights, what depths in those two entities, whom + the <i>Seraph’s</i> first prayer placed like two links, as it were, to + unite the immensities of the lower worlds with the immensity of the higher + universe! + </p> + <p> + They comprehended the invisible ties by which the material worlds are + bound to the spiritual worlds. Remembering the sublime efforts of human + genius, they were able to perceive the principle of all melody in the + songs of heaven which gave sensations of color, of perfume, of thought, + which recalled the innumerable details of all creations, as the songs of + earth revive the infinite memories of love. + </p> + <p> + Brought by the exaltation of their faculties to a point that cannot be + described in any language, they were able to cast their eyes for an + instant into the Divine World. There all was Rejoicing. + </p> + <p> + Myriads of angels were flocking together, without confusion; all alike yet + all dissimilar, simple as the flower of the fields, majestic as the + universe. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid and Minna saw neither their coming nor their going; they appeared + suddenly in the Infinite and filled it with their presence, as the stars + shine in the invisible ether. + </p> + <p> + The scintillations of their united diadems illumined space like the fires + of the sky at dawn upon the mountains. Waves of light flowed from their + hair, and their movements created tremulous undulations in space like the + billows of a phosphorescent sea. + </p> + <p> + The two Seers beheld the <i>Seraph</i> dimly in the midst of the immortal + legions. Suddenly, as though all the arrows of a quiver had darted + together, the Spirits swept away with a breath the last vestiges of the + human form; as the <i>Seraph</i> rose he became yet purer; soon he seemed + to them but a faint outline of what he had been at the moment of his + transfiguration,—lines of fire without shadow. + </p> + <p> + Higher he rose, receiving from circle to circle some new gift, while the + sign of his election was transmitted to each sphere into which, more and + more purified, he entered. + </p> + <p> + No voice was silent; the hymn diffused and multiplied itself in all its + modulations:— + </p> + <p> + “Hail to him who enters living! Come, flower of the Worlds! diamond from + the fires of suffering! pearl without spot, desire without flesh, new link + of earth and heaven, be Light! Conquering spirit, Queen of the world, come + for thy crown! Victor of earth, receive thy diadem! Thou art of us!” + </p> + <p> + The virtues of the <i>Seraph</i> shone forth in all their beauty. + </p> + <p> + His earliest desire for heaven re-appeared, tender as childhood. The deeds + of his life, like constellations, adorned him with their brightness. His + acts of faith shone like the Jacinth of heaven, the color of sidereal + fires. The pearls of Charity were upon him,—a chaplet of garnered + tears! Love divine surrounded him with roses; and the whiteness of his + Resignation obliterated all earthly trace. + </p> + <p> + Soon, to the eyes of the Seers, he was but a point of flame, growing + brighter and brighter as its motion was lost in the melodious acclamations + which welcomed his entrance into heaven. + </p> + <p> + The celestial accents made the two exiles weep. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly a silence as of death spread like a mourning veil from the first + to the highest sphere, throwing Wilfrid and Minna into a state of + intolerable expectation. + </p> + <p> + At this moment the <i>Seraph</i> was lost to sight within the <i>sanctuary</i>, + receiving there the gift of Life Eternal. + </p> + <p> + A movement of adoration made by the Host of heaven filled the two Seers + with ecstasy mingled with terror. They felt that all were prostrate before + the Throne, in all the spheres, in the Spheres Divine, in the Spiritual + Spheres, and in the Worlds of Darkness. + </p> + <p> + The Angels bent the knee to celebrate the <i>Seraph’s</i> glory; the + Spirits bent the knee in token of their impatience; others bent the knee + in the dark abysses, shuddering with awe. + </p> + <p> + A mighty cry of joy gushed forth, as the spring gushes forth to its + millions of flowering herbs sparkling with diamond dew-drops in the + sunlight; at that instant the <i>Seraph</i> reappeared, effulgent, crying, + “<i>Eternal! Eternal! Eternal</i>!” + </p> + <p> + The universe heard the cry and understood it; it penetrated the spheres as + God penetrates them; it took possession of the infinite; the Seven Divine + Worlds heard the Voice and answered. + </p> + <p> + A mighty movement was perceptible, as though whole planets, purified, were + rising in dazzling light to become Eternal. + </p> + <p> + Had the <i>Seraph</i> obtained, as a first mission, the work of calling to + God the creations permeated by His Word? + </p> + <p> + But already the sublime <i>hallelujah</i> was sounding in the ear of the + desolate ones as the distant undulations of an ended melody. Already the + celestial lights were fading like the gold and crimson tints of a setting + sun. Death and Impurity recovered their prey. + </p> + <p> + As the two mortals re-entered the prison of flesh, from which their spirit + had momentarily been delivered by some priceless sleep, they felt like + those who wake after a night of brilliant dreams, the memory of which + still lingers in their soul, though their body retains no consciousness of + them, and human language is unable to give utterance to them. + </p> + <p> + The deep darkness of the sphere that was now about them was that of the + sun of the visible worlds. + </p> + <p> + “Let us descend to those lower regions,” said Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “Let us do what he told us to do,” answered Minna. “We have seen the + worlds on their march to God; we know the Path. Our diadem of stars is + There.” + </p> + <p> + Floating downward through the abysses, they re-entered the dust of the + lesser worlds, and saw the Earth, like a subterranean cavern, suddenly + illuminated to their eyes by the light which their souls brought with + them, and which still environed them in a cloud of the paling harmonies of + heaven. The sight was that which of old struck the inner eyes of Seers and + Prophets. Ministers of all religions, Preachers of all pretended truths, + Kings consecrated by Force and Terror, Warriors and Mighty men + apportioning the Peoples among them, the Learned and the Rich standing + above the suffering, noisy crowd, and noisily grinding them beneath their + feet,—all were there, accompanied by their wives and servants; all + were robed in stuffs of gold and silver and azure studded with pearls and + gems torn from the bowels of Earth, stolen from the depths of Ocean, for + which Humanity had toiled throughout the centuries, sweating and + blaspheming. But these treasures, these splendors, constructed of blood, + seemed worn-out rags to the eyes of the two Exiles. “What do you there, in + motionless ranks?” cried Wilfrid. They answered not. “What do you there, + motionless?” They answered not. Wilfrid waved his hands over them, crying + in a loud voice, “What do you there, in motionless ranks?” All, with + unanimous action, opened their garments and gave to sight their withered + bodies, eaten with worms, putrefied, crumbling to dust, rotten with + horrible diseases. + </p> + <p> + “You lead the nations to Death,” Wilfrid said to them. “You have depraved + the earth, perverted the Word, prostituted justice. After devouring the + grass of the fields you have killed the lambs of the fold. Do you think + yourself justified because of your sores? I will warn my brethren who have + ears to hear the Voice, and they will come and drink of the spring of + Living Waters which you have hidden.” + </p> + <p> + “Let us save our strength for Prayer,” said Minna. “Wilfrid, thy mission + is not that of the Prophets or the Avenger or the Messenger; we are still + on the confines of the lowest sphere; let us endeavor to rise through + space on the wings of Prayer.” + </p> + <p> + “Thou shalt be all my love!” + </p> + <p> + “Thou shalt be all my strength!” + </p> + <p> + “We have seen the Mysteries; we are, each to the other, the only being + here below to whom Joy and Sadness are comprehensible; let us pray, + therefore: we know the Path, let us walk in it.” + </p> + <p> + “Give me thy hand,” said the Young Girl, “if we walk together, the way + will be to me less hard and long.” + </p> + <p> + “With thee, with thee alone,” replied the Man, “can I cross the awful + solitude without complaint.” + </p> + <p> + “Together we will go to Heaven,” she said. + </p> + <p> + The clouds gathered and formed a darksome dais. Suddenly the pair found + themselves kneeling beside a body which old David was guarding from + curious eyes, resolved to bury it himself. + </p> + <p> + Beyond those walls the first summer of the nineteenth century shone forth + in all its glory. The two lovers believed they heard a Voice in the + sun-rays. They breathed a celestial essence from the new-born flowers. + Holding each other by the hand, they said, “That illimitable ocean which + shines below us is but an image of what we saw above.” + </p> + <p> + “Where are you going?” asked Monsieur Becker. + </p> + <p> + “To God,” they answered. “Come with us, father.” + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 1432 ***</div> +</body> +</html> diff --git a/LICENSE.txt b/LICENSE.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6312041 --- /dev/null +++ b/LICENSE.txt @@ -0,0 +1,11 @@ +This eBook, including all associated images, markup, improvements, +metadata, and any other content or labor, has been confirmed to be +in the PUBLIC DOMAIN IN THE UNITED STATES. + +Procedures for determining public domain status are described in +the "Copyright How-To" at https://www.gutenberg.org. + +No investigation has been made concerning possible copyrights in +jurisdictions other than the United States. Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..03a81b0 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #1432 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1432) diff --git a/old/1432-0.txt b/old/1432-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..52154b7 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1432-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5628 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Seraphita, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Seraphita + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: August, 1998 [Etext #1432] +Posting Date: February 24, 2010 +Last Updated: November 23, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERAPHITA *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +SERAPHITA + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + DEDICATION + + To Madame Eveline de Hanska, nee Comtesse Rzewuska. + + Madame,--Here is the work which you asked of me. I am happy, in + thus dedicating it, to offer you a proof of the respectful + affection you allow me to bear you. If I am reproached for + impotence in this attempt to draw from the depths of mysticism a + book which seeks to give, in the lucid transparency of our + beautiful language, the luminous poesy of the Orient, to you the + blame! Did you not command this struggle (resembling that of + Jacob) by telling me that the most imperfect sketch of this + Figure, dreamed of by you, as it has been by me since childhood, + would still be something to you? + + Here, then, it is,--that something. Would that this book could + belong exclusively to noble spirits, preserved like yours from + worldly pettiness by solitude! THEY would know how to give to it + the melodious rhythm that it lacks, which might have made it, in + the hands of a poet, the glorious epic that France still awaits. + But from me they must accept it as one of those sculptured + balustrades, carved by a hand of faith, on which the pilgrims + lean, in the choir of some glorious church, to think upon the end + of man. + + I am, madame, with respect, + Your devoted servant, + De Balzac. + + + + +SERAPHITA + + + + +CHAPTER I. SERAPHITUS + + +As the eye glances over a map of the coasts of Norway, can the +imagination fail to marvel at their fantastic indentations and serrated +edges, like a granite lace, against which the surges of the North Sea +roar incessantly? Who has not dreamed of the majestic sights to be seen +on those beachless shores, of that multitude of creeks and inlets and +little bays, no two of them alike, yet all trackless abysses? We may +almost fancy that Nature took pleasure in recording by ineffaceable +hieroglyphics the symbol of Norwegian life, bestowing on these coasts +the conformation of a fish’s spine, fishery being the staple commerce of +the country, and well-nigh the only means of living of the hardy men who +cling like tufts of lichen to the arid cliffs. Here, through fourteen +degrees of longitude, barely seven hundred thousand souls maintain +existence. Thanks to perils devoid of glory, to year-long snows which +clothe the Norway peaks and guard them from profaning foot of traveller, +these sublime beauties are virgin still; they will be seen to harmonize +with human phenomena, also virgin--at least to poetry--which here took +place, the history of which it is our purpose to relate. + +If one of these inlets, mere fissures to the eyes of the eider-ducks, is +wide enough for the sea not to freeze between the prison-walls of +rock against which it surges, the country-people call the little bay +a “fiord,”--a word which geographers of every nation have adopted into +their respective languages. Though a certain resemblance exists +among all these fiords, each has its own characteristics. The sea has +everywhere forced its way as through a breach, yet the rocks about each +fissure are diversely rent, and their tumultuous precipices defy the +rules of geometric law. Here the scarp is dentelled like a saw; there +the narrow ledges barely allow the snow to lodge or the noble crests of +the Northern pines to spread themselves; farther on, some convulsion of +Nature may have rounded a coquettish curve into a lovely valley flanked +in rising terraces with black-plumed pines. Truly we are tempted to call +this land the Switzerland of Ocean. + +Midway between Trondhjem and Christiansand lies an inlet called the +Strom-fiord. If the Strom-fiord is not the loveliest of these rocky +landscapes, it has the merit of displaying the terrestrial grandeurs +of Norway, and of enshrining the scenes of a history that is indeed +celestial. + +The general outline of the Strom-fiord seems at first sight to be that +of a funnel washed out by the sea. The passage which the waves have +forced present to the eye an image of the eternal struggle between old +Ocean and the granite rock,--two creations of equal power, one through +inertia, the other by ceaseless motion. Reefs of fantastic shape run out +on either side, and bar the way of ships and forbid their entrance. The +intrepid sons of Norway cross these reefs on foot, springing from rock +to rock, undismayed at the abyss--a hundred fathoms deep and only six +feet wide--which yawns beneath them. Here a tottering block of gneiss +falling athwart two rocks gives an uncertain footway; there the +hunters or the fishermen, carrying their loads, have flung the stems of +fir-trees in guise of bridges, to join the projecting reefs, around and +beneath which the surges roar incessantly. This dangerous entrance to +the little bay bears obliquely to the right with a serpentine movement, +and there encounters a mountain rising some twenty-five hundred feet +above sea-level, the base of which is a vertical palisade of solid +rock more than a mile and a half long, the inflexible granite nowhere +yielding to clefts or undulations until it reaches a height of two +hundred feet above the water. Rushing violently in, the sea is driven +back with equal violence by the inert force of the mountain to the +opposite shore, gently curved by the spent force of the retreating +waves. + +The fiord is closed at the upper end by a vast gneiss formation crowned +with forests, down which a river plunges in cascades, becomes a torrent +when the snows are melting, spreads into a sheet of waters, and then +falls with a roar into the bay,--vomiting as it does so the hoary pines +and the aged larches washed down from the forests and scarce seen amid +the foam. These trees plunge headlong into the fiord and reappear after +a time on the surface, clinging together and forming islets which float +ashore on the beaches, where the inhabitants of a village on the left +bank of the Strom-fiord gather them up, split, broken (though sometimes +whole), and always stripped of bark and branches. The mountain which +receives at its base the assaults of Ocean, and at its summit the +buffeting of the wild North wind, is called the Falberg. Its crest, +wrapped at all seasons in a mantle of snow and ice, is the sharpest peak +of Norway; its proximity to the pole produces, at the height of eighteen +hundred feet, a degree of cold equal to that of the highest mountains of +the globe. The summit of this rocky mass, rising sheer from the fiord +on one side, slopes gradually downward to the east, where it joins the +declivities of the Sieg and forms a series of terraced valleys, the +chilly temperature of which allows no growth but that of shrubs and +stunted trees. + +The upper end of the fiord, where the waters enter it as they come down +from the forest, is called the Siegdahlen,--a word which may be held to +mean “the shedding of the Sieg,”--the river itself receiving that name. +The curving shore opposite to the face of the Falberg is the valley +of Jarvis,--a smiling scene overlooked by hills clothed with firs, +birch-trees, and larches, mingled with a few oaks and beeches, the +richest coloring of all the varied tapestries which Nature in these +northern regions spreads upon the surface of her rugged rocks. The eye +can readily mark the line where the soil, warmed by the rays of the sun, +bears cultivation and shows the native growth of the Norwegian flora. +Here the expanse of the fiord is broad enough to allow the sea, dashed +back by the Falberg, to spend its expiring force in gentle murmurs upon +the lower slope of these hills,--a shore bordered with finest sand, +strewn with mica and sparkling pebbles, porphyry, and marbles of a +thousand tints, brought from Sweden by the river floods, together with +ocean waifs, shells, and flowers of the sea driven in by tempests, +whether of the Pole or Tropics. + +At the foot of the hills of Jarvis lies a village of some two hundred +wooden houses, where an isolated population lives like a swarm of bees +in a forest, without increasing or diminishing; vegetating happily, +while wringing their means of living from the breast of a stern Nature. +The almost unknown existence of the little hamlet is readily accounted +for. Few of its inhabitants were bold enough to risk their lives +among the reefs to reach the deep-sea fishing,--the staple industry of +Norwegians on the least dangerous portions of their coast. The fish of +the fiord were numerous enough to suffice, in part at least, for the +sustenance of the inhabitants; the valley pastures provided milk and +butter; a certain amount of fruitful, well-tilled soil yielded rye +and hemp and vegetables, which necessity taught the people to protect +against the severity of the cold and the fleeting but terrible heat of +the sun with the shrewd ability which Norwegians display in the two-fold +struggle. The difficulty of communication with the outer world, either +by land where the roads are impassable, or by sea where none but tiny +boats can thread their way through the maritime defiles that guard the +entrance to the bay, hinder these people from growing rich by the sale +of their timber. It would cost enormous sums to either blast a channel +out to sea or construct a way to the interior. The roads from Christiana +to Trondhjem all turn toward the Strom-fiord, and cross the Sieg by a +bridge some score of miles above its fall into the bay. The country to +the north, between Jarvis and Trondhjem, is covered with impenetrable +forests, while to the south the Falberg is nearly as much separated +from Christiana by inaccessible precipices. The village of Jarvis might +perhaps have communicated with the interior of Norway and Sweden by +the river Sieg; but to do this and to be thus brought into contact with +civilization, the Strom-fiord needed the presence of a man of genius. +Such a man did actually appear there,--a poet, a Swede of great +religious fervor, who died admiring, even reverencing this region as one +of the noblest works of the Creator. + +Minds endowed by study with an inward sight, and whose quick perceptions +bring before the soul, as though painted on a canvas, the contrasting +scenery of this universe, will now apprehend the general features of +the Strom-fiord. They alone, perhaps, can thread their way through the +tortuous channels of the reef, or flee with the battling waves to the +everlasting rebuff of the Falberg whose white peaks mingle with the +vaporous clouds of the pearl-gray sky, or watch with delight the curving +sheet of waters, or hear the rushing of the Sieg as it hangs for an +instant in long fillets and then falls over a picturesque abatis of +noble trees toppled confusedly together, sometimes upright, sometimes +half-sunken beneath the rocks. It may be that such minds alone can dwell +upon the smiling scenes nestling among the lower hills of Jarvis; where +the luscious Northern vegetables spring up in families, in myriads, +where the white birches bend, graceful as maidens, where colonnades +of beeches rear their boles mossy with the growth of centuries, where +shades of green contrast, and white clouds float amid the blackness of +the distant pines, and tracts of many-tinted crimson and purple shrubs +are shaded endlessly; in short, where blend all colors, all perfumes of +a flora whose wonders are still ignored. Widen the boundaries of this +limited ampitheatre, spring upward to the clouds, lose yourself among +the rocks where the seals are lying and even then your thought cannot +compass the wealth of beauty nor the poetry of this Norwegian coast. +Can your thought be as vast as the ocean that bounds it? as weird as +the fantastic forms drawn by these forests, these clouds, these shadows, +these changeful lights? + +Do you see above the meadows on that lowest slope which undulates around +the higher hills of Jarvis two or three hundred houses roofed with +“noever,” a sort of thatch made of birch-bark,--frail houses, long and +low, looking like silk-worms on a mulberry-leaf tossed hither by the +winds? Above these humble, peaceful dwellings stands the church, built +with a simplicity in keeping with the poverty of the villagers. A +graveyard surrounds the chancel, and a little farther on you see +the parsonage. Higher up, on a projection of the mountain is a +dwelling-house, the only one of stone; for which reason the inhabitants +of the village call it “the Swedish Castle.” In fact, a wealthy Swede +settled in Jarvis about thirty years before this history begins, and did +his best to ameliorate its condition. This little house, certainly not +a castle, built with the intention of leading the inhabitants to build +others like it, was noticeable for its solidity and for the wall that +inclosed it, a rare thing in Norway where, notwithstanding the abundance +of stone, wood alone is used for all fences, even those of fields. +This Swedish house, thus protected against the climate, stood on rising +ground in the centre of an immense courtyard. The windows were sheltered +by those projecting pent-house roofs supported by squared trunks of +trees which give so patriarchal an air to Northern dwellings. From +beneath them the eye could see the savage nudity of the Falberg, or +compare the infinitude of the open sea with the tiny drop of water in +the foaming fiord; the ear could hear the flowing of the Sieg, whose +white sheet far away looked motionless as it fell into its granite +cup edged for miles around with glaciers,--in short, from this vantage +ground the whole landscape whereon our simple yet superhuman drama was +about to be enacted could be seen and noted. + +The winter of 1799-1800 was one of the most severe ever known to +Europeans. The Norwegian sea was frozen in all the fiords, where, as a +usual thing, the violence of the surf kept the ice from forming. A wind, +whose effects were like those of the Spanish levanter, swept the ice of +the Strom-fiord, driving the snow to the upper end of the gulf. Seldom +indeed could the people of Jarvis see the mirror of frozen waters +reflecting the colors of the sky; a wondrous site in the bosom of +these mountains when all other aspects of nature are levelled beneath +successive sheets of snow, and crests and valleys are alike mere +folds of the vast mantle flung by winter across a landscape at once so +mournfully dazzling and so monotonous. The falling volume of the Sieg, +suddenly frozen, formed an immense arcade beneath which the inhabitants +might have crossed under shelter from the blast had any dared to risk +themselves inland. But the dangers of every step away from their own +surroundings kept even the boldest hunters in their homes, afraid lest +the narrow paths along the precipices, the clefts and fissures among the +rocks, might be unrecognizable beneath the snow. + +Thus it was that no human creature gave life to the white desert where +Boreas reigned, his voice alone resounding at distant intervals. The +sky, nearly always gray, gave tones of polished steel to the ice of the +fiord. Perchance some ancient eider-duck crossed the expanse, trusting +to the warm down beneath which dream, in other lands, the luxurious +rich, little knowing of the dangers through which their luxury has come +to them. Like the Bedouin of the desert who darts alone across the sands +of Africa, the bird is neither seen nor heard; the torpid atmosphere, +deprived of its electrical conditions, echoes neither the whirr of its +wings nor its joyous notes. Besides, what human eye was strong enough to +bear the glitter of those pinnacles adorned with sparkling crystals, or +the sharp reflections of the snow, iridescent on the summits in the rays +of a pallid sun which infrequently appeared, like a dying man seeking to +make known that he still lives. Often, when the flocks of gray clouds, +driven in squadrons athwart the mountains and among the tree-tops, hid +the sky with their triple veils Earth, lacking the celestial lights, lit +herself by herself. + +Here, then, we meet the majesty of Cold, seated eternally at the pole +in that regal silence which is the attribute of all absolute monarchy. +Every extreme principle carries with it an appearance of negation and +the symptoms of death; for is not life the struggle of two forces? Here +in this Northern nature nothing lived. One sole power--the unproductive +power of ice--reigned unchallenged. The roar of the open sea no longer +reached the deaf, dumb inlet, where during one short season of the year +Nature made haste to produce the slender harvests necessary for the food +of the patient people. A few tall pine-trees lifted their black pyramids +garlanded with snow, and the form of their long branches and depending +shoots completed the mourning garments of those solemn heights. + +Each household gathered in its chimney-corner, in houses carefully +closed from the outer air, and well supplied with biscuit, melted +butter, dried fish, and other provisions laid in for the seven-months +winter. The very smoke of these dwellings was hardly seen, half-hidden +as they were beneath the snow, against the weight of which they were +protected by long planks reaching from the roof and fastened at some +distance to solid blocks on the ground, forming a covered way around +each building. + +During these terrible winter months the women spun and dyed the woollen +stuffs and the linen fabrics with which they clothed their families, +while the men read, or fell into those endless meditations which have +given birth to so many profound theories, to the mystic dreams of the +North, to its beliefs, to its studies (so full and so complete in one +science, at least, sounded as with a plummet), to its manners and its +morals, half-monastic, which force the soul to react and feed upon +itself and make the Norwegian peasant a being apart among the peoples of +Europe. + +Such was the condition of the Strom-fiord in the first year of the +nineteenth century and about the middle of the month of May. + +On a morning when the sun burst forth upon this landscape, lighting the +fires of the ephemeral diamonds produced by crystallizations of the snow +and ice, two beings crossed the fiord and flew along the base of the +Falberg, rising thence from ledge to ledge toward the summit. What were +they? human creatures, or two arrows? They might have been taken for +eider-ducks sailing in consort before the wind. Not the boldest hunter +nor the most superstitious fisherman would have attributed to human +beings the power to move safely along the slender lines traced beneath +the snow by the granite ledges, where yet this couple glided with the +terrifying dexterity of somnambulists who, forgetting their own weight +and the dangers of the slightest deviation, hurry along a ridge-pole and +keep their equilibrium by the power of some mysterious force. + +“Stop me, Seraphitus,” said a pale young girl, “and let me breathe. I +look at you, you only, while scaling these walls of the gulf; otherwise, +what would become of me? I am such a feeble creature. Do I tire you?” + +“No,” said the being on whose arm she leaned. “But let us go on, Minna; +the place where we are is not firm enough to stand on.” + +Once more the snow creaked sharply beneath the long boards fastened to +their feet, and soon they reached the upper terrace of the first ledge, +clearly defined upon the flank of the precipice. The person whom Minna +had addressed as Seraphitus threw his weight upon his right heel, +arresting the plank--six and a half feet long and narrow as the foot of +a child--which was fastened to his boot by a double thong of leather. +This plank, two inches thick, was covered with reindeer skin, which +bristled against the snow when the foot was raised, and served to stop +the wearer. Seraphitus drew in his left foot, furnished with another +“skee,” which was only two feet long, turned swiftly where he stood, +caught his timid companion in his arms, lifted her in spite of the long +boards on her feet, and placed her on a projecting rock from which he +brushed the snow with his pelisse. + +“You are safe there, Minna; you can tremble at your ease.” + +“We are a third of the way up the Ice-Cap,” she said, looking at the +peak to which she gave the popular name by which it is known in Norway; +“I can hardly believe it.” + +Too much out of breath to say more, she smiled at Seraphitus, who, +without answering, laid his hand upon her heart and listened to its +sounding throbs, rapid as those of a frightened bird. + +“It often beats as fast when I run,” she said. + +Seraphitus inclined his head with a gesture that was neither coldness +nor indifference, and yet, despite the grace which made the movement +almost tender, it none the less bespoke a certain negation, which in a +woman would have seemed an exquisite coquetry. Seraphitus clasped the +young girl in his arms. Minna accepted the caress as an answer to her +words, continuing to gaze at him. As he raised his head, and threw back +with impatient gesture the golden masses of his hair to free his brow, +he saw an expression of joy in the eyes of his companion. + +“Yes, Minna,” he said in a voice whose paternal accents were charming +from the lips of a being who was still adolescent, “Keep your eyes on +me; do not look below you.” + +“Why not?” she asked. + +“You wish to know why? then look!” + +Minna glanced quickly at her feet and cried out suddenly like a child +who sees a tiger. The awful sensation of abysses seized her; one glance +sufficed to communicate its contagion. The fiord, eager for food, +bewildered her with its loud voice ringing in her ears, interposing +between herself and life as though to devour her more surely. From the +crown of her head to her feet and along her spine an icy shudder ran; +then suddenly intolerable heat suffused her nerves, beat in her veins +and overpowered her extremities with electric shocks like those of the +torpedo. Too feeble to resist, she felt herself drawn by a mysterious +power to the depths below, wherein she fancied that she saw some monster +belching its venom, a monster whose magnetic eyes were charming her, +whose open jaws appeared to craunch their prey before they seized it. + +“I die, my Seraphitus, loving none but thee,” she said, making a +mechanical movement to fling herself into the abyss. + +Seraphitus breathed softly on her forehead and eyes. Suddenly, like +a traveller relaxed after a bath, Minna forgot these keen emotions, +already dissipated by that caressing breath which penetrated her body +and filled it with balsamic essences as quickly as the breath itself had +crossed the air. + +“Who art thou?” she said, with a feeling of gentle terror. “Ah, but I +know! thou art my life. How canst thou look into that gulf and not die?” + she added presently. + +Seraphitus left her clinging to the granite rock and placed himself at +the edge of the narrow platform on which they stood, whence his eyes +plunged to the depths of the fiord, defying its dazzling invitation. His +body did not tremble, his brow was white and calm as that of a marble +statue,--an abyss facing an abyss. + +“Seraphitus! dost thou not love me? come back!” she cried. “Thy danger +renews my terror. Who art thou to have such superhuman power at thy +age?” she asked as she felt his arms inclosing her once more. + +“But, Minna,” answered Seraphitus, “you look fearlessly at greater +spaces far than that.” + +Then with raised finger, this strange being pointed upward to the blue +dome, which parting clouds left clear above their heads, where +stars could be seen in open day by virtue of atmospheric laws as yet +unstudied. + +“But what a difference!” she answered smiling. + +“You are right,” he said; “we are born to stretch upward to the +skies. Our native land, like the face of a mother, cannot terrify her +children.” + +His voice vibrated through the being of his companion, who made no +reply. + +“Come! let us go on,” he said. + +The pair darted forward along the narrow paths traced back and forth +upon the mountain, skimming from terrace to terrace, from line to line, +with the rapidity of a barb, that bird of the desert. Presently they +reached an open space, carpeted with turf and moss and flowers, where no +foot had ever trod. + +“Oh, the pretty saeter!” cried Minna, giving to the upland meadow its +Norwegian name. “But how comes it here, at such a height?” + +“Vegetation ceases here, it is true,” said Seraphitus. “These few plants +and flowers are due to that sheltering rock which protects the meadow +from the polar winds. Put that tuft in your bosom, Minna,” he added, +gathering a flower,--“that balmy creation which no eye has ever seen; +keep the solitary matchless flower in memory of this one matchless +morning of your life. You will find no other guide to lead you again to +this saeter.” + +So saying, he gave her the hybrid plant his falcon eye had seen amid the +tufts of gentian acaulis and saxifrages,--a marvel, brought to bloom +by the breath of angels. With girlish eagerness Minna seized the tufted +plant of transparent green, vivid as emerald, which was formed of little +leaves rolled trumpet-wise, brown at the smaller end but changing tint +by tint to their delicately notched edges, which were green. These +leaves were so tightly pressed together that they seemed to blend and +form a mat or cluster of rosettes. Here and there from this green ground +rose pure white stars edged with a line of gold, and from their throats +came crimson anthers but no pistils. A fragrance, blended of roses and +of orange blossoms, yet ethereal and fugitive, gave something as it +were celestial to that mysterious flower, which Seraphitus sadly +contemplated, as though it uttered plaintive thoughts which he alone +could understand. But to Minna this mysterious phenomenon seemed a mere +caprice of nature giving to stone the freshness, softness, and perfume +of plants. + +“Why do you call it matchless? can it not reproduce itself?” she asked, +looking at Seraphitus, who colored and turned away. + +“Let us sit down,” he said presently; “look below you, Minna. See! At +this height you will have no fear. The abyss is so far beneath us that +we no longer have a sense of its depths; it acquires the perspective +uniformity of ocean, the vagueness of clouds, the soft coloring of the +sky. See, the ice of the fiord is a turquoise, the dark pine forests are +mere threads of brown; for us all abysses should be thus adorned.” + +Seraphitus said the words with that fervor of tone and gesture seen +and known only by those who have ascended the highest mountains of the +globe,--a fervor so involuntarily acquired that the haughtiest of men +is forced to regard his guide as a brother, forgetting his own superior +station till he descends to the valleys and the abodes of his kind. +Seraphitus unfastened the skees from Minna’s feet, kneeling before her. +The girl did not notice him, so absorbed was she in the marvellous view +now offered of her native land, whose rocky outlines could here be seen +at a glance. She felt, with deep emotion, the solemn permanence of those +frozen summits, to which words could give no adequate utterance. + +“We have not come here by human power alone,” she said, clasping her +hands. “But perhaps I dream.” + +“You think that facts the causes of which you cannot perceive are +supernatural,” replied her companion. + +“Your replies,” she said, “always bear the stamp of some deep thought. +When I am near you I understand all things without an effort. Ah, I am +free!” + +“If so, you will not need your skees,” he answered. + +“Oh!” she said; “I who would fain unfasten yours and kiss your feet!” + +“Keep such words for Wilfrid,” said Seraphitus, gently. + +“Wilfrid!” cried Minna angrily; then, softening as she glanced at her +companion’s face and trying, but in vain, to take his hand, she added, +“You are never angry, never; you are so hopelessly perfect in all +things.” + +“From which you conclude that I am unfeeling.” + +Minna was startled at this lucid interpretation of her thought. + +“You prove to me, at any rate, that we understand each other,” she said, +with the grace of a loving woman. + +Seraphitus softly shook his head and looked sadly and gently at her. + +“You, who know all things,” said Minna, “tell me why it is that the +timidity I felt below is over now that I have mounted higher. Why do I +dare to look at you for the first time face to face, while lower down I +scarcely dared to give a furtive glance?” + +“Perhaps because we are withdrawn from the pettiness of earth,” he +answered, unfastening his pelisse. + +“Never, never have I seen you so beautiful!” cried Minna, sitting down +on a mossy rock and losing herself in contemplation of the being who +had now guided her to a part of the peak hitherto supposed to be +inaccessible. + +Never, in truth, had Seraphitus shone with so bright a radiance,--the +only word which can render the illumination of his face and the aspect +of his whole person. Was this splendor due to the lustre which the pure +air of mountains and the reflections of the snow give to the complexion? +Was it produced by the inward impulse which excites the body at the +instant when exertion is arrested? Did it come from the sudden contrast +between the glory of the sun and the darkness of the clouds, from whose +shadow the charming couple had just emerged? Perhaps to all these causes +we may add the effect of a phenomenon, one of the noblest which human +nature has to offer. If some able physiologist had studied this being +(who, judging by the pride on his brow and the lightning in his eyes +seemed a youth of about seventeen years of age), and if the student had +sought for the springs of that beaming life beneath the whitest skin +that ever the North bestowed upon her offspring, he would undoubtedly +have believed either in some phosphoric fluid of the nerves shining +beneath the cuticle, or in the constant presence of an inward luminary, +whose rays issued through the being of Seraphitus like a light through +an alabaster vase. Soft and slender as were his hands, ungloved to +remove his companion’s snow-boots, they seemed possessed of a strength +equal to that which the Creator gave to the diaphanous tentacles of the +crab. The fire darting from his vivid glance seemed to struggle with the +beams of the sun, not to take but to give them light. His body, slim and +delicate as that of a woman, gave evidence of one of those natures which +are feeble apparently, but whose strength equals their will, rendering +them at times powerful. Of medium height, Seraphitus appeared to grow in +stature as he turned fully round and seemed about to spring upward. His +hair, curled by a fairy’s hand and waving to the breeze, increased +the illusion produced by this aerial attitude; yet his bearing, wholly +without conscious effort, was the result far more of a moral phenomenon +than of a corporal habit. + +Minna’s imagination seconded this illusion, under the dominion of which +all persons would assuredly have fallen,--an illusion which gave to +Seraphitus the appearance of a vision dreamed of in happy sleep. No +known type conveys an image of that form so majestically made to Minna, +but which to the eyes of a man would have eclipsed in womanly grace the +fairest of Raphael’s creations. That painter of heaven has ever put +a tranquil joy, a loving sweetness, into the lines of his angelic +conceptions; but what soul, unless it contemplated Seraphitus himself, +could have conceived the ineffable emotions imprinted on his face? Who +would have divined, even in the dreams of artists, where all things +become possible, the shadow cast by some mysterious awe upon that brow, +shining with intellect, which seemed to question Heaven and to pity +Earth? The head hovered awhile disdainfully, as some majestic bird whose +cries reverberate on the atmosphere, then bowed itself resignedly, like +the turtledove uttering soft notes of tenderness in the depths of the +silent woods. His complexion was of marvellous whiteness, which brought +out vividly the coral lips, the brown eyebrows, and the silken lashes, +the only colors that trenched upon the paleness of that face, whose +perfect regularity did not detract from the grandeur of the sentiments +expressed in it; nay, thought and emotion were reflected there, without +hindrance or violence, with the majestic and natural gravity which we +delight in attributing to superior beings. That face of purest marble +expressed in all things strength and peace. + +Minna rose to take the hand of Seraphitus, hoping thus to draw him to +her, and to lay on that seductive brow a kiss given more from admiration +than from love; but a glance at the young man’s eyes, which pierced her +as a ray of sunlight penetrates a prism, paralyzed the young girl. She +felt, but without comprehending, a gulf between them; then she turned +away her head and wept. Suddenly a strong hand seized her by the waist, +and a soft voice said to her: “Come!” She obeyed, resting her head, +suddenly revived, upon the heart of her companion, who, regulating his +step to hers with gentle and attentive conformity, led her to a spot +whence they could see the radiant glories of the polar Nature. + +“Before I look, before I listen to you, tell me, Seraphitus, why you +repulse me. Have I displeased you? and how? tell me! I want nothing for +myself; I would that all my earthly goods were yours, for the riches +of my heart are yours already. I would that light came to my eyes only +though your eyes just as my thought is born of your thought. I should +not then fear to offend you, for I should give you back the echoes of +your soul, the words of your heart, day by day,--as we render to God the +meditations with which his spirit nourishes our minds. I would be thine +alone.” + +“Minna, a constant desire is that which shapes our future. Hope on! But +if you would be pure in heart mingle the idea of the All-Powerful with +your affections here below; then you will love all creatures, and your +heart will rise to heights indeed.” + +“I will do all you tell me,” she answered, lifting her eyes to his with +a timid movement. + +“I cannot be your companion,” said Seraphitus sadly. + +He seemed to repress some thoughts, then stretched his arms towards +Christiana, just visible like a speck on the horizon and said:-- + +“Look!” + +“We are very small,” she said. + +“Yes, but we become great through feeling and through intellect,” + answered Seraphitus. “With us, and us alone, Minna, begins the knowledge +of things; the little that we learn of the laws of the visible world +enables us to apprehend the immensity of the worlds invisible. I know +not if the time has come to speak thus to you, but I would, ah, I would +communicate to you the flame of my hopes! Perhaps we may one day be +together in the world where Love never dies.” + +“Why not here and now?” she said, murmuring. + +“Nothing is stable here,” he said, disdainfully. “The passing joys of +earthly love are gleams which reveal to certain souls the coming of +joys more durable; just as the discovery of a single law of nature leads +certain privileged beings to a conception of the system of the universe. +Our fleeting happiness here below is the forerunning proof of another +and a perfect happiness, just as the earth, a fragment of the world, +attests the universe. We cannot measure the vast orbit of the Divine +thought of which we are but an atom as small as God is great; but we +can feel its vastness, we can kneel, adore, and wait. Men ever mislead +themselves in science by not perceiving that all things on their globe +are related and co-ordinated to the general evolution, to a constant +movement and production which bring with them, necessarily, both +advancement and an End. Man himself is not a finished creation; if he +were, God would not Be.” + +“How is it that in thy short life thou hast found the time to learn so +many things?” said the young girl. + +“I remember,” he replied. + +“Thou art nobler than all else I see.” + +“We are the noblest of God’s greatest works. Has He not given us the +faculty of reflecting on Nature; of gathering it within us by thought; +of making it a footstool and stepping-stone from and by which to rise +to Him? We love according to the greater or the lesser portion of heaven +our souls contain. But do not be unjust, Minna; behold the magnificence +spread before you. Ocean expands at your feet like a carpet; the +mountains resemble ampitheatres; heaven’s ether is above them like the +arching folds of a stage curtain. Here we may breathe the thoughts of +God, as it were like a perfume. See! the angry billows which engulf the +ships laden with men seem to us, where we are, mere bubbles; and if we +raise our eyes and look above, all there is blue. Behold that diadem of +stars! Here the tints of earthly impressions disappear; standing on this +nature rarefied by space do you not feel within you something deeper far +than mind, grander than enthusiasm, of greater energy than will? Are you +not conscious of emotions whose interpretation is no longer in us? Do +you not feel your pinions? Let us pray.” + +Seraphitus knelt down and crossed his hands upon his breast, while Minna +fell, weeping, on her knees. Thus they remained for a time, while +the azure dome above their heads grew larger and strong rays of light +enveloped them without their knowledge. + +“Why dost thou not weep when I weep?” said Minna, in a broken voice. + +“They who are all spirit do not weep,” replied Seraphitus rising; “Why +should I weep? I see no longer human wretchedness. Here, Good appears +in all its majesty. There, beneath us, I hear the supplications and the +wailings of that harp of sorrows which vibrates in the hands of captive +souls. Here, I listen to the choir of harps harmonious. There, below, +is hope, the glorious inception of faith; but here is faith--it reigns, +hope realized!” + +“You will never love me; I am too imperfect; you disdain me,” said the +young girl. + +“Minna, the violet hidden at the feet of the oak whispers to itself: +‘The sun does not love me; he comes not.’ The sun says: ‘If my rays +shine upon her she will perish, poor flower.’ Friend of the flower, he +sends his beams through the oak leaves, he veils, he tempers them, and +thus they color the petals of his beloved. I have not veils enough, +I fear lest you see me too closely; you would tremble if you knew me +better. Listen: I have no taste for earthly fruits. Your joys, I know +them all too well, and, like the sated emperors of pagan Rome, I have +reached disgust of all things; I have received the gift of vision. Leave +me! abandon me!” he murmured, sorrowfully. + +Seraphitus turned and seated himself on a projecting rock, dropping his +head upon his breast. + +“Why do you drive me to despair?” said Minna. + +“Go, go!” cried Seraphitus, “I have nothing that you want of me. Your +love is too earthly for my love. Why do you not love Wilfrid? Wilfrid is +a man, tested by passions; he would clasp you in his vigorous arms and +make you feel a hand both broad and strong. His hair is black, his +eyes are full of human thoughts, his heart pours lava in every word he +utters; he could kill you with caresses. Let him be your beloved, your +husband! Yes, thine be Wilfrid!” + +Minna wept aloud. + +“Dare you say that you do not love him?” he went on, in a voice which +pierced her like a dagger. + +“Have mercy, have mercy, my Seraphitus!” + +“Love him, poor child of Earth to which thy destiny has indissolubly +bound thee,” said the strange being, beckoning Minna by a gesture, and +forcing her to the edge of the saeter, whence he pointed downward to a +scene that might well inspire a young girl full of enthusiasm with the +fancy that she stood above this earth. + +“I longed for a companion to the kingdom of Light; I wished to show you +that morsel of mud, I find you bound to it. Farewell. Remain on earth; +enjoy through the senses; obey your nature; turn pale with pallid men; +blush with women; sport with children; pray with the guilty; raise your +eyes to heaven when sorrows overtake you; tremble, hope, throb in all +your pulses; you will have a companion; you can laugh and weep, and give +and receive. I,--I am an exile, far from heaven; a monster, far from +earth. I live of myself and by myself. I feel by the spirit; I breathe +through my brow; I see by thought; I die of impatience and of longing. +No one here below can fulfil my desires or calm my griefs. I have +forgotten how to weep. I am alone. I resign myself, and I wait.” + +Seraphitus looked at the flowery mound on which he had seated Minna; +then he turned and faced the frowning heights, whose pinnacles were +wrapped in clouds; to them he cast, unspoken, the remainder of his +thoughts. + +“Minna, do you hear those delightful strains?” he said after a pause, +with the voice of a dove, for the eagle’s cry was hushed; “it is like +the music of those Eolian harps your poets hang in forests and on the +mountains. Do you see the shadowy figures passing among the clouds, +the winged feet of those who are making ready the gifts of heaven? They +bring refreshment to the soul; the skies are about to open and shed the +flowers of spring upon the earth. See, a gleam is darting from the pole. +Let us fly, let us fly! It is time we go!” + +In a moment their skees were refastened, and the pair descended the +Falberg by the steep slopes which join the mountain to the valleys of +the Sieg. Miraculous perception guided their course, or, to speak more +properly, their flight. When fissures covered with snow intercepted +them, Seraphitus caught Minna in his arms and darted with rapid motion, +lightly as a bird, over the crumbling causeways of the abyss. Sometimes, +while propelling his companion, he deviated to the right or left to +avoid a precipice, a tree, a projecting rock, which he seemed to see +beneath the snow, as an old sailor, familiar with the ocean, discerns +the hidden reefs by the color, the trend, or the eddying of the +water. When they reached the paths of the Siegdahlen, where they could +fearlessly follow a straight line to regain the ice of the fiord, +Seraphitus stopped Minna. + +“You have nothing to say to me?” he asked. + +“I thought you would rather think alone,” she answered respectfully. + +“Let us hasten, Minette; it is almost night,” he said. + +Minna quivered as she heard the voice, now so changed, of her guide,--a +pure voice, like that of a young girl, which dissolved the fantastic +dream through which she had been passing. Seraphitus seemed to be laying +aside his male force and the too keen intellect that flames from his +eyes. Presently the charming pair glided across the fiord and reached +the snow-field which divides the shore from the first range of houses; +then, hurrying forward as daylight faded, they sprang up the hill +toward the parsonage, as though they were mounting the steps of a great +staircase. + +“My father must be anxious,” said Minna. + +“No,” answered Seraphitus. + +As he spoke the couple reached the porch of the humble dwelling where +Monsieur Becker, the pastor of Jarvis, sat reading while awaiting his +daughter for the evening meal. + +“Dear Monsieur Becker,” said Seraphitus, “I have brought Minna back to +you safe and sound.” + +“Thank you, mademoiselle,” said the old man, laying his spectacles on +his book; “you must be very tired.” + +“Oh, no,” said Minna, and as she spoke she felt the soft breath of her +companion on her brow. + +“Dear heart, will you come day after to-morrow evening and take tea with +me?” + +“Gladly, dear.” + +“Monsieur Becker, you will bring her, will you not?” + +“Yes, mademoiselle.” + +Seraphitus inclined his head with a pretty gesture, and bowed to the old +pastor as he left the house. A few moments later he reached the great +courtyard of the Swedish villa. An old servant, over eighty years of +age, appeared in the portico bearing a lantern. Seraphitus slipped off +his snow-shoes with the graceful dexterity of a woman, then darting into +the salon he fell exhausted and motionless on a wide divan covered with +furs. + +“What will you take?” asked the old man, lighting the immensely tall +wax-candles that are used in Norway. + +“Nothing, David, I am too weary.” + +Seraphitus unfastened his pelisse lined with sable, threw it over him, +and fell asleep. The old servant stood for several minutes gazing with +loving eyes at the singular being before him, whose sex it would have +been difficult for any one at that moment to determine. Wrapped as he +was in a formless garment, which resembled equally a woman’s robe and a +man’s mantle, it was impossible not to fancy that the slender feet +which hung at the side of the couch were those of a woman, and equally +impossible not to note how the forehead and the outlines of the head +gave evidence of power brought to its highest pitch. + +“She suffers, and she will not tell me,” thought the old man. “She is +dying, like a flower wilted by the burning sun.” + +And the old man wept. + + + + +CHAPTER II. SERAPHITA + + +Later in the evening David re-entered the salon. + +“I know who it is you have come to announce,” said Seraphita in a sleepy +voice. “Wilfrid may enter.” + +Hearing these words a man suddenly presented himself, crossed the room +and sat down beside her. + +“My dear Seraphita, are you ill?” he said. “You look paler than usual.” + +She turned slowly towards him, tossing back her hair like a pretty woman +whose aching head leaves her no strength even for complaint. + +“I was foolish enough to cross the fiord with Minna,” she said. “We +ascended the Falberg.” + +“Do you mean to kill yourself?” he said with a lover’s terror. + +“No, my good Wilfrid; I took the greatest care of your Minna.” + +Wilfrid struck his hand violently on a table, rose hastily, and made +several steps towards the door with an exclamation full of pain; then he +returned and seemed about to remonstrate. + +“Why this disturbance if you think me ill?” she said. + +“Forgive me, have mercy!” he cried, kneeling beside her. “Speak to me +harshly if you will; exact all that the cruel fancies of a woman lead +you to imagine I least can bear; but oh, my beloved, do not doubt my +love. You take Minna like an axe to hew me down. Have mercy!” + +“Why do you say these things, my friend, when you know that they are +useless?” she replied, with a look which grew in the end so soft that +Wilfrid ceased to behold her eyes, but saw in their place a fluid light, +the shimmer of which was like the last vibrations of an Italian song. + +“Ah! no man dies of anguish!” he murmured. + +“You are suffering?” she said in a voice whose intonations produced upon +his heart the same effect as that of her look. “Would I could help you!” + +“Love me as I love you.” + +“Poor Minna!” she replied. + +“Why am I unarmed!” exclaimed Wilfrid, violently. + +“You are out of temper,” said Seraphita, smiling. “Come, have I not +spoken to you like those Parisian women whose loves you tell of?” + +Wilfrid sat down, crossed his arms, and looked gloomily at Seraphita. “I +forgive you,” he said; “for you know not what you do.” + +“You mistake,” she replied; “every woman from the days of Eve does good +and evil knowingly.” + +“I believe it,” he said. + +“I am sure of it, Wilfrid. Our instinct is precisely that which makes us +perfect. What you men learn, we feel.” + +“Why, then, do you not feel how much I love you?” + +“Because you do not love me.” + +“Good God!” + +“If you did, would you complain of your own sufferings?” + +“You are terrible to-night, Seraphita. You are a demon.” + +“No, but I am gifted with the faculty of comprehending, and it is awful. +Wilfrid, sorrow is a lamp which illumines life.” + +“Why did you ascend the Falberg?” + +“Minna will tell you. I am too weary to talk. You must talk to me,--you +who know so much, who have learned all things and forgotten nothing; you +who have passed through every social test. Talk to me, amuse me, I am +listening.” + +“What can I tell you that you do not know? Besides, the request is +ironical. You allow yourself no intercourse with social life; you +trample on its conventions, its laws, its customs, sentiments, and +sciences; you reduce them all to the proportions such things take when +viewed by you beyond this universe.” + +“Therefore you see, my friend, that I am not a woman. You do wrong +to love me. What! am I to leave the ethereal regions of my pretended +strength, make myself humbly small, cringe like the hapless female of +all species, that you may lift me up? and then, when I, helpless and +broken, ask you for help, when I need your arm, you will repulse me! No, +we can never come to terms.” + +“You are more maliciously unkind to-night than I have ever known you.” + +“Unkind!” she said, with a look which seemed to blend all feelings into +one celestial emotion, “no, I am ill, I suffer, that is all. Leave me, +my friend; it is your manly right. We women should ever please you, +entertain you, be gay in your presence and have no whims save those that +amuse you. Come, what shall I do for you, friend? Shall I sing, shall I +dance, though weariness deprives me of the use of voice and limbs?--Ah! +gentlemen, be we on our deathbeds, we yet must smile to please you; you +call that, methinks, your right. Poor women! I pity them. Tell me, you +who abandon them when they grow old, is it because they have neither +hearts nor souls? Wilfrid, I am a hundred years old; leave me! leave me! +go to Minna!” + +“Oh, my eternal love!” + +“Do you know the meaning of eternity? Be silent, Wilfrid. You desire +me, but you do not love me. Tell me, do I not seem to you like those +coquettish Parisian women?” + +“Certainly I no longer find you the pure celestial maiden I first saw in +the church of Jarvis.” + +At these words Seraphita passed her hands across her brow, and when +she removed them Wilfrid was amazed at the saintly expression that +overspread her face. + +“You are right, my friend,” she said; “I do wrong whenever I set my feet +upon your earth.” + +“Oh, Seraphita, be my star! stay where you can ever bless me with that +clear light!” + +As he spoke, he stretched forth his hand to take that of the young girl, +but she withdrew it, neither disdainfully nor in anger. Wilfrid rose +abruptly and walked to the window that she might not see the tears that +rose to his eyes. + +“Why do you weep?” she said. “You are not a child, Wilfrid. Come back to +me. I wish it. You are annoyed if I show just displeasure. You see that +I am fatigued and ill, yet you force me to think and speak, and listen +to persuasions and ideas that weary me. If you had any real perception +of my nature, you would have made some music, you would have lulled my +feelings--but no, you love me for yourself and not for myself.” + +The storm which convulsed the young man’s heart calmed down at these +words. He slowly approached her, letting his eyes take in the seductive +creature who lay exhausted before him, her head resting in her hand and +her elbow on the couch. + +“You think that I do not love you,” she resumed. “You are mistaken. +Listen to me, Wilfrid. You are beginning to know much; you have suffered +much. Let me explain your thoughts to you. You wished to take my hand +just now”; she rose to a sitting posture, and her graceful motions +seemed to emit light. “When a young girl allows her hand to be taken it +is as though she made a promise, is it not? and ought she not to fulfil +it? You well know that I cannot be yours. Two sentiments divide and +inspire the love of all the women of the earth. Either they devote +themselves to suffering, degraded, and criminal beings whom they desire +to console, uplift, redeem; or they give themselves to superior men, +sublime and strong, whom they adore and seek to comprehend, and by whom +they are often annihilated. You have been degraded, though now you are +purified by the fires of repentance, and to-day you are once more noble; +but I know myself too feeble to be your equal, and too religious to bow +before any power but that On High. I may refer thus to your life, my +friend, for we are in the North, among the clouds, where all things are +abstractions.” + +“You stab me, Seraphita, when you speak like this. It wounds me to hear +you apply the dreadful knowledge with which you strip from all things +human the properties that time and space and form have given them, +and consider them mathematically in the abstract, as geometry treats +substances from which it extracts solidity.” + +“Well, I will respect your wishes, Wilfrid. Let the subject drop. Tell +me what you think of this bearskin rug which my poor David has spread +out.” + +“It is very handsome.” + +“Did you ever see me wear this ‘doucha greka’?” + +She pointed to a pelisse made of cashmere and lined with the skin of the +black fox,--the name she gave it signifying “warm to the soul.” + +“Do you believe that any sovereign has a fur that can equal it?” she +asked. + +“It is worthy of her who wears it.” + +“And whom you think beautiful?” + +“Human words do not apply to her. Heart to heart is the only language I +can use.” + +“Wilfrid, you are kind to soothe my griefs with such sweet words--which +you have said to others.” + +“Farewell!” + +“Stay. I love both you and Minna, believe me. To me you two are as one +being. United thus you can be my brother or, if you will, my sister. +Marry her; let me see you both happy before I leave this world of trial +and of pain. My God! the simplest of women obtain what they ask of a +lover; they whisper ‘Hush!’ and he is silent; ‘Die’ and he dies; ‘Love +me afar’ and he stays at a distance, like courtiers before a king! All +I desire is to see you happy, and you refuse me! Am I then +powerless?--Wilfrid, listen, come nearer to me. Yes, I should grieve to +see you marry Minna but--when I am here no longer, then--promise me to +marry her; heaven destined you for each other.” + +“I listen to you with fascination, Seraphita. Your words are +incomprehensible, but they charm me. What is it you mean to say?” + +“You are right; I forget to be foolish,--to be the poor creature whose +weaknesses gratify you. I torment you, Wilfrid. You came to these +Northern lands for rest, you, worn-out by the impetuous struggle of +genius unrecognized, you, weary with the patient toils of science, you, +who well-nigh dyed your hands in crime and wore the fetters of human +justice--” + +Wilfrid dropped speechless on the carpet. Seraphita breathed softly on +his forehead, and in a moment he fell asleep at her feet. + +“Sleep! rest!” she said, rising. + +She passed her hands over Wilfrid’s brow; then the following sentences +escaped her lips, one by one,--all different in tone and accent, but all +melodious, full of a Goodness that seemed to emanate from her head in +vaporous waves, like the gleams the goddess chastely lays upon Endymion +sleeping. + +“I cannot show myself such as I am to thee, dear Wilfrid,--to thee who +art strong. + +“The hour is come; the hour when the effulgent lights of the future cast +their reflections backward on the soul; the hour when the soul awakes +into freedom. + +“Now am I permitted to tell thee how I love thee. Dost thou not see the +nature of my love, a love without self-interest; a sentiment full of +thee, thee only; a love which follows thee into the future to light that +future for thee--for it is the one True Light. Canst thou now conceive +with what ardor I would have thee leave this life which weighs thee +down, and behold thee nearer than thou art to that world where Love is +never-failing? Can it be aught but suffering to love for one life only? +Hast thou not felt a thirst for the eternal love? Dost thou not feel the +bliss to which a creature rises when, with twin-soul, it loves the Being +who betrays not love, Him before whom we kneel in adoration? + +“Would I had wings to cover thee, Wilfrid; power to give thee strength +to enter now into that world where all the purest joys of purest earthly +attachments are but shadows in the Light that shines, unceasing, to +illumine and rejoice all hearts. + +“Forgive a friendly soul for showing thee the picture of thy sins, in +the charitable hope of soothing the sharp pangs of thy remorse. Listen +to the pardoning choir; refresh thy soul in the dawn now rising for thee +beyond the night of death. Yes, thy life, thy true life is there! + +“May my words now reach thee clothed in the glorious forms of dreams; +may they deck themselves with images glowing and radiant as they hover +round you. Rise, rise, to the height where men can see themselves +distinctly, pressed together though they be like grains of sand upon +a sea-shore. Humanity rolls out like a many-colored ribbon. See the +diverse shades of that flower of the celestial gardens. Behold the +beings who lack intelligence, those who begin to receive it, those who +have passed through trials, those who love, those who follow wisdom and +aspire to the regions of Light! + +“Canst thou comprehend, through this thought made visible, the destiny +of humanity?--whence it came, whither to goeth? Continue steadfast in +the Path. Reaching the end of thy journey thou shalt hear the clarions +of omnipotence sounding the cries of victory in chords of which a single +one would shake the earth, but which are lost in the spaces of a world +that hath neither east nor west. + +“Canst thou comprehend, my poor beloved Tried-one, that unless the +torpor and the veils of sleep had wrapped thee, such sights would rend +and bear away thy mind as the whirlwinds rend and carry into space the +feeble sails, depriving thee forever of thy reason? Dost thou understand +that the Soul itself, raised to its utmost power can scarcely endure in +dreams the burning communications of the Spirit? + +“Speed thy way through the luminous spheres; behold, admire, hasten! +Flying thus thou canst pause or advance without weariness. Like other +men, thou wouldst fain be plunged forever in these spheres of light and +perfume where now thou art, free of thy swooning body, and where thy +thought alone has utterance. Fly! enjoy for a fleeting moment the wings +thou shalt surely win when Love has grown so perfect in thee that thou +hast no senses left; when thy whole being is all mind, all love. The +higher thy flight the less canst thou see the abysses. There are none in +heaven. Look at the friend who speaks to thee; she who holds thee above +this earth in which are all abysses. Look, behold, contemplate me yet a +moment longer, for never again wilt thou see me, save imperfectly as the +pale twilight of this world may show me to thee.” + +Seraphita stood erect, her head with floating hair inclining gently +forward, in that aerial attitude which great painters give to messengers +from heaven; the folds of her raiment fell with the same unspeakable +grace which holds an artist--the man who translates all things into +sentiment--before the exquisite well-known lines of Polyhymnia’s veil. +Then she stretched forth her hand. Wilfrid rose. When he looked at +Seraphita she was lying on the bear’s-skin, her head resting on her +hand, her face calm, her eyes brilliant. Wilfrid gazed at her silently; +but his face betrayed a deferential fear in its almost timid expression. + +“Yes, dear,” he said at last, as though he were answering some question; +“we are separated by worlds. I resign myself; I can only adore you. But +what will become of me, poor and alone!” + +“Wilfrid, you have Minna.” + +He shook his head. + +“Do not be so disdainful; woman understands all things through love; +what she does not understand she feels; what she does not feel she sees; +when she neither sees, nor feels, nor understands, this angel of earth +divines to protect you, and hides her protection beneath the grace of +love.” + +“Seraphita, am I worthy to belong to a woman?” + +“Ah, now,” she said, smiling, “you are suddenly very modest; is it a +snare? A woman is always so touched to see her weakness glorified. Well, +come and take tea with me the day after to-morrow evening; good Monsieur +Becker will be here, and Minna, the purest and most artless creature +I have known on earth. Leave me now, my friend; I need to make long +prayers and expiate my sins.” + +“You, can you commit sin?” + +“Poor friend! if we abuse our power, is not that the sin of pride? I +have been very proud to-day. Now leave me, till to-morrow.” + +“Till to-morrow,” said Wilfrid faintly, casting a long glance at the +being of whom he desired to carry with him an ineffaceable memory. + +Though he wished to go far away, he was held, as it were, outside the +house for some moments, watching the light which shone from all the +windows of the Swedish dwelling. + +“What is the matter with me?” he asked himself. “No, she is not a mere +creature, but a whole creation. Of her world, even through veils and +clouds, I have caught echoes like the memory of sufferings healed, +like the dazzling vertigo of dreams in which we hear the plaints of +generations mingling with the harmonies of some higher sphere where all +is Light and all is Love. Am I awake? Do I still sleep? Are these the +eyes before which the luminous space retreated further and further +indefinitely while the eyes followed it? The night is cold, yet my head +is on fire. I will go to the parsonage. With the pastor and his daughter +I shall recover the balance of my mind.” + +But still he did not leave the spot whence his eyes could plunge into +Seraphita’s salon. The mysterious creature seemed to him the radiating +centre of a luminous circle which formed an atmosphere about her wider +than that of other beings; whoever entered it felt the compelling +influence of, as it were, a vortex of dazzling light and all consuming +thoughts. Forced to struggle against this inexplicable power, Wilfrid +only prevailed after strong efforts; but when he reached and passed the +inclosing wall of the courtyard, he regained his freedom of will, walked +rapidly towards the parsonage, and was soon beneath the high wooden +arch which formed a sort of peristyle to Monsieur Becker’s dwelling. He +opened the first door, against which the wind had driven the snow, and +knocked on the inner one, saying:-- + +“Will you let me spend the evening with you, Monsieur Becker?” + +“Yes,” cried two voices, mingling their intonations. + +Entering the parlor, Wilfrid returned by degrees to real life. He bowed +affectionately to Minna, shook hands with Monsieur Becker, and looked +about at the picture of a home which calmed the convulsions of his +physical nature, in which a phenomenon was taking place analogous to +that which sometimes seizes upon men who have given themselves up +to protracted contemplations. If some strong thought bears upward on +phantasmal wing a man of learning or a poet, isolates him from the +external circumstances which environ him here below, and leads him +forward through illimitable regions where vast arrays of facts become +abstractions, where the greatest works of Nature are but images, then +woe betide him if a sudden noise strikes sharply on his senses and calls +his errant soul back to its prison-house of flesh and bones. The +shock of the reunion of these two powers, body and mind,--one of which +partakes of the unseen qualities of a thunderbolt, while the other +shares with sentient nature that soft resistant force which deifies +destruction,--this shock, this struggle, or, rather let us say, this +painful meeting and co-mingling, gives rise to frightful sufferings. The +body receives back the flame that consumes it; the flame has once more +grasped its prey. This fusion, however, does not take place without +convulsions, explosions, tortures; analogous and visible signs of which +may be seen in chemistry, when two antagonistic substances which science +has united separate. + +For the last few days whenever Wilfrid entered Seraphita’s presence his +body seemed to fall away from him into nothingness. With a single +glance this strange being led him in spirit through the spheres where +meditation leads the learned man, prayer the pious heart, where vision +transports the artist, and sleep the souls of men,--each and all have +their own path to the Height, their own guide to reach it, their own +individual sufferings in the dire return. In that sphere alone all veils +are rent away, and the revelation, the awful flaming certainty of an +unknown world, of which the soul brings back mere fragments to this +lower sphere, stands revealed. To Wilfrid one hour passed with Seraphita +was like the sought-for dreams of Theriakis, in which each knot of +nerves becomes the centre of a radiating delight. But he left her +bruised and wearied as some young girl endeavoring to keep step with a +giant. + +The cold air, with its stinging flagellations, had begun to still +the nervous tremors which followed the reunion of his two natures, so +powerfully disunited for a time; he was drawn towards the parsonage, +then towards Minna, by the sight of the every-day home life for which +he thirsted as the wandering European thirsts for his native land when +nostalgia seizes him amid the fairy scenes of Orient that have seduced +his senses. More weary than he had ever yet been, Wilfrid dropped into +a chair and looked about him for a time, like a man who awakens from +sleep. Monsieur Becker and his daughter accustomed, perhaps, to the +apparent eccentricity of their guest, continued the employments in which +they were engaged. + +The parlor was ornamented with a collection of the shells and insects +of Norway. These curiosities, admirably arranged on a background of the +yellow pine which panelled the room, formed, as it were, a rich tapestry +to which the fumes of tobacco had imparted a mellow tone. At the further +end of the room, opposite to the door, was an immense wrought-iron +stove, carefully polished by the serving-woman till it shone like +burnished steel. Seated in a large tapestried armchair near the stove, +before a table, with his feet in a species of muff, Monsieur Becker was +reading a folio volume which was propped against a pile of other books +as on a desk. At his left stood a jug of beer and a glass, at his right +burned a smoky lamp fed by some species of fish-oil. The pastor seemed +about sixty years of age. His face belonged to a type often painted by +Rembrandt; the same small bright eyes, set in wrinkles and surmounted by +thick gray eyebrows; the same white hair escaping in snowy flakes from a +black velvet cap; the same broad, bald brow, and a contour of face +which the ample chin made almost square; and lastly, the same calm +tranquillity, which, to an observer, denoted the possession of some +inward power, be it the supremacy bestowed by money, or the magisterial +influence of the burgomaster, or the consciousness of art, or the +cubic force of blissful ignorance. This fine old man, whose stout body +proclaimed his vigorous health, was wrapped in a dressing-gown of rough +gray cloth plainly bound. Between his lips was a meerschaum pipe, +from which, at regular intervals, he blew the smoke, following with +abstracted vision its fantastic wreathings,--his mind employed, no +doubt, in assimilating through some meditative process the thoughts of +the author whose works he was studying. + +On the other side of the stove and near a door which communicated with +the kitchen Minna was indistinctly visible in the haze of the good man’s +smoke, to which she was apparently accustomed. Beside her on a little +table were the implements of household work, a pile of napkins, and +another of socks waiting to be mended, also a lamp like that which shone +on the white page of the book in which the pastor was absorbed. Her +fresh young face, with its delicate outline, expressed an infinite +purity which harmonized with the candor of the white brow and the clear +blue eyes. She sat erect, turning slightly toward the lamp for better +light, unconsciously showing as she did so the beauty of her waist and +bust. She was already dressed for the night in a long robe of white +cotton; a cambric cap, without other ornament than a frill of the same, +confined her hair. Though evidently plunged in some inward meditation, +she counted without a mistake the threads of her napkins or the meshes +of her socks. Sitting thus, she presented the most complete image, the +truest type, of the woman destined for terrestrial labor, whose glance +may piece the clouds of the sanctuary while her thought, humble and +charitable, keeps her ever on the level of man. + +Wilfrid had flung himself into a chair between the two tables and +was contemplating with a species of intoxication this picture full of +harmony, to which the clouds of smoke did no despite. The single window +which lighted the parlor during the fine weather was now carefully +closed. An old tapestry, used for a curtain and fastened to a stick, +hung before it in heavy folds. Nothing in the room was picturesque, +nothing brilliant; everything denoted rigorous simplicity, true +heartiness, the ease of unconventional nature, and the habits of a +domestic life which knew neither cares nor troubles. Many a dwelling is +like a dream, the sparkle of passing pleasure seems to hide some ruin +beneath the cold smile of luxury; but this parlor, sublime in reality, +harmonious in tone, diffused the patriarchal ideas of a full and +self-contained existence. The silence was unbroken save by the movements +of the servant in the kitchen engaged in preparing the supper, and +by the sizzling of the dried fish which she was frying in salt butter +according to the custom of the country. + +“Will you smoke a pipe?” said the pastor, seizing a moment when he +thought that Wilfrid might listen to him. + +“Thank you, no, dear Monsieur Becker,” replied the visitor. + +“You seem to suffer more to-day than usual,” said Minna, struck by the +feeble tones of the stranger’s voice. + +“I am always so when I leave the chateau.” + +Minna quivered. + +“A strange being lives there, Monsieur Becker,” he continued after a +pause. “For the six months that I have been in this village I have never +yet dared to question you about her, and even now I do violence to +my feelings in speaking of her. I began by keenly regretting that my +journey in this country was arrested by the winter weather and that I +was forced to remain here. But during the last two months chains have +been forged and riveted which bind me irrevocably to Jarvis, till now +I fear to end my days here. You know how I first met Seraphita, what +impression her look and voice made upon me, and how at last I was +admitted to her home where she receives no one. From the very first day +I have longed to ask you the history of this mysterious being. On that +day began, for me, a series of enchantments.” + +“Enchantments!” cried the pastor shaking the ashes of his pipe into an +earthen-ware dish full of sand, “are there enchantments in these days?” + +“You, who are carefully studying at this moment that volume of the +‘Incantations’ of Jean Wier, will surely understand the explanation of +my sensations if I try to give it to you,” replied Wilfrid. “If we study +Nature attentively in its great evolutions as in its minutest works, we +cannot fail to recognize the possibility of enchantment--giving to that +word its exact significance. Man does not create forces; he employs the +only force that exists and which includes all others namely Motion, the +breath incomprehensible of the sovereign Maker of the universe. Species +are too distinctly separated for the human hand to mingle them. The only +miracle of which man is capable is done through the conjunction of +two antagonistic substances. Gunpowder for instance is germane to a +thunderbolt. As to calling forth a creation, and a sudden one, all +creation demands time, and time neither recedes nor advances at the word +of command. So, in the world without us, plastic nature obeys laws the +order and exercise of which cannot be interfered with by the hand of +man. But after fulfilling, as it were, the function of Matter, it would +be unreasonable not to recognize within us the existence of a gigantic +power, the effects of which are so incommensurable that the known +generations of men have never yet been able to classify them. I do not +speak of man’s faculty of abstraction, of constraining Nature to +confine itself within the Word,--a gigantic act on which the common +mind reflects as little as it does on the nature of Motion, but which, +nevertheless, has led the Indian theosophists to explain creation by +a word to which they give an inverse power. The smallest atom of their +subsistence, namely, the grain of rice, from which a creation issues and +in which alternately creation again is held, presented to their minds so +perfect an image of the creative word, and of the abstractive word, that +to them it was easy to apply the same system to the creation of worlds. +The majority of men content themselves with the grain of rice sown in +the first chapter of all the Geneses. Saint John, when he said the +Word was God only complicated the difficulty. But the fructification, +germination, and efflorescence of our ideas is of little consequence if +we compare that property, shared by many men, with the wholly +individual faculty of communicating to that property, by some mysterious +concentration, forces that are more or less active, of carrying it up +to a third, a ninth, or a twenty-seventh power, of making it thus fasten +upon the masses and obtain magical results by condensing the processes +of nature. + +“What I mean by enchantments,” continued Wilfrid after a moment’s pause, +“are those stupendous actions taking place between two membranes in the +tissue of the brain. We find in the unexplorable nature of the Spiritual +World certain beings armed with these wondrous faculties, comparable +only to the terrible power of certain gases in the physical world, +beings who combine with other beings, penetrate them as active agents, +and produce upon them witchcrafts, charms, against which these helpless +slaves are wholly defenceless; they are, in fact, enchanted, brought +under subjection, reduced to a condition of dreadful vassalage. Such +mysterious beings overpower others with the sceptre and the glory of +a superior nature,--acting upon them at times like the torpedo which +electrifies or paralyzes the fisherman, at other times like a dose of +phosphorous which stimulates life and accelerates its propulsion; or +again, like opium, which puts to sleep corporeal nature, disengages the +spirit from every bond, enables it to float above the world and shows +this earth to the spiritual eye as through a prism, extracting from it +the food most needed; or, yet again, like catalepsy, which deadens +all faculties for the sake of one only vision. Miracles, enchantments, +incantations, witchcrafts, spells, and charms, in short, all those +acts improperly termed supernatural, are only possible and can only be +explained by the despotism with which some spirit compels us to feel the +effects of a mysterious optic which increases, or diminishes, or exalts +creation, moves within us as it pleases, deforms or embellishes all +things to our eyes, tears us from heaven, or drags us to hell,--two +terms by which men agree to express the two extremes of joy and misery. + +“These phenomena are within us, not without us,” Wilfrid went on. “The +being whom we call Seraphita seems to me one of those rare and terrible +spirits to whom power is given to bind men, to crush nature, to enter +into participation of the occult power of God. The course of her +enchantments over me began on that first day, when silence as to her +was imposed upon me against my will. Each time that I have wished to +question you it seemed as though I were about to reveal a secret of +which I ought to be the incorruptible guardian. Whenever I have tried +to speak, a burning seal has been laid upon my lips, and I myself have +become the involuntary minister of these mysteries. You see me here +to-night, for the hundredth time, bruised, defeated, broken, after +leaving the hallucinating sphere which surrounds that young girl, so +gentle, so fragile to both of you, but to me the cruellest of magicians! +Yes, to me she is like a sorcerer holding in her right hand the +invisible wand that moves the globe, and in her left the thunderbolt +that rends asunder all things at her will. No longer can I look upon her +brow; the light of it is insupportable. I skirt the borders of the abyss +of madness too closely to be longer silent. I must speak. I seize this +moment, when courage comes to me, to resist the power which drags me +onward without inquiring whether or not I have the force to follow. Who +is she? Did you know her young? What of her birth? Had she father and +mother, or was she born of the conjunction of ice and sun? She burns and +yet she freeze; she shows herself and then withdraws; she attracts me +and repulses me; she brings me life, she gives me death; I love her and +yet I hate her! I cannot live thus; let me be wholly in heaven or in +hell!” + +Holding his refilled pipe in one hand, and in the other the cover +which he forgot to replace, Monsieur Becker listened to Wilfrid with a +mysterious expression on his face, looking occasionally at his daughter, +who seemed to understand the man’s language as in harmony with the +strange being who inspired it. Wilfrid was splendid to behold at this +moment,--like Hamlet listening to the ghost of his father as it rises +for him alone in the midst of the living. + +“This is certainly the language of a man in love,” said the good pastor, +innocently. + +“In love!” cried Wilfrid, “yes, to common minds. But, dear Monsieur +Becker, no words can express the frenzy which draws me to the feet of +that unearthly being.” + +“Then you do love her?” said Minna, in a tone of reproach. + +“Mademoiselle, I feel such extraordinary agitation when I see her, and +such deep sadness when I see her no more, that in any other man what I +feel would be called love. But that sentiment draws those who feel it +ardently together, whereas between her and me a great gulf lies, whose +icy coldness penetrates my very being in her presence; though the +feeling dies away when I see her no longer. I leave her in despair; I +return to her with ardor,--like men of science who seek a secret from +Nature only to be baffled, or like the painter who would fain put life +upon his canvas and strives with all the resources of his art in the +vain attempt.” + +“Monsieur, all that you say is true,” replied the young girl, artlessly. + +“How can you know, Minna?” asked the old pastor. + +“Ah! my father, had you been with us this morning on the summit of the +Falberg, had you seen him praying, you would not ask me that question. +You would say, like Monsieur Wilfrid, that he saw his Seraphita for the +first time in our temple, ‘It is the Spirit of Prayer.’” + +These words were followed by a moment’s silence. + +“Ah, truly!” said Wilfrid, “she has nothing in common with the creatures +who grovel upon this earth.” + +“On the Falberg!” said the old pastor, “how could you get there?” + +“I do not know,” replied Minna; “the way is like a dream to me, of which +no more than a memory remains. Perhaps I should hardly believe that I +had been there were it not for this tangible proof.” + +She drew the flower from her bosom and showed it to them. All three +gazed at the pretty saxifrage, which was still fresh, and now shone in +the light of the two lamps like a third luminary. + +“This is indeed supernatural,” said the old man, astounded at the sight +of a flower blooming in winter. + +“A mystery!” cried Wilfrid, intoxicated with its perfume. + +“The flower makes me giddy,” said Minna; “I fancy I still hear that +voice,--the music of thought; that I still see the light of that look, +which is Love.” + +“I implore you, my dear Monsieur Becker, tell me the history of +Seraphita,--enigmatical human flower,--whose image is before us in this +mysterious bloom.” + +“My dear friend,” said the old man, emitting a puff of smoke, “to +explain the birth of that being it is absolutely necessary that +I disperse the clouds which envelop the most obscure of Christian +doctrines. It is not easy to make myself clear when speaking of that +incomprehensible revelation,--the last effulgence of faith that has +shone upon our lump of mud. Do you know Swedenborg?” + +“By name only,--of him, of his books, and his religion I know nothing.” + +“Then I must relate to you the whole chronicle of Swedenborg.” + + + + +CHAPTER III. SERAPHITA-SERAPHITUS + + +After a pause, during which the pastor seemed to be gathering his +recollections, he continued in the following words:-- + +“Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Upsala in Sweden, in the month of +January, 1688, according to various authors,--in 1689, according to his +epitaph. His father was Bishop of Skara. Swedenborg lived eighty-five +years; his death occurred in London, March 29, 1772. I use that term to +convey the idea of a simple change of state. According to his disciples, +Swedenborg was seen at Jarvis and in Paris after that date. Allow me, +my dear Monsieur Wilfrid,” said Monsieur Becker, making a gesture to +prevent all interruption, “I relate these facts without either affirming +or denying them. Listen; afterwards you can think and say what you like. +I will inform you when I judge, criticise, and discuss these doctrines, +so as to keep clearly in view my own intellectual neutrality between HIM +and Reason. + +“The life of Swedenborg was divided into two parts,” continued the +pastor. “From 1688 to 1745 Baron Emanuel Swedenborg appeared in the +world as a man of vast learning, esteemed and cherished for his virtues, +always irreproachable and constantly useful. While fulfilling high +public functions in Sweden, he published, between 1709 and 1740, several +important works on mineralogy, physics, mathematics, and astronomy, +which enlightened the world of learning. He originated a method of +building docks suitable for the reception of large vessels, and he +wrote many treatises on various important questions, such as the rise +of tides, the theory of the magnet and its qualities, the motion and +position of the earth and planets, and while Assessor in the Royal +College of Mines, on the proper system of working salt mines. He +discovered means to construct canal-locks or sluices; and he also +discovered and applied the simplest methods of extracting ore and of +working metals. In fact he studied no science without advancing it. In +youth he learned Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, also the oriental languages, +with which he became so familiar that many distinguished scholars +consulted him, and he was able to decipher the vestiges of the oldest +known books of Scripture, namely: ‘The Wars of Jehovah’ and ‘The +Enunciations,’ spoken of by Moses (Numbers xxi. 14, 15, 27-30), also +by Joshua, Jeremiah, and Samuel,--‘The Wars of Jehovah’ being the +historical part and ‘The Enunciations’ the prophetical part of the +Mosaical Books anterior to Genesis. Swedenborg even affirms that ‘the +Book of Jasher,’ the Book of the Righteous, mentioned by Joshua, was +in existence in Eastern Tartary, together with the doctrine of +Correspondences. A Frenchman has lately, so they tell me, justified +these statements of Swedenborg, by the discovery at Bagdad of several +portions of the Bible hitherto unknown to Europe. During the widespread +discussion on animal magnetism which took its rise in Paris, and in +which most men of Western science took an active part about the year +1785, Monsieur le Marquis de Thome vindicated the memory of Swedenborg +by calling attention to certain assertions made by the Commission +appointed by the King of France to investigate the subject. These +gentlemen declared that no theory of magnetism existed, whereas +Swedenborg had studied and promulgated it ever since the year 1720. +Monsieur de Thome seizes this opportunity to show the reason why so many +men of science relegated Swedenborg to oblivion while they delved into +his treasure-house and took his facts to aid their work. ‘Some of the +most illustrious of these men,’ said Monsieur de Thome, alluding to +the ‘Theory of the Earth’ by Buffon, ‘have had the meanness to wear the +plumage of the noble bird and refuse him all acknowledgment’; and he +proved, by masterly quotations drawn from the encyclopaedic works of +Swedenborg, that the great prophet had anticipated by over a century the +slow march of human science. It suffices to read his philosophical and +mineralogical works to be convinced of this. In one passage he is +seen as the precursor of modern chemistry by the announcement that the +productions of organized nature are decomposable and resolve into two +simple principles; also that water, air, and fire are _not elements_. In +another, he goes in a few words to the heart of magnetic mysteries and +deprives Mesmer of the honors of a first knowledge of them. + +“There,” said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a long shelf against the +wall between the stove and the window on which were ranged books of all +sizes, “behold him! here are seventeen works from his pen, of which one, +his ‘Philosophical and Mineralogical Works,’ published in 1734, is in +three folio volumes. These productions, which prove the incontestable +knowledge of Swedenborg, were given to me by Monsieur Seraphitus, his +cousin and the father of Seraphita. + +“In 1740,” continued Monsieur Becker, after a slight pause, “Swedenborg +fell into a state of absolute silence, from which he emerged to bid +farewell to all his earthly occupations; after which his thoughts turned +exclusively to the Spiritual Life. He received the first commands of +heaven in 1745, and he thus relates the nature of the vocation to +which he was called: One evening, in London, after dining with a great +appetite, a thick white mist seemed to fill his room. When the +vapor dispersed a creature in human form rose from one corner of the +apartment, and said in a stern tone, ‘Do not eat so much.’ He refrained. +The next night the same man returned, radiant in light, and said to him, +‘I am sent of God, who has chosen you to explain to men the meaning of +his Word and his Creation. I will tell you what to write.’ The vision +lasted but a few moments. The _angel_ was clothed in purple. During that +night the eyes of his _inner man_ were opened, and he was forced to +look into the heavens, into the world of spirits, and into hell,--three +separate spheres; where he encountered persons of his acquaintance who +had departed from their human form, some long since, others lately. +Thenceforth Swedenborg lived wholly in the spiritual life, remaining in +this world only as the messenger of God. His mission was ridiculed by +the incredulous, but his conduct was plainly that of a being superior +to humanity. In the first place, though limited in means to the bare +necessaries of life, he gave away enormous sums, and publicly, in +several cities, restored the fortunes of great commercial houses +when they were on the brink of failure. No one ever appealed to his +generosity who was not immediately satisfied. A sceptical Englishman, +determined to know the truth, followed him to Paris, and relates that +there his doors stood always open. One day a servant complained of this +apparent negligence, which laid him open to suspicion of thefts +that might be committed by others. ‘He need feel no anxiety,’ said +Swedenborg, smiling. ‘But I do not wonder at his fear; he cannot see the +guardian who protects my door.’ In fact, no matter in what country he +made his abode he never closed his doors, and nothing was ever +stolen from him. At Gottenburg--a town situated some sixty miles from +Stockholm--he announced, eight days before the news arrived by courier, +the conflagration which ravaged Stockholm, and the exact time at which +it took place. The Queen of Sweden wrote to her brother, the King, at +Berlin, that one of her ladies-in-waiting, who was ordered by the courts +to pay a sum of money which she was certain her husband had paid before +his death, went to Swedenborg and begged him to ask her husband where +she could find proof of the payment. The following day Swedenborg, +having done as the lady requested, pointed out the place where the +receipt would be found. He also begged the deceased to appear to +his wife, and the latter saw her husband in a dream, wrapped in a +dressing-gown which he wore just before his death; and he showed her the +paper in the place indicated by Swedenborg, where it had been securely +put away. At another time, embarking from London in a vessel commanded +by Captain Dixon, he overheard a lady asking if there were plenty of +provisions on board. ‘We do not want a great quantity,’ he said; ‘in +eight days and two hours we shall reach Stockholm,’--which actually +happened. This peculiar state of vision as to the things of the +earth--into which Swedenborg could put himself at will, and +which astonished those about him--was, nevertheless, but a feeble +representative of his faculty of looking into heaven. + +“Not the least remarkable of his published visions is that in which he +relates his journeys through the Astral Regions; his descriptions +cannot fail to astonish the reader, partly through the crudity of their +details. A man whose scientific eminence is incontestable, and who +united in his own person powers of conception, will, and imagination, +would surely have invented better if he had invented at all. The +fantastic literature of the East offers nothing that can give an idea +of this astounding work, full of the essence of poetry, if it is +permissible to compare a work of faith with one of oriental fancy. The +transportation of Swedenborg by the Angel who served as guide to this +first journey is told with a sublimity which exceeds, by the distance +which God has placed betwixt the earth and the sun, the great epics of +Klopstock, Milton, Tasso, and Dante. This description, which serves in +fact as an introduction to his work on the Astral Regions, has never +been published; it is among the oral traditions left by Swedenborg to +the three disciples who were nearest to his heart. Monsieur Silverichm +has written them down. Monsieur Seraphitus endeavored more than once to +talk to me about them; but the recollection of his cousin’s words was so +burning a memory that he always stopped short at the first sentence and +became lost in a revery from which I could not rouse him.” + +The old pastor sighed as he continued: “The baron told me that the +argument by which the Angel proved to Swedenborg that these bodies are +not made to wander through space puts all human science out of sight +beneath the grandeur of a divine logic. According to the Seer, the +inhabitants of Jupiter will not cultivate the sciences, which they call +darkness; those of Mercury abhor the expression of ideas by speech, +which seems to them too material,--their language is ocular; those of +Saturn are continually tempted by evil spirits; those of the Moon are as +small as six-year-old children, their voices issue from the abdomen, on +which they crawl; those of Venus are gigantic in height, but stupid, and +live by robbery,--although a part of this latter planet is inhabited by +beings of great sweetness, who live in the love of Good. In short, he +describes the customs and morals of all the peoples attached to the +different globes, and explains the general meaning of their existence as +related to the universe in terms so precise, giving explanations which +agree so well with their visible evolutions in the system of the world, +that some day, perhaps, scientific men will come to drink of these +living waters. + +“Here,” said Monsieur Becker, taking down a book and opening it at a +mark, “here are the words with which he ended this work:-- + +“‘If any man doubts that I was transported through a vast number of +Astral Regions, let him recall my observation of the distances in that +other life, namely, that they exist only in relation to the external +state of man; now, being transformed within like unto the Angelic +Spirits of those Astral Spheres, I was able to understand them.’ + +“The circumstances to which we of this canton owe the presence among +us of Baron Seraphitus, the beloved cousin of Swedenborg, enabled me to +know all the events of the extraordinary life of that prophet. He has +lately been accused of imposture in certain quarters of Europe, and the +public prints reported the following fact based on a letter written +by the Chevalier Baylon. Swedenborg, they said, informed by certain +senators of a secret correspondence of the late Queen of Sweden with her +brother, the Prince of Prussia, revealed his knowledge of the secrets +contained in that correspondence to the Queen, making her believe he +had obtained this knowledge by supernatural means. A man worthy of all +confidence, Monsieur Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer, captain in +the Royal guard and knight of the Sword, answered the calumny with a +convincing letter.” + +The pastor opened a drawer of his table and looked through a number of +papers until he found a gazette which he held out to Wilfrid, asking him +to read aloud the following letter:-- + +Stockholm, May 18, 1788. + + I have read with amazement a letter which purports to relate the + interview of the famous Swedenborg with Queen Louisa-Ulrika. The + circumstances therein stated are wholly false; and I hope the + writer will excuse me for showing him by the following faithful + narration, which can be proved by the testimony of many + distinguished persons then present and still living, how + completely he has been deceived. + + In 1758, shortly after the death of the Prince of Prussia + Swedenborg came to court, where he was in the habit of attending + regularly. He had scarcely entered the queen’s presence before she + said to him: “Well, Mr. Assessor, have you seen my brother?” + Swedenborg answered no, and the queen rejoined: “If you do see + him, greet him for me.” In saying this she meant no more than a + pleasant jest, and had no thought whatever of asking him for + information about her brother. Eight days later (not twenty-four + as stated, nor was the audience a private one), Swedenborg again + came to court, but so early that the queen had not left her + apartment called the White Room, where she was conversing with her + maids-of-honor and other ladies attached to the court. Swedenborg + did not wait until she came forth, but entered the said room and + whispered something in her ear. The queen, overcome with + amazement, was taken ill, and it was some time before she + recovered herself. When she did so she said to those about her: + “Only God and my brother knew the thing that he has just spoken + of.” She admitted that it related to her last correspondence with + the prince on a subject which was known to them alone. I cannot + explain how Swedenborg came to know the contents of that letter, + but I can affirm on my honor, that neither Count H---- (as the + writer of the article states) nor any other person intercepted, or + read, the queen’s letters. The senate allowed her to write to her + brother in perfect security, considering the correspondence as of + no interest to the State. It is evident that the author of the + said article is ignorant of the character of Count H----. This + honored gentleman, who has done many important services to his + country, unites the qualities of a noble heart to gifts of mind, + and his great age has not yet weakened these precious possessions. + During his whole administration he added the weight of scrupulous + integrity to his enlightened policy and openly declared himself + the enemy of all secret intrigues and underhand dealings, which he + regarded as unworthy means to attain an end. Neither did the + writer of that article understand the Assessor Swedenborg. The + only weakness of that essentially honest man was a belief in the + apparition of spirits; but I knew him for many years, and I can + affirm that he was as fully convinced that he met and talked with + spirits as I am that I am writing at this moment. As a citizen and + as a friend his integrity was absolute; he abhorred deception and + led the most exemplary of lives. The version which the Chevalier + Baylon gave of these facts is, therefore, entirely without + justification; the visit stated to have been made to Swedenborg in + the night-time by Count H---- and Count T---- is hereby + contradicted. In conclusion, the writer of the letter may rest + assured that I am not a follower of Swedenborg. The love of truth + alone impels me to give this faithful account of a fact which has + been so often stated with details that are entirely false. I + certify to the truth of what I have written by adding my + signature. + + Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer. + + +“The proofs which Swedenborg gave of his mission to the royal families +of Sweden and Prussia were no doubt the foundation of the belief in his +doctrines which is prevalent at the two courts,” said Monsieur Becker, +putting the gazette into the drawer. “However,” he continued, “I shall +not tell you all the facts of his visible and material life; indeed his +habits prevented them from being fully known. He lived a hidden life; +not seeking either riches or fame. He was even noted for a sort of +repugnance to making proselytes; he opened his mind to few persons, and +never showed his external powers of second-sight to any who were not +eminent in faith, wisdom, and love. He could recognize at a glance the +state of the soul of every person who approached him, and those whom he +desired to reach with his inward language he converted into Seers. After +the year 1745, his disciples never saw him do a single thing from any +human motive. One man alone, a Swedish priest, named Mathesius, set +afloat a story that he went mad in London in 1744. But a eulogium on +Swedenborg prepared with minute care as to all the known events of his +life, was pronounced after his death in 1772 on behalf of the Royal +Academy of Sciences in the Hall of the Nobles at Stockholm, by Monsieur +Sandels, counsellor of the Board of Mines. A declaration made before the +Lord Mayor of London gives the details of his last illness and death, +in which he received the ministrations of Monsieur Ferelius a Swedish +priest of the highest standing, and pastor of the Swedish Church in +London, Mathesius being his assistant. All persons present attested that +so far from denying the value of his writings Swedenborg firmly asserted +their truth. ‘In one hundred years,’ Monsieur Ferelius quotes him as +saying, ‘my doctrine will guide the _Church_.’ He predicted the day +and hour of his death. On that day, Sunday, March 29, 1772, hearing the +clock strike, he asked what time it was. ‘Five o’clock’ was the answer. +‘It is well,’ he answered; ‘thank you, God bless you.’ Ten minutes later +he tranquilly departed, breathing a gentle sigh. Simplicity, moderation, +and solitude were the features of his life. When he had finished writing +any of his books he sailed either for London or for Holland, where he +published them, and never spoke of them again. He published in this +way twenty-seven different treatises, all written, he said, from the +dictation of Angels. Be it true or false, few men have been strong +enough to endure the flames of oral illumination. + +“There they all are,” said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a second shelf +on which were some sixty volumes. “The treatises on which the Divine +Spirit casts its most vivid gleams are seven in number, namely: ‘Heaven +and Hell’; ‘Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine +Wisdom’; ‘Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence’; ‘The +Apocalypse Revealed’; ‘Conjugial Love and its Chaste Delights’; ‘The +True Christian Religion’; and ‘An Exposition of the Internal Sense.’ +Swedenborg’s explanation of the Apocalypse begins with these words,” + said Monsieur Becker, taking down and opening the volume nearest to him: +“‘Herein I have written nothing of mine own; I speak as I am bidden by +the Lord, who said, through the same angel, to John: “Thou shalt not +seal the sayings of this Prophecy.”’ (Revelation xxii. 10.) + +“My dear Monsieur Wilfrid,” said the old man, looking at his guest, “I +often tremble in every limb as I read, during the long winter evenings +the awe-inspiring works in which this man declares with perfect +artlessness the wonders that are revealed to him. ‘I have seen,’ he +says, ‘Heaven and the Angels. The spiritual man sees his spiritual +fellows far better than the terrestrial man sees the men of earth. In +describing the wonders of heaven and beneath the heavens I obey the +Lord’s command. Others have the right to believe me or not as they +choose. I cannot put them into the state in which God has put me; it +is not in my power to enable them to converse with Angels, nor to work +miracles within their understanding; they alone can be the instrument of +their rise to angelic intercourse. It is now twenty-eight years since +I have lived in the Spiritual world with angels, and on earth with men; +for it pleased God to open the eyes of my spirit as he did that of Paul, +and of Daniel and Elisha.’ + +“And yet,” continued the pastor, thoughtfully, “certain persons have +had visions of the spiritual world through the complete detachment which +somnambulism produces between their external form and their inner being. +‘In this state,’ says Swedenborg in his treatise on Angelic Wisdom +(No. 257) ‘Man may rise into the region of celestial light because, his +corporeal senses being abolished, the influence of heaven acts without +hindrance on his inner man.’ Many persons who do not doubt that +Swedenborg received celestial revelations think that his writings are +not all the result of divine inspiration. Others insist on absolute +adherence to him; while admitting his many obscurities, they believe +that the imperfection of earthly language prevented the prophet from +clearly revealing those spiritual visions whose clouds disperse to +the eyes of those whom faith regenerates; for, to use the words of his +greatest disciple, ‘Flesh is but an external propagation.’ To poets and +to writers his presentation of the marvellous is amazing; to Seers it +is simply reality. To some Christians his descriptions have seemed +scandalous. Certain critics have ridiculed the celestial substance +of his temples, his golden palaces, his splendid cities where angels +disport themselves; they laugh at his groves of miraculous trees, his +gardens where the flowers speak and the air is white, and the mystical +stones, the sard, carbuncle, chrysolite, chrysoprase, jacinth, +chalcedony, beryl, the Urim and Thummim, are endowed with motion, +express celestial truths, and reply by variations of light to questions +put to them [‘True Christian Religion,’ 219). Many noble souls will not +admit his spiritual worlds where colors are heard in delightful concert, +where language flames and flashes, where the Word is writ in pointed +spiral letters [‘True Christian Religion,’ 278). Even in the North some +writers have laughed at the gates of pearl, and the diamonds which +stud the floors and walls of his New Jerusalem, where the most ordinary +utensils are made of the rarest substances of the globe. ‘But,’ say his +disciples, ‘because such things are sparsely scattered on this earth +does it follow that they are not abundant in other worlds? On earth +they are terrestrial substances, whereas in heaven they assume celestial +forms and are in keeping with angels.’ In this connection Swedenborg +has used the very words of Jesus Christ, who said, ‘If I have told you +earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of +heavenly things?’ + +“Monsieur,” continued the pastor, with an emphatic gesture, “I have read +the whole of Swedenborg’s works; and I say it with pride, because I have +done it and yet retained my reason. In reading him men either miss his +meaning or become Seers like him. Though I have evaded both extremes, I +have often experienced unheard-of delights, deep emotions, inward joys, +which alone can reveal to us the plenitude of truth,--the evidence of +celestial Light. All things here below seem small indeed when the soul +is lost in the perusal of these Treatises. It is impossible not to be +amazed when we think that in the short space of thirty years this man +wrote and published, on the truths of the Spiritual World, twenty-five +quarto volumes, composed in Latin, of which the shortest has five +hundred pages, all of them printed in small type. He left, they say, +twenty others in London, bequeathed to his nephew, Monsieur Silverichm, +formerly almoner to the King of Sweden. Certainly a man who, between the +ages of twenty and sixty, had already exhausted himself in publishing +a series of encyclopaedical works, must have received supernatural +assistance in composing these later stupendous treatises, at an age, +too, when human vigor is on the wane. You will find in these writings +thousands of propositions, all numbered, none of which have been +refuted. Throughout we see method and precision; the presence of the +spirit issuing and flowing down from a single fact,--the existence of +angels. His ‘True Christian Religion,’ which sums up his whole doctrine +and is vigorous with light, was conceived and written at the age of +eighty-three. In fact, his amazing vigor and omniscience are not denied +by any of his critics, not even by his enemies. + +“Nevertheless,” said Monsieur Becker, slowly, “though I have drunk deep +in this torrent of divine light, God has not opened the eyes of my inner +being, and I judge these writings by the reason of an unregenerated man. +I have often felt that the _inspired_ Swedenborg must have misunderstood +the Angels. I have laughed over certain visions which, according to his +disciples, I ought to have believed with veneration. I have failed to +imagine the spiral writing of the Angels or their golden belts, on +which the gold is of great or lesser thickness. If, for example, this +statement, ‘Some angels are solitary,’ affected me powerfully for a +time, I was, on reflection, unable to reconcile this solitude with their +marriages. I have not understood why the Virgin Mary should continue to +wear blue satin garments in heaven. I have even dared to ask myself why +those gigantic demons, Enakim and Hephilim, came so frequently to fight +the cherubim on the apocalyptic plains of Armageddon; and I cannot +explain to my own mind how Satans can argue with Angels. Monsieur le +Baron Seraphitus assured me that those details concerned only the angels +who live on earth in human form. The visions of the prophet are +often blurred with grotesque figures. One of his spiritual tales, +or ‘Memorable relations,’ as he called them, begins thus: ‘I see the +spirits assembling, they have hats upon their heads.’ In another of +these Memorabilia he receives from heaven a bit of paper, on which he +saw, he says, the hieroglyphics of the primitive peoples, which were +composed of curved lines traced from the finger-rings that are worn in +heaven. However, perhaps I am wrong; possibly the material absurdities +with which his works are strewn have spiritual significations. +Otherwise, how shall we account for the growing influence of his +religion? His church numbers to-day more than seven hundred thousand +believers,--as many in the United States of America as in England, where +there are seven thousand Swedenborgians in the city of Manchester alone. +Many men of high rank in knowledge and in social position in Germany, in +Prussia, and in the Northern kingdoms have publicly adopted the beliefs +of Swedenborg; which, I may remark, are more comforting than those of +all other Christian communions. I wish I had the power to explain to you +clearly in succinct language the leading points of the doctrine on which +Swedenborg founded his church; but I fear such a summary, made from +recollection, would be necessarily defective. I shall, therefore, +allow myself to speak only of those ‘Arcana’ which concern the birth of +Seraphita.” + +Here Monsieur Becker paused, as though composing his mind to gather up +his ideas. Presently he continued, as follows:-- + +“After establishing mathematically that man lives eternally in spheres +of either a lower or a higher grade, Swedenborg applies the term +‘Spiritual Angels’ to beings who in this world are prepared for heaven, +where they become angels. According to him, God has not created angels; +none exist who have not been men upon the earth. The earth is the +nursery-ground of heaven. The Angels are therefore not Angels as +such [‘Angelic Wisdom,’ 57), they are transformed through their close +conjunction with God; which conjunction God never refuses, because the +essence of God is not negative, but essentially active. The spiritual +angels pass through three natures of love, because man is only +regenerated through successive stages [‘True Religion’). First, the +_love of self_: the supreme expression of this love is human genius, +whose works are worshipped. Next, _love of life_: this love produces +prophets,--great men whom the world accepts as guides and proclaims +to be divine. Lastly, _love of heaven_, and this creates the Spiritual +Angel. These angels are, so to speak, the flowers of humanity, which +culminates in them and works for that culmination. They must possess +either the love of heaven or the wisdom of heaven, but always Love +before Wisdom. + +“Thus the transformation of the natural man is into Love. To reach this +first degree, his previous existences must have passed through Hope and +Charity, which prepare him for Faith and Prayer. The ideas acquired +by the exercise of these virtues are transmitted to each of the human +envelopes within which are hidden the metamorphoses of the _inner +being_; for nothing is separate, each existence is necessary to the +other existences. Hope cannot advance without Charity, nor Faith +without Prayer; they are the four fronts of a solid square. ‘One virtue +missing,’ he said, ‘and the Spiritual Angel is like a broken pearl.’ +Each of these existences is therefore a circle in which revolves the +celestial riches of the inner being. The perfection of the Spiritual +Angels comes from this mysterious progression in which nothing is lost +of the high qualities that are successfully acquired to attain each +glorious incarnation; for at each transformation they cast away +unconsciously the flesh and its errors. When the man lives in Love he +has shed all evil passions: Hope, Charity, Faith, and Prayer have, in +the words of Isaiah, purged the dross of his inner being, which can +never more be polluted by earthly affections. Hence the grand saying +of Christ quoted by Saint Matthew, ‘Lay up for yourselves treasures +in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,’ and those still +grander words: ‘If ye were of this world the world would love you, but I +have chosen you out of the world; be ye therefore perfect as your Father +in heaven is perfect.’ + +“The second transformation of man is to Wisdom. Wisdom is the +understanding of celestial things to which the Spirit is brought by +Love. The Spirit of Love has acquired strength, the result of all +vanquished terrestrial passions; it loves God blindly. But the Spirit of +Wisdom has risen to understanding and knows why it loves. The wings of +the one are spread and bear the spirit to God; the wings of the other +are held down by the awe that comes of understanding: the spirit knows +God. The one longs incessantly to see God and to fly to Him; the other +attains to Him and trembles. The union effected between the Spirit of +Love and the Spirit of Wisdom carries the human being into a Divine +state during which time his soul is _woman_ and his body _man_, the last +human manifestation in which the Spirit conquers Form, or Form still +struggles against the Spirit,--for Form, that is, the flesh, is +ignorant, rebels, and desires to continue gross. This supreme trial +creates untold sufferings seen by Heaven alone,--the agony of Christ in +the Garden of Olives. + +“After death the first heaven opens to this dual and purified human +nature. Therefore it is that man dies in despair while the Spirit +dies in ecstasy. Thus, the _natural_, the state of beings not yet +regenerated; the _spiritual_, the state of those who have become Angelic +Spirits, and the _divine_, the state in which the Angel exists before +he breaks from his covering of flesh, are the three degrees of existence +through which man enters heaven. One of Swedenborg’s thoughts expressed +in his own words will explain to you with wonderful clearness the +difference between the _natural_ and the _spiritual_. ‘To the minds of +men,’ he says, ‘the Natural passes into the Spiritual; they regard the +world under its visible aspects, they perceive it only as it can be +realized by their senses. But to the apprehension of Angelic Spirits, +the Spiritual passes into the Natural; they regard the world in its +inward essence and not in its form.’ Thus human sciences are but +analyses of form. The man of science as the world goes is purely +external like his knowledge; his inner being is only used to preserve +his aptitude for the perception of external truths. The Angelic Spirit +goes far beyond that; his knowledge is the thought of which human +science is but the utterance; he derives that knowledge from the Logos, +and learns the law of _correspondences_ by which the world is placed +in unison with heaven. The _word of God_ was wholly written by pure +Correspondences, and covers an esoteric or spiritual meaning, which +according to the science of Correspondences, cannot be understood. +‘There exist,’ says Swedenborg [‘Celestial Doctrine’ 26), ‘innumerable +Arcana within the hidden meaning of the Correspondences. Thus the men +who scoff at the books of the Prophets where the Word is enshrined are +as densely ignorant as those other men who know nothing of a science and +yet ridicule its truths. To know the Correspondences which exist between +the things visible and ponderable in the terrestrial world and the +things invisible and imponderable in the spiritual world, is to hold +heaven within our comprehension. All the objects of the manifold +creations having emanated from God necessarily enfold a hidden meaning; +according, indeed, to the grand thought of Isaiah, ‘The earth is a +garment.’ + +“This mysterious link between Heaven and the smallest atoms of created +matter constitutes what Swedenborg calls a Celestial Arcanum, and +his treatise on the ‘Celestial Arcana’ in which he explains the +correspondences or significances of the Natural with, and to, the +Spiritual, giving, to use the words of Jacob Boehm, the sign and seal +of all things, occupies not less than sixteen volumes containing thirty +thousand propositions. ‘This marvellous knowledge of Correspondences +which the goodness of God granted to Swedenborg,’ says one of his +disciples, ‘is the secret of the interest which draws men to his works. +According to him, all things are derived from heaven, all things lead +back to heaven. His writings are sublime and clear; he speaks in heaven, +and earth hears him. Take one of his sentences by itself and a volume +could be made of it’; and the disciple quotes the following passages +taken from a thousand others that would answer the same purpose. + +“‘The kingdom of heaven,’ says Swedenborg [‘Celestial Arcana’), ‘is the +kingdom of motives. _Action_ is born in heaven, thence into the world, +and, by degrees, to the infinitely remote parts of earth. Terrestrial +effects being thus linked to celestial causes, all things are +_correspondent_ and _significant_. Man is the means of union between the +Natural and the Spiritual.’ + +“The Angelic Spirits therefore know the very nature of the +Correspondences which link to heaven all earthly things; they know, +too, the inner meaning of the prophetic words which foretell their +evolutions. Thus to these Spirits everything here below has its +significance; the tiniest flower is a thought,--a life which corresponds +to certain lineaments of the Great Whole, of which they have a constant +intuition. To them Adultery and the excesses spoken of in Scripture and +by the Prophets, often garbled by self-styled scholars, mean the state +of those souls which in this world persist in tainting themselves with +earthly affections, thus compelling their divorce from Heaven. Clouds +signify the veil of the Most High. Torches, shew-bread, horses and +horsemen, harlots, precious stones, in short, everything named in +Scripture, has to them a clear-cut meaning, and reveals the future of +terrestrial facts in their relation to Heaven. They penetrate the +truths contained in the Revelation of Saint John the divine, which human +science has subsequently demonstrated and proved materially; such, for +instance, as the following [‘big,’ said Swedenborg, ‘with many human +sciences’): ‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven +and the first earth were passed away’ (Revelation xxi. 1). These Spirits +know the supper at which the flesh of kings and the flesh of all men, +free and bond, is eaten, to which an Angel standing in the sun has +bidden them. They see the winged woman, clothed with the sun, and the +mailed man. ‘The horse of the Apocalypse,’ says Swedenborg, ‘is the +visible image of human intellect ridden by Death, for it bears within +itself the elements of its own destruction.’ Moreover, they can +distinguish beings concealed under forms which to ignorant eyes +would seem fantastic. When a man is disposed to receive the prophetic +afflation of Correspondences, it rouses within him a perception of the +Word; he comprehends that the creations are transformations only; his +intellect is sharpened, a burning thirst takes possession of him which +only Heaven can quench. He conceives, according to the greater or lesser +perfection of his inner being, the power of the Angelic Spirits; and he +advances, led by Desire (the least imperfect state of unregenerated man) +towards Hope, the gateway to the world of Spirits, whence he reaches +Prayer, which gives him the Key of Heaven. + +“What being here below would not desire to render himself worthy of +entrance into the sphere of those who live in secret by Love and Wisdom? +Here on earth, during their lifetime, such spirits remain pure; they +neither see, nor think, nor speak like other men. There are two ways by +which perception comes,--one internal, the other external. Man is wholly +external, the Angelic Spirit wholly internal. The Spirit goes to +the depth of Numbers, possesses a full sense of them, knows their +significances. It controls Motion, and by reason of its ubiquity it +shares in all things. ‘An Angel,’ says Swedenborg, ‘is ever present to +a man when desired’ [‘Angelic Wisdom’); for the Angel has the gift of +detaching himself from his body, and he sees into heaven as the +prophets and as Swedenborg himself saw into it. ‘In this state,’ writes +Swedenborg [‘True Religion,’ 136), ‘the spirit of a man may move from +one place to another, his body remaining where it is,--a condition in +which I lived for over twenty-six years.’ It is thus that we should +interpret all Biblical statements which begin, ‘The Spirit led me.’ +Angelic Wisdom is to human wisdom what the innumerable forces of nature +are to its action, which is one. All things live again, and move and +have their being in the Spirit, which is in God. Saint Paul expresses +this truth when he says, ‘In Deo sumus, movemur, et vivimus,’--we live, +we act, we are in God. + +“Earth offers no hindrance to the Angelic Spirit, just as the Word +offers him no obscurity. His approaching divinity enables him to see the +thought of God veiled in the Logos, just as, living by his inner being, +the Spirit is in communion with the hidden meaning of all things on this +earth. Science is the language of the Temporal world, Love is that of +the Spiritual world. Thus man takes note of more than he is able +to explain, while the Angelic Spirit sees and comprehends. Science +depresses man; Love exalts the Angel. Science is still seeking, Love +has found. Man judges Nature according to his own relations to her; the +Angelic Spirit judges it in its relation to Heaven. In short, all things +have a voice for the Spirit. Spirits are in the secret of the harmony of +all creations with each other; they comprehend the spirit of sound, the +spirit of color, the spirit of vegetable life; they can question the +mineral, and the mineral makes answer to their thoughts. What to them +are sciences and the treasures of the earth when they grasp all things +by the eye at all moments, when the worlds which absorb the minds of so +many men are to them but the last step from which they spring to God? +Love of heaven, or the Wisdom of heaven, is made manifest to them by a +circle of light which surrounds them, and is visible to the Elect. +Their innocence, of which that of children is a symbol, possesses, +nevertheless, a knowledge which children have not; they are both +innocent and learned. ‘And,’ says Swedenborg, ‘the innocence of Heaven +makes such an impression upon the soul that those whom it affects keep +a rapturous memory of it which lasts them all their lives, as I myself +have experienced. It is perhaps sufficient,’ he goes on, ‘to have only a +minimum perception of it to be forever changed, to long to enter Heaven +and the sphere of Hope.’ + +“His doctrine of Marriage can be reduced to the following words: ‘The +Lord has taken the beauty and the grace of the life of man and bestowed +them upon woman. When man is not reunited to this beauty and this grace +of his life, he is harsh, sad, and sullen; when he is reunited to them +he is joyful and complete.’ The Angels are ever at the perfect point +of beauty. Marriages are celebrated by wondrous ceremonies. In these +unions, which produce no children, man contributes the _understanding_, +woman the _will_; they become one being, one Flesh here below, and pass +to heaven clothed in the celestial form. On this earth, the natural +attraction of the sexes towards enjoyment is an Effect which allures, +fatigues and disgusts; but in the form celestial the pair, now _one_ in +Spirit find within theirself a ceaseless source of joy. Swedenborg was +led to see these nuptials of the Spirits, which in the words of Saint +Luke (xx. 35) are neither marrying nor giving in marriage, and which +inspire none but spiritual pleasures. An Angel offered to make him +witness of such a marriage and bore him thither on his wings (the wings +are a symbol and not a reality). The Angel clothed him in a wedding +garment and when Swedenborg, finding himself thus robed in light, asked +why, the answer was: ‘For these events, our garments are illuminated; +they shine; they are made nuptial.’ [‘Conjugial Love,’ 19, 20, 21.) Then +he saw the two Angels, one coming from the South, the other from the +East; the Angel of the South was in a chariot drawn by two white horses, +with reins of the color and brilliance of the dawn; but lo, when they +were near him in the sky, chariot and horses vanished. The Angel of the +East, clothed in crimson, and the Angel of the South, in purple, drew +together, like breaths, and mingled: one was the Angel of Love, the +other the Angel of Wisdom. Swedenborg’s guide told him that the two +Angels had been linked together on earth by an inward friendship and +ever united though separated in life by great distances. Consent, the +essence of all good marriage upon earth, is the habitual state of Angels +in Heaven. Love is the light of their world. The eternal rapture of +Angels comes from the faculty that God communicates to them to +render back to Him the joy they feel through Him. This reciprocity of +infinitude forms their life. They become infinite by participating of +the essence of God, who generates Himself by Himself. + +“The immensity of the Heavens where the Angels dwell is such that if man +were endowed with sight as rapid as the darting of light from the sun to +the earth, and if he gazed throughout eternity, his eyes could not reach +the horizon, nor find an end. Light alone can give an idea of the joys +of heaven. ‘It is,’ says Swedenborg [‘Angelic Wisdom,’ 7, 25, 26, 27), +‘a vapor of the virtue of God, a pure emanation of His splendor, beside +which our greatest brilliance is obscurity. It can compass all; it can +renew all, and is never absorbed: it environs the Angel and unites him +to God by infinite joys which multiply infinitely of themselves. This +Light destroys whosoever is not prepared to receive it. No one here +below, nor yet in Heaven can see God and live. This is the meaning of +the saying (Exodus xix. 12, 13, 21-23) “Take heed to yourselves that ye +go not up into the mount--lest ye break through unto the Lord to gaze, +and many perish.” And again (Exodus xxxiv. 29-35), “When Moses came down +from Mount Sinai with the two Tables of testimony in his hand, his face +shone, so that he put a veil upon it when he spake with the people, lest +any of them die.” The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ likewise revealed +the light surrounding the Messengers from on high and the ineffable joys +of the Angels who are forever imbued with it. “His face,” says Saint +Matthew (xvii. 1-5), “did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as +the light--and a bright cloud overshadowed them.”’ + +“When a planet contains only those beings who reject the Lord, when his +word is ignored, then the Angelic Spirits are gathered together by the +four winds, and God sends forth an Exterminating Angel to change the +face of the refractory earth, which in the immensity of this universe is +to Him what an unfruitful seed is to Nature. Approaching the globe, this +Exterminating Angel, borne by a comet, causes the planet to turn upon +its axis, and the lands lately covered by the seas reappear, adorned in +freshness and obedient to the laws proclaimed in Genesis; the Word of +God is once more powerful on this new earth, which everywhere exhibits +the effects of terrestrial waters and celestial flames. The light +brought by the Angel from On High, causes the sun to pale. ‘Then,’ says +Isaiah, (xix. 20) ‘men will hide in the clefts of the rock and roll +themselves in the dust of the earth.’ ‘They will cry to the mountains’ +(Revelation), ‘Fall on us! and to the seas, Swallow us up! Hide us from +the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the +Lamb!’ The Lamb is the great figure and hope of the Angels misjudged and +persecuted here below. Christ himself has said, ‘Blessed are those who +mourn! Blessed are the simple-hearted! Blessed are they that love!’--All +Swedenborg is there! Suffer, Believe, Love. To love truly must we not +suffer? must we not believe? Love begets Strength, Strength bestows +Wisdom, thence Intelligence; for Strength and Wisdom demand Will. To +be intelligent, is not that to Know, to Wish, and to Will,--the three +attributes of the Angelic Spirit? ‘If the universe has a meaning,’ +Monsieur Saint-Martin said to me when I met him during a journey which +he made in Sweden, ‘surely this is the one most worthy of God.’ + +“But, Monsieur,” continued the pastor after a thoughtful pause, “of what +avail to you are these shreds of thoughts taken here and there from +the vast extent of a work of which no true idea can be given except +by comparing it to a river of light, to billows of flame? When a man +plunges into it he is carried away as by an awful current. Dante’s poem +seems but a speck to the reader submerged in the almost Biblical +verses with which Swedenborg renders palpable the Celestial Worlds, +as Beethoven built his palaces of harmony with thousands of notes, as +architects have reared cathedrals with millions of stones. We roll in +soundless depths, where our minds will not always sustain us. Ah, surely +a great and powerful intellect is needed to bring us back, safe and +sound, to our own social beliefs. + +“Swedenborg,” resumed the pastor, “was particularly attached to the +Baron de Seraphitz, whose name, according to an old Swedish custom, had +taken from time immemorial the Latin termination of ‘us.’ The baron was +an ardent disciple of the Swedish prophet, who had opened the eyes of +his Inner-Man and brought him to a life in conformity with the decrees +from On-High. He sought for an Angelic Spirit among women; Swedenborg +found her for him in a vision. His bride was the daughter of a London +shoemaker, in whom, said Swedenborg, the life of Heaven shone, she +having passed through all anterior trials. After the death, that is, the +transformation of the prophet, the baron came to Jarvis to accomplish +his celestial nuptials with the observances of Prayer. As for me, who +am not a Seer, I have only known the terrestrial works of this couple. +Their lives were those of saints whose virtues are the glory of the +Roman Church. They ameliorated the condition of our people; they +supplied them all with means in return for work,--little, perhaps, +but enough for all their wants. Those who lived with them in constant +intercourse never saw them show a sign of anger or impatience; they were +constantly beneficent and gentle, full of courtesy and loving-kindness; +their marriage was the harmony of two souls indissolubly united. Two +eiders winging the same flight, the sound in the echo, the thought in +the word,--these, perhaps, are true images of their union. Every one +here in Jarvis loved them with an affection which I can compare only +to the love of a plant for the sun. The wife was simple in her manners, +beautiful in form, lovely in face, with a dignity of bearing like that +of august personages. In 1783, being then twenty-six years old, she +conceived a child; her pregnancy was to the pair a solemn joy. They +prepared to bid the earth farewell; for they told me they should be +transformed when their child had passed the state of infancy which +needed their fostering care until the strength to exist alone should be +given to her. + +“Their child was born,--the Seraphita we are now concerned with. From +the moment of her conception father and mother lived a still more +solitary life than in the past, lifting themselves up to heaven by +Prayer. They hoped to see Swedenborg, and faith realized their hope. +The day on which Seraphita came into the world Swedenborg appeared in +Jarvis, and filled the room of the new-born child with light. I was told +that he said, ‘The work is accomplished; the Heavens rejoice!’ Sounds of +unknown melodies were heard throughout the house, seeming to come +from the four points of heaven on the wings of the wind. The spirit of +Swedenborg led the father forth to the shores of the fiord and there +quitted him. Certain inhabitants of Jarvis, having approached Monsieur +Seraphitus as he stood on the shore, heard him repeat those blissful +words of Scripture: ‘How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of Him +who is sent of God!’ + +“I had left the parsonage on my way to baptize the infant and name +it, and perform the other duties required by law, when I met the baron +returning to the house. ‘Your ministrations are superfluous,’ he said; +‘our child is to be without name on this earth. You must not baptize in +the waters of an earthly Church one who has just been immersed in the +fires of Heaven. This child will remain a blossom, it will not grow old; +you will see it pass away. You exist, but our child has life; you have +outward senses, the child has none, its being is always inward.’ These +words were uttered in so strange and supernatural a voice that I was +more affected by them than by the shining of his face, from which light +appeared to exude. His appearance realized the phantasmal ideas which we +form of inspired beings as we read the prophesies of the Bible. But such +effects are not rare among our mountains, where the nitre of perpetual +snows produces extraordinary phenomena in the human organization. + +“I asked him the cause of his emotion. ‘Swedenborg came to us; he has +just left me; I have breathed the air of heaven,’ he replied. ‘Under +what form did he appear?’ I said. ‘Under his earthly form; dressed as +he was the last time I saw him in London, at the house of Richard +Shearsmith, Coldbath-fields, in July, 1771. He wore his brown frieze +coat with steel buttons, his waistcoat buttoned to the throat, a white +cravat, and the same magisterial wig rolled and powdered at the sides +and raised high in front, showing his vast and luminous brow, in keeping +with the noble square face, where all is power and tranquillity. I +recognized the large nose with its fiery nostril, the mouth that +ever smiled,--angelic mouth from which these words, the pledge of my +happiness, have just issued, “We shall meet soon.”’ + +“The conviction that shone on the baron’s face forbade all discussion; I +listened in silence. His voice had a contagious heat which made my bosom +burn within me; his fanaticism stirred my heart as the anger of another +makes our nerves vibrate. I followed him in silence to his house, where +I saw the nameless child lying mysteriously folded to its mother’s +breast. The babe heard my step and turned its head toward me; its +eyes were not those of an ordinary child. To give you an idea of the +impression I received, I must say that already they saw and thought. The +childhood of this predestined being was attended by circumstances quite +extraordinary in our climate. For nine years our winters were milder +and our summers longer than usual. This phenomenon gave rise to several +discussions among scientific men; but none of their explanations seemed +sufficient to academicians, and the baron smiled when I told him of +them. The child was never seen in its nudity as other children are; it +was never touched by man or woman, but lived a sacred thing upon the +mother’s breast, and it never cried. If you question old David he will +confirm these facts about his mistress, for whom he feels an adoration +like that of Louis IX. for the saint whose name he bore. + +“At nine years of age the child began to pray; prayer is her life. You +saw her in the church at Christmas, the only day on which she comes +there; she is separated from the other worshippers by a visible space. +If that space does not exist between herself and men she suffers. That +is why she passes nearly all her time alone in the chateau. The events +of her life are unknown; she is seldom seen; her days are spent in the +state of mystical contemplation which was, so Catholic writers tell us, +habitual with the early Christian solitaries, in whom the oral tradition +of Christ’s own words still remained. Her mind, her soul, her body, all +within her is virgin as the snow on those mountains. At ten years of +age she was just what you see her now. When she was nine her father and +mother expired together, without pain or visible malady, after naming +the day and hour at which they would cease to be. Standing at their +feet she looked at them with a calm eye, not showing either sadness, or +grief, or joy, or curiosity. When we approached to remove the two bodies +she said, ‘Carry them away!’ ‘Seraphita,’ I said, for so we called her, +‘are you not affected by the death of your father and your mother +who loved you so much?’ ‘Dead?’ she answered, ‘no, they live in me +forever--That is nothing,’ she pointed without emotion to the bodies +they were bearing away. I then saw her for the third time only since her +birth. In church it is difficult to distinguish her; she stands near +a column which, seen from the pulpit, is in shadow, so that I cannot +observe her features. + +“Of all the servants of the household there remained after the death of +the master and mistress only old David, who, in spite of his eighty-two +years, suffices to wait on his mistress. Some of our Jarvis people tell +wonderful tales about her. These have a certain weight in a land so +essentially conducive to mystery as ours; and I am now studying the +treatise on Incantations by Jean Wier and other works relating to +demonology, where pretended supernatural events are recorded, hoping to +find facts analogous to those which are attributed to her.” + +“Then you do not believe in her?” said Wilfrid. + +“Oh yes, I do,” said the pastor, genially, “I think her a very +capricious girl; a little spoilt by her parents, who turned her head +with the religious ideas I have just revealed to you.” + +Minna shook her head in a way that gently expressed contradiction. + +“Poor girl!” continued the old man, “her parents bequeathed to her that +fatal exaltation of soul which misleads mystics and renders them all +more or less mad. She subjects herself to fasts which horrify poor +David. The good old man is like a sensitive plant which quivers at the +slightest breeze, and glows under the first sun-ray. His mistress, whose +incomprehensible language has become his, is the breeze and the sun-ray +to him; in his eyes her feet are diamonds and her brow is strewn with +stars; she walks environed with a white and luminous atmosphere; her +voice is accompanied by music; she has the gift of rendering herself +invisible. If you ask to see her, he will tell you she has gone to the +_astral regions_. It is difficult to believe such a story, is it not? +You know all miracles bear more or less resemblance to the story of the +Golden Tooth. We have our golden tooth in Jarvis, that is all. Duncker +the fisherman asserts that he has seen her plunge into the fiord and +come up in the shape of an eider-duck, at other times walking on the +billows of a storm. Fergus, who leads the flocks to the saeters, says +that in rainy weather a circle of clear sky can be seen over the Swedish +castle; and that the heavens are always blue above Seraphita’s head when +she is on the mountain. Many women hear the tones of a mighty organ when +Seraphita enters the church, and ask their neighbors earnestly if they +too do not hear them. But my daughter, for whom during the last two +years Seraphita has shown much affection, has never heard this music, +and has never perceived the heavenly perfumes which, they say, make the +air fragrant about her when she moves. Minna, to be sure, has often on +returning from their walks together expressed to me the delight of a +young girl in the beauties of our spring-time, in the spicy odors of +budding larches and pines and the earliest flowers; but after our long +winters what can be more natural than such pleasure? The companionship +of this so-called spirit has nothing so very extraordinary in it, has +it, my child?” + +“The secrets of that spirit are not mine,” said Minna. “Near it I know +all, away from it I know nothing; near that exquisite life I am no +longer myself, far from it I forget all. The time we pass together is +a dream which my memory scarcely retains. I may have heard yet not +remember the music which the women tell of; in that presence, I may have +breathed celestial perfumes, seen the glory of the heavens, and yet be +unable to recollect them here.” + +“What astonishes me most,” resumed the pastor, addressing Wilfrid, “is +to notice that you suffer from being near her.” + +“Near her!” exclaimed the stranger, “she has never so much as let +me touch her hand. When she saw me for the first time her glance +intimidated me; she said: ‘You are welcome here, for you were to come.’ +I fancied that she knew me. I trembled. It is fear that forces me to +believe in her.” + +“With me it is love,” said Minna, without a blush. + +“Are you making fun of me?” said Monsieur Becker, laughing +good-humoredly; “you my daughter, in calling yourself a Spirit of Love, +and you, Monsieur Wilfrid, in pretending to be a Spirit of Wisdom?” + +He drank a glass of beer and so did not see the singular look which +Wilfrid cast upon Minna. + +“Jesting apart,” resumed the old gentleman, “I have been much astonished +to hear that these two mad-caps ascended to the summit of the Falberg; +it must be a girlish exaggeration; they probably went to the crest of a +ledge. It is impossible to reach the peaks of the Falberg.” + +“If so, father,” said Minna, in an agitated voice, “I must have been +under the power of a spirit; for indeed we reached the summit of the +Ice-Cap.” + +“This is really serious,” said Monsieur Becker. “Minna is always +truthful.” + +“Monsieur Becker,” said Wilfrid, “I swear to you that Seraphita +exercises such extraordinary power over me that I know no language in +which I can give you the least idea of it. She has revealed to me things +known to myself alone.” + +“Somnambulism!” said the old man. “A great many such effects are related +by Jean Wier as phenomena easily explained and formerly observed in +Egypt.” + +“Lend me Swedenborg’s theosophical works,” said Wilfrid, “and let me +plunge into those gulfs of light,--you have given me a thirst for them.” + +Monsieur Becker took down a volume and gave it to his guest, who +instantly began to read it. It was about nine o’clock in the evening. +The serving-woman brought in the supper. Minna made tea. The repast +over, each turned silently to his or her occupation; the pastor read the +Incantations; Wilfrid pursued the spirit of Swedenborg; and the young +girl continued to sew, her mind absorbed in recollections. It was a true +Norwegian evening--peaceful, studious, and domestic; full of thoughts, +flowers blooming beneath the snow. Wilfrid, as he devoured the pages of +the prophet, lived by his inner senses only; the pastor, looking up at +times from his book, called Minna’s attention to the absorption of +their guest with an air that was half-serious, half-jesting. To Minna’s +thoughts the face of Seraphitus smiled upon her as it hovered above the +clouds of smoke which enveloped them. The clock struck twelve. Suddenly +the outer door was opened violently. Heavy but hurried steps, the steps +of a terrified old man, were heard in the narrow vestibule between the +two doors; then David burst into the parlor. + +“Danger, danger!” he cried. “Come! come, all! The evil spirits are +unchained! Fiery mitres are on their heads! Demons, Vertumni, Sirens! +they tempt her as Jesus was tempted on the mountain! Come, come! and +drive them away.” + +“Do you not recognize the language of Swedenborg?” said the pastor, +laughing, to Wilfrid. “Here it is; pure from the source.” + +But Wilfrid and Minna were gazing in terror at old David, who, with hair +erect, and eyes distraught, his legs trembling and covered with snow, +for he had come without snow-shoes, stood swaying from side to side, as +if some boisterous wind were shaking him. + +“Is he harmed?” cried Minna. + +“The devils hope and try to conquer her,” replied the old man. + +The words made Wilfrid’s pulses throb. + +“For the last five hours she has stood erect, her eyes raised to heaven +and her arms extended; she suffers, she cries to God. I cannot cross the +barrier; Hell has posted the Vertumni as sentinels. They have set up an +iron wall between her and her old David. She wants me, but what can I +do? Oh, help me! help me! Come and pray!” + +The old man’s despair was terrible to see. + +“The Light of God is defending her,” he went on, with infectious faith, +“but oh! she might yield to violence.” + +“Silence, David! you are raving. This is a matter to be verified. We +will go with you,” said the pastor, “and you shall see that there are no +Vertumni, nor Satans, nor Sirens, in that house.” + +“Your father is blind,” whispered David to Minna. + +Wilfrid, on whom the reading of Swedenborg’s first treatise, which he +had rapidly gone through, had produced a powerful effect, was already in +the corridor putting on his skees; Minna was ready in a few moments, and +both left the old men far behind as they darted forward to the Swedish +castle. + +“Do you hear that cracking sound?” said Wilfrid. + +“The ice of the fiord stirs,” answered Minna; “the spring is coming.” + +Wilfrid was silent. When the two reached the courtyard they were +conscious that they had neither the faculty nor the strength to enter +the house. + +“What think you of her?” asked Wilfrid. + +“See that radiance!” cried Minna, going towards the window of the salon. +“He is there! How beautiful! O my Seraphitus, take me!” + +The exclamation was uttered inwardly. She saw Seraphitus standing erect, +lightly swathed in an opal-tinted mist that disappeared at a little +distance from the body, which seemed almost phosphorescent. + +“How beautiful she is!” cried Wilfrid, mentally. + +Just then Monsieur Becker arrived, followed by David; he saw his +daughter and guest standing before the window; going up to them, he +looked into the salon and said quietly, “Well, my good David, she is +only saying her prayers.” + +“Ah, but try to enter, Monsieur.” + +“Why disturb those who pray?” answered the pastor. + +At this instant the moon, rising above the Falberg, cast its rays upon +the window. All three turned round, attracted by this natural effect +which made them quiver; when they turned back to again look at Seraphita +she had disappeared. + +“How strange!” exclaimed Wilfrid. + +“I hear delightful sounds,” said Minna. + +“Well,” said the pastor, “it is all plain enough; she is going to bed.” + +David had entered the house. The others took their way back in silence; +none of them interpreted the vision in the same manner,--Monsieur Becker +doubted, Minna adored, Wilfrid longed. + +Wilfrid was a man about thirty-six years of age. His figure, though +broadly developed, was not wanting in symmetry. Like most men who +distinguish themselves above their fellows, he was of medium height; his +chest and shoulders were broad, and his neck short,--a characteristic of +those whose hearts are near their heads; his hair was black, thick, and +fine; his eyes, of a yellow brown, had, as it were, a solar brilliancy, +which proclaimed with what avidity his nature aspired to Light. Though +these strong and virile features were defective through the absence +of an inward peace,--granted only to a life without storms or +conflicts,--they plainly showed the inexhaustible resources of impetuous +senses and the appetites of instinct; just as every motion revealed +the perfection of the man’s physical apparatus, the flexibility of +his senses, and their fidelity when brought into play. This man might +contend with savages, and hear, as they do, the tread of enemies in +distant forests; he could follow a scent in the air, a trail on the +ground, or see on the horizon the signal of a friend. His sleep was +light, like that of all creatures who will not allow themselves to be +surprised. His body came quickly into harmony with the climate of any +country where his tempestuous life conducted him. Art and science would +have admired his organization in the light of a human model. Everything +about him was symmetrical and well-balanced,--action and heart, +intelligence and will. At first sight he might be classed among purely +instinctive beings, who give themselves blindly up to the material wants +of life; but in the very morning of his days he had flung himself into +a higher social world, with which his feelings harmonized; study had +widened his mind, reflection had sharpened his power of thought, and the +sciences had enlarged his understanding. He had studied human laws,--the +working of self-interests brought into conflict by the passions, and he +seemed to have early familiarized himself with the abstractions on which +societies rest. He had pored over books,--those deeds of dead humanity; +he had spent whole nights of pleasure in every European capital; he had +slept on fields of battle the night before the combat and the night that +followed victory. His stormy youth may have flung him on the deck of +some corsair and sent him among the contrasting regions of the globe; +thus it was that he knew the actions of a living humanity. He knew the +present and the past,--a double history; that of to-day, that of other +days. Many men have been, like Wilfrid, equally powerful by the Hand, by +the Heart, by the Head; like him, the majority have abused their triple +power. But though this man still held by certain outward liens to the +slimy side of humanity, he belonged also and positively to the sphere +where force is intelligent. In spite of the many veils which enveloped +his soul, there were certain ineffable symptoms of this fact which were +visible to pure spirits, to the eyes of the child whose innocence has +known no breath of evil passions, to the eyes of the old man who has +lived to regain his purity. + +These signs revealed a Cain for whom there was still hope,--one who +seemed as though he were seeking absolution from the ends of the +earth. Minna suspected the galley-slave of glory in the man; Seraphita +recognized him. Both admired and both pitied him. Whence came their +prescience? Nothing could be more simple nor yet more extraordinary. +As soon as we seek to penetrate the secrets of Nature, where nothing +is secret, and where it is only necessary to have the eyes to see, we +perceive that the simple produces the marvellous. + +“Seraphitus,” said Minna one evening a few days after Wilfrid’s arrival +in Jarvis, “you read the soul of this stranger while I have only vague +impressions of it. He chills me or else he excites me; but you seem to +know the cause of this cold and of this heat; tell me what it means, for +you know all about him.” + +“Yes, I have seen the causes,” said Seraphitus, lowing his large +eyelids. + +“By what power?” asked the curious Minna. + +“I have the gift of Specialism,” he answered. “Specialism is an inward +sight which can penetrate all things; you will only understand its full +meaning through a comparison. In the great cities of Europe where works +are produced by which the human Hand seeks to represent the effects of +the moral nature was well as those of the physical nature, there are +glorious men who express ideas in marble. The sculptor acts on the +stone; he fashions it; he puts a realm of ideas into it. There +are statues which the hand of man has endowed with the faculty of +representing the noble side of humanity, or the whole evil side; most +men see in such marbles a human figure and nothing more; a few other +men, a little higher in the scale of being, perceive a fraction of the +thoughts expressed in the statue; but the Initiates in the secrets of +art are of the same intellect as the sculptor; they see in his work +the whole universe of his thought. Such persons are in themselves the +principles of art; they bear within them a mirror which reflects nature +in her slightest manifestations. Well! so it is with me; I have within +me a mirror before which the moral nature, with its causes and effects, +appears and is reflected. Entering thus into the consciousness of others +I am able to divine both the future and the past. How? do you still ask +how? Imagine that the marble statue is the body of a man, a piece of +statuary in which we see the emotion, sentiment, passion, vice or crime, +virtue or repentance which the creating hand has put into it, and +you will then comprehend how it is that I read the soul of this +foreigner--though what I have said does not explain the gift of +Specialism; for to conceive the nature of that gift we must possess it.” + +Though Wilfrid belonged to the two first divisions of humanity, the men +of force and the men of thought, yet his excesses, his tumultuous life, +and his misdeeds had often turned him towards Faith; for doubt has two +sides; a side to the light and a side to the darkness. Wilfrid had too +closely clasped the world under its forms of Matter and of Mind not to +have acquired that thirst for the unknown, that longing to _go beyond_ +which lay their grasp upon the men who know, and wish, and will. +But neither his knowledge, nor his actions, nor his will, had found +direction. He had fled from social life from necessity; as a great +criminal seeks the cloister. Remorse, that virtue of weak beings, +did not touch him. Remorse is impotence, impotence which sins again. +Repentance alone is powerful; it ends all. But in traversing the world, +which he made his cloister, Wilfrid had found no balm for his wounds; he +saw nothing in nature to which he could attach himself. In him, despair +had dried the sources of desire. He was one of those beings who, having +gone through all passions and come out victorious, have nothing more to +raise in their hot-beds, and who, lacking opportunity to put themselves +at the head of their fellow-men to trample under iron heel entire +populations, buy, at the price of a horrible martyrdom, the faculty of +ruining themselves in some belief,--rocks sublime, which await the touch +of a wand that comes not to bring the waters gushing from their far-off +spring. + +Led by a scheme of his restless, inquiring life to the shores of Norway, +the sudden arrival of winter had detained the wanderer at Jarvis. The +day on which, for the first time, he saw Seraphita, the whole past of +his life faded from his mind. The young girl excited emotions which he +had thought could never be revived. The ashes gave forth a lingering +flame at the first murmurings of that voice. Who has ever felt himself +return to youth and purity after growing cold and numb with age and +soiled with impurity? Suddenly, Wilfrid loved as he had never loved; he +loved secretly, with faith, with fear, with inward madness. His life was +stirred to the very source of his being at the mere thought of seeing +Seraphita. As he listened to her he was transported into unknown worlds; +he was mute before her, she magnetized him. There, beneath the snows, +among the glaciers, bloomed the celestial flower to which his hopes, so +long betrayed, aspired; the sight of which awakened ideas of freshness, +purity, and faith which grouped about his soul and lifted it to higher +regions,--as Angels bear to heaven the Elect in those symbolic pictures +inspired by the guardian spirit of a great master. Celestial perfumes +softened the granite hardness of the rocky scene; light endowed with +speech shed its divine melodies on the path of him who looked to heaven. +After emptying the cup of terrestrial love which his teeth had bitten as +he drank it, he saw before him the chalice of salvation where the limpid +waters sparkled, making thirsty for ineffable delights whoever dare +apply his lips burning with a faith so strong that the crystal shall not +be shattered. + +But Wilfrid now encountered the wall of brass for which he had been +seeking up and down the earth. He went impetuously to Seraphita, meaning +to express the whole force and bearing of a passion under which he +bounded like the fabled horse beneath the iron horseman, firm in his +saddle, whom nothing moves while the efforts of the fiery animal only +made the rider heavier and more solid. He sought her to relate his +life,--to prove the grandeur of his soul by the grandeur of his faults, +to show the ruins of his desert. But no sooner had he crossed +her threshold, and found himself within the zone of those eyes of +scintillating azure, that met no limits forward and left none behind, +than he grew calm and submissive, as a lion, springing on his prey in +the plains of Africa, receives from the wings of the wind a message +of love, and stops his bound. A gulf opened before him, into which his +frenzied words fell and disappeared, and from which uprose a voice which +changed his being; he became as a child, a child of sixteen, timid and +frightened before this maiden with serene brow, this white figure whose +inalterable calm was like the cruel impassibility of human justice. The +combat between them had never ceased until this evening, when with a +glance she brought him down, as a falcon making his dizzy spirals in +the air around his prey causes it to fall stupefied to earth, before +carrying it to his eyrie. + +We may note within ourselves many a long struggle the end of which is +one of our own actions,--struggles which are, as it were, the reverse +side of humanity. This reverse side belongs to God; the obverse side to +men. More than once Seraphita had proved to Wilfrid that she knew this +hidden and ever varied side, which is to the majority of men a second +being. Often she said to him in her dove-like voice: “Why all this +vehemence?” when on his way to her he had sworn she should be his. +Wilfrid was, however, strong enough to raise the cry of revolt to which +he had given utterance in Monsieur Becker’s study. The narrative of +the old pastor had calmed him. Sceptical and derisive as he was, he saw +belief like a sidereal brilliance dawning on his life. He asked himself +if Seraphita were not an exile from the higher spheres seeking the +homeward way. The fanciful deifications of all ordinary lovers he could +not give to this lily of Norway in whose divinity he believed. Why lived +she here beside this fiord? What did she? Questions that received no +answer filled his mind. Above all, what was about to happen between +them? What fate had brought him there? To him, Seraphita was the +motionless marble, light nevertheless as a vapor, which Minna had seen +that day poised above the precipices of the Falberg. Could she thus +stand on the edge of all gulfs without danger, without a tremor of the +arching eyebrows, or a quiver of the light of the eye? If his love was +to be without hope, it was not without curiosity. + +From the moment when Wilfrid suspected the ethereal nature of the +enchantress who had told him the secrets of his life in melodious +utterance, he had longed to try to subject her, to keep her to himself, +to tear her from the heaven where, perhaps, she was awaited. Earth and +Humanity seized their prey; he would imitate them. His pride, the only +sentiment through which man can long be exalted, would make him happy in +this triumph for the rest of his life. The idea sent the blood boiling +through his veins, and his heart swelled. If he did not succeed, he +would destroy her,--it is so natural to destroy that which we cannot +possess, to deny what we cannot comprehend, to insult that which we +envy. + +On the morrow, Wilfrid, laden with ideas which the extraordinary events +of the previous night naturally awakened in his mind, resolved to +question David, and went to find him on the pretext of asking after +Seraphita’s health. Though Monsieur Becker spoke of the old servant as +falling into dotage, Wilfrid relied on his own perspicacity to discover +scraps of truth in the torrent of the old man’s rambling talk. + +David had the immovable, undecided, physiognomy of an octogenarian. +Under his white hair lay a forehead lined with wrinkles like the stone +courses of a ruined wall; and his face was furrowed like the bed of a +dried-up torrent. His life seemed to have retreated wholly to the eyes, +where light still shone, though its gleams were obscured by a mistiness +which seemed to indicate either an active mental alienation or the +stupid stare of drunkenness. His slow and heavy movements betrayed the +glacial weight of age, and communicated an icy influence to whoever +allowed themselves to look long at him,--for he possessed the magnetic +force of torpor. His limited intelligence was only roused by the sight, +the hearing, or the recollection of his mistress. She was the soul of +this wholly material fragment of an existence. Any one seeing David +alone by himself would have thought him a corpse; let Seraphita enter, +let her voice be heard, or a mention of her be made, and the dead came +forth from his grave and recovered speech and motion. The dry bones +were not more truly awakened by the divine breath in the valley of +Jehoshaphat, and never was that apocalyptic vision better realized than +in this Lazarus issuing from the sepulchre into life at the voice of +a young girl. His language, which was always figurative and often +incomprehensible, prevented the inhabitants of the village from talking +with him; but they respected a mind that deviated so utterly from common +ways,--a thing which the masses instinctively admire. + +Wilfrid found him in the antechamber, apparently asleep beside the +stove. Like a dog who recognizes a friend of the family, the old man +raised his eyes, saw the foreigner, and did not stir. + +“Where is she?” inquired Wilfrid, sitting down beside him. + +David fluttered his fingers in the air as if to express the flight of a +bird. + +“Does she still suffer?” asked Wilfrid. + +“Beings vowed to Heaven are able so to suffer that suffering does not +lessen their love; this is the mark of the true faith,” answered the old +man, solemnly, like an instrument which, on being touched, gives forth +an accidental note. + +“Who taught you those words?” + +“The Spirit.” + +“What happened to her last night? Did you force your way past the +Vertumni standing sentinel? did you evade the Mammons?” + +“Yes”; answered David, as though awaking from a dream. + +The misty gleam of his eyes melted into a ray that came direct from +the soul and made it by degrees brilliant as that of an eagle, as +intelligent as that of a poet. + +“What did you see?” asked Wilfrid, astonished at this sudden change. + +“I saw Species and Shapes; I heard the Spirit of all things; I beheld +the revolt of the Evil Ones; I listened to the words of the Good. Seven +devils came, and seven archangels descended from on high. The archangels +stood apart and looked on through veils. The devils were close by; they +shone, they acted. Mammon came on his pearly shell in the shape of a +beautiful naked woman; her snowy body dazzled the eye, no human form +ever equalled it; and he said, ‘I am Pleasure; thou shalt possess me!’ +Lucifer, prince of serpents, was there in sovereign robes; his Manhood +was glorious as the beauty of an angel, and he said, ‘Humanity shall be +at thy feet!’ The Queen of misers,--she who gives back naught that she +has ever received,--the Sea, came wrapped in her virent mantle; she +opened her bosom, she showed her gems, she brought forth her treasures +and offered them; waves of sapphire and of emerald came at her bidding; +her hidden wonders stirred, they rose to the surface of her breast, they +spoke; the rarest pearl of Ocean spread its iridescent wings and gave +voice to its marine melodies, saying, ‘Twin daughter of suffering, we +are sisters! await me; let us go together; all I need is to become a +Woman.’ The Bird with the wings of an eagle and the paws of a lion, the +head of a woman and the body of a horse, the Animal, fell down before +her and licked her feet, and promised seven hundred years of plenty to +her best-beloved daughter. Then came the most formidable of all, the +Child, weeping at her knees, and saying, ‘Wilt thou leave me, feeble +and suffering as I am? oh, my mother, stay!’ and he played with her, +and shed languor on the air, and the Heavens themselves had pity for +his wail. The Virgin of pure song brought forth her choirs to relax the +soul. The Kings of the East came with their slaves, their armies, and +their women; the Wounded asked her for succor, the Sorrowful stretched +forth their hands: ‘Do not leave us! do not leave us!’ they cried. I, +too, I cried, ‘Do not leave us! we adore thee! stay!’ Flowers, bursting +from the seed, bathed her in their fragrance which uttered, ‘Stay!’ The +giant Enakim came forth from Jupiter, leading Gold and its friends and +all the Spirits of the Astral Regions which are joined with him, and +they said, ‘We are thine for seven hundred years.’ At last came Death on +his pale horse, crying, ‘I will obey thee!’ One and all fell prostrate +before her. Could you but have seen them! They covered as it were a vast +plain, and they cried aloud to her, ‘We have nurtured thee, thou art our +child; do not abandon us!’ At length Life issued from her Ruby Waters, +and said, ‘I will not leave thee!’ then, finding Seraphita silent, she +flamed upon her as the sun, crying out, ‘I am light!’ ‘_The light_ +is there!’ cried Seraphita, pointing to the clouds where stood the +archangels; but she was wearied out; Desire had wrung her nerves, she +could only cry, ‘My God! my God!’ Ah! many an Angelic Spirit, scaling +the mountain and nigh to the summit, has set his foot upon a rolling +stone which plunged him back into the abyss! All these lost Spirits +adored her constancy; they stood around her,--a choir without a +song,--weeping and whispering, ‘Courage!’ At last she conquered; +Desire--let loose upon her in every Shape and every Species--was +vanquished. She stood in prayer, and when at last her eyes were lifted +she saw the feet of Angels circling in the Heavens.” + +“She saw the feet of Angels?” repeated Wilfrid. + +“Yes,” said the old man. + +“Was it a dream that she told you?” asked Wilfrid. + +“A dream as real as your life,” answered David; “I was there.” + +The calm assurance of the old servant affected Wilfrid powerfully. +He went away asking himself whether these visions were any less +extraordinary than those he had read of in Swedenborg the night before. + +“If Spirits exist, they must act,” he was saying to himself as he +entered the parsonage, where he found Monsieur Becker alone. + +“Dear pastor,” he said, “Seraphita is connected with us in form only, +and even that form is inexplicable. Do not think me a madman or a lover; +a profound conviction cannot be argued with. Convert my belief into +scientific theories, and let us try to enlighten each other. To-morrow +evening we shall both be with her.” + +“What then?” said Monsieur Becker. + +“If her eye ignores space,” replied Wilfrid, “if her thought is an +intelligent sight which enables her to perceive all things in their +essence, and to connect them with the general evolution of the universe, +if, in a word, she sees and knows all, let us seat the Pythoness on her +tripod, let us force this pitiless eagle by threats to spread its wings! +Help me! I breathe a fire which burns my vitals; I must quench it or it +will consume me. I have found a prey at last, and it shall be mine!” + +“The conquest will be difficult,” said the pastor, “because this girl +is--” + +“Is what?” cried Wilfrid. + +“Mad,” said the old man. + +“I will not dispute her madness, but neither must you dispute her +wonderful powers. Dear Monsieur Becker, she has often confounded me with +her learning. Has she travelled?” + +“From her house to the fiord, no further.” + +“Never left this place!” exclaimed Wilfrid. “Then she must have read +immensely.” + +“Not a page, not one iota! I am the only person who possesses any books +in Jarvis. The works of Swedenborg--the only books that were in the +chateau--you see before you. She has never looked into a single one of +them.” + +“Have you tried to talk with her?” + +“What good would that do?” + +“Does no one live with her in that house?” + +“She has no friends but you and Minna, nor any servant except old +David.” + +“It cannot be that she knows nothing of science nor of art.” + +“Who should teach her?” said the pastor. + +“But if she can discuss such matters pertinently, as she has often done +with me, what do you make of it?” + +“The girl may have acquired through years of silence the faculties +enjoyed by Apollonius of Tyana and other pretended sorcerers burned +by the Inquisition, which did not choose to admit the fact of +second-sight.” + +“If she can speak Arabic, what would you say to that?” + +“The history of medical science gives many authentic instances of girls +who have spoken languages entirely unknown to them.” + +“What can I do?” exclaimed Wilfrid. “She knows of secrets in my past +life known only to me.” + +“I shall be curious if she can tell me thoughts that I have confided to +no living person,” said Monsieur Becker. + +Minna entered the room. + +“Well, my daughter, and how is your familiar spirit?” + +“He suffers, father,” she answered, bowing to Wilfrid. “Human passions, +clothed in their false riches, surrounded him all night, and showed him +all the glories of the world. But you think these things mere tales.” + +“Tales as beautiful to those who read them in their brains as the +‘Arabian Nights’ to common minds,” said the pastor, smiling. + +“Did not Satan carry our Savior to the pinnacle of the Temple, and show +him all the kingdoms of the world?” she said. + +“The Evangelists,” replied her father, “did not correct their copies +very carefully, and several versions are in existence.” + +“You believe in the reality of these visions?” said Wilfrid to Minna. + +“Who can doubt when he relates them.” + +“He?” demanded Wilfrid. “Who?” + +“He who is there,” replied Minna, motioning towards the chateau. + +“Are you speaking of Seraphita?” he said. + +The young girl bent her head, and looked at him with an expression of +gentle mischief. + +“You too!” exclaimed Wilfrid, “you take pleasure in confounding me. Who +and what is she? What do you think of her?” + +“What I feel is inexplicable,” said Minna, blushing. + +“You are all crazy!” cried the pastor. + +“Farewell, until to-morrow evening,” said Wilfrid. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE CLOUDS OF THE SANCTUARY + + +There are pageants in which all the material splendors that man arrays +co-operate. Nations of slaves and divers have searched the sands of +ocean and the bowels of earth for the pearls and diamonds which adorn +the spectators. Transmitted as heirlooms from generation to generation, +these treasures have shone on consecrated brows and could be the most +faithful of historians had they speech. They know the joys and sorrows +of the great and those of the small. Everywhere do they go; they are +worn with pride at festivals, carried in despair to usurers, borne off +in triumph amid blood and pillage, enshrined in masterpieces conceived +by art for their protection. None, except the pearl of Cleopatra, +has been lost. The Great and the Fortunate assemble to witness the +coronation of some king, whose trappings are the work of men’s hands, +but the purple of whose raiment is less glorious than that of the +flowers of the field. These festivals, splendid in light, bathed in +music which the hand of man creates, aye, all the triumphs of that hand +are subdued by a thought, crushed by a sentiment. The Mind can illumine +in a man and round a man a light more vivid, can open his ear to more +melodious harmonies, can seat him on clouds of shining constellations +and teach him to question them. The Heart can do still greater things. +Man may come into the presence of one sole being and find in a single +word, a single look, an influence so weighty to bear, of so luminous a +light, so penetrating a sound, that he succumbs and kneels before it. +The most real of all splendors are not in outward things, they are +within us. A single secret of science is a realm of wonders to the man +of learning. Do the trumpets of Power, the jewels of Wealth, the music +of Joy, or a vast concourse of people attend his mental festival? No, he +finds his glory in some dim retreat where, perchance, a pallid suffering +man whispers a single word into his ear; that word, like a torch lighted +in a mine, reveals to him a Science. All human ideas, arrayed in every +attractive form which Mystery can invent surrounded a blind man seated +in a wayside ditch. Three worlds, the Natural, the Spiritual, the +Divine, with all their spheres, opened their portals to a Florentine +exile; he walked attended by the Happy and the Unhappy; by those who +prayed and those who moaned; by angels and by souls in hell. When the +Sent of God, who knew and could accomplish all things, appeared to three +of his disciples it was at eventide, at the common table of the humblest +of inns; and then and there the Light broke forth, shattering Material +Forms, illuminating the Spiritual Faculties, so that they saw him in his +glory, and the earth lay at their feet like a cast-off sandal. + +Monsieur Becker, Wilfrid, and Minna were all under the influence of fear +as they took their way to meet the extraordinary being whom each desired +to question. To them, in their several ways, the Swedish castle had +grown to mean some gigantic representation, some spectacle like those +whose colors and masses are skilfully and harmoniously marshalled by the +poets, and whose personages, imaginary actors to men, are real to +those who begin to penetrate the Spiritual World. On the tiers of this +Coliseum Monsieur Becker seated the gray legions of Doubt, the stern +ideas, the specious formulas of Dispute. He convoked the various +antagonistic worlds of philosophy and religion, and they all appeared, +in the guise of a fleshless shape, like that in which art embodies +Time,--an old man bearing in one hand a scythe, in the other a broken +globe, the human universe. + +Wilfrid had bidden to the scene his earliest illusions and his latest +hopes, human destiny and its conflicts, religion and its conquering +powers. + +Minna saw heaven confusedly by glimpses; love raised a curtain wrought +with mysterious images, and the melodious sounds which met her ear +redoubled her curiosity. + +To all three, therefore, this evening was to be what that other evening +had been for the pilgrims to Emmaus, what a vision was to Dante, an +inspiration to Homer,--to them, three aspects of the world revealed, +veils rent away, doubts dissipated, darkness illumined. Humanity in all +its moods expecting light could not be better represented than here by +this young girl, this man in the vigor of his age, and these old men, +of whom one was learned enough to doubt, the other ignorant enough +to believe. Never was any scene more simple in appearance, nor more +portentous in reality. + +When they entered the room, ushered in by old David, they found +Seraphita standing by a table on which were served the various dishes +which compose a “tea”; a form of collation which in the North takes the +place of wine and its pleasures,--reserved more exclusively for Southern +climes. Certainly nothing proclaimed in her, or in him, a being with the +strange power of appearing under two distinct forms; nothing about her +betrayed the manifold powers which she wielded. Like a careful housewife +attending to the comfort of her guests, she ordered David to put more +wood into the stove. + +“Good evening, my neighbors,” she said. “Dear Monsieur Becker, you do +right to come; you see me living for the last time, perhaps. This winter +has killed me. Will you sit there?” she said to Wilfrid. “And you, +Minna, here?” pointing to a chair beside her. “I see you have brought +your embroidery. Did you invent that stitch? the design is very pretty. +For whom is it,--your father, or monsieur?” she added, turning to +Wilfrid. “Surely we ought to give him, before we part, a remembrance of +the daughters of Norway.” + +“Did you suffer much yesterday?” asked Wilfrid. + +“It was nothing,” she answered; “the suffering gladdened me; it was +necessary, to enable me to leave this life.” + +“Then death does not alarm you?” said Monsieur Becker, smiling, for he +did not think her ill. + +“No, dear pastor; there are two ways of dying: to some, death is +victory, to others, defeat.” + +“Do you think that you have conquered?” asked Minna. + +“I do not know,” she said, “perhaps I have only taken a step in the +path.” + +The lustrous splendor of her brow grew dim, her eyes were veiled beneath +slow-dropping lids; a simple movement which affected the prying guests +and kept them silent. Monsieur Becker was the first to recover courage. + +“Dear child,” he said, “you are truth itself, and you are ever kind. +I would ask of you to-night something other than the dainties of your +tea-table. If we may believe certain persons, you know amazing things; +if this be true, would it not be charitable in you to solve a few of our +doubts?” + +“Ah!” she said smiling, “I walk on the clouds. I visit the depths of +the fiord; the sea is my steed and I bridle it; I know where the singing +flower grows, and the talking light descends, and fragrant colors shine! +I wear the seal of Solomon; I am a fairy; I cast my orders to the wind +which, like an abject slave, fulfils them; my eyes can pierce the earth +and behold its treasures; for lo! am I not the virgin to whom the pearls +dart from their ocean depths and--” + +“--who led me safely to the summit of the Falberg?” said Minna, +interrupting her. + +“Thou! thou too!” exclaimed the strange being, with a luminous glance +at the young girl which filled her soul with trouble. “Had I not the +faculty of reading through your foreheads the desires which have brought +you here, should I be what you think I am?” she said, encircling all +three with her controlling glance, to David’s great satisfaction. The +old man rubbed his hands with pleasure as he left the room. + +“Ah!” she resumed after a pause, “you have come, all of you, with the +curiosity of children. You, my poor Monsieur Becker, have asked yourself +how it was possible that a girl of seventeen should know even a single +one of those secrets which men of science seek with their noses to the +earth,--instead of raising their eyes to heaven. Were I to tell you how +and at what point the plant merges into the animal you would begin +to doubt your doubts. You have plotted to question me; you will admit +that?” + +“Yes, dear Seraphita,” answered Wilfrid; “but the desire is a natural +one to men, is it not?” + +“You will bore this dear child with such topics,” she said, passing her +hand lightly over Minna’s hair with a caressing gesture. + +The young girl raised her eyes and seemed as though she longed to lose +herself in him. + +“Speech is the endowment of us all,” resumed the mysterious creature, +gravely. “Woe to him who keeps silence, even in a desert, believing +that no one hears him; all voices speak and all ears listen here below. +Speech moves the universe. Monsieur Becker, I desire to say nothing +unnecessarily. I know the difficulties that beset your mind; would you +not think it a miracle if I were now to lay bare the past history of +your consciousness? Well, the miracle shall be accomplished. You have +never admitted to yourself the full extent of your doubts. I alone, +immovable in my faith, I can show it to you; I can terrify you with +yourself. + +“You stand on the darkest side of Doubt. You do not believe in +God,--although you know it not,--and all things here below are secondary +to him who rejects the first principle of things. Let us leave aside the +fruitless discussions of false philosophy. The spiritualist generations +made as many and as vain efforts to deny Matter as the materialist +generations have made to deny Spirit. Why such discussions? Does not man +himself offer irrefragable proof of both systems? Do we not find in him +material things and spiritual things? None but a madman can refuse to +see in the human body a fragment of Matter; your natural sciences, when +they decompose it, find little difference between its elements and those +of other animals. On the other hand, the idea produced in man by the +comparison of many objects has never seemed to any one to belong to the +domain of Matter. As to this, I offer no opinion. I am now concerned +with your doubts, not with my certainties. To you, as to the majority of +thinkers, the relations between things, the reality of which is proved +to you by your sensations and which you possess the faculty to discover, +do not seem Material. The Natural universe of things and beings ends, in +man, with the Spiritual universe of similarities or differences which +he perceives among the innumerable forms of Nature,--relations so +multiplied as to seem infinite; for if, up to the present time, no one +has been able to enumerate the separate terrestrial creations, who +can reckon their correlations? Is not the fraction which you know, in +relation to their totality, what a single number is to infinity? Here, +then, you fall into a perception of the infinite which undoubtedly +obliges you to conceive of a purely Spiritual world. + +“Thus man himself offers sufficient proof of the two orders,--Matter +and Spirit. In him culminates a visible finite universe; in him begins a +universe invisible and infinite,--two worlds unknown to each other. Have +the pebbles of the fiord a perception of their combined being? have they +a consciousness of the colors they present to the eye of man? do they +hear the music of the waves that lap them? Let us therefore spring over +and not attempt to sound the abysmal depths presented to our minds in +the union of a Material universe and a Spiritual universe,--a creation +visible, ponderable, tangible, terminating in a creation invisible, +imponderable, intangible; completely dissimilar, separated by the void, +yet united by indisputable bonds and meeting in a being who derives +equally from the one and from the other! Let us mingle in one world +these two worlds, absolutely irreconcilable to your philosophies, but +conjoined by fact. However abstract man may suppose the relation which +binds two things together, the line of junction is perceptible. How? +Where? We are not now in search of the vanishing point where Matter +subtilizes. If such were the question, I cannot see why He who has, by +physical relations, studded with stars at immeasurable distances the +heavens which veil Him, may not have created solid substances, nor why +you deny Him the faculty of giving a body to thought. + +“Thus your invisible moral universe and your visible physical universe +are one and the same matter. We will not separate properties from +substances, nor objects from effects. All that exists, all that presses +upon us and overwhelms us from above or from below, before us or in +us, all that which our eyes and our minds perceive, all these named and +unnamed things compose--in order to fit the problem of Creation to the +measure of your logic--a block of finite Matter; but were it infinite, +God would still not be its master. Now, reasoning with your views, dear +pastor, no matter in what way God the infinite is concerned with this +block of finite Matter, He cannot exist and retain the attributes with +which man invests Him. Seek Him in facts, and He is not; spiritually and +materially, you have made God impossible. Listen to the Word of human +Reason forced to its ultimate conclusions. + +“In bringing God face to face with the Great Whole, we see that only +two states are possible between them,--either God and Matter are +contemporaneous, or God existed alone before Matter. Were +Reason--the light that has guided the human race from the dawn of its +existence--accumulated in one brain, even that mighty brain could not +invent a third mode of being without suppressing both Matter and God. +Let human philosophies pile mountain upon mountain of words and of +ideas, let religions accumulate images and beliefs, revelations and +mysteries, you must face at last this terrible dilemma and choose +between the two propositions which compose it; you have no option, and +one as much as the other leads human reason to Doubt. + +“The problem thus established, what signifies Spirit or Matter? Why +trouble about the march of the worlds in one direction or in another, +since the Being who guides them is shown to be an absurdity? Why +continue to ask whether man is approaching heaven or receding from it, +whether creation is rising towards Spirit or descending towards Matter, +if the questioned universe gives no reply? What signifies theogonies and +their armies, theologies and their dogmas, since whichever side of the +problem is man’s choice, his God exists not? Let us for a moment take up +the first proposition, and suppose God contemporaneous with Matter. +Is subjection to the action or the co-existence of an alien substance +consistent with being God at all? In such a system, would not God become +a secondary agent compelled to organize Matter? If so, who compelled +Him? Between His material gross companion and Himself, who was the +arbiter? Who paid the wages of the six days’ labor imputed to the great +Designer? Has any determining force been found which was neither God nor +Matter? God being regarded as the manufacturer of the machinery of the +worlds, is it not as ridiculous to call Him God as to call the slave who +turns the grindstone a Roman citizen? Besides, another difficulty, as +insoluble to this supreme human reason as it is to God, presents itself. + +“If we carry the problem higher, shall we not be like the Hindus, who +put the world upon a tortoise, the tortoise on an elephant, and do not +know on what the feet of their elephant may rest? This supreme will, +issuing from the contest between God and Matter, this God, this more +than God, can He have existed throughout eternity without willing what +He afterwards willed,--admitting that Eternity can be divided into two +eras. No matter where God is, what becomes of His intuitive intelligence +if He did not know His ultimate thought? Which, then, is the true +Eternity,--the created Eternity or the uncreated? But if God throughout +all time did will the world such as it is, this new necessity, which +harmonizes with the idea of sovereign intelligence, implies the +co-eternity of Matter. Whether Matter be co-eternal by a divine will +necessarily accordant with itself from the beginning, or whether +Matter be co-eternal of its own being, the power of God, which must be +absolute, perishes if His will is circumscribed; for in that case God +would find within Him a determining force which would control Him. Can +He be God if He can no more separate Himself from His creation in a past +eternity than in the coming eternity? + +“This face of the problem is insoluble in its cause. Let us now inquire +into its effects. If a God compelled to have created the world from all +eternity seems inexplicable, He is quite as unintelligible in perpetual +cohesion with His work. God, constrained to live eternally united to His +creation is held down to His first position as workman. Can you conceive +of a God who shall be neither independent of nor dependent on His work? +Could He destroy that work without challenging Himself? Ask yourself, +and decide! Whether He destroys it some day, or whether He never +destroys it, either way is fatal to the attributes without which God +cannot exist. Is the world an experiment? is it a perishable form to +which destruction must come? If it is, is not God inconsistent and +impotent? inconsistent, because He ought to have seen the result before +the attempt,--moreover why should He delay to destroy that which He is +to destroy?--impotent, for how else could He have created an imperfect +man? + +“If an imperfect creation contradicts the faculties which man attributes +to God we are forced back upon the question, Is creation perfect? The +idea is in harmony with that of a God supremely intelligent who could +make no mistakes; but then, what means the degradation of His work, +and its regeneration? Moreover, a perfect world is, necessarily, +indestructible; its forms would not perish, it could neither advance nor +recede, it would revolve in the everlasting circumference from which it +would never issue. In that case God would be dependent on His work; +it would be co-eternal with Him; and so we fall back into one of the +propositions most antagonistic to God. If the world is imperfect, it +can progress; if perfect, it is stationary. On the other hand, if it +be impossible to admit of a progressive God ignorant through a past +eternity of the results of His creative work, can there be a stationary +God? would not that imply the triumph of Matter? would it not be the +greatest of all negations? Under the first hypothesis God perishes +through weakness; under the second through the Force of his inertia. + +“Therefore, to all sincere minds the supposition that Matter, in the +conception and execution of the worlds, is contemporaneous with God, is +to deny God. Forced to choose, in order to govern the nations, between +the two alternatives of the problem, whole generations have preferred +this solution of it. Hence the doctrine of the two principles of +Magianism, brought from Asia and adopted in Europe under the form of +Satan warring with the Eternal Father. But this religious formula and +the innumerable aspects of divinity that have sprung from it are surely +crimes against the Majesty Divine. What other term can we apply to +the belief which sets up as a rival to God a personification of Evil, +striving eternally against the Omnipotent Mind without the possibility +of ultimate triumph? Your statics declare that two Forces thus pitted +against each other are reciprocally rendered null. + +“Do you turn back, therefore, to the other side of the problem, and say +that God pre-existed, original, alone? + +“I will not go over the preceding arguments (which here return in full +force) as to the severance of Eternity into two parts; nor the questions +raised by the progression or the immobility of the worlds; let us +look only at the difficulties inherent to this second theory. If God +pre-existed alone, the world must have emanated from Him; Matter was +therefore drawn from His essence; consequently Matter in itself is +non-existent; all forms are veils to cover the Divine Spirit. If this +be so, the World is Eternal, and also it must be God. Is not this +proposition even more fatal than the former to the attributes conferred +on God by human reason? How can the actual condition of Matter be +explained if we suppose it to issue from the bosom of God and to be +ever united with Him? Is it possible to believe that the All-Powerful, +supremely good in His essence and in His faculties, has engendered +things dissimilar to Himself. Must He not in all things and through all +things be like unto Himself? Can there be in God certain evil parts +of which at some future day he may rid Himself?--a conjecture less +offensive and absurd than terrible, for the reason that it drags back +into Him the two principles which the preceding theory proved to be +inadmissible. God must be ONE; He cannot be divided without renouncing +the most important condition of His existence. It is therefore +impossible to admit of a fraction of God which yet is not God. This +hypothesis seemed so criminal to the Roman Church that she has made the +omnipresence of God in the least particles of the Eucharist an article +of faith. + +“But how then can we imagine an omnipotent mind which does not triumph? +How associate it unless in triumph with Nature? But Nature is not +triumphant; she seeks, combines, remodels, dies, and is born again; she +is even more convulsed when creating than when all was fusion; Nature +suffers, groans, is ignorant, degenerates, does evil; deceives herself, +annihilates herself, disappears, and begins again. If God is associated +with Nature, how can we explain the inoperative indifference of the +divine principle? Wherefore death? How came it that Evil, king of +the earth, was born of a God supremely good in His essence and in His +faculties, who can produce nothing that is not made in His own image? + +“But if, from this relentless conclusion which leads at once to +absurdity, we pass to details, what end are we to assign to the world? +If all is God, all is reciprocally cause and effect; all is _One_ as God +is _One_, and we can perceive neither points of likeness nor points of +difference. Can the real end be a rotation of Matter which subtilizes +and disappears? In whatever sense it were done, would not this +mechanical trick of Matter issuing from God and returning to God seem +a sort of child’s play? Why should God make himself gross with Matter? +Under which form is he most God? Which has the ascendant, Matter or +Spirit, when neither can in any way do wrong? Who can comprehend the +Deity engaged in this perpetual business, by which he divides Himself +into two Natures, one of which knows nothing, while the other knows all? +Can you conceive of God amusing Himself in the form of man, laughing at +His own efforts, dying Friday, to be born again Sunday, and continuing +this play from age to age, knowing the end from all eternity, and +telling nothing to Himself, the Creature, of what He the Creator, does? +The God of the preceding hypothesis, a God so nugatory by the very power +of His inertia, seems the more possible of the two if we are compelled +to choose between the impossibilities with which this God, so dull a +jester, fusillades Himself when two sections of humanity argue face to +face, weapons in hand. + +“However absurd this outcome of the second problem may seem, it +was adopted by half the human race in the sunny lands where smiling +mythologies were created. Those amorous nations were consistent; +with them all was God, even Fear and its dastardy, even crime and its +bacchanals. If we accept pantheism,--the religion of many a great human +genius,--who shall say where the greater reason lies? Is it with the +savage, free in the desert, clothed in his nudity, listening to the sun, +talking to the sea, sublime and always true in his deeds whatever they +may be; or shall we find it in civilized man, who derives his chief +enjoyments through lies; who wrings Nature and all her resources to put +a musket on his shoulder; who employs his intellect to hasten the hour +of his death and to create diseases out of pleasures? When the rake of +pestilence and the ploughshare of war and the demon of desolation have +passed over a corner of the globe and obliterated all things, who will +be found to have the greater reason,--the Nubian savage or the patrician +of Thebes? Your doubts descend the scale, they go from heights to +depths, they embrace all, the end as well as the means. + +“But if the physical world seems inexplicable, the moral world presents +still stronger arguments against God. Where, then, is progress? If all +things are indeed moving toward perfection why do we die young? why do +not nations perpetuate themselves? The world having issued from God and +being contained in God can it be stationary? Do we live once, or do +we live always? If we live once, hurried onward by the march of the +Great-Whole, a knowledge of which has not been given to us, let us act +as we please. If we are eternal, let things take their course. Is the +created being guilty if he exists at the instant of the transitions? If +he sins at the moment of a great transformation will he be punished for +it after being its victim? What becomes of the Divine goodness if we are +not transferred to the regions of the blest--should any such exist? +What becomes of God’s prescience if He is ignorant of the results of the +trials to which He subjects us? What is this alternative offered to man +by all religions,--either to boil in some eternal cauldron or to walk +in white robes, a palm in his hand and a halo round his head? Can it +be that this pagan invention is the final word of God? Where is the +generous soul who does not feel that the calculating virtue which seeks +the eternity of pleasure offered by all religions to whoever fulfils +at stray moments certain fanciful and often unnatural conditions, is +unworthy of man and of God? Is it not a mockery to give to man impetuous +senses and forbid him to satisfy them? Besides, what mean these ascetic +objections if Good and Evil are equally abolished? Does Evil exist? +If substance in all its forms is God, then Evil is God. The faculty of +reasoning as well as the faculty of feeling having been given to man +to use, nothing can be more excusable in him than to seek to know the +meaning of human suffering and the prospects of the future. + +“If these rigid and rigorous arguments lead to such conclusions +confusion must reign. The world would have no fixedness; nothing +would advance, nothing would pause, all would change, nothing would be +destroyed, all would reappear after self-renovation; for if your mind +does not clearly demonstrate to you an end, it is equally impossible to +demonstrate the destruction of the smallest particle of Matter; Matter +can transform but not annihilate itself. + +“Though blind force may provide arguments for the atheist, intelligent +force is inexplicable; for if it emanates from God, why should it meet +with obstacles? ought not its triumph to be immediate? Where is God? +If the living cannot perceive Him, can the dead find Him? Crumble, +ye idolatries and ye religions! Fall, feeble keystones of all social +arches, powerless to retard the decay, the death, the oblivion that +have overtaken all nations however firmly founded! Fall, morality and +justice! our crimes are purely relative; they are divine effects whose +causes we are not allowed to know. All is God. Either we are God or God +is not!--Child of a century whose every year has laid upon your brow, +old man, the ice of its unbelief, here, here is the summing up of your +lifetime of thought, of your science and your reflections! Dear Monsieur +Becker, you have laid your head upon the pillow of Doubt, because it is +the easiest of solutions; acting in this respect with the majority +of mankind, who say in their hearts: ‘Let us think no more of these +problems, since God has not vouchsafed to grant us the algebraic +demonstrations that could solve them, while He has given us so many +other ways to get from earth to heaven.’ + +“Tell me, dear pastor, are not these your secret thoughts? Have I evaded +the point of any? nay, rather, have I not clearly stated all? First, in +the dogma of two principles,--an antagonism in which God perishes for +the reason that being All-Powerful He chose to combat. Secondly, in the +absurd pantheism where, all being God, God exists no longer. These two +sources, from which have flowed all the religions for whose triumph +Earth has toiled and prayed, are equally pernicious. Behold in them the +double-bladed axe with which you decapitate the white old man whom you +enthrone among your painted clouds! And now, to me the axe, I wield it!” + +Monsieur Becker and Wilfrid gazed at the young girl with something like +terror. + +“To believe,” continued Seraphita, in her Woman’s voice, for the Man +had finished speaking, “to believe is a gift. To believe is to feel. +To believe in God we must feel God. This feeling is a possession slowly +acquired by the human being, just as other astonishing powers which you +admire in great men, warriors, artists, scholars, those who know and +those who act, are acquired. Thought, that budget of the relations which +you perceive among created things, is an intellectual language which can +be learned, is it not? Belief, the budget of celestial truths, is also a +language as superior to thought as thought is to instinct. This language +also can be learned. The Believer answers with a single cry, a single +gesture; Faith puts within his hand a flaming sword with which he +pierces and illumines all. The Seer attains to heaven and descends not. +But there are beings who believe and see, who know and will, who love +and pray and wait. Submissive, yet aspiring to the kingdom of light, +they have neither the aloofness of the Believer nor the silence of the +Seer; they listen and reply. To them the doubt of the twilight ages +is not a murderous weapon, but a divining rod; they accept the contest +under every form; they train their tongues to every language; they are +never angered, though they groan; the acrimony of the aggressor is not +in them, but rather the softness and tenuity of light, which penetrates +and warms and illumines. To their eyes Doubt is neither an impiety, nor +a blasphemy, nor a crime, but a transition through which men return upon +their steps in the Darkness, or advance into the Light. This being so, +dear pastor, let us reason together. + +“You do not believe in God? Why? God, to your thinking, is +incomprehensible, inexplicable. Agreed. I will not reply that to +comprehend God in His entirety would be to be God; nor will I tell you +that you deny what seems to you inexplicable so as to give me the right +to affirm that which to me is believable. There is, for you, one +evident fact, which lies within yourself. In you, Matter has ended in +intelligence; can you therefore think that human intelligence will +end in darkness, doubt, and nothingness? God may seem to you +incomprehensible and inexplicable, but you must admit Him to be, in all +things purely physical, a splendid and consistent workman. Why should +His craft stop short at man, His most finished creation? + +“If that question is not convincing, at least it compels meditation. +Happily, although you deny God, you are obliged, in order to establish +your doubts, to admit those double-bladed facts, which kill your +arguments as much as your arguments kill God. We have also admitted that +Matter and Spirit are two creations which do not comprehend each other; +that the spiritual world is formed of infinite relations to which the +finite material world has given rise; that if no one on earth is able +to identify himself by the power of his spirit with the great-whole of +terrestrial creations, still less is he able to rise to the knowledge of +the relations which the spirit perceives between these creations. + +“We might end the argument here in one word, by denying you the faculty +of comprehending God, just as you deny to the pebbles of the fiord the +faculties of counting and of seeing each other. How do you know that the +stones themselves do not deny the existence of man, though man makes +use of them to build his houses? There is one fact that appals +you,--the Infinite; if you feel it within, why will you not admit its +consequences? Can the finite have a perfect knowledge of the infinite? +If you cannot perceive those relations which, according to your own +admission, are infinite, how can you grasp a sense of the far-off end to +which they are converging? Order, the revelation of which is one of your +needs, being infinite, can your limited reason apprehend it? Do not ask +why man does not comprehend that which he is able to perceive, for he is +equally able to perceive that which he does not comprehend. If I prove +to you that your mind ignores that which lies within its compass, will +you grant that it is impossible for it to conceive whatever is beyond +it? This being so, am I not justified in saying to you: ‘One of the two +propositions under which God is annihilated before the tribunal of our +reason must be true, the other is false. Inasmuch as creation exists, +you feel the necessity of an end, and that end should be good, should it +not? Now, if Matter terminates in man by intelligence, why are you not +satisfied to believe that the end of human intelligence is the Light of +the higher spheres, where alone an intuition of that God who seems so +insoluble a problem is obtained? The species which are beneath you have +no conception of the universe, and you have; why should there not be +other species above you more intelligent than your own? Man ought to be +better informed than he is about himself before he spends his strength +in measuring God. Before attacking the stars that light us, and the +higher certainties, ought he not to understand the certainties which are +actually about him?’ + +“But no! to the negations of doubt I ought rather to reply by negations. +Therefore I ask you whether there is anything here below so evident +that I can put faith in it? I will show you in a moment that you believe +firmly in things which act, and yet are not beings; in things which +engender thought, and yet are not spirits; in living abstractions which +the understanding cannot grasp in any shape, which are in fact nowhere, +but which you perceive everywhere; which have, and can have, on name, +but which, nevertheless, you have named; and which, like the God +of flesh upon whom you figure to yourself, remain inexplicable, +incomprehensible, and absurd. I shall also ask you why, after admitting +the existence of these incomprehensible things, you reserve your doubts +for God? + +“You believe, for instance, in Number,--a base on which you have built +the edifice of sciences which you call ‘exact.’ Without Number, what +would become of mathematics? Well, what mysterious being endowed with +the faculty of living forever could utter, and what language would be +compact to word the Number which contains the infinite numbers whose +existence is revealed to you by thought? Ask it of the loftiest human +genius; he might ponder it for a thousand years and what would be his +answer? You know neither where Number begins, nor where it pauses, nor +where it ends. Here you call it Time, there you call it Space. Nothing +exists except by Number. Without it, all would be one and the same +substance; for Number alone differentiates and qualifies substance. +Number is to your Spirit what it is to Matter, an incomprehensible +agent. Will you make a Deity of it? Is it a being? Is it a breath +emanating from God to organize the material universe where nothing +obtains form except by the Divinity which is an effect of Number? The +least as well as the greatest of creations are distinguishable from +each other by quantities, qualities, dimensions, forces,--all attributes +created by Number. The infinitude of Numbers is a fact proved to your +soul, but of which no material proof can be given. The mathematician +himself tells you that the infinite of numbers exists, but cannot be +proved. + +“God, dear pastor, is a Number endowed with motion,--felt, but not seen, +the Believer will tell you. Like the Unit, He begins Number, with which +He has nothing in common. The existence of Number depends on the Unit, +which without being a number engenders Number. God, dear pastor is a +glorious Unit who has nothing in common with His creations but who, +nevertheless, engenders them. Will you not therefore agree with me that +you are just as ignorant of where Number begins and ends as you are of +where created Eternity begins and ends? + +“Why, then, if you believe in Number, do you deny God? Is not Creation +interposed between the Infinite of unorganized substances and the +Infinite of the divine spheres, just as the Unit stands between the +Cipher of the fractions you have lately named Decimals, and the Infinite +of Numbers which you call Wholes? Man alone on earth comprehends Number, +that first step of the peristyle which leads to God, and yet his reason +stumbles on it! What! you can neither measure nor grasp the first +abstraction which God delivers to you, and yet you try to subject His +ends to your own tape-line! Suppose that I plunge you into the abyss of +Motion, the force that organizes Number. If I tell you that the Universe +is naught else than Number and Motion, you would see at once that we +speak two different languages. I understand them both; you understand +neither. + +“Suppose I add that Motion and Number are engendered by the Word, namely +the supreme Reason of Seers and Prophets who in the olden time heard the +Breath of God beneath which Saul fell to the earth. That Word, you +scoff at it, you men, although you well know that all visible works, +societies, monuments, deeds, passions, proceed from the breath of your +own feeble word, and that without that word you would resemble the +African gorilla, the nearest approach to man, the Negro. You believe +firmly in Number and in Motion, a force and a result both inexplicable, +incomprehensible, to the existence of which I may apply the logical +dilemma which, as we have seen, prevents you from believing in God. +Powerful reasoner that you are, you do not need that I should prove to +you that the Infinite must everywhere be like unto Itself, and that, +necessarily, it is One. God alone is Infinite, for surely there cannot +be two Infinities, two Ones. If, to make use of human terms, anything +demonstrated to you here below seems to you infinite, be sure that +within it you will find some one aspect of God. But to continue. + +“You have appropriated to yourself a place in the Infinite of Number; +you have fitted it to your own proportions by creating (if indeed you +did create) arithmetic, the basis on which all things rest, even your +societies. Just as Number--the only thing in which your self-styled +atheists believe--organized physical creations, so arithmetic, in the +employ of Number, organized the moral world. This numeration must +be absolute, like all else that is true in itself; but it is purely +relative, it does not exist absolutely, and no proof can be given of its +reality. In the first place, though Numeration is able to take account +of organized substances, it is powerless in relation to unorganized +forces, the ones being finite and the others infinite. The man who can +conceive the Infinite by his intelligence cannot deal with it in its +entirety; if he could, he would be God. Your Numeration, applying to +things finite and not to the Infinite, is therefore true in relation to +the details which you are able to perceive, and false in relation to +the Whole, which you are unable to perceive. Though Nature is like unto +herself in the organizing force or in her principles which are infinite, +she is not so in her finite effects. Thus you will never find in Nature +two objects identically alike. In the Natural Order two and two never +make four; to do so, four exactly similar units must be had, and you +know how impossible it is to find two leaves alike on the same tree, +or two trees alike of the same species. This axiom of your numeration, +false in visible nature, is equally false in the invisible universe of +your abstractions, where the same variance takes place in your ideas, +which are the things of the visible world extended by means of their +relations; so that the variations here are even more marked than +elsewhere. In fact, all being relative to the temperament, strength, +habits, and customs of individuals, who never resemble each other, the +smallest objects take the color of personal feelings. For instance, man +has been able to create units and to give an equal weight and value to +bits of gold. Well, take the ducat of the rich man and the ducat of the +poor man to a money-changer and they are rated exactly equal, but to +the mind of the thinker one is of greater importance than the other; one +represents a month of comfort, the other an ephemeral caprice. Two and +two, therefore, only make four through a false conception. + +“Again: fraction does not exist in Nature, where what you call a +fragment is a finished whole. Does it not often happen (have you not +many proofs of it?) that the hundredth part of a substance is stronger +than what you term the whole of it? If fraction does not exist in the +Natural Order, still less shall we find it in the Moral Order, where +ideas and sentiments may be as varied as the species of the Vegetable +kingdom and yet be always whole. The theory of fractions is therefore +another signal instance of the servility of your mind. + +“Thus Number, with its infinite minuteness and its infinite expansion, +is a power whose weakest side is known to you, but whose real import +escapes your perception. You have built yourself a hut in the Infinite +of numbers, you have adorned it with hieroglyphics scientifically +arranged and painted, and you cry out, ‘All is here!’ + +“Let us pass from pure, unmingled Number to corporate Number. Your +geometry establishes that a straight line is the shortest way from one +point to another, but your astronomy proves that God has proceeded +by curves. Here, then, we find two truths equally proved by the +same science,--one by the testimony of your senses reinforced by the +telescope, the other by the testimony of your mind; and yet the one +contradicts the other. Man, liable to err, affirms one, and the Maker +of the worlds, whom, so far, you have not detected in error, contradicts +it. Who shall decide between rectalinear and curvilinear geometry? +between the theory of the straight line and that of the curve? If, in +His vast work, the mysterious Artificer, who knows how to reach His ends +miraculously fast, never employs a straight line except to cut off an +angle and so obtain a curve, neither does man himself always rely upon +it. The bullet which he aims direct proceeds by a curve, and when you +wish to strike a certain point in space, you impel your bombshell along +its cruel parabola. None of your men of science have drawn from this +fact the simple deduction that the Curve is the law of the material +worlds and the Straight line that of the Spiritual worlds; one is the +theory of finite creations, the other the theory of the infinite. Man, +who alone in the world has a knowledge of the Infinite, can alone know +the straight line; he alone has the sense of verticality placed in a +special organ. A fondness for the creations of the curve would seem to +be in certain men an indication of the impurity of their nature still +conjoined to the material substances which engender us; and the love of +great souls for the straight line seems to show in them an intuition of +heaven. Between these two lines there is a gulf fixed like that between +the finite and the infinite, between matter and spirit, between man and +the idea, between motion and the object moved, between the creature and +God. Ask Love the Divine to grant you his wings and you can cross that +gulf. Beyond it begins the revelation of the Word. + +“No part of those things which you call material is without its own +meaning; lines are the boundaries of solid parts and imply a force +of action which you suppress in your formulas,--thus rendering those +formulas false in relation to substances taken as a whole. Hence the +constant destruction of the monuments of human labor, which you supply, +unknown to yourselves, with acting properties. Nature has substances; +your science combines only their appearances. At every step Nature +gives the lie to all your laws. Can you find a single one that is not +disproved by a fact? Your Static laws are at the mercy of a thousand +accidents; a fluid can overthrow a solid mountain and prove that the +heaviest substances may be lifted by one that is imponderable. + +“Your laws on Acoustics and Optics are defied by the sounds which you +hear within yourselves in sleep, and by the light of an electric sun +whose rays often overcome you. You know no more how light makes itself +seen within you, than you know the simple and natural process which +changes it on the throats of tropic birds to rubies, sapphires, +emeralds, and opals, or keeps it gray and brown on the breasts of the +same birds under the cloudy skies of Europe, or whitens it here in the +bosom of our polar Nature. You know not how to decide whether color is a +faculty with which all substances are endowed, or an effect produced by +an effluence of light. You admit the saltness of the sea without +being able to prove that the water is salt at its greatest depth. You +recognize the existence of various substances which span what you think +to be the void,--substances which are not tangible under any of the +forms assumed by Matter, although they put themselves in harmony with +Matter in spite of every obstacle. + +“All this being so, you believe in the results of Chemistry, although +that science still knows no way of gauging the changes produced by the +flux and reflux of substances which come and go across your crystals and +your instruments on the impalpable filaments of heat or light conducted +and projected by the affinities of metal or vitrified flint. You obtain +none but dead substances, from which you have driven the unknown force +that holds in check the decomposition of all things here below, and of +which cohesion, attraction, vibration, and polarity are but phenomena. +Life is the thought of substances; bodies are only the means of +fixing life and holding it to its way. If bodies were beings living of +themselves they would be Cause itself, and could not die. + +“When a man discovers the results of the general movement, which is +shared by all creations according to their faculty of absorption, you +proclaim him mighty in science, as though genius consisted in explaining +a thing that is! Genius ought to cast its eyes beyond effects. Your men +of science would laugh if you said to them: ‘There exist such positive +relations between two human beings, one of whom may be here, and +the other in Java, that they can at the same instant feel the same +sensation, and be conscious of so doing; they can question each other +and reply without mistake’; and yet there are mineral substances which +exhibit sympathies as far off from each other as those of which I speak. +You believe in the power of the electricity which you find in the magnet +and you deny that which emanates from the soul! According to you, the +moon, whose influence upon the tides you think fixed, has none whatever +upon the winds, nor upon navigation, nor upon men; she moves the sea, +but she must not affect the sick folk; she has undeniable relations +with one half of humanity, and nothing at all to do with the other half. +These are your vaunted certainties! + +“Let us go a step further. You believe in physics. But your physics +begin, like the Catholic religion, with an _act of faith_. Do they not +pre-suppose some external force distinct from substance to which it +communicates motion? You see its effects, but what is it? where is it? +what is the essence of its nature, its life? has it any limits?--and +yet, you deny God! + +“Thus, the majority of your scientific axioms, true to their relation to +man, are false in relation to the Great Whole. Science is One, but you +have divided it. To know the real meaning of the laws of phenomena must +we not know the correlations which exist between phenomena and the law +of the Whole? There is, in all things, an appearance which strikes +your senses; under that appearance stirs a soul; a body is there and a +faculty is there. Where do you teach the study of the relations which +bind things to each other? Nowhere. Consequently you have nothing +positive. Your strongest certainties rest upon the analysis of material +forms whose essence you persistently ignore. + +“There is a Higher Knowledge of which, too late, some men obtain a +glimpse, though they dare not avow it. Such men comprehend the necessity +of considering substances not merely in their mathematical properties +but also in their entirety, in their occult relations and affinities. +The greatest man among you divined, in his latter days, that all was +reciprocally cause and effect; that the visible worlds were co-ordinated +among themselves and subject to worlds invisible. He groaned at the +recollection of having tried to establish fixed precepts. Counting up +his worlds, like grape-seeds scattered through ether, he had explained +their coherence by the laws of planetary and molecular attraction. +You bowed before that man of science--well! I tell you that he died in +despair. By supposing that the centrifugal and centripetal forces, +which he had invented to explain to himself the universe, were equal, he +stopped the universe; yet he admitted motion in an indeterminate +sense; but supposing those forces unequal, then utter confusion of the +planetary system ensued. His laws therefore were not absolute; some +higher problem existed than the principle on which his false glory +rested. The connection of the stars with one another and the centripetal +action of their internal motion did not deter him from seeking the +parent stalk on which his clusters hung. Alas, poor man! the more he +widened space the heavier his burden grew. He told you how there came +to be equilibrium among the parts, but whither went the whole? His mind +contemplated the vast extent, illimitable to human eyes, filled with +those groups of worlds a mere fraction of which is all our telescopes +can reach, but whose immensity is revealed by the rapidity of light. +This sublime contemplation enabled him to perceive myriads of worlds, +planted in space like flowers in a field, which are born like infants, +grow like men, die as the aged die, and live by assimilating from their +atmosphere the substances suitable for their nourishment,--having +a centre and a principal of life, guaranteeing to each other their +circuits, absorbed and absorbing like plants, and forming a vast Whole +endowed with life and possessing a destiny. + +“At that sight your man of science trembled! He knew that life is +produced by the union of the thing and its principle, that death or +inertia or gravity is produced by a rupture between a thing and the +movement which appertains to it. Then it was that he foresaw the +crumbling of the worlds and their destruction if God should withdraw the +Breath of His Word. He searched the Apocalypse for the traces of that +Word. You thought him mad. Understand him better! He was seeking pardon +for the work of his genius. + +“Wilfrid, you have come here hoping to make me solve equations, or rise +upon a rain-cloud, or plunge into the fiord and reappear a swan. If +science or miracles were the end and object of humanity, Moses would +have bequeathed to you the law of fluxions; Jesus Christ would have +lightened the darkness of your sciences; his apostles would have told +you whence come those vast trains of gas and melted metals, attached +to cores which revolve and solidify as they dart through ether, or +violently enter some system and combine with a star, jostling and +displacing it by the shock, or destroying it by the infiltration of +their deadly gases; Saint Paul, instead of telling you to live in God, +would have explained why food is the secret bond among all creations and +the evident tie between all living Species. In these days the greatest +miracle of all would be the discovery of the squaring of the circle,--a +problem which you hold to be insoluble, but which is doubtless solved in +the march of worlds by the intersection of some mathematical lines whose +course is visible to the eye of spirits who have reached the higher +spheres. Believe me, miracles are in us, not without us. Here natural +facts occur which men call supernatural. God would have been strangely +unjust had he confined the testimony of his power to certain generations +and peoples and denied them to others. The brazen rod belongs to all. +Neither Moses, nor Jacob, nor Zoroaster, nor Paul, nor Pythagoras, nor +Swedenborg, not the humblest Messenger nor the loftiest Prophet of the +Most High are greater than you are capable of being. Only, there come to +nations as to men certain periods when Faith is theirs. + +“If material sciences be the end and object of human effort, tell +me, both of you, would societies,--those great centres where men +congregate,--would they perpetually be dispersed? If civilization were +the object of our Species, would intelligence perish? would it continue +purely individual? The grandeur of all nations that were truly great was +based on exceptions; when the exception ceased their power died. If such +were the End-all, Prophets, Seers, and Messengers of God would have lent +their hand to Science rather than have given it to Belief. Surely they +would have quickened your brains sooner than have touched your hearts! +But no; one and all they came to lead the nations back to God; they +proclaimed the sacred Path in simple words that showed the way to +heaven; all were wrapped in love and faith, all were inspired by that +_word_ which hovers above the inhabitants of earth, enfolding them, +inspiriting them, uplifting them; none were prompted by any human +interest. Your great geniuses, your poets, your kings, your learned men +are engulfed with their cities; while the names of these good pastors of +humanity, ever blessed, have survived all cataclysms. + +“Alas! we cannot understand each other on any point. We are separated by +an abyss. You are on the side of darkness, while I--I live in the light, +the true Light! Is this the word that you ask of me? I say it with joy; +it may change you. Know this: there are sciences of matter and sciences +of spirit. There, where you see substances, I see forces that stretch +one toward another with generating power. To me, the character of bodies +is the indication of their principles and the sign of their properties. +Those principles beget affinities which escape your knowledge, and +which are linked to centres. The different species among which life is +distributed are unfailing streams which correspond unfailingly among +themselves. Each has his own vocation. Man is effect and cause. He is +fed, but he feeds in turn. When you call God a Creator, you dwarf Him. +He did not create, as you think He did, plants or animals or stars. +Could He proceed by a variety of means? Must He not act by unity +of composition? Moreover, He gave forth principles to be developed, +according to His universal law, at the will of the surroundings in which +they were placed. Hence a single substance and motion, a single plant, a +single animal, but correlations everywhere. In fact, all affinities are +linked together by contiguous similitudes; the life of the worlds is +drawn toward the centres by famished aspiration, as you are drawn by +hunger to seek food. + +“To give you an example of affinities linked to similitudes (a secondary +law on which the creations of your thought are based), music, that +celestial art, is the working out of this principle; for is it not a +complement of sounds harmonized by number? Is not sound a modification +of air, compressed, dilated, echoed? You know the composition of +air,--oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. As you cannot obtain sound from +the void, it is plain that music and the human voice are the result of +organized chemical substances, which put themselves in unison with the +same substances prepared within you by your thought, co-ordinated +by means of light, the great nourisher of your globe. Have you ever +meditated on the masses of nitre deposited by the snow, have you ever +observed a thunderstorm and seen the plants breathing in from the air +about them the metal it contains, without concluding that the sun has +fused and distributed the subtle essence which nourishes all things here +below? Swedenborg has said, ‘The earth is a man.’ + +“Your Science, which makes you great in your own eyes, is paltry indeed +beside the light which bathes a Seer. Cease, cease to question me; our +languages are different. For a moment I have used yours to cast, if it +be possible, a ray of faith into your soul; to give you, as it were, the +hem of my garment and draw you up into the regions of Prayer. Can God +abase Himself to you? Is it not for you to rise to Him? If human reason +finds the ladder of its own strength too weak to bring God down to it, +is it not evident that you must find some other path to reach Him? That +Path is in ourselves. The Seer and the Believer find eyes within their +souls more piercing far than eyes that probe the things of earth,--they +see the Dawn. Hear this truth: Your science, let it be never so exact, +your meditations, however bold, your noblest lights are Clouds. Above, +above is the Sanctuary whence the true Light flows.” + +She sat down and remained silent; her calm face bore no sign of the +agitation which orators betray after their least fervid improvisations. + +Wilfrid bent toward Monsieur Becker and said in a low voice, “Who taught +her that?” + +“I do not know,” he answered. + +“He was gentler on the Falberg,” Minna whispered to herself. + +Seraphita passed her hand across her eyes and then she said, smiling:-- + +“You are very thoughtful to-night, gentlemen. You treat Minna and me as +though we were men to whom you must talk politics or commerce; whereas +we are young girls, and you ought to tell us tales while you drink +your tea. That is what we do, Monsieur Wilfrid, in our long Norwegian +evenings. Come, dear pastor, tell me some Saga that I have not +heard,--that of Frithiof, the chronicle that you believe and have so +often promised me. Tell us the story of the peasant lad who owned the +ship that talked and had a soul. Come! I dream of the frigate Ellida, +the fairy with the sails young girls should navigate!” + +“Since we have returned to the regions of Jarvis,” said Wilfrid, whose +eyes were fastened on Seraphita as those of a robber, lurking in the +darkness, fasten on the spot where he knows the jewels lie, “tell me why +you do not marry?” + +“You are all born widows and widowers,” she replied; “but my marriage +was arranged at my birth. I am betrothed.” + +“To whom?” they cried. + +“Ask not my secret,” she said; “I will promise, if our father permits +it, to invite you to these mysterious nuptials.” + +“Will they be soon?” + +“I think so.” + +A long silence followed these words. + +“The spring has come!” said Seraphita, suddenly. “The noise of the +waters and the breaking of the ice begins. Come, let us welcome the +first spring of the new century.” + +She rose, followed by Wilfrid, and together they went to a window which +David had opened. After the long silence of winter, the waters stirred +beneath the ice and resounded through the fiord like music,--for there +are sounds which space refines, so that they reach the ear in waves of +light and freshness. + +“Wilfrid, cease to nourish evil thoughts whose triumph would be hard to +bear. Your desires are easily read in the fire of your eyes. Be kind; +take one step forward in well-doing. Advance beyond the love of man and +sacrifice yourself completely to the happiness of her you love. Obey me; +I will lead you in a path where you shall obtain the distinctions which +you crave, and where Love is infinite indeed.” + +She left him thoughtful. + +“That soft creature!” he said within himself; “is she indeed the +prophetess whose eyes have just flashed lightnings, whose voice has +rung through worlds, whose hand has wielded the axe of doubt against our +sciences? Have we been dreaming? Am I awake?” + +“Minna,” said Seraphita, returning to the young girl, “the eagle swoops +where the carrion lies, but the dove seeks the mountain spring beneath +the peaceful greenery of the glades. The eagle soars to heaven, the dove +descends from it. Cease to venture into regions where thou canst find +no spring of waters, no umbrageous shade. If on the Falberg thou couldst +not gaze into the abyss and live, keep all thy strength for him who will +love thee. Go, poor girl; thou knowest, I am betrothed.” + +Minna rose and followed Seraphita to the window where Wilfrid stood. All +three listened to the Sieg bounding out the rush of the upper waters, +which brought down trees uprooted by the ice; the fiord had regained +its voice; all illusions were dispelled! They rejoiced in Nature as she +burst her bonds and seemed to answer with sublime accord to the Spirit +whose breath had wakened her. + +When the three guests of this mysterious being left the house, they were +filled with the vague sensation which is neither sleep, nor torpor, +nor astonishment, but partakes of the nature of each,--a state that is +neither dusk nor dawn, but which creates a thirst for light. All three +were thinking. + +“I begin to believe that she is indeed a Spirit hidden in human form,” + said Monsieur Becker. + +Wilfrid, re-entering his own apartments, calm and convinced, was unable +to struggle against that influence so divinely majestic. + +Minna said in her heart, “Why will he not let me love him!” + + + + +CHAPTER V. FAREWELL + + +There is in man an almost hopeless phenomenon for thoughtful minds who +seek a meaning in the march of civilization, and who endeavor to give +laws of progression to the movement of intelligence. However portentous +a fact may be, or even supernatural,--if such facts exist,--however +solemnly a miracle may be done in sight of all, the lightning of that +fact, the thunderbolt of that miracle is quickly swallowed up in the +ocean of life, whose surface, scarcely stirred by the brief convulsion, +returns to the level of its habitual flow. + +A Voice is heard from the jaws of an Animal; a Hand writes on the wall +before a feasting Court; an Eye gleams in the slumber of a king, and a +Prophet explains the dream; Death, evoked, rises on the confines of the +luminous sphere were faculties revive; Spirit annihilates Matter at the +foot of that mystic ladder of the Seven Spiritual Worlds, one resting +upon another in space and revealing themselves in shining waves that +break in light upon the steps of the celestial Tabernacle. But however +solemn the inward Revelation, however clear the visible outward Sign, +be sure that on the morrow Balaam doubts both himself and his ass, +Belshazzar and Pharoah call Moses and Daniel to qualify the Word. The +Spirit, descending, bears man above this earth, opens the seas and lets +him see their depths, shows him lost species, wakens dry bones whose +dust is the soil of valleys; the Apostle writes the Apocalypse, and +twenty centuries later human science ratifies his words and turns his +visions into maxims. And what comes of it all? Why this,--that the +peoples live as they have ever lived, as they lived in the first +Olympiad, as they lived on the morrow of Creation, and on the eve of the +great cataclysm. The waves of Doubt have covered all things. The same +floods surge with the same measured motion on the human granite which +serves as a boundary to the ocean of intelligence. When man has inquired +of himself whether he has seen that which he has seen, whether he has +heard the words that entered his ears, whether the facts were facts and +the idea is indeed an idea, then he resumes his wonted bearing, thinks +of his worldly interests, obeys some envoy of death and of oblivion +whose dusky mantle covers like a pall an ancient Humanity of which +the moderns retain no memory. Man never pauses; he goes his round, +he vegetates until the appointed day when his Axe falls. If this wave +force, this pressure of bitter waters prevents all progress, no doubt it +also warns of death. Spirits prepared by faith among the higher souls of +earth can alone perceive the mystic ladder of Jacob. + +After listening to Seraphita’s answer in which (being earnestly +questioned) she unrolled before their eyes a Divine Perspective,--as an +organ fills a church with sonorous sound and reveals a musical universe, +its solemn tones rising to the loftiest arches and playing, like light, +upon their foliated capitals,--Wilfrid returned to his own room, awed +by the sight of a world in ruins, and on those ruins the brilliance of +mysterious lights poured forth in torrents by the hand of a young girl. +On the morrow he still thought of these things, but his awe was gone; he +felt he was neither destroyed nor changed; his passions, his ideas awoke +in full force, fresh and vigorous. He went to breakfast with Monsieur +Becker and found the old man absorbed in the “Treatise on Incantations,” + which he had searched since early morning to convince his guest that +there was nothing unprecedented in all that they had seen and heard at +the Swedish castle. With the childlike trustfulness of a true scholar +he had folded down the pages in which Jean Wier related authentic facts +which proved the possibility of the events that had happened the night +before,--for to learned men an idea is a event, just as the greatest +events often present no idea at all to them. By the time they had +swallowed their fifth cup of tea, these philosophers had come to think +the mysterious scene of the preceding evening wholly natural. The +celestial truths to which they had listened were arguments susceptible +of examination; Seraphita was a girl, more or less eloquent; allowance +must be made for the charms of her voice, her seductive beauty, her +fascinating motions, in short, for all those oratorical arts by which an +actor puts a world of sentiment and thought into phrases which are often +commonplace. + +“Bah!” said the worthy pastor, making a philosophical grimace as he +spread a layer of salt butter on his slice of bread, “the final word of +all these fine enigmas is six feet under ground.” + +“But,” said Wilfrid, sugaring his tea, “I cannot image how a young girl +of seventeen can know so much; what she said was certainly a compact +argument.” + +“Read the account of that Italian woman,” said Monsieur Becker, “who at +the age of twelve spoke forty-two languages, ancient and modern; also +the history of that monk who could guess thought by smell. I can give +you a thousand such cases from Jean Wier and other writers.” + +“I admit all that, dear pastor; but to my thinking, Seraphita would make +a perfect wife.” + +“She is all mind,” said Monsieur Becker, dubiously. + +Several days went by, during which the snow in the valleys melted +gradually away; the green of the forests and of the grass began to show; +Norwegian Nature made ready her wedding garments for her brief bridal +of a day. During this period, when the softened air invited every one +to leave the house, Seraphita remained at home in solitude. When at last +she admitted Minna the latter saw at once the ravages of inward fever; +Seraphita’s voice was hollow, her skin pallid; hitherto a poet might +have compared her lustre to that of diamonds,--now it was that of a +topaz. + +“Have you seen her?” asked Wilfrid, who had wandered around the Swedish +dwelling waiting for Minna’s return. + +“Yes,” answered the young girl, weeping; “We must lose him!” + +“Mademoiselle,” cried Wilfrid, endeavoring to repress the loud tones of +his angry voice, “do not jest with me. You can love Seraphita only +as one young girl can love another, and not with the love which she +inspires in me. You do not know your danger if my jealousy were really +aroused. Why can I not go to her? Is it you who stand in my way?” + +“I do not know by what right you probe my heart,” said Minna, calm +in appearance, but inwardly terrified. “Yes, I love him,” she said, +recovering the courage of her convictions, that she might, for once, +confess the religion of her heart. “But my jealousy, natural as it is +in love, fears no one here below. Alas! I am jealous of a secret feeling +that absorbs him. Between him and me there is a great gulf fixed which +I cannot cross. Would that I knew who loves him best, the stars or I! +which of us would sacrifice our being most eagerly for his happiness! +Why should I not be free to avow my love? In the presence of death we +may declare our feelings,--and Seraphitus is about to die.” + +“Minna, you are mistaken; the siren I so love and long for, she, whom +I have seen, feeble and languid, on her couch of furs, is not a young +man.” + +“Monsieur,” answered Minna, distressfully, “the being whose powerful +hand guided me on the Falberg, who led me to the saeter sheltered +beneath the Ice-Cap, there--” she said, pointing to the peak, “is not +a feeble girl. Ah, had you but heard him prophesying! His poem was the +music of thought. A young girl never uttered those solemn tones of a +voice which stirred my soul.” + +“What certainty have you?” said Wilfrid. + +“None but that of the heart,” answered Minna. + +“And I,” cried Wilfrid, casting on his companion the terrible glance of +the earthly desire that kills, “I, too, know how powerful is her empire +over me, and I will undeceive you.” + +At this moment, while the words were rushing from Wilfrid’s lips as +rapidly as the thoughts surged in his brain, they saw Seraphita coming +towards them from the house, followed by David. The apparition calmed +the man’s excitement. + +“Look,” he said, “could any but a woman move with that grace and +langor?” + +“He suffers; he comes forth for the last time,” said Minna. + +David went back at a sign from his mistress, who advanced towards +Wilfrid and Minna. + +“Let us go to the falls of the Sieg,” she said, expressing one of those +desires which suddenly possess the sick and which the well hasten to +obey. + +A thin white mist covered the valleys around the fiord and the sides +of the mountains, whose icy summits, sparkling like stars, pierced the +vapor and gave it the appearance of a moving milky way. The sun was +visible through the haze like a globe of red fire. Though winter still +lingered, puffs of warm air laden with the scent of the birch-trees, +already adorned with their rosy efflorescence, and of the larches, +whose silken tassels were beginning to appear,--breezes tempered by the +incense and the sighs of earth,--gave token of the glorious Northern +spring, the rapid, fleeting joy of that most melancholy of Natures. +The wind was beginning to lift the veil of mist which half-obscured the +gulf. The birds sang. The bark of the trees where the sun had not yet +dried the clinging hoar-frost shone gayly to the eye in its fantastic +wreathings which trickled away in murmuring rivulets as the warmth +reached them. The three friends walked in silence along the shore. +Wilfrid and Minna alone noticed the magic transformation that was taking +place in the monotonous picture of the winter landscape. Their companion +walked in thought, as though a voice were sounding to her ears in this +concert of Nature. + +Presently they reached the ledge of rocks through which the Sieg had +forced its way, after escaping from the long avenue cut by its waters +in an undulating line through the forest,--a fluvial pathway flanked +by aged firs and roofed with strong-ribbed arches like those of a +cathedral. Looking back from that vantage-ground, the whole extent of +the fiord could be seen at a glance, with the open sea sparkling on the +horizon beyond it like a burnished blade. + +At this moment the mist, rolling away, left the sky blue and clear. +Among the valleys and around the trees flitted the shining fragments,--a +diamond dust swept by the freshening breeze. The torrent rolled on +toward them; along its length a vapor rose, tinted by the sun with every +color of his light; the decomposing rays flashing prismatic fires along +the many-tinted scarf of waters. The rugged ledge on which they stood +was carpeted by several kinds of lichen, forming a noble mat variegated +by moisture and lustrous like the sheen of a silken fabric. Shrubs, +already in bloom, crowned the rocks with garlands. Their waving foliage, +eager for the freshness of the water, drooped its tresses above the +stream; the larches shook their light fringes and played with the pines, +stiff and motionless as aged men. This luxuriant beauty was foiled by +the solemn colonnades of the forest-trees, rising in terraces upon the +mountains, and by the calm sheet of the fiord, lying below, where the +torrent buried its fury and was still. Beyond, the sea hemmed in this +page of Nature, written by the greatest of poets, Chance; to whom the +wild luxuriance of creation when apparently abandoned to itself is +owing. + +The village of Jarvis was a lost point in the landscape, in this +immensity of Nature, sublime at this moment like all things else of +ephemeral life which present a fleeting image of perfection; for, by a +law fatal to no eyes but our own, creations which appear complete--the +love of our heart and the desire of our eyes--have but one spring-tide +here below. Standing on this breast-work of rock these three persons +might well suppose themselves alone in the universe. + +“What beauty!” cried Wilfrid. + +“Nature sings hymns,” said Seraphita. “Is not her music exquisite? Tell +me, Wilfrid, could any of the women you once knew create such a glorious +retreat for herself as this? I am conscious here of a feeling seldom +inspired by the sight of cities, a longing to lie down amid this +quickening verdure. Here, with eyes to heaven and an open heart, lost in +the bosom of immensity, I could hear the sighings of the flower, scarce +budded, which longs for wings, or the cry of the eider grieving that it +can only fly, and remember the desires of man who, issuing from all, +is none the less ever longing. But that, Wilfrid, is only a woman’s +thought. You find seductive fancies in the wreathing mists, the +light embroidered veils which Nature dons like a coy maiden, in this +atmosphere where she perfumes for her spousals the greenery of her +tresses. You seek the naiad’s form amid the gauzy vapors, and to your +thinking my ears should listen only to the virile voice of the Torrent.” + +“But Love is there, like the bee in the calyx of the flower,” replied +Wilfrid, perceiving for the first time a trace of earthly sentiment in +her words, and fancying the moment favorable for an expression of his +passionate tenderness. + +“Always there?” said Seraphita, smiling. Minna had left them for a +moment to gather the blue saxifrages growing on a rock above. + +“Always,” repeated Wilfrid. “Hear me,” he said, with a masterful glance +which was foiled as by a diamond breast-plate. “You know not what I am, +nor what I can be, nor what I will. Do not reject my last entreaty. +Be mine for the good of that world whose happiness you bear upon your +heart. Be mine that my conscience may be pure; that a voice divine +may sound in my ears and infuse Good into the great enterprise I have +undertaken prompted by my hatred to the nations, but which I swear to +accomplish for their benefit if you will walk beside me. What higher +mission can you ask for love? what nobler part can woman aspire to? I +came to Norway to meditate a grand design.” + +“And you will sacrifice its grandeur,” she said, “to an innocent girl +who loves you, and who will lead you in the paths of peace.” + +“What matters sacrifice,” he cried, “if I have you? Hear my secret. I +have gone from end to end of the North,--that great smithy from whose +anvils new races have spread over the earth, like human tides appointed +to refresh the wornout civilizations. I wished to begin my work at some +Northern point, to win the empire which force and intellect must ever +give over a primitive people; to form that people for battle, to drive +them to wars which should ravage Europe like a conflagration, crying +liberty to some, pillage to others, glory here, pleasure there!--I, +myself, remaining an image of Destiny, cruel, implacable, advancing like +the whirlwind, which sucks from the atmosphere the particles that make +the thunderbolt, and falls like a devouring scourge upon the nations. +Europe is at an epoch when she awaits the new Messiah who shall destroy +society and remake it. She can no longer believe except in him who +crushes her under foot. The day is at hand when poets and historians +will justify me, exalt me, and borrow my ideas, mine! And all the while +my triumph will be a jest, written in blood, the jest of my vengeance! +But not here, Seraphita; what I see in the North disgusts me. Hers is +a mere blind force; I thirst for the Indies! I would rather fight a +selfish, cowardly, mercantile government. Besides, it is easier to stir +the imagination of the peoples at the feet of the Caucasus than to argue +with the intellect of the icy lands which here surround me. Therefore am +I tempted to cross the Russian steps and pour my triumphant human tide +through Asia to the Ganges, and overthrow the British rule. Seven men +have done this thing before me in other epochs of the world. I will +emulate them. I will spread Art like the Saracens, hurled by Mohammed +upon Europe. Mine shall be no paltry sovereignty like those that govern +to-day the ancient provinces of the Roman empire, disputing with their +subjects about a customs right! No, nothing can bar my way! Like Genghis +Khan, my feet shall tread a third of the globe, my hand shall grasp +the throat of Asia like Aurung-Zeb. Be my companion! Let me seat thee, +beautiful and noble being, on a throne! I do not doubt success, but live +within my heart and I am sure of it.” + +“I have already reigned,” said Seraphita, coldly. + +The words fell as the axe of a skilful woodman falls at the root of a +young tree and brings it down at a single blow. Men alone can comprehend +the rage that a woman excites in the soul of a man when, after showing +her his strength, his power, his wisdom, his superiority, the capricious +creature bends her head and says, “All that is nothing”; when, unmoved, +she smiles and says, “Such things are known to me,” as though his power +were nought. + +“What!” cried Wilfrid, in despair, “can the riches of art, the riches of +worlds, the splendors of a court--” + +She stopped him by a single inflexion of her lips, and said, “Beings +more powerful than you have offered me far more.” + +“Thou hast no soul,” he cried,--“no soul, if thou art not persuaded by +the thought of comforting a great man, who is willing now to sacrifice +all things to live beside thee in a little house on the shores of a +lake.” + +“But,” she said, “I am loved with a boundless love.” + +“By whom?” cried Wilfrid, approaching Seraphita with a frenzied +movement, as if to fling her into the foaming basin of the Sieg. + +She looked at him and slowly extended her arm, pointing to Minna, who +now sprang towards her, fair and glowing and lovely as the flowers she +held in her hand. + +“Child!” said Seraphitus, advancing to meet her. + +Wilfrid remained where she left him, motionless as the rock on which he +stood, lost in thought, longing to let himself go into the torrent +of the Sieg, like the fallen trees which hurried past his eyes and +disappeared in the bosom of the gulf. + +“I gathered them for you,” said Minna, offering the bunch of saxifrages +to the being she adored. “One of them, see, this one,” she added, +selecting a flower, “is like that you found on the Falberg.” + +Seraphitus looked alternately at the flower and at Minna. + +“Why question me? Dost thou doubt me?” + +“No,” said the young girl, “my trust in you is infinite. You are +more beautiful to look upon than this glorious nature, but your mind +surpasses in intellect that of all humanity. When I have been with you I +seem to have prayed to God. I long--” + +“For what?” said Seraphitus, with a glance that revealed to the young +girl the vast distance which separated them. + +“To suffer in your stead.” + +“Ah, dangerous being!” cried Seraphitus in his heart. “Is it wrong, oh +my God! to desire to offer her to Thee? Dost thou remember, Minna, +what I said to thee up there?” he added, pointing to the summit of the +Ice-Cap. + +“He is terrible again,” thought Minna, trembling with fear. + +The voice of the Sieg accompanied the thoughts of the three beings +united on this platform of projecting rock, but separated in soul by the +abysses of the Spiritual World. + +“Seraphitus! teach me,” said Minna in a silvery voice, soft as the +motion of a sensitive plant, “teach me how to cease to love you. Who +could fail to admire you; love is an admiration that never wearies.” + +“Poor child!” said Seraphitus, turning pale; “there is but one whom thou +canst love in that way.” + +“Who?” asked Minna. + +“Thou shalt know hereafter,” he said, in the feeble voice of a man who +lies down to die. + +“Help, help! he is dying!” cried Minna. + +Wilfrid ran towards them. Seeing Seraphita as she lay on a fragment of +gneiss, where time had cast its velvet mantle of lustrous lichen and +tawny mosses now burnished in the sunlight, he whispered softly, “How +beautiful she is!” + +“One other look! the last that I shall ever cast upon this nature in +travail,” said Seraphitus, rallying her strength and rising to her feet. + +She advanced to the edge of the rocky platform, whence her eyes took in +the scenery of that grand and glorious landscape, so verdant, flowery, +and animated, yet so lately buried in its winding-sheet of snow. + +“Farewell,” she said, “farewell, home of Earth, warmed by the fires of +Love; where all things press with ardent force from the centre to the +extremities; where the extremities are gathered up, like a woman’s hair, +to weave the mysterious braid which binds us in that invisible ether to +the Thought Divine! + +“Behold the man bending above that furrow moistened with his tears, +who lifts his head for an instant to question Heaven; behold the woman +gathering her children that she may feed them with her milk; see him +who lashes the ropes in the height of the gale; see her who sits in the +hollow of the rocks, awaiting the father! Behold all they who stretch +their hands in want after a lifetime spent in thankless toil. To all +peace and courage, and to all farewell! + +“Hear you the cry of the soldier, dying nameless and unknown? the wail +of the man deceived who weeps in the desert? To them peace and courage; +to all farewell! + +“Farewell, you who die for the kings of the earth! Farewell, ye people +without a country and ye countries without a people, each, with a mutual +want. Above all, farewell to Thee who knew not where to lay Thy head, +Exile divine! Farewell, mothers beside your dying sons! Farewell, ye +Little Ones, ye Feeble, ye Suffering, you whose sorrows I have so often +borne! Farewell, all ye who have descended into the sphere of Instinct +that you may suffer there for others! + +“Farewell, ye mariners who seek the Orient through the thick darkness of +your abstractions, vast as principles! Farewell, martyrs of thought, +led by thought into the presence of the True Light. Farewell, regions +of study where mine ears can hear the plaint of genius neglected and +insulted, the sigh of the patient scholar to whom enlightenment comes +too late! + +“I see the angelic choir, the wafting of perfumes, the incense of the +heart of those who go their way consoling, praying, imparting celestial +balm and living light to suffering souls! Courage, ye choir of Love! +you to whom the peoples cry, ‘Comfort us, comfort us, defend us!’ To you +courage! and farewell! + +“Farewell, ye granite rocks that shall bloom a flower; farewell, flower +that becomes a dove; farewell, dove that shalt be woman; farewell, +woman, who art Suffering, man, who art Belief! Farewell, you who shall +be all love, all prayer!” + +Broken with fatigue, this inexplicable being leaned for the first time +on Wilfrid and on Minna to be taken home. Wilfrid and Minna felt +the shock of a mysterious contact in and through the being who thus +connected them. They had scarcely advanced a few steps when David +met them, weeping. “She will die,” he said, “why have you brought her +hither?” + +The old man raised her in his arms with the vigor of youth and bore her +to the gate of the Swedish castle like an eagle bearing a white lamb to +his mountain eyrie. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. THE PATH TO HEAVEN + + +The day succeeding that on which Seraphita foresaw her death and bade +farewell to Earth, as a prisoner looks round his dungeon before leaving +it forever, she suffered pains which obliged her to remain in the +helpless immobility of those whose pangs are great. Wilfrid and Minna +went to see her, and found her lying on her couch of furs. Still veiled +in flesh, her soul shone through that veil, which grew more and more +transparent day by day. The progress of the Spirit, piercing the last +obstacle between itself and the Infinite, was called an illness, the +hour of Life went by the name of death. David wept as he watched +her sufferings; unreasonable as a child, he would not listen to his +mistress’s consolations. Monsieur Becker wished Seraphita to try +remedies; but all were useless. + +One morning she sent for the two beings whom she loved, telling them +that this would be the last of her bad days. Wilfrid and Minna came in +terror, knowing well that they were about to lose her. Seraphita smiled +to them as one departing to a better world; her head drooped like a +flower heavy with dew, which opens its calyx for the last time to waft +its fragrance on the breeze. She looked at these friends with a sadness +that was for them, not for herself; she thought no longer of herself, +and they felt this with a grief mingled with gratitude which they were +unable to express. Wilfrid stood silent and motionless, lost in thoughts +excited by events whose vast bearings enabled him to conceive of some +illimitable immensity. + +Emboldened by the weakness of the being lately so powerful, or perhaps +by the fear of losing him forever, Minna bent down over the couch and +said, “Seraphitus, let me follow thee!” + +“Can I forbid thee?” + +“Why will thou not love me enough to stay with me?” + +“I can love nothing here.” + +“What canst thou love?” + +“Heaven.” + +“Is it worthy of heaven to despise the creatures of God?” + +“Minna, can we love two beings at once? Would our beloved be indeed our +beloved if he did not fill our hearts? Must he not be the first, the +last, the only one? She who is all love, must she not leave the world +for her beloved? Human ties are but a memory, she has no ties except to +him! Her soul is hers no longer; it is his. If she keeps within her +soul anything that is not his, does she love? No, she loves not. To +love feebly, is that to love at all? The voice of her beloved makes her +joyful; it flows through her veins in a crimson tide more glowing far +than blood; his glance is the light that penetrates her; her being melts +into his being. He is warm to her soul. He is the light that lightens; +near to him there is neither cold nor darkness. He is never absent, he +is always with us; we think in him, to him, by him! Minna, that is how I +love him.” + +“Love whom?” said Minna, tortured with sudden jealousy. + +“God,” replied Seraphitus, his voice glowing in their souls like fires +of liberty from peak to peak upon the mountains,--“God, who does not +betray us! God, who will never abandon us! who crowns our wishes; who +satisfies His creatures with joy--joy unalloyed and infinite! God, +who never wearies but ever smiles! God, who pours into the soul fresh +treasures day by day; who purifies and leaves no bitterness; who is all +harmony, all flame! God, who has placed Himself within our hearts to +blossom there; who hearkens to our prayers; who does not stand aloof +when we are His, but gives His presence absolutely! He who revives us, +magnifies us, and multiplies us in Himself; _God_! Minna, I love thee +because thou mayst be His! I love thee because if thou come to Him thou +wilt be mine.” + +“Lead me to Him,” cried Minna, kneeling down; “take me by the hand; I +will not leave thee!” + +“Lead us, Seraphita!” cried Wilfrid, coming to Minna’s side with an +impetuous movement. “Yes, thou hast given me a thirst for Light, a +thirst for the Word. I am parched with the Love thou hast put into my +heart; I desire to keep thy soul in mine; thy will is mine; I will do +whatsoever thou biddest me. Since I cannot obtain thee, I will keep thy +will and all the thoughts that thou hast given me. If I may not unite +myself with thee except by the power of my spirit, I will cling to thee +in soul as the flame to what it laps. Speak!” + +“Angel!” exclaimed the mysterious being, enfolding them both in +one glance, as it were with an azure mantle, “Heaven shall by thine +heritage!” + +Silence fell among them after these words, which sounded in the souls of +the man and of the woman like the first notes of some celestial harmony. + +“If you would teach your feet to tread the Path to heaven, know that +the way is hard at first,” said the weary sufferer; “God wills that you +shall seek Him for Himself. In that sense, He is jealous; He demands +your whole self. But when you have given Him yourself, never, never will +He abandon you. I leave with you the keys of the kingdom of His Light, +where evermore you shall dwell in the bosom of the Father, in the heart +of the Bridegroom. No sentinels guard the approaches, you may enter +where you will; His palaces, His treasures, His sceptre, all are +free. ‘Take them!’ He says. But--you must _will_ to go there. Like +one preparing for a journey, a man must leave his home, renounce his +projects, bid farewell to friends, to father, mother, sister, even +to the helpless brother who cries after him,--yes, farewell to them +eternally; you will no more return than did the martyrs on their way to +the stake. You must strip yourself of every sentiment, of everything to +which man clings. Unless you do this you are but half-hearted in your +enterprise. + +“Do for God what you do for your ambitious projects, what you do in +consecrating yourself to Art, what you have done when you loved a human +creature or sought some secret of human science. Is not God the whole +of science, the all of love, the source of poetry? Surely His riches +are worthy of being coveted! His treasure is inexhaustible, His poem +infinite, His love immutable, His science sure and darkened by no +mysteries. Be anxious for nothing, He will give you all. Yes, in His +heart are treasures with which the petty joys you lose on earth are not +to be compared. What I tell you is true; you shall possess His power; +you may use it as you would use the gifts of lover or mistress. Alas! +men doubt, they lack faith, and will, and persistence. If some set their +feet in the path, they look behind them and presently turn back. Few +decide between the two extremes,--to go or stay, heaven or the mire. All +hesitate. Weakness leads astray, passion allures into dangerous paths, +vice becomes habitual, man flounders in the mud and makes no progress +towards a better state. + +“All human beings go through a previous life in the sphere of Instinct, +where they are brought to see the worthlessness of earthly treasures, +to amass which they gave themselves such untold pains! Who can tell how +many times the human being lives in the sphere of Instinct before he +is prepared to enter the sphere of Abstractions, where thought expends +itself on erring science, where mind wearies at last of human language? +for, when Matter is exhausted, Spirit enters. Who knows how many fleshly +forms the heir of heaven occupies before he can be brought to understand +the value of that silence and solitude whose starry plains are but the +vestibule of Spiritual Worlds? He feels his way amid the void, makes +trial of nothingness, and then at last his eyes revert upon the Path. +Then follow other existences,--all to be lived to reach the place +where Light effulgent shines. Death is the post-house of the journey. A +lifetime may be needed merely to gain the virtues which annul the +errors of man’s preceding life. First comes the life of suffering, whose +tortures create a thirst for love. Next the life of love and devotion +to the creature, teaching devotion to the Creator,--a life where the +virtues of love, its martyrdoms, its joys followed by sorrows, its +angelic hopes, its patience, its resignation, excite an appetite for +things divine. Then follows the life which seeks in silence the traces +of the Word; in which the soul grows humble and charitable. Next the +life of longing; and lastly, the life of prayer. In that is the noonday +sun; there are the flowers, there the harvest! + +“The virtues we acquire, which develop slowly within us, are +the invisible links that bind each one of our existences to the +others,--existences which the spirit alone remembers, for Matter has no +memory for spiritual things. Thought alone holds the tradition of the +bygone life. The endless legacy of the past to the present is the secret +source of human genius. Some receive the gift of form, some the gift +of numbers, others the gift of harmony. All these gifts are steps of +progress in the Path of Light. Yes, he who possesses a single one of +them touches at that point the Infinite. Earth has divided the Word--of +which I here reveal some syllables--into particles, she has reduced it +to dust and has scattered it through her works, her dogmas, her poems. +If some impalpable grain shines like a diamond in a human work, men cry: +‘How grand! how true! how glorious!’ That fragment vibrates in their +souls and wakes a presentiment of heaven: to some, a melody that +weans from earth; to others, the solitude that draws to God. To all, +whatsoever sends us back upon ourselves, whatsoever strikes us down and +crushes us, lifts or abases us,--_that_ is but a syllable of the Divine +Word. + +“When a human soul draws its first furrow straight, the rest will follow +surely. One thought borne inward, one prayer uplifted, one suffering +endured, one echo of the Word within us, and our souls are forever +changed. All ends in God; and many are the ways to find Him by walking +straight before us. When the happy day arrives in which you set your +feet upon the Path and begin your pilgrimage, the world will know +nothing of it; earth no longer understands you; you no longer understand +each other. Men who attain a knowledge of these things, who lisp a few +syllables of the Word, often have not where to lay their head; hunted +like beasts they perish on the scaffold, to the joy of assembled +peoples, while Angels open to them the gates of heaven. Therefore, your +destiny is a secret between yourself and God, just as love is a secret +between two hearts. You may be the buried treasure, trodden under the +feet of men thirsting for gold yet all-unknowing that you are there +beneath them. + +“Henceforth your existence becomes a thing of ceaseless activity; each +act has a meaning which connects you with God, just as in love your +actions and your thoughts are filled with the loved one. But love and +its joys, love and its pleasures limited by the senses, are but the +imperfect image of the love which unites you to your celestial Spouse. +All earthly joy is mixed with anguish, with discontent. If love ought +not to pall then death should end it while its flame is high, so that +we see no ashes. But in God our wretchedness becomes delight, joy lives +upon itself and multiplies, and grows, and has no limit. In the Earthly +life our fleeting love is ended by tribulation; in the Spiritual life +the tribulations of a day end in joys unending. The soul is ceaselessly +joyful. We feel God with us, in us; He gives a sacred savor to all +things; He shines in the soul; He imparts to us His sweetness; He stills +our interest in the world viewed for ourselves; He quickens our interest +in it viewed for His sake, and grants us the exercise of His power upon +it. In His name we do the works which He inspires, we act for Him, we +have no self except in Him, we love His creatures with undying love, we +dry their tears and long to bring them unto Him, as a loving woman longs +to see the inhabitants of earth obey her well-beloved. + +“The final life, the fruition of all other lives, to which the powers +of the soul have tended, and whose merits open the Sacred Portals to +perfected man, is the life of Prayer. Who can make you comprehend the +grandeur, the majesty, the might of Prayer? May my voice, these words of +mine, ring in your hearts and change them. Be now, here, what you may +be after cruel trial! There are privileged beings, Prophets, Seers, +Messengers, and Martyrs, all those who suffer for the Word and who +proclaim it; such souls spring at a bound across the human sphere and +rise at once to Prayer. So, too, with those whose souls receive the fire +of Faith. Be one of those brave souls! God welcomes boldness. He loves +to be taken by violence; He will never reject those who force their way +to Him. Know this! desire, the torrent of your will, is so all-powerful +that a single emission of it, made with force, can obtain all; a single +cry, uttered under the pressure of Faith, suffices. Be one of such +beings, full of force, of will, of love! Be conquerors on the earth! Let +the hunger and thirst of God possess you. Fly to Him as the hart panting +for the water-brooks. Desire shall lend you its wings; tears, those +blossoms of repentance, shall be the celestial baptism from which your +nature will issue purified. Cast yourself on the breast of the stream in +Prayer! Silence and meditation are the means of following the Way. God +reveals Himself, unfailingly, to the solitary, thoughtful seeker. + +“It is thus that the separation takes place between Matter, which so +long has wrapped its darkness round you, and Spirit, which was in you +from the beginning, the light which lighted you and now brings noon-day +to your soul. Yes, your broken heart shall receive the light; the light +shall bathe it. Then you will no longer feel convictions, they will +have changed to certainties. The Poet utters; the Thinker meditates; the +Righteous acts; but he who stands upon the borders of the Divine World +prays; and his prayer is word, thought, action, in one! Yes, prayer +includes all, contains all; it completes nature, for it reveals to you +the mind within it and its progression. White and shining virgin of all +human virtues, ark of the covenant between earth and heaven, tender and +strong companion partaking of the lion and of the lamb, Prayer! Prayer +will give you the key of heaven! Bold and pure as innocence, strong, +like all that is single and simple, this glorious, invincible Queen +rests, nevertheless, on the material world; she takes possession of it; +like the sun, she clasps it in a circle of light. The universe belongs +to him who wills, who knows, who prays; but he must will, he must know, +he must pray; in a word, he must possess force, wisdom, and faith. + +“Therefore Prayer, issuing from so many trials, is the consummation +of all truths, all powers, all feelings. Fruit of the laborious, +progressive, continued development of natural properties and faculties +vitalized anew by the divine breath of the Word, Prayer has occult +activity; it is the final worship--not the material worship of images, +nor the spiritual worship of formulas, but the worship of the Divine +World. We say no prayers,--prayer forms within us; it is a faculty which +acts of itself; it has attained a way of action which lifts it outside +of forms; it links the soul to God, with whom we unite as the root of +the tree unites with the soil; our veins draw life from the principle of +life, and we live by the life of the universe. Prayer bestows external +conviction by making us penetrate the Material World through the +cohesion of all our faculties with the elementary substances; it bestows +internal conviction by developing our essence and mingling it with that +of the Spiritual Worlds. To be able to pray thus, you must attain to an +utter abandonment of flesh; you must acquire through the fires of the +furnace the purity of the diamond; for this complete communion with the +Divine is obtained only in absolute repose, where storms and conflicts +are at rest. + +“Yes, Prayer--the aspiration of the soul freed absolutely from the +body--bears all forces within it, and applies them to the constant and +perseverant union of the Visible and the Invisible. When you possess +the faculty of praying without weariness, with love, with force, with +certainty, with intelligence, your spiritualized nature will presently +be invested with power. Like a rushing wind, like a thunderbolt, it cuts +its way through all things and shares the power of God. The quickness +of the Spirit becomes yours; in an instant you may pass from region to +region; like the Word itself, you are transported from the ends of the +world to other worlds. Harmony exists, and you are part of it! Light is +there and your eyes possess it! Melody is heard and you echo it! Under +such conditions, you feel your perceptions developing, widening; the +eyes of your mind reach to vast distances. There is, in truth, neither +time nor place to the Spirit; space and duration are proportions created +for Matter; spirit and matter have naught in common. + +“Though these things take place in stillness, in silence, without +agitation, without external movement, yet Prayer is all action; but it +is spiritual action, stripped of substantiality, and reduced, like +the motion of the worlds, to an invisible pure force. It penetrates +everywhere like light; it gives vitality to souls that come beneath its +rays, as Nature beneath the sun. It resuscitates virtue, purifies and +sanctifies all actions, peoples solitude, and gives a foretaste of +eternal joys. When you have once felt the delights of the divine +intoxication which comes of this internal travail, then all is yours! +once take the lute on which we sing to God within your hands, and you +will never part with it. Hence the solitude in which Angelic Spirits +live; hence their disdain of human joys. They are withdrawn from those +who must die to live; they hear the language of such beings, but they no +longer understand their ideas; they wonder at their movements, at +what the world terms policies, material laws, societies. For them all +mysteries are over; truth, and truth alone, is theirs. They who have +reached the point where their eyes discern the Sacred Portals, who, not +looking back, not uttering one regret, contemplate worlds and comprehend +their destinies, such as they keep silence, wait, and bear their final +struggles. The worst of all those struggles is the last; at the zenith +of all virtue is Resignation,--to be an exile and not lament, no longer +to delight in earthly things and yet to smile, to belong to God and yet +to stay with men! You hear the voice that cries to you, ‘Advance!’ Often +celestial visions of descending Angels compass you about with songs +of praise; then, tearless, uncomplaining, must you watch them as they +reascent the skies! To murmur is to forfeit all. Resignation is a fruit +that ripens at the gates of heaven. How powerful, how glorious the calm +smile, the pure brow of the resigned human creature. Radiant is the +light of that brow. They who live in its atmosphere grow purer. That +calm glance penetrates and softens. More eloquent by silence than the +prophet by speech, such beings triumph by their simple presence. Their +ears are quick to hear as a faithful dog listening for his master. +Brighter than hope, stronger than love, higher than faith, that creature +of resignation is the virgin standing on the earth, who holds for a +moment the conquered palm, then, rising heavenward, leaves behind her +the imprint of her white, pure feet. When she has passed away men flock +around and cry, ‘See! See!’ Sometimes God holds her still in sight,--a +figure to whose feet creep Forms and Species of Animality to be shown +their way. She wafts the light exhaling from her hair, and they see; she +speaks, and they hear. ‘A miracle!’ they cry. Often she triumphs in the +name of God; frightened men deny her and put her to death; smiling, she +lays down her sword and goes to the stake, having saved the Peoples. +How many a pardoned Angel has passed from martyrdom to heaven! Sinai, +Golgotha are not in this place nor in that; Angels are crucified +in every place, in every sphere. Sighs pierce to God from the whole +universe. This earth on which we live is but a single sheaf of the great +harvest; humanity is but a species in the vast garden where the flowers +of heaven are cultivated. Everywhere God is like unto Himself, and +everywhere, by prayer, it is easy to reach Him.” + +With these words, which fell from the lips of another Hagar in the +wilderness, burning the souls of the hearers as the live coal of the +word inflamed Isaiah, this mysterious being paused as though to gather +some remaining strength. Wilfrid and Minna dared not speak. Suddenly HE +lifted himself up to die:-- + +“Soul of all things, oh my God, thou whom I love for Thyself! Thou, +Judge and Father, receive a love which has no limit. Give me of thine +essence and thy faculties that I be wholly thine! Take me, that I no +longer be myself! Am I not purified? then cast me back into the furnace! +If I be not yet proved in the fire, make me some nurturing ploughshare, +or the Sword of victory! Grant me a glorious martyrdom in which to +proclaim thy Word! Rejected, I will bless thy justice. But if excess +of love may win in a moment that which hard and patient labor cannot +attain, then bear me upward in thy chariot of fire! Grant me triumph, or +further trial, still will I bless thee! To suffer for thee, is not that +to triumph? Take me, seize me, bear me away! nay, if thou wilt, reject +me! Thou art He who can do no evil. Ah!” he cried, after a pause, “the +bonds are breaking. + +“Spirits of the pure, ye sacred flock, come forth from the hidden +places, come on the surface of the luminous waves! The hour now is; +come, assemble! Let us sing at the gates of the Sanctuary; our songs +shall drive away the final clouds. With one accord let us hail the Dawn +of the Eternal Day. Behold the rising of the one True Light! Ah, why may +I not take with me these my friends! Farewell, poor earth, Farewell!” + + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE ASSUMPTION + + +The last psalm was uttered neither by word, look, nor gesture, nor by +any of those signs which men employ to communicate their thoughts, but +as the soul speaks to itself; for at the moment when Seraphita revealed +herself in her true nature, her thoughts were no longer enslaved by +human words. The violence of that last prayer had burst her bonds. Her +soul, like a white dove, remained for an instant poised above the body +whose exhausted substances were about to be annihilated. + +The aspiration of the Soul toward heaven was so contagious that Wilfrid +and Minna, beholding those radiant scintillations of Life, perceived not +Death. + +They had fallen on their knees when _he_ had turned toward his Orient, +and they shared his ecstasy. + +The fear of the Lord, which creates man a second time, purging away his +dross, mastered their hearts. + +Their eyes, veiled to the things of Earth, were opened to the Brightness +of Heaven. + +Though, like the Seers of old called Prophets by men, they were filled +with the terror of the Most High, yet like them they continued firm +when they found themselves within the radiance where the Glory of the +_Spirit_ shone. + +The veil of flesh, which, until now, had hidden that glory from their +eyes, dissolved imperceptibly away, and left them free to behold the +Divine substance. + +They stood in the twilight of the Coming Dawn, whose feeble rays +prepared them to look upon the True Light, to hear the Living Word, and +yet not die. + +In this state they began to perceive the immeasurable differences which +separate the things of earth from the things of Heaven. + +_Life_, on the borders of which they stood, leaning upon each other, +trembling and illuminated, like two children standing under shelter +in presence of a conflagration, That Life offered no lodgment to the +senses. + +The ideas they used to interpret their vision to themselves were to +the things seen what the visible senses of a man are to his soul, the +material covering of a divine essence. + +The departing _spirit_ was above them, shedding incense without odor, +melody without sound. About them, where they stood, were neither +surfaces, nor angles, nor atmosphere. + +They dared neither question him nor contemplate him; they stood in the +shadow of that Presence as beneath the burning rays of a tropical sun, +fearing to raise their eyes lest the light should blast them. + +They knew they were beside him, without being able to perceive how it +was that they stood, as in a dream, on the confines of the Visible and +the Invisible, nor how they had lost sight of the Visible and how they +beheld the Invisible. + +To each other they said: “If he touches us, we can die!” But the +_spirit_ was now within the Infinite, and they knew not that neither +time, nor space, nor death, existed there, and that a great gulf lay +between them, although they thought themselves beside him. + +Their souls were not prepared to receive in its fulness a knowledge +of the faculties of that Life; they could have only faint and confused +perceptions of it, suited to their weakness. + +Were it not so, the thunder of the _Living Word_, whose far-off tones +now reached their ears, and whose meaning entered their souls as life +unites with body,--one echo of that Word would have consumed their being +as a whirlwind of fire laps up a fragile straw. + +Therefore they saw only that which their nature, sustained by the +strength of the _spirit_, permitted them to see; they heard that only +which they were able to hear. + +And yet, though thus protected, they shuddered when the Voice of the +anguished soul broke forth above them--the prayer of the _Spirit_ +awaiting Life and imploring it with a cry. + +That cry froze them to the very marrow of their bones. + +The _Spirit_ knocked at the _sacred portal_. “What wilt thou?” answered +a _choir_, whose question echoed among the worlds. “To go to God.” “Hast +thou conquered?” “I have conquered the flesh through abstinence, I +have conquered false knowledge by humility, I have conquered pride by +charity, I have conquered the earth by love; I have paid my dues by +suffering, I am purified in the fires of faith, I have longed for Life +by prayer: I wait in adoration, and I am resigned.” + +No answer came. + +“God’s will be done!” answered the _Spirit_, believing that he was about +to be rejected. + +His tears flowed and fell like dew upon the heads of the two kneeling +witnesses, who trembled before the justice of God. + +Suddenly the trumpets sounded,--the last trumpets of Victory won by the +_Angel_ in this last trial. The reverberation passed through space +as sound through its echo, filling it, and shaking the universe which +Wilfrid and Minna felt like an atom beneath their feet. They trembled +under an anguish caused by the dread of the mystery about to be +accomplished. + +A great movement took place, as though the Eternal Legions, putting +themselves in motion, were passing upward in spiral columns. The worlds +revolved like clouds driven by a furious wind. It was all rapid. + +Suddenly the veils were rent away. They saw on high as it were a star, +incomparably more lustrous than the most luminous of material stars, +which detached itself, and fell like a thunderbolt, dazzling as +lightning. Its passage paled the faces of the pair, who thought it to be +_the Light_ Itself. + +It was the Messenger of good tidings, the plume of whose helmet was a +flame of Life. + +Behind him lay the swath of his way gleaming with a flood of the lights +through which he passed. + +He bore a palm and a sword. He touched the _Spirit_ with the palm, and +the _Spirit_ was transfigured. Its white wings noiselessly unfolded. + +This communication of _the Light_, changing the _Spirit_ into a _Seraph_ +and clothing it with a glorious form, a celestial armor, poured down +such effulgent rays that the two Seers were paralyzed. + +Like the three apostles to whom Jesus showed himself, they felt the +dead weight of their bodies which denied them a complete and cloudless +intuition of _the Word_ and _the True Life_. + +They comprehended the nakedness of their souls; they were able +to measure the poverty of their light by comparing it--a humbling +task--with the halo of the _Seraph_. + +A passionate desire to plunge back into the mire of earth and suffer +trial took possession of them,--trial through which they might +victoriously utter at the _sacred gates_ the words of that radiant +_Seraph_. + +The _Seraph_ knelt before the _Sanctuary_, beholding it, at last, face +to face; and he said, raising his hands thitherward, “Grant that these +two may have further sight; they will love the Lord and proclaim His +word.” + +At this prayer a veil fell. Whether it were that the hidden force which +held the Seers had momentarily annihilated their physical bodies, or +that it raised their spirits above those bodies, certain it is that they +felt within them a rending of the pure from the impure. + +The tears of the _Seraph_ rose about them like a vapor, which hid the +lower worlds from their knowledge, held them in its folds, bore them +upwards, gave them forgetfulness of earthly meanings and the power of +comprehending the meanings of things divine. + +The True Light shone; it illumined the Creations, which seemed to them +barren when they saw the source from which all worlds--Terrestrial, +Spiritual, and Divine-derived their Motion. + +Each world possessed a centre to which converged all points of its +circumference. These worlds were themselves the points which moved +toward the centre of their system. Each system had its centre in great +celestial regions which communicated with the flaming and quenchless +_motor of all that is_. + +Thus, from the greatest to the smallest of the worlds, and from the +smallest of the worlds to the smallest portion of the beings who compose +it, all was individual, and all was, nevertheless, One and indivisible. + +What was the design of the Being, fixed in His essence and in His +faculties, who transmitted that essence and those faculties without +losing them? who manifested them outside of Himself without separating +them from Himself? who rendered his creations outside of Himself fixed +in their essence and mutable in their form? The pair thus called to the +celestial festival could only see the order and arrangement of created +beings and admire the immediate result. The Angels alone see more. They +know the means; they comprehend the final end. + +But what the two Elect were granted power to contemplate, what they were +able to bring back as a testimony which enlightened their minds forever +after, was the proof of the action of the Worlds and of Beings; the +consciousness of the effort with which they all converge to the Result. + +They heard the divers parts of the Infinite forming one living +melody; and each time that the accord made itself felt like a mighty +respiration, the Worlds drawn by the concordant movement inclined +themselves toward the Supreme Being who, from His impenetrable centre, +issued all things and recalled all things to Himself. + +This ceaseless alternation of voices and silence seemed the rhythm of +the sacred hymn which resounds and prolongs its sound from age to age. + +Wilfrid and Minna were enabled to understand some of the mysterious +sayings of Him who had appeared on earth in the form which to each of +them had rendered him comprehensible,--to one Seraphitus, to the other +Seraphita,--for they saw that all was homogeneous in the sphere where he +now was. + +Light gave birth to melody, melody gave birth to light; colors were +light and melody; motion was a Number endowed with Utterance; all +things were at once sonorous, diaphanous, and mobile; so that each +interpenetrated the other, the whole vast area was unobstructed and the +Angels could survey it from the depths of the Infinite. + +They perceived the puerility of human sciences, of which he had spoken +to them. + +The scene was to them a prospect without horizon, a boundless space into +which an all-consuming desire prompted them to plunge. But, fastened to +their miserable bodies, they had the desire without the power to fulfil +it. + +The _Seraph_, preparing for his flight, no longer looked towards them; +he had nothing now in common with Earth. + +Upward he rose; the shadow of his luminous presence covered the two +Seers like a merciful veil, enabling them to raise their eyes and see +him, rising in his glory to Heaven in company with the glad Archangel. + +He rose as the sun from the bosom of the Eastern waves; but, more +majestic than the orb and vowed to higher destinies, he could not be +enchained like inferior creations in the spiral movement of the worlds; +he followed the line of the Infinite, pointing without deviation to the +One Centre, there to enter his eternal life,--to receive there, in his +faculties and in his essence, the power to enjoy through Love, and the +gift of comprehending through Wisdom. + +The scene which suddenly unveiled itself to the eyes of the two Seers +crushed them with a sense of its vastness; they felt like atoms, whose +minuteness was not to be compared even to the smallest particle which +the infinite of divisibility enabled the mind of man to imagine, brought +into the presence of the infinite of Numbers, which God alone can +comprehend as He alone can comprehend Himself. + +Strength and Love! what heights, what depths in those two entities, whom +the _Seraph’s_ first prayer placed like two links, as it were, to unite +the immensities of the lower worlds with the immensity of the higher +universe! + +They comprehended the invisible ties by which the material worlds are +bound to the spiritual worlds. Remembering the sublime efforts of human +genius, they were able to perceive the principle of all melody in the +songs of heaven which gave sensations of color, of perfume, of thought, +which recalled the innumerable details of all creations, as the songs of +earth revive the infinite memories of love. + +Brought by the exaltation of their faculties to a point that cannot +be described in any language, they were able to cast their eyes for an +instant into the Divine World. There all was Rejoicing. + +Myriads of angels were flocking together, without confusion; all alike +yet all dissimilar, simple as the flower of the fields, majestic as the +universe. + +Wilfrid and Minna saw neither their coming nor their going; they +appeared suddenly in the Infinite and filled it with their presence, as +the stars shine in the invisible ether. + +The scintillations of their united diadems illumined space like the +fires of the sky at dawn upon the mountains. Waves of light flowed from +their hair, and their movements created tremulous undulations in space +like the billows of a phosphorescent sea. + +The two Seers beheld the _Seraph_ dimly in the midst of the immortal +legions. Suddenly, as though all the arrows of a quiver had darted +together, the Spirits swept away with a breath the last vestiges of the +human form; as the _Seraph_ rose he became yet purer; soon he seemed +to them but a faint outline of what he had been at the moment of his +transfiguration,--lines of fire without shadow. + +Higher he rose, receiving from circle to circle some new gift, while the +sign of his election was transmitted to each sphere into which, more and +more purified, he entered. + +No voice was silent; the hymn diffused and multiplied itself in all its +modulations:-- + +“Hail to him who enters living! Come, flower of the Worlds! diamond from +the fires of suffering! pearl without spot, desire without flesh, new +link of earth and heaven, be Light! Conquering spirit, Queen of the +world, come for thy crown! Victor of earth, receive thy diadem! Thou art +of us!” + +The virtues of the _Seraph_ shone forth in all their beauty. + +His earliest desire for heaven re-appeared, tender as childhood. +The deeds of his life, like constellations, adorned him with their +brightness. His acts of faith shone like the Jacinth of heaven, the +color of sidereal fires. The pearls of Charity were upon him,--a chaplet +of garnered tears! Love divine surrounded him with roses; and the +whiteness of his Resignation obliterated all earthly trace. + +Soon, to the eyes of the Seers, he was but a point of flame, growing +brighter and brighter as its motion was lost in the melodious +acclamations which welcomed his entrance into heaven. + +The celestial accents made the two exiles weep. + +Suddenly a silence as of death spread like a mourning veil from the +first to the highest sphere, throwing Wilfrid and Minna into a state of +intolerable expectation. + +At this moment the _Seraph_ was lost to sight within the _sanctuary_, +receiving there the gift of Life Eternal. + +A movement of adoration made by the Host of heaven filled the two Seers +with ecstasy mingled with terror. They felt that all were prostrate +before the Throne, in all the spheres, in the Spheres Divine, in the +Spiritual Spheres, and in the Worlds of Darkness. + +The Angels bent the knee to celebrate the _Seraph’s_ glory; the Spirits +bent the knee in token of their impatience; others bent the knee in the +dark abysses, shuddering with awe. + +A mighty cry of joy gushed forth, as the spring gushes forth to its +millions of flowering herbs sparkling with diamond dew-drops in the +sunlight; at that instant the _Seraph_ reappeared, effulgent, crying, +“_Eternal! Eternal! Eternal_!” + +The universe heard the cry and understood it; it penetrated the spheres +as God penetrates them; it took possession of the infinite; the Seven +Divine Worlds heard the Voice and answered. + +A mighty movement was perceptible, as though whole planets, purified, +were rising in dazzling light to become Eternal. + +Had the _Seraph_ obtained, as a first mission, the work of calling to +God the creations permeated by His Word? + +But already the sublime _hallelujah_ was sounding in the ear of the +desolate ones as the distant undulations of an ended melody. Already +the celestial lights were fading like the gold and crimson tints of a +setting sun. Death and Impurity recovered their prey. + +As the two mortals re-entered the prison of flesh, from which their +spirit had momentarily been delivered by some priceless sleep, they felt +like those who wake after a night of brilliant dreams, the memory +of which still lingers in their soul, though their body retains no +consciousness of them, and human language is unable to give utterance to +them. + +The deep darkness of the sphere that was now about them was that of the +sun of the visible worlds. + +“Let us descend to those lower regions,” said Wilfrid. + +“Let us do what he told us to do,” answered Minna. “We have seen the +worlds on their march to God; we know the Path. Our diadem of stars is +There.” + +Floating downward through the abysses, they re-entered the dust of the +lesser worlds, and saw the Earth, like a subterranean cavern, suddenly +illuminated to their eyes by the light which their souls brought with +them, and which still environed them in a cloud of the paling harmonies +of heaven. The sight was that which of old struck the inner eyes +of Seers and Prophets. Ministers of all religions, Preachers of all +pretended truths, Kings consecrated by Force and Terror, Warriors and +Mighty men apportioning the Peoples among them, the Learned and the Rich +standing above the suffering, noisy crowd, and noisily grinding them +beneath their feet,--all were there, accompanied by their wives and +servants; all were robed in stuffs of gold and silver and azure studded +with pearls and gems torn from the bowels of Earth, stolen from the +depths of Ocean, for which Humanity had toiled throughout the centuries, +sweating and blaspheming. But these treasures, these splendors, +constructed of blood, seemed worn-out rags to the eyes of the two +Exiles. “What do you there, in motionless ranks?” cried Wilfrid. They +answered not. “What do you there, motionless?” They answered not. +Wilfrid waved his hands over them, crying in a loud voice, “What do you +there, in motionless ranks?” All, with unanimous action, opened their +garments and gave to sight their withered bodies, eaten with worms, +putrefied, crumbling to dust, rotten with horrible diseases. + +“You lead the nations to Death,” Wilfrid said to them. “You have +depraved the earth, perverted the Word, prostituted justice. After +devouring the grass of the fields you have killed the lambs of the fold. +Do you think yourself justified because of your sores? I will warn my +brethren who have ears to hear the Voice, and they will come and drink +of the spring of Living Waters which you have hidden.” + +“Let us save our strength for Prayer,” said Minna. “Wilfrid, thy mission +is not that of the Prophets or the Avenger or the Messenger; we are +still on the confines of the lowest sphere; let us endeavor to rise +through space on the wings of Prayer.” + +“Thou shalt be all my love!” + +“Thou shalt be all my strength!” + +“We have seen the Mysteries; we are, each to the other, the only being +here below to whom Joy and Sadness are comprehensible; let us pray, +therefore: we know the Path, let us walk in it.” + +“Give me thy hand,” said the Young Girl, “if we walk together, the way +will be to me less hard and long.” + +“With thee, with thee alone,” replied the Man, “can I cross the awful +solitude without complaint.” + +“Together we will go to Heaven,” she said. + +The clouds gathered and formed a darksome dais. Suddenly the pair found +themselves kneeling beside a body which old David was guarding from +curious eyes, resolved to bury it himself. + +Beyond those walls the first summer of the nineteenth century shone +forth in all its glory. The two lovers believed they heard a Voice +in the sun-rays. They breathed a celestial essence from the new-born +flowers. Holding each other by the hand, they said, “That illimitable +ocean which shines below us is but an image of what we saw above.” + +“Where are you going?” asked Monsieur Becker. + +“To God,” they answered. “Come with us, father.” + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seraphita, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERAPHITA *** + +***** This file should be named 1432-0.txt or 1432-0.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/1432/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/1432-0.zip b/old/1432-0.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..0f74678 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1432-0.zip diff --git a/old/1432-h.zip b/old/1432-h.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..4780550 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1432-h.zip diff --git a/old/1432-h/1432-h.htm b/old/1432-h/1432-h.htm new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c0764ed --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1432-h/1432-h.htm @@ -0,0 +1,6364 @@ +<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?> + +<!DOCTYPE html + PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Strict//EN" + "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-strict.dtd" > + +<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" lang="en"> + <head> + <title> + Seraphita, by Honore de Balzac + </title> + <style type="text/css" xml:space="preserve"> + + body { margin:5%; background:#faebd0; text-align:justify} + P { text-indent: 1em; margin-top: .25em; margin-bottom: .25em; } + H1,H2,H3,H4,H5,H6 { text-align: center; margin-left: 15%; margin-right: 15%; } + hr { width: 50%; text-align: center;} + .foot { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; text-indent: -3em; font-size: 90%; } + blockquote {font-size: 97%; font-style: italic; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%;} + .mynote {background-color: #DDE; color: #000; padding: .5em; margin-left: 10%; margin-right: 10%; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 95%;} + .toc { margin-left: 10%; margin-bottom: .75em;} + .toc2 { margin-left: 20%;} + div.fig { display:block; margin:0 auto; text-align:center; } + div.middle { margin-left: 20%; margin-right: 20%; text-align: justify; } + .figleft {float: left; margin-left: 0%; margin-right: 1%;} + .figright {float: right; margin-right: 0%; margin-left: 1%;} + .pagenum {display:inline; font-size: 70%; font-style:normal; + margin: 0; padding: 0; position: absolute; right: 1%; + text-align: right;} + pre { font-style: italic; font-size: 90%; margin-left: 10%;} + +</style> + </head> + <body> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Seraphita, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Seraphita + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: February 24, 2010 [EBook #1432] +Last Updated: November 23, 2016 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERAPHITA *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny, and David Widger + + + + + + +</pre> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h1> + SERAPHITA + </h1> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h2> + By Honore De Balzac + </h2> + <p> + <br /><br /> + </p> + <h3> + Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + </h3> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + DEDICATION + + To Madame Eveline de Hanska, nee Comtesse Rzewuska. + + Madame,—Here is the work which you asked of me. I am happy, in + thus dedicating it, to offer you a proof of the respectful + affection you allow me to bear you. If I am reproached for + impotence in this attempt to draw from the depths of mysticism a + book which seeks to give, in the lucid transparency of our + beautiful language, the luminous poesy of the Orient, to you the + blame! Did you not command this struggle (resembling that of + Jacob) by telling me that the most imperfect sketch of this + Figure, dreamed of by you, as it has been by me since childhood, + would still be something to you? + + Here, then, it is,—that something. Would that this book could + belong exclusively to noble spirits, preserved like yours from + worldly pettiness by solitude! THEY would know how to give to it + the melodious rhythm that it lacks, which might have made it, in + the hands of a poet, the glorious epic that France still awaits. + But from me they must accept it as one of those sculptured + balustrades, carved by a hand of faith, on which the pilgrims + lean, in the choir of some glorious church, to think upon the end + of man. + + I am, madame, with respect, + Your devoted servant, + De Balzac. +</pre> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <h2> + Contents + </h2> + <h3> + <a href="#link2H_4_0001"> SERAPHITA </a> + </h3> + <h3> + </h3> + <table summary="" style="margin-right: auto; margin-left: auto"> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0001"> CHAPTER I. </a> + </td> + <td> + SERAPHITUS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0002"> CHAPTER II. </a> + </td> + <td> + SERAPHITA + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0003"> CHAPTER III. </a> + </td> + <td> + SERAPHITA-SERAPHITUS + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0004"> CHAPTER IV. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE CLOUDS OF THE SANCTUARY + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0005"> CHAPTER V. </a> + </td> + <td> + FAREWELL + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0006"> CHAPTER VI. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE PATH TO HEAVEN + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + <a href="#link2HCH0007"> CHAPTER VII. </a> + </td> + <td> + THE ASSUMPTION + </td> + </tr> + <tr> + <td> + </td> + </tr> + </table> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> <a name="link2H_4_0001" id="link2H_4_0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <h1> + SERAPHITA + </h1> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0001" id="link2HCH0001"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER I. SERAPHITUS + </h2> + <p> + As the eye glances over a map of the coasts of Norway, can the imagination + fail to marvel at their fantastic indentations and serrated edges, like a + granite lace, against which the surges of the North Sea roar incessantly? + Who has not dreamed of the majestic sights to be seen on those beachless + shores, of that multitude of creeks and inlets and little bays, no two of + them alike, yet all trackless abysses? We may almost fancy that Nature + took pleasure in recording by ineffaceable hieroglyphics the symbol of + Norwegian life, bestowing on these coasts the conformation of a fish’s + spine, fishery being the staple commerce of the country, and well-nigh the + only means of living of the hardy men who cling like tufts of lichen to + the arid cliffs. Here, through fourteen degrees of longitude, barely seven + hundred thousand souls maintain existence. Thanks to perils devoid of + glory, to year-long snows which clothe the Norway peaks and guard them + from profaning foot of traveller, these sublime beauties are virgin still; + they will be seen to harmonize with human phenomena, also virgin—at + least to poetry—which here took place, the history of which it is + our purpose to relate. + </p> + <p> + If one of these inlets, mere fissures to the eyes of the eider-ducks, is + wide enough for the sea not to freeze between the prison-walls of rock + against which it surges, the country-people call the little bay a “fiord,”—a + word which geographers of every nation have adopted into their respective + languages. Though a certain resemblance exists among all these fiords, + each has its own characteristics. The sea has everywhere forced its way as + through a breach, yet the rocks about each fissure are diversely rent, and + their tumultuous precipices defy the rules of geometric law. Here the + scarp is dentelled like a saw; there the narrow ledges barely allow the + snow to lodge or the noble crests of the Northern pines to spread + themselves; farther on, some convulsion of Nature may have rounded a + coquettish curve into a lovely valley flanked in rising terraces with + black-plumed pines. Truly we are tempted to call this land the Switzerland + of Ocean. + </p> + <p> + Midway between Trondhjem and Christiansand lies an inlet called the + Strom-fiord. If the Strom-fiord is not the loveliest of these rocky + landscapes, it has the merit of displaying the terrestrial grandeurs of + Norway, and of enshrining the scenes of a history that is indeed + celestial. + </p> + <p> + The general outline of the Strom-fiord seems at first sight to be that of + a funnel washed out by the sea. The passage which the waves have forced + present to the eye an image of the eternal struggle between old Ocean and + the granite rock,—two creations of equal power, one through inertia, + the other by ceaseless motion. Reefs of fantastic shape run out on either + side, and bar the way of ships and forbid their entrance. The intrepid + sons of Norway cross these reefs on foot, springing from rock to rock, + undismayed at the abyss—a hundred fathoms deep and only six feet + wide—which yawns beneath them. Here a tottering block of gneiss + falling athwart two rocks gives an uncertain footway; there the hunters or + the fishermen, carrying their loads, have flung the stems of fir-trees in + guise of bridges, to join the projecting reefs, around and beneath which + the surges roar incessantly. This dangerous entrance to the little bay + bears obliquely to the right with a serpentine movement, and there + encounters a mountain rising some twenty-five hundred feet above + sea-level, the base of which is a vertical palisade of solid rock more + than a mile and a half long, the inflexible granite nowhere yielding to + clefts or undulations until it reaches a height of two hundred feet above + the water. Rushing violently in, the sea is driven back with equal + violence by the inert force of the mountain to the opposite shore, gently + curved by the spent force of the retreating waves. + </p> + <p> + The fiord is closed at the upper end by a vast gneiss formation crowned + with forests, down which a river plunges in cascades, becomes a torrent + when the snows are melting, spreads into a sheet of waters, and then falls + with a roar into the bay,—vomiting as it does so the hoary pines and + the aged larches washed down from the forests and scarce seen amid the + foam. These trees plunge headlong into the fiord and reappear after a time + on the surface, clinging together and forming islets which float ashore on + the beaches, where the inhabitants of a village on the left bank of the + Strom-fiord gather them up, split, broken (though sometimes whole), and + always stripped of bark and branches. The mountain which receives at its + base the assaults of Ocean, and at its summit the buffeting of the wild + North wind, is called the Falberg. Its crest, wrapped at all seasons in a + mantle of snow and ice, is the sharpest peak of Norway; its proximity to + the pole produces, at the height of eighteen hundred feet, a degree of + cold equal to that of the highest mountains of the globe. The summit of + this rocky mass, rising sheer from the fiord on one side, slopes gradually + downward to the east, where it joins the declivities of the Sieg and forms + a series of terraced valleys, the chilly temperature of which allows no + growth but that of shrubs and stunted trees. + </p> + <p> + The upper end of the fiord, where the waters enter it as they come down + from the forest, is called the Siegdahlen,—a word which may be held + to mean “the shedding of the Sieg,”—the river itself receiving that + name. The curving shore opposite to the face of the Falberg is the valley + of Jarvis,—a smiling scene overlooked by hills clothed with firs, + birch-trees, and larches, mingled with a few oaks and beeches, the richest + coloring of all the varied tapestries which Nature in these northern + regions spreads upon the surface of her rugged rocks. The eye can readily + mark the line where the soil, warmed by the rays of the sun, bears + cultivation and shows the native growth of the Norwegian flora. Here the + expanse of the fiord is broad enough to allow the sea, dashed back by the + Falberg, to spend its expiring force in gentle murmurs upon the lower + slope of these hills,—a shore bordered with finest sand, strewn with + mica and sparkling pebbles, porphyry, and marbles of a thousand tints, + brought from Sweden by the river floods, together with ocean waifs, + shells, and flowers of the sea driven in by tempests, whether of the Pole + or Tropics. + </p> + <p> + At the foot of the hills of Jarvis lies a village of some two hundred + wooden houses, where an isolated population lives like a swarm of bees in + a forest, without increasing or diminishing; vegetating happily, while + wringing their means of living from the breast of a stern Nature. The + almost unknown existence of the little hamlet is readily accounted for. + Few of its inhabitants were bold enough to risk their lives among the + reefs to reach the deep-sea fishing,—the staple industry of + Norwegians on the least dangerous portions of their coast. The fish of the + fiord were numerous enough to suffice, in part at least, for the + sustenance of the inhabitants; the valley pastures provided milk and + butter; a certain amount of fruitful, well-tilled soil yielded rye and + hemp and vegetables, which necessity taught the people to protect against + the severity of the cold and the fleeting but terrible heat of the sun + with the shrewd ability which Norwegians display in the two-fold struggle. + The difficulty of communication with the outer world, either by land where + the roads are impassable, or by sea where none but tiny boats can thread + their way through the maritime defiles that guard the entrance to the bay, + hinder these people from growing rich by the sale of their timber. It + would cost enormous sums to either blast a channel out to sea or construct + a way to the interior. The roads from Christiana to Trondhjem all turn + toward the Strom-fiord, and cross the Sieg by a bridge some score of miles + above its fall into the bay. The country to the north, between Jarvis and + Trondhjem, is covered with impenetrable forests, while to the south the + Falberg is nearly as much separated from Christiana by inaccessible + precipices. The village of Jarvis might perhaps have communicated with the + interior of Norway and Sweden by the river Sieg; but to do this and to be + thus brought into contact with civilization, the Strom-fiord needed the + presence of a man of genius. Such a man did actually appear there,—a + poet, a Swede of great religious fervor, who died admiring, even + reverencing this region as one of the noblest works of the Creator. + </p> + <p> + Minds endowed by study with an inward sight, and whose quick perceptions + bring before the soul, as though painted on a canvas, the contrasting + scenery of this universe, will now apprehend the general features of the + Strom-fiord. They alone, perhaps, can thread their way through the + tortuous channels of the reef, or flee with the battling waves to the + everlasting rebuff of the Falberg whose white peaks mingle with the + vaporous clouds of the pearl-gray sky, or watch with delight the curving + sheet of waters, or hear the rushing of the Sieg as it hangs for an + instant in long fillets and then falls over a picturesque abatis of noble + trees toppled confusedly together, sometimes upright, sometimes + half-sunken beneath the rocks. It may be that such minds alone can dwell + upon the smiling scenes nestling among the lower hills of Jarvis; where + the luscious Northern vegetables spring up in families, in myriads, where + the white birches bend, graceful as maidens, where colonnades of beeches + rear their boles mossy with the growth of centuries, where shades of green + contrast, and white clouds float amid the blackness of the distant pines, + and tracts of many-tinted crimson and purple shrubs are shaded endlessly; + in short, where blend all colors, all perfumes of a flora whose wonders + are still ignored. Widen the boundaries of this limited ampitheatre, + spring upward to the clouds, lose yourself among the rocks where the seals + are lying and even then your thought cannot compass the wealth of beauty + nor the poetry of this Norwegian coast. Can your thought be as vast as the + ocean that bounds it? as weird as the fantastic forms drawn by these + forests, these clouds, these shadows, these changeful lights? + </p> + <p> + Do you see above the meadows on that lowest slope which undulates around + the higher hills of Jarvis two or three hundred houses roofed with + “noever,” a sort of thatch made of birch-bark,—frail houses, long + and low, looking like silk-worms on a mulberry-leaf tossed hither by the + winds? Above these humble, peaceful dwellings stands the church, built + with a simplicity in keeping with the poverty of the villagers. A + graveyard surrounds the chancel, and a little farther on you see the + parsonage. Higher up, on a projection of the mountain is a dwelling-house, + the only one of stone; for which reason the inhabitants of the village + call it “the Swedish Castle.” In fact, a wealthy Swede settled in Jarvis + about thirty years before this history begins, and did his best to + ameliorate its condition. This little house, certainly not a castle, built + with the intention of leading the inhabitants to build others like it, was + noticeable for its solidity and for the wall that inclosed it, a rare + thing in Norway where, notwithstanding the abundance of stone, wood alone + is used for all fences, even those of fields. This Swedish house, thus + protected against the climate, stood on rising ground in the centre of an + immense courtyard. The windows were sheltered by those projecting + pent-house roofs supported by squared trunks of trees which give so + patriarchal an air to Northern dwellings. From beneath them the eye could + see the savage nudity of the Falberg, or compare the infinitude of the + open sea with the tiny drop of water in the foaming fiord; the ear could + hear the flowing of the Sieg, whose white sheet far away looked motionless + as it fell into its granite cup edged for miles around with glaciers,—in + short, from this vantage ground the whole landscape whereon our simple yet + superhuman drama was about to be enacted could be seen and noted. + </p> + <p> + The winter of 1799-1800 was one of the most severe ever known to + Europeans. The Norwegian sea was frozen in all the fiords, where, as a + usual thing, the violence of the surf kept the ice from forming. A wind, + whose effects were like those of the Spanish levanter, swept the ice of + the Strom-fiord, driving the snow to the upper end of the gulf. Seldom + indeed could the people of Jarvis see the mirror of frozen waters + reflecting the colors of the sky; a wondrous site in the bosom of these + mountains when all other aspects of nature are levelled beneath successive + sheets of snow, and crests and valleys are alike mere folds of the vast + mantle flung by winter across a landscape at once so mournfully dazzling + and so monotonous. The falling volume of the Sieg, suddenly frozen, formed + an immense arcade beneath which the inhabitants might have crossed under + shelter from the blast had any dared to risk themselves inland. But the + dangers of every step away from their own surroundings kept even the + boldest hunters in their homes, afraid lest the narrow paths along the + precipices, the clefts and fissures among the rocks, might be + unrecognizable beneath the snow. + </p> + <p> + Thus it was that no human creature gave life to the white desert where + Boreas reigned, his voice alone resounding at distant intervals. The sky, + nearly always gray, gave tones of polished steel to the ice of the fiord. + Perchance some ancient eider-duck crossed the expanse, trusting to the + warm down beneath which dream, in other lands, the luxurious rich, little + knowing of the dangers through which their luxury has come to them. Like + the Bedouin of the desert who darts alone across the sands of Africa, the + bird is neither seen nor heard; the torpid atmosphere, deprived of its + electrical conditions, echoes neither the whirr of its wings nor its + joyous notes. Besides, what human eye was strong enough to bear the + glitter of those pinnacles adorned with sparkling crystals, or the sharp + reflections of the snow, iridescent on the summits in the rays of a pallid + sun which infrequently appeared, like a dying man seeking to make known + that he still lives. Often, when the flocks of gray clouds, driven in + squadrons athwart the mountains and among the tree-tops, hid the sky with + their triple veils Earth, lacking the celestial lights, lit herself by + herself. + </p> + <p> + Here, then, we meet the majesty of Cold, seated eternally at the pole in + that regal silence which is the attribute of all absolute monarchy. Every + extreme principle carries with it an appearance of negation and the + symptoms of death; for is not life the struggle of two forces? Here in + this Northern nature nothing lived. One sole power—the unproductive + power of ice—reigned unchallenged. The roar of the open sea no + longer reached the deaf, dumb inlet, where during one short season of the + year Nature made haste to produce the slender harvests necessary for the + food of the patient people. A few tall pine-trees lifted their black + pyramids garlanded with snow, and the form of their long branches and + depending shoots completed the mourning garments of those solemn heights. + </p> + <p> + Each household gathered in its chimney-corner, in houses carefully closed + from the outer air, and well supplied with biscuit, melted butter, dried + fish, and other provisions laid in for the seven-months winter. The very + smoke of these dwellings was hardly seen, half-hidden as they were beneath + the snow, against the weight of which they were protected by long planks + reaching from the roof and fastened at some distance to solid blocks on + the ground, forming a covered way around each building. + </p> + <p> + During these terrible winter months the women spun and dyed the woollen + stuffs and the linen fabrics with which they clothed their families, while + the men read, or fell into those endless meditations which have given + birth to so many profound theories, to the mystic dreams of the North, to + its beliefs, to its studies (so full and so complete in one science, at + least, sounded as with a plummet), to its manners and its morals, + half-monastic, which force the soul to react and feed upon itself and make + the Norwegian peasant a being apart among the peoples of Europe. + </p> + <p> + Such was the condition of the Strom-fiord in the first year of the + nineteenth century and about the middle of the month of May. + </p> + <p> + On a morning when the sun burst forth upon this landscape, lighting the + fires of the ephemeral diamonds produced by crystallizations of the snow + and ice, two beings crossed the fiord and flew along the base of the + Falberg, rising thence from ledge to ledge toward the summit. What were + they? human creatures, or two arrows? They might have been taken for + eider-ducks sailing in consort before the wind. Not the boldest hunter nor + the most superstitious fisherman would have attributed to human beings the + power to move safely along the slender lines traced beneath the snow by + the granite ledges, where yet this couple glided with the terrifying + dexterity of somnambulists who, forgetting their own weight and the + dangers of the slightest deviation, hurry along a ridge-pole and keep + their equilibrium by the power of some mysterious force. + </p> + <p> + “Stop me, Seraphitus,” said a pale young girl, “and let me breathe. I look + at you, you only, while scaling these walls of the gulf; otherwise, what + would become of me? I am such a feeble creature. Do I tire you?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said the being on whose arm she leaned. “But let us go on, Minna; + the place where we are is not firm enough to stand on.” + </p> + <p> + Once more the snow creaked sharply beneath the long boards fastened to + their feet, and soon they reached the upper terrace of the first ledge, + clearly defined upon the flank of the precipice. The person whom Minna had + addressed as Seraphitus threw his weight upon his right heel, arresting + the plank—six and a half feet long and narrow as the foot of a child—which + was fastened to his boot by a double thong of leather. This plank, two + inches thick, was covered with reindeer skin, which bristled against the + snow when the foot was raised, and served to stop the wearer. Seraphitus + drew in his left foot, furnished with another “skee,” which was only two + feet long, turned swiftly where he stood, caught his timid companion in + his arms, lifted her in spite of the long boards on her feet, and placed + her on a projecting rock from which he brushed the snow with his pelisse. + </p> + <p> + “You are safe there, Minna; you can tremble at your ease.” + </p> + <p> + “We are a third of the way up the Ice-Cap,” she said, looking at the peak + to which she gave the popular name by which it is known in Norway; “I can + hardly believe it.” + </p> + <p> + Too much out of breath to say more, she smiled at Seraphitus, who, without + answering, laid his hand upon her heart and listened to its sounding + throbs, rapid as those of a frightened bird. + </p> + <p> + “It often beats as fast when I run,” she said. + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus inclined his head with a gesture that was neither coldness nor + indifference, and yet, despite the grace which made the movement almost + tender, it none the less bespoke a certain negation, which in a woman + would have seemed an exquisite coquetry. Seraphitus clasped the young girl + in his arms. Minna accepted the caress as an answer to her words, + continuing to gaze at him. As he raised his head, and threw back with + impatient gesture the golden masses of his hair to free his brow, he saw + an expression of joy in the eyes of his companion. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Minna,” he said in a voice whose paternal accents were charming from + the lips of a being who was still adolescent, “Keep your eyes on me; do + not look below you.” + </p> + <p> + “Why not?” she asked. + </p> + <p> + “You wish to know why? then look!” + </p> + <p> + Minna glanced quickly at her feet and cried out suddenly like a child who + sees a tiger. The awful sensation of abysses seized her; one glance + sufficed to communicate its contagion. The fiord, eager for food, + bewildered her with its loud voice ringing in her ears, interposing + between herself and life as though to devour her more surely. From the + crown of her head to her feet and along her spine an icy shudder ran; then + suddenly intolerable heat suffused her nerves, beat in her veins and + overpowered her extremities with electric shocks like those of the + torpedo. Too feeble to resist, she felt herself drawn by a mysterious + power to the depths below, wherein she fancied that she saw some monster + belching its venom, a monster whose magnetic eyes were charming her, whose + open jaws appeared to craunch their prey before they seized it. + </p> + <p> + “I die, my Seraphitus, loving none but thee,” she said, making a + mechanical movement to fling herself into the abyss. + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus breathed softly on her forehead and eyes. Suddenly, like a + traveller relaxed after a bath, Minna forgot these keen emotions, already + dissipated by that caressing breath which penetrated her body and filled + it with balsamic essences as quickly as the breath itself had crossed the + air. + </p> + <p> + “Who art thou?” she said, with a feeling of gentle terror. “Ah, but I + know! thou art my life. How canst thou look into that gulf and not die?” + she added presently. + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus left her clinging to the granite rock and placed himself at the + edge of the narrow platform on which they stood, whence his eyes plunged + to the depths of the fiord, defying its dazzling invitation. His body did + not tremble, his brow was white and calm as that of a marble statue,—an + abyss facing an abyss. + </p> + <p> + “Seraphitus! dost thou not love me? come back!” she cried. “Thy danger + renews my terror. Who art thou to have such superhuman power at thy age?” + she asked as she felt his arms inclosing her once more. + </p> + <p> + “But, Minna,” answered Seraphitus, “you look fearlessly at greater spaces + far than that.” + </p> + <p> + Then with raised finger, this strange being pointed upward to the blue + dome, which parting clouds left clear above their heads, where stars could + be seen in open day by virtue of atmospheric laws as yet unstudied. + </p> + <p> + “But what a difference!” she answered smiling. + </p> + <p> + “You are right,” he said; “we are born to stretch upward to the skies. Our + native land, like the face of a mother, cannot terrify her children.” + </p> + <p> + His voice vibrated through the being of his companion, who made no reply. + </p> + <p> + “Come! let us go on,” he said. + </p> + <p> + The pair darted forward along the narrow paths traced back and forth upon + the mountain, skimming from terrace to terrace, from line to line, with + the rapidity of a barb, that bird of the desert. Presently they reached an + open space, carpeted with turf and moss and flowers, where no foot had + ever trod. + </p> + <p> + “Oh, the pretty saeter!” cried Minna, giving to the upland meadow its + Norwegian name. “But how comes it here, at such a height?” + </p> + <p> + “Vegetation ceases here, it is true,” said Seraphitus. “These few plants + and flowers are due to that sheltering rock which protects the meadow from + the polar winds. Put that tuft in your bosom, Minna,” he added, gathering + a flower,—“that balmy creation which no eye has ever seen; keep the + solitary matchless flower in memory of this one matchless morning of your + life. You will find no other guide to lead you again to this saeter.” + </p> + <p> + So saying, he gave her the hybrid plant his falcon eye had seen amid the + tufts of gentian acaulis and saxifrages,—a marvel, brought to bloom + by the breath of angels. With girlish eagerness Minna seized the tufted + plant of transparent green, vivid as emerald, which was formed of little + leaves rolled trumpet-wise, brown at the smaller end but changing tint by + tint to their delicately notched edges, which were green. These leaves + were so tightly pressed together that they seemed to blend and form a mat + or cluster of rosettes. Here and there from this green ground rose pure + white stars edged with a line of gold, and from their throats came crimson + anthers but no pistils. A fragrance, blended of roses and of orange + blossoms, yet ethereal and fugitive, gave something as it were celestial + to that mysterious flower, which Seraphitus sadly contemplated, as though + it uttered plaintive thoughts which he alone could understand. But to + Minna this mysterious phenomenon seemed a mere caprice of nature giving to + stone the freshness, softness, and perfume of plants. + </p> + <p> + “Why do you call it matchless? can it not reproduce itself?” she asked, + looking at Seraphitus, who colored and turned away. + </p> + <p> + “Let us sit down,” he said presently; “look below you, Minna. See! At this + height you will have no fear. The abyss is so far beneath us that we no + longer have a sense of its depths; it acquires the perspective uniformity + of ocean, the vagueness of clouds, the soft coloring of the sky. See, the + ice of the fiord is a turquoise, the dark pine forests are mere threads of + brown; for us all abysses should be thus adorned.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus said the words with that fervor of tone and gesture seen and + known only by those who have ascended the highest mountains of the globe,—a + fervor so involuntarily acquired that the haughtiest of men is forced to + regard his guide as a brother, forgetting his own superior station till he + descends to the valleys and the abodes of his kind. Seraphitus unfastened + the skees from Minna’s feet, kneeling before her. The girl did not notice + him, so absorbed was she in the marvellous view now offered of her native + land, whose rocky outlines could here be seen at a glance. She felt, with + deep emotion, the solemn permanence of those frozen summits, to which + words could give no adequate utterance. + </p> + <p> + “We have not come here by human power alone,” she said, clasping her + hands. “But perhaps I dream.” + </p> + <p> + “You think that facts the causes of which you cannot perceive are + supernatural,” replied her companion. + </p> + <p> + “Your replies,” she said, “always bear the stamp of some deep thought. + When I am near you I understand all things without an effort. Ah, I am + free!” + </p> + <p> + “If so, you will not need your skees,” he answered. + </p> + <p> + “Oh!” she said; “I who would fain unfasten yours and kiss your feet!” + </p> + <p> + “Keep such words for Wilfrid,” said Seraphitus, gently. + </p> + <p> + “Wilfrid!” cried Minna angrily; then, softening as she glanced at her + companion’s face and trying, but in vain, to take his hand, she added, + “You are never angry, never; you are so hopelessly perfect in all things.” + </p> + <p> + “From which you conclude that I am unfeeling.” + </p> + <p> + Minna was startled at this lucid interpretation of her thought. + </p> + <p> + “You prove to me, at any rate, that we understand each other,” she said, + with the grace of a loving woman. + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus softly shook his head and looked sadly and gently at her. + </p> + <p> + “You, who know all things,” said Minna, “tell me why it is that the + timidity I felt below is over now that I have mounted higher. Why do I + dare to look at you for the first time face to face, while lower down I + scarcely dared to give a furtive glance?” + </p> + <p> + “Perhaps because we are withdrawn from the pettiness of earth,” he + answered, unfastening his pelisse. + </p> + <p> + “Never, never have I seen you so beautiful!” cried Minna, sitting down on + a mossy rock and losing herself in contemplation of the being who had now + guided her to a part of the peak hitherto supposed to be inaccessible. + </p> + <p> + Never, in truth, had Seraphitus shone with so bright a radiance,—the + only word which can render the illumination of his face and the aspect of + his whole person. Was this splendor due to the lustre which the pure air + of mountains and the reflections of the snow give to the complexion? Was + it produced by the inward impulse which excites the body at the instant + when exertion is arrested? Did it come from the sudden contrast between + the glory of the sun and the darkness of the clouds, from whose shadow the + charming couple had just emerged? Perhaps to all these causes we may add + the effect of a phenomenon, one of the noblest which human nature has to + offer. If some able physiologist had studied this being (who, judging by + the pride on his brow and the lightning in his eyes seemed a youth of + about seventeen years of age), and if the student had sought for the + springs of that beaming life beneath the whitest skin that ever the North + bestowed upon her offspring, he would undoubtedly have believed either in + some phosphoric fluid of the nerves shining beneath the cuticle, or in the + constant presence of an inward luminary, whose rays issued through the + being of Seraphitus like a light through an alabaster vase. Soft and + slender as were his hands, ungloved to remove his companion’s snow-boots, + they seemed possessed of a strength equal to that which the Creator gave + to the diaphanous tentacles of the crab. The fire darting from his vivid + glance seemed to struggle with the beams of the sun, not to take but to + give them light. His body, slim and delicate as that of a woman, gave + evidence of one of those natures which are feeble apparently, but whose + strength equals their will, rendering them at times powerful. Of medium + height, Seraphitus appeared to grow in stature as he turned fully round + and seemed about to spring upward. His hair, curled by a fairy’s hand and + waving to the breeze, increased the illusion produced by this aerial + attitude; yet his bearing, wholly without conscious effort, was the result + far more of a moral phenomenon than of a corporal habit. + </p> + <p> + Minna’s imagination seconded this illusion, under the dominion of which + all persons would assuredly have fallen,—an illusion which gave to + Seraphitus the appearance of a vision dreamed of in happy sleep. No known + type conveys an image of that form so majestically made to Minna, but + which to the eyes of a man would have eclipsed in womanly grace the + fairest of Raphael’s creations. That painter of heaven has ever put a + tranquil joy, a loving sweetness, into the lines of his angelic + conceptions; but what soul, unless it contemplated Seraphitus himself, + could have conceived the ineffable emotions imprinted on his face? Who + would have divined, even in the dreams of artists, where all things become + possible, the shadow cast by some mysterious awe upon that brow, shining + with intellect, which seemed to question Heaven and to pity Earth? The + head hovered awhile disdainfully, as some majestic bird whose cries + reverberate on the atmosphere, then bowed itself resignedly, like the + turtledove uttering soft notes of tenderness in the depths of the silent + woods. His complexion was of marvellous whiteness, which brought out + vividly the coral lips, the brown eyebrows, and the silken lashes, the + only colors that trenched upon the paleness of that face, whose perfect + regularity did not detract from the grandeur of the sentiments expressed + in it; nay, thought and emotion were reflected there, without hindrance or + violence, with the majestic and natural gravity which we delight in + attributing to superior beings. That face of purest marble expressed in + all things strength and peace. + </p> + <p> + Minna rose to take the hand of Seraphitus, hoping thus to draw him to her, + and to lay on that seductive brow a kiss given more from admiration than + from love; but a glance at the young man’s eyes, which pierced her as a + ray of sunlight penetrates a prism, paralyzed the young girl. She felt, + but without comprehending, a gulf between them; then she turned away her + head and wept. Suddenly a strong hand seized her by the waist, and a soft + voice said to her: “Come!” She obeyed, resting her head, suddenly revived, + upon the heart of her companion, who, regulating his step to hers with + gentle and attentive conformity, led her to a spot whence they could see + the radiant glories of the polar Nature. + </p> + <p> + “Before I look, before I listen to you, tell me, Seraphitus, why you + repulse me. Have I displeased you? and how? tell me! I want nothing for + myself; I would that all my earthly goods were yours, for the riches of my + heart are yours already. I would that light came to my eyes only though + your eyes just as my thought is born of your thought. I should not then + fear to offend you, for I should give you back the echoes of your soul, + the words of your heart, day by day,—as we render to God the + meditations with which his spirit nourishes our minds. I would be thine + alone.” + </p> + <p> + “Minna, a constant desire is that which shapes our future. Hope on! But if + you would be pure in heart mingle the idea of the All-Powerful with your + affections here below; then you will love all creatures, and your heart + will rise to heights indeed.” + </p> + <p> + “I will do all you tell me,” she answered, lifting her eyes to his with a + timid movement. + </p> + <p> + “I cannot be your companion,” said Seraphitus sadly. + </p> + <p> + He seemed to repress some thoughts, then stretched his arms towards + Christiana, just visible like a speck on the horizon and said:— + </p> + <p> + “Look!” + </p> + <p> + “We are very small,” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, but we become great through feeling and through intellect,” answered + Seraphitus. “With us, and us alone, Minna, begins the knowledge of things; + the little that we learn of the laws of the visible world enables us to + apprehend the immensity of the worlds invisible. I know not if the time + has come to speak thus to you, but I would, ah, I would communicate to you + the flame of my hopes! Perhaps we may one day be together in the world + where Love never dies.” + </p> + <p> + “Why not here and now?” she said, murmuring. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing is stable here,” he said, disdainfully. “The passing joys of + earthly love are gleams which reveal to certain souls the coming of joys + more durable; just as the discovery of a single law of nature leads + certain privileged beings to a conception of the system of the universe. + Our fleeting happiness here below is the forerunning proof of another and + a perfect happiness, just as the earth, a fragment of the world, attests + the universe. We cannot measure the vast orbit of the Divine thought of + which we are but an atom as small as God is great; but we can feel its + vastness, we can kneel, adore, and wait. Men ever mislead themselves in + science by not perceiving that all things on their globe are related and + co-ordinated to the general evolution, to a constant movement and + production which bring with them, necessarily, both advancement and an + End. Man himself is not a finished creation; if he were, God would not + Be.” + </p> + <p> + “How is it that in thy short life thou hast found the time to learn so + many things?” said the young girl. + </p> + <p> + “I remember,” he replied. + </p> + <p> + “Thou art nobler than all else I see.” + </p> + <p> + “We are the noblest of God’s greatest works. Has He not given us the + faculty of reflecting on Nature; of gathering it within us by thought; of + making it a footstool and stepping-stone from and by which to rise to Him? + We love according to the greater or the lesser portion of heaven our souls + contain. But do not be unjust, Minna; behold the magnificence spread + before you. Ocean expands at your feet like a carpet; the mountains + resemble ampitheatres; heaven’s ether is above them like the arching folds + of a stage curtain. Here we may breathe the thoughts of God, as it were + like a perfume. See! the angry billows which engulf the ships laden with + men seem to us, where we are, mere bubbles; and if we raise our eyes and + look above, all there is blue. Behold that diadem of stars! Here the tints + of earthly impressions disappear; standing on this nature rarefied by + space do you not feel within you something deeper far than mind, grander + than enthusiasm, of greater energy than will? Are you not conscious of + emotions whose interpretation is no longer in us? Do you not feel your + pinions? Let us pray.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus knelt down and crossed his hands upon his breast, while Minna + fell, weeping, on her knees. Thus they remained for a time, while the + azure dome above their heads grew larger and strong rays of light + enveloped them without their knowledge. + </p> + <p> + “Why dost thou not weep when I weep?” said Minna, in a broken voice. + </p> + <p> + “They who are all spirit do not weep,” replied Seraphitus rising; “Why + should I weep? I see no longer human wretchedness. Here, Good appears in + all its majesty. There, beneath us, I hear the supplications and the + wailings of that harp of sorrows which vibrates in the hands of captive + souls. Here, I listen to the choir of harps harmonious. There, below, is + hope, the glorious inception of faith; but here is faith—it reigns, + hope realized!” + </p> + <p> + “You will never love me; I am too imperfect; you disdain me,” said the + young girl. + </p> + <p> + “Minna, the violet hidden at the feet of the oak whispers to itself: ‘The + sun does not love me; he comes not.’ The sun says: ‘If my rays shine upon + her she will perish, poor flower.’ Friend of the flower, he sends his + beams through the oak leaves, he veils, he tempers them, and thus they + color the petals of his beloved. I have not veils enough, I fear lest you + see me too closely; you would tremble if you knew me better. Listen: I + have no taste for earthly fruits. Your joys, I know them all too well, + and, like the sated emperors of pagan Rome, I have reached disgust of all + things; I have received the gift of vision. Leave me! abandon me!” he + murmured, sorrowfully. + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus turned and seated himself on a projecting rock, dropping his + head upon his breast. + </p> + <p> + “Why do you drive me to despair?” said Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Go, go!” cried Seraphitus, “I have nothing that you want of me. Your love + is too earthly for my love. Why do you not love Wilfrid? Wilfrid is a man, + tested by passions; he would clasp you in his vigorous arms and make you + feel a hand both broad and strong. His hair is black, his eyes are full of + human thoughts, his heart pours lava in every word he utters; he could + kill you with caresses. Let him be your beloved, your husband! Yes, thine + be Wilfrid!” + </p> + <p> + Minna wept aloud. + </p> + <p> + “Dare you say that you do not love him?” he went on, in a voice which + pierced her like a dagger. + </p> + <p> + “Have mercy, have mercy, my Seraphitus!” + </p> + <p> + “Love him, poor child of Earth to which thy destiny has indissolubly bound + thee,” said the strange being, beckoning Minna by a gesture, and forcing + her to the edge of the saeter, whence he pointed downward to a scene that + might well inspire a young girl full of enthusiasm with the fancy that she + stood above this earth. + </p> + <p> + “I longed for a companion to the kingdom of Light; I wished to show you + that morsel of mud, I find you bound to it. Farewell. Remain on earth; + enjoy through the senses; obey your nature; turn pale with pallid men; + blush with women; sport with children; pray with the guilty; raise your + eyes to heaven when sorrows overtake you; tremble, hope, throb in all your + pulses; you will have a companion; you can laugh and weep, and give and + receive. I,—I am an exile, far from heaven; a monster, far from + earth. I live of myself and by myself. I feel by the spirit; I breathe + through my brow; I see by thought; I die of impatience and of longing. No + one here below can fulfil my desires or calm my griefs. I have forgotten + how to weep. I am alone. I resign myself, and I wait.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus looked at the flowery mound on which he had seated Minna; then + he turned and faced the frowning heights, whose pinnacles were wrapped in + clouds; to them he cast, unspoken, the remainder of his thoughts. + </p> + <p> + “Minna, do you hear those delightful strains?” he said after a pause, with + the voice of a dove, for the eagle’s cry was hushed; “it is like the music + of those Eolian harps your poets hang in forests and on the mountains. Do + you see the shadowy figures passing among the clouds, the winged feet of + those who are making ready the gifts of heaven? They bring refreshment to + the soul; the skies are about to open and shed the flowers of spring upon + the earth. See, a gleam is darting from the pole. Let us fly, let us fly! + It is time we go!” + </p> + <p> + In a moment their skees were refastened, and the pair descended the + Falberg by the steep slopes which join the mountain to the valleys of the + Sieg. Miraculous perception guided their course, or, to speak more + properly, their flight. When fissures covered with snow intercepted them, + Seraphitus caught Minna in his arms and darted with rapid motion, lightly + as a bird, over the crumbling causeways of the abyss. Sometimes, while + propelling his companion, he deviated to the right or left to avoid a + precipice, a tree, a projecting rock, which he seemed to see beneath the + snow, as an old sailor, familiar with the ocean, discerns the hidden reefs + by the color, the trend, or the eddying of the water. When they reached + the paths of the Siegdahlen, where they could fearlessly follow a straight + line to regain the ice of the fiord, Seraphitus stopped Minna. + </p> + <p> + “You have nothing to say to me?” he asked. + </p> + <p> + “I thought you would rather think alone,” she answered respectfully. + </p> + <p> + “Let us hasten, Minette; it is almost night,” he said. + </p> + <p> + Minna quivered as she heard the voice, now so changed, of her guide,—a + pure voice, like that of a young girl, which dissolved the fantastic dream + through which she had been passing. Seraphitus seemed to be laying aside + his male force and the too keen intellect that flames from his eyes. + Presently the charming pair glided across the fiord and reached the + snow-field which divides the shore from the first range of houses; then, + hurrying forward as daylight faded, they sprang up the hill toward the + parsonage, as though they were mounting the steps of a great staircase. + </p> + <p> + “My father must be anxious,” said Minna. + </p> + <p> + “No,” answered Seraphitus. + </p> + <p> + As he spoke the couple reached the porch of the humble dwelling where + Monsieur Becker, the pastor of Jarvis, sat reading while awaiting his + daughter for the evening meal. + </p> + <p> + “Dear Monsieur Becker,” said Seraphitus, “I have brought Minna back to you + safe and sound.” + </p> + <p> + “Thank you, mademoiselle,” said the old man, laying his spectacles on his + book; “you must be very tired.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, no,” said Minna, and as she spoke she felt the soft breath of her + companion on her brow. + </p> + <p> + “Dear heart, will you come day after to-morrow evening and take tea with + me?” + </p> + <p> + “Gladly, dear.” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur Becker, you will bring her, will you not?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, mademoiselle.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus inclined his head with a pretty gesture, and bowed to the old + pastor as he left the house. A few moments later he reached the great + courtyard of the Swedish villa. An old servant, over eighty years of age, + appeared in the portico bearing a lantern. Seraphitus slipped off his + snow-shoes with the graceful dexterity of a woman, then darting into the + salon he fell exhausted and motionless on a wide divan covered with furs. + </p> + <p> + “What will you take?” asked the old man, lighting the immensely tall + wax-candles that are used in Norway. + </p> + <p> + “Nothing, David, I am too weary.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus unfastened his pelisse lined with sable, threw it over him, and + fell asleep. The old servant stood for several minutes gazing with loving + eyes at the singular being before him, whose sex it would have been + difficult for any one at that moment to determine. Wrapped as he was in a + formless garment, which resembled equally a woman’s robe and a man’s + mantle, it was impossible not to fancy that the slender feet which hung at + the side of the couch were those of a woman, and equally impossible not to + note how the forehead and the outlines of the head gave evidence of power + brought to its highest pitch. + </p> + <p> + “She suffers, and she will not tell me,” thought the old man. “She is + dying, like a flower wilted by the burning sun.” + </p> + <p> + And the old man wept. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0002" id="link2HCH0002"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER II. SERAPHITA + </h2> + <p> + Later in the evening David re-entered the salon. + </p> + <p> + “I know who it is you have come to announce,” said Seraphita in a sleepy + voice. “Wilfrid may enter.” + </p> + <p> + Hearing these words a man suddenly presented himself, crossed the room and + sat down beside her. + </p> + <p> + “My dear Seraphita, are you ill?” he said. “You look paler than usual.” + </p> + <p> + She turned slowly towards him, tossing back her hair like a pretty woman + whose aching head leaves her no strength even for complaint. + </p> + <p> + “I was foolish enough to cross the fiord with Minna,” she said. “We + ascended the Falberg.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you mean to kill yourself?” he said with a lover’s terror. + </p> + <p> + “No, my good Wilfrid; I took the greatest care of your Minna.” + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid struck his hand violently on a table, rose hastily, and made + several steps towards the door with an exclamation full of pain; then he + returned and seemed about to remonstrate. + </p> + <p> + “Why this disturbance if you think me ill?” she said. + </p> + <p> + “Forgive me, have mercy!” he cried, kneeling beside her. “Speak to me + harshly if you will; exact all that the cruel fancies of a woman lead you + to imagine I least can bear; but oh, my beloved, do not doubt my love. You + take Minna like an axe to hew me down. Have mercy!” + </p> + <p> + “Why do you say these things, my friend, when you know that they are + useless?” she replied, with a look which grew in the end so soft that + Wilfrid ceased to behold her eyes, but saw in their place a fluid light, + the shimmer of which was like the last vibrations of an Italian song. + </p> + <p> + “Ah! no man dies of anguish!” he murmured. + </p> + <p> + “You are suffering?” she said in a voice whose intonations produced upon + his heart the same effect as that of her look. “Would I could help you!” + </p> + <p> + “Love me as I love you.” + </p> + <p> + “Poor Minna!” she replied. + </p> + <p> + “Why am I unarmed!” exclaimed Wilfrid, violently. + </p> + <p> + “You are out of temper,” said Seraphita, smiling. “Come, have I not spoken + to you like those Parisian women whose loves you tell of?” + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid sat down, crossed his arms, and looked gloomily at Seraphita. “I + forgive you,” he said; “for you know not what you do.” + </p> + <p> + “You mistake,” she replied; “every woman from the days of Eve does good + and evil knowingly.” + </p> + <p> + “I believe it,” he said. + </p> + <p> + “I am sure of it, Wilfrid. Our instinct is precisely that which makes us + perfect. What you men learn, we feel.” + </p> + <p> + “Why, then, do you not feel how much I love you?” + </p> + <p> + “Because you do not love me.” + </p> + <p> + “Good God!” + </p> + <p> + “If you did, would you complain of your own sufferings?” + </p> + <p> + “You are terrible to-night, Seraphita. You are a demon.” + </p> + <p> + “No, but I am gifted with the faculty of comprehending, and it is awful. + Wilfrid, sorrow is a lamp which illumines life.” + </p> + <p> + “Why did you ascend the Falberg?” + </p> + <p> + “Minna will tell you. I am too weary to talk. You must talk to me,—you + who know so much, who have learned all things and forgotten nothing; you + who have passed through every social test. Talk to me, amuse me, I am + listening.” + </p> + <p> + “What can I tell you that you do not know? Besides, the request is + ironical. You allow yourself no intercourse with social life; you trample + on its conventions, its laws, its customs, sentiments, and sciences; you + reduce them all to the proportions such things take when viewed by you + beyond this universe.” + </p> + <p> + “Therefore you see, my friend, that I am not a woman. You do wrong to love + me. What! am I to leave the ethereal regions of my pretended strength, + make myself humbly small, cringe like the hapless female of all species, + that you may lift me up? and then, when I, helpless and broken, ask you + for help, when I need your arm, you will repulse me! No, we can never come + to terms.” + </p> + <p> + “You are more maliciously unkind to-night than I have ever known you.” + </p> + <p> + “Unkind!” she said, with a look which seemed to blend all feelings into + one celestial emotion, “no, I am ill, I suffer, that is all. Leave me, my + friend; it is your manly right. We women should ever please you, entertain + you, be gay in your presence and have no whims save those that amuse you. + Come, what shall I do for you, friend? Shall I sing, shall I dance, though + weariness deprives me of the use of voice and limbs?—Ah! gentlemen, + be we on our deathbeds, we yet must smile to please you; you call that, + methinks, your right. Poor women! I pity them. Tell me, you who abandon + them when they grow old, is it because they have neither hearts nor souls? + Wilfrid, I am a hundred years old; leave me! leave me! go to Minna!” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, my eternal love!” + </p> + <p> + “Do you know the meaning of eternity? Be silent, Wilfrid. You desire me, + but you do not love me. Tell me, do I not seem to you like those + coquettish Parisian women?” + </p> + <p> + “Certainly I no longer find you the pure celestial maiden I first saw in + the church of Jarvis.” + </p> + <p> + At these words Seraphita passed her hands across her brow, and when she + removed them Wilfrid was amazed at the saintly expression that overspread + her face. + </p> + <p> + “You are right, my friend,” she said; “I do wrong whenever I set my feet + upon your earth.” + </p> + <p> + “Oh, Seraphita, be my star! stay where you can ever bless me with that + clear light!” + </p> + <p> + As he spoke, he stretched forth his hand to take that of the young girl, + but she withdrew it, neither disdainfully nor in anger. Wilfrid rose + abruptly and walked to the window that she might not see the tears that + rose to his eyes. + </p> + <p> + “Why do you weep?” she said. “You are not a child, Wilfrid. Come back to + me. I wish it. You are annoyed if I show just displeasure. You see that I + am fatigued and ill, yet you force me to think and speak, and listen to + persuasions and ideas that weary me. If you had any real perception of my + nature, you would have made some music, you would have lulled my feelings—but + no, you love me for yourself and not for myself.” + </p> + <p> + The storm which convulsed the young man’s heart calmed down at these + words. He slowly approached her, letting his eyes take in the seductive + creature who lay exhausted before him, her head resting in her hand and + her elbow on the couch. + </p> + <p> + “You think that I do not love you,” she resumed. “You are mistaken. Listen + to me, Wilfrid. You are beginning to know much; you have suffered much. + Let me explain your thoughts to you. You wished to take my hand just now”; + she rose to a sitting posture, and her graceful motions seemed to emit + light. “When a young girl allows her hand to be taken it is as though she + made a promise, is it not? and ought she not to fulfil it? You well know + that I cannot be yours. Two sentiments divide and inspire the love of all + the women of the earth. Either they devote themselves to suffering, + degraded, and criminal beings whom they desire to console, uplift, redeem; + or they give themselves to superior men, sublime and strong, whom they + adore and seek to comprehend, and by whom they are often annihilated. You + have been degraded, though now you are purified by the fires of + repentance, and to-day you are once more noble; but I know myself too + feeble to be your equal, and too religious to bow before any power but + that On High. I may refer thus to your life, my friend, for we are in the + North, among the clouds, where all things are abstractions.” + </p> + <p> + “You stab me, Seraphita, when you speak like this. It wounds me to hear + you apply the dreadful knowledge with which you strip from all things + human the properties that time and space and form have given them, and + consider them mathematically in the abstract, as geometry treats + substances from which it extracts solidity.” + </p> + <p> + “Well, I will respect your wishes, Wilfrid. Let the subject drop. Tell me + what you think of this bearskin rug which my poor David has spread out.” + </p> + <p> + “It is very handsome.” + </p> + <p> + “Did you ever see me wear this ‘doucha greka’?” + </p> + <p> + She pointed to a pelisse made of cashmere and lined with the skin of the + black fox,—the name she gave it signifying “warm to the soul.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you believe that any sovereign has a fur that can equal it?” she + asked. + </p> + <p> + “It is worthy of her who wears it.” + </p> + <p> + “And whom you think beautiful?” + </p> + <p> + “Human words do not apply to her. Heart to heart is the only language I + can use.” + </p> + <p> + “Wilfrid, you are kind to soothe my griefs with such sweet words—which + you have said to others.” + </p> + <p> + “Farewell!” + </p> + <p> + “Stay. I love both you and Minna, believe me. To me you two are as one + being. United thus you can be my brother or, if you will, my sister. Marry + her; let me see you both happy before I leave this world of trial and of + pain. My God! the simplest of women obtain what they ask of a lover; they + whisper ‘Hush!’ and he is silent; ‘Die’ and he dies; ‘Love me afar’ and he + stays at a distance, like courtiers before a king! All I desire is to see + you happy, and you refuse me! Am I then powerless?—Wilfrid, listen, + come nearer to me. Yes, I should grieve to see you marry Minna but—when + I am here no longer, then—promise me to marry her; heaven destined + you for each other.” + </p> + <p> + “I listen to you with fascination, Seraphita. Your words are + incomprehensible, but they charm me. What is it you mean to say?” + </p> + <p> + “You are right; I forget to be foolish,—to be the poor creature + whose weaknesses gratify you. I torment you, Wilfrid. You came to these + Northern lands for rest, you, worn-out by the impetuous struggle of genius + unrecognized, you, weary with the patient toils of science, you, who + well-nigh dyed your hands in crime and wore the fetters of human justice—” + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid dropped speechless on the carpet. Seraphita breathed softly on his + forehead, and in a moment he fell asleep at her feet. + </p> + <p> + “Sleep! rest!” she said, rising. + </p> + <p> + She passed her hands over Wilfrid’s brow; then the following sentences + escaped her lips, one by one,—all different in tone and accent, but + all melodious, full of a Goodness that seemed to emanate from her head in + vaporous waves, like the gleams the goddess chastely lays upon Endymion + sleeping. + </p> + <p> + “I cannot show myself such as I am to thee, dear Wilfrid,—to thee + who art strong. + </p> + <p> + “The hour is come; the hour when the effulgent lights of the future cast + their reflections backward on the soul; the hour when the soul awakes into + freedom. + </p> + <p> + “Now am I permitted to tell thee how I love thee. Dost thou not see the + nature of my love, a love without self-interest; a sentiment full of thee, + thee only; a love which follows thee into the future to light that future + for thee—for it is the one True Light. Canst thou now conceive with + what ardor I would have thee leave this life which weighs thee down, and + behold thee nearer than thou art to that world where Love is + never-failing? Can it be aught but suffering to love for one life only? + Hast thou not felt a thirst for the eternal love? Dost thou not feel the + bliss to which a creature rises when, with twin-soul, it loves the Being + who betrays not love, Him before whom we kneel in adoration? + </p> + <p> + “Would I had wings to cover thee, Wilfrid; power to give thee strength to + enter now into that world where all the purest joys of purest earthly + attachments are but shadows in the Light that shines, unceasing, to + illumine and rejoice all hearts. + </p> + <p> + “Forgive a friendly soul for showing thee the picture of thy sins, in the + charitable hope of soothing the sharp pangs of thy remorse. Listen to the + pardoning choir; refresh thy soul in the dawn now rising for thee beyond + the night of death. Yes, thy life, thy true life is there! + </p> + <p> + “May my words now reach thee clothed in the glorious forms of dreams; may + they deck themselves with images glowing and radiant as they hover round + you. Rise, rise, to the height where men can see themselves distinctly, + pressed together though they be like grains of sand upon a sea-shore. + Humanity rolls out like a many-colored ribbon. See the diverse shades of + that flower of the celestial gardens. Behold the beings who lack + intelligence, those who begin to receive it, those who have passed through + trials, those who love, those who follow wisdom and aspire to the regions + of Light! + </p> + <p> + “Canst thou comprehend, through this thought made visible, the destiny of + humanity?—whence it came, whither to goeth? Continue steadfast in + the Path. Reaching the end of thy journey thou shalt hear the clarions of + omnipotence sounding the cries of victory in chords of which a single one + would shake the earth, but which are lost in the spaces of a world that + hath neither east nor west. + </p> + <p> + “Canst thou comprehend, my poor beloved Tried-one, that unless the torpor + and the veils of sleep had wrapped thee, such sights would rend and bear + away thy mind as the whirlwinds rend and carry into space the feeble + sails, depriving thee forever of thy reason? Dost thou understand that the + Soul itself, raised to its utmost power can scarcely endure in dreams the + burning communications of the Spirit? + </p> + <p> + “Speed thy way through the luminous spheres; behold, admire, hasten! + Flying thus thou canst pause or advance without weariness. Like other men, + thou wouldst fain be plunged forever in these spheres of light and perfume + where now thou art, free of thy swooning body, and where thy thought alone + has utterance. Fly! enjoy for a fleeting moment the wings thou shalt + surely win when Love has grown so perfect in thee that thou hast no senses + left; when thy whole being is all mind, all love. The higher thy flight + the less canst thou see the abysses. There are none in heaven. Look at the + friend who speaks to thee; she who holds thee above this earth in which + are all abysses. Look, behold, contemplate me yet a moment longer, for + never again wilt thou see me, save imperfectly as the pale twilight of + this world may show me to thee.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphita stood erect, her head with floating hair inclining gently + forward, in that aerial attitude which great painters give to messengers + from heaven; the folds of her raiment fell with the same unspeakable grace + which holds an artist—the man who translates all things into + sentiment—before the exquisite well-known lines of Polyhymnia’s + veil. Then she stretched forth her hand. Wilfrid rose. When he looked at + Seraphita she was lying on the bear’s-skin, her head resting on her hand, + her face calm, her eyes brilliant. Wilfrid gazed at her silently; but his + face betrayed a deferential fear in its almost timid expression. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, dear,” he said at last, as though he were answering some question; + “we are separated by worlds. I resign myself; I can only adore you. But + what will become of me, poor and alone!” + </p> + <p> + “Wilfrid, you have Minna.” + </p> + <p> + He shook his head. + </p> + <p> + “Do not be so disdainful; woman understands all things through love; what + she does not understand she feels; what she does not feel she sees; when + she neither sees, nor feels, nor understands, this angel of earth divines + to protect you, and hides her protection beneath the grace of love.” + </p> + <p> + “Seraphita, am I worthy to belong to a woman?” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, now,” she said, smiling, “you are suddenly very modest; is it a + snare? A woman is always so touched to see her weakness glorified. Well, + come and take tea with me the day after to-morrow evening; good Monsieur + Becker will be here, and Minna, the purest and most artless creature I + have known on earth. Leave me now, my friend; I need to make long prayers + and expiate my sins.” + </p> + <p> + “You, can you commit sin?” + </p> + <p> + “Poor friend! if we abuse our power, is not that the sin of pride? I have + been very proud to-day. Now leave me, till to-morrow.” + </p> + <p> + “Till to-morrow,” said Wilfrid faintly, casting a long glance at the being + of whom he desired to carry with him an ineffaceable memory. + </p> + <p> + Though he wished to go far away, he was held, as it were, outside the + house for some moments, watching the light which shone from all the + windows of the Swedish dwelling. + </p> + <p> + “What is the matter with me?” he asked himself. “No, she is not a mere + creature, but a whole creation. Of her world, even through veils and + clouds, I have caught echoes like the memory of sufferings healed, like + the dazzling vertigo of dreams in which we hear the plaints of generations + mingling with the harmonies of some higher sphere where all is Light and + all is Love. Am I awake? Do I still sleep? Are these the eyes before which + the luminous space retreated further and further indefinitely while the + eyes followed it? The night is cold, yet my head is on fire. I will go to + the parsonage. With the pastor and his daughter I shall recover the + balance of my mind.” + </p> + <p> + But still he did not leave the spot whence his eyes could plunge into + Seraphita’s salon. The mysterious creature seemed to him the radiating + centre of a luminous circle which formed an atmosphere about her wider + than that of other beings; whoever entered it felt the compelling + influence of, as it were, a vortex of dazzling light and all consuming + thoughts. Forced to struggle against this inexplicable power, Wilfrid only + prevailed after strong efforts; but when he reached and passed the + inclosing wall of the courtyard, he regained his freedom of will, walked + rapidly towards the parsonage, and was soon beneath the high wooden arch + which formed a sort of peristyle to Monsieur Becker’s dwelling. He opened + the first door, against which the wind had driven the snow, and knocked on + the inner one, saying:— + </p> + <p> + “Will you let me spend the evening with you, Monsieur Becker?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” cried two voices, mingling their intonations. + </p> + <p> + Entering the parlor, Wilfrid returned by degrees to real life. He bowed + affectionately to Minna, shook hands with Monsieur Becker, and looked + about at the picture of a home which calmed the convulsions of his + physical nature, in which a phenomenon was taking place analogous to that + which sometimes seizes upon men who have given themselves up to protracted + contemplations. If some strong thought bears upward on phantasmal wing a + man of learning or a poet, isolates him from the external circumstances + which environ him here below, and leads him forward through illimitable + regions where vast arrays of facts become abstractions, where the greatest + works of Nature are but images, then woe betide him if a sudden noise + strikes sharply on his senses and calls his errant soul back to its + prison-house of flesh and bones. The shock of the reunion of these two + powers, body and mind,—one of which partakes of the unseen qualities + of a thunderbolt, while the other shares with sentient nature that soft + resistant force which deifies destruction,—this shock, this + struggle, or, rather let us say, this painful meeting and co-mingling, + gives rise to frightful sufferings. The body receives back the flame that + consumes it; the flame has once more grasped its prey. This fusion, + however, does not take place without convulsions, explosions, tortures; + analogous and visible signs of which may be seen in chemistry, when two + antagonistic substances which science has united separate. + </p> + <p> + For the last few days whenever Wilfrid entered Seraphita’s presence his + body seemed to fall away from him into nothingness. With a single glance + this strange being led him in spirit through the spheres where meditation + leads the learned man, prayer the pious heart, where vision transports the + artist, and sleep the souls of men,—each and all have their own path + to the Height, their own guide to reach it, their own individual + sufferings in the dire return. In that sphere alone all veils are rent + away, and the revelation, the awful flaming certainty of an unknown world, + of which the soul brings back mere fragments to this lower sphere, stands + revealed. To Wilfrid one hour passed with Seraphita was like the + sought-for dreams of Theriakis, in which each knot of nerves becomes the + centre of a radiating delight. But he left her bruised and wearied as some + young girl endeavoring to keep step with a giant. + </p> + <p> + The cold air, with its stinging flagellations, had begun to still the + nervous tremors which followed the reunion of his two natures, so + powerfully disunited for a time; he was drawn towards the parsonage, then + towards Minna, by the sight of the every-day home life for which he + thirsted as the wandering European thirsts for his native land when + nostalgia seizes him amid the fairy scenes of Orient that have seduced his + senses. More weary than he had ever yet been, Wilfrid dropped into a chair + and looked about him for a time, like a man who awakens from sleep. + Monsieur Becker and his daughter accustomed, perhaps, to the apparent + eccentricity of their guest, continued the employments in which they were + engaged. + </p> + <p> + The parlor was ornamented with a collection of the shells and insects of + Norway. These curiosities, admirably arranged on a background of the + yellow pine which panelled the room, formed, as it were, a rich tapestry + to which the fumes of tobacco had imparted a mellow tone. At the further + end of the room, opposite to the door, was an immense wrought-iron stove, + carefully polished by the serving-woman till it shone like burnished + steel. Seated in a large tapestried armchair near the stove, before a + table, with his feet in a species of muff, Monsieur Becker was reading a + folio volume which was propped against a pile of other books as on a desk. + At his left stood a jug of beer and a glass, at his right burned a smoky + lamp fed by some species of fish-oil. The pastor seemed about sixty years + of age. His face belonged to a type often painted by Rembrandt; the same + small bright eyes, set in wrinkles and surmounted by thick gray eyebrows; + the same white hair escaping in snowy flakes from a black velvet cap; the + same broad, bald brow, and a contour of face which the ample chin made + almost square; and lastly, the same calm tranquillity, which, to an + observer, denoted the possession of some inward power, be it the supremacy + bestowed by money, or the magisterial influence of the burgomaster, or the + consciousness of art, or the cubic force of blissful ignorance. This fine + old man, whose stout body proclaimed his vigorous health, was wrapped in a + dressing-gown of rough gray cloth plainly bound. Between his lips was a + meerschaum pipe, from which, at regular intervals, he blew the smoke, + following with abstracted vision its fantastic wreathings,—his mind + employed, no doubt, in assimilating through some meditative process the + thoughts of the author whose works he was studying. + </p> + <p> + On the other side of the stove and near a door which communicated with the + kitchen Minna was indistinctly visible in the haze of the good man’s + smoke, to which she was apparently accustomed. Beside her on a little + table were the implements of household work, a pile of napkins, and + another of socks waiting to be mended, also a lamp like that which shone + on the white page of the book in which the pastor was absorbed. Her fresh + young face, with its delicate outline, expressed an infinite purity which + harmonized with the candor of the white brow and the clear blue eyes. She + sat erect, turning slightly toward the lamp for better light, + unconsciously showing as she did so the beauty of her waist and bust. She + was already dressed for the night in a long robe of white cotton; a + cambric cap, without other ornament than a frill of the same, confined her + hair. Though evidently plunged in some inward meditation, she counted + without a mistake the threads of her napkins or the meshes of her socks. + Sitting thus, she presented the most complete image, the truest type, of + the woman destined for terrestrial labor, whose glance may piece the + clouds of the sanctuary while her thought, humble and charitable, keeps + her ever on the level of man. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid had flung himself into a chair between the two tables and was + contemplating with a species of intoxication this picture full of harmony, + to which the clouds of smoke did no despite. The single window which + lighted the parlor during the fine weather was now carefully closed. An + old tapestry, used for a curtain and fastened to a stick, hung before it + in heavy folds. Nothing in the room was picturesque, nothing brilliant; + everything denoted rigorous simplicity, true heartiness, the ease of + unconventional nature, and the habits of a domestic life which knew + neither cares nor troubles. Many a dwelling is like a dream, the sparkle + of passing pleasure seems to hide some ruin beneath the cold smile of + luxury; but this parlor, sublime in reality, harmonious in tone, diffused + the patriarchal ideas of a full and self-contained existence. The silence + was unbroken save by the movements of the servant in the kitchen engaged + in preparing the supper, and by the sizzling of the dried fish which she + was frying in salt butter according to the custom of the country. + </p> + <p> + “Will you smoke a pipe?” said the pastor, seizing a moment when he thought + that Wilfrid might listen to him. + </p> + <p> + “Thank you, no, dear Monsieur Becker,” replied the visitor. + </p> + <p> + “You seem to suffer more to-day than usual,” said Minna, struck by the + feeble tones of the stranger’s voice. + </p> + <p> + “I am always so when I leave the chateau.” + </p> + <p> + Minna quivered. + </p> + <p> + “A strange being lives there, Monsieur Becker,” he continued after a + pause. “For the six months that I have been in this village I have never + yet dared to question you about her, and even now I do violence to my + feelings in speaking of her. I began by keenly regretting that my journey + in this country was arrested by the winter weather and that I was forced + to remain here. But during the last two months chains have been forged and + riveted which bind me irrevocably to Jarvis, till now I fear to end my + days here. You know how I first met Seraphita, what impression her look + and voice made upon me, and how at last I was admitted to her home where + she receives no one. From the very first day I have longed to ask you the + history of this mysterious being. On that day began, for me, a series of + enchantments.” + </p> + <p> + “Enchantments!” cried the pastor shaking the ashes of his pipe into an + earthen-ware dish full of sand, “are there enchantments in these days?” + </p> + <p> + “You, who are carefully studying at this moment that volume of the + ‘Incantations’ of Jean Wier, will surely understand the explanation of my + sensations if I try to give it to you,” replied Wilfrid. “If we study + Nature attentively in its great evolutions as in its minutest works, we + cannot fail to recognize the possibility of enchantment—giving to + that word its exact significance. Man does not create forces; he employs + the only force that exists and which includes all others namely Motion, + the breath incomprehensible of the sovereign Maker of the universe. + Species are too distinctly separated for the human hand to mingle them. + The only miracle of which man is capable is done through the conjunction + of two antagonistic substances. Gunpowder for instance is germane to a + thunderbolt. As to calling forth a creation, and a sudden one, all + creation demands time, and time neither recedes nor advances at the word + of command. So, in the world without us, plastic nature obeys laws the + order and exercise of which cannot be interfered with by the hand of man. + But after fulfilling, as it were, the function of Matter, it would be + unreasonable not to recognize within us the existence of a gigantic power, + the effects of which are so incommensurable that the known generations of + men have never yet been able to classify them. I do not speak of man’s + faculty of abstraction, of constraining Nature to confine itself within + the Word,—a gigantic act on which the common mind reflects as little + as it does on the nature of Motion, but which, nevertheless, has led the + Indian theosophists to explain creation by a word to which they give an + inverse power. The smallest atom of their subsistence, namely, the grain + of rice, from which a creation issues and in which alternately creation + again is held, presented to their minds so perfect an image of the + creative word, and of the abstractive word, that to them it was easy to + apply the same system to the creation of worlds. The majority of men + content themselves with the grain of rice sown in the first chapter of all + the Geneses. Saint John, when he said the Word was God only complicated + the difficulty. But the fructification, germination, and efflorescence of + our ideas is of little consequence if we compare that property, shared by + many men, with the wholly individual faculty of communicating to that + property, by some mysterious concentration, forces that are more or less + active, of carrying it up to a third, a ninth, or a twenty-seventh power, + of making it thus fasten upon the masses and obtain magical results by + condensing the processes of nature. + </p> + <p> + “What I mean by enchantments,” continued Wilfrid after a moment’s pause, + “are those stupendous actions taking place between two membranes in the + tissue of the brain. We find in the unexplorable nature of the Spiritual + World certain beings armed with these wondrous faculties, comparable only + to the terrible power of certain gases in the physical world, beings who + combine with other beings, penetrate them as active agents, and produce + upon them witchcrafts, charms, against which these helpless slaves are + wholly defenceless; they are, in fact, enchanted, brought under + subjection, reduced to a condition of dreadful vassalage. Such mysterious + beings overpower others with the sceptre and the glory of a superior + nature,—acting upon them at times like the torpedo which electrifies + or paralyzes the fisherman, at other times like a dose of phosphorous + which stimulates life and accelerates its propulsion; or again, like + opium, which puts to sleep corporeal nature, disengages the spirit from + every bond, enables it to float above the world and shows this earth to + the spiritual eye as through a prism, extracting from it the food most + needed; or, yet again, like catalepsy, which deadens all faculties for the + sake of one only vision. Miracles, enchantments, incantations, + witchcrafts, spells, and charms, in short, all those acts improperly + termed supernatural, are only possible and can only be explained by the + despotism with which some spirit compels us to feel the effects of a + mysterious optic which increases, or diminishes, or exalts creation, moves + within us as it pleases, deforms or embellishes all things to our eyes, + tears us from heaven, or drags us to hell,—two terms by which men + agree to express the two extremes of joy and misery. + </p> + <p> + “These phenomena are within us, not without us,” Wilfrid went on. “The + being whom we call Seraphita seems to me one of those rare and terrible + spirits to whom power is given to bind men, to crush nature, to enter into + participation of the occult power of God. The course of her enchantments + over me began on that first day, when silence as to her was imposed upon + me against my will. Each time that I have wished to question you it seemed + as though I were about to reveal a secret of which I ought to be the + incorruptible guardian. Whenever I have tried to speak, a burning seal has + been laid upon my lips, and I myself have become the involuntary minister + of these mysteries. You see me here to-night, for the hundredth time, + bruised, defeated, broken, after leaving the hallucinating sphere which + surrounds that young girl, so gentle, so fragile to both of you, but to me + the cruellest of magicians! Yes, to me she is like a sorcerer holding in + her right hand the invisible wand that moves the globe, and in her left + the thunderbolt that rends asunder all things at her will. No longer can I + look upon her brow; the light of it is insupportable. I skirt the borders + of the abyss of madness too closely to be longer silent. I must speak. I + seize this moment, when courage comes to me, to resist the power which + drags me onward without inquiring whether or not I have the force to + follow. Who is she? Did you know her young? What of her birth? Had she + father and mother, or was she born of the conjunction of ice and sun? She + burns and yet she freeze; she shows herself and then withdraws; she + attracts me and repulses me; she brings me life, she gives me death; I + love her and yet I hate her! I cannot live thus; let me be wholly in + heaven or in hell!” + </p> + <p> + Holding his refilled pipe in one hand, and in the other the cover which he + forgot to replace, Monsieur Becker listened to Wilfrid with a mysterious + expression on his face, looking occasionally at his daughter, who seemed + to understand the man’s language as in harmony with the strange being who + inspired it. Wilfrid was splendid to behold at this moment,—like + Hamlet listening to the ghost of his father as it rises for him alone in + the midst of the living. + </p> + <p> + “This is certainly the language of a man in love,” said the good pastor, + innocently. + </p> + <p> + “In love!” cried Wilfrid, “yes, to common minds. But, dear Monsieur + Becker, no words can express the frenzy which draws me to the feet of that + unearthly being.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you do love her?” said Minna, in a tone of reproach. + </p> + <p> + “Mademoiselle, I feel such extraordinary agitation when I see her, and + such deep sadness when I see her no more, that in any other man what I + feel would be called love. But that sentiment draws those who feel it + ardently together, whereas between her and me a great gulf lies, whose icy + coldness penetrates my very being in her presence; though the feeling dies + away when I see her no longer. I leave her in despair; I return to her + with ardor,—like men of science who seek a secret from Nature only + to be baffled, or like the painter who would fain put life upon his canvas + and strives with all the resources of his art in the vain attempt.” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur, all that you say is true,” replied the young girl, artlessly. + </p> + <p> + “How can you know, Minna?” asked the old pastor. + </p> + <p> + “Ah! my father, had you been with us this morning on the summit of the + Falberg, had you seen him praying, you would not ask me that question. You + would say, like Monsieur Wilfrid, that he saw his Seraphita for the first + time in our temple, ‘It is the Spirit of Prayer.’” + </p> + <p> + These words were followed by a moment’s silence. + </p> + <p> + “Ah, truly!” said Wilfrid, “she has nothing in common with the creatures + who grovel upon this earth.” + </p> + <p> + “On the Falberg!” said the old pastor, “how could you get there?” + </p> + <p> + “I do not know,” replied Minna; “the way is like a dream to me, of which + no more than a memory remains. Perhaps I should hardly believe that I had + been there were it not for this tangible proof.” + </p> + <p> + She drew the flower from her bosom and showed it to them. All three gazed + at the pretty saxifrage, which was still fresh, and now shone in the light + of the two lamps like a third luminary. + </p> + <p> + “This is indeed supernatural,” said the old man, astounded at the sight of + a flower blooming in winter. + </p> + <p> + “A mystery!” cried Wilfrid, intoxicated with its perfume. + </p> + <p> + “The flower makes me giddy,” said Minna; “I fancy I still hear that voice,—the + music of thought; that I still see the light of that look, which is Love.” + </p> + <p> + “I implore you, my dear Monsieur Becker, tell me the history of Seraphita,—enigmatical + human flower,—whose image is before us in this mysterious bloom.” + </p> + <p> + “My dear friend,” said the old man, emitting a puff of smoke, “to explain + the birth of that being it is absolutely necessary that I disperse the + clouds which envelop the most obscure of Christian doctrines. It is not + easy to make myself clear when speaking of that incomprehensible + revelation,—the last effulgence of faith that has shone upon our + lump of mud. Do you know Swedenborg?” + </p> + <p> + “By name only,—of him, of his books, and his religion I know + nothing.” + </p> + <p> + “Then I must relate to you the whole chronicle of Swedenborg.” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0003" id="link2HCH0003"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER III. SERAPHITA-SERAPHITUS + </h2> + <p> + After a pause, during which the pastor seemed to be gathering his + recollections, he continued in the following words:— + </p> + <p> + “Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Upsala in Sweden, in the month of January, + 1688, according to various authors,—in 1689, according to his + epitaph. His father was Bishop of Skara. Swedenborg lived eighty-five + years; his death occurred in London, March 29, 1772. I use that term to + convey the idea of a simple change of state. According to his disciples, + Swedenborg was seen at Jarvis and in Paris after that date. Allow me, my + dear Monsieur Wilfrid,” said Monsieur Becker, making a gesture to prevent + all interruption, “I relate these facts without either affirming or + denying them. Listen; afterwards you can think and say what you like. I + will inform you when I judge, criticise, and discuss these doctrines, so + as to keep clearly in view my own intellectual neutrality between HIM and + Reason. + </p> + <p> + “The life of Swedenborg was divided into two parts,” continued the pastor. + “From 1688 to 1745 Baron Emanuel Swedenborg appeared in the world as a man + of vast learning, esteemed and cherished for his virtues, always + irreproachable and constantly useful. While fulfilling high public + functions in Sweden, he published, between 1709 and 1740, several + important works on mineralogy, physics, mathematics, and astronomy, which + enlightened the world of learning. He originated a method of building + docks suitable for the reception of large vessels, and he wrote many + treatises on various important questions, such as the rise of tides, the + theory of the magnet and its qualities, the motion and position of the + earth and planets, and while Assessor in the Royal College of Mines, on + the proper system of working salt mines. He discovered means to construct + canal-locks or sluices; and he also discovered and applied the simplest + methods of extracting ore and of working metals. In fact he studied no + science without advancing it. In youth he learned Hebrew, Greek, and + Latin, also the oriental languages, with which he became so familiar that + many distinguished scholars consulted him, and he was able to decipher the + vestiges of the oldest known books of Scripture, namely: ‘The Wars of + Jehovah’ and ‘The Enunciations,’ spoken of by Moses (Numbers xxi. 14, 15, + 27-30), also by Joshua, Jeremiah, and Samuel,—‘The Wars of Jehovah’ + being the historical part and ‘The Enunciations’ the prophetical part of + the Mosaical Books anterior to Genesis. Swedenborg even affirms that ‘the + Book of Jasher,’ the Book of the Righteous, mentioned by Joshua, was in + existence in Eastern Tartary, together with the doctrine of + Correspondences. A Frenchman has lately, so they tell me, justified these + statements of Swedenborg, by the discovery at Bagdad of several portions + of the Bible hitherto unknown to Europe. During the widespread discussion + on animal magnetism which took its rise in Paris, and in which most men of + Western science took an active part about the year 1785, Monsieur le + Marquis de Thome vindicated the memory of Swedenborg by calling attention + to certain assertions made by the Commission appointed by the King of + France to investigate the subject. These gentlemen declared that no theory + of magnetism existed, whereas Swedenborg had studied and promulgated it + ever since the year 1720. Monsieur de Thome seizes this opportunity to + show the reason why so many men of science relegated Swedenborg to + oblivion while they delved into his treasure-house and took his facts to + aid their work. ‘Some of the most illustrious of these men,’ said Monsieur + de Thome, alluding to the ‘Theory of the Earth’ by Buffon, ‘have had the + meanness to wear the plumage of the noble bird and refuse him all + acknowledgment’; and he proved, by masterly quotations drawn from the + encyclopaedic works of Swedenborg, that the great prophet had anticipated + by over a century the slow march of human science. It suffices to read his + philosophical and mineralogical works to be convinced of this. In one + passage he is seen as the precursor of modern chemistry by the + announcement that the productions of organized nature are decomposable and + resolve into two simple principles; also that water, air, and fire are <i>not + elements</i>. In another, he goes in a few words to the heart of magnetic + mysteries and deprives Mesmer of the honors of a first knowledge of them. + </p> + <p> + “There,” said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a long shelf against the wall + between the stove and the window on which were ranged books of all sizes, + “behold him! here are seventeen works from his pen, of which one, his + ‘Philosophical and Mineralogical Works,’ published in 1734, is in three + folio volumes. These productions, which prove the incontestable knowledge + of Swedenborg, were given to me by Monsieur Seraphitus, his cousin and the + father of Seraphita. + </p> + <p> + “In 1740,” continued Monsieur Becker, after a slight pause, “Swedenborg + fell into a state of absolute silence, from which he emerged to bid + farewell to all his earthly occupations; after which his thoughts turned + exclusively to the Spiritual Life. He received the first commands of + heaven in 1745, and he thus relates the nature of the vocation to which he + was called: One evening, in London, after dining with a great appetite, a + thick white mist seemed to fill his room. When the vapor dispersed a + creature in human form rose from one corner of the apartment, and said in + a stern tone, ‘Do not eat so much.’ He refrained. The next night the same + man returned, radiant in light, and said to him, ‘I am sent of God, who + has chosen you to explain to men the meaning of his Word and his Creation. + I will tell you what to write.’ The vision lasted but a few moments. The + <i>angel</i> was clothed in purple. During that night the eyes of his <i>inner + man</i> were opened, and he was forced to look into the heavens, into the + world of spirits, and into hell,—three separate spheres; where he + encountered persons of his acquaintance who had departed from their human + form, some long since, others lately. Thenceforth Swedenborg lived wholly + in the spiritual life, remaining in this world only as the messenger of + God. His mission was ridiculed by the incredulous, but his conduct was + plainly that of a being superior to humanity. In the first place, though + limited in means to the bare necessaries of life, he gave away enormous + sums, and publicly, in several cities, restored the fortunes of great + commercial houses when they were on the brink of failure. No one ever + appealed to his generosity who was not immediately satisfied. A sceptical + Englishman, determined to know the truth, followed him to Paris, and + relates that there his doors stood always open. One day a servant + complained of this apparent negligence, which laid him open to suspicion + of thefts that might be committed by others. ‘He need feel no anxiety,’ + said Swedenborg, smiling. ‘But I do not wonder at his fear; he cannot see + the guardian who protects my door.’ In fact, no matter in what country he + made his abode he never closed his doors, and nothing was ever stolen from + him. At Gottenburg—a town situated some sixty miles from Stockholm—he + announced, eight days before the news arrived by courier, the + conflagration which ravaged Stockholm, and the exact time at which it took + place. The Queen of Sweden wrote to her brother, the King, at Berlin, that + one of her ladies-in-waiting, who was ordered by the courts to pay a sum + of money which she was certain her husband had paid before his death, went + to Swedenborg and begged him to ask her husband where she could find proof + of the payment. The following day Swedenborg, having done as the lady + requested, pointed out the place where the receipt would be found. He also + begged the deceased to appear to his wife, and the latter saw her husband + in a dream, wrapped in a dressing-gown which he wore just before his + death; and he showed her the paper in the place indicated by Swedenborg, + where it had been securely put away. At another time, embarking from + London in a vessel commanded by Captain Dixon, he overheard a lady asking + if there were plenty of provisions on board. ‘We do not want a great + quantity,’ he said; ‘in eight days and two hours we shall reach + Stockholm,’—which actually happened. This peculiar state of vision + as to the things of the earth—into which Swedenborg could put + himself at will, and which astonished those about him—was, + nevertheless, but a feeble representative of his faculty of looking into + heaven. + </p> + <p> + “Not the least remarkable of his published visions is that in which he + relates his journeys through the Astral Regions; his descriptions cannot + fail to astonish the reader, partly through the crudity of their details. + A man whose scientific eminence is incontestable, and who united in his + own person powers of conception, will, and imagination, would surely have + invented better if he had invented at all. The fantastic literature of the + East offers nothing that can give an idea of this astounding work, full of + the essence of poetry, if it is permissible to compare a work of faith + with one of oriental fancy. The transportation of Swedenborg by the Angel + who served as guide to this first journey is told with a sublimity which + exceeds, by the distance which God has placed betwixt the earth and the + sun, the great epics of Klopstock, Milton, Tasso, and Dante. This + description, which serves in fact as an introduction to his work on the + Astral Regions, has never been published; it is among the oral traditions + left by Swedenborg to the three disciples who were nearest to his heart. + Monsieur Silverichm has written them down. Monsieur Seraphitus endeavored + more than once to talk to me about them; but the recollection of his + cousin’s words was so burning a memory that he always stopped short at the + first sentence and became lost in a revery from which I could not rouse + him.” + </p> + <p> + The old pastor sighed as he continued: “The baron told me that the + argument by which the Angel proved to Swedenborg that these bodies are not + made to wander through space puts all human science out of sight beneath + the grandeur of a divine logic. According to the Seer, the inhabitants of + Jupiter will not cultivate the sciences, which they call darkness; those + of Mercury abhor the expression of ideas by speech, which seems to them + too material,—their language is ocular; those of Saturn are + continually tempted by evil spirits; those of the Moon are as small as + six-year-old children, their voices issue from the abdomen, on which they + crawl; those of Venus are gigantic in height, but stupid, and live by + robbery,—although a part of this latter planet is inhabited by + beings of great sweetness, who live in the love of Good. In short, he + describes the customs and morals of all the peoples attached to the + different globes, and explains the general meaning of their existence as + related to the universe in terms so precise, giving explanations which + agree so well with their visible evolutions in the system of the world, + that some day, perhaps, scientific men will come to drink of these living + waters. + </p> + <p> + “Here,” said Monsieur Becker, taking down a book and opening it at a mark, + “here are the words with which he ended this work:— + </p> + <p> + “‘If any man doubts that I was transported through a vast number of Astral + Regions, let him recall my observation of the distances in that other + life, namely, that they exist only in relation to the external state of + man; now, being transformed within like unto the Angelic Spirits of those + Astral Spheres, I was able to understand them.’ + </p> + <p> + “The circumstances to which we of this canton owe the presence among us of + Baron Seraphitus, the beloved cousin of Swedenborg, enabled me to know all + the events of the extraordinary life of that prophet. He has lately been + accused of imposture in certain quarters of Europe, and the public prints + reported the following fact based on a letter written by the Chevalier + Baylon. Swedenborg, they said, informed by certain senators of a secret + correspondence of the late Queen of Sweden with her brother, the Prince of + Prussia, revealed his knowledge of the secrets contained in that + correspondence to the Queen, making her believe he had obtained this + knowledge by supernatural means. A man worthy of all confidence, Monsieur + Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer, captain in the Royal guard and knight of + the Sword, answered the calumny with a convincing letter.” + </p> + <p> + The pastor opened a drawer of his table and looked through a number of + papers until he found a gazette which he held out to Wilfrid, asking him + to read aloud the following letter:— + </p> + <p> + Stockholm, May 18, 1788. + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + I have read with amazement a letter which purports to relate the + interview of the famous Swedenborg with Queen Louisa-Ulrika. The + circumstances therein stated are wholly false; and I hope the + writer will excuse me for showing him by the following faithful + narration, which can be proved by the testimony of many + distinguished persons then present and still living, how + completely he has been deceived. + + In 1758, shortly after the death of the Prince of Prussia + Swedenborg came to court, where he was in the habit of attending + regularly. He had scarcely entered the queen’s presence before she + said to him: “Well, Mr. Assessor, have you seen my brother?” + Swedenborg answered no, and the queen rejoined: “If you do see + him, greet him for me.” In saying this she meant no more than a + pleasant jest, and had no thought whatever of asking him for + information about her brother. Eight days later (not twenty-four + as stated, nor was the audience a private one), Swedenborg again + came to court, but so early that the queen had not left her + apartment called the White Room, where she was conversing with her + maids-of-honor and other ladies attached to the court. Swedenborg + did not wait until she came forth, but entered the said room and + whispered something in her ear. The queen, overcome with + amazement, was taken ill, and it was some time before she + recovered herself. When she did so she said to those about her: + “Only God and my brother knew the thing that he has just spoken + of.” She admitted that it related to her last correspondence with + the prince on a subject which was known to them alone. I cannot + explain how Swedenborg came to know the contents of that letter, + but I can affirm on my honor, that neither Count H—— (as the + writer of the article states) nor any other person intercepted, or + read, the queen’s letters. The senate allowed her to write to her + brother in perfect security, considering the correspondence as of + no interest to the State. It is evident that the author of the + said article is ignorant of the character of Count H——. This + honored gentleman, who has done many important services to his + country, unites the qualities of a noble heart to gifts of mind, + and his great age has not yet weakened these precious possessions. + During his whole administration he added the weight of scrupulous + integrity to his enlightened policy and openly declared himself + the enemy of all secret intrigues and underhand dealings, which he + regarded as unworthy means to attain an end. Neither did the + writer of that article understand the Assessor Swedenborg. The + only weakness of that essentially honest man was a belief in the + apparition of spirits; but I knew him for many years, and I can + affirm that he was as fully convinced that he met and talked with + spirits as I am that I am writing at this moment. As a citizen and + as a friend his integrity was absolute; he abhorred deception and + led the most exemplary of lives. The version which the Chevalier + Baylon gave of these facts is, therefore, entirely without + justification; the visit stated to have been made to Swedenborg in + the night-time by Count H—— and Count T—— is hereby + contradicted. In conclusion, the writer of the letter may rest + assured that I am not a follower of Swedenborg. The love of truth + alone impels me to give this faithful account of a fact which has + been so often stated with details that are entirely false. I + certify to the truth of what I have written by adding my + signature. + + Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer. +</pre> + <p> + “The proofs which Swedenborg gave of his mission to the royal families of + Sweden and Prussia were no doubt the foundation of the belief in his + doctrines which is prevalent at the two courts,” said Monsieur Becker, + putting the gazette into the drawer. “However,” he continued, “I shall not + tell you all the facts of his visible and material life; indeed his habits + prevented them from being fully known. He lived a hidden life; not seeking + either riches or fame. He was even noted for a sort of repugnance to + making proselytes; he opened his mind to few persons, and never showed his + external powers of second-sight to any who were not eminent in faith, + wisdom, and love. He could recognize at a glance the state of the soul of + every person who approached him, and those whom he desired to reach with + his inward language he converted into Seers. After the year 1745, his + disciples never saw him do a single thing from any human motive. One man + alone, a Swedish priest, named Mathesius, set afloat a story that he went + mad in London in 1744. But a eulogium on Swedenborg prepared with minute + care as to all the known events of his life, was pronounced after his + death in 1772 on behalf of the Royal Academy of Sciences in the Hall of + the Nobles at Stockholm, by Monsieur Sandels, counsellor of the Board of + Mines. A declaration made before the Lord Mayor of London gives the + details of his last illness and death, in which he received the + ministrations of Monsieur Ferelius a Swedish priest of the highest + standing, and pastor of the Swedish Church in London, Mathesius being his + assistant. All persons present attested that so far from denying the value + of his writings Swedenborg firmly asserted their truth. ‘In one hundred + years,’ Monsieur Ferelius quotes him as saying, ‘my doctrine will guide + the <i>Church</i>.’ He predicted the day and hour of his death. On that + day, Sunday, March 29, 1772, hearing the clock strike, he asked what time + it was. ‘Five o’clock’ was the answer. ‘It is well,’ he answered; ‘thank + you, God bless you.’ Ten minutes later he tranquilly departed, breathing a + gentle sigh. Simplicity, moderation, and solitude were the features of his + life. When he had finished writing any of his books he sailed either for + London or for Holland, where he published them, and never spoke of them + again. He published in this way twenty-seven different treatises, all + written, he said, from the dictation of Angels. Be it true or false, few + men have been strong enough to endure the flames of oral illumination. + </p> + <p> + “There they all are,” said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a second shelf on + which were some sixty volumes. “The treatises on which the Divine Spirit + casts its most vivid gleams are seven in number, namely: ‘Heaven and + Hell’; ‘Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine Wisdom’; + ‘Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence’; ‘The Apocalypse + Revealed’; ‘Conjugial Love and its Chaste Delights’; ‘The True Christian + Religion’; and ‘An Exposition of the Internal Sense.’ Swedenborg’s + explanation of the Apocalypse begins with these words,” said Monsieur + Becker, taking down and opening the volume nearest to him: “‘Herein I have + written nothing of mine own; I speak as I am bidden by the Lord, who said, + through the same angel, to John: “Thou shalt not seal the sayings of this + Prophecy.”’ (Revelation xxii. 10.) + </p> + <p> + “My dear Monsieur Wilfrid,” said the old man, looking at his guest, “I + often tremble in every limb as I read, during the long winter evenings the + awe-inspiring works in which this man declares with perfect artlessness + the wonders that are revealed to him. ‘I have seen,’ he says, ‘Heaven and + the Angels. The spiritual man sees his spiritual fellows far better than + the terrestrial man sees the men of earth. In describing the wonders of + heaven and beneath the heavens I obey the Lord’s command. Others have the + right to believe me or not as they choose. I cannot put them into the + state in which God has put me; it is not in my power to enable them to + converse with Angels, nor to work miracles within their understanding; + they alone can be the instrument of their rise to angelic intercourse. It + is now twenty-eight years since I have lived in the Spiritual world with + angels, and on earth with men; for it pleased God to open the eyes of my + spirit as he did that of Paul, and of Daniel and Elisha.’ + </p> + <p> + “And yet,” continued the pastor, thoughtfully, “certain persons have had + visions of the spiritual world through the complete detachment which + somnambulism produces between their external form and their inner being. + ‘In this state,’ says Swedenborg in his treatise on Angelic Wisdom (No. + 257) ‘Man may rise into the region of celestial light because, his + corporeal senses being abolished, the influence of heaven acts without + hindrance on his inner man.’ Many persons who do not doubt that Swedenborg + received celestial revelations think that his writings are not all the + result of divine inspiration. Others insist on absolute adherence to him; + while admitting his many obscurities, they believe that the imperfection + of earthly language prevented the prophet from clearly revealing those + spiritual visions whose clouds disperse to the eyes of those whom faith + regenerates; for, to use the words of his greatest disciple, ‘Flesh is but + an external propagation.’ To poets and to writers his presentation of the + marvellous is amazing; to Seers it is simply reality. To some Christians + his descriptions have seemed scandalous. Certain critics have ridiculed + the celestial substance of his temples, his golden palaces, his splendid + cities where angels disport themselves; they laugh at his groves of + miraculous trees, his gardens where the flowers speak and the air is + white, and the mystical stones, the sard, carbuncle, chrysolite, + chrysoprase, jacinth, chalcedony, beryl, the Urim and Thummim, are endowed + with motion, express celestial truths, and reply by variations of light to + questions put to them (‘True Christian Religion,’ 219). Many noble souls + will not admit his spiritual worlds where colors are heard in delightful + concert, where language flames and flashes, where the Word is writ in + pointed spiral letters (‘True Christian Religion,’ 278). Even in the North + some writers have laughed at the gates of pearl, and the diamonds which + stud the floors and walls of his New Jerusalem, where the most ordinary + utensils are made of the rarest substances of the globe. ‘But,’ say his + disciples, ‘because such things are sparsely scattered on this earth does + it follow that they are not abundant in other worlds? On earth they are + terrestrial substances, whereas in heaven they assume celestial forms and + are in keeping with angels.’ In this connection Swedenborg has used the + very words of Jesus Christ, who said, ‘If I have told you earthly things + and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly + things?’ + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur,” continued the pastor, with an emphatic gesture, “I have read + the whole of Swedenborg’s works; and I say it with pride, because I have + done it and yet retained my reason. In reading him men either miss his + meaning or become Seers like him. Though I have evaded both extremes, I + have often experienced unheard-of delights, deep emotions, inward joys, + which alone can reveal to us the plenitude of truth,—the evidence of + celestial Light. All things here below seem small indeed when the soul is + lost in the perusal of these Treatises. It is impossible not to be amazed + when we think that in the short space of thirty years this man wrote and + published, on the truths of the Spiritual World, twenty-five quarto + volumes, composed in Latin, of which the shortest has five hundred pages, + all of them printed in small type. He left, they say, twenty others in + London, bequeathed to his nephew, Monsieur Silverichm, formerly almoner to + the King of Sweden. Certainly a man who, between the ages of twenty and + sixty, had already exhausted himself in publishing a series of + encyclopaedical works, must have received supernatural assistance in + composing these later stupendous treatises, at an age, too, when human + vigor is on the wane. You will find in these writings thousands of + propositions, all numbered, none of which have been refuted. Throughout we + see method and precision; the presence of the spirit issuing and flowing + down from a single fact,—the existence of angels. His ‘True + Christian Religion,’ which sums up his whole doctrine and is vigorous with + light, was conceived and written at the age of eighty-three. In fact, his + amazing vigor and omniscience are not denied by any of his critics, not + even by his enemies. + </p> + <p> + “Nevertheless,” said Monsieur Becker, slowly, “though I have drunk deep in + this torrent of divine light, God has not opened the eyes of my inner + being, and I judge these writings by the reason of an unregenerated man. I + have often felt that the <i>inspired</i> Swedenborg must have + misunderstood the Angels. I have laughed over certain visions which, + according to his disciples, I ought to have believed with veneration. I + have failed to imagine the spiral writing of the Angels or their golden + belts, on which the gold is of great or lesser thickness. If, for example, + this statement, ‘Some angels are solitary,’ affected me powerfully for a + time, I was, on reflection, unable to reconcile this solitude with their + marriages. I have not understood why the Virgin Mary should continue to + wear blue satin garments in heaven. I have even dared to ask myself why + those gigantic demons, Enakim and Hephilim, came so frequently to fight + the cherubim on the apocalyptic plains of Armageddon; and I cannot explain + to my own mind how Satans can argue with Angels. Monsieur le Baron + Seraphitus assured me that those details concerned only the angels who + live on earth in human form. The visions of the prophet are often blurred + with grotesque figures. One of his spiritual tales, or ‘Memorable + relations,’ as he called them, begins thus: ‘I see the spirits assembling, + they have hats upon their heads.’ In another of these Memorabilia he + receives from heaven a bit of paper, on which he saw, he says, the + hieroglyphics of the primitive peoples, which were composed of curved + lines traced from the finger-rings that are worn in heaven. However, + perhaps I am wrong; possibly the material absurdities with which his works + are strewn have spiritual significations. Otherwise, how shall we account + for the growing influence of his religion? His church numbers to-day more + than seven hundred thousand believers,—as many in the United States + of America as in England, where there are seven thousand Swedenborgians in + the city of Manchester alone. Many men of high rank in knowledge and in + social position in Germany, in Prussia, and in the Northern kingdoms have + publicly adopted the beliefs of Swedenborg; which, I may remark, are more + comforting than those of all other Christian communions. I wish I had the + power to explain to you clearly in succinct language the leading points of + the doctrine on which Swedenborg founded his church; but I fear such a + summary, made from recollection, would be necessarily defective. I shall, + therefore, allow myself to speak only of those ‘Arcana’ which concern the + birth of Seraphita.” + </p> + <p> + Here Monsieur Becker paused, as though composing his mind to gather up his + ideas. Presently he continued, as follows:— + </p> + <p> + “After establishing mathematically that man lives eternally in spheres of + either a lower or a higher grade, Swedenborg applies the term ‘Spiritual + Angels’ to beings who in this world are prepared for heaven, where they + become angels. According to him, God has not created angels; none exist + who have not been men upon the earth. The earth is the nursery-ground of + heaven. The Angels are therefore not Angels as such (‘Angelic Wisdom,’ + 57), they are transformed through their close conjunction with God; which + conjunction God never refuses, because the essence of God is not negative, + but essentially active. The spiritual angels pass through three natures of + love, because man is only regenerated through successive stages (‘True + Religion’). First, the <i>love of self</i>: the supreme expression of this + love is human genius, whose works are worshipped. Next, <i>love of life</i>: + this love produces prophets,—great men whom the world accepts as + guides and proclaims to be divine. Lastly, <i>love of heaven</i>, and this + creates the Spiritual Angel. These angels are, so to speak, the flowers of + humanity, which culminates in them and works for that culmination. They + must possess either the love of heaven or the wisdom of heaven, but always + Love before Wisdom. + </p> + <p> + “Thus the transformation of the natural man is into Love. To reach this + first degree, his previous existences must have passed through Hope and + Charity, which prepare him for Faith and Prayer. The ideas acquired by the + exercise of these virtues are transmitted to each of the human envelopes + within which are hidden the metamorphoses of the <i>inner being</i>; for + nothing is separate, each existence is necessary to the other existences. + Hope cannot advance without Charity, nor Faith without Prayer; they are + the four fronts of a solid square. ‘One virtue missing,’ he said, ‘and the + Spiritual Angel is like a broken pearl.’ Each of these existences is + therefore a circle in which revolves the celestial riches of the inner + being. The perfection of the Spiritual Angels comes from this mysterious + progression in which nothing is lost of the high qualities that are + successfully acquired to attain each glorious incarnation; for at each + transformation they cast away unconsciously the flesh and its errors. When + the man lives in Love he has shed all evil passions: Hope, Charity, Faith, + and Prayer have, in the words of Isaiah, purged the dross of his inner + being, which can never more be polluted by earthly affections. Hence the + grand saying of Christ quoted by Saint Matthew, ‘Lay up for yourselves + treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,’ and those + still grander words: ‘If ye were of this world the world would love you, + but I have chosen you out of the world; be ye therefore perfect as your + Father in heaven is perfect.’ + </p> + <p> + “The second transformation of man is to Wisdom. Wisdom is the + understanding of celestial things to which the Spirit is brought by Love. + The Spirit of Love has acquired strength, the result of all vanquished + terrestrial passions; it loves God blindly. But the Spirit of Wisdom has + risen to understanding and knows why it loves. The wings of the one are + spread and bear the spirit to God; the wings of the other are held down by + the awe that comes of understanding: the spirit knows God. The one longs + incessantly to see God and to fly to Him; the other attains to Him and + trembles. The union effected between the Spirit of Love and the Spirit of + Wisdom carries the human being into a Divine state during which time his + soul is <i>woman</i> and his body <i>man</i>, the last human manifestation + in which the Spirit conquers Form, or Form still struggles against the + Spirit,—for Form, that is, the flesh, is ignorant, rebels, and + desires to continue gross. This supreme trial creates untold sufferings + seen by Heaven alone,—the agony of Christ in the Garden of Olives. + </p> + <p> + “After death the first heaven opens to this dual and purified human + nature. Therefore it is that man dies in despair while the Spirit dies in + ecstasy. Thus, the <i>natural</i>, the state of beings not yet + regenerated; the <i>spiritual</i>, the state of those who have become + Angelic Spirits, and the <i>divine</i>, the state in which the Angel + exists before he breaks from his covering of flesh, are the three degrees + of existence through which man enters heaven. One of Swedenborg’s thoughts + expressed in his own words will explain to you with wonderful clearness + the difference between the <i>natural</i> and the <i>spiritual</i>. ‘To + the minds of men,’ he says, ‘the Natural passes into the Spiritual; they + regard the world under its visible aspects, they perceive it only as it + can be realized by their senses. But to the apprehension of Angelic + Spirits, the Spiritual passes into the Natural; they regard the world in + its inward essence and not in its form.’ Thus human sciences are but + analyses of form. The man of science as the world goes is purely external + like his knowledge; his inner being is only used to preserve his aptitude + for the perception of external truths. The Angelic Spirit goes far beyond + that; his knowledge is the thought of which human science is but the + utterance; he derives that knowledge from the Logos, and learns the law of + <i>correspondences</i> by which the world is placed in unison with heaven. + The <i>word of God</i> was wholly written by pure Correspondences, and + covers an esoteric or spiritual meaning, which according to the science of + Correspondences, cannot be understood. ‘There exist,’ says Swedenborg + (‘Celestial Doctrine’ 26), ‘innumerable Arcana within the hidden meaning + of the Correspondences. Thus the men who scoff at the books of the + Prophets where the Word is enshrined are as densely ignorant as those + other men who know nothing of a science and yet ridicule its truths. To + know the Correspondences which exist between the things visible and + ponderable in the terrestrial world and the things invisible and + imponderable in the spiritual world, is to hold heaven within our + comprehension. All the objects of the manifold creations having emanated + from God necessarily enfold a hidden meaning; according, indeed, to the + grand thought of Isaiah, ‘The earth is a garment.’ + </p> + <p> + “This mysterious link between Heaven and the smallest atoms of created + matter constitutes what Swedenborg calls a Celestial Arcanum, and his + treatise on the ‘Celestial Arcana’ in which he explains the + correspondences or significances of the Natural with, and to, the + Spiritual, giving, to use the words of Jacob Boehm, the sign and seal of + all things, occupies not less than sixteen volumes containing thirty + thousand propositions. ‘This marvellous knowledge of Correspondences which + the goodness of God granted to Swedenborg,’ says one of his disciples, ‘is + the secret of the interest which draws men to his works. According to him, + all things are derived from heaven, all things lead back to heaven. His + writings are sublime and clear; he speaks in heaven, and earth hears him. + Take one of his sentences by itself and a volume could be made of it’; and + the disciple quotes the following passages taken from a thousand others + that would answer the same purpose. + </p> + <p> + “‘The kingdom of heaven,’ says Swedenborg (‘Celestial Arcana’), ‘is the + kingdom of motives. <i>Action</i> is born in heaven, thence into the + world, and, by degrees, to the infinitely remote parts of earth. + Terrestrial effects being thus linked to celestial causes, all things are + <i>correspondent</i> and <i>significant</i>. Man is the means of union + between the Natural and the Spiritual.’ + </p> + <p> + “The Angelic Spirits therefore know the very nature of the Correspondences + which link to heaven all earthly things; they know, too, the inner meaning + of the prophetic words which foretell their evolutions. Thus to these + Spirits everything here below has its significance; the tiniest flower is + a thought,—a life which corresponds to certain lineaments of the + Great Whole, of which they have a constant intuition. To them Adultery and + the excesses spoken of in Scripture and by the Prophets, often garbled by + self-styled scholars, mean the state of those souls which in this world + persist in tainting themselves with earthly affections, thus compelling + their divorce from Heaven. Clouds signify the veil of the Most High. + Torches, shew-bread, horses and horsemen, harlots, precious stones, in + short, everything named in Scripture, has to them a clear-cut meaning, and + reveals the future of terrestrial facts in their relation to Heaven. They + penetrate the truths contained in the Revelation of Saint John the divine, + which human science has subsequently demonstrated and proved materially; + such, for instance, as the following (‘big,’ said Swedenborg, ‘with many + human sciences’): ‘I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first + heaven and the first earth were passed away’ (Revelation xxi. 1). These + Spirits know the supper at which the flesh of kings and the flesh of all + men, free and bond, is eaten, to which an Angel standing in the sun has + bidden them. They see the winged woman, clothed with the sun, and the + mailed man. ‘The horse of the Apocalypse,’ says Swedenborg, ‘is the + visible image of human intellect ridden by Death, for it bears within + itself the elements of its own destruction.’ Moreover, they can + distinguish beings concealed under forms which to ignorant eyes would seem + fantastic. When a man is disposed to receive the prophetic afflation of + Correspondences, it rouses within him a perception of the Word; he + comprehends that the creations are transformations only; his intellect is + sharpened, a burning thirst takes possession of him which only Heaven can + quench. He conceives, according to the greater or lesser perfection of his + inner being, the power of the Angelic Spirits; and he advances, led by + Desire (the least imperfect state of unregenerated man) towards Hope, the + gateway to the world of Spirits, whence he reaches Prayer, which gives him + the Key of Heaven. + </p> + <p> + “What being here below would not desire to render himself worthy of + entrance into the sphere of those who live in secret by Love and Wisdom? + Here on earth, during their lifetime, such spirits remain pure; they + neither see, nor think, nor speak like other men. There are two ways by + which perception comes,—one internal, the other external. Man is + wholly external, the Angelic Spirit wholly internal. The Spirit goes to + the depth of Numbers, possesses a full sense of them, knows their + significances. It controls Motion, and by reason of its ubiquity it shares + in all things. ‘An Angel,’ says Swedenborg, ‘is ever present to a man when + desired’ (‘Angelic Wisdom’); for the Angel has the gift of detaching + himself from his body, and he sees into heaven as the prophets and as + Swedenborg himself saw into it. ‘In this state,’ writes Swedenborg (‘True + Religion,’ 136), ‘the spirit of a man may move from one place to another, + his body remaining where it is,—a condition in which I lived for + over twenty-six years.’ It is thus that we should interpret all Biblical + statements which begin, ‘The Spirit led me.’ Angelic Wisdom is to human + wisdom what the innumerable forces of nature are to its action, which is + one. All things live again, and move and have their being in the Spirit, + which is in God. Saint Paul expresses this truth when he says, ‘In Deo + sumus, movemur, et vivimus,’—we live, we act, we are in God. + </p> + <p> + “Earth offers no hindrance to the Angelic Spirit, just as the Word offers + him no obscurity. His approaching divinity enables him to see the thought + of God veiled in the Logos, just as, living by his inner being, the Spirit + is in communion with the hidden meaning of all things on this earth. + Science is the language of the Temporal world, Love is that of the + Spiritual world. Thus man takes note of more than he is able to explain, + while the Angelic Spirit sees and comprehends. Science depresses man; Love + exalts the Angel. Science is still seeking, Love has found. Man judges + Nature according to his own relations to her; the Angelic Spirit judges it + in its relation to Heaven. In short, all things have a voice for the + Spirit. Spirits are in the secret of the harmony of all creations with + each other; they comprehend the spirit of sound, the spirit of color, the + spirit of vegetable life; they can question the mineral, and the mineral + makes answer to their thoughts. What to them are sciences and the + treasures of the earth when they grasp all things by the eye at all + moments, when the worlds which absorb the minds of so many men are to them + but the last step from which they spring to God? Love of heaven, or the + Wisdom of heaven, is made manifest to them by a circle of light which + surrounds them, and is visible to the Elect. Their innocence, of which + that of children is a symbol, possesses, nevertheless, a knowledge which + children have not; they are both innocent and learned. ‘And,’ says + Swedenborg, ‘the innocence of Heaven makes such an impression upon the + soul that those whom it affects keep a rapturous memory of it which lasts + them all their lives, as I myself have experienced. It is perhaps + sufficient,’ he goes on, ‘to have only a minimum perception of it to be + forever changed, to long to enter Heaven and the sphere of Hope.’ + </p> + <p> + “His doctrine of Marriage can be reduced to the following words: ‘The Lord + has taken the beauty and the grace of the life of man and bestowed them + upon woman. When man is not reunited to this beauty and this grace of his + life, he is harsh, sad, and sullen; when he is reunited to them he is + joyful and complete.’ The Angels are ever at the perfect point of beauty. + Marriages are celebrated by wondrous ceremonies. In these unions, which + produce no children, man contributes the <i>understanding</i>, woman the + <i>will</i>; they become one being, one Flesh here below, and pass to + heaven clothed in the celestial form. On this earth, the natural + attraction of the sexes towards enjoyment is an Effect which allures, + fatigues and disgusts; but in the form celestial the pair, now <i>one</i> + in Spirit find within theirself a ceaseless source of joy. Swedenborg was + led to see these nuptials of the Spirits, which in the words of Saint Luke + (xx. 35) are neither marrying nor giving in marriage, and which inspire + none but spiritual pleasures. An Angel offered to make him witness of such + a marriage and bore him thither on his wings (the wings are a symbol and + not a reality). The Angel clothed him in a wedding garment and when + Swedenborg, finding himself thus robed in light, asked why, the answer + was: ‘For these events, our garments are illuminated; they shine; they are + made nuptial.’ (‘Conjugial Love,’ 19, 20, 21.) Then he saw the two Angels, + one coming from the South, the other from the East; the Angel of the South + was in a chariot drawn by two white horses, with reins of the color and + brilliance of the dawn; but lo, when they were near him in the sky, + chariot and horses vanished. The Angel of the East, clothed in crimson, + and the Angel of the South, in purple, drew together, like breaths, and + mingled: one was the Angel of Love, the other the Angel of Wisdom. + Swedenborg’s guide told him that the two Angels had been linked together + on earth by an inward friendship and ever united though separated in life + by great distances. Consent, the essence of all good marriage upon earth, + is the habitual state of Angels in Heaven. Love is the light of their + world. The eternal rapture of Angels comes from the faculty that God + communicates to them to render back to Him the joy they feel through Him. + This reciprocity of infinitude forms their life. They become infinite by + participating of the essence of God, who generates Himself by Himself. + </p> + <p> + “The immensity of the Heavens where the Angels dwell is such that if man + were endowed with sight as rapid as the darting of light from the sun to + the earth, and if he gazed throughout eternity, his eyes could not reach + the horizon, nor find an end. Light alone can give an idea of the joys of + heaven. ‘It is,’ says Swedenborg (‘Angelic Wisdom,’ 7, 25, 26, 27), ‘a + vapor of the virtue of God, a pure emanation of His splendor, beside which + our greatest brilliance is obscurity. It can compass all; it can renew + all, and is never absorbed: it environs the Angel and unites him to God by + infinite joys which multiply infinitely of themselves. This Light destroys + whosoever is not prepared to receive it. No one here below, nor yet in + Heaven can see God and live. This is the meaning of the saying (Exodus + xix. 12, 13, 21-23) “Take heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the + mount—lest ye break through unto the Lord to gaze, and many perish.” + And again (Exodus xxxiv. 29-35), “When Moses came down from Mount Sinai + with the two Tables of testimony in his hand, his face shone, so that he + put a veil upon it when he spake with the people, lest any of them die.” + The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ likewise revealed the light + surrounding the Messengers from on high and the ineffable joys of the + Angels who are forever imbued with it. “His face,” says Saint Matthew + (xvii. 1-5), “did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the light—and + a bright cloud overshadowed them.”’ + </p> + <p> + “When a planet contains only those beings who reject the Lord, when his + word is ignored, then the Angelic Spirits are gathered together by the + four winds, and God sends forth an Exterminating Angel to change the face + of the refractory earth, which in the immensity of this universe is to Him + what an unfruitful seed is to Nature. Approaching the globe, this + Exterminating Angel, borne by a comet, causes the planet to turn upon its + axis, and the lands lately covered by the seas reappear, adorned in + freshness and obedient to the laws proclaimed in Genesis; the Word of God + is once more powerful on this new earth, which everywhere exhibits the + effects of terrestrial waters and celestial flames. The light brought by + the Angel from On High, causes the sun to pale. ‘Then,’ says Isaiah, (xix. + 20) ‘men will hide in the clefts of the rock and roll themselves in the + dust of the earth.’ ‘They will cry to the mountains’ (Revelation), ‘Fall + on us! and to the seas, Swallow us up! Hide us from the face of Him that + sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb!’ The Lamb is the + great figure and hope of the Angels misjudged and persecuted here below. + Christ himself has said, ‘Blessed are those who mourn! Blessed are the + simple-hearted! Blessed are they that love!’—All Swedenborg is + there! Suffer, Believe, Love. To love truly must we not suffer? must we + not believe? Love begets Strength, Strength bestows Wisdom, thence + Intelligence; for Strength and Wisdom demand Will. To be intelligent, is + not that to Know, to Wish, and to Will,—the three attributes of the + Angelic Spirit? ‘If the universe has a meaning,’ Monsieur Saint-Martin + said to me when I met him during a journey which he made in Sweden, + ‘surely this is the one most worthy of God.’ + </p> + <p> + “But, Monsieur,” continued the pastor after a thoughtful pause, “of what + avail to you are these shreds of thoughts taken here and there from the + vast extent of a work of which no true idea can be given except by + comparing it to a river of light, to billows of flame? When a man plunges + into it he is carried away as by an awful current. Dante’s poem seems but + a speck to the reader submerged in the almost Biblical verses with which + Swedenborg renders palpable the Celestial Worlds, as Beethoven built his + palaces of harmony with thousands of notes, as architects have reared + cathedrals with millions of stones. We roll in soundless depths, where our + minds will not always sustain us. Ah, surely a great and powerful + intellect is needed to bring us back, safe and sound, to our own social + beliefs. + </p> + <p> + “Swedenborg,” resumed the pastor, “was particularly attached to the Baron + de Seraphitz, whose name, according to an old Swedish custom, had taken + from time immemorial the Latin termination of ‘us.’ The baron was an + ardent disciple of the Swedish prophet, who had opened the eyes of his + Inner-Man and brought him to a life in conformity with the decrees from + On-High. He sought for an Angelic Spirit among women; Swedenborg found her + for him in a vision. His bride was the daughter of a London shoemaker, in + whom, said Swedenborg, the life of Heaven shone, she having passed through + all anterior trials. After the death, that is, the transformation of the + prophet, the baron came to Jarvis to accomplish his celestial nuptials + with the observances of Prayer. As for me, who am not a Seer, I have only + known the terrestrial works of this couple. Their lives were those of + saints whose virtues are the glory of the Roman Church. They ameliorated + the condition of our people; they supplied them all with means in return + for work,—little, perhaps, but enough for all their wants. Those who + lived with them in constant intercourse never saw them show a sign of + anger or impatience; they were constantly beneficent and gentle, full of + courtesy and loving-kindness; their marriage was the harmony of two souls + indissolubly united. Two eiders winging the same flight, the sound in the + echo, the thought in the word,—these, perhaps, are true images of + their union. Every one here in Jarvis loved them with an affection which I + can compare only to the love of a plant for the sun. The wife was simple + in her manners, beautiful in form, lovely in face, with a dignity of + bearing like that of august personages. In 1783, being then twenty-six + years old, she conceived a child; her pregnancy was to the pair a solemn + joy. They prepared to bid the earth farewell; for they told me they should + be transformed when their child had passed the state of infancy which + needed their fostering care until the strength to exist alone should be + given to her. + </p> + <p> + “Their child was born,—the Seraphita we are now concerned with. From + the moment of her conception father and mother lived a still more solitary + life than in the past, lifting themselves up to heaven by Prayer. They + hoped to see Swedenborg, and faith realized their hope. The day on which + Seraphita came into the world Swedenborg appeared in Jarvis, and filled + the room of the new-born child with light. I was told that he said, ‘The + work is accomplished; the Heavens rejoice!’ Sounds of unknown melodies + were heard throughout the house, seeming to come from the four points of + heaven on the wings of the wind. The spirit of Swedenborg led the father + forth to the shores of the fiord and there quitted him. Certain + inhabitants of Jarvis, having approached Monsieur Seraphitus as he stood + on the shore, heard him repeat those blissful words of Scripture: ‘How + beautiful on the mountains are the feet of Him who is sent of God!’ + </p> + <p> + “I had left the parsonage on my way to baptize the infant and name it, and + perform the other duties required by law, when I met the baron returning + to the house. ‘Your ministrations are superfluous,’ he said; ‘our child is + to be without name on this earth. You must not baptize in the waters of an + earthly Church one who has just been immersed in the fires of Heaven. This + child will remain a blossom, it will not grow old; you will see it pass + away. You exist, but our child has life; you have outward senses, the + child has none, its being is always inward.’ These words were uttered in + so strange and supernatural a voice that I was more affected by them than + by the shining of his face, from which light appeared to exude. His + appearance realized the phantasmal ideas which we form of inspired beings + as we read the prophesies of the Bible. But such effects are not rare + among our mountains, where the nitre of perpetual snows produces + extraordinary phenomena in the human organization. + </p> + <p> + “I asked him the cause of his emotion. ‘Swedenborg came to us; he has just + left me; I have breathed the air of heaven,’ he replied. ‘Under what form + did he appear?’ I said. ‘Under his earthly form; dressed as he was the + last time I saw him in London, at the house of Richard Shearsmith, + Coldbath-fields, in July, 1771. He wore his brown frieze coat with steel + buttons, his waistcoat buttoned to the throat, a white cravat, and the + same magisterial wig rolled and powdered at the sides and raised high in + front, showing his vast and luminous brow, in keeping with the noble + square face, where all is power and tranquillity. I recognized the large + nose with its fiery nostril, the mouth that ever smiled,—angelic + mouth from which these words, the pledge of my happiness, have just + issued, “We shall meet soon.”’ + </p> + <p> + “The conviction that shone on the baron’s face forbade all discussion; I + listened in silence. His voice had a contagious heat which made my bosom + burn within me; his fanaticism stirred my heart as the anger of another + makes our nerves vibrate. I followed him in silence to his house, where I + saw the nameless child lying mysteriously folded to its mother’s breast. + The babe heard my step and turned its head toward me; its eyes were not + those of an ordinary child. To give you an idea of the impression I + received, I must say that already they saw and thought. The childhood of + this predestined being was attended by circumstances quite extraordinary + in our climate. For nine years our winters were milder and our summers + longer than usual. This phenomenon gave rise to several discussions among + scientific men; but none of their explanations seemed sufficient to + academicians, and the baron smiled when I told him of them. The child was + never seen in its nudity as other children are; it was never touched by + man or woman, but lived a sacred thing upon the mother’s breast, and it + never cried. If you question old David he will confirm these facts about + his mistress, for whom he feels an adoration like that of Louis IX. for + the saint whose name he bore. + </p> + <p> + “At nine years of age the child began to pray; prayer is her life. You saw + her in the church at Christmas, the only day on which she comes there; she + is separated from the other worshippers by a visible space. If that space + does not exist between herself and men she suffers. That is why she passes + nearly all her time alone in the chateau. The events of her life are + unknown; she is seldom seen; her days are spent in the state of mystical + contemplation which was, so Catholic writers tell us, habitual with the + early Christian solitaries, in whom the oral tradition of Christ’s own + words still remained. Her mind, her soul, her body, all within her is + virgin as the snow on those mountains. At ten years of age she was just + what you see her now. When she was nine her father and mother expired + together, without pain or visible malady, after naming the day and hour at + which they would cease to be. Standing at their feet she looked at them + with a calm eye, not showing either sadness, or grief, or joy, or + curiosity. When we approached to remove the two bodies she said, ‘Carry + them away!’ ‘Seraphita,’ I said, for so we called her, ‘are you not + affected by the death of your father and your mother who loved you so + much?’ ‘Dead?’ she answered, ‘no, they live in me forever—That is + nothing,’ she pointed without emotion to the bodies they were bearing + away. I then saw her for the third time only since her birth. In church it + is difficult to distinguish her; she stands near a column which, seen from + the pulpit, is in shadow, so that I cannot observe her features. + </p> + <p> + “Of all the servants of the household there remained after the death of + the master and mistress only old David, who, in spite of his eighty-two + years, suffices to wait on his mistress. Some of our Jarvis people tell + wonderful tales about her. These have a certain weight in a land so + essentially conducive to mystery as ours; and I am now studying the + treatise on Incantations by Jean Wier and other works relating to + demonology, where pretended supernatural events are recorded, hoping to + find facts analogous to those which are attributed to her.” + </p> + <p> + “Then you do not believe in her?” said Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “Oh yes, I do,” said the pastor, genially, “I think her a very capricious + girl; a little spoilt by her parents, who turned her head with the + religious ideas I have just revealed to you.” + </p> + <p> + Minna shook her head in a way that gently expressed contradiction. + </p> + <p> + “Poor girl!” continued the old man, “her parents bequeathed to her that + fatal exaltation of soul which misleads mystics and renders them all more + or less mad. She subjects herself to fasts which horrify poor David. The + good old man is like a sensitive plant which quivers at the slightest + breeze, and glows under the first sun-ray. His mistress, whose + incomprehensible language has become his, is the breeze and the sun-ray to + him; in his eyes her feet are diamonds and her brow is strewn with stars; + she walks environed with a white and luminous atmosphere; her voice is + accompanied by music; she has the gift of rendering herself invisible. If + you ask to see her, he will tell you she has gone to the <i>astral regions</i>. + It is difficult to believe such a story, is it not? You know all miracles + bear more or less resemblance to the story of the Golden Tooth. We have + our golden tooth in Jarvis, that is all. Duncker the fisherman asserts + that he has seen her plunge into the fiord and come up in the shape of an + eider-duck, at other times walking on the billows of a storm. Fergus, who + leads the flocks to the saeters, says that in rainy weather a circle of + clear sky can be seen over the Swedish castle; and that the heavens are + always blue above Seraphita’s head when she is on the mountain. Many women + hear the tones of a mighty organ when Seraphita enters the church, and ask + their neighbors earnestly if they too do not hear them. But my daughter, + for whom during the last two years Seraphita has shown much affection, has + never heard this music, and has never perceived the heavenly perfumes + which, they say, make the air fragrant about her when she moves. Minna, to + be sure, has often on returning from their walks together expressed to me + the delight of a young girl in the beauties of our spring-time, in the + spicy odors of budding larches and pines and the earliest flowers; but + after our long winters what can be more natural than such pleasure? The + companionship of this so-called spirit has nothing so very extraordinary + in it, has it, my child?” + </p> + <p> + “The secrets of that spirit are not mine,” said Minna. “Near it I know + all, away from it I know nothing; near that exquisite life I am no longer + myself, far from it I forget all. The time we pass together is a dream + which my memory scarcely retains. I may have heard yet not remember the + music which the women tell of; in that presence, I may have breathed + celestial perfumes, seen the glory of the heavens, and yet be unable to + recollect them here.” + </p> + <p> + “What astonishes me most,” resumed the pastor, addressing Wilfrid, “is to + notice that you suffer from being near her.” + </p> + <p> + “Near her!” exclaimed the stranger, “she has never so much as let me touch + her hand. When she saw me for the first time her glance intimidated me; + she said: ‘You are welcome here, for you were to come.’ I fancied that she + knew me. I trembled. It is fear that forces me to believe in her.” + </p> + <p> + “With me it is love,” said Minna, without a blush. + </p> + <p> + “Are you making fun of me?” said Monsieur Becker, laughing good-humoredly; + “you my daughter, in calling yourself a Spirit of Love, and you, Monsieur + Wilfrid, in pretending to be a Spirit of Wisdom?” + </p> + <p> + He drank a glass of beer and so did not see the singular look which + Wilfrid cast upon Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Jesting apart,” resumed the old gentleman, “I have been much astonished + to hear that these two mad-caps ascended to the summit of the Falberg; it + must be a girlish exaggeration; they probably went to the crest of a + ledge. It is impossible to reach the peaks of the Falberg.” + </p> + <p> + “If so, father,” said Minna, in an agitated voice, “I must have been under + the power of a spirit; for indeed we reached the summit of the Ice-Cap.” + </p> + <p> + “This is really serious,” said Monsieur Becker. “Minna is always + truthful.” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur Becker,” said Wilfrid, “I swear to you that Seraphita exercises + such extraordinary power over me that I know no language in which I can + give you the least idea of it. She has revealed to me things known to + myself alone.” + </p> + <p> + “Somnambulism!” said the old man. “A great many such effects are related + by Jean Wier as phenomena easily explained and formerly observed in + Egypt.” + </p> + <p> + “Lend me Swedenborg’s theosophical works,” said Wilfrid, “and let me + plunge into those gulfs of light,—you have given me a thirst for + them.” + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Becker took down a volume and gave it to his guest, who instantly + began to read it. It was about nine o’clock in the evening. The + serving-woman brought in the supper. Minna made tea. The repast over, each + turned silently to his or her occupation; the pastor read the + Incantations; Wilfrid pursued the spirit of Swedenborg; and the young girl + continued to sew, her mind absorbed in recollections. It was a true + Norwegian evening—peaceful, studious, and domestic; full of + thoughts, flowers blooming beneath the snow. Wilfrid, as he devoured the + pages of the prophet, lived by his inner senses only; the pastor, looking + up at times from his book, called Minna’s attention to the absorption of + their guest with an air that was half-serious, half-jesting. To Minna’s + thoughts the face of Seraphitus smiled upon her as it hovered above the + clouds of smoke which enveloped them. The clock struck twelve. Suddenly + the outer door was opened violently. Heavy but hurried steps, the steps of + a terrified old man, were heard in the narrow vestibule between the two + doors; then David burst into the parlor. + </p> + <p> + “Danger, danger!” he cried. “Come! come, all! The evil spirits are + unchained! Fiery mitres are on their heads! Demons, Vertumni, Sirens! they + tempt her as Jesus was tempted on the mountain! Come, come! and drive them + away.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you not recognize the language of Swedenborg?” said the pastor, + laughing, to Wilfrid. “Here it is; pure from the source.” + </p> + <p> + But Wilfrid and Minna were gazing in terror at old David, who, with hair + erect, and eyes distraught, his legs trembling and covered with snow, for + he had come without snow-shoes, stood swaying from side to side, as if + some boisterous wind were shaking him. + </p> + <p> + “Is he harmed?” cried Minna. + </p> + <p> + “The devils hope and try to conquer her,” replied the old man. + </p> + <p> + The words made Wilfrid’s pulses throb. + </p> + <p> + “For the last five hours she has stood erect, her eyes raised to heaven + and her arms extended; she suffers, she cries to God. I cannot cross the + barrier; Hell has posted the Vertumni as sentinels. They have set up an + iron wall between her and her old David. She wants me, but what can I do? + Oh, help me! help me! Come and pray!” + </p> + <p> + The old man’s despair was terrible to see. + </p> + <p> + “The Light of God is defending her,” he went on, with infectious faith, + “but oh! she might yield to violence.” + </p> + <p> + “Silence, David! you are raving. This is a matter to be verified. We will + go with you,” said the pastor, “and you shall see that there are no + Vertumni, nor Satans, nor Sirens, in that house.” + </p> + <p> + “Your father is blind,” whispered David to Minna. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid, on whom the reading of Swedenborg’s first treatise, which he had + rapidly gone through, had produced a powerful effect, was already in the + corridor putting on his skees; Minna was ready in a few moments, and both + left the old men far behind as they darted forward to the Swedish castle. + </p> + <p> + “Do you hear that cracking sound?” said Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “The ice of the fiord stirs,” answered Minna; “the spring is coming.” + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid was silent. When the two reached the courtyard they were conscious + that they had neither the faculty nor the strength to enter the house. + </p> + <p> + “What think you of her?” asked Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “See that radiance!” cried Minna, going towards the window of the salon. + “He is there! How beautiful! O my Seraphitus, take me!” + </p> + <p> + The exclamation was uttered inwardly. She saw Seraphitus standing erect, + lightly swathed in an opal-tinted mist that disappeared at a little + distance from the body, which seemed almost phosphorescent. + </p> + <p> + “How beautiful she is!” cried Wilfrid, mentally. + </p> + <p> + Just then Monsieur Becker arrived, followed by David; he saw his daughter + and guest standing before the window; going up to them, he looked into the + salon and said quietly, “Well, my good David, she is only saying her + prayers.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, but try to enter, Monsieur.” + </p> + <p> + “Why disturb those who pray?” answered the pastor. + </p> + <p> + At this instant the moon, rising above the Falberg, cast its rays upon the + window. All three turned round, attracted by this natural effect which + made them quiver; when they turned back to again look at Seraphita she had + disappeared. + </p> + <p> + “How strange!” exclaimed Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “I hear delightful sounds,” said Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Well,” said the pastor, “it is all plain enough; she is going to bed.” + </p> + <p> + David had entered the house. The others took their way back in silence; + none of them interpreted the vision in the same manner,—Monsieur + Becker doubted, Minna adored, Wilfrid longed. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid was a man about thirty-six years of age. His figure, though + broadly developed, was not wanting in symmetry. Like most men who + distinguish themselves above their fellows, he was of medium height; his + chest and shoulders were broad, and his neck short,—a characteristic + of those whose hearts are near their heads; his hair was black, thick, and + fine; his eyes, of a yellow brown, had, as it were, a solar brilliancy, + which proclaimed with what avidity his nature aspired to Light. Though + these strong and virile features were defective through the absence of an + inward peace,—granted only to a life without storms or conflicts,—they + plainly showed the inexhaustible resources of impetuous senses and the + appetites of instinct; just as every motion revealed the perfection of the + man’s physical apparatus, the flexibility of his senses, and their + fidelity when brought into play. This man might contend with savages, and + hear, as they do, the tread of enemies in distant forests; he could follow + a scent in the air, a trail on the ground, or see on the horizon the + signal of a friend. His sleep was light, like that of all creatures who + will not allow themselves to be surprised. His body came quickly into + harmony with the climate of any country where his tempestuous life + conducted him. Art and science would have admired his organization in the + light of a human model. Everything about him was symmetrical and + well-balanced,—action and heart, intelligence and will. At first + sight he might be classed among purely instinctive beings, who give + themselves blindly up to the material wants of life; but in the very + morning of his days he had flung himself into a higher social world, with + which his feelings harmonized; study had widened his mind, reflection had + sharpened his power of thought, and the sciences had enlarged his + understanding. He had studied human laws,—the working of + self-interests brought into conflict by the passions, and he seemed to + have early familiarized himself with the abstractions on which societies + rest. He had pored over books,—those deeds of dead humanity; he had + spent whole nights of pleasure in every European capital; he had slept on + fields of battle the night before the combat and the night that followed + victory. His stormy youth may have flung him on the deck of some corsair + and sent him among the contrasting regions of the globe; thus it was that + he knew the actions of a living humanity. He knew the present and the + past,—a double history; that of to-day, that of other days. Many men + have been, like Wilfrid, equally powerful by the Hand, by the Heart, by + the Head; like him, the majority have abused their triple power. But + though this man still held by certain outward liens to the slimy side of + humanity, he belonged also and positively to the sphere where force is + intelligent. In spite of the many veils which enveloped his soul, there + were certain ineffable symptoms of this fact which were visible to pure + spirits, to the eyes of the child whose innocence has known no breath of + evil passions, to the eyes of the old man who has lived to regain his + purity. + </p> + <p> + These signs revealed a Cain for whom there was still hope,—one who + seemed as though he were seeking absolution from the ends of the earth. + Minna suspected the galley-slave of glory in the man; Seraphita recognized + him. Both admired and both pitied him. Whence came their prescience? + Nothing could be more simple nor yet more extraordinary. As soon as we + seek to penetrate the secrets of Nature, where nothing is secret, and + where it is only necessary to have the eyes to see, we perceive that the + simple produces the marvellous. + </p> + <p> + “Seraphitus,” said Minna one evening a few days after Wilfrid’s arrival in + Jarvis, “you read the soul of this stranger while I have only vague + impressions of it. He chills me or else he excites me; but you seem to + know the cause of this cold and of this heat; tell me what it means, for + you know all about him.” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, I have seen the causes,” said Seraphitus, lowing his large eyelids. + </p> + <p> + “By what power?” asked the curious Minna. + </p> + <p> + “I have the gift of Specialism,” he answered. “Specialism is an inward + sight which can penetrate all things; you will only understand its full + meaning through a comparison. In the great cities of Europe where works + are produced by which the human Hand seeks to represent the effects of the + moral nature was well as those of the physical nature, there are glorious + men who express ideas in marble. The sculptor acts on the stone; he + fashions it; he puts a realm of ideas into it. There are statues which the + hand of man has endowed with the faculty of representing the noble side of + humanity, or the whole evil side; most men see in such marbles a human + figure and nothing more; a few other men, a little higher in the scale of + being, perceive a fraction of the thoughts expressed in the statue; but + the Initiates in the secrets of art are of the same intellect as the + sculptor; they see in his work the whole universe of his thought. Such + persons are in themselves the principles of art; they bear within them a + mirror which reflects nature in her slightest manifestations. Well! so it + is with me; I have within me a mirror before which the moral nature, with + its causes and effects, appears and is reflected. Entering thus into the + consciousness of others I am able to divine both the future and the past. + How? do you still ask how? Imagine that the marble statue is the body of a + man, a piece of statuary in which we see the emotion, sentiment, passion, + vice or crime, virtue or repentance which the creating hand has put into + it, and you will then comprehend how it is that I read the soul of this + foreigner—though what I have said does not explain the gift of + Specialism; for to conceive the nature of that gift we must possess it.” + </p> + <p> + Though Wilfrid belonged to the two first divisions of humanity, the men of + force and the men of thought, yet his excesses, his tumultuous life, and + his misdeeds had often turned him towards Faith; for doubt has two sides; + a side to the light and a side to the darkness. Wilfrid had too closely + clasped the world under its forms of Matter and of Mind not to have + acquired that thirst for the unknown, that longing to <i>go beyond</i> + which lay their grasp upon the men who know, and wish, and will. But + neither his knowledge, nor his actions, nor his will, had found direction. + He had fled from social life from necessity; as a great criminal seeks the + cloister. Remorse, that virtue of weak beings, did not touch him. Remorse + is impotence, impotence which sins again. Repentance alone is powerful; it + ends all. But in traversing the world, which he made his cloister, Wilfrid + had found no balm for his wounds; he saw nothing in nature to which he + could attach himself. In him, despair had dried the sources of desire. He + was one of those beings who, having gone through all passions and come out + victorious, have nothing more to raise in their hot-beds, and who, lacking + opportunity to put themselves at the head of their fellow-men to trample + under iron heel entire populations, buy, at the price of a horrible + martyrdom, the faculty of ruining themselves in some belief,—rocks + sublime, which await the touch of a wand that comes not to bring the + waters gushing from their far-off spring. + </p> + <p> + Led by a scheme of his restless, inquiring life to the shores of Norway, + the sudden arrival of winter had detained the wanderer at Jarvis. The day + on which, for the first time, he saw Seraphita, the whole past of his life + faded from his mind. The young girl excited emotions which he had thought + could never be revived. The ashes gave forth a lingering flame at the + first murmurings of that voice. Who has ever felt himself return to youth + and purity after growing cold and numb with age and soiled with impurity? + Suddenly, Wilfrid loved as he had never loved; he loved secretly, with + faith, with fear, with inward madness. His life was stirred to the very + source of his being at the mere thought of seeing Seraphita. As he + listened to her he was transported into unknown worlds; he was mute before + her, she magnetized him. There, beneath the snows, among the glaciers, + bloomed the celestial flower to which his hopes, so long betrayed, + aspired; the sight of which awakened ideas of freshness, purity, and faith + which grouped about his soul and lifted it to higher regions,—as + Angels bear to heaven the Elect in those symbolic pictures inspired by the + guardian spirit of a great master. Celestial perfumes softened the granite + hardness of the rocky scene; light endowed with speech shed its divine + melodies on the path of him who looked to heaven. After emptying the cup + of terrestrial love which his teeth had bitten as he drank it, he saw + before him the chalice of salvation where the limpid waters sparkled, + making thirsty for ineffable delights whoever dare apply his lips burning + with a faith so strong that the crystal shall not be shattered. + </p> + <p> + But Wilfrid now encountered the wall of brass for which he had been + seeking up and down the earth. He went impetuously to Seraphita, meaning + to express the whole force and bearing of a passion under which he bounded + like the fabled horse beneath the iron horseman, firm in his saddle, whom + nothing moves while the efforts of the fiery animal only made the rider + heavier and more solid. He sought her to relate his life,—to prove + the grandeur of his soul by the grandeur of his faults, to show the ruins + of his desert. But no sooner had he crossed her threshold, and found + himself within the zone of those eyes of scintillating azure, that met no + limits forward and left none behind, than he grew calm and submissive, as + a lion, springing on his prey in the plains of Africa, receives from the + wings of the wind a message of love, and stops his bound. A gulf opened + before him, into which his frenzied words fell and disappeared, and from + which uprose a voice which changed his being; he became as a child, a + child of sixteen, timid and frightened before this maiden with serene + brow, this white figure whose inalterable calm was like the cruel + impassibility of human justice. The combat between them had never ceased + until this evening, when with a glance she brought him down, as a falcon + making his dizzy spirals in the air around his prey causes it to fall + stupefied to earth, before carrying it to his eyrie. + </p> + <p> + We may note within ourselves many a long struggle the end of which is one + of our own actions,—struggles which are, as it were, the reverse + side of humanity. This reverse side belongs to God; the obverse side to + men. More than once Seraphita had proved to Wilfrid that she knew this + hidden and ever varied side, which is to the majority of men a second + being. Often she said to him in her dove-like voice: “Why all this + vehemence?” when on his way to her he had sworn she should be his. Wilfrid + was, however, strong enough to raise the cry of revolt to which he had + given utterance in Monsieur Becker’s study. The narrative of the old + pastor had calmed him. Sceptical and derisive as he was, he saw belief + like a sidereal brilliance dawning on his life. He asked himself if + Seraphita were not an exile from the higher spheres seeking the homeward + way. The fanciful deifications of all ordinary lovers he could not give to + this lily of Norway in whose divinity he believed. Why lived she here + beside this fiord? What did she? Questions that received no answer filled + his mind. Above all, what was about to happen between them? What fate had + brought him there? To him, Seraphita was the motionless marble, light + nevertheless as a vapor, which Minna had seen that day poised above the + precipices of the Falberg. Could she thus stand on the edge of all gulfs + without danger, without a tremor of the arching eyebrows, or a quiver of + the light of the eye? If his love was to be without hope, it was not + without curiosity. + </p> + <p> + From the moment when Wilfrid suspected the ethereal nature of the + enchantress who had told him the secrets of his life in melodious + utterance, he had longed to try to subject her, to keep her to himself, to + tear her from the heaven where, perhaps, she was awaited. Earth and + Humanity seized their prey; he would imitate them. His pride, the only + sentiment through which man can long be exalted, would make him happy in + this triumph for the rest of his life. The idea sent the blood boiling + through his veins, and his heart swelled. If he did not succeed, he would + destroy her,—it is so natural to destroy that which we cannot + possess, to deny what we cannot comprehend, to insult that which we envy. + </p> + <p> + On the morrow, Wilfrid, laden with ideas which the extraordinary events of + the previous night naturally awakened in his mind, resolved to question + David, and went to find him on the pretext of asking after Seraphita’s + health. Though Monsieur Becker spoke of the old servant as falling into + dotage, Wilfrid relied on his own perspicacity to discover scraps of truth + in the torrent of the old man’s rambling talk. + </p> + <p> + David had the immovable, undecided, physiognomy of an octogenarian. Under + his white hair lay a forehead lined with wrinkles like the stone courses + of a ruined wall; and his face was furrowed like the bed of a dried-up + torrent. His life seemed to have retreated wholly to the eyes, where light + still shone, though its gleams were obscured by a mistiness which seemed + to indicate either an active mental alienation or the stupid stare of + drunkenness. His slow and heavy movements betrayed the glacial weight of + age, and communicated an icy influence to whoever allowed themselves to + look long at him,—for he possessed the magnetic force of torpor. His + limited intelligence was only roused by the sight, the hearing, or the + recollection of his mistress. She was the soul of this wholly material + fragment of an existence. Any one seeing David alone by himself would have + thought him a corpse; let Seraphita enter, let her voice be heard, or a + mention of her be made, and the dead came forth from his grave and + recovered speech and motion. The dry bones were not more truly awakened by + the divine breath in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and never was that + apocalyptic vision better realized than in this Lazarus issuing from the + sepulchre into life at the voice of a young girl. His language, which was + always figurative and often incomprehensible, prevented the inhabitants of + the village from talking with him; but they respected a mind that deviated + so utterly from common ways,—a thing which the masses instinctively + admire. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid found him in the antechamber, apparently asleep beside the stove. + Like a dog who recognizes a friend of the family, the old man raised his + eyes, saw the foreigner, and did not stir. + </p> + <p> + “Where is she?” inquired Wilfrid, sitting down beside him. + </p> + <p> + David fluttered his fingers in the air as if to express the flight of a + bird. + </p> + <p> + “Does she still suffer?” asked Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “Beings vowed to Heaven are able so to suffer that suffering does not + lessen their love; this is the mark of the true faith,” answered the old + man, solemnly, like an instrument which, on being touched, gives forth an + accidental note. + </p> + <p> + “Who taught you those words?” + </p> + <p> + “The Spirit.” + </p> + <p> + “What happened to her last night? Did you force your way past the Vertumni + standing sentinel? did you evade the Mammons?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes”; answered David, as though awaking from a dream. + </p> + <p> + The misty gleam of his eyes melted into a ray that came direct from the + soul and made it by degrees brilliant as that of an eagle, as intelligent + as that of a poet. + </p> + <p> + “What did you see?” asked Wilfrid, astonished at this sudden change. + </p> + <p> + “I saw Species and Shapes; I heard the Spirit of all things; I beheld the + revolt of the Evil Ones; I listened to the words of the Good. Seven devils + came, and seven archangels descended from on high. The archangels stood + apart and looked on through veils. The devils were close by; they shone, + they acted. Mammon came on his pearly shell in the shape of a beautiful + naked woman; her snowy body dazzled the eye, no human form ever equalled + it; and he said, ‘I am Pleasure; thou shalt possess me!’ Lucifer, prince + of serpents, was there in sovereign robes; his Manhood was glorious as the + beauty of an angel, and he said, ‘Humanity shall be at thy feet!’ The + Queen of misers,—she who gives back naught that she has ever + received,—the Sea, came wrapped in her virent mantle; she opened her + bosom, she showed her gems, she brought forth her treasures and offered + them; waves of sapphire and of emerald came at her bidding; her hidden + wonders stirred, they rose to the surface of her breast, they spoke; the + rarest pearl of Ocean spread its iridescent wings and gave voice to its + marine melodies, saying, ‘Twin daughter of suffering, we are sisters! + await me; let us go together; all I need is to become a Woman.’ The Bird + with the wings of an eagle and the paws of a lion, the head of a woman and + the body of a horse, the Animal, fell down before her and licked her feet, + and promised seven hundred years of plenty to her best-beloved daughter. + Then came the most formidable of all, the Child, weeping at her knees, and + saying, ‘Wilt thou leave me, feeble and suffering as I am? oh, my mother, + stay!’ and he played with her, and shed languor on the air, and the + Heavens themselves had pity for his wail. The Virgin of pure song brought + forth her choirs to relax the soul. The Kings of the East came with their + slaves, their armies, and their women; the Wounded asked her for succor, + the Sorrowful stretched forth their hands: ‘Do not leave us! do not leave + us!’ they cried. I, too, I cried, ‘Do not leave us! we adore thee! stay!’ + Flowers, bursting from the seed, bathed her in their fragrance which + uttered, ‘Stay!’ The giant Enakim came forth from Jupiter, leading Gold + and its friends and all the Spirits of the Astral Regions which are joined + with him, and they said, ‘We are thine for seven hundred years.’ At last + came Death on his pale horse, crying, ‘I will obey thee!’ One and all fell + prostrate before her. Could you but have seen them! They covered as it + were a vast plain, and they cried aloud to her, ‘We have nurtured thee, + thou art our child; do not abandon us!’ At length Life issued from her + Ruby Waters, and said, ‘I will not leave thee!’ then, finding Seraphita + silent, she flamed upon her as the sun, crying out, ‘I am light!’ ‘<i>The + light</i> is there!’ cried Seraphita, pointing to the clouds where stood + the archangels; but she was wearied out; Desire had wrung her nerves, she + could only cry, ‘My God! my God!’ Ah! many an Angelic Spirit, scaling the + mountain and nigh to the summit, has set his foot upon a rolling stone + which plunged him back into the abyss! All these lost Spirits adored her + constancy; they stood around her,—a choir without a song,—weeping + and whispering, ‘Courage!’ At last she conquered; Desire—let loose + upon her in every Shape and every Species—was vanquished. She stood + in prayer, and when at last her eyes were lifted she saw the feet of + Angels circling in the Heavens.” + </p> + <p> + “She saw the feet of Angels?” repeated Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” said the old man. + </p> + <p> + “Was it a dream that she told you?” asked Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “A dream as real as your life,” answered David; “I was there.” + </p> + <p> + The calm assurance of the old servant affected Wilfrid powerfully. He went + away asking himself whether these visions were any less extraordinary than + those he had read of in Swedenborg the night before. + </p> + <p> + “If Spirits exist, they must act,” he was saying to himself as he entered + the parsonage, where he found Monsieur Becker alone. + </p> + <p> + “Dear pastor,” he said, “Seraphita is connected with us in form only, and + even that form is inexplicable. Do not think me a madman or a lover; a + profound conviction cannot be argued with. Convert my belief into + scientific theories, and let us try to enlighten each other. To-morrow + evening we shall both be with her.” + </p> + <p> + “What then?” said Monsieur Becker. + </p> + <p> + “If her eye ignores space,” replied Wilfrid, “if her thought is an + intelligent sight which enables her to perceive all things in their + essence, and to connect them with the general evolution of the universe, + if, in a word, she sees and knows all, let us seat the Pythoness on her + tripod, let us force this pitiless eagle by threats to spread its wings! + Help me! I breathe a fire which burns my vitals; I must quench it or it + will consume me. I have found a prey at last, and it shall be mine!” + </p> + <p> + “The conquest will be difficult,” said the pastor, “because this girl is—” + </p> + <p> + “Is what?” cried Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “Mad,” said the old man. + </p> + <p> + “I will not dispute her madness, but neither must you dispute her + wonderful powers. Dear Monsieur Becker, she has often confounded me with + her learning. Has she travelled?” + </p> + <p> + “From her house to the fiord, no further.” + </p> + <p> + “Never left this place!” exclaimed Wilfrid. “Then she must have read + immensely.” + </p> + <p> + “Not a page, not one iota! I am the only person who possesses any books in + Jarvis. The works of Swedenborg—the only books that were in the + chateau—you see before you. She has never looked into a single one + of them.” + </p> + <p> + “Have you tried to talk with her?” + </p> + <p> + “What good would that do?” + </p> + <p> + “Does no one live with her in that house?” + </p> + <p> + “She has no friends but you and Minna, nor any servant except old David.” + </p> + <p> + “It cannot be that she knows nothing of science nor of art.” + </p> + <p> + “Who should teach her?” said the pastor. + </p> + <p> + “But if she can discuss such matters pertinently, as she has often done + with me, what do you make of it?” + </p> + <p> + “The girl may have acquired through years of silence the faculties enjoyed + by Apollonius of Tyana and other pretended sorcerers burned by the + Inquisition, which did not choose to admit the fact of second-sight.” + </p> + <p> + “If she can speak Arabic, what would you say to that?” + </p> + <p> + “The history of medical science gives many authentic instances of girls + who have spoken languages entirely unknown to them.” + </p> + <p> + “What can I do?” exclaimed Wilfrid. “She knows of secrets in my past life + known only to me.” + </p> + <p> + “I shall be curious if she can tell me thoughts that I have confided to no + living person,” said Monsieur Becker. + </p> + <p> + Minna entered the room. + </p> + <p> + “Well, my daughter, and how is your familiar spirit?” + </p> + <p> + “He suffers, father,” she answered, bowing to Wilfrid. “Human passions, + clothed in their false riches, surrounded him all night, and showed him + all the glories of the world. But you think these things mere tales.” + </p> + <p> + “Tales as beautiful to those who read them in their brains as the ‘Arabian + Nights’ to common minds,” said the pastor, smiling. + </p> + <p> + “Did not Satan carry our Savior to the pinnacle of the Temple, and show + him all the kingdoms of the world?” she said. + </p> + <p> + “The Evangelists,” replied her father, “did not correct their copies very + carefully, and several versions are in existence.” + </p> + <p> + “You believe in the reality of these visions?” said Wilfrid to Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Who can doubt when he relates them.” + </p> + <p> + “He?” demanded Wilfrid. “Who?” + </p> + <p> + “He who is there,” replied Minna, motioning towards the chateau. + </p> + <p> + “Are you speaking of Seraphita?” he said. + </p> + <p> + The young girl bent her head, and looked at him with an expression of + gentle mischief. + </p> + <p> + “You too!” exclaimed Wilfrid, “you take pleasure in confounding me. Who + and what is she? What do you think of her?” + </p> + <p> + “What I feel is inexplicable,” said Minna, blushing. + </p> + <p> + “You are all crazy!” cried the pastor. + </p> + <p> + “Farewell, until to-morrow evening,” said Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0004" id="link2HCH0004"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER IV. THE CLOUDS OF THE SANCTUARY + </h2> + <p> + There are pageants in which all the material splendors that man arrays + co-operate. Nations of slaves and divers have searched the sands of ocean + and the bowels of earth for the pearls and diamonds which adorn the + spectators. Transmitted as heirlooms from generation to generation, these + treasures have shone on consecrated brows and could be the most faithful + of historians had they speech. They know the joys and sorrows of the great + and those of the small. Everywhere do they go; they are worn with pride at + festivals, carried in despair to usurers, borne off in triumph amid blood + and pillage, enshrined in masterpieces conceived by art for their + protection. None, except the pearl of Cleopatra, has been lost. The Great + and the Fortunate assemble to witness the coronation of some king, whose + trappings are the work of men’s hands, but the purple of whose raiment is + less glorious than that of the flowers of the field. These festivals, + splendid in light, bathed in music which the hand of man creates, aye, all + the triumphs of that hand are subdued by a thought, crushed by a + sentiment. The Mind can illumine in a man and round a man a light more + vivid, can open his ear to more melodious harmonies, can seat him on + clouds of shining constellations and teach him to question them. The Heart + can do still greater things. Man may come into the presence of one sole + being and find in a single word, a single look, an influence so weighty to + bear, of so luminous a light, so penetrating a sound, that he succumbs and + kneels before it. The most real of all splendors are not in outward + things, they are within us. A single secret of science is a realm of + wonders to the man of learning. Do the trumpets of Power, the jewels of + Wealth, the music of Joy, or a vast concourse of people attend his mental + festival? No, he finds his glory in some dim retreat where, perchance, a + pallid suffering man whispers a single word into his ear; that word, like + a torch lighted in a mine, reveals to him a Science. All human ideas, + arrayed in every attractive form which Mystery can invent surrounded a + blind man seated in a wayside ditch. Three worlds, the Natural, the + Spiritual, the Divine, with all their spheres, opened their portals to a + Florentine exile; he walked attended by the Happy and the Unhappy; by + those who prayed and those who moaned; by angels and by souls in hell. + When the Sent of God, who knew and could accomplish all things, appeared + to three of his disciples it was at eventide, at the common table of the + humblest of inns; and then and there the Light broke forth, shattering + Material Forms, illuminating the Spiritual Faculties, so that they saw him + in his glory, and the earth lay at their feet like a cast-off sandal. + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Becker, Wilfrid, and Minna were all under the influence of fear + as they took their way to meet the extraordinary being whom each desired + to question. To them, in their several ways, the Swedish castle had grown + to mean some gigantic representation, some spectacle like those whose + colors and masses are skilfully and harmoniously marshalled by the poets, + and whose personages, imaginary actors to men, are real to those who begin + to penetrate the Spiritual World. On the tiers of this Coliseum Monsieur + Becker seated the gray legions of Doubt, the stern ideas, the specious + formulas of Dispute. He convoked the various antagonistic worlds of + philosophy and religion, and they all appeared, in the guise of a + fleshless shape, like that in which art embodies Time,—an old man + bearing in one hand a scythe, in the other a broken globe, the human + universe. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid had bidden to the scene his earliest illusions and his latest + hopes, human destiny and its conflicts, religion and its conquering + powers. + </p> + <p> + Minna saw heaven confusedly by glimpses; love raised a curtain wrought + with mysterious images, and the melodious sounds which met her ear + redoubled her curiosity. + </p> + <p> + To all three, therefore, this evening was to be what that other evening + had been for the pilgrims to Emmaus, what a vision was to Dante, an + inspiration to Homer,—to them, three aspects of the world revealed, + veils rent away, doubts dissipated, darkness illumined. Humanity in all + its moods expecting light could not be better represented than here by + this young girl, this man in the vigor of his age, and these old men, of + whom one was learned enough to doubt, the other ignorant enough to + believe. Never was any scene more simple in appearance, nor more + portentous in reality. + </p> + <p> + When they entered the room, ushered in by old David, they found Seraphita + standing by a table on which were served the various dishes which compose + a “tea”; a form of collation which in the North takes the place of wine + and its pleasures,—reserved more exclusively for Southern climes. + Certainly nothing proclaimed in her, or in him, a being with the strange + power of appearing under two distinct forms; nothing about her betrayed + the manifold powers which she wielded. Like a careful housewife attending + to the comfort of her guests, she ordered David to put more wood into the + stove. + </p> + <p> + “Good evening, my neighbors,” she said. “Dear Monsieur Becker, you do + right to come; you see me living for the last time, perhaps. This winter + has killed me. Will you sit there?” she said to Wilfrid. “And you, Minna, + here?” pointing to a chair beside her. “I see you have brought your + embroidery. Did you invent that stitch? the design is very pretty. For + whom is it,—your father, or monsieur?” she added, turning to + Wilfrid. “Surely we ought to give him, before we part, a remembrance of + the daughters of Norway.” + </p> + <p> + “Did you suffer much yesterday?” asked Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “It was nothing,” she answered; “the suffering gladdened me; it was + necessary, to enable me to leave this life.” + </p> + <p> + “Then death does not alarm you?” said Monsieur Becker, smiling, for he did + not think her ill. + </p> + <p> + “No, dear pastor; there are two ways of dying: to some, death is victory, + to others, defeat.” + </p> + <p> + “Do you think that you have conquered?” asked Minna. + </p> + <p> + “I do not know,” she said, “perhaps I have only taken a step in the path.” + </p> + <p> + The lustrous splendor of her brow grew dim, her eyes were veiled beneath + slow-dropping lids; a simple movement which affected the prying guests and + kept them silent. Monsieur Becker was the first to recover courage. + </p> + <p> + “Dear child,” he said, “you are truth itself, and you are ever kind. I + would ask of you to-night something other than the dainties of your + tea-table. If we may believe certain persons, you know amazing things; if + this be true, would it not be charitable in you to solve a few of our + doubts?” + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” she said smiling, “I walk on the clouds. I visit the depths of the + fiord; the sea is my steed and I bridle it; I know where the singing + flower grows, and the talking light descends, and fragrant colors shine! I + wear the seal of Solomon; I am a fairy; I cast my orders to the wind + which, like an abject slave, fulfils them; my eyes can pierce the earth + and behold its treasures; for lo! am I not the virgin to whom the pearls + dart from their ocean depths and—” + </p> + <p> + “—who led me safely to the summit of the Falberg?” said Minna, + interrupting her. + </p> + <p> + “Thou! thou too!” exclaimed the strange being, with a luminous glance at + the young girl which filled her soul with trouble. “Had I not the faculty + of reading through your foreheads the desires which have brought you here, + should I be what you think I am?” she said, encircling all three with her + controlling glance, to David’s great satisfaction. The old man rubbed his + hands with pleasure as he left the room. + </p> + <p> + “Ah!” she resumed after a pause, “you have come, all of you, with the + curiosity of children. You, my poor Monsieur Becker, have asked yourself + how it was possible that a girl of seventeen should know even a single one + of those secrets which men of science seek with their noses to the earth,—instead + of raising their eyes to heaven. Were I to tell you how and at what point + the plant merges into the animal you would begin to doubt your doubts. You + have plotted to question me; you will admit that?” + </p> + <p> + “Yes, dear Seraphita,” answered Wilfrid; “but the desire is a natural one + to men, is it not?” + </p> + <p> + “You will bore this dear child with such topics,” she said, passing her + hand lightly over Minna’s hair with a caressing gesture. + </p> + <p> + The young girl raised her eyes and seemed as though she longed to lose + herself in him. + </p> + <p> + “Speech is the endowment of us all,” resumed the mysterious creature, + gravely. “Woe to him who keeps silence, even in a desert, believing that + no one hears him; all voices speak and all ears listen here below. Speech + moves the universe. Monsieur Becker, I desire to say nothing + unnecessarily. I know the difficulties that beset your mind; would you not + think it a miracle if I were now to lay bare the past history of your + consciousness? Well, the miracle shall be accomplished. You have never + admitted to yourself the full extent of your doubts. I alone, immovable in + my faith, I can show it to you; I can terrify you with yourself. + </p> + <p> + “You stand on the darkest side of Doubt. You do not believe in God,—although + you know it not,—and all things here below are secondary to him who + rejects the first principle of things. Let us leave aside the fruitless + discussions of false philosophy. The spiritualist generations made as many + and as vain efforts to deny Matter as the materialist generations have + made to deny Spirit. Why such discussions? Does not man himself offer + irrefragable proof of both systems? Do we not find in him material things + and spiritual things? None but a madman can refuse to see in the human + body a fragment of Matter; your natural sciences, when they decompose it, + find little difference between its elements and those of other animals. On + the other hand, the idea produced in man by the comparison of many objects + has never seemed to any one to belong to the domain of Matter. As to this, + I offer no opinion. I am now concerned with your doubts, not with my + certainties. To you, as to the majority of thinkers, the relations between + things, the reality of which is proved to you by your sensations and which + you possess the faculty to discover, do not seem Material. The Natural + universe of things and beings ends, in man, with the Spiritual universe of + similarities or differences which he perceives among the innumerable forms + of Nature,—relations so multiplied as to seem infinite; for if, up + to the present time, no one has been able to enumerate the separate + terrestrial creations, who can reckon their correlations? Is not the + fraction which you know, in relation to their totality, what a single + number is to infinity? Here, then, you fall into a perception of the + infinite which undoubtedly obliges you to conceive of a purely Spiritual + world. + </p> + <p> + “Thus man himself offers sufficient proof of the two orders,—Matter + and Spirit. In him culminates a visible finite universe; in him begins a + universe invisible and infinite,—two worlds unknown to each other. + Have the pebbles of the fiord a perception of their combined being? have + they a consciousness of the colors they present to the eye of man? do they + hear the music of the waves that lap them? Let us therefore spring over + and not attempt to sound the abysmal depths presented to our minds in the + union of a Material universe and a Spiritual universe,—a creation + visible, ponderable, tangible, terminating in a creation invisible, + imponderable, intangible; completely dissimilar, separated by the void, + yet united by indisputable bonds and meeting in a being who derives + equally from the one and from the other! Let us mingle in one world these + two worlds, absolutely irreconcilable to your philosophies, but conjoined + by fact. However abstract man may suppose the relation which binds two + things together, the line of junction is perceptible. How? Where? We are + not now in search of the vanishing point where Matter subtilizes. If such + were the question, I cannot see why He who has, by physical relations, + studded with stars at immeasurable distances the heavens which veil Him, + may not have created solid substances, nor why you deny Him the faculty of + giving a body to thought. + </p> + <p> + “Thus your invisible moral universe and your visible physical universe are + one and the same matter. We will not separate properties from substances, + nor objects from effects. All that exists, all that presses upon us and + overwhelms us from above or from below, before us or in us, all that which + our eyes and our minds perceive, all these named and unnamed things + compose—in order to fit the problem of Creation to the measure of + your logic—a block of finite Matter; but were it infinite, God would + still not be its master. Now, reasoning with your views, dear pastor, no + matter in what way God the infinite is concerned with this block of finite + Matter, He cannot exist and retain the attributes with which man invests + Him. Seek Him in facts, and He is not; spiritually and materially, you + have made God impossible. Listen to the Word of human Reason forced to its + ultimate conclusions. + </p> + <p> + “In bringing God face to face with the Great Whole, we see that only two + states are possible between them,—either God and Matter are + contemporaneous, or God existed alone before Matter. Were Reason—the + light that has guided the human race from the dawn of its existence—accumulated + in one brain, even that mighty brain could not invent a third mode of + being without suppressing both Matter and God. Let human philosophies pile + mountain upon mountain of words and of ideas, let religions accumulate + images and beliefs, revelations and mysteries, you must face at last this + terrible dilemma and choose between the two propositions which compose it; + you have no option, and one as much as the other leads human reason to + Doubt. + </p> + <p> + “The problem thus established, what signifies Spirit or Matter? Why + trouble about the march of the worlds in one direction or in another, + since the Being who guides them is shown to be an absurdity? Why continue + to ask whether man is approaching heaven or receding from it, whether + creation is rising towards Spirit or descending towards Matter, if the + questioned universe gives no reply? What signifies theogonies and their + armies, theologies and their dogmas, since whichever side of the problem + is man’s choice, his God exists not? Let us for a moment take up the first + proposition, and suppose God contemporaneous with Matter. Is subjection to + the action or the co-existence of an alien substance consistent with being + God at all? In such a system, would not God become a secondary agent + compelled to organize Matter? If so, who compelled Him? Between His + material gross companion and Himself, who was the arbiter? Who paid the + wages of the six days’ labor imputed to the great Designer? Has any + determining force been found which was neither God nor Matter? God being + regarded as the manufacturer of the machinery of the worlds, is it not as + ridiculous to call Him God as to call the slave who turns the grindstone a + Roman citizen? Besides, another difficulty, as insoluble to this supreme + human reason as it is to God, presents itself. + </p> + <p> + “If we carry the problem higher, shall we not be like the Hindus, who put + the world upon a tortoise, the tortoise on an elephant, and do not know on + what the feet of their elephant may rest? This supreme will, issuing from + the contest between God and Matter, this God, this more than God, can He + have existed throughout eternity without willing what He afterwards + willed,—admitting that Eternity can be divided into two eras. No + matter where God is, what becomes of His intuitive intelligence if He did + not know His ultimate thought? Which, then, is the true Eternity,—the + created Eternity or the uncreated? But if God throughout all time did will + the world such as it is, this new necessity, which harmonizes with the + idea of sovereign intelligence, implies the co-eternity of Matter. Whether + Matter be co-eternal by a divine will necessarily accordant with itself + from the beginning, or whether Matter be co-eternal of its own being, the + power of God, which must be absolute, perishes if His will is + circumscribed; for in that case God would find within Him a determining + force which would control Him. Can He be God if He can no more separate + Himself from His creation in a past eternity than in the coming eternity? + </p> + <p> + “This face of the problem is insoluble in its cause. Let us now inquire + into its effects. If a God compelled to have created the world from all + eternity seems inexplicable, He is quite as unintelligible in perpetual + cohesion with His work. God, constrained to live eternally united to His + creation is held down to His first position as workman. Can you conceive + of a God who shall be neither independent of nor dependent on His work? + Could He destroy that work without challenging Himself? Ask yourself, and + decide! Whether He destroys it some day, or whether He never destroys it, + either way is fatal to the attributes without which God cannot exist. Is + the world an experiment? is it a perishable form to which destruction must + come? If it is, is not God inconsistent and impotent? inconsistent, + because He ought to have seen the result before the attempt,—moreover + why should He delay to destroy that which He is to destroy?—impotent, + for how else could He have created an imperfect man? + </p> + <p> + “If an imperfect creation contradicts the faculties which man attributes + to God we are forced back upon the question, Is creation perfect? The idea + is in harmony with that of a God supremely intelligent who could make no + mistakes; but then, what means the degradation of His work, and its + regeneration? Moreover, a perfect world is, necessarily, indestructible; + its forms would not perish, it could neither advance nor recede, it would + revolve in the everlasting circumference from which it would never issue. + In that case God would be dependent on His work; it would be co-eternal + with Him; and so we fall back into one of the propositions most + antagonistic to God. If the world is imperfect, it can progress; if + perfect, it is stationary. On the other hand, if it be impossible to admit + of a progressive God ignorant through a past eternity of the results of + His creative work, can there be a stationary God? would not that imply the + triumph of Matter? would it not be the greatest of all negations? Under + the first hypothesis God perishes through weakness; under the second + through the Force of his inertia. + </p> + <p> + “Therefore, to all sincere minds the supposition that Matter, in the + conception and execution of the worlds, is contemporaneous with God, is to + deny God. Forced to choose, in order to govern the nations, between the + two alternatives of the problem, whole generations have preferred this + solution of it. Hence the doctrine of the two principles of Magianism, + brought from Asia and adopted in Europe under the form of Satan warring + with the Eternal Father. But this religious formula and the innumerable + aspects of divinity that have sprung from it are surely crimes against the + Majesty Divine. What other term can we apply to the belief which sets up + as a rival to God a personification of Evil, striving eternally against + the Omnipotent Mind without the possibility of ultimate triumph? Your + statics declare that two Forces thus pitted against each other are + reciprocally rendered null. + </p> + <p> + “Do you turn back, therefore, to the other side of the problem, and say + that God pre-existed, original, alone? + </p> + <p> + “I will not go over the preceding arguments (which here return in full + force) as to the severance of Eternity into two parts; nor the questions + raised by the progression or the immobility of the worlds; let us look + only at the difficulties inherent to this second theory. If God + pre-existed alone, the world must have emanated from Him; Matter was + therefore drawn from His essence; consequently Matter in itself is + non-existent; all forms are veils to cover the Divine Spirit. If this be + so, the World is Eternal, and also it must be God. Is not this proposition + even more fatal than the former to the attributes conferred on God by + human reason? How can the actual condition of Matter be explained if we + suppose it to issue from the bosom of God and to be ever united with Him? + Is it possible to believe that the All-Powerful, supremely good in His + essence and in His faculties, has engendered things dissimilar to Himself. + Must He not in all things and through all things be like unto Himself? Can + there be in God certain evil parts of which at some future day he may rid + Himself?—a conjecture less offensive and absurd than terrible, for + the reason that it drags back into Him the two principles which the + preceding theory proved to be inadmissible. God must be ONE; He cannot be + divided without renouncing the most important condition of His existence. + It is therefore impossible to admit of a fraction of God which yet is not + God. This hypothesis seemed so criminal to the Roman Church that she has + made the omnipresence of God in the least particles of the Eucharist an + article of faith. + </p> + <p> + “But how then can we imagine an omnipotent mind which does not triumph? + How associate it unless in triumph with Nature? But Nature is not + triumphant; she seeks, combines, remodels, dies, and is born again; she is + even more convulsed when creating than when all was fusion; Nature + suffers, groans, is ignorant, degenerates, does evil; deceives herself, + annihilates herself, disappears, and begins again. If God is associated + with Nature, how can we explain the inoperative indifference of the divine + principle? Wherefore death? How came it that Evil, king of the earth, was + born of a God supremely good in His essence and in His faculties, who can + produce nothing that is not made in His own image? + </p> + <p> + “But if, from this relentless conclusion which leads at once to absurdity, + we pass to details, what end are we to assign to the world? If all is God, + all is reciprocally cause and effect; all is <i>One</i> as God is <i>One</i>, + and we can perceive neither points of likeness nor points of difference. + Can the real end be a rotation of Matter which subtilizes and disappears? + In whatever sense it were done, would not this mechanical trick of Matter + issuing from God and returning to God seem a sort of child’s play? Why + should God make himself gross with Matter? Under which form is he most + God? Which has the ascendant, Matter or Spirit, when neither can in any + way do wrong? Who can comprehend the Deity engaged in this perpetual + business, by which he divides Himself into two Natures, one of which knows + nothing, while the other knows all? Can you conceive of God amusing + Himself in the form of man, laughing at His own efforts, dying Friday, to + be born again Sunday, and continuing this play from age to age, knowing + the end from all eternity, and telling nothing to Himself, the Creature, + of what He the Creator, does? The God of the preceding hypothesis, a God + so nugatory by the very power of His inertia, seems the more possible of + the two if we are compelled to choose between the impossibilities with + which this God, so dull a jester, fusillades Himself when two sections of + humanity argue face to face, weapons in hand. + </p> + <p> + “However absurd this outcome of the second problem may seem, it was + adopted by half the human race in the sunny lands where smiling + mythologies were created. Those amorous nations were consistent; with them + all was God, even Fear and its dastardy, even crime and its bacchanals. If + we accept pantheism,—the religion of many a great human genius,—who + shall say where the greater reason lies? Is it with the savage, free in + the desert, clothed in his nudity, listening to the sun, talking to the + sea, sublime and always true in his deeds whatever they may be; or shall + we find it in civilized man, who derives his chief enjoyments through + lies; who wrings Nature and all her resources to put a musket on his + shoulder; who employs his intellect to hasten the hour of his death and to + create diseases out of pleasures? When the rake of pestilence and the + ploughshare of war and the demon of desolation have passed over a corner + of the globe and obliterated all things, who will be found to have the + greater reason,—the Nubian savage or the patrician of Thebes? Your + doubts descend the scale, they go from heights to depths, they embrace + all, the end as well as the means. + </p> + <p> + “But if the physical world seems inexplicable, the moral world presents + still stronger arguments against God. Where, then, is progress? If all + things are indeed moving toward perfection why do we die young? why do not + nations perpetuate themselves? The world having issued from God and being + contained in God can it be stationary? Do we live once, or do we live + always? If we live once, hurried onward by the march of the Great-Whole, a + knowledge of which has not been given to us, let us act as we please. If + we are eternal, let things take their course. Is the created being guilty + if he exists at the instant of the transitions? If he sins at the moment + of a great transformation will he be punished for it after being its + victim? What becomes of the Divine goodness if we are not transferred to + the regions of the blest—should any such exist? What becomes of + God’s prescience if He is ignorant of the results of the trials to which + He subjects us? What is this alternative offered to man by all religions,—either + to boil in some eternal cauldron or to walk in white robes, a palm in his + hand and a halo round his head? Can it be that this pagan invention is the + final word of God? Where is the generous soul who does not feel that the + calculating virtue which seeks the eternity of pleasure offered by all + religions to whoever fulfils at stray moments certain fanciful and often + unnatural conditions, is unworthy of man and of God? Is it not a mockery + to give to man impetuous senses and forbid him to satisfy them? Besides, + what mean these ascetic objections if Good and Evil are equally abolished? + Does Evil exist? If substance in all its forms is God, then Evil is God. + The faculty of reasoning as well as the faculty of feeling having been + given to man to use, nothing can be more excusable in him than to seek to + know the meaning of human suffering and the prospects of the future. + </p> + <p> + “If these rigid and rigorous arguments lead to such conclusions confusion + must reign. The world would have no fixedness; nothing would advance, + nothing would pause, all would change, nothing would be destroyed, all + would reappear after self-renovation; for if your mind does not clearly + demonstrate to you an end, it is equally impossible to demonstrate the + destruction of the smallest particle of Matter; Matter can transform but + not annihilate itself. + </p> + <p> + “Though blind force may provide arguments for the atheist, intelligent + force is inexplicable; for if it emanates from God, why should it meet + with obstacles? ought not its triumph to be immediate? Where is God? If + the living cannot perceive Him, can the dead find Him? Crumble, ye + idolatries and ye religions! Fall, feeble keystones of all social arches, + powerless to retard the decay, the death, the oblivion that have overtaken + all nations however firmly founded! Fall, morality and justice! our crimes + are purely relative; they are divine effects whose causes we are not + allowed to know. All is God. Either we are God or God is not!—Child + of a century whose every year has laid upon your brow, old man, the ice of + its unbelief, here, here is the summing up of your lifetime of thought, of + your science and your reflections! Dear Monsieur Becker, you have laid + your head upon the pillow of Doubt, because it is the easiest of + solutions; acting in this respect with the majority of mankind, who say in + their hearts: ‘Let us think no more of these problems, since God has not + vouchsafed to grant us the algebraic demonstrations that could solve them, + while He has given us so many other ways to get from earth to heaven.’ + </p> + <p> + “Tell me, dear pastor, are not these your secret thoughts? Have I evaded + the point of any? nay, rather, have I not clearly stated all? First, in + the dogma of two principles,—an antagonism in which God perishes for + the reason that being All-Powerful He chose to combat. Secondly, in the + absurd pantheism where, all being God, God exists no longer. These two + sources, from which have flowed all the religions for whose triumph Earth + has toiled and prayed, are equally pernicious. Behold in them the + double-bladed axe with which you decapitate the white old man whom you + enthrone among your painted clouds! And now, to me the axe, I wield it!” + </p> + <p> + Monsieur Becker and Wilfrid gazed at the young girl with something like + terror. + </p> + <p> + “To believe,” continued Seraphita, in her Woman’s voice, for the Man had + finished speaking, “to believe is a gift. To believe is to feel. To + believe in God we must feel God. This feeling is a possession slowly + acquired by the human being, just as other astonishing powers which you + admire in great men, warriors, artists, scholars, those who know and those + who act, are acquired. Thought, that budget of the relations which you + perceive among created things, is an intellectual language which can be + learned, is it not? Belief, the budget of celestial truths, is also a + language as superior to thought as thought is to instinct. This language + also can be learned. The Believer answers with a single cry, a single + gesture; Faith puts within his hand a flaming sword with which he pierces + and illumines all. The Seer attains to heaven and descends not. But there + are beings who believe and see, who know and will, who love and pray and + wait. Submissive, yet aspiring to the kingdom of light, they have neither + the aloofness of the Believer nor the silence of the Seer; they listen and + reply. To them the doubt of the twilight ages is not a murderous weapon, + but a divining rod; they accept the contest under every form; they train + their tongues to every language; they are never angered, though they + groan; the acrimony of the aggressor is not in them, but rather the + softness and tenuity of light, which penetrates and warms and illumines. + To their eyes Doubt is neither an impiety, nor a blasphemy, nor a crime, + but a transition through which men return upon their steps in the + Darkness, or advance into the Light. This being so, dear pastor, let us + reason together. + </p> + <p> + “You do not believe in God? Why? God, to your thinking, is + incomprehensible, inexplicable. Agreed. I will not reply that to + comprehend God in His entirety would be to be God; nor will I tell you + that you deny what seems to you inexplicable so as to give me the right to + affirm that which to me is believable. There is, for you, one evident + fact, which lies within yourself. In you, Matter has ended in + intelligence; can you therefore think that human intelligence will end in + darkness, doubt, and nothingness? God may seem to you incomprehensible and + inexplicable, but you must admit Him to be, in all things purely physical, + a splendid and consistent workman. Why should His craft stop short at man, + His most finished creation? + </p> + <p> + “If that question is not convincing, at least it compels meditation. + Happily, although you deny God, you are obliged, in order to establish + your doubts, to admit those double-bladed facts, which kill your arguments + as much as your arguments kill God. We have also admitted that Matter and + Spirit are two creations which do not comprehend each other; that the + spiritual world is formed of infinite relations to which the finite + material world has given rise; that if no one on earth is able to identify + himself by the power of his spirit with the great-whole of terrestrial + creations, still less is he able to rise to the knowledge of the relations + which the spirit perceives between these creations. + </p> + <p> + “We might end the argument here in one word, by denying you the faculty of + comprehending God, just as you deny to the pebbles of the fiord the + faculties of counting and of seeing each other. How do you know that the + stones themselves do not deny the existence of man, though man makes use + of them to build his houses? There is one fact that appals you,—the + Infinite; if you feel it within, why will you not admit its consequences? + Can the finite have a perfect knowledge of the infinite? If you cannot + perceive those relations which, according to your own admission, are + infinite, how can you grasp a sense of the far-off end to which they are + converging? Order, the revelation of which is one of your needs, being + infinite, can your limited reason apprehend it? Do not ask why man does + not comprehend that which he is able to perceive, for he is equally able + to perceive that which he does not comprehend. If I prove to you that your + mind ignores that which lies within its compass, will you grant that it is + impossible for it to conceive whatever is beyond it? This being so, am I + not justified in saying to you: ‘One of the two propositions under which + God is annihilated before the tribunal of our reason must be true, the + other is false. Inasmuch as creation exists, you feel the necessity of an + end, and that end should be good, should it not? Now, if Matter terminates + in man by intelligence, why are you not satisfied to believe that the end + of human intelligence is the Light of the higher spheres, where alone an + intuition of that God who seems so insoluble a problem is obtained? The + species which are beneath you have no conception of the universe, and you + have; why should there not be other species above you more intelligent + than your own? Man ought to be better informed than he is about himself + before he spends his strength in measuring God. Before attacking the stars + that light us, and the higher certainties, ought he not to understand the + certainties which are actually about him?’ + </p> + <p> + “But no! to the negations of doubt I ought rather to reply by negations. + Therefore I ask you whether there is anything here below so evident that I + can put faith in it? I will show you in a moment that you believe firmly + in things which act, and yet are not beings; in things which engender + thought, and yet are not spirits; in living abstractions which the + understanding cannot grasp in any shape, which are in fact nowhere, but + which you perceive everywhere; which have, and can have, on name, but + which, nevertheless, you have named; and which, like the God of flesh upon + whom you figure to yourself, remain inexplicable, incomprehensible, and + absurd. I shall also ask you why, after admitting the existence of these + incomprehensible things, you reserve your doubts for God? + </p> + <p> + “You believe, for instance, in Number,—a base on which you have + built the edifice of sciences which you call ‘exact.’ Without Number, what + would become of mathematics? Well, what mysterious being endowed with the + faculty of living forever could utter, and what language would be compact + to word the Number which contains the infinite numbers whose existence is + revealed to you by thought? Ask it of the loftiest human genius; he might + ponder it for a thousand years and what would be his answer? You know + neither where Number begins, nor where it pauses, nor where it ends. Here + you call it Time, there you call it Space. Nothing exists except by + Number. Without it, all would be one and the same substance; for Number + alone differentiates and qualifies substance. Number is to your Spirit + what it is to Matter, an incomprehensible agent. Will you make a Deity of + it? Is it a being? Is it a breath emanating from God to organize the + material universe where nothing obtains form except by the Divinity which + is an effect of Number? The least as well as the greatest of creations are + distinguishable from each other by quantities, qualities, dimensions, + forces,—all attributes created by Number. The infinitude of Numbers + is a fact proved to your soul, but of which no material proof can be + given. The mathematician himself tells you that the infinite of numbers + exists, but cannot be proved. + </p> + <p> + “God, dear pastor, is a Number endowed with motion,—felt, but not + seen, the Believer will tell you. Like the Unit, He begins Number, with + which He has nothing in common. The existence of Number depends on the + Unit, which without being a number engenders Number. God, dear pastor is a + glorious Unit who has nothing in common with His creations but who, + nevertheless, engenders them. Will you not therefore agree with me that + you are just as ignorant of where Number begins and ends as you are of + where created Eternity begins and ends? + </p> + <p> + “Why, then, if you believe in Number, do you deny God? Is not Creation + interposed between the Infinite of unorganized substances and the Infinite + of the divine spheres, just as the Unit stands between the Cipher of the + fractions you have lately named Decimals, and the Infinite of Numbers + which you call Wholes? Man alone on earth comprehends Number, that first + step of the peristyle which leads to God, and yet his reason stumbles on + it! What! you can neither measure nor grasp the first abstraction which + God delivers to you, and yet you try to subject His ends to your own + tape-line! Suppose that I plunge you into the abyss of Motion, the force + that organizes Number. If I tell you that the Universe is naught else than + Number and Motion, you would see at once that we speak two different + languages. I understand them both; you understand neither. + </p> + <p> + “Suppose I add that Motion and Number are engendered by the Word, namely + the supreme Reason of Seers and Prophets who in the olden time heard the + Breath of God beneath which Saul fell to the earth. That Word, you scoff + at it, you men, although you well know that all visible works, societies, + monuments, deeds, passions, proceed from the breath of your own feeble + word, and that without that word you would resemble the African gorilla, + the nearest approach to man, the Negro. You believe firmly in Number and + in Motion, a force and a result both inexplicable, incomprehensible, to + the existence of which I may apply the logical dilemma which, as we have + seen, prevents you from believing in God. Powerful reasoner that you are, + you do not need that I should prove to you that the Infinite must + everywhere be like unto Itself, and that, necessarily, it is One. God + alone is Infinite, for surely there cannot be two Infinities, two Ones. + If, to make use of human terms, anything demonstrated to you here below + seems to you infinite, be sure that within it you will find some one + aspect of God. But to continue. + </p> + <p> + “You have appropriated to yourself a place in the Infinite of Number; you + have fitted it to your own proportions by creating (if indeed you did + create) arithmetic, the basis on which all things rest, even your + societies. Just as Number—the only thing in which your self-styled + atheists believe—organized physical creations, so arithmetic, in the + employ of Number, organized the moral world. This numeration must be + absolute, like all else that is true in itself; but it is purely relative, + it does not exist absolutely, and no proof can be given of its reality. In + the first place, though Numeration is able to take account of organized + substances, it is powerless in relation to unorganized forces, the ones + being finite and the others infinite. The man who can conceive the + Infinite by his intelligence cannot deal with it in its entirety; if he + could, he would be God. Your Numeration, applying to things finite and not + to the Infinite, is therefore true in relation to the details which you + are able to perceive, and false in relation to the Whole, which you are + unable to perceive. Though Nature is like unto herself in the organizing + force or in her principles which are infinite, she is not so in her finite + effects. Thus you will never find in Nature two objects identically alike. + In the Natural Order two and two never make four; to do so, four exactly + similar units must be had, and you know how impossible it is to find two + leaves alike on the same tree, or two trees alike of the same species. + This axiom of your numeration, false in visible nature, is equally false + in the invisible universe of your abstractions, where the same variance + takes place in your ideas, which are the things of the visible world + extended by means of their relations; so that the variations here are even + more marked than elsewhere. In fact, all being relative to the + temperament, strength, habits, and customs of individuals, who never + resemble each other, the smallest objects take the color of personal + feelings. For instance, man has been able to create units and to give an + equal weight and value to bits of gold. Well, take the ducat of the rich + man and the ducat of the poor man to a money-changer and they are rated + exactly equal, but to the mind of the thinker one is of greater importance + than the other; one represents a month of comfort, the other an ephemeral + caprice. Two and two, therefore, only make four through a false + conception. + </p> + <p> + “Again: fraction does not exist in Nature, where what you call a fragment + is a finished whole. Does it not often happen (have you not many proofs of + it?) that the hundredth part of a substance is stronger than what you term + the whole of it? If fraction does not exist in the Natural Order, still + less shall we find it in the Moral Order, where ideas and sentiments may + be as varied as the species of the Vegetable kingdom and yet be always + whole. The theory of fractions is therefore another signal instance of the + servility of your mind. + </p> + <p> + “Thus Number, with its infinite minuteness and its infinite expansion, is + a power whose weakest side is known to you, but whose real import escapes + your perception. You have built yourself a hut in the Infinite of numbers, + you have adorned it with hieroglyphics scientifically arranged and + painted, and you cry out, ‘All is here!’ + </p> + <p> + “Let us pass from pure, unmingled Number to corporate Number. Your + geometry establishes that a straight line is the shortest way from one + point to another, but your astronomy proves that God has proceeded by + curves. Here, then, we find two truths equally proved by the same science,—one + by the testimony of your senses reinforced by the telescope, the other by + the testimony of your mind; and yet the one contradicts the other. Man, + liable to err, affirms one, and the Maker of the worlds, whom, so far, you + have not detected in error, contradicts it. Who shall decide between + rectalinear and curvilinear geometry? between the theory of the straight + line and that of the curve? If, in His vast work, the mysterious + Artificer, who knows how to reach His ends miraculously fast, never + employs a straight line except to cut off an angle and so obtain a curve, + neither does man himself always rely upon it. The bullet which he aims + direct proceeds by a curve, and when you wish to strike a certain point in + space, you impel your bombshell along its cruel parabola. None of your men + of science have drawn from this fact the simple deduction that the Curve + is the law of the material worlds and the Straight line that of the + Spiritual worlds; one is the theory of finite creations, the other the + theory of the infinite. Man, who alone in the world has a knowledge of the + Infinite, can alone know the straight line; he alone has the sense of + verticality placed in a special organ. A fondness for the creations of the + curve would seem to be in certain men an indication of the impurity of + their nature still conjoined to the material substances which engender us; + and the love of great souls for the straight line seems to show in them an + intuition of heaven. Between these two lines there is a gulf fixed like + that between the finite and the infinite, between matter and spirit, + between man and the idea, between motion and the object moved, between the + creature and God. Ask Love the Divine to grant you his wings and you can + cross that gulf. Beyond it begins the revelation of the Word. + </p> + <p> + “No part of those things which you call material is without its own + meaning; lines are the boundaries of solid parts and imply a force of + action which you suppress in your formulas,—thus rendering those + formulas false in relation to substances taken as a whole. Hence the + constant destruction of the monuments of human labor, which you supply, + unknown to yourselves, with acting properties. Nature has substances; your + science combines only their appearances. At every step Nature gives the + lie to all your laws. Can you find a single one that is not disproved by a + fact? Your Static laws are at the mercy of a thousand accidents; a fluid + can overthrow a solid mountain and prove that the heaviest substances may + be lifted by one that is imponderable. + </p> + <p> + “Your laws on Acoustics and Optics are defied by the sounds which you hear + within yourselves in sleep, and by the light of an electric sun whose rays + often overcome you. You know no more how light makes itself seen within + you, than you know the simple and natural process which changes it on the + throats of tropic birds to rubies, sapphires, emeralds, and opals, or + keeps it gray and brown on the breasts of the same birds under the cloudy + skies of Europe, or whitens it here in the bosom of our polar Nature. You + know not how to decide whether color is a faculty with which all + substances are endowed, or an effect produced by an effluence of light. + You admit the saltness of the sea without being able to prove that the + water is salt at its greatest depth. You recognize the existence of + various substances which span what you think to be the void,—substances + which are not tangible under any of the forms assumed by Matter, although + they put themselves in harmony with Matter in spite of every obstacle. + </p> + <p> + “All this being so, you believe in the results of Chemistry, although that + science still knows no way of gauging the changes produced by the flux and + reflux of substances which come and go across your crystals and your + instruments on the impalpable filaments of heat or light conducted and + projected by the affinities of metal or vitrified flint. You obtain none + but dead substances, from which you have driven the unknown force that + holds in check the decomposition of all things here below, and of which + cohesion, attraction, vibration, and polarity are but phenomena. Life is + the thought of substances; bodies are only the means of fixing life and + holding it to its way. If bodies were beings living of themselves they + would be Cause itself, and could not die. + </p> + <p> + “When a man discovers the results of the general movement, which is shared + by all creations according to their faculty of absorption, you proclaim + him mighty in science, as though genius consisted in explaining a thing + that is! Genius ought to cast its eyes beyond effects. Your men of science + would laugh if you said to them: ‘There exist such positive relations + between two human beings, one of whom may be here, and the other in Java, + that they can at the same instant feel the same sensation, and be + conscious of so doing; they can question each other and reply without + mistake’; and yet there are mineral substances which exhibit sympathies as + far off from each other as those of which I speak. You believe in the + power of the electricity which you find in the magnet and you deny that + which emanates from the soul! According to you, the moon, whose influence + upon the tides you think fixed, has none whatever upon the winds, nor upon + navigation, nor upon men; she moves the sea, but she must not affect the + sick folk; she has undeniable relations with one half of humanity, and + nothing at all to do with the other half. These are your vaunted + certainties! + </p> + <p> + “Let us go a step further. You believe in physics. But your physics begin, + like the Catholic religion, with an <i>act of faith</i>. Do they not + pre-suppose some external force distinct from substance to which it + communicates motion? You see its effects, but what is it? where is it? + what is the essence of its nature, its life? has it any limits?—and + yet, you deny God! + </p> + <p> + “Thus, the majority of your scientific axioms, true to their relation to + man, are false in relation to the Great Whole. Science is One, but you + have divided it. To know the real meaning of the laws of phenomena must we + not know the correlations which exist between phenomena and the law of the + Whole? There is, in all things, an appearance which strikes your senses; + under that appearance stirs a soul; a body is there and a faculty is + there. Where do you teach the study of the relations which bind things to + each other? Nowhere. Consequently you have nothing positive. Your + strongest certainties rest upon the analysis of material forms whose + essence you persistently ignore. + </p> + <p> + “There is a Higher Knowledge of which, too late, some men obtain a + glimpse, though they dare not avow it. Such men comprehend the necessity + of considering substances not merely in their mathematical properties but + also in their entirety, in their occult relations and affinities. The + greatest man among you divined, in his latter days, that all was + reciprocally cause and effect; that the visible worlds were co-ordinated + among themselves and subject to worlds invisible. He groaned at the + recollection of having tried to establish fixed precepts. Counting up his + worlds, like grape-seeds scattered through ether, he had explained their + coherence by the laws of planetary and molecular attraction. You bowed + before that man of science—well! I tell you that he died in despair. + By supposing that the centrifugal and centripetal forces, which he had + invented to explain to himself the universe, were equal, he stopped the + universe; yet he admitted motion in an indeterminate sense; but supposing + those forces unequal, then utter confusion of the planetary system ensued. + His laws therefore were not absolute; some higher problem existed than the + principle on which his false glory rested. The connection of the stars + with one another and the centripetal action of their internal motion did + not deter him from seeking the parent stalk on which his clusters hung. + Alas, poor man! the more he widened space the heavier his burden grew. He + told you how there came to be equilibrium among the parts, but whither + went the whole? His mind contemplated the vast extent, illimitable to + human eyes, filled with those groups of worlds a mere fraction of which is + all our telescopes can reach, but whose immensity is revealed by the + rapidity of light. This sublime contemplation enabled him to perceive + myriads of worlds, planted in space like flowers in a field, which are + born like infants, grow like men, die as the aged die, and live by + assimilating from their atmosphere the substances suitable for their + nourishment,—having a centre and a principal of life, guaranteeing + to each other their circuits, absorbed and absorbing like plants, and + forming a vast Whole endowed with life and possessing a destiny. + </p> + <p> + “At that sight your man of science trembled! He knew that life is produced + by the union of the thing and its principle, that death or inertia or + gravity is produced by a rupture between a thing and the movement which + appertains to it. Then it was that he foresaw the crumbling of the worlds + and their destruction if God should withdraw the Breath of His Word. He + searched the Apocalypse for the traces of that Word. You thought him mad. + Understand him better! He was seeking pardon for the work of his genius. + </p> + <p> + “Wilfrid, you have come here hoping to make me solve equations, or rise + upon a rain-cloud, or plunge into the fiord and reappear a swan. If + science or miracles were the end and object of humanity, Moses would have + bequeathed to you the law of fluxions; Jesus Christ would have lightened + the darkness of your sciences; his apostles would have told you whence + come those vast trains of gas and melted metals, attached to cores which + revolve and solidify as they dart through ether, or violently enter some + system and combine with a star, jostling and displacing it by the shock, + or destroying it by the infiltration of their deadly gases; Saint Paul, + instead of telling you to live in God, would have explained why food is + the secret bond among all creations and the evident tie between all living + Species. In these days the greatest miracle of all would be the discovery + of the squaring of the circle,—a problem which you hold to be + insoluble, but which is doubtless solved in the march of worlds by the + intersection of some mathematical lines whose course is visible to the eye + of spirits who have reached the higher spheres. Believe me, miracles are + in us, not without us. Here natural facts occur which men call + supernatural. God would have been strangely unjust had he confined the + testimony of his power to certain generations and peoples and denied them + to others. The brazen rod belongs to all. Neither Moses, nor Jacob, nor + Zoroaster, nor Paul, nor Pythagoras, nor Swedenborg, not the humblest + Messenger nor the loftiest Prophet of the Most High are greater than you + are capable of being. Only, there come to nations as to men certain + periods when Faith is theirs. + </p> + <p> + “If material sciences be the end and object of human effort, tell me, both + of you, would societies,—those great centres where men congregate,—would + they perpetually be dispersed? If civilization were the object of our + Species, would intelligence perish? would it continue purely individual? + The grandeur of all nations that were truly great was based on exceptions; + when the exception ceased their power died. If such were the End-all, + Prophets, Seers, and Messengers of God would have lent their hand to + Science rather than have given it to Belief. Surely they would have + quickened your brains sooner than have touched your hearts! But no; one + and all they came to lead the nations back to God; they proclaimed the + sacred Path in simple words that showed the way to heaven; all were + wrapped in love and faith, all were inspired by that <i>word</i> which + hovers above the inhabitants of earth, enfolding them, inspiriting them, + uplifting them; none were prompted by any human interest. Your great + geniuses, your poets, your kings, your learned men are engulfed with their + cities; while the names of these good pastors of humanity, ever blessed, + have survived all cataclysms. + </p> + <p> + “Alas! we cannot understand each other on any point. We are separated by + an abyss. You are on the side of darkness, while I—I live in the + light, the true Light! Is this the word that you ask of me? I say it with + joy; it may change you. Know this: there are sciences of matter and + sciences of spirit. There, where you see substances, I see forces that + stretch one toward another with generating power. To me, the character of + bodies is the indication of their principles and the sign of their + properties. Those principles beget affinities which escape your knowledge, + and which are linked to centres. The different species among which life is + distributed are unfailing streams which correspond unfailingly among + themselves. Each has his own vocation. Man is effect and cause. He is fed, + but he feeds in turn. When you call God a Creator, you dwarf Him. He did + not create, as you think He did, plants or animals or stars. Could He + proceed by a variety of means? Must He not act by unity of composition? + Moreover, He gave forth principles to be developed, according to His + universal law, at the will of the surroundings in which they were placed. + Hence a single substance and motion, a single plant, a single animal, but + correlations everywhere. In fact, all affinities are linked together by + contiguous similitudes; the life of the worlds is drawn toward the centres + by famished aspiration, as you are drawn by hunger to seek food. + </p> + <p> + “To give you an example of affinities linked to similitudes (a secondary + law on which the creations of your thought are based), music, that + celestial art, is the working out of this principle; for is it not a + complement of sounds harmonized by number? Is not sound a modification of + air, compressed, dilated, echoed? You know the composition of air,—oxygen, + nitrogen, and carbon. As you cannot obtain sound from the void, it is + plain that music and the human voice are the result of organized chemical + substances, which put themselves in unison with the same substances + prepared within you by your thought, co-ordinated by means of light, the + great nourisher of your globe. Have you ever meditated on the masses of + nitre deposited by the snow, have you ever observed a thunderstorm and + seen the plants breathing in from the air about them the metal it + contains, without concluding that the sun has fused and distributed the + subtle essence which nourishes all things here below? Swedenborg has said, + ‘The earth is a man.’ + </p> + <p> + “Your Science, which makes you great in your own eyes, is paltry indeed + beside the light which bathes a Seer. Cease, cease to question me; our + languages are different. For a moment I have used yours to cast, if it be + possible, a ray of faith into your soul; to give you, as it were, the hem + of my garment and draw you up into the regions of Prayer. Can God abase + Himself to you? Is it not for you to rise to Him? If human reason finds + the ladder of its own strength too weak to bring God down to it, is it not + evident that you must find some other path to reach Him? That Path is in + ourselves. The Seer and the Believer find eyes within their souls more + piercing far than eyes that probe the things of earth,—they see the + Dawn. Hear this truth: Your science, let it be never so exact, your + meditations, however bold, your noblest lights are Clouds. Above, above is + the Sanctuary whence the true Light flows.” + </p> + <p> + She sat down and remained silent; her calm face bore no sign of the + agitation which orators betray after their least fervid improvisations. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid bent toward Monsieur Becker and said in a low voice, “Who taught + her that?” + </p> + <p> + “I do not know,” he answered. + </p> + <p> + “He was gentler on the Falberg,” Minna whispered to herself. + </p> + <p> + Seraphita passed her hand across her eyes and then she said, smiling:— + </p> + <p> + “You are very thoughtful to-night, gentlemen. You treat Minna and me as + though we were men to whom you must talk politics or commerce; whereas we + are young girls, and you ought to tell us tales while you drink your tea. + That is what we do, Monsieur Wilfrid, in our long Norwegian evenings. + Come, dear pastor, tell me some Saga that I have not heard,—that of + Frithiof, the chronicle that you believe and have so often promised me. + Tell us the story of the peasant lad who owned the ship that talked and + had a soul. Come! I dream of the frigate Ellida, the fairy with the sails + young girls should navigate!” + </p> + <p> + “Since we have returned to the regions of Jarvis,” said Wilfrid, whose + eyes were fastened on Seraphita as those of a robber, lurking in the + darkness, fasten on the spot where he knows the jewels lie, “tell me why + you do not marry?” + </p> + <p> + “You are all born widows and widowers,” she replied; “but my marriage was + arranged at my birth. I am betrothed.” + </p> + <p> + “To whom?” they cried. + </p> + <p> + “Ask not my secret,” she said; “I will promise, if our father permits it, + to invite you to these mysterious nuptials.” + </p> + <p> + “Will they be soon?” + </p> + <p> + “I think so.” + </p> + <p> + A long silence followed these words. + </p> + <p> + “The spring has come!” said Seraphita, suddenly. “The noise of the waters + and the breaking of the ice begins. Come, let us welcome the first spring + of the new century.” + </p> + <p> + She rose, followed by Wilfrid, and together they went to a window which + David had opened. After the long silence of winter, the waters stirred + beneath the ice and resounded through the fiord like music,—for + there are sounds which space refines, so that they reach the ear in waves + of light and freshness. + </p> + <p> + “Wilfrid, cease to nourish evil thoughts whose triumph would be hard to + bear. Your desires are easily read in the fire of your eyes. Be kind; take + one step forward in well-doing. Advance beyond the love of man and + sacrifice yourself completely to the happiness of her you love. Obey me; I + will lead you in a path where you shall obtain the distinctions which you + crave, and where Love is infinite indeed.” + </p> + <p> + She left him thoughtful. + </p> + <p> + “That soft creature!” he said within himself; “is she indeed the + prophetess whose eyes have just flashed lightnings, whose voice has rung + through worlds, whose hand has wielded the axe of doubt against our + sciences? Have we been dreaming? Am I awake?” + </p> + <p> + “Minna,” said Seraphita, returning to the young girl, “the eagle swoops + where the carrion lies, but the dove seeks the mountain spring beneath the + peaceful greenery of the glades. The eagle soars to heaven, the dove + descends from it. Cease to venture into regions where thou canst find no + spring of waters, no umbrageous shade. If on the Falberg thou couldst not + gaze into the abyss and live, keep all thy strength for him who will love + thee. Go, poor girl; thou knowest, I am betrothed.” + </p> + <p> + Minna rose and followed Seraphita to the window where Wilfrid stood. All + three listened to the Sieg bounding out the rush of the upper waters, + which brought down trees uprooted by the ice; the fiord had regained its + voice; all illusions were dispelled! They rejoiced in Nature as she burst + her bonds and seemed to answer with sublime accord to the Spirit whose + breath had wakened her. + </p> + <p> + When the three guests of this mysterious being left the house, they were + filled with the vague sensation which is neither sleep, nor torpor, nor + astonishment, but partakes of the nature of each,—a state that is + neither dusk nor dawn, but which creates a thirst for light. All three + were thinking. + </p> + <p> + “I begin to believe that she is indeed a Spirit hidden in human form,” + said Monsieur Becker. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid, re-entering his own apartments, calm and convinced, was unable to + struggle against that influence so divinely majestic. + </p> + <p> + Minna said in her heart, “Why will he not let me love him!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0005" id="link2HCH0005"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER V. FAREWELL + </h2> + <p> + There is in man an almost hopeless phenomenon for thoughtful minds who + seek a meaning in the march of civilization, and who endeavor to give laws + of progression to the movement of intelligence. However portentous a fact + may be, or even supernatural,—if such facts exist,—however + solemnly a miracle may be done in sight of all, the lightning of that + fact, the thunderbolt of that miracle is quickly swallowed up in the ocean + of life, whose surface, scarcely stirred by the brief convulsion, returns + to the level of its habitual flow. + </p> + <p> + A Voice is heard from the jaws of an Animal; a Hand writes on the wall + before a feasting Court; an Eye gleams in the slumber of a king, and a + Prophet explains the dream; Death, evoked, rises on the confines of the + luminous sphere were faculties revive; Spirit annihilates Matter at the + foot of that mystic ladder of the Seven Spiritual Worlds, one resting upon + another in space and revealing themselves in shining waves that break in + light upon the steps of the celestial Tabernacle. But however solemn the + inward Revelation, however clear the visible outward Sign, be sure that on + the morrow Balaam doubts both himself and his ass, Belshazzar and Pharoah + call Moses and Daniel to qualify the Word. The Spirit, descending, bears + man above this earth, opens the seas and lets him see their depths, shows + him lost species, wakens dry bones whose dust is the soil of valleys; the + Apostle writes the Apocalypse, and twenty centuries later human science + ratifies his words and turns his visions into maxims. And what comes of it + all? Why this,—that the peoples live as they have ever lived, as + they lived in the first Olympiad, as they lived on the morrow of Creation, + and on the eve of the great cataclysm. The waves of Doubt have covered all + things. The same floods surge with the same measured motion on the human + granite which serves as a boundary to the ocean of intelligence. When man + has inquired of himself whether he has seen that which he has seen, + whether he has heard the words that entered his ears, whether the facts + were facts and the idea is indeed an idea, then he resumes his wonted + bearing, thinks of his worldly interests, obeys some envoy of death and of + oblivion whose dusky mantle covers like a pall an ancient Humanity of + which the moderns retain no memory. Man never pauses; he goes his round, + he vegetates until the appointed day when his Axe falls. If this wave + force, this pressure of bitter waters prevents all progress, no doubt it + also warns of death. Spirits prepared by faith among the higher souls of + earth can alone perceive the mystic ladder of Jacob. + </p> + <p> + After listening to Seraphita’s answer in which (being earnestly + questioned) she unrolled before their eyes a Divine Perspective,—as + an organ fills a church with sonorous sound and reveals a musical + universe, its solemn tones rising to the loftiest arches and playing, like + light, upon their foliated capitals,—Wilfrid returned to his own + room, awed by the sight of a world in ruins, and on those ruins the + brilliance of mysterious lights poured forth in torrents by the hand of a + young girl. On the morrow he still thought of these things, but his awe + was gone; he felt he was neither destroyed nor changed; his passions, his + ideas awoke in full force, fresh and vigorous. He went to breakfast with + Monsieur Becker and found the old man absorbed in the “Treatise on + Incantations,” which he had searched since early morning to convince his + guest that there was nothing unprecedented in all that they had seen and + heard at the Swedish castle. With the childlike trustfulness of a true + scholar he had folded down the pages in which Jean Wier related authentic + facts which proved the possibility of the events that had happened the + night before,—for to learned men an idea is a event, just as the + greatest events often present no idea at all to them. By the time they had + swallowed their fifth cup of tea, these philosophers had come to think the + mysterious scene of the preceding evening wholly natural. The celestial + truths to which they had listened were arguments susceptible of + examination; Seraphita was a girl, more or less eloquent; allowance must + be made for the charms of her voice, her seductive beauty, her fascinating + motions, in short, for all those oratorical arts by which an actor puts a + world of sentiment and thought into phrases which are often commonplace. + </p> + <p> + “Bah!” said the worthy pastor, making a philosophical grimace as he spread + a layer of salt butter on his slice of bread, “the final word of all these + fine enigmas is six feet under ground.” + </p> + <p> + “But,” said Wilfrid, sugaring his tea, “I cannot image how a young girl of + seventeen can know so much; what she said was certainly a compact + argument.” + </p> + <p> + “Read the account of that Italian woman,” said Monsieur Becker, “who at + the age of twelve spoke forty-two languages, ancient and modern; also the + history of that monk who could guess thought by smell. I can give you a + thousand such cases from Jean Wier and other writers.” + </p> + <p> + “I admit all that, dear pastor; but to my thinking, Seraphita would make a + perfect wife.” + </p> + <p> + “She is all mind,” said Monsieur Becker, dubiously. + </p> + <p> + Several days went by, during which the snow in the valleys melted + gradually away; the green of the forests and of the grass began to show; + Norwegian Nature made ready her wedding garments for her brief bridal of a + day. During this period, when the softened air invited every one to leave + the house, Seraphita remained at home in solitude. When at last she + admitted Minna the latter saw at once the ravages of inward fever; + Seraphita’s voice was hollow, her skin pallid; hitherto a poet might have + compared her lustre to that of diamonds,—now it was that of a topaz. + </p> + <p> + “Have you seen her?” asked Wilfrid, who had wandered around the Swedish + dwelling waiting for Minna’s return. + </p> + <p> + “Yes,” answered the young girl, weeping; “We must lose him!” + </p> + <p> + “Mademoiselle,” cried Wilfrid, endeavoring to repress the loud tones of + his angry voice, “do not jest with me. You can love Seraphita only as one + young girl can love another, and not with the love which she inspires in + me. You do not know your danger if my jealousy were really aroused. Why + can I not go to her? Is it you who stand in my way?” + </p> + <p> + “I do not know by what right you probe my heart,” said Minna, calm in + appearance, but inwardly terrified. “Yes, I love him,” she said, + recovering the courage of her convictions, that she might, for once, + confess the religion of her heart. “But my jealousy, natural as it is in + love, fears no one here below. Alas! I am jealous of a secret feeling that + absorbs him. Between him and me there is a great gulf fixed which I cannot + cross. Would that I knew who loves him best, the stars or I! which of us + would sacrifice our being most eagerly for his happiness! Why should I not + be free to avow my love? In the presence of death we may declare our + feelings,—and Seraphitus is about to die.” + </p> + <p> + “Minna, you are mistaken; the siren I so love and long for, she, whom I + have seen, feeble and languid, on her couch of furs, is not a young man.” + </p> + <p> + “Monsieur,” answered Minna, distressfully, “the being whose powerful hand + guided me on the Falberg, who led me to the saeter sheltered beneath the + Ice-Cap, there—” she said, pointing to the peak, “is not a feeble + girl. Ah, had you but heard him prophesying! His poem was the music of + thought. A young girl never uttered those solemn tones of a voice which + stirred my soul.” + </p> + <p> + “What certainty have you?” said Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “None but that of the heart,” answered Minna. + </p> + <p> + “And I,” cried Wilfrid, casting on his companion the terrible glance of + the earthly desire that kills, “I, too, know how powerful is her empire + over me, and I will undeceive you.” + </p> + <p> + At this moment, while the words were rushing from Wilfrid’s lips as + rapidly as the thoughts surged in his brain, they saw Seraphita coming + towards them from the house, followed by David. The apparition calmed the + man’s excitement. + </p> + <p> + “Look,” he said, “could any but a woman move with that grace and langor?” + </p> + <p> + “He suffers; he comes forth for the last time,” said Minna. + </p> + <p> + David went back at a sign from his mistress, who advanced towards Wilfrid + and Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Let us go to the falls of the Sieg,” she said, expressing one of those + desires which suddenly possess the sick and which the well hasten to obey. + </p> + <p> + A thin white mist covered the valleys around the fiord and the sides of + the mountains, whose icy summits, sparkling like stars, pierced the vapor + and gave it the appearance of a moving milky way. The sun was visible + through the haze like a globe of red fire. Though winter still lingered, + puffs of warm air laden with the scent of the birch-trees, already adorned + with their rosy efflorescence, and of the larches, whose silken tassels + were beginning to appear,—breezes tempered by the incense and the + sighs of earth,—gave token of the glorious Northern spring, the + rapid, fleeting joy of that most melancholy of Natures. The wind was + beginning to lift the veil of mist which half-obscured the gulf. The birds + sang. The bark of the trees where the sun had not yet dried the clinging + hoar-frost shone gayly to the eye in its fantastic wreathings which + trickled away in murmuring rivulets as the warmth reached them. The three + friends walked in silence along the shore. Wilfrid and Minna alone noticed + the magic transformation that was taking place in the monotonous picture + of the winter landscape. Their companion walked in thought, as though a + voice were sounding to her ears in this concert of Nature. + </p> + <p> + Presently they reached the ledge of rocks through which the Sieg had + forced its way, after escaping from the long avenue cut by its waters in + an undulating line through the forest,—a fluvial pathway flanked by + aged firs and roofed with strong-ribbed arches like those of a cathedral. + Looking back from that vantage-ground, the whole extent of the fiord could + be seen at a glance, with the open sea sparkling on the horizon beyond it + like a burnished blade. + </p> + <p> + At this moment the mist, rolling away, left the sky blue and clear. Among + the valleys and around the trees flitted the shining fragments,—a + diamond dust swept by the freshening breeze. The torrent rolled on toward + them; along its length a vapor rose, tinted by the sun with every color of + his light; the decomposing rays flashing prismatic fires along the + many-tinted scarf of waters. The rugged ledge on which they stood was + carpeted by several kinds of lichen, forming a noble mat variegated by + moisture and lustrous like the sheen of a silken fabric. Shrubs, already + in bloom, crowned the rocks with garlands. Their waving foliage, eager for + the freshness of the water, drooped its tresses above the stream; the + larches shook their light fringes and played with the pines, stiff and + motionless as aged men. This luxuriant beauty was foiled by the solemn + colonnades of the forest-trees, rising in terraces upon the mountains, and + by the calm sheet of the fiord, lying below, where the torrent buried its + fury and was still. Beyond, the sea hemmed in this page of Nature, written + by the greatest of poets, Chance; to whom the wild luxuriance of creation + when apparently abandoned to itself is owing. + </p> + <p> + The village of Jarvis was a lost point in the landscape, in this immensity + of Nature, sublime at this moment like all things else of ephemeral life + which present a fleeting image of perfection; for, by a law fatal to no + eyes but our own, creations which appear complete—the love of our + heart and the desire of our eyes—have but one spring-tide here + below. Standing on this breast-work of rock these three persons might well + suppose themselves alone in the universe. + </p> + <p> + “What beauty!” cried Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “Nature sings hymns,” said Seraphita. “Is not her music exquisite? Tell + me, Wilfrid, could any of the women you once knew create such a glorious + retreat for herself as this? I am conscious here of a feeling seldom + inspired by the sight of cities, a longing to lie down amid this + quickening verdure. Here, with eyes to heaven and an open heart, lost in + the bosom of immensity, I could hear the sighings of the flower, scarce + budded, which longs for wings, or the cry of the eider grieving that it + can only fly, and remember the desires of man who, issuing from all, is + none the less ever longing. But that, Wilfrid, is only a woman’s thought. + You find seductive fancies in the wreathing mists, the light embroidered + veils which Nature dons like a coy maiden, in this atmosphere where she + perfumes for her spousals the greenery of her tresses. You seek the + naiad’s form amid the gauzy vapors, and to your thinking my ears should + listen only to the virile voice of the Torrent.” + </p> + <p> + “But Love is there, like the bee in the calyx of the flower,” replied + Wilfrid, perceiving for the first time a trace of earthly sentiment in her + words, and fancying the moment favorable for an expression of his + passionate tenderness. + </p> + <p> + “Always there?” said Seraphita, smiling. Minna had left them for a moment + to gather the blue saxifrages growing on a rock above. + </p> + <p> + “Always,” repeated Wilfrid. “Hear me,” he said, with a masterful glance + which was foiled as by a diamond breast-plate. “You know not what I am, + nor what I can be, nor what I will. Do not reject my last entreaty. Be + mine for the good of that world whose happiness you bear upon your heart. + Be mine that my conscience may be pure; that a voice divine may sound in + my ears and infuse Good into the great enterprise I have undertaken + prompted by my hatred to the nations, but which I swear to accomplish for + their benefit if you will walk beside me. What higher mission can you ask + for love? what nobler part can woman aspire to? I came to Norway to + meditate a grand design.” + </p> + <p> + “And you will sacrifice its grandeur,” she said, “to an innocent girl who + loves you, and who will lead you in the paths of peace.” + </p> + <p> + “What matters sacrifice,” he cried, “if I have you? Hear my secret. I have + gone from end to end of the North,—that great smithy from whose + anvils new races have spread over the earth, like human tides appointed to + refresh the wornout civilizations. I wished to begin my work at some + Northern point, to win the empire which force and intellect must ever give + over a primitive people; to form that people for battle, to drive them to + wars which should ravage Europe like a conflagration, crying liberty to + some, pillage to others, glory here, pleasure there!—I, myself, + remaining an image of Destiny, cruel, implacable, advancing like the + whirlwind, which sucks from the atmosphere the particles that make the + thunderbolt, and falls like a devouring scourge upon the nations. Europe + is at an epoch when she awaits the new Messiah who shall destroy society + and remake it. She can no longer believe except in him who crushes her + under foot. The day is at hand when poets and historians will justify me, + exalt me, and borrow my ideas, mine! And all the while my triumph will be + a jest, written in blood, the jest of my vengeance! But not here, + Seraphita; what I see in the North disgusts me. Hers is a mere blind + force; I thirst for the Indies! I would rather fight a selfish, cowardly, + mercantile government. Besides, it is easier to stir the imagination of + the peoples at the feet of the Caucasus than to argue with the intellect + of the icy lands which here surround me. Therefore am I tempted to cross + the Russian steps and pour my triumphant human tide through Asia to the + Ganges, and overthrow the British rule. Seven men have done this thing + before me in other epochs of the world. I will emulate them. I will spread + Art like the Saracens, hurled by Mohammed upon Europe. Mine shall be no + paltry sovereignty like those that govern to-day the ancient provinces of + the Roman empire, disputing with their subjects about a customs right! No, + nothing can bar my way! Like Genghis Khan, my feet shall tread a third of + the globe, my hand shall grasp the throat of Asia like Aurung-Zeb. Be my + companion! Let me seat thee, beautiful and noble being, on a throne! I do + not doubt success, but live within my heart and I am sure of it.” + </p> + <p> + “I have already reigned,” said Seraphita, coldly. + </p> + <p> + The words fell as the axe of a skilful woodman falls at the root of a + young tree and brings it down at a single blow. Men alone can comprehend + the rage that a woman excites in the soul of a man when, after showing her + his strength, his power, his wisdom, his superiority, the capricious + creature bends her head and says, “All that is nothing”; when, unmoved, + she smiles and says, “Such things are known to me,” as though his power + were nought. + </p> + <p> + “What!” cried Wilfrid, in despair, “can the riches of art, the riches of + worlds, the splendors of a court—” + </p> + <p> + She stopped him by a single inflexion of her lips, and said, “Beings more + powerful than you have offered me far more.” + </p> + <p> + “Thou hast no soul,” he cried,—“no soul, if thou art not persuaded + by the thought of comforting a great man, who is willing now to sacrifice + all things to live beside thee in a little house on the shores of a lake.” + </p> + <p> + “But,” she said, “I am loved with a boundless love.” + </p> + <p> + “By whom?” cried Wilfrid, approaching Seraphita with a frenzied movement, + as if to fling her into the foaming basin of the Sieg. + </p> + <p> + She looked at him and slowly extended her arm, pointing to Minna, who now + sprang towards her, fair and glowing and lovely as the flowers she held in + her hand. + </p> + <p> + “Child!” said Seraphitus, advancing to meet her. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid remained where she left him, motionless as the rock on which he + stood, lost in thought, longing to let himself go into the torrent of the + Sieg, like the fallen trees which hurried past his eyes and disappeared in + the bosom of the gulf. + </p> + <p> + “I gathered them for you,” said Minna, offering the bunch of saxifrages to + the being she adored. “One of them, see, this one,” she added, selecting a + flower, “is like that you found on the Falberg.” + </p> + <p> + Seraphitus looked alternately at the flower and at Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Why question me? Dost thou doubt me?” + </p> + <p> + “No,” said the young girl, “my trust in you is infinite. You are more + beautiful to look upon than this glorious nature, but your mind surpasses + in intellect that of all humanity. When I have been with you I seem to + have prayed to God. I long—” + </p> + <p> + “For what?” said Seraphitus, with a glance that revealed to the young girl + the vast distance which separated them. + </p> + <p> + “To suffer in your stead.” + </p> + <p> + “Ah, dangerous being!” cried Seraphitus in his heart. “Is it wrong, oh my + God! to desire to offer her to Thee? Dost thou remember, Minna, what I + said to thee up there?” he added, pointing to the summit of the Ice-Cap. + </p> + <p> + “He is terrible again,” thought Minna, trembling with fear. + </p> + <p> + The voice of the Sieg accompanied the thoughts of the three beings united + on this platform of projecting rock, but separated in soul by the abysses + of the Spiritual World. + </p> + <p> + “Seraphitus! teach me,” said Minna in a silvery voice, soft as the motion + of a sensitive plant, “teach me how to cease to love you. Who could fail + to admire you; love is an admiration that never wearies.” + </p> + <p> + “Poor child!” said Seraphitus, turning pale; “there is but one whom thou + canst love in that way.” + </p> + <p> + “Who?” asked Minna. + </p> + <p> + “Thou shalt know hereafter,” he said, in the feeble voice of a man who + lies down to die. + </p> + <p> + “Help, help! he is dying!” cried Minna. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid ran towards them. Seeing Seraphita as she lay on a fragment of + gneiss, where time had cast its velvet mantle of lustrous lichen and tawny + mosses now burnished in the sunlight, he whispered softly, “How beautiful + she is!” + </p> + <p> + “One other look! the last that I shall ever cast upon this nature in + travail,” said Seraphitus, rallying her strength and rising to her feet. + </p> + <p> + She advanced to the edge of the rocky platform, whence her eyes took in + the scenery of that grand and glorious landscape, so verdant, flowery, and + animated, yet so lately buried in its winding-sheet of snow. + </p> + <p> + “Farewell,” she said, “farewell, home of Earth, warmed by the fires of + Love; where all things press with ardent force from the centre to the + extremities; where the extremities are gathered up, like a woman’s hair, + to weave the mysterious braid which binds us in that invisible ether to + the Thought Divine! + </p> + <p> + “Behold the man bending above that furrow moistened with his tears, who + lifts his head for an instant to question Heaven; behold the woman + gathering her children that she may feed them with her milk; see him who + lashes the ropes in the height of the gale; see her who sits in the hollow + of the rocks, awaiting the father! Behold all they who stretch their hands + in want after a lifetime spent in thankless toil. To all peace and + courage, and to all farewell! + </p> + <p> + “Hear you the cry of the soldier, dying nameless and unknown? the wail of + the man deceived who weeps in the desert? To them peace and courage; to + all farewell! + </p> + <p> + “Farewell, you who die for the kings of the earth! Farewell, ye people + without a country and ye countries without a people, each, with a mutual + want. Above all, farewell to Thee who knew not where to lay Thy head, + Exile divine! Farewell, mothers beside your dying sons! Farewell, ye + Little Ones, ye Feeble, ye Suffering, you whose sorrows I have so often + borne! Farewell, all ye who have descended into the sphere of Instinct + that you may suffer there for others! + </p> + <p> + “Farewell, ye mariners who seek the Orient through the thick darkness of + your abstractions, vast as principles! Farewell, martyrs of thought, led + by thought into the presence of the True Light. Farewell, regions of study + where mine ears can hear the plaint of genius neglected and insulted, the + sigh of the patient scholar to whom enlightenment comes too late! + </p> + <p> + “I see the angelic choir, the wafting of perfumes, the incense of the + heart of those who go their way consoling, praying, imparting celestial + balm and living light to suffering souls! Courage, ye choir of Love! you + to whom the peoples cry, ‘Comfort us, comfort us, defend us!’ To you + courage! and farewell! + </p> + <p> + “Farewell, ye granite rocks that shall bloom a flower; farewell, flower + that becomes a dove; farewell, dove that shalt be woman; farewell, woman, + who art Suffering, man, who art Belief! Farewell, you who shall be all + love, all prayer!” + </p> + <p> + Broken with fatigue, this inexplicable being leaned for the first time on + Wilfrid and on Minna to be taken home. Wilfrid and Minna felt the shock of + a mysterious contact in and through the being who thus connected them. + They had scarcely advanced a few steps when David met them, weeping. “She + will die,” he said, “why have you brought her hither?” + </p> + <p> + The old man raised her in his arms with the vigor of youth and bore her to + the gate of the Swedish castle like an eagle bearing a white lamb to his + mountain eyrie. + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0006" id="link2HCH0006"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VI. THE PATH TO HEAVEN + </h2> + <p> + The day succeeding that on which Seraphita foresaw her death and bade + farewell to Earth, as a prisoner looks round his dungeon before leaving it + forever, she suffered pains which obliged her to remain in the helpless + immobility of those whose pangs are great. Wilfrid and Minna went to see + her, and found her lying on her couch of furs. Still veiled in flesh, her + soul shone through that veil, which grew more and more transparent day by + day. The progress of the Spirit, piercing the last obstacle between itself + and the Infinite, was called an illness, the hour of Life went by the name + of death. David wept as he watched her sufferings; unreasonable as a + child, he would not listen to his mistress’s consolations. Monsieur Becker + wished Seraphita to try remedies; but all were useless. + </p> + <p> + One morning she sent for the two beings whom she loved, telling them that + this would be the last of her bad days. Wilfrid and Minna came in terror, + knowing well that they were about to lose her. Seraphita smiled to them as + one departing to a better world; her head drooped like a flower heavy with + dew, which opens its calyx for the last time to waft its fragrance on the + breeze. She looked at these friends with a sadness that was for them, not + for herself; she thought no longer of herself, and they felt this with a + grief mingled with gratitude which they were unable to express. Wilfrid + stood silent and motionless, lost in thoughts excited by events whose vast + bearings enabled him to conceive of some illimitable immensity. + </p> + <p> + Emboldened by the weakness of the being lately so powerful, or perhaps by + the fear of losing him forever, Minna bent down over the couch and said, + “Seraphitus, let me follow thee!” + </p> + <p> + “Can I forbid thee?” + </p> + <p> + “Why will thou not love me enough to stay with me?” + </p> + <p> + “I can love nothing here.” + </p> + <p> + “What canst thou love?” + </p> + <p> + “Heaven.” + </p> + <p> + “Is it worthy of heaven to despise the creatures of God?” + </p> + <p> + “Minna, can we love two beings at once? Would our beloved be indeed our + beloved if he did not fill our hearts? Must he not be the first, the last, + the only one? She who is all love, must she not leave the world for her + beloved? Human ties are but a memory, she has no ties except to him! Her + soul is hers no longer; it is his. If she keeps within her soul anything + that is not his, does she love? No, she loves not. To love feebly, is that + to love at all? The voice of her beloved makes her joyful; it flows + through her veins in a crimson tide more glowing far than blood; his + glance is the light that penetrates her; her being melts into his being. + He is warm to her soul. He is the light that lightens; near to him there + is neither cold nor darkness. He is never absent, he is always with us; we + think in him, to him, by him! Minna, that is how I love him.” + </p> + <p> + “Love whom?” said Minna, tortured with sudden jealousy. + </p> + <p> + “God,” replied Seraphitus, his voice glowing in their souls like fires of + liberty from peak to peak upon the mountains,—“God, who does not + betray us! God, who will never abandon us! who crowns our wishes; who + satisfies His creatures with joy—joy unalloyed and infinite! God, + who never wearies but ever smiles! God, who pours into the soul fresh + treasures day by day; who purifies and leaves no bitterness; who is all + harmony, all flame! God, who has placed Himself within our hearts to + blossom there; who hearkens to our prayers; who does not stand aloof when + we are His, but gives His presence absolutely! He who revives us, + magnifies us, and multiplies us in Himself; <i>God</i>! Minna, I love thee + because thou mayst be His! I love thee because if thou come to Him thou + wilt be mine.” + </p> + <p> + “Lead me to Him,” cried Minna, kneeling down; “take me by the hand; I will + not leave thee!” + </p> + <p> + “Lead us, Seraphita!” cried Wilfrid, coming to Minna’s side with an + impetuous movement. “Yes, thou hast given me a thirst for Light, a thirst + for the Word. I am parched with the Love thou hast put into my heart; I + desire to keep thy soul in mine; thy will is mine; I will do whatsoever + thou biddest me. Since I cannot obtain thee, I will keep thy will and all + the thoughts that thou hast given me. If I may not unite myself with thee + except by the power of my spirit, I will cling to thee in soul as the + flame to what it laps. Speak!” + </p> + <p> + “Angel!” exclaimed the mysterious being, enfolding them both in one + glance, as it were with an azure mantle, “Heaven shall by thine heritage!” + </p> + <p> + Silence fell among them after these words, which sounded in the souls of + the man and of the woman like the first notes of some celestial harmony. + </p> + <p> + “If you would teach your feet to tread the Path to heaven, know that the + way is hard at first,” said the weary sufferer; “God wills that you shall + seek Him for Himself. In that sense, He is jealous; He demands your whole + self. But when you have given Him yourself, never, never will He abandon + you. I leave with you the keys of the kingdom of His Light, where evermore + you shall dwell in the bosom of the Father, in the heart of the + Bridegroom. No sentinels guard the approaches, you may enter where you + will; His palaces, His treasures, His sceptre, all are free. ‘Take them!’ + He says. But—you must <i>will</i> to go there. Like one preparing + for a journey, a man must leave his home, renounce his projects, bid + farewell to friends, to father, mother, sister, even to the helpless + brother who cries after him,—yes, farewell to them eternally; you + will no more return than did the martyrs on their way to the stake. You + must strip yourself of every sentiment, of everything to which man clings. + Unless you do this you are but half-hearted in your enterprise. + </p> + <p> + “Do for God what you do for your ambitious projects, what you do in + consecrating yourself to Art, what you have done when you loved a human + creature or sought some secret of human science. Is not God the whole of + science, the all of love, the source of poetry? Surely His riches are + worthy of being coveted! His treasure is inexhaustible, His poem infinite, + His love immutable, His science sure and darkened by no mysteries. Be + anxious for nothing, He will give you all. Yes, in His heart are treasures + with which the petty joys you lose on earth are not to be compared. What I + tell you is true; you shall possess His power; you may use it as you would + use the gifts of lover or mistress. Alas! men doubt, they lack faith, and + will, and persistence. If some set their feet in the path, they look + behind them and presently turn back. Few decide between the two extremes,—to + go or stay, heaven or the mire. All hesitate. Weakness leads astray, + passion allures into dangerous paths, vice becomes habitual, man flounders + in the mud and makes no progress towards a better state. + </p> + <p> + “All human beings go through a previous life in the sphere of Instinct, + where they are brought to see the worthlessness of earthly treasures, to + amass which they gave themselves such untold pains! Who can tell how many + times the human being lives in the sphere of Instinct before he is + prepared to enter the sphere of Abstractions, where thought expends itself + on erring science, where mind wearies at last of human language? for, when + Matter is exhausted, Spirit enters. Who knows how many fleshly forms the + heir of heaven occupies before he can be brought to understand the value + of that silence and solitude whose starry plains are but the vestibule of + Spiritual Worlds? He feels his way amid the void, makes trial of + nothingness, and then at last his eyes revert upon the Path. Then follow + other existences,—all to be lived to reach the place where Light + effulgent shines. Death is the post-house of the journey. A lifetime may + be needed merely to gain the virtues which annul the errors of man’s + preceding life. First comes the life of suffering, whose tortures create a + thirst for love. Next the life of love and devotion to the creature, + teaching devotion to the Creator,—a life where the virtues of love, + its martyrdoms, its joys followed by sorrows, its angelic hopes, its + patience, its resignation, excite an appetite for things divine. Then + follows the life which seeks in silence the traces of the Word; in which + the soul grows humble and charitable. Next the life of longing; and + lastly, the life of prayer. In that is the noonday sun; there are the + flowers, there the harvest! + </p> + <p> + “The virtues we acquire, which develop slowly within us, are the invisible + links that bind each one of our existences to the others,—existences + which the spirit alone remembers, for Matter has no memory for spiritual + things. Thought alone holds the tradition of the bygone life. The endless + legacy of the past to the present is the secret source of human genius. + Some receive the gift of form, some the gift of numbers, others the gift + of harmony. All these gifts are steps of progress in the Path of Light. + Yes, he who possesses a single one of them touches at that point the + Infinite. Earth has divided the Word—of which I here reveal some + syllables—into particles, she has reduced it to dust and has + scattered it through her works, her dogmas, her poems. If some impalpable + grain shines like a diamond in a human work, men cry: ‘How grand! how + true! how glorious!’ That fragment vibrates in their souls and wakes a + presentiment of heaven: to some, a melody that weans from earth; to + others, the solitude that draws to God. To all, whatsoever sends us back + upon ourselves, whatsoever strikes us down and crushes us, lifts or abases + us,—<i>that</i> is but a syllable of the Divine Word. + </p> + <p> + “When a human soul draws its first furrow straight, the rest will follow + surely. One thought borne inward, one prayer uplifted, one suffering + endured, one echo of the Word within us, and our souls are forever + changed. All ends in God; and many are the ways to find Him by walking + straight before us. When the happy day arrives in which you set your feet + upon the Path and begin your pilgrimage, the world will know nothing of + it; earth no longer understands you; you no longer understand each other. + Men who attain a knowledge of these things, who lisp a few syllables of + the Word, often have not where to lay their head; hunted like beasts they + perish on the scaffold, to the joy of assembled peoples, while Angels open + to them the gates of heaven. Therefore, your destiny is a secret between + yourself and God, just as love is a secret between two hearts. You may be + the buried treasure, trodden under the feet of men thirsting for gold yet + all-unknowing that you are there beneath them. + </p> + <p> + “Henceforth your existence becomes a thing of ceaseless activity; each act + has a meaning which connects you with God, just as in love your actions + and your thoughts are filled with the loved one. But love and its joys, + love and its pleasures limited by the senses, are but the imperfect image + of the love which unites you to your celestial Spouse. All earthly joy is + mixed with anguish, with discontent. If love ought not to pall then death + should end it while its flame is high, so that we see no ashes. But in God + our wretchedness becomes delight, joy lives upon itself and multiplies, + and grows, and has no limit. In the Earthly life our fleeting love is + ended by tribulation; in the Spiritual life the tribulations of a day end + in joys unending. The soul is ceaselessly joyful. We feel God with us, in + us; He gives a sacred savor to all things; He shines in the soul; He + imparts to us His sweetness; He stills our interest in the world viewed + for ourselves; He quickens our interest in it viewed for His sake, and + grants us the exercise of His power upon it. In His name we do the works + which He inspires, we act for Him, we have no self except in Him, we love + His creatures with undying love, we dry their tears and long to bring them + unto Him, as a loving woman longs to see the inhabitants of earth obey her + well-beloved. + </p> + <p> + “The final life, the fruition of all other lives, to which the powers of + the soul have tended, and whose merits open the Sacred Portals to + perfected man, is the life of Prayer. Who can make you comprehend the + grandeur, the majesty, the might of Prayer? May my voice, these words of + mine, ring in your hearts and change them. Be now, here, what you may be + after cruel trial! There are privileged beings, Prophets, Seers, + Messengers, and Martyrs, all those who suffer for the Word and who + proclaim it; such souls spring at a bound across the human sphere and rise + at once to Prayer. So, too, with those whose souls receive the fire of + Faith. Be one of those brave souls! God welcomes boldness. He loves to be + taken by violence; He will never reject those who force their way to Him. + Know this! desire, the torrent of your will, is so all-powerful that a + single emission of it, made with force, can obtain all; a single cry, + uttered under the pressure of Faith, suffices. Be one of such beings, full + of force, of will, of love! Be conquerors on the earth! Let the hunger and + thirst of God possess you. Fly to Him as the hart panting for the + water-brooks. Desire shall lend you its wings; tears, those blossoms of + repentance, shall be the celestial baptism from which your nature will + issue purified. Cast yourself on the breast of the stream in Prayer! + Silence and meditation are the means of following the Way. God reveals + Himself, unfailingly, to the solitary, thoughtful seeker. + </p> + <p> + “It is thus that the separation takes place between Matter, which so long + has wrapped its darkness round you, and Spirit, which was in you from the + beginning, the light which lighted you and now brings noon-day to your + soul. Yes, your broken heart shall receive the light; the light shall + bathe it. Then you will no longer feel convictions, they will have changed + to certainties. The Poet utters; the Thinker meditates; the Righteous + acts; but he who stands upon the borders of the Divine World prays; and + his prayer is word, thought, action, in one! Yes, prayer includes all, + contains all; it completes nature, for it reveals to you the mind within + it and its progression. White and shining virgin of all human virtues, ark + of the covenant between earth and heaven, tender and strong companion + partaking of the lion and of the lamb, Prayer! Prayer will give you the + key of heaven! Bold and pure as innocence, strong, like all that is single + and simple, this glorious, invincible Queen rests, nevertheless, on the + material world; she takes possession of it; like the sun, she clasps it in + a circle of light. The universe belongs to him who wills, who knows, who + prays; but he must will, he must know, he must pray; in a word, he must + possess force, wisdom, and faith. + </p> + <p> + “Therefore Prayer, issuing from so many trials, is the consummation of all + truths, all powers, all feelings. Fruit of the laborious, progressive, + continued development of natural properties and faculties vitalized anew + by the divine breath of the Word, Prayer has occult activity; it is the + final worship—not the material worship of images, nor the spiritual + worship of formulas, but the worship of the Divine World. We say no + prayers,—prayer forms within us; it is a faculty which acts of + itself; it has attained a way of action which lifts it outside of forms; + it links the soul to God, with whom we unite as the root of the tree + unites with the soil; our veins draw life from the principle of life, and + we live by the life of the universe. Prayer bestows external conviction by + making us penetrate the Material World through the cohesion of all our + faculties with the elementary substances; it bestows internal conviction + by developing our essence and mingling it with that of the Spiritual + Worlds. To be able to pray thus, you must attain to an utter abandonment + of flesh; you must acquire through the fires of the furnace the purity of + the diamond; for this complete communion with the Divine is obtained only + in absolute repose, where storms and conflicts are at rest. + </p> + <p> + “Yes, Prayer—the aspiration of the soul freed absolutely from the + body—bears all forces within it, and applies them to the constant + and perseverant union of the Visible and the Invisible. When you possess + the faculty of praying without weariness, with love, with force, with + certainty, with intelligence, your spiritualized nature will presently be + invested with power. Like a rushing wind, like a thunderbolt, it cuts its + way through all things and shares the power of God. The quickness of the + Spirit becomes yours; in an instant you may pass from region to region; + like the Word itself, you are transported from the ends of the world to + other worlds. Harmony exists, and you are part of it! Light is there and + your eyes possess it! Melody is heard and you echo it! Under such + conditions, you feel your perceptions developing, widening; the eyes of + your mind reach to vast distances. There is, in truth, neither time nor + place to the Spirit; space and duration are proportions created for + Matter; spirit and matter have naught in common. + </p> + <p> + “Though these things take place in stillness, in silence, without + agitation, without external movement, yet Prayer is all action; but it is + spiritual action, stripped of substantiality, and reduced, like the motion + of the worlds, to an invisible pure force. It penetrates everywhere like + light; it gives vitality to souls that come beneath its rays, as Nature + beneath the sun. It resuscitates virtue, purifies and sanctifies all + actions, peoples solitude, and gives a foretaste of eternal joys. When you + have once felt the delights of the divine intoxication which comes of this + internal travail, then all is yours! once take the lute on which we sing + to God within your hands, and you will never part with it. Hence the + solitude in which Angelic Spirits live; hence their disdain of human joys. + They are withdrawn from those who must die to live; they hear the language + of such beings, but they no longer understand their ideas; they wonder at + their movements, at what the world terms policies, material laws, + societies. For them all mysteries are over; truth, and truth alone, is + theirs. They who have reached the point where their eyes discern the + Sacred Portals, who, not looking back, not uttering one regret, + contemplate worlds and comprehend their destinies, such as they keep + silence, wait, and bear their final struggles. The worst of all those + struggles is the last; at the zenith of all virtue is Resignation,—to + be an exile and not lament, no longer to delight in earthly things and yet + to smile, to belong to God and yet to stay with men! You hear the voice + that cries to you, ‘Advance!’ Often celestial visions of descending Angels + compass you about with songs of praise; then, tearless, uncomplaining, + must you watch them as they reascent the skies! To murmur is to forfeit + all. Resignation is a fruit that ripens at the gates of heaven. How + powerful, how glorious the calm smile, the pure brow of the resigned human + creature. Radiant is the light of that brow. They who live in its + atmosphere grow purer. That calm glance penetrates and softens. More + eloquent by silence than the prophet by speech, such beings triumph by + their simple presence. Their ears are quick to hear as a faithful dog + listening for his master. Brighter than hope, stronger than love, higher + than faith, that creature of resignation is the virgin standing on the + earth, who holds for a moment the conquered palm, then, rising heavenward, + leaves behind her the imprint of her white, pure feet. When she has passed + away men flock around and cry, ‘See! See!’ Sometimes God holds her still + in sight,—a figure to whose feet creep Forms and Species of + Animality to be shown their way. She wafts the light exhaling from her + hair, and they see; she speaks, and they hear. ‘A miracle!’ they cry. + Often she triumphs in the name of God; frightened men deny her and put her + to death; smiling, she lays down her sword and goes to the stake, having + saved the Peoples. How many a pardoned Angel has passed from martyrdom to + heaven! Sinai, Golgotha are not in this place nor in that; Angels are + crucified in every place, in every sphere. Sighs pierce to God from the + whole universe. This earth on which we live is but a single sheaf of the + great harvest; humanity is but a species in the vast garden where the + flowers of heaven are cultivated. Everywhere God is like unto Himself, and + everywhere, by prayer, it is easy to reach Him.” + </p> + <p> + With these words, which fell from the lips of another Hagar in the + wilderness, burning the souls of the hearers as the live coal of the word + inflamed Isaiah, this mysterious being paused as though to gather some + remaining strength. Wilfrid and Minna dared not speak. Suddenly HE lifted + himself up to die:— + </p> + <p> + “Soul of all things, oh my God, thou whom I love for Thyself! Thou, Judge + and Father, receive a love which has no limit. Give me of thine essence + and thy faculties that I be wholly thine! Take me, that I no longer be + myself! Am I not purified? then cast me back into the furnace! If I be not + yet proved in the fire, make me some nurturing ploughshare, or the Sword + of victory! Grant me a glorious martyrdom in which to proclaim thy Word! + Rejected, I will bless thy justice. But if excess of love may win in a + moment that which hard and patient labor cannot attain, then bear me + upward in thy chariot of fire! Grant me triumph, or further trial, still + will I bless thee! To suffer for thee, is not that to triumph? Take me, + seize me, bear me away! nay, if thou wilt, reject me! Thou art He who can + do no evil. Ah!” he cried, after a pause, “the bonds are breaking. + </p> + <p> + “Spirits of the pure, ye sacred flock, come forth from the hidden places, + come on the surface of the luminous waves! The hour now is; come, + assemble! Let us sing at the gates of the Sanctuary; our songs shall drive + away the final clouds. With one accord let us hail the Dawn of the Eternal + Day. Behold the rising of the one True Light! Ah, why may I not take with + me these my friends! Farewell, poor earth, Farewell!” + </p> + <p> + <a name="link2HCH0007" id="link2HCH0007"> + <!-- H2 anchor --> </a> + </p> + <div style="height: 4em;"> + <br /><br /><br /><br /> + </div> + <h2> + CHAPTER VII. THE ASSUMPTION + </h2> + <p> + The last psalm was uttered neither by word, look, nor gesture, nor by any + of those signs which men employ to communicate their thoughts, but as the + soul speaks to itself; for at the moment when Seraphita revealed herself + in her true nature, her thoughts were no longer enslaved by human words. + The violence of that last prayer had burst her bonds. Her soul, like a + white dove, remained for an instant poised above the body whose exhausted + substances were about to be annihilated. + </p> + <p> + The aspiration of the Soul toward heaven was so contagious that Wilfrid + and Minna, beholding those radiant scintillations of Life, perceived not + Death. + </p> + <p> + They had fallen on their knees when <i>he</i> had turned toward his + Orient, and they shared his ecstasy. + </p> + <p> + The fear of the Lord, which creates man a second time, purging away his + dross, mastered their hearts. + </p> + <p> + Their eyes, veiled to the things of Earth, were opened to the Brightness + of Heaven. + </p> + <p> + Though, like the Seers of old called Prophets by men, they were filled + with the terror of the Most High, yet like them they continued firm when + they found themselves within the radiance where the Glory of the <i>Spirit</i> + shone. + </p> + <p> + The veil of flesh, which, until now, had hidden that glory from their + eyes, dissolved imperceptibly away, and left them free to behold the + Divine substance. + </p> + <p> + They stood in the twilight of the Coming Dawn, whose feeble rays prepared + them to look upon the True Light, to hear the Living Word, and yet not + die. + </p> + <p> + In this state they began to perceive the immeasurable differences which + separate the things of earth from the things of Heaven. + </p> + <p> + <i>Life</i>, on the borders of which they stood, leaning upon each other, + trembling and illuminated, like two children standing under shelter in + presence of a conflagration, That Life offered no lodgment to the senses. + </p> + <p> + The ideas they used to interpret their vision to themselves were to the + things seen what the visible senses of a man are to his soul, the material + covering of a divine essence. + </p> + <p> + The departing <i>spirit</i> was above them, shedding incense without odor, + melody without sound. About them, where they stood, were neither surfaces, + nor angles, nor atmosphere. + </p> + <p> + They dared neither question him nor contemplate him; they stood in the + shadow of that Presence as beneath the burning rays of a tropical sun, + fearing to raise their eyes lest the light should blast them. + </p> + <p> + They knew they were beside him, without being able to perceive how it was + that they stood, as in a dream, on the confines of the Visible and the + Invisible, nor how they had lost sight of the Visible and how they beheld + the Invisible. + </p> + <p> + To each other they said: “If he touches us, we can die!” But the <i>spirit</i> + was now within the Infinite, and they knew not that neither time, nor + space, nor death, existed there, and that a great gulf lay between them, + although they thought themselves beside him. + </p> + <p> + Their souls were not prepared to receive in its fulness a knowledge of the + faculties of that Life; they could have only faint and confused + perceptions of it, suited to their weakness. + </p> + <p> + Were it not so, the thunder of the <i>Living Word</i>, whose far-off tones + now reached their ears, and whose meaning entered their souls as life + unites with body,—one echo of that Word would have consumed their + being as a whirlwind of fire laps up a fragile straw. + </p> + <p> + Therefore they saw only that which their nature, sustained by the strength + of the <i>spirit</i>, permitted them to see; they heard that only which + they were able to hear. + </p> + <p> + And yet, though thus protected, they shuddered when the Voice of the + anguished soul broke forth above them—the prayer of the <i>Spirit</i> + awaiting Life and imploring it with a cry. + </p> + <p> + That cry froze them to the very marrow of their bones. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Spirit</i> knocked at the <i>sacred portal</i>. “What wilt thou?” + answered a <i>choir</i>, whose question echoed among the worlds. “To go to + God.” “Hast thou conquered?” “I have conquered the flesh through + abstinence, I have conquered false knowledge by humility, I have conquered + pride by charity, I have conquered the earth by love; I have paid my dues + by suffering, I am purified in the fires of faith, I have longed for Life + by prayer: I wait in adoration, and I am resigned.” + </p> + <p> + No answer came. + </p> + <p> + “God’s will be done!” answered the <i>Spirit</i>, believing that he was + about to be rejected. + </p> + <p> + His tears flowed and fell like dew upon the heads of the two kneeling + witnesses, who trembled before the justice of God. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly the trumpets sounded,—the last trumpets of Victory won by + the <i>Angel</i> in this last trial. The reverberation passed through + space as sound through its echo, filling it, and shaking the universe + which Wilfrid and Minna felt like an atom beneath their feet. They + trembled under an anguish caused by the dread of the mystery about to be + accomplished. + </p> + <p> + A great movement took place, as though the Eternal Legions, putting + themselves in motion, were passing upward in spiral columns. The worlds + revolved like clouds driven by a furious wind. It was all rapid. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly the veils were rent away. They saw on high as it were a star, + incomparably more lustrous than the most luminous of material stars, which + detached itself, and fell like a thunderbolt, dazzling as lightning. Its + passage paled the faces of the pair, who thought it to be <i>the Light</i> + Itself. + </p> + <p> + It was the Messenger of good tidings, the plume of whose helmet was a + flame of Life. + </p> + <p> + Behind him lay the swath of his way gleaming with a flood of the lights + through which he passed. + </p> + <p> + He bore a palm and a sword. He touched the <i>Spirit</i> with the palm, + and the <i>Spirit</i> was transfigured. Its white wings noiselessly + unfolded. + </p> + <p> + This communication of <i>the Light</i>, changing the <i>Spirit</i> into a + <i>Seraph</i> and clothing it with a glorious form, a celestial armor, + poured down such effulgent rays that the two Seers were paralyzed. + </p> + <p> + Like the three apostles to whom Jesus showed himself, they felt the dead + weight of their bodies which denied them a complete and cloudless + intuition of <i>the Word</i> and <i>the True Life</i>. + </p> + <p> + They comprehended the nakedness of their souls; they were able to measure + the poverty of their light by comparing it—a humbling task—with + the halo of the <i>Seraph</i>. + </p> + <p> + A passionate desire to plunge back into the mire of earth and suffer trial + took possession of them,—trial through which they might victoriously + utter at the <i>sacred gates</i> the words of that radiant <i>Seraph</i>. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Seraph</i> knelt before the <i>Sanctuary</i>, beholding it, at + last, face to face; and he said, raising his hands thitherward, “Grant + that these two may have further sight; they will love the Lord and + proclaim His word.” + </p> + <p> + At this prayer a veil fell. Whether it were that the hidden force which + held the Seers had momentarily annihilated their physical bodies, or that + it raised their spirits above those bodies, certain it is that they felt + within them a rending of the pure from the impure. + </p> + <p> + The tears of the <i>Seraph</i> rose about them like a vapor, which hid the + lower worlds from their knowledge, held them in its folds, bore them + upwards, gave them forgetfulness of earthly meanings and the power of + comprehending the meanings of things divine. + </p> + <p> + The True Light shone; it illumined the Creations, which seemed to them + barren when they saw the source from which all worlds—Terrestrial, + Spiritual, and Divine-derived their Motion. + </p> + <p> + Each world possessed a centre to which converged all points of its + circumference. These worlds were themselves the points which moved toward + the centre of their system. Each system had its centre in great celestial + regions which communicated with the flaming and quenchless <i>motor of all + that is</i>. + </p> + <p> + Thus, from the greatest to the smallest of the worlds, and from the + smallest of the worlds to the smallest portion of the beings who compose + it, all was individual, and all was, nevertheless, One and indivisible. + </p> + <p> + What was the design of the Being, fixed in His essence and in His + faculties, who transmitted that essence and those faculties without losing + them? who manifested them outside of Himself without separating them from + Himself? who rendered his creations outside of Himself fixed in their + essence and mutable in their form? The pair thus called to the celestial + festival could only see the order and arrangement of created beings and + admire the immediate result. The Angels alone see more. They know the + means; they comprehend the final end. + </p> + <p> + But what the two Elect were granted power to contemplate, what they were + able to bring back as a testimony which enlightened their minds forever + after, was the proof of the action of the Worlds and of Beings; the + consciousness of the effort with which they all converge to the Result. + </p> + <p> + They heard the divers parts of the Infinite forming one living melody; and + each time that the accord made itself felt like a mighty respiration, the + Worlds drawn by the concordant movement inclined themselves toward the + Supreme Being who, from His impenetrable centre, issued all things and + recalled all things to Himself. + </p> + <p> + This ceaseless alternation of voices and silence seemed the rhythm of the + sacred hymn which resounds and prolongs its sound from age to age. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid and Minna were enabled to understand some of the mysterious + sayings of Him who had appeared on earth in the form which to each of them + had rendered him comprehensible,—to one Seraphitus, to the other + Seraphita,—for they saw that all was homogeneous in the sphere where + he now was. + </p> + <p> + Light gave birth to melody, melody gave birth to light; colors were light + and melody; motion was a Number endowed with Utterance; all things were at + once sonorous, diaphanous, and mobile; so that each interpenetrated the + other, the whole vast area was unobstructed and the Angels could survey it + from the depths of the Infinite. + </p> + <p> + They perceived the puerility of human sciences, of which he had spoken to + them. + </p> + <p> + The scene was to them a prospect without horizon, a boundless space into + which an all-consuming desire prompted them to plunge. But, fastened to + their miserable bodies, they had the desire without the power to fulfil + it. + </p> + <p> + The <i>Seraph</i>, preparing for his flight, no longer looked towards + them; he had nothing now in common with Earth. + </p> + <p> + Upward he rose; the shadow of his luminous presence covered the two Seers + like a merciful veil, enabling them to raise their eyes and see him, + rising in his glory to Heaven in company with the glad Archangel. + </p> + <p> + He rose as the sun from the bosom of the Eastern waves; but, more majestic + than the orb and vowed to higher destinies, he could not be enchained like + inferior creations in the spiral movement of the worlds; he followed the + line of the Infinite, pointing without deviation to the One Centre, there + to enter his eternal life,—to receive there, in his faculties and in + his essence, the power to enjoy through Love, and the gift of + comprehending through Wisdom. + </p> + <p> + The scene which suddenly unveiled itself to the eyes of the two Seers + crushed them with a sense of its vastness; they felt like atoms, whose + minuteness was not to be compared even to the smallest particle which the + infinite of divisibility enabled the mind of man to imagine, brought into + the presence of the infinite of Numbers, which God alone can comprehend as + He alone can comprehend Himself. + </p> + <p> + Strength and Love! what heights, what depths in those two entities, whom + the <i>Seraph’s</i> first prayer placed like two links, as it were, to + unite the immensities of the lower worlds with the immensity of the higher + universe! + </p> + <p> + They comprehended the invisible ties by which the material worlds are + bound to the spiritual worlds. Remembering the sublime efforts of human + genius, they were able to perceive the principle of all melody in the + songs of heaven which gave sensations of color, of perfume, of thought, + which recalled the innumerable details of all creations, as the songs of + earth revive the infinite memories of love. + </p> + <p> + Brought by the exaltation of their faculties to a point that cannot be + described in any language, they were able to cast their eyes for an + instant into the Divine World. There all was Rejoicing. + </p> + <p> + Myriads of angels were flocking together, without confusion; all alike yet + all dissimilar, simple as the flower of the fields, majestic as the + universe. + </p> + <p> + Wilfrid and Minna saw neither their coming nor their going; they appeared + suddenly in the Infinite and filled it with their presence, as the stars + shine in the invisible ether. + </p> + <p> + The scintillations of their united diadems illumined space like the fires + of the sky at dawn upon the mountains. Waves of light flowed from their + hair, and their movements created tremulous undulations in space like the + billows of a phosphorescent sea. + </p> + <p> + The two Seers beheld the <i>Seraph</i> dimly in the midst of the immortal + legions. Suddenly, as though all the arrows of a quiver had darted + together, the Spirits swept away with a breath the last vestiges of the + human form; as the <i>Seraph</i> rose he became yet purer; soon he seemed + to them but a faint outline of what he had been at the moment of his + transfiguration,—lines of fire without shadow. + </p> + <p> + Higher he rose, receiving from circle to circle some new gift, while the + sign of his election was transmitted to each sphere into which, more and + more purified, he entered. + </p> + <p> + No voice was silent; the hymn diffused and multiplied itself in all its + modulations:— + </p> + <p> + “Hail to him who enters living! Come, flower of the Worlds! diamond from + the fires of suffering! pearl without spot, desire without flesh, new link + of earth and heaven, be Light! Conquering spirit, Queen of the world, come + for thy crown! Victor of earth, receive thy diadem! Thou art of us!” + </p> + <p> + The virtues of the <i>Seraph</i> shone forth in all their beauty. + </p> + <p> + His earliest desire for heaven re-appeared, tender as childhood. The deeds + of his life, like constellations, adorned him with their brightness. His + acts of faith shone like the Jacinth of heaven, the color of sidereal + fires. The pearls of Charity were upon him,—a chaplet of garnered + tears! Love divine surrounded him with roses; and the whiteness of his + Resignation obliterated all earthly trace. + </p> + <p> + Soon, to the eyes of the Seers, he was but a point of flame, growing + brighter and brighter as its motion was lost in the melodious acclamations + which welcomed his entrance into heaven. + </p> + <p> + The celestial accents made the two exiles weep. + </p> + <p> + Suddenly a silence as of death spread like a mourning veil from the first + to the highest sphere, throwing Wilfrid and Minna into a state of + intolerable expectation. + </p> + <p> + At this moment the <i>Seraph</i> was lost to sight within the <i>sanctuary</i>, + receiving there the gift of Life Eternal. + </p> + <p> + A movement of adoration made by the Host of heaven filled the two Seers + with ecstasy mingled with terror. They felt that all were prostrate before + the Throne, in all the spheres, in the Spheres Divine, in the Spiritual + Spheres, and in the Worlds of Darkness. + </p> + <p> + The Angels bent the knee to celebrate the <i>Seraph’s</i> glory; the + Spirits bent the knee in token of their impatience; others bent the knee + in the dark abysses, shuddering with awe. + </p> + <p> + A mighty cry of joy gushed forth, as the spring gushes forth to its + millions of flowering herbs sparkling with diamond dew-drops in the + sunlight; at that instant the <i>Seraph</i> reappeared, effulgent, crying, + “<i>Eternal! Eternal! Eternal</i>!” + </p> + <p> + The universe heard the cry and understood it; it penetrated the spheres as + God penetrates them; it took possession of the infinite; the Seven Divine + Worlds heard the Voice and answered. + </p> + <p> + A mighty movement was perceptible, as though whole planets, purified, were + rising in dazzling light to become Eternal. + </p> + <p> + Had the <i>Seraph</i> obtained, as a first mission, the work of calling to + God the creations permeated by His Word? + </p> + <p> + But already the sublime <i>hallelujah</i> was sounding in the ear of the + desolate ones as the distant undulations of an ended melody. Already the + celestial lights were fading like the gold and crimson tints of a setting + sun. Death and Impurity recovered their prey. + </p> + <p> + As the two mortals re-entered the prison of flesh, from which their spirit + had momentarily been delivered by some priceless sleep, they felt like + those who wake after a night of brilliant dreams, the memory of which + still lingers in their soul, though their body retains no consciousness of + them, and human language is unable to give utterance to them. + </p> + <p> + The deep darkness of the sphere that was now about them was that of the + sun of the visible worlds. + </p> + <p> + “Let us descend to those lower regions,” said Wilfrid. + </p> + <p> + “Let us do what he told us to do,” answered Minna. “We have seen the + worlds on their march to God; we know the Path. Our diadem of stars is + There.” + </p> + <p> + Floating downward through the abysses, they re-entered the dust of the + lesser worlds, and saw the Earth, like a subterranean cavern, suddenly + illuminated to their eyes by the light which their souls brought with + them, and which still environed them in a cloud of the paling harmonies of + heaven. The sight was that which of old struck the inner eyes of Seers and + Prophets. Ministers of all religions, Preachers of all pretended truths, + Kings consecrated by Force and Terror, Warriors and Mighty men + apportioning the Peoples among them, the Learned and the Rich standing + above the suffering, noisy crowd, and noisily grinding them beneath their + feet,—all were there, accompanied by their wives and servants; all + were robed in stuffs of gold and silver and azure studded with pearls and + gems torn from the bowels of Earth, stolen from the depths of Ocean, for + which Humanity had toiled throughout the centuries, sweating and + blaspheming. But these treasures, these splendors, constructed of blood, + seemed worn-out rags to the eyes of the two Exiles. “What do you there, in + motionless ranks?” cried Wilfrid. They answered not. “What do you there, + motionless?” They answered not. Wilfrid waved his hands over them, crying + in a loud voice, “What do you there, in motionless ranks?” All, with + unanimous action, opened their garments and gave to sight their withered + bodies, eaten with worms, putrefied, crumbling to dust, rotten with + horrible diseases. + </p> + <p> + “You lead the nations to Death,” Wilfrid said to them. “You have depraved + the earth, perverted the Word, prostituted justice. After devouring the + grass of the fields you have killed the lambs of the fold. Do you think + yourself justified because of your sores? I will warn my brethren who have + ears to hear the Voice, and they will come and drink of the spring of + Living Waters which you have hidden.” + </p> + <p> + “Let us save our strength for Prayer,” said Minna. “Wilfrid, thy mission + is not that of the Prophets or the Avenger or the Messenger; we are still + on the confines of the lowest sphere; let us endeavor to rise through + space on the wings of Prayer.” + </p> + <p> + “Thou shalt be all my love!” + </p> + <p> + “Thou shalt be all my strength!” + </p> + <p> + “We have seen the Mysteries; we are, each to the other, the only being + here below to whom Joy and Sadness are comprehensible; let us pray, + therefore: we know the Path, let us walk in it.” + </p> + <p> + “Give me thy hand,” said the Young Girl, “if we walk together, the way + will be to me less hard and long.” + </p> + <p> + “With thee, with thee alone,” replied the Man, “can I cross the awful + solitude without complaint.” + </p> + <p> + “Together we will go to Heaven,” she said. + </p> + <p> + The clouds gathered and formed a darksome dais. Suddenly the pair found + themselves kneeling beside a body which old David was guarding from + curious eyes, resolved to bury it himself. + </p> + <p> + Beyond those walls the first summer of the nineteenth century shone forth + in all its glory. The two lovers believed they heard a Voice in the + sun-rays. They breathed a celestial essence from the new-born flowers. + Holding each other by the hand, they said, “That illimitable ocean which + shines below us is but an image of what we saw above.” + </p> + <p> + “Where are you going?” asked Monsieur Becker. + </p> + <p> + “To God,” they answered. “Come with us, father.” + </p> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> + <hr /> + <p> + <br /> <br /> + </p> +<pre xml:space="preserve"> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seraphita, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERAPHITA *** + +***** This file should be named 1432-h.htm or 1432-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/1432/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny, and David Widger + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Seraphita + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: August, 1998 [Etext #1432] +Posting Date: February 24, 2010 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERAPHITA *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + + + + + +SERAPHITA + + +By Honore De Balzac + + + +Translated by Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + DEDICATION + + To Madame Eveline de Hanska, nee Comtesse Rzewuska. + + Madame,--Here is the work which you asked of me. I am happy, in + thus dedicating it, to offer you a proof of the respectful + affection you allow me to bear you. If I am reproached for + impotence in this attempt to draw from the depths of mysticism a + book which seeks to give, in the lucid transparency of our + beautiful language, the luminous poesy of the Orient, to you the + blame! Did you not command this struggle (resembling that of + Jacob) by telling me that the most imperfect sketch of this + Figure, dreamed of by you, as it has been by me since childhood, + would still be something to you? + + Here, then, it is,--that something. Would that this book could + belong exclusively to noble spirits, preserved like yours from + worldly pettiness by solitude! THEY would know how to give to it + the melodious rhythm that it lacks, which might have made it, in + the hands of a poet, the glorious epic that France still awaits. + But from me they must accept it as one of those sculptured + balustrades, carved by a hand of faith, on which the pilgrims + lean, in the choir of some glorious church, to think upon the end + of man. + + I am, madame, with respect, + Your devoted servant, + De Balzac. + + + + +SERAPHITA + + + + +CHAPTER I. SERAPHITUS + + +As the eye glances over a map of the coasts of Norway, can the +imagination fail to marvel at their fantastic indentations and serrated +edges, like a granite lace, against which the surges of the North Sea +roar incessantly? Who has not dreamed of the majestic sights to be seen +on those beachless shores, of that multitude of creeks and inlets and +little bays, no two of them alike, yet all trackless abysses? We may +almost fancy that Nature took pleasure in recording by ineffaceable +hieroglyphics the symbol of Norwegian life, bestowing on these coasts +the conformation of a fish's spine, fishery being the staple commerce of +the country, and well-nigh the only means of living of the hardy men who +cling like tufts of lichen to the arid cliffs. Here, through fourteen +degrees of longitude, barely seven hundred thousand souls maintain +existence. Thanks to perils devoid of glory, to year-long snows which +clothe the Norway peaks and guard them from profaning foot of traveller, +these sublime beauties are virgin still; they will be seen to harmonize +with human phenomena, also virgin--at least to poetry--which here took +place, the history of which it is our purpose to relate. + +If one of these inlets, mere fissures to the eyes of the eider-ducks, is +wide enough for the sea not to freeze between the prison-walls of +rock against which it surges, the country-people call the little bay +a "fiord,"--a word which geographers of every nation have adopted into +their respective languages. Though a certain resemblance exists +among all these fiords, each has its own characteristics. The sea has +everywhere forced its way as through a breach, yet the rocks about each +fissure are diversely rent, and their tumultuous precipices defy the +rules of geometric law. Here the scarp is dentelled like a saw; there +the narrow ledges barely allow the snow to lodge or the noble crests of +the Northern pines to spread themselves; farther on, some convulsion of +Nature may have rounded a coquettish curve into a lovely valley flanked +in rising terraces with black-plumed pines. Truly we are tempted to call +this land the Switzerland of Ocean. + +Midway between Trondhjem and Christiansand lies an inlet called the +Strom-fiord. If the Strom-fiord is not the loveliest of these rocky +landscapes, it has the merit of displaying the terrestrial grandeurs +of Norway, and of enshrining the scenes of a history that is indeed +celestial. + +The general outline of the Strom-fiord seems at first sight to be that +of a funnel washed out by the sea. The passage which the waves have +forced present to the eye an image of the eternal struggle between old +Ocean and the granite rock,--two creations of equal power, one through +inertia, the other by ceaseless motion. Reefs of fantastic shape run out +on either side, and bar the way of ships and forbid their entrance. The +intrepid sons of Norway cross these reefs on foot, springing from rock +to rock, undismayed at the abyss--a hundred fathoms deep and only six +feet wide--which yawns beneath them. Here a tottering block of gneiss +falling athwart two rocks gives an uncertain footway; there the +hunters or the fishermen, carrying their loads, have flung the stems of +fir-trees in guise of bridges, to join the projecting reefs, around and +beneath which the surges roar incessantly. This dangerous entrance to +the little bay bears obliquely to the right with a serpentine movement, +and there encounters a mountain rising some twenty-five hundred feet +above sea-level, the base of which is a vertical palisade of solid +rock more than a mile and a half long, the inflexible granite nowhere +yielding to clefts or undulations until it reaches a height of two +hundred feet above the water. Rushing violently in, the sea is driven +back with equal violence by the inert force of the mountain to the +opposite shore, gently curved by the spent force of the retreating +waves. + +The fiord is closed at the upper end by a vast gneiss formation crowned +with forests, down which a river plunges in cascades, becomes a torrent +when the snows are melting, spreads into a sheet of waters, and then +falls with a roar into the bay,--vomiting as it does so the hoary pines +and the aged larches washed down from the forests and scarce seen amid +the foam. These trees plunge headlong into the fiord and reappear after +a time on the surface, clinging together and forming islets which float +ashore on the beaches, where the inhabitants of a village on the left +bank of the Strom-fiord gather them up, split, broken (though sometimes +whole), and always stripped of bark and branches. The mountain which +receives at its base the assaults of Ocean, and at its summit the +buffeting of the wild North wind, is called the Falberg. Its crest, +wrapped at all seasons in a mantle of snow and ice, is the sharpest peak +of Norway; its proximity to the pole produces, at the height of eighteen +hundred feet, a degree of cold equal to that of the highest mountains of +the globe. The summit of this rocky mass, rising sheer from the fiord +on one side, slopes gradually downward to the east, where it joins the +declivities of the Sieg and forms a series of terraced valleys, the +chilly temperature of which allows no growth but that of shrubs and +stunted trees. + +The upper end of the fiord, where the waters enter it as they come down +from the forest, is called the Siegdahlen,--a word which may be held to +mean "the shedding of the Sieg,"--the river itself receiving that name. +The curving shore opposite to the face of the Falberg is the valley +of Jarvis,--a smiling scene overlooked by hills clothed with firs, +birch-trees, and larches, mingled with a few oaks and beeches, the +richest coloring of all the varied tapestries which Nature in these +northern regions spreads upon the surface of her rugged rocks. The eye +can readily mark the line where the soil, warmed by the rays of the sun, +bears cultivation and shows the native growth of the Norwegian flora. +Here the expanse of the fiord is broad enough to allow the sea, dashed +back by the Falberg, to spend its expiring force in gentle murmurs upon +the lower slope of these hills,--a shore bordered with finest sand, +strewn with mica and sparkling pebbles, porphyry, and marbles of a +thousand tints, brought from Sweden by the river floods, together with +ocean waifs, shells, and flowers of the sea driven in by tempests, +whether of the Pole or Tropics. + +At the foot of the hills of Jarvis lies a village of some two hundred +wooden houses, where an isolated population lives like a swarm of bees +in a forest, without increasing or diminishing; vegetating happily, +while wringing their means of living from the breast of a stern Nature. +The almost unknown existence of the little hamlet is readily accounted +for. Few of its inhabitants were bold enough to risk their lives +among the reefs to reach the deep-sea fishing,--the staple industry of +Norwegians on the least dangerous portions of their coast. The fish of +the fiord were numerous enough to suffice, in part at least, for the +sustenance of the inhabitants; the valley pastures provided milk and +butter; a certain amount of fruitful, well-tilled soil yielded rye +and hemp and vegetables, which necessity taught the people to protect +against the severity of the cold and the fleeting but terrible heat of +the sun with the shrewd ability which Norwegians display in the two-fold +struggle. The difficulty of communication with the outer world, either +by land where the roads are impassable, or by sea where none but tiny +boats can thread their way through the maritime defiles that guard the +entrance to the bay, hinder these people from growing rich by the sale +of their timber. It would cost enormous sums to either blast a channel +out to sea or construct a way to the interior. The roads from Christiana +to Trondhjem all turn toward the Strom-fiord, and cross the Sieg by a +bridge some score of miles above its fall into the bay. The country to +the north, between Jarvis and Trondhjem, is covered with impenetrable +forests, while to the south the Falberg is nearly as much separated +from Christiana by inaccessible precipices. The village of Jarvis might +perhaps have communicated with the interior of Norway and Sweden by +the river Sieg; but to do this and to be thus brought into contact with +civilization, the Strom-fiord needed the presence of a man of genius. +Such a man did actually appear there,--a poet, a Swede of great +religious fervor, who died admiring, even reverencing this region as one +of the noblest works of the Creator. + +Minds endowed by study with an inward sight, and whose quick perceptions +bring before the soul, as though painted on a canvas, the contrasting +scenery of this universe, will now apprehend the general features of +the Strom-fiord. They alone, perhaps, can thread their way through the +tortuous channels of the reef, or flee with the battling waves to the +everlasting rebuff of the Falberg whose white peaks mingle with the +vaporous clouds of the pearl-gray sky, or watch with delight the curving +sheet of waters, or hear the rushing of the Sieg as it hangs for an +instant in long fillets and then falls over a picturesque abatis of +noble trees toppled confusedly together, sometimes upright, sometimes +half-sunken beneath the rocks. It may be that such minds alone can dwell +upon the smiling scenes nestling among the lower hills of Jarvis; where +the luscious Northern vegetables spring up in families, in myriads, +where the white birches bend, graceful as maidens, where colonnades +of beeches rear their boles mossy with the growth of centuries, where +shades of green contrast, and white clouds float amid the blackness of +the distant pines, and tracts of many-tinted crimson and purple shrubs +are shaded endlessly; in short, where blend all colors, all perfumes of +a flora whose wonders are still ignored. Widen the boundaries of this +limited ampitheatre, spring upward to the clouds, lose yourself among +the rocks where the seals are lying and even then your thought cannot +compass the wealth of beauty nor the poetry of this Norwegian coast. +Can your thought be as vast as the ocean that bounds it? as weird as +the fantastic forms drawn by these forests, these clouds, these shadows, +these changeful lights? + +Do you see above the meadows on that lowest slope which undulates around +the higher hills of Jarvis two or three hundred houses roofed with +"noever," a sort of thatch made of birch-bark,--frail houses, long and +low, looking like silk-worms on a mulberry-leaf tossed hither by the +winds? Above these humble, peaceful dwellings stands the church, built +with a simplicity in keeping with the poverty of the villagers. A +graveyard surrounds the chancel, and a little farther on you see +the parsonage. Higher up, on a projection of the mountain is a +dwelling-house, the only one of stone; for which reason the inhabitants +of the village call it "the Swedish Castle." In fact, a wealthy Swede +settled in Jarvis about thirty years before this history begins, and did +his best to ameliorate its condition. This little house, certainly not +a castle, built with the intention of leading the inhabitants to build +others like it, was noticeable for its solidity and for the wall that +inclosed it, a rare thing in Norway where, notwithstanding the abundance +of stone, wood alone is used for all fences, even those of fields. +This Swedish house, thus protected against the climate, stood on rising +ground in the centre of an immense courtyard. The windows were sheltered +by those projecting pent-house roofs supported by squared trunks of +trees which give so patriarchal an air to Northern dwellings. From +beneath them the eye could see the savage nudity of the Falberg, or +compare the infinitude of the open sea with the tiny drop of water in +the foaming fiord; the ear could hear the flowing of the Sieg, whose +white sheet far away looked motionless as it fell into its granite +cup edged for miles around with glaciers,--in short, from this vantage +ground the whole landscape whereon our simple yet superhuman drama was +about to be enacted could be seen and noted. + +The winter of 1799-1800 was one of the most severe ever known to +Europeans. The Norwegian sea was frozen in all the fiords, where, as a +usual thing, the violence of the surf kept the ice from forming. A wind, +whose effects were like those of the Spanish levanter, swept the ice of +the Strom-fiord, driving the snow to the upper end of the gulf. Seldom +indeed could the people of Jarvis see the mirror of frozen waters +reflecting the colors of the sky; a wondrous site in the bosom of +these mountains when all other aspects of nature are levelled beneath +successive sheets of snow, and crests and valleys are alike mere +folds of the vast mantle flung by winter across a landscape at once so +mournfully dazzling and so monotonous. The falling volume of the Sieg, +suddenly frozen, formed an immense arcade beneath which the inhabitants +might have crossed under shelter from the blast had any dared to risk +themselves inland. But the dangers of every step away from their own +surroundings kept even the boldest hunters in their homes, afraid lest +the narrow paths along the precipices, the clefts and fissures among the +rocks, might be unrecognizable beneath the snow. + +Thus it was that no human creature gave life to the white desert where +Boreas reigned, his voice alone resounding at distant intervals. The +sky, nearly always gray, gave tones of polished steel to the ice of the +fiord. Perchance some ancient eider-duck crossed the expanse, trusting +to the warm down beneath which dream, in other lands, the luxurious +rich, little knowing of the dangers through which their luxury has come +to them. Like the Bedouin of the desert who darts alone across the sands +of Africa, the bird is neither seen nor heard; the torpid atmosphere, +deprived of its electrical conditions, echoes neither the whirr of its +wings nor its joyous notes. Besides, what human eye was strong enough to +bear the glitter of those pinnacles adorned with sparkling crystals, or +the sharp reflections of the snow, iridescent on the summits in the rays +of a pallid sun which infrequently appeared, like a dying man seeking to +make known that he still lives. Often, when the flocks of gray clouds, +driven in squadrons athwart the mountains and among the tree-tops, hid +the sky with their triple veils Earth, lacking the celestial lights, lit +herself by herself. + +Here, then, we meet the majesty of Cold, seated eternally at the pole +in that regal silence which is the attribute of all absolute monarchy. +Every extreme principle carries with it an appearance of negation and +the symptoms of death; for is not life the struggle of two forces? Here +in this Northern nature nothing lived. One sole power--the unproductive +power of ice--reigned unchallenged. The roar of the open sea no longer +reached the deaf, dumb inlet, where during one short season of the year +Nature made haste to produce the slender harvests necessary for the food +of the patient people. A few tall pine-trees lifted their black pyramids +garlanded with snow, and the form of their long branches and depending +shoots completed the mourning garments of those solemn heights. + +Each household gathered in its chimney-corner, in houses carefully +closed from the outer air, and well supplied with biscuit, melted +butter, dried fish, and other provisions laid in for the seven-months +winter. The very smoke of these dwellings was hardly seen, half-hidden +as they were beneath the snow, against the weight of which they were +protected by long planks reaching from the roof and fastened at some +distance to solid blocks on the ground, forming a covered way around +each building. + +During these terrible winter months the women spun and dyed the woollen +stuffs and the linen fabrics with which they clothed their families, +while the men read, or fell into those endless meditations which have +given birth to so many profound theories, to the mystic dreams of the +North, to its beliefs, to its studies (so full and so complete in one +science, at least, sounded as with a plummet), to its manners and its +morals, half-monastic, which force the soul to react and feed upon +itself and make the Norwegian peasant a being apart among the peoples of +Europe. + +Such was the condition of the Strom-fiord in the first year of the +nineteenth century and about the middle of the month of May. + +On a morning when the sun burst forth upon this landscape, lighting the +fires of the ephemeral diamonds produced by crystallizations of the snow +and ice, two beings crossed the fiord and flew along the base of the +Falberg, rising thence from ledge to ledge toward the summit. What were +they? human creatures, or two arrows? They might have been taken for +eider-ducks sailing in consort before the wind. Not the boldest hunter +nor the most superstitious fisherman would have attributed to human +beings the power to move safely along the slender lines traced beneath +the snow by the granite ledges, where yet this couple glided with the +terrifying dexterity of somnambulists who, forgetting their own weight +and the dangers of the slightest deviation, hurry along a ridge-pole and +keep their equilibrium by the power of some mysterious force. + +"Stop me, Seraphitus," said a pale young girl, "and let me breathe. I +look at you, you only, while scaling these walls of the gulf; otherwise, +what would become of me? I am such a feeble creature. Do I tire you?" + +"No," said the being on whose arm she leaned. "But let us go on, Minna; +the place where we are is not firm enough to stand on." + +Once more the snow creaked sharply beneath the long boards fastened to +their feet, and soon they reached the upper terrace of the first ledge, +clearly defined upon the flank of the precipice. The person whom Minna +had addressed as Seraphitus threw his weight upon his right heel, +arresting the plank--six and a half feet long and narrow as the foot of +a child--which was fastened to his boot by a double thong of leather. +This plank, two inches thick, was covered with reindeer skin, which +bristled against the snow when the foot was raised, and served to stop +the wearer. Seraphitus drew in his left foot, furnished with another +"skee," which was only two feet long, turned swiftly where he stood, +caught his timid companion in his arms, lifted her in spite of the long +boards on her feet, and placed her on a projecting rock from which he +brushed the snow with his pelisse. + +"You are safe there, Minna; you can tremble at your ease." + +"We are a third of the way up the Ice-Cap," she said, looking at the +peak to which she gave the popular name by which it is known in Norway; +"I can hardly believe it." + +Too much out of breath to say more, she smiled at Seraphitus, who, +without answering, laid his hand upon her heart and listened to its +sounding throbs, rapid as those of a frightened bird. + +"It often beats as fast when I run," she said. + +Seraphitus inclined his head with a gesture that was neither coldness +nor indifference, and yet, despite the grace which made the movement +almost tender, it none the less bespoke a certain negation, which in a +woman would have seemed an exquisite coquetry. Seraphitus clasped the +young girl in his arms. Minna accepted the caress as an answer to her +words, continuing to gaze at him. As he raised his head, and threw back +with impatient gesture the golden masses of his hair to free his brow, +he saw an expression of joy in the eyes of his companion. + +"Yes, Minna," he said in a voice whose paternal accents were charming +from the lips of a being who was still adolescent, "Keep your eyes on +me; do not look below you." + +"Why not?" she asked. + +"You wish to know why? then look!" + +Minna glanced quickly at her feet and cried out suddenly like a child +who sees a tiger. The awful sensation of abysses seized her; one glance +sufficed to communicate its contagion. The fiord, eager for food, +bewildered her with its loud voice ringing in her ears, interposing +between herself and life as though to devour her more surely. From the +crown of her head to her feet and along her spine an icy shudder ran; +then suddenly intolerable heat suffused her nerves, beat in her veins +and overpowered her extremities with electric shocks like those of the +torpedo. Too feeble to resist, she felt herself drawn by a mysterious +power to the depths below, wherein she fancied that she saw some monster +belching its venom, a monster whose magnetic eyes were charming her, +whose open jaws appeared to craunch their prey before they seized it. + +"I die, my Seraphitus, loving none but thee," she said, making a +mechanical movement to fling herself into the abyss. + +Seraphitus breathed softly on her forehead and eyes. Suddenly, like +a traveller relaxed after a bath, Minna forgot these keen emotions, +already dissipated by that caressing breath which penetrated her body +and filled it with balsamic essences as quickly as the breath itself had +crossed the air. + +"Who art thou?" she said, with a feeling of gentle terror. "Ah, but I +know! thou art my life. How canst thou look into that gulf and not die?" +she added presently. + +Seraphitus left her clinging to the granite rock and placed himself at +the edge of the narrow platform on which they stood, whence his eyes +plunged to the depths of the fiord, defying its dazzling invitation. His +body did not tremble, his brow was white and calm as that of a marble +statue,--an abyss facing an abyss. + +"Seraphitus! dost thou not love me? come back!" she cried. "Thy danger +renews my terror. Who art thou to have such superhuman power at thy +age?" she asked as she felt his arms inclosing her once more. + +"But, Minna," answered Seraphitus, "you look fearlessly at greater +spaces far than that." + +Then with raised finger, this strange being pointed upward to the blue +dome, which parting clouds left clear above their heads, where +stars could be seen in open day by virtue of atmospheric laws as yet +unstudied. + +"But what a difference!" she answered smiling. + +"You are right," he said; "we are born to stretch upward to the +skies. Our native land, like the face of a mother, cannot terrify her +children." + +His voice vibrated through the being of his companion, who made no +reply. + +"Come! let us go on," he said. + +The pair darted forward along the narrow paths traced back and forth +upon the mountain, skimming from terrace to terrace, from line to line, +with the rapidity of a barb, that bird of the desert. Presently they +reached an open space, carpeted with turf and moss and flowers, where no +foot had ever trod. + +"Oh, the pretty saeter!" cried Minna, giving to the upland meadow its +Norwegian name. "But how comes it here, at such a height?" + +"Vegetation ceases here, it is true," said Seraphitus. "These few plants +and flowers are due to that sheltering rock which protects the meadow +from the polar winds. Put that tuft in your bosom, Minna," he added, +gathering a flower,--"that balmy creation which no eye has ever seen; +keep the solitary matchless flower in memory of this one matchless +morning of your life. You will find no other guide to lead you again to +this saeter." + +So saying, he gave her the hybrid plant his falcon eye had seen amid the +tufts of gentian acaulis and saxifrages,--a marvel, brought to bloom +by the breath of angels. With girlish eagerness Minna seized the tufted +plant of transparent green, vivid as emerald, which was formed of little +leaves rolled trumpet-wise, brown at the smaller end but changing tint +by tint to their delicately notched edges, which were green. These +leaves were so tightly pressed together that they seemed to blend and +form a mat or cluster of rosettes. Here and there from this green ground +rose pure white stars edged with a line of gold, and from their throats +came crimson anthers but no pistils. A fragrance, blended of roses and +of orange blossoms, yet ethereal and fugitive, gave something as it +were celestial to that mysterious flower, which Seraphitus sadly +contemplated, as though it uttered plaintive thoughts which he alone +could understand. But to Minna this mysterious phenomenon seemed a mere +caprice of nature giving to stone the freshness, softness, and perfume +of plants. + +"Why do you call it matchless? can it not reproduce itself?" she asked, +looking at Seraphitus, who colored and turned away. + +"Let us sit down," he said presently; "look below you, Minna. See! At +this height you will have no fear. The abyss is so far beneath us that +we no longer have a sense of its depths; it acquires the perspective +uniformity of ocean, the vagueness of clouds, the soft coloring of the +sky. See, the ice of the fiord is a turquoise, the dark pine forests are +mere threads of brown; for us all abysses should be thus adorned." + +Seraphitus said the words with that fervor of tone and gesture seen +and known only by those who have ascended the highest mountains of the +globe,--a fervor so involuntarily acquired that the haughtiest of men +is forced to regard his guide as a brother, forgetting his own superior +station till he descends to the valleys and the abodes of his kind. +Seraphitus unfastened the skees from Minna's feet, kneeling before her. +The girl did not notice him, so absorbed was she in the marvellous view +now offered of her native land, whose rocky outlines could here be seen +at a glance. She felt, with deep emotion, the solemn permanence of those +frozen summits, to which words could give no adequate utterance. + +"We have not come here by human power alone," she said, clasping her +hands. "But perhaps I dream." + +"You think that facts the causes of which you cannot perceive are +supernatural," replied her companion. + +"Your replies," she said, "always bear the stamp of some deep thought. +When I am near you I understand all things without an effort. Ah, I am +free!" + +"If so, you will not need your skees," he answered. + +"Oh!" she said; "I who would fain unfasten yours and kiss your feet!" + +"Keep such words for Wilfrid," said Seraphitus, gently. + +"Wilfrid!" cried Minna angrily; then, softening as she glanced at her +companion's face and trying, but in vain, to take his hand, she added, +"You are never angry, never; you are so hopelessly perfect in all +things." + +"From which you conclude that I am unfeeling." + +Minna was startled at this lucid interpretation of her thought. + +"You prove to me, at any rate, that we understand each other," she said, +with the grace of a loving woman. + +Seraphitus softly shook his head and looked sadly and gently at her. + +"You, who know all things," said Minna, "tell me why it is that the +timidity I felt below is over now that I have mounted higher. Why do I +dare to look at you for the first time face to face, while lower down I +scarcely dared to give a furtive glance?" + +"Perhaps because we are withdrawn from the pettiness of earth," he +answered, unfastening his pelisse. + +"Never, never have I seen you so beautiful!" cried Minna, sitting down +on a mossy rock and losing herself in contemplation of the being who +had now guided her to a part of the peak hitherto supposed to be +inaccessible. + +Never, in truth, had Seraphitus shone with so bright a radiance,--the +only word which can render the illumination of his face and the aspect +of his whole person. Was this splendor due to the lustre which the pure +air of mountains and the reflections of the snow give to the complexion? +Was it produced by the inward impulse which excites the body at the +instant when exertion is arrested? Did it come from the sudden contrast +between the glory of the sun and the darkness of the clouds, from whose +shadow the charming couple had just emerged? Perhaps to all these causes +we may add the effect of a phenomenon, one of the noblest which human +nature has to offer. If some able physiologist had studied this being +(who, judging by the pride on his brow and the lightning in his eyes +seemed a youth of about seventeen years of age), and if the student had +sought for the springs of that beaming life beneath the whitest skin +that ever the North bestowed upon her offspring, he would undoubtedly +have believed either in some phosphoric fluid of the nerves shining +beneath the cuticle, or in the constant presence of an inward luminary, +whose rays issued through the being of Seraphitus like a light through +an alabaster vase. Soft and slender as were his hands, ungloved to +remove his companion's snow-boots, they seemed possessed of a strength +equal to that which the Creator gave to the diaphanous tentacles of the +crab. The fire darting from his vivid glance seemed to struggle with the +beams of the sun, not to take but to give them light. His body, slim and +delicate as that of a woman, gave evidence of one of those natures which +are feeble apparently, but whose strength equals their will, rendering +them at times powerful. Of medium height, Seraphitus appeared to grow in +stature as he turned fully round and seemed about to spring upward. His +hair, curled by a fairy's hand and waving to the breeze, increased +the illusion produced by this aerial attitude; yet his bearing, wholly +without conscious effort, was the result far more of a moral phenomenon +than of a corporal habit. + +Minna's imagination seconded this illusion, under the dominion of which +all persons would assuredly have fallen,--an illusion which gave to +Seraphitus the appearance of a vision dreamed of in happy sleep. No +known type conveys an image of that form so majestically made to Minna, +but which to the eyes of a man would have eclipsed in womanly grace the +fairest of Raphael's creations. That painter of heaven has ever put +a tranquil joy, a loving sweetness, into the lines of his angelic +conceptions; but what soul, unless it contemplated Seraphitus himself, +could have conceived the ineffable emotions imprinted on his face? Who +would have divined, even in the dreams of artists, where all things +become possible, the shadow cast by some mysterious awe upon that brow, +shining with intellect, which seemed to question Heaven and to pity +Earth? The head hovered awhile disdainfully, as some majestic bird whose +cries reverberate on the atmosphere, then bowed itself resignedly, like +the turtledove uttering soft notes of tenderness in the depths of the +silent woods. His complexion was of marvellous whiteness, which brought +out vividly the coral lips, the brown eyebrows, and the silken lashes, +the only colors that trenched upon the paleness of that face, whose +perfect regularity did not detract from the grandeur of the sentiments +expressed in it; nay, thought and emotion were reflected there, without +hindrance or violence, with the majestic and natural gravity which we +delight in attributing to superior beings. That face of purest marble +expressed in all things strength and peace. + +Minna rose to take the hand of Seraphitus, hoping thus to draw him to +her, and to lay on that seductive brow a kiss given more from admiration +than from love; but a glance at the young man's eyes, which pierced her +as a ray of sunlight penetrates a prism, paralyzed the young girl. She +felt, but without comprehending, a gulf between them; then she turned +away her head and wept. Suddenly a strong hand seized her by the waist, +and a soft voice said to her: "Come!" She obeyed, resting her head, +suddenly revived, upon the heart of her companion, who, regulating his +step to hers with gentle and attentive conformity, led her to a spot +whence they could see the radiant glories of the polar Nature. + +"Before I look, before I listen to you, tell me, Seraphitus, why you +repulse me. Have I displeased you? and how? tell me! I want nothing for +myself; I would that all my earthly goods were yours, for the riches +of my heart are yours already. I would that light came to my eyes only +though your eyes just as my thought is born of your thought. I should +not then fear to offend you, for I should give you back the echoes of +your soul, the words of your heart, day by day,--as we render to God the +meditations with which his spirit nourishes our minds. I would be thine +alone." + +"Minna, a constant desire is that which shapes our future. Hope on! But +if you would be pure in heart mingle the idea of the All-Powerful with +your affections here below; then you will love all creatures, and your +heart will rise to heights indeed." + +"I will do all you tell me," she answered, lifting her eyes to his with +a timid movement. + +"I cannot be your companion," said Seraphitus sadly. + +He seemed to repress some thoughts, then stretched his arms towards +Christiana, just visible like a speck on the horizon and said:-- + +"Look!" + +"We are very small," she said. + +"Yes, but we become great through feeling and through intellect," +answered Seraphitus. "With us, and us alone, Minna, begins the knowledge +of things; the little that we learn of the laws of the visible world +enables us to apprehend the immensity of the worlds invisible. I know +not if the time has come to speak thus to you, but I would, ah, I would +communicate to you the flame of my hopes! Perhaps we may one day be +together in the world where Love never dies." + +"Why not here and now?" she said, murmuring. + +"Nothing is stable here," he said, disdainfully. "The passing joys of +earthly love are gleams which reveal to certain souls the coming of +joys more durable; just as the discovery of a single law of nature leads +certain privileged beings to a conception of the system of the universe. +Our fleeting happiness here below is the forerunning proof of another +and a perfect happiness, just as the earth, a fragment of the world, +attests the universe. We cannot measure the vast orbit of the Divine +thought of which we are but an atom as small as God is great; but we +can feel its vastness, we can kneel, adore, and wait. Men ever mislead +themselves in science by not perceiving that all things on their globe +are related and co-ordinated to the general evolution, to a constant +movement and production which bring with them, necessarily, both +advancement and an End. Man himself is not a finished creation; if he +were, God would not Be." + +"How is it that in thy short life thou hast found the time to learn so +many things?" said the young girl. + +"I remember," he replied. + +"Thou art nobler than all else I see." + +"We are the noblest of God's greatest works. Has He not given us the +faculty of reflecting on Nature; of gathering it within us by thought; +of making it a footstool and stepping-stone from and by which to rise +to Him? We love according to the greater or the lesser portion of heaven +our souls contain. But do not be unjust, Minna; behold the magnificence +spread before you. Ocean expands at your feet like a carpet; the +mountains resemble ampitheatres; heaven's ether is above them like the +arching folds of a stage curtain. Here we may breathe the thoughts of +God, as it were like a perfume. See! the angry billows which engulf the +ships laden with men seem to us, where we are, mere bubbles; and if we +raise our eyes and look above, all there is blue. Behold that diadem of +stars! Here the tints of earthly impressions disappear; standing on this +nature rarefied by space do you not feel within you something deeper far +than mind, grander than enthusiasm, of greater energy than will? Are you +not conscious of emotions whose interpretation is no longer in us? Do +you not feel your pinions? Let us pray." + +Seraphitus knelt down and crossed his hands upon his breast, while Minna +fell, weeping, on her knees. Thus they remained for a time, while +the azure dome above their heads grew larger and strong rays of light +enveloped them without their knowledge. + +"Why dost thou not weep when I weep?" said Minna, in a broken voice. + +"They who are all spirit do not weep," replied Seraphitus rising; "Why +should I weep? I see no longer human wretchedness. Here, Good appears +in all its majesty. There, beneath us, I hear the supplications and the +wailings of that harp of sorrows which vibrates in the hands of captive +souls. Here, I listen to the choir of harps harmonious. There, below, +is hope, the glorious inception of faith; but here is faith--it reigns, +hope realized!" + +"You will never love me; I am too imperfect; you disdain me," said the +young girl. + +"Minna, the violet hidden at the feet of the oak whispers to itself: +'The sun does not love me; he comes not.' The sun says: 'If my rays +shine upon her she will perish, poor flower.' Friend of the flower, he +sends his beams through the oak leaves, he veils, he tempers them, and +thus they color the petals of his beloved. I have not veils enough, +I fear lest you see me too closely; you would tremble if you knew me +better. Listen: I have no taste for earthly fruits. Your joys, I know +them all too well, and, like the sated emperors of pagan Rome, I have +reached disgust of all things; I have received the gift of vision. Leave +me! abandon me!" he murmured, sorrowfully. + +Seraphitus turned and seated himself on a projecting rock, dropping his +head upon his breast. + +"Why do you drive me to despair?" said Minna. + +"Go, go!" cried Seraphitus, "I have nothing that you want of me. Your +love is too earthly for my love. Why do you not love Wilfrid? Wilfrid is +a man, tested by passions; he would clasp you in his vigorous arms and +make you feel a hand both broad and strong. His hair is black, his +eyes are full of human thoughts, his heart pours lava in every word he +utters; he could kill you with caresses. Let him be your beloved, your +husband! Yes, thine be Wilfrid!" + +Minna wept aloud. + +"Dare you say that you do not love him?" he went on, in a voice which +pierced her like a dagger. + +"Have mercy, have mercy, my Seraphitus!" + +"Love him, poor child of Earth to which thy destiny has indissolubly +bound thee," said the strange being, beckoning Minna by a gesture, and +forcing her to the edge of the saeter, whence he pointed downward to a +scene that might well inspire a young girl full of enthusiasm with the +fancy that she stood above this earth. + +"I longed for a companion to the kingdom of Light; I wished to show you +that morsel of mud, I find you bound to it. Farewell. Remain on earth; +enjoy through the senses; obey your nature; turn pale with pallid men; +blush with women; sport with children; pray with the guilty; raise your +eyes to heaven when sorrows overtake you; tremble, hope, throb in all +your pulses; you will have a companion; you can laugh and weep, and give +and receive. I,--I am an exile, far from heaven; a monster, far from +earth. I live of myself and by myself. I feel by the spirit; I breathe +through my brow; I see by thought; I die of impatience and of longing. +No one here below can fulfil my desires or calm my griefs. I have +forgotten how to weep. I am alone. I resign myself, and I wait." + +Seraphitus looked at the flowery mound on which he had seated Minna; +then he turned and faced the frowning heights, whose pinnacles were +wrapped in clouds; to them he cast, unspoken, the remainder of his +thoughts. + +"Minna, do you hear those delightful strains?" he said after a pause, +with the voice of a dove, for the eagle's cry was hushed; "it is like +the music of those Eolian harps your poets hang in forests and on the +mountains. Do you see the shadowy figures passing among the clouds, +the winged feet of those who are making ready the gifts of heaven? They +bring refreshment to the soul; the skies are about to open and shed the +flowers of spring upon the earth. See, a gleam is darting from the pole. +Let us fly, let us fly! It is time we go!" + +In a moment their skees were refastened, and the pair descended the +Falberg by the steep slopes which join the mountain to the valleys of +the Sieg. Miraculous perception guided their course, or, to speak more +properly, their flight. When fissures covered with snow intercepted +them, Seraphitus caught Minna in his arms and darted with rapid motion, +lightly as a bird, over the crumbling causeways of the abyss. Sometimes, +while propelling his companion, he deviated to the right or left to +avoid a precipice, a tree, a projecting rock, which he seemed to see +beneath the snow, as an old sailor, familiar with the ocean, discerns +the hidden reefs by the color, the trend, or the eddying of the +water. When they reached the paths of the Siegdahlen, where they could +fearlessly follow a straight line to regain the ice of the fiord, +Seraphitus stopped Minna. + +"You have nothing to say to me?" he asked. + +"I thought you would rather think alone," she answered respectfully. + +"Let us hasten, Minette; it is almost night," he said. + +Minna quivered as she heard the voice, now so changed, of her guide,--a +pure voice, like that of a young girl, which dissolved the fantastic +dream through which she had been passing. Seraphitus seemed to be laying +aside his male force and the too keen intellect that flames from his +eyes. Presently the charming pair glided across the fiord and reached +the snow-field which divides the shore from the first range of houses; +then, hurrying forward as daylight faded, they sprang up the hill +toward the parsonage, as though they were mounting the steps of a great +staircase. + +"My father must be anxious," said Minna. + +"No," answered Seraphitus. + +As he spoke the couple reached the porch of the humble dwelling where +Monsieur Becker, the pastor of Jarvis, sat reading while awaiting his +daughter for the evening meal. + +"Dear Monsieur Becker," said Seraphitus, "I have brought Minna back to +you safe and sound." + +"Thank you, mademoiselle," said the old man, laying his spectacles on +his book; "you must be very tired." + +"Oh, no," said Minna, and as she spoke she felt the soft breath of her +companion on her brow. + +"Dear heart, will you come day after to-morrow evening and take tea with +me?" + +"Gladly, dear." + +"Monsieur Becker, you will bring her, will you not?" + +"Yes, mademoiselle." + +Seraphitus inclined his head with a pretty gesture, and bowed to the old +pastor as he left the house. A few moments later he reached the great +courtyard of the Swedish villa. An old servant, over eighty years of +age, appeared in the portico bearing a lantern. Seraphitus slipped off +his snow-shoes with the graceful dexterity of a woman, then darting into +the salon he fell exhausted and motionless on a wide divan covered with +furs. + +"What will you take?" asked the old man, lighting the immensely tall +wax-candles that are used in Norway. + +"Nothing, David, I am too weary." + +Seraphitus unfastened his pelisse lined with sable, threw it over him, +and fell asleep. The old servant stood for several minutes gazing with +loving eyes at the singular being before him, whose sex it would have +been difficult for any one at that moment to determine. Wrapped as he +was in a formless garment, which resembled equally a woman's robe and a +man's mantle, it was impossible not to fancy that the slender feet +which hung at the side of the couch were those of a woman, and equally +impossible not to note how the forehead and the outlines of the head +gave evidence of power brought to its highest pitch. + +"She suffers, and she will not tell me," thought the old man. "She is +dying, like a flower wilted by the burning sun." + +And the old man wept. + + + + +CHAPTER II. SERAPHITA + + +Later in the evening David re-entered the salon. + +"I know who it is you have come to announce," said Seraphita in a sleepy +voice. "Wilfrid may enter." + +Hearing these words a man suddenly presented himself, crossed the room +and sat down beside her. + +"My dear Seraphita, are you ill?" he said. "You look paler than usual." + +She turned slowly towards him, tossing back her hair like a pretty woman +whose aching head leaves her no strength even for complaint. + +"I was foolish enough to cross the fiord with Minna," she said. "We +ascended the Falberg." + +"Do you mean to kill yourself?" he said with a lover's terror. + +"No, my good Wilfrid; I took the greatest care of your Minna." + +Wilfrid struck his hand violently on a table, rose hastily, and made +several steps towards the door with an exclamation full of pain; then he +returned and seemed about to remonstrate. + +"Why this disturbance if you think me ill?" she said. + +"Forgive me, have mercy!" he cried, kneeling beside her. "Speak to me +harshly if you will; exact all that the cruel fancies of a woman lead +you to imagine I least can bear; but oh, my beloved, do not doubt my +love. You take Minna like an axe to hew me down. Have mercy!" + +"Why do you say these things, my friend, when you know that they are +useless?" she replied, with a look which grew in the end so soft that +Wilfrid ceased to behold her eyes, but saw in their place a fluid light, +the shimmer of which was like the last vibrations of an Italian song. + +"Ah! no man dies of anguish!" he murmured. + +"You are suffering?" she said in a voice whose intonations produced upon +his heart the same effect as that of her look. "Would I could help you!" + +"Love me as I love you." + +"Poor Minna!" she replied. + +"Why am I unarmed!" exclaimed Wilfrid, violently. + +"You are out of temper," said Seraphita, smiling. "Come, have I not +spoken to you like those Parisian women whose loves you tell of?" + +Wilfrid sat down, crossed his arms, and looked gloomily at Seraphita. "I +forgive you," he said; "for you know not what you do." + +"You mistake," she replied; "every woman from the days of Eve does good +and evil knowingly." + +"I believe it," he said. + +"I am sure of it, Wilfrid. Our instinct is precisely that which makes us +perfect. What you men learn, we feel." + +"Why, then, do you not feel how much I love you?" + +"Because you do not love me." + +"Good God!" + +"If you did, would you complain of your own sufferings?" + +"You are terrible to-night, Seraphita. You are a demon." + +"No, but I am gifted with the faculty of comprehending, and it is awful. +Wilfrid, sorrow is a lamp which illumines life." + +"Why did you ascend the Falberg?" + +"Minna will tell you. I am too weary to talk. You must talk to me,--you +who know so much, who have learned all things and forgotten nothing; you +who have passed through every social test. Talk to me, amuse me, I am +listening." + +"What can I tell you that you do not know? Besides, the request is +ironical. You allow yourself no intercourse with social life; you +trample on its conventions, its laws, its customs, sentiments, and +sciences; you reduce them all to the proportions such things take when +viewed by you beyond this universe." + +"Therefore you see, my friend, that I am not a woman. You do wrong +to love me. What! am I to leave the ethereal regions of my pretended +strength, make myself humbly small, cringe like the hapless female of +all species, that you may lift me up? and then, when I, helpless and +broken, ask you for help, when I need your arm, you will repulse me! No, +we can never come to terms." + +"You are more maliciously unkind to-night than I have ever known you." + +"Unkind!" she said, with a look which seemed to blend all feelings into +one celestial emotion, "no, I am ill, I suffer, that is all. Leave me, +my friend; it is your manly right. We women should ever please you, +entertain you, be gay in your presence and have no whims save those that +amuse you. Come, what shall I do for you, friend? Shall I sing, shall I +dance, though weariness deprives me of the use of voice and limbs?--Ah! +gentlemen, be we on our deathbeds, we yet must smile to please you; you +call that, methinks, your right. Poor women! I pity them. Tell me, you +who abandon them when they grow old, is it because they have neither +hearts nor souls? Wilfrid, I am a hundred years old; leave me! leave me! +go to Minna!" + +"Oh, my eternal love!" + +"Do you know the meaning of eternity? Be silent, Wilfrid. You desire +me, but you do not love me. Tell me, do I not seem to you like those +coquettish Parisian women?" + +"Certainly I no longer find you the pure celestial maiden I first saw in +the church of Jarvis." + +At these words Seraphita passed her hands across her brow, and when +she removed them Wilfrid was amazed at the saintly expression that +overspread her face. + +"You are right, my friend," she said; "I do wrong whenever I set my feet +upon your earth." + +"Oh, Seraphita, be my star! stay where you can ever bless me with that +clear light!" + +As he spoke, he stretched forth his hand to take that of the young girl, +but she withdrew it, neither disdainfully nor in anger. Wilfrid rose +abruptly and walked to the window that she might not see the tears that +rose to his eyes. + +"Why do you weep?" she said. "You are not a child, Wilfrid. Come back to +me. I wish it. You are annoyed if I show just displeasure. You see that +I am fatigued and ill, yet you force me to think and speak, and listen +to persuasions and ideas that weary me. If you had any real perception +of my nature, you would have made some music, you would have lulled my +feelings--but no, you love me for yourself and not for myself." + +The storm which convulsed the young man's heart calmed down at these +words. He slowly approached her, letting his eyes take in the seductive +creature who lay exhausted before him, her head resting in her hand and +her elbow on the couch. + +"You think that I do not love you," she resumed. "You are mistaken. +Listen to me, Wilfrid. You are beginning to know much; you have suffered +much. Let me explain your thoughts to you. You wished to take my hand +just now"; she rose to a sitting posture, and her graceful motions +seemed to emit light. "When a young girl allows her hand to be taken it +is as though she made a promise, is it not? and ought she not to fulfil +it? You well know that I cannot be yours. Two sentiments divide and +inspire the love of all the women of the earth. Either they devote +themselves to suffering, degraded, and criminal beings whom they desire +to console, uplift, redeem; or they give themselves to superior men, +sublime and strong, whom they adore and seek to comprehend, and by whom +they are often annihilated. You have been degraded, though now you are +purified by the fires of repentance, and to-day you are once more noble; +but I know myself too feeble to be your equal, and too religious to bow +before any power but that On High. I may refer thus to your life, my +friend, for we are in the North, among the clouds, where all things are +abstractions." + +"You stab me, Seraphita, when you speak like this. It wounds me to hear +you apply the dreadful knowledge with which you strip from all things +human the properties that time and space and form have given them, +and consider them mathematically in the abstract, as geometry treats +substances from which it extracts solidity." + +"Well, I will respect your wishes, Wilfrid. Let the subject drop. Tell +me what you think of this bearskin rug which my poor David has spread +out." + +"It is very handsome." + +"Did you ever see me wear this 'doucha greka'?" + +She pointed to a pelisse made of cashmere and lined with the skin of the +black fox,--the name she gave it signifying "warm to the soul." + +"Do you believe that any sovereign has a fur that can equal it?" she +asked. + +"It is worthy of her who wears it." + +"And whom you think beautiful?" + +"Human words do not apply to her. Heart to heart is the only language I +can use." + +"Wilfrid, you are kind to soothe my griefs with such sweet words--which +you have said to others." + +"Farewell!" + +"Stay. I love both you and Minna, believe me. To me you two are as one +being. United thus you can be my brother or, if you will, my sister. +Marry her; let me see you both happy before I leave this world of trial +and of pain. My God! the simplest of women obtain what they ask of a +lover; they whisper 'Hush!' and he is silent; 'Die' and he dies; 'Love +me afar' and he stays at a distance, like courtiers before a king! All +I desire is to see you happy, and you refuse me! Am I then +powerless?--Wilfrid, listen, come nearer to me. Yes, I should grieve to +see you marry Minna but--when I am here no longer, then--promise me to +marry her; heaven destined you for each other." + +"I listen to you with fascination, Seraphita. Your words are +incomprehensible, but they charm me. What is it you mean to say?" + +"You are right; I forget to be foolish,--to be the poor creature whose +weaknesses gratify you. I torment you, Wilfrid. You came to these +Northern lands for rest, you, worn-out by the impetuous struggle of +genius unrecognized, you, weary with the patient toils of science, you, +who well-nigh dyed your hands in crime and wore the fetters of human +justice--" + +Wilfrid dropped speechless on the carpet. Seraphita breathed softly on +his forehead, and in a moment he fell asleep at her feet. + +"Sleep! rest!" she said, rising. + +She passed her hands over Wilfrid's brow; then the following sentences +escaped her lips, one by one,--all different in tone and accent, but all +melodious, full of a Goodness that seemed to emanate from her head in +vaporous waves, like the gleams the goddess chastely lays upon Endymion +sleeping. + +"I cannot show myself such as I am to thee, dear Wilfrid,--to thee who +art strong. + +"The hour is come; the hour when the effulgent lights of the future cast +their reflections backward on the soul; the hour when the soul awakes +into freedom. + +"Now am I permitted to tell thee how I love thee. Dost thou not see the +nature of my love, a love without self-interest; a sentiment full of +thee, thee only; a love which follows thee into the future to light that +future for thee--for it is the one True Light. Canst thou now conceive +with what ardor I would have thee leave this life which weighs thee +down, and behold thee nearer than thou art to that world where Love is +never-failing? Can it be aught but suffering to love for one life only? +Hast thou not felt a thirst for the eternal love? Dost thou not feel the +bliss to which a creature rises when, with twin-soul, it loves the Being +who betrays not love, Him before whom we kneel in adoration? + +"Would I had wings to cover thee, Wilfrid; power to give thee strength +to enter now into that world where all the purest joys of purest earthly +attachments are but shadows in the Light that shines, unceasing, to +illumine and rejoice all hearts. + +"Forgive a friendly soul for showing thee the picture of thy sins, in +the charitable hope of soothing the sharp pangs of thy remorse. Listen +to the pardoning choir; refresh thy soul in the dawn now rising for thee +beyond the night of death. Yes, thy life, thy true life is there! + +"May my words now reach thee clothed in the glorious forms of dreams; +may they deck themselves with images glowing and radiant as they hover +round you. Rise, rise, to the height where men can see themselves +distinctly, pressed together though they be like grains of sand upon +a sea-shore. Humanity rolls out like a many-colored ribbon. See the +diverse shades of that flower of the celestial gardens. Behold the +beings who lack intelligence, those who begin to receive it, those who +have passed through trials, those who love, those who follow wisdom and +aspire to the regions of Light! + +"Canst thou comprehend, through this thought made visible, the destiny +of humanity?--whence it came, whither to goeth? Continue steadfast in +the Path. Reaching the end of thy journey thou shalt hear the clarions +of omnipotence sounding the cries of victory in chords of which a single +one would shake the earth, but which are lost in the spaces of a world +that hath neither east nor west. + +"Canst thou comprehend, my poor beloved Tried-one, that unless the +torpor and the veils of sleep had wrapped thee, such sights would rend +and bear away thy mind as the whirlwinds rend and carry into space the +feeble sails, depriving thee forever of thy reason? Dost thou understand +that the Soul itself, raised to its utmost power can scarcely endure in +dreams the burning communications of the Spirit? + +"Speed thy way through the luminous spheres; behold, admire, hasten! +Flying thus thou canst pause or advance without weariness. Like other +men, thou wouldst fain be plunged forever in these spheres of light and +perfume where now thou art, free of thy swooning body, and where thy +thought alone has utterance. Fly! enjoy for a fleeting moment the wings +thou shalt surely win when Love has grown so perfect in thee that thou +hast no senses left; when thy whole being is all mind, all love. The +higher thy flight the less canst thou see the abysses. There are none in +heaven. Look at the friend who speaks to thee; she who holds thee above +this earth in which are all abysses. Look, behold, contemplate me yet a +moment longer, for never again wilt thou see me, save imperfectly as the +pale twilight of this world may show me to thee." + +Seraphita stood erect, her head with floating hair inclining gently +forward, in that aerial attitude which great painters give to messengers +from heaven; the folds of her raiment fell with the same unspeakable +grace which holds an artist--the man who translates all things into +sentiment--before the exquisite well-known lines of Polyhymnia's veil. +Then she stretched forth her hand. Wilfrid rose. When he looked at +Seraphita she was lying on the bear's-skin, her head resting on her +hand, her face calm, her eyes brilliant. Wilfrid gazed at her silently; +but his face betrayed a deferential fear in its almost timid expression. + +"Yes, dear," he said at last, as though he were answering some question; +"we are separated by worlds. I resign myself; I can only adore you. But +what will become of me, poor and alone!" + +"Wilfrid, you have Minna." + +He shook his head. + +"Do not be so disdainful; woman understands all things through love; +what she does not understand she feels; what she does not feel she sees; +when she neither sees, nor feels, nor understands, this angel of earth +divines to protect you, and hides her protection beneath the grace of +love." + +"Seraphita, am I worthy to belong to a woman?" + +"Ah, now," she said, smiling, "you are suddenly very modest; is it a +snare? A woman is always so touched to see her weakness glorified. Well, +come and take tea with me the day after to-morrow evening; good Monsieur +Becker will be here, and Minna, the purest and most artless creature +I have known on earth. Leave me now, my friend; I need to make long +prayers and expiate my sins." + +"You, can you commit sin?" + +"Poor friend! if we abuse our power, is not that the sin of pride? I +have been very proud to-day. Now leave me, till to-morrow." + +"Till to-morrow," said Wilfrid faintly, casting a long glance at the +being of whom he desired to carry with him an ineffaceable memory. + +Though he wished to go far away, he was held, as it were, outside the +house for some moments, watching the light which shone from all the +windows of the Swedish dwelling. + +"What is the matter with me?" he asked himself. "No, she is not a mere +creature, but a whole creation. Of her world, even through veils and +clouds, I have caught echoes like the memory of sufferings healed, +like the dazzling vertigo of dreams in which we hear the plaints of +generations mingling with the harmonies of some higher sphere where all +is Light and all is Love. Am I awake? Do I still sleep? Are these the +eyes before which the luminous space retreated further and further +indefinitely while the eyes followed it? The night is cold, yet my head +is on fire. I will go to the parsonage. With the pastor and his daughter +I shall recover the balance of my mind." + +But still he did not leave the spot whence his eyes could plunge into +Seraphita's salon. The mysterious creature seemed to him the radiating +centre of a luminous circle which formed an atmosphere about her wider +than that of other beings; whoever entered it felt the compelling +influence of, as it were, a vortex of dazzling light and all consuming +thoughts. Forced to struggle against this inexplicable power, Wilfrid +only prevailed after strong efforts; but when he reached and passed the +inclosing wall of the courtyard, he regained his freedom of will, walked +rapidly towards the parsonage, and was soon beneath the high wooden +arch which formed a sort of peristyle to Monsieur Becker's dwelling. He +opened the first door, against which the wind had driven the snow, and +knocked on the inner one, saying:-- + +"Will you let me spend the evening with you, Monsieur Becker?" + +"Yes," cried two voices, mingling their intonations. + +Entering the parlor, Wilfrid returned by degrees to real life. He bowed +affectionately to Minna, shook hands with Monsieur Becker, and looked +about at the picture of a home which calmed the convulsions of his +physical nature, in which a phenomenon was taking place analogous to +that which sometimes seizes upon men who have given themselves up +to protracted contemplations. If some strong thought bears upward on +phantasmal wing a man of learning or a poet, isolates him from the +external circumstances which environ him here below, and leads him +forward through illimitable regions where vast arrays of facts become +abstractions, where the greatest works of Nature are but images, then +woe betide him if a sudden noise strikes sharply on his senses and calls +his errant soul back to its prison-house of flesh and bones. The +shock of the reunion of these two powers, body and mind,--one of which +partakes of the unseen qualities of a thunderbolt, while the other +shares with sentient nature that soft resistant force which deifies +destruction,--this shock, this struggle, or, rather let us say, this +painful meeting and co-mingling, gives rise to frightful sufferings. The +body receives back the flame that consumes it; the flame has once more +grasped its prey. This fusion, however, does not take place without +convulsions, explosions, tortures; analogous and visible signs of which +may be seen in chemistry, when two antagonistic substances which science +has united separate. + +For the last few days whenever Wilfrid entered Seraphita's presence his +body seemed to fall away from him into nothingness. With a single +glance this strange being led him in spirit through the spheres where +meditation leads the learned man, prayer the pious heart, where vision +transports the artist, and sleep the souls of men,--each and all have +their own path to the Height, their own guide to reach it, their own +individual sufferings in the dire return. In that sphere alone all veils +are rent away, and the revelation, the awful flaming certainty of an +unknown world, of which the soul brings back mere fragments to this +lower sphere, stands revealed. To Wilfrid one hour passed with Seraphita +was like the sought-for dreams of Theriakis, in which each knot of +nerves becomes the centre of a radiating delight. But he left her +bruised and wearied as some young girl endeavoring to keep step with a +giant. + +The cold air, with its stinging flagellations, had begun to still +the nervous tremors which followed the reunion of his two natures, so +powerfully disunited for a time; he was drawn towards the parsonage, +then towards Minna, by the sight of the every-day home life for which +he thirsted as the wandering European thirsts for his native land when +nostalgia seizes him amid the fairy scenes of Orient that have seduced +his senses. More weary than he had ever yet been, Wilfrid dropped into +a chair and looked about him for a time, like a man who awakens from +sleep. Monsieur Becker and his daughter accustomed, perhaps, to the +apparent eccentricity of their guest, continued the employments in which +they were engaged. + +The parlor was ornamented with a collection of the shells and insects +of Norway. These curiosities, admirably arranged on a background of the +yellow pine which panelled the room, formed, as it were, a rich tapestry +to which the fumes of tobacco had imparted a mellow tone. At the further +end of the room, opposite to the door, was an immense wrought-iron +stove, carefully polished by the serving-woman till it shone like +burnished steel. Seated in a large tapestried armchair near the stove, +before a table, with his feet in a species of muff, Monsieur Becker was +reading a folio volume which was propped against a pile of other books +as on a desk. At his left stood a jug of beer and a glass, at his right +burned a smoky lamp fed by some species of fish-oil. The pastor seemed +about sixty years of age. His face belonged to a type often painted by +Rembrandt; the same small bright eyes, set in wrinkles and surmounted by +thick gray eyebrows; the same white hair escaping in snowy flakes from a +black velvet cap; the same broad, bald brow, and a contour of face +which the ample chin made almost square; and lastly, the same calm +tranquillity, which, to an observer, denoted the possession of some +inward power, be it the supremacy bestowed by money, or the magisterial +influence of the burgomaster, or the consciousness of art, or the +cubic force of blissful ignorance. This fine old man, whose stout body +proclaimed his vigorous health, was wrapped in a dressing-gown of rough +gray cloth plainly bound. Between his lips was a meerschaum pipe, +from which, at regular intervals, he blew the smoke, following with +abstracted vision its fantastic wreathings,--his mind employed, no +doubt, in assimilating through some meditative process the thoughts of +the author whose works he was studying. + +On the other side of the stove and near a door which communicated with +the kitchen Minna was indistinctly visible in the haze of the good man's +smoke, to which she was apparently accustomed. Beside her on a little +table were the implements of household work, a pile of napkins, and +another of socks waiting to be mended, also a lamp like that which shone +on the white page of the book in which the pastor was absorbed. Her +fresh young face, with its delicate outline, expressed an infinite +purity which harmonized with the candor of the white brow and the clear +blue eyes. She sat erect, turning slightly toward the lamp for better +light, unconsciously showing as she did so the beauty of her waist and +bust. She was already dressed for the night in a long robe of white +cotton; a cambric cap, without other ornament than a frill of the same, +confined her hair. Though evidently plunged in some inward meditation, +she counted without a mistake the threads of her napkins or the meshes +of her socks. Sitting thus, she presented the most complete image, the +truest type, of the woman destined for terrestrial labor, whose glance +may piece the clouds of the sanctuary while her thought, humble and +charitable, keeps her ever on the level of man. + +Wilfrid had flung himself into a chair between the two tables and +was contemplating with a species of intoxication this picture full of +harmony, to which the clouds of smoke did no despite. The single window +which lighted the parlor during the fine weather was now carefully +closed. An old tapestry, used for a curtain and fastened to a stick, +hung before it in heavy folds. Nothing in the room was picturesque, +nothing brilliant; everything denoted rigorous simplicity, true +heartiness, the ease of unconventional nature, and the habits of a +domestic life which knew neither cares nor troubles. Many a dwelling is +like a dream, the sparkle of passing pleasure seems to hide some ruin +beneath the cold smile of luxury; but this parlor, sublime in reality, +harmonious in tone, diffused the patriarchal ideas of a full and +self-contained existence. The silence was unbroken save by the movements +of the servant in the kitchen engaged in preparing the supper, and +by the sizzling of the dried fish which she was frying in salt butter +according to the custom of the country. + +"Will you smoke a pipe?" said the pastor, seizing a moment when he +thought that Wilfrid might listen to him. + +"Thank you, no, dear Monsieur Becker," replied the visitor. + +"You seem to suffer more to-day than usual," said Minna, struck by the +feeble tones of the stranger's voice. + +"I am always so when I leave the chateau." + +Minna quivered. + +"A strange being lives there, Monsieur Becker," he continued after a +pause. "For the six months that I have been in this village I have never +yet dared to question you about her, and even now I do violence to +my feelings in speaking of her. I began by keenly regretting that my +journey in this country was arrested by the winter weather and that I +was forced to remain here. But during the last two months chains have +been forged and riveted which bind me irrevocably to Jarvis, till now +I fear to end my days here. You know how I first met Seraphita, what +impression her look and voice made upon me, and how at last I was +admitted to her home where she receives no one. From the very first day +I have longed to ask you the history of this mysterious being. On that +day began, for me, a series of enchantments." + +"Enchantments!" cried the pastor shaking the ashes of his pipe into an +earthen-ware dish full of sand, "are there enchantments in these days?" + +"You, who are carefully studying at this moment that volume of the +'Incantations' of Jean Wier, will surely understand the explanation of +my sensations if I try to give it to you," replied Wilfrid. "If we study +Nature attentively in its great evolutions as in its minutest works, we +cannot fail to recognize the possibility of enchantment--giving to that +word its exact significance. Man does not create forces; he employs the +only force that exists and which includes all others namely Motion, the +breath incomprehensible of the sovereign Maker of the universe. Species +are too distinctly separated for the human hand to mingle them. The only +miracle of which man is capable is done through the conjunction of +two antagonistic substances. Gunpowder for instance is germane to a +thunderbolt. As to calling forth a creation, and a sudden one, all +creation demands time, and time neither recedes nor advances at the word +of command. So, in the world without us, plastic nature obeys laws the +order and exercise of which cannot be interfered with by the hand of +man. But after fulfilling, as it were, the function of Matter, it would +be unreasonable not to recognize within us the existence of a gigantic +power, the effects of which are so incommensurable that the known +generations of men have never yet been able to classify them. I do not +speak of man's faculty of abstraction, of constraining Nature to +confine itself within the Word,--a gigantic act on which the common +mind reflects as little as it does on the nature of Motion, but which, +nevertheless, has led the Indian theosophists to explain creation by +a word to which they give an inverse power. The smallest atom of their +subsistence, namely, the grain of rice, from which a creation issues and +in which alternately creation again is held, presented to their minds so +perfect an image of the creative word, and of the abstractive word, that +to them it was easy to apply the same system to the creation of worlds. +The majority of men content themselves with the grain of rice sown in +the first chapter of all the Geneses. Saint John, when he said the +Word was God only complicated the difficulty. But the fructification, +germination, and efflorescence of our ideas is of little consequence if +we compare that property, shared by many men, with the wholly +individual faculty of communicating to that property, by some mysterious +concentration, forces that are more or less active, of carrying it up +to a third, a ninth, or a twenty-seventh power, of making it thus fasten +upon the masses and obtain magical results by condensing the processes +of nature. + +"What I mean by enchantments," continued Wilfrid after a moment's pause, +"are those stupendous actions taking place between two membranes in the +tissue of the brain. We find in the unexplorable nature of the Spiritual +World certain beings armed with these wondrous faculties, comparable +only to the terrible power of certain gases in the physical world, +beings who combine with other beings, penetrate them as active agents, +and produce upon them witchcrafts, charms, against which these helpless +slaves are wholly defenceless; they are, in fact, enchanted, brought +under subjection, reduced to a condition of dreadful vassalage. Such +mysterious beings overpower others with the sceptre and the glory of +a superior nature,--acting upon them at times like the torpedo which +electrifies or paralyzes the fisherman, at other times like a dose of +phosphorous which stimulates life and accelerates its propulsion; or +again, like opium, which puts to sleep corporeal nature, disengages the +spirit from every bond, enables it to float above the world and shows +this earth to the spiritual eye as through a prism, extracting from it +the food most needed; or, yet again, like catalepsy, which deadens +all faculties for the sake of one only vision. Miracles, enchantments, +incantations, witchcrafts, spells, and charms, in short, all those +acts improperly termed supernatural, are only possible and can only be +explained by the despotism with which some spirit compels us to feel the +effects of a mysterious optic which increases, or diminishes, or exalts +creation, moves within us as it pleases, deforms or embellishes all +things to our eyes, tears us from heaven, or drags us to hell,--two +terms by which men agree to express the two extremes of joy and misery. + +"These phenomena are within us, not without us," Wilfrid went on. "The +being whom we call Seraphita seems to me one of those rare and terrible +spirits to whom power is given to bind men, to crush nature, to enter +into participation of the occult power of God. The course of her +enchantments over me began on that first day, when silence as to her +was imposed upon me against my will. Each time that I have wished to +question you it seemed as though I were about to reveal a secret of +which I ought to be the incorruptible guardian. Whenever I have tried +to speak, a burning seal has been laid upon my lips, and I myself have +become the involuntary minister of these mysteries. You see me here +to-night, for the hundredth time, bruised, defeated, broken, after +leaving the hallucinating sphere which surrounds that young girl, so +gentle, so fragile to both of you, but to me the cruellest of magicians! +Yes, to me she is like a sorcerer holding in her right hand the +invisible wand that moves the globe, and in her left the thunderbolt +that rends asunder all things at her will. No longer can I look upon her +brow; the light of it is insupportable. I skirt the borders of the abyss +of madness too closely to be longer silent. I must speak. I seize this +moment, when courage comes to me, to resist the power which drags me +onward without inquiring whether or not I have the force to follow. Who +is she? Did you know her young? What of her birth? Had she father and +mother, or was she born of the conjunction of ice and sun? She burns and +yet she freeze; she shows herself and then withdraws; she attracts me +and repulses me; she brings me life, she gives me death; I love her and +yet I hate her! I cannot live thus; let me be wholly in heaven or in +hell!" + +Holding his refilled pipe in one hand, and in the other the cover +which he forgot to replace, Monsieur Becker listened to Wilfrid with a +mysterious expression on his face, looking occasionally at his daughter, +who seemed to understand the man's language as in harmony with the +strange being who inspired it. Wilfrid was splendid to behold at this +moment,--like Hamlet listening to the ghost of his father as it rises +for him alone in the midst of the living. + +"This is certainly the language of a man in love," said the good pastor, +innocently. + +"In love!" cried Wilfrid, "yes, to common minds. But, dear Monsieur +Becker, no words can express the frenzy which draws me to the feet of +that unearthly being." + +"Then you do love her?" said Minna, in a tone of reproach. + +"Mademoiselle, I feel such extraordinary agitation when I see her, and +such deep sadness when I see her no more, that in any other man what I +feel would be called love. But that sentiment draws those who feel it +ardently together, whereas between her and me a great gulf lies, whose +icy coldness penetrates my very being in her presence; though the +feeling dies away when I see her no longer. I leave her in despair; I +return to her with ardor,--like men of science who seek a secret from +Nature only to be baffled, or like the painter who would fain put life +upon his canvas and strives with all the resources of his art in the +vain attempt." + +"Monsieur, all that you say is true," replied the young girl, artlessly. + +"How can you know, Minna?" asked the old pastor. + +"Ah! my father, had you been with us this morning on the summit of the +Falberg, had you seen him praying, you would not ask me that question. +You would say, like Monsieur Wilfrid, that he saw his Seraphita for the +first time in our temple, 'It is the Spirit of Prayer.'" + +These words were followed by a moment's silence. + +"Ah, truly!" said Wilfrid, "she has nothing in common with the creatures +who grovel upon this earth." + +"On the Falberg!" said the old pastor, "how could you get there?" + +"I do not know," replied Minna; "the way is like a dream to me, of which +no more than a memory remains. Perhaps I should hardly believe that I +had been there were it not for this tangible proof." + +She drew the flower from her bosom and showed it to them. All three +gazed at the pretty saxifrage, which was still fresh, and now shone in +the light of the two lamps like a third luminary. + +"This is indeed supernatural," said the old man, astounded at the sight +of a flower blooming in winter. + +"A mystery!" cried Wilfrid, intoxicated with its perfume. + +"The flower makes me giddy," said Minna; "I fancy I still hear that +voice,--the music of thought; that I still see the light of that look, +which is Love." + +"I implore you, my dear Monsieur Becker, tell me the history of +Seraphita,--enigmatical human flower,--whose image is before us in this +mysterious bloom." + +"My dear friend," said the old man, emitting a puff of smoke, "to +explain the birth of that being it is absolutely necessary that +I disperse the clouds which envelop the most obscure of Christian +doctrines. It is not easy to make myself clear when speaking of that +incomprehensible revelation,--the last effulgence of faith that has +shone upon our lump of mud. Do you know Swedenborg?" + +"By name only,--of him, of his books, and his religion I know nothing." + +"Then I must relate to you the whole chronicle of Swedenborg." + + + + +CHAPTER III. SERAPHITA-SERAPHITUS + + +After a pause, during which the pastor seemed to be gathering his +recollections, he continued in the following words:-- + +"Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Upsala in Sweden, in the month of +January, 1688, according to various authors,--in 1689, according to his +epitaph. His father was Bishop of Skara. Swedenborg lived eighty-five +years; his death occurred in London, March 29, 1772. I use that term to +convey the idea of a simple change of state. According to his disciples, +Swedenborg was seen at Jarvis and in Paris after that date. Allow me, +my dear Monsieur Wilfrid," said Monsieur Becker, making a gesture to +prevent all interruption, "I relate these facts without either affirming +or denying them. Listen; afterwards you can think and say what you like. +I will inform you when I judge, criticise, and discuss these doctrines, +so as to keep clearly in view my own intellectual neutrality between HIM +and Reason. + +"The life of Swedenborg was divided into two parts," continued the +pastor. "From 1688 to 1745 Baron Emanuel Swedenborg appeared in the +world as a man of vast learning, esteemed and cherished for his virtues, +always irreproachable and constantly useful. While fulfilling high +public functions in Sweden, he published, between 1709 and 1740, several +important works on mineralogy, physics, mathematics, and astronomy, +which enlightened the world of learning. He originated a method of +building docks suitable for the reception of large vessels, and he +wrote many treatises on various important questions, such as the rise +of tides, the theory of the magnet and its qualities, the motion and +position of the earth and planets, and while Assessor in the Royal +College of Mines, on the proper system of working salt mines. He +discovered means to construct canal-locks or sluices; and he also +discovered and applied the simplest methods of extracting ore and of +working metals. In fact he studied no science without advancing it. In +youth he learned Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, also the oriental languages, +with which he became so familiar that many distinguished scholars +consulted him, and he was able to decipher the vestiges of the oldest +known books of Scripture, namely: 'The Wars of Jehovah' and 'The +Enunciations,' spoken of by Moses (Numbers xxi. 14, 15, 27-30), also +by Joshua, Jeremiah, and Samuel,--'The Wars of Jehovah' being the +historical part and 'The Enunciations' the prophetical part of the +Mosaical Books anterior to Genesis. Swedenborg even affirms that 'the +Book of Jasher,' the Book of the Righteous, mentioned by Joshua, was +in existence in Eastern Tartary, together with the doctrine of +Correspondences. A Frenchman has lately, so they tell me, justified +these statements of Swedenborg, by the discovery at Bagdad of several +portions of the Bible hitherto unknown to Europe. During the widespread +discussion on animal magnetism which took its rise in Paris, and in +which most men of Western science took an active part about the year +1785, Monsieur le Marquis de Thome vindicated the memory of Swedenborg +by calling attention to certain assertions made by the Commission +appointed by the King of France to investigate the subject. These +gentlemen declared that no theory of magnetism existed, whereas +Swedenborg had studied and promulgated it ever since the year 1720. +Monsieur de Thome seizes this opportunity to show the reason why so many +men of science relegated Swedenborg to oblivion while they delved into +his treasure-house and took his facts to aid their work. 'Some of the +most illustrious of these men,' said Monsieur de Thome, alluding to +the 'Theory of the Earth' by Buffon, 'have had the meanness to wear the +plumage of the noble bird and refuse him all acknowledgment'; and he +proved, by masterly quotations drawn from the encyclopaedic works of +Swedenborg, that the great prophet had anticipated by over a century the +slow march of human science. It suffices to read his philosophical and +mineralogical works to be convinced of this. In one passage he is +seen as the precursor of modern chemistry by the announcement that the +productions of organized nature are decomposable and resolve into two +simple principles; also that water, air, and fire are _not elements_. In +another, he goes in a few words to the heart of magnetic mysteries and +deprives Mesmer of the honors of a first knowledge of them. + +"There," said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a long shelf against the +wall between the stove and the window on which were ranged books of all +sizes, "behold him! here are seventeen works from his pen, of which one, +his 'Philosophical and Mineralogical Works,' published in 1734, is in +three folio volumes. These productions, which prove the incontestable +knowledge of Swedenborg, were given to me by Monsieur Seraphitus, his +cousin and the father of Seraphita. + +"In 1740," continued Monsieur Becker, after a slight pause, "Swedenborg +fell into a state of absolute silence, from which he emerged to bid +farewell to all his earthly occupations; after which his thoughts turned +exclusively to the Spiritual Life. He received the first commands of +heaven in 1745, and he thus relates the nature of the vocation to +which he was called: One evening, in London, after dining with a great +appetite, a thick white mist seemed to fill his room. When the +vapor dispersed a creature in human form rose from one corner of the +apartment, and said in a stern tone, 'Do not eat so much.' He refrained. +The next night the same man returned, radiant in light, and said to him, +'I am sent of God, who has chosen you to explain to men the meaning of +his Word and his Creation. I will tell you what to write.' The vision +lasted but a few moments. The _angel_ was clothed in purple. During that +night the eyes of his _inner man_ were opened, and he was forced to +look into the heavens, into the world of spirits, and into hell,--three +separate spheres; where he encountered persons of his acquaintance who +had departed from their human form, some long since, others lately. +Thenceforth Swedenborg lived wholly in the spiritual life, remaining in +this world only as the messenger of God. His mission was ridiculed by +the incredulous, but his conduct was plainly that of a being superior +to humanity. In the first place, though limited in means to the bare +necessaries of life, he gave away enormous sums, and publicly, in +several cities, restored the fortunes of great commercial houses +when they were on the brink of failure. No one ever appealed to his +generosity who was not immediately satisfied. A sceptical Englishman, +determined to know the truth, followed him to Paris, and relates that +there his doors stood always open. One day a servant complained of this +apparent negligence, which laid him open to suspicion of thefts +that might be committed by others. 'He need feel no anxiety,' said +Swedenborg, smiling. 'But I do not wonder at his fear; he cannot see the +guardian who protects my door.' In fact, no matter in what country he +made his abode he never closed his doors, and nothing was ever +stolen from him. At Gottenburg--a town situated some sixty miles from +Stockholm--he announced, eight days before the news arrived by courier, +the conflagration which ravaged Stockholm, and the exact time at which +it took place. The Queen of Sweden wrote to her brother, the King, at +Berlin, that one of her ladies-in-waiting, who was ordered by the courts +to pay a sum of money which she was certain her husband had paid before +his death, went to Swedenborg and begged him to ask her husband where +she could find proof of the payment. The following day Swedenborg, +having done as the lady requested, pointed out the place where the +receipt would be found. He also begged the deceased to appear to +his wife, and the latter saw her husband in a dream, wrapped in a +dressing-gown which he wore just before his death; and he showed her the +paper in the place indicated by Swedenborg, where it had been securely +put away. At another time, embarking from London in a vessel commanded +by Captain Dixon, he overheard a lady asking if there were plenty of +provisions on board. 'We do not want a great quantity,' he said; 'in +eight days and two hours we shall reach Stockholm,'--which actually +happened. This peculiar state of vision as to the things of the +earth--into which Swedenborg could put himself at will, and +which astonished those about him--was, nevertheless, but a feeble +representative of his faculty of looking into heaven. + +"Not the least remarkable of his published visions is that in which he +relates his journeys through the Astral Regions; his descriptions +cannot fail to astonish the reader, partly through the crudity of their +details. A man whose scientific eminence is incontestable, and who +united in his own person powers of conception, will, and imagination, +would surely have invented better if he had invented at all. The +fantastic literature of the East offers nothing that can give an idea +of this astounding work, full of the essence of poetry, if it is +permissible to compare a work of faith with one of oriental fancy. The +transportation of Swedenborg by the Angel who served as guide to this +first journey is told with a sublimity which exceeds, by the distance +which God has placed betwixt the earth and the sun, the great epics of +Klopstock, Milton, Tasso, and Dante. This description, which serves in +fact as an introduction to his work on the Astral Regions, has never +been published; it is among the oral traditions left by Swedenborg to +the three disciples who were nearest to his heart. Monsieur Silverichm +has written them down. Monsieur Seraphitus endeavored more than once to +talk to me about them; but the recollection of his cousin's words was so +burning a memory that he always stopped short at the first sentence and +became lost in a revery from which I could not rouse him." + +The old pastor sighed as he continued: "The baron told me that the +argument by which the Angel proved to Swedenborg that these bodies are +not made to wander through space puts all human science out of sight +beneath the grandeur of a divine logic. According to the Seer, the +inhabitants of Jupiter will not cultivate the sciences, which they call +darkness; those of Mercury abhor the expression of ideas by speech, +which seems to them too material,--their language is ocular; those of +Saturn are continually tempted by evil spirits; those of the Moon are as +small as six-year-old children, their voices issue from the abdomen, on +which they crawl; those of Venus are gigantic in height, but stupid, and +live by robbery,--although a part of this latter planet is inhabited by +beings of great sweetness, who live in the love of Good. In short, he +describes the customs and morals of all the peoples attached to the +different globes, and explains the general meaning of their existence as +related to the universe in terms so precise, giving explanations which +agree so well with their visible evolutions in the system of the world, +that some day, perhaps, scientific men will come to drink of these +living waters. + +"Here," said Monsieur Becker, taking down a book and opening it at a +mark, "here are the words with which he ended this work:-- + +"'If any man doubts that I was transported through a vast number of +Astral Regions, let him recall my observation of the distances in that +other life, namely, that they exist only in relation to the external +state of man; now, being transformed within like unto the Angelic +Spirits of those Astral Spheres, I was able to understand them.' + +"The circumstances to which we of this canton owe the presence among +us of Baron Seraphitus, the beloved cousin of Swedenborg, enabled me to +know all the events of the extraordinary life of that prophet. He has +lately been accused of imposture in certain quarters of Europe, and the +public prints reported the following fact based on a letter written +by the Chevalier Baylon. Swedenborg, they said, informed by certain +senators of a secret correspondence of the late Queen of Sweden with her +brother, the Prince of Prussia, revealed his knowledge of the secrets +contained in that correspondence to the Queen, making her believe he +had obtained this knowledge by supernatural means. A man worthy of all +confidence, Monsieur Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer, captain in +the Royal guard and knight of the Sword, answered the calumny with a +convincing letter." + +The pastor opened a drawer of his table and looked through a number of +papers until he found a gazette which he held out to Wilfrid, asking him +to read aloud the following letter:-- + +Stockholm, May 18, 1788. + + I have read with amazement a letter which purports to relate the + interview of the famous Swedenborg with Queen Louisa-Ulrika. The + circumstances therein stated are wholly false; and I hope the + writer will excuse me for showing him by the following faithful + narration, which can be proved by the testimony of many + distinguished persons then present and still living, how + completely he has been deceived. + + In 1758, shortly after the death of the Prince of Prussia + Swedenborg came to court, where he was in the habit of attending + regularly. He had scarcely entered the queen's presence before she + said to him: "Well, Mr. Assessor, have you seen my brother?" + Swedenborg answered no, and the queen rejoined: "If you do see + him, greet him for me." In saying this she meant no more than a + pleasant jest, and had no thought whatever of asking him for + information about her brother. Eight days later (not twenty-four + as stated, nor was the audience a private one), Swedenborg again + came to court, but so early that the queen had not left her + apartment called the White Room, where she was conversing with her + maids-of-honor and other ladies attached to the court. Swedenborg + did not wait until she came forth, but entered the said room and + whispered something in her ear. The queen, overcome with + amazement, was taken ill, and it was some time before she + recovered herself. When she did so she said to those about her: + "Only God and my brother knew the thing that he has just spoken + of." She admitted that it related to her last correspondence with + the prince on a subject which was known to them alone. I cannot + explain how Swedenborg came to know the contents of that letter, + but I can affirm on my honor, that neither Count H---- (as the + writer of the article states) nor any other person intercepted, or + read, the queen's letters. The senate allowed her to write to her + brother in perfect security, considering the correspondence as of + no interest to the State. It is evident that the author of the + said article is ignorant of the character of Count H----. This + honored gentleman, who has done many important services to his + country, unites the qualities of a noble heart to gifts of mind, + and his great age has not yet weakened these precious possessions. + During his whole administration he added the weight of scrupulous + integrity to his enlightened policy and openly declared himself + the enemy of all secret intrigues and underhand dealings, which he + regarded as unworthy means to attain an end. Neither did the + writer of that article understand the Assessor Swedenborg. The + only weakness of that essentially honest man was a belief in the + apparition of spirits; but I knew him for many years, and I can + affirm that he was as fully convinced that he met and talked with + spirits as I am that I am writing at this moment. As a citizen and + as a friend his integrity was absolute; he abhorred deception and + led the most exemplary of lives. The version which the Chevalier + Baylon gave of these facts is, therefore, entirely without + justification; the visit stated to have been made to Swedenborg in + the night-time by Count H---- and Count T---- is hereby + contradicted. In conclusion, the writer of the letter may rest + assured that I am not a follower of Swedenborg. The love of truth + alone impels me to give this faithful account of a fact which has + been so often stated with details that are entirely false. I + certify to the truth of what I have written by adding my + signature. + + Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer. + + +"The proofs which Swedenborg gave of his mission to the royal families +of Sweden and Prussia were no doubt the foundation of the belief in his +doctrines which is prevalent at the two courts," said Monsieur Becker, +putting the gazette into the drawer. "However," he continued, "I shall +not tell you all the facts of his visible and material life; indeed his +habits prevented them from being fully known. He lived a hidden life; +not seeking either riches or fame. He was even noted for a sort of +repugnance to making proselytes; he opened his mind to few persons, and +never showed his external powers of second-sight to any who were not +eminent in faith, wisdom, and love. He could recognize at a glance the +state of the soul of every person who approached him, and those whom he +desired to reach with his inward language he converted into Seers. After +the year 1745, his disciples never saw him do a single thing from any +human motive. One man alone, a Swedish priest, named Mathesius, set +afloat a story that he went mad in London in 1744. But a eulogium on +Swedenborg prepared with minute care as to all the known events of his +life, was pronounced after his death in 1772 on behalf of the Royal +Academy of Sciences in the Hall of the Nobles at Stockholm, by Monsieur +Sandels, counsellor of the Board of Mines. A declaration made before the +Lord Mayor of London gives the details of his last illness and death, +in which he received the ministrations of Monsieur Ferelius a Swedish +priest of the highest standing, and pastor of the Swedish Church in +London, Mathesius being his assistant. All persons present attested that +so far from denying the value of his writings Swedenborg firmly asserted +their truth. 'In one hundred years,' Monsieur Ferelius quotes him as +saying, 'my doctrine will guide the _Church_.' He predicted the day +and hour of his death. On that day, Sunday, March 29, 1772, hearing the +clock strike, he asked what time it was. 'Five o'clock' was the answer. +'It is well,' he answered; 'thank you, God bless you.' Ten minutes later +he tranquilly departed, breathing a gentle sigh. Simplicity, moderation, +and solitude were the features of his life. When he had finished writing +any of his books he sailed either for London or for Holland, where he +published them, and never spoke of them again. He published in this +way twenty-seven different treatises, all written, he said, from the +dictation of Angels. Be it true or false, few men have been strong +enough to endure the flames of oral illumination. + +"There they all are," said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a second shelf +on which were some sixty volumes. "The treatises on which the Divine +Spirit casts its most vivid gleams are seven in number, namely: 'Heaven +and Hell'; 'Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the Divine +Wisdom'; 'Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence'; 'The +Apocalypse Revealed'; 'Conjugial Love and its Chaste Delights'; 'The +True Christian Religion'; and 'An Exposition of the Internal Sense.' +Swedenborg's explanation of the Apocalypse begins with these words," +said Monsieur Becker, taking down and opening the volume nearest to him: +"'Herein I have written nothing of mine own; I speak as I am bidden by +the Lord, who said, through the same angel, to John: "Thou shalt not +seal the sayings of this Prophecy."' (Revelation xxii. 10.) + +"My dear Monsieur Wilfrid," said the old man, looking at his guest, "I +often tremble in every limb as I read, during the long winter evenings +the awe-inspiring works in which this man declares with perfect +artlessness the wonders that are revealed to him. 'I have seen,' he +says, 'Heaven and the Angels. The spiritual man sees his spiritual +fellows far better than the terrestrial man sees the men of earth. In +describing the wonders of heaven and beneath the heavens I obey the +Lord's command. Others have the right to believe me or not as they +choose. I cannot put them into the state in which God has put me; it +is not in my power to enable them to converse with Angels, nor to work +miracles within their understanding; they alone can be the instrument of +their rise to angelic intercourse. It is now twenty-eight years since +I have lived in the Spiritual world with angels, and on earth with men; +for it pleased God to open the eyes of my spirit as he did that of Paul, +and of Daniel and Elisha.' + +"And yet," continued the pastor, thoughtfully, "certain persons have +had visions of the spiritual world through the complete detachment which +somnambulism produces between their external form and their inner being. +'In this state,' says Swedenborg in his treatise on Angelic Wisdom +(No. 257) 'Man may rise into the region of celestial light because, his +corporeal senses being abolished, the influence of heaven acts without +hindrance on his inner man.' Many persons who do not doubt that +Swedenborg received celestial revelations think that his writings are +not all the result of divine inspiration. Others insist on absolute +adherence to him; while admitting his many obscurities, they believe +that the imperfection of earthly language prevented the prophet from +clearly revealing those spiritual visions whose clouds disperse to +the eyes of those whom faith regenerates; for, to use the words of his +greatest disciple, 'Flesh is but an external propagation.' To poets and +to writers his presentation of the marvellous is amazing; to Seers it +is simply reality. To some Christians his descriptions have seemed +scandalous. Certain critics have ridiculed the celestial substance +of his temples, his golden palaces, his splendid cities where angels +disport themselves; they laugh at his groves of miraculous trees, his +gardens where the flowers speak and the air is white, and the mystical +stones, the sard, carbuncle, chrysolite, chrysoprase, jacinth, +chalcedony, beryl, the Urim and Thummim, are endowed with motion, +express celestial truths, and reply by variations of light to questions +put to them ('True Christian Religion,' 219). Many noble souls will not +admit his spiritual worlds where colors are heard in delightful concert, +where language flames and flashes, where the Word is writ in pointed +spiral letters ('True Christian Religion,' 278). Even in the North some +writers have laughed at the gates of pearl, and the diamonds which +stud the floors and walls of his New Jerusalem, where the most ordinary +utensils are made of the rarest substances of the globe. 'But,' say his +disciples, 'because such things are sparsely scattered on this earth +does it follow that they are not abundant in other worlds? On earth +they are terrestrial substances, whereas in heaven they assume celestial +forms and are in keeping with angels.' In this connection Swedenborg +has used the very words of Jesus Christ, who said, 'If I have told you +earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of +heavenly things?' + +"Monsieur," continued the pastor, with an emphatic gesture, "I have read +the whole of Swedenborg's works; and I say it with pride, because I have +done it and yet retained my reason. In reading him men either miss his +meaning or become Seers like him. Though I have evaded both extremes, I +have often experienced unheard-of delights, deep emotions, inward joys, +which alone can reveal to us the plenitude of truth,--the evidence of +celestial Light. All things here below seem small indeed when the soul +is lost in the perusal of these Treatises. It is impossible not to be +amazed when we think that in the short space of thirty years this man +wrote and published, on the truths of the Spiritual World, twenty-five +quarto volumes, composed in Latin, of which the shortest has five +hundred pages, all of them printed in small type. He left, they say, +twenty others in London, bequeathed to his nephew, Monsieur Silverichm, +formerly almoner to the King of Sweden. Certainly a man who, between the +ages of twenty and sixty, had already exhausted himself in publishing +a series of encyclopaedical works, must have received supernatural +assistance in composing these later stupendous treatises, at an age, +too, when human vigor is on the wane. You will find in these writings +thousands of propositions, all numbered, none of which have been +refuted. Throughout we see method and precision; the presence of the +spirit issuing and flowing down from a single fact,--the existence of +angels. His 'True Christian Religion,' which sums up his whole doctrine +and is vigorous with light, was conceived and written at the age of +eighty-three. In fact, his amazing vigor and omniscience are not denied +by any of his critics, not even by his enemies. + +"Nevertheless," said Monsieur Becker, slowly, "though I have drunk deep +in this torrent of divine light, God has not opened the eyes of my inner +being, and I judge these writings by the reason of an unregenerated man. +I have often felt that the _inspired_ Swedenborg must have misunderstood +the Angels. I have laughed over certain visions which, according to his +disciples, I ought to have believed with veneration. I have failed to +imagine the spiral writing of the Angels or their golden belts, on +which the gold is of great or lesser thickness. If, for example, this +statement, 'Some angels are solitary,' affected me powerfully for a +time, I was, on reflection, unable to reconcile this solitude with their +marriages. I have not understood why the Virgin Mary should continue to +wear blue satin garments in heaven. I have even dared to ask myself why +those gigantic demons, Enakim and Hephilim, came so frequently to fight +the cherubim on the apocalyptic plains of Armageddon; and I cannot +explain to my own mind how Satans can argue with Angels. Monsieur le +Baron Seraphitus assured me that those details concerned only the angels +who live on earth in human form. The visions of the prophet are +often blurred with grotesque figures. One of his spiritual tales, +or 'Memorable relations,' as he called them, begins thus: 'I see the +spirits assembling, they have hats upon their heads.' In another of +these Memorabilia he receives from heaven a bit of paper, on which he +saw, he says, the hieroglyphics of the primitive peoples, which were +composed of curved lines traced from the finger-rings that are worn in +heaven. However, perhaps I am wrong; possibly the material absurdities +with which his works are strewn have spiritual significations. +Otherwise, how shall we account for the growing influence of his +religion? His church numbers to-day more than seven hundred thousand +believers,--as many in the United States of America as in England, where +there are seven thousand Swedenborgians in the city of Manchester alone. +Many men of high rank in knowledge and in social position in Germany, in +Prussia, and in the Northern kingdoms have publicly adopted the beliefs +of Swedenborg; which, I may remark, are more comforting than those of +all other Christian communions. I wish I had the power to explain to you +clearly in succinct language the leading points of the doctrine on which +Swedenborg founded his church; but I fear such a summary, made from +recollection, would be necessarily defective. I shall, therefore, +allow myself to speak only of those 'Arcana' which concern the birth of +Seraphita." + +Here Monsieur Becker paused, as though composing his mind to gather up +his ideas. Presently he continued, as follows:-- + +"After establishing mathematically that man lives eternally in spheres +of either a lower or a higher grade, Swedenborg applies the term +'Spiritual Angels' to beings who in this world are prepared for heaven, +where they become angels. According to him, God has not created angels; +none exist who have not been men upon the earth. The earth is the +nursery-ground of heaven. The Angels are therefore not Angels as +such ('Angelic Wisdom,' 57), they are transformed through their close +conjunction with God; which conjunction God never refuses, because the +essence of God is not negative, but essentially active. The spiritual +angels pass through three natures of love, because man is only +regenerated through successive stages ('True Religion'). First, the +_love of self_: the supreme expression of this love is human genius, +whose works are worshipped. Next, _love of life_: this love produces +prophets,--great men whom the world accepts as guides and proclaims +to be divine. Lastly, _love of heaven_, and this creates the Spiritual +Angel. These angels are, so to speak, the flowers of humanity, which +culminates in them and works for that culmination. They must possess +either the love of heaven or the wisdom of heaven, but always Love +before Wisdom. + +"Thus the transformation of the natural man is into Love. To reach this +first degree, his previous existences must have passed through Hope and +Charity, which prepare him for Faith and Prayer. The ideas acquired +by the exercise of these virtues are transmitted to each of the human +envelopes within which are hidden the metamorphoses of the _inner +being_; for nothing is separate, each existence is necessary to the +other existences. Hope cannot advance without Charity, nor Faith +without Prayer; they are the four fronts of a solid square. 'One virtue +missing,' he said, 'and the Spiritual Angel is like a broken pearl.' +Each of these existences is therefore a circle in which revolves the +celestial riches of the inner being. The perfection of the Spiritual +Angels comes from this mysterious progression in which nothing is lost +of the high qualities that are successfully acquired to attain each +glorious incarnation; for at each transformation they cast away +unconsciously the flesh and its errors. When the man lives in Love he +has shed all evil passions: Hope, Charity, Faith, and Prayer have, in +the words of Isaiah, purged the dross of his inner being, which can +never more be polluted by earthly affections. Hence the grand saying +of Christ quoted by Saint Matthew, 'Lay up for yourselves treasures +in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt,' and those still +grander words: 'If ye were of this world the world would love you, but I +have chosen you out of the world; be ye therefore perfect as your Father +in heaven is perfect.' + +"The second transformation of man is to Wisdom. Wisdom is the +understanding of celestial things to which the Spirit is brought by +Love. The Spirit of Love has acquired strength, the result of all +vanquished terrestrial passions; it loves God blindly. But the Spirit of +Wisdom has risen to understanding and knows why it loves. The wings of +the one are spread and bear the spirit to God; the wings of the other +are held down by the awe that comes of understanding: the spirit knows +God. The one longs incessantly to see God and to fly to Him; the other +attains to Him and trembles. The union effected between the Spirit of +Love and the Spirit of Wisdom carries the human being into a Divine +state during which time his soul is _woman_ and his body _man_, the last +human manifestation in which the Spirit conquers Form, or Form still +struggles against the Spirit,--for Form, that is, the flesh, is +ignorant, rebels, and desires to continue gross. This supreme trial +creates untold sufferings seen by Heaven alone,--the agony of Christ in +the Garden of Olives. + +"After death the first heaven opens to this dual and purified human +nature. Therefore it is that man dies in despair while the Spirit +dies in ecstasy. Thus, the _natural_, the state of beings not yet +regenerated; the _spiritual_, the state of those who have become Angelic +Spirits, and the _divine_, the state in which the Angel exists before +he breaks from his covering of flesh, are the three degrees of existence +through which man enters heaven. One of Swedenborg's thoughts expressed +in his own words will explain to you with wonderful clearness the +difference between the _natural_ and the _spiritual_. 'To the minds of +men,' he says, 'the Natural passes into the Spiritual; they regard the +world under its visible aspects, they perceive it only as it can be +realized by their senses. But to the apprehension of Angelic Spirits, +the Spiritual passes into the Natural; they regard the world in its +inward essence and not in its form.' Thus human sciences are but +analyses of form. The man of science as the world goes is purely +external like his knowledge; his inner being is only used to preserve +his aptitude for the perception of external truths. The Angelic Spirit +goes far beyond that; his knowledge is the thought of which human +science is but the utterance; he derives that knowledge from the Logos, +and learns the law of _correspondences_ by which the world is placed +in unison with heaven. The _word of God_ was wholly written by pure +Correspondences, and covers an esoteric or spiritual meaning, which +according to the science of Correspondences, cannot be understood. +'There exist,' says Swedenborg ('Celestial Doctrine' 26), 'innumerable +Arcana within the hidden meaning of the Correspondences. Thus the men +who scoff at the books of the Prophets where the Word is enshrined are +as densely ignorant as those other men who know nothing of a science and +yet ridicule its truths. To know the Correspondences which exist between +the things visible and ponderable in the terrestrial world and the +things invisible and imponderable in the spiritual world, is to hold +heaven within our comprehension. All the objects of the manifold +creations having emanated from God necessarily enfold a hidden meaning; +according, indeed, to the grand thought of Isaiah, 'The earth is a +garment.' + +"This mysterious link between Heaven and the smallest atoms of created +matter constitutes what Swedenborg calls a Celestial Arcanum, and +his treatise on the 'Celestial Arcana' in which he explains the +correspondences or significances of the Natural with, and to, the +Spiritual, giving, to use the words of Jacob Boehm, the sign and seal +of all things, occupies not less than sixteen volumes containing thirty +thousand propositions. 'This marvellous knowledge of Correspondences +which the goodness of God granted to Swedenborg,' says one of his +disciples, 'is the secret of the interest which draws men to his works. +According to him, all things are derived from heaven, all things lead +back to heaven. His writings are sublime and clear; he speaks in heaven, +and earth hears him. Take one of his sentences by itself and a volume +could be made of it'; and the disciple quotes the following passages +taken from a thousand others that would answer the same purpose. + +"'The kingdom of heaven,' says Swedenborg ('Celestial Arcana'), 'is the +kingdom of motives. _Action_ is born in heaven, thence into the world, +and, by degrees, to the infinitely remote parts of earth. Terrestrial +effects being thus linked to celestial causes, all things are +_correspondent_ and _significant_. Man is the means of union between the +Natural and the Spiritual.' + +"The Angelic Spirits therefore know the very nature of the +Correspondences which link to heaven all earthly things; they know, +too, the inner meaning of the prophetic words which foretell their +evolutions. Thus to these Spirits everything here below has its +significance; the tiniest flower is a thought,--a life which corresponds +to certain lineaments of the Great Whole, of which they have a constant +intuition. To them Adultery and the excesses spoken of in Scripture and +by the Prophets, often garbled by self-styled scholars, mean the state +of those souls which in this world persist in tainting themselves with +earthly affections, thus compelling their divorce from Heaven. Clouds +signify the veil of the Most High. Torches, shew-bread, horses and +horsemen, harlots, precious stones, in short, everything named in +Scripture, has to them a clear-cut meaning, and reveals the future of +terrestrial facts in their relation to Heaven. They penetrate the +truths contained in the Revelation of Saint John the divine, which human +science has subsequently demonstrated and proved materially; such, for +instance, as the following ('big,' said Swedenborg, 'with many human +sciences'): 'I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven +and the first earth were passed away' (Revelation xxi. 1). These Spirits +know the supper at which the flesh of kings and the flesh of all men, +free and bond, is eaten, to which an Angel standing in the sun has +bidden them. They see the winged woman, clothed with the sun, and the +mailed man. 'The horse of the Apocalypse,' says Swedenborg, 'is the +visible image of human intellect ridden by Death, for it bears within +itself the elements of its own destruction.' Moreover, they can +distinguish beings concealed under forms which to ignorant eyes +would seem fantastic. When a man is disposed to receive the prophetic +afflation of Correspondences, it rouses within him a perception of the +Word; he comprehends that the creations are transformations only; his +intellect is sharpened, a burning thirst takes possession of him which +only Heaven can quench. He conceives, according to the greater or lesser +perfection of his inner being, the power of the Angelic Spirits; and he +advances, led by Desire (the least imperfect state of unregenerated man) +towards Hope, the gateway to the world of Spirits, whence he reaches +Prayer, which gives him the Key of Heaven. + +"What being here below would not desire to render himself worthy of +entrance into the sphere of those who live in secret by Love and Wisdom? +Here on earth, during their lifetime, such spirits remain pure; they +neither see, nor think, nor speak like other men. There are two ways by +which perception comes,--one internal, the other external. Man is wholly +external, the Angelic Spirit wholly internal. The Spirit goes to +the depth of Numbers, possesses a full sense of them, knows their +significances. It controls Motion, and by reason of its ubiquity it +shares in all things. 'An Angel,' says Swedenborg, 'is ever present to +a man when desired' ('Angelic Wisdom'); for the Angel has the gift of +detaching himself from his body, and he sees into heaven as the +prophets and as Swedenborg himself saw into it. 'In this state,' writes +Swedenborg ('True Religion,' 136), 'the spirit of a man may move from +one place to another, his body remaining where it is,--a condition in +which I lived for over twenty-six years.' It is thus that we should +interpret all Biblical statements which begin, 'The Spirit led me.' +Angelic Wisdom is to human wisdom what the innumerable forces of nature +are to its action, which is one. All things live again, and move and +have their being in the Spirit, which is in God. Saint Paul expresses +this truth when he says, 'In Deo sumus, movemur, et vivimus,'--we live, +we act, we are in God. + +"Earth offers no hindrance to the Angelic Spirit, just as the Word +offers him no obscurity. His approaching divinity enables him to see the +thought of God veiled in the Logos, just as, living by his inner being, +the Spirit is in communion with the hidden meaning of all things on this +earth. Science is the language of the Temporal world, Love is that of +the Spiritual world. Thus man takes note of more than he is able +to explain, while the Angelic Spirit sees and comprehends. Science +depresses man; Love exalts the Angel. Science is still seeking, Love +has found. Man judges Nature according to his own relations to her; the +Angelic Spirit judges it in its relation to Heaven. In short, all things +have a voice for the Spirit. Spirits are in the secret of the harmony of +all creations with each other; they comprehend the spirit of sound, the +spirit of color, the spirit of vegetable life; they can question the +mineral, and the mineral makes answer to their thoughts. What to them +are sciences and the treasures of the earth when they grasp all things +by the eye at all moments, when the worlds which absorb the minds of so +many men are to them but the last step from which they spring to God? +Love of heaven, or the Wisdom of heaven, is made manifest to them by a +circle of light which surrounds them, and is visible to the Elect. +Their innocence, of which that of children is a symbol, possesses, +nevertheless, a knowledge which children have not; they are both +innocent and learned. 'And,' says Swedenborg, 'the innocence of Heaven +makes such an impression upon the soul that those whom it affects keep +a rapturous memory of it which lasts them all their lives, as I myself +have experienced. It is perhaps sufficient,' he goes on, 'to have only a +minimum perception of it to be forever changed, to long to enter Heaven +and the sphere of Hope.' + +"His doctrine of Marriage can be reduced to the following words: 'The +Lord has taken the beauty and the grace of the life of man and bestowed +them upon woman. When man is not reunited to this beauty and this grace +of his life, he is harsh, sad, and sullen; when he is reunited to them +he is joyful and complete.' The Angels are ever at the perfect point +of beauty. Marriages are celebrated by wondrous ceremonies. In these +unions, which produce no children, man contributes the _understanding_, +woman the _will_; they become one being, one Flesh here below, and pass +to heaven clothed in the celestial form. On this earth, the natural +attraction of the sexes towards enjoyment is an Effect which allures, +fatigues and disgusts; but in the form celestial the pair, now _one_ in +Spirit find within theirself a ceaseless source of joy. Swedenborg was +led to see these nuptials of the Spirits, which in the words of Saint +Luke (xx. 35) are neither marrying nor giving in marriage, and which +inspire none but spiritual pleasures. An Angel offered to make him +witness of such a marriage and bore him thither on his wings (the wings +are a symbol and not a reality). The Angel clothed him in a wedding +garment and when Swedenborg, finding himself thus robed in light, asked +why, the answer was: 'For these events, our garments are illuminated; +they shine; they are made nuptial.' ('Conjugial Love,' 19, 20, 21.) Then +he saw the two Angels, one coming from the South, the other from the +East; the Angel of the South was in a chariot drawn by two white horses, +with reins of the color and brilliance of the dawn; but lo, when they +were near him in the sky, chariot and horses vanished. The Angel of the +East, clothed in crimson, and the Angel of the South, in purple, drew +together, like breaths, and mingled: one was the Angel of Love, the +other the Angel of Wisdom. Swedenborg's guide told him that the two +Angels had been linked together on earth by an inward friendship and +ever united though separated in life by great distances. Consent, the +essence of all good marriage upon earth, is the habitual state of Angels +in Heaven. Love is the light of their world. The eternal rapture of +Angels comes from the faculty that God communicates to them to +render back to Him the joy they feel through Him. This reciprocity of +infinitude forms their life. They become infinite by participating of +the essence of God, who generates Himself by Himself. + +"The immensity of the Heavens where the Angels dwell is such that if man +were endowed with sight as rapid as the darting of light from the sun to +the earth, and if he gazed throughout eternity, his eyes could not reach +the horizon, nor find an end. Light alone can give an idea of the joys +of heaven. 'It is,' says Swedenborg ('Angelic Wisdom,' 7, 25, 26, 27), +'a vapor of the virtue of God, a pure emanation of His splendor, beside +which our greatest brilliance is obscurity. It can compass all; it can +renew all, and is never absorbed: it environs the Angel and unites him +to God by infinite joys which multiply infinitely of themselves. This +Light destroys whosoever is not prepared to receive it. No one here +below, nor yet in Heaven can see God and live. This is the meaning of +the saying (Exodus xix. 12, 13, 21-23) "Take heed to yourselves that ye +go not up into the mount--lest ye break through unto the Lord to gaze, +and many perish." And again (Exodus xxxiv. 29-35), "When Moses came down +from Mount Sinai with the two Tables of testimony in his hand, his face +shone, so that he put a veil upon it when he spake with the people, lest +any of them die." The Transfiguration of Jesus Christ likewise revealed +the light surrounding the Messengers from on high and the ineffable joys +of the Angels who are forever imbued with it. "His face," says Saint +Matthew (xvii. 1-5), "did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as +the light--and a bright cloud overshadowed them."' + +"When a planet contains only those beings who reject the Lord, when his +word is ignored, then the Angelic Spirits are gathered together by the +four winds, and God sends forth an Exterminating Angel to change the +face of the refractory earth, which in the immensity of this universe is +to Him what an unfruitful seed is to Nature. Approaching the globe, this +Exterminating Angel, borne by a comet, causes the planet to turn upon +its axis, and the lands lately covered by the seas reappear, adorned in +freshness and obedient to the laws proclaimed in Genesis; the Word of +God is once more powerful on this new earth, which everywhere exhibits +the effects of terrestrial waters and celestial flames. The light +brought by the Angel from On High, causes the sun to pale. 'Then,' says +Isaiah, (xix. 20) 'men will hide in the clefts of the rock and roll +themselves in the dust of the earth.' 'They will cry to the mountains' +(Revelation), 'Fall on us! and to the seas, Swallow us up! Hide us from +the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the +Lamb!' The Lamb is the great figure and hope of the Angels misjudged and +persecuted here below. Christ himself has said, 'Blessed are those who +mourn! Blessed are the simple-hearted! Blessed are they that love!'--All +Swedenborg is there! Suffer, Believe, Love. To love truly must we not +suffer? must we not believe? Love begets Strength, Strength bestows +Wisdom, thence Intelligence; for Strength and Wisdom demand Will. To +be intelligent, is not that to Know, to Wish, and to Will,--the three +attributes of the Angelic Spirit? 'If the universe has a meaning,' +Monsieur Saint-Martin said to me when I met him during a journey which +he made in Sweden, 'surely this is the one most worthy of God.' + +"But, Monsieur," continued the pastor after a thoughtful pause, "of what +avail to you are these shreds of thoughts taken here and there from +the vast extent of a work of which no true idea can be given except +by comparing it to a river of light, to billows of flame? When a man +plunges into it he is carried away as by an awful current. Dante's poem +seems but a speck to the reader submerged in the almost Biblical +verses with which Swedenborg renders palpable the Celestial Worlds, +as Beethoven built his palaces of harmony with thousands of notes, as +architects have reared cathedrals with millions of stones. We roll in +soundless depths, where our minds will not always sustain us. Ah, surely +a great and powerful intellect is needed to bring us back, safe and +sound, to our own social beliefs. + +"Swedenborg," resumed the pastor, "was particularly attached to the +Baron de Seraphitz, whose name, according to an old Swedish custom, had +taken from time immemorial the Latin termination of 'us.' The baron was +an ardent disciple of the Swedish prophet, who had opened the eyes of +his Inner-Man and brought him to a life in conformity with the decrees +from On-High. He sought for an Angelic Spirit among women; Swedenborg +found her for him in a vision. His bride was the daughter of a London +shoemaker, in whom, said Swedenborg, the life of Heaven shone, she +having passed through all anterior trials. After the death, that is, the +transformation of the prophet, the baron came to Jarvis to accomplish +his celestial nuptials with the observances of Prayer. As for me, who +am not a Seer, I have only known the terrestrial works of this couple. +Their lives were those of saints whose virtues are the glory of the +Roman Church. They ameliorated the condition of our people; they +supplied them all with means in return for work,--little, perhaps, +but enough for all their wants. Those who lived with them in constant +intercourse never saw them show a sign of anger or impatience; they were +constantly beneficent and gentle, full of courtesy and loving-kindness; +their marriage was the harmony of two souls indissolubly united. Two +eiders winging the same flight, the sound in the echo, the thought in +the word,--these, perhaps, are true images of their union. Every one +here in Jarvis loved them with an affection which I can compare only +to the love of a plant for the sun. The wife was simple in her manners, +beautiful in form, lovely in face, with a dignity of bearing like that +of august personages. In 1783, being then twenty-six years old, she +conceived a child; her pregnancy was to the pair a solemn joy. They +prepared to bid the earth farewell; for they told me they should be +transformed when their child had passed the state of infancy which +needed their fostering care until the strength to exist alone should be +given to her. + +"Their child was born,--the Seraphita we are now concerned with. From +the moment of her conception father and mother lived a still more +solitary life than in the past, lifting themselves up to heaven by +Prayer. They hoped to see Swedenborg, and faith realized their hope. +The day on which Seraphita came into the world Swedenborg appeared in +Jarvis, and filled the room of the new-born child with light. I was told +that he said, 'The work is accomplished; the Heavens rejoice!' Sounds of +unknown melodies were heard throughout the house, seeming to come +from the four points of heaven on the wings of the wind. The spirit of +Swedenborg led the father forth to the shores of the fiord and there +quitted him. Certain inhabitants of Jarvis, having approached Monsieur +Seraphitus as he stood on the shore, heard him repeat those blissful +words of Scripture: 'How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of Him +who is sent of God!' + +"I had left the parsonage on my way to baptize the infant and name +it, and perform the other duties required by law, when I met the baron +returning to the house. 'Your ministrations are superfluous,' he said; +'our child is to be without name on this earth. You must not baptize in +the waters of an earthly Church one who has just been immersed in the +fires of Heaven. This child will remain a blossom, it will not grow old; +you will see it pass away. You exist, but our child has life; you have +outward senses, the child has none, its being is always inward.' These +words were uttered in so strange and supernatural a voice that I was +more affected by them than by the shining of his face, from which light +appeared to exude. His appearance realized the phantasmal ideas which we +form of inspired beings as we read the prophesies of the Bible. But such +effects are not rare among our mountains, where the nitre of perpetual +snows produces extraordinary phenomena in the human organization. + +"I asked him the cause of his emotion. 'Swedenborg came to us; he has +just left me; I have breathed the air of heaven,' he replied. 'Under +what form did he appear?' I said. 'Under his earthly form; dressed as +he was the last time I saw him in London, at the house of Richard +Shearsmith, Coldbath-fields, in July, 1771. He wore his brown frieze +coat with steel buttons, his waistcoat buttoned to the throat, a white +cravat, and the same magisterial wig rolled and powdered at the sides +and raised high in front, showing his vast and luminous brow, in keeping +with the noble square face, where all is power and tranquillity. I +recognized the large nose with its fiery nostril, the mouth that +ever smiled,--angelic mouth from which these words, the pledge of my +happiness, have just issued, "We shall meet soon."' + +"The conviction that shone on the baron's face forbade all discussion; I +listened in silence. His voice had a contagious heat which made my bosom +burn within me; his fanaticism stirred my heart as the anger of another +makes our nerves vibrate. I followed him in silence to his house, where +I saw the nameless child lying mysteriously folded to its mother's +breast. The babe heard my step and turned its head toward me; its +eyes were not those of an ordinary child. To give you an idea of the +impression I received, I must say that already they saw and thought. The +childhood of this predestined being was attended by circumstances quite +extraordinary in our climate. For nine years our winters were milder +and our summers longer than usual. This phenomenon gave rise to several +discussions among scientific men; but none of their explanations seemed +sufficient to academicians, and the baron smiled when I told him of +them. The child was never seen in its nudity as other children are; it +was never touched by man or woman, but lived a sacred thing upon the +mother's breast, and it never cried. If you question old David he will +confirm these facts about his mistress, for whom he feels an adoration +like that of Louis IX. for the saint whose name he bore. + +"At nine years of age the child began to pray; prayer is her life. You +saw her in the church at Christmas, the only day on which she comes +there; she is separated from the other worshippers by a visible space. +If that space does not exist between herself and men she suffers. That +is why she passes nearly all her time alone in the chateau. The events +of her life are unknown; she is seldom seen; her days are spent in the +state of mystical contemplation which was, so Catholic writers tell us, +habitual with the early Christian solitaries, in whom the oral tradition +of Christ's own words still remained. Her mind, her soul, her body, all +within her is virgin as the snow on those mountains. At ten years of +age she was just what you see her now. When she was nine her father and +mother expired together, without pain or visible malady, after naming +the day and hour at which they would cease to be. Standing at their +feet she looked at them with a calm eye, not showing either sadness, or +grief, or joy, or curiosity. When we approached to remove the two bodies +she said, 'Carry them away!' 'Seraphita,' I said, for so we called her, +'are you not affected by the death of your father and your mother +who loved you so much?' 'Dead?' she answered, 'no, they live in me +forever--That is nothing,' she pointed without emotion to the bodies +they were bearing away. I then saw her for the third time only since her +birth. In church it is difficult to distinguish her; she stands near +a column which, seen from the pulpit, is in shadow, so that I cannot +observe her features. + +"Of all the servants of the household there remained after the death of +the master and mistress only old David, who, in spite of his eighty-two +years, suffices to wait on his mistress. Some of our Jarvis people tell +wonderful tales about her. These have a certain weight in a land so +essentially conducive to mystery as ours; and I am now studying the +treatise on Incantations by Jean Wier and other works relating to +demonology, where pretended supernatural events are recorded, hoping to +find facts analogous to those which are attributed to her." + +"Then you do not believe in her?" said Wilfrid. + +"Oh yes, I do," said the pastor, genially, "I think her a very +capricious girl; a little spoilt by her parents, who turned her head +with the religious ideas I have just revealed to you." + +Minna shook her head in a way that gently expressed contradiction. + +"Poor girl!" continued the old man, "her parents bequeathed to her that +fatal exaltation of soul which misleads mystics and renders them all +more or less mad. She subjects herself to fasts which horrify poor +David. The good old man is like a sensitive plant which quivers at the +slightest breeze, and glows under the first sun-ray. His mistress, whose +incomprehensible language has become his, is the breeze and the sun-ray +to him; in his eyes her feet are diamonds and her brow is strewn with +stars; she walks environed with a white and luminous atmosphere; her +voice is accompanied by music; she has the gift of rendering herself +invisible. If you ask to see her, he will tell you she has gone to the +_astral regions_. It is difficult to believe such a story, is it not? +You know all miracles bear more or less resemblance to the story of the +Golden Tooth. We have our golden tooth in Jarvis, that is all. Duncker +the fisherman asserts that he has seen her plunge into the fiord and +come up in the shape of an eider-duck, at other times walking on the +billows of a storm. Fergus, who leads the flocks to the saeters, says +that in rainy weather a circle of clear sky can be seen over the Swedish +castle; and that the heavens are always blue above Seraphita's head when +she is on the mountain. Many women hear the tones of a mighty organ when +Seraphita enters the church, and ask their neighbors earnestly if they +too do not hear them. But my daughter, for whom during the last two +years Seraphita has shown much affection, has never heard this music, +and has never perceived the heavenly perfumes which, they say, make the +air fragrant about her when she moves. Minna, to be sure, has often on +returning from their walks together expressed to me the delight of a +young girl in the beauties of our spring-time, in the spicy odors of +budding larches and pines and the earliest flowers; but after our long +winters what can be more natural than such pleasure? The companionship +of this so-called spirit has nothing so very extraordinary in it, has +it, my child?" + +"The secrets of that spirit are not mine," said Minna. "Near it I know +all, away from it I know nothing; near that exquisite life I am no +longer myself, far from it I forget all. The time we pass together is +a dream which my memory scarcely retains. I may have heard yet not +remember the music which the women tell of; in that presence, I may have +breathed celestial perfumes, seen the glory of the heavens, and yet be +unable to recollect them here." + +"What astonishes me most," resumed the pastor, addressing Wilfrid, "is +to notice that you suffer from being near her." + +"Near her!" exclaimed the stranger, "she has never so much as let +me touch her hand. When she saw me for the first time her glance +intimidated me; she said: 'You are welcome here, for you were to come.' +I fancied that she knew me. I trembled. It is fear that forces me to +believe in her." + +"With me it is love," said Minna, without a blush. + +"Are you making fun of me?" said Monsieur Becker, laughing +good-humoredly; "you my daughter, in calling yourself a Spirit of Love, +and you, Monsieur Wilfrid, in pretending to be a Spirit of Wisdom?" + +He drank a glass of beer and so did not see the singular look which +Wilfrid cast upon Minna. + +"Jesting apart," resumed the old gentleman, "I have been much astonished +to hear that these two mad-caps ascended to the summit of the Falberg; +it must be a girlish exaggeration; they probably went to the crest of a +ledge. It is impossible to reach the peaks of the Falberg." + +"If so, father," said Minna, in an agitated voice, "I must have been +under the power of a spirit; for indeed we reached the summit of the +Ice-Cap." + +"This is really serious," said Monsieur Becker. "Minna is always +truthful." + +"Monsieur Becker," said Wilfrid, "I swear to you that Seraphita +exercises such extraordinary power over me that I know no language in +which I can give you the least idea of it. She has revealed to me things +known to myself alone." + +"Somnambulism!" said the old man. "A great many such effects are related +by Jean Wier as phenomena easily explained and formerly observed in +Egypt." + +"Lend me Swedenborg's theosophical works," said Wilfrid, "and let me +plunge into those gulfs of light,--you have given me a thirst for them." + +Monsieur Becker took down a volume and gave it to his guest, who +instantly began to read it. It was about nine o'clock in the evening. +The serving-woman brought in the supper. Minna made tea. The repast +over, each turned silently to his or her occupation; the pastor read the +Incantations; Wilfrid pursued the spirit of Swedenborg; and the young +girl continued to sew, her mind absorbed in recollections. It was a true +Norwegian evening--peaceful, studious, and domestic; full of thoughts, +flowers blooming beneath the snow. Wilfrid, as he devoured the pages of +the prophet, lived by his inner senses only; the pastor, looking up at +times from his book, called Minna's attention to the absorption of +their guest with an air that was half-serious, half-jesting. To Minna's +thoughts the face of Seraphitus smiled upon her as it hovered above the +clouds of smoke which enveloped them. The clock struck twelve. Suddenly +the outer door was opened violently. Heavy but hurried steps, the steps +of a terrified old man, were heard in the narrow vestibule between the +two doors; then David burst into the parlor. + +"Danger, danger!" he cried. "Come! come, all! The evil spirits are +unchained! Fiery mitres are on their heads! Demons, Vertumni, Sirens! +they tempt her as Jesus was tempted on the mountain! Come, come! and +drive them away." + +"Do you not recognize the language of Swedenborg?" said the pastor, +laughing, to Wilfrid. "Here it is; pure from the source." + +But Wilfrid and Minna were gazing in terror at old David, who, with hair +erect, and eyes distraught, his legs trembling and covered with snow, +for he had come without snow-shoes, stood swaying from side to side, as +if some boisterous wind were shaking him. + +"Is he harmed?" cried Minna. + +"The devils hope and try to conquer her," replied the old man. + +The words made Wilfrid's pulses throb. + +"For the last five hours she has stood erect, her eyes raised to heaven +and her arms extended; she suffers, she cries to God. I cannot cross the +barrier; Hell has posted the Vertumni as sentinels. They have set up an +iron wall between her and her old David. She wants me, but what can I +do? Oh, help me! help me! Come and pray!" + +The old man's despair was terrible to see. + +"The Light of God is defending her," he went on, with infectious faith, +"but oh! she might yield to violence." + +"Silence, David! you are raving. This is a matter to be verified. We +will go with you," said the pastor, "and you shall see that there are no +Vertumni, nor Satans, nor Sirens, in that house." + +"Your father is blind," whispered David to Minna. + +Wilfrid, on whom the reading of Swedenborg's first treatise, which he +had rapidly gone through, had produced a powerful effect, was already in +the corridor putting on his skees; Minna was ready in a few moments, and +both left the old men far behind as they darted forward to the Swedish +castle. + +"Do you hear that cracking sound?" said Wilfrid. + +"The ice of the fiord stirs," answered Minna; "the spring is coming." + +Wilfrid was silent. When the two reached the courtyard they were +conscious that they had neither the faculty nor the strength to enter +the house. + +"What think you of her?" asked Wilfrid. + +"See that radiance!" cried Minna, going towards the window of the salon. +"He is there! How beautiful! O my Seraphitus, take me!" + +The exclamation was uttered inwardly. She saw Seraphitus standing erect, +lightly swathed in an opal-tinted mist that disappeared at a little +distance from the body, which seemed almost phosphorescent. + +"How beautiful she is!" cried Wilfrid, mentally. + +Just then Monsieur Becker arrived, followed by David; he saw his +daughter and guest standing before the window; going up to them, he +looked into the salon and said quietly, "Well, my good David, she is +only saying her prayers." + +"Ah, but try to enter, Monsieur." + +"Why disturb those who pray?" answered the pastor. + +At this instant the moon, rising above the Falberg, cast its rays upon +the window. All three turned round, attracted by this natural effect +which made them quiver; when they turned back to again look at Seraphita +she had disappeared. + +"How strange!" exclaimed Wilfrid. + +"I hear delightful sounds," said Minna. + +"Well," said the pastor, "it is all plain enough; she is going to bed." + +David had entered the house. The others took their way back in silence; +none of them interpreted the vision in the same manner,--Monsieur Becker +doubted, Minna adored, Wilfrid longed. + +Wilfrid was a man about thirty-six years of age. His figure, though +broadly developed, was not wanting in symmetry. Like most men who +distinguish themselves above their fellows, he was of medium height; his +chest and shoulders were broad, and his neck short,--a characteristic of +those whose hearts are near their heads; his hair was black, thick, and +fine; his eyes, of a yellow brown, had, as it were, a solar brilliancy, +which proclaimed with what avidity his nature aspired to Light. Though +these strong and virile features were defective through the absence +of an inward peace,--granted only to a life without storms or +conflicts,--they plainly showed the inexhaustible resources of impetuous +senses and the appetites of instinct; just as every motion revealed +the perfection of the man's physical apparatus, the flexibility of +his senses, and their fidelity when brought into play. This man might +contend with savages, and hear, as they do, the tread of enemies in +distant forests; he could follow a scent in the air, a trail on the +ground, or see on the horizon the signal of a friend. His sleep was +light, like that of all creatures who will not allow themselves to be +surprised. His body came quickly into harmony with the climate of any +country where his tempestuous life conducted him. Art and science would +have admired his organization in the light of a human model. Everything +about him was symmetrical and well-balanced,--action and heart, +intelligence and will. At first sight he might be classed among purely +instinctive beings, who give themselves blindly up to the material wants +of life; but in the very morning of his days he had flung himself into +a higher social world, with which his feelings harmonized; study had +widened his mind, reflection had sharpened his power of thought, and the +sciences had enlarged his understanding. He had studied human laws,--the +working of self-interests brought into conflict by the passions, and he +seemed to have early familiarized himself with the abstractions on which +societies rest. He had pored over books,--those deeds of dead humanity; +he had spent whole nights of pleasure in every European capital; he had +slept on fields of battle the night before the combat and the night that +followed victory. His stormy youth may have flung him on the deck of +some corsair and sent him among the contrasting regions of the globe; +thus it was that he knew the actions of a living humanity. He knew the +present and the past,--a double history; that of to-day, that of other +days. Many men have been, like Wilfrid, equally powerful by the Hand, by +the Heart, by the Head; like him, the majority have abused their triple +power. But though this man still held by certain outward liens to the +slimy side of humanity, he belonged also and positively to the sphere +where force is intelligent. In spite of the many veils which enveloped +his soul, there were certain ineffable symptoms of this fact which were +visible to pure spirits, to the eyes of the child whose innocence has +known no breath of evil passions, to the eyes of the old man who has +lived to regain his purity. + +These signs revealed a Cain for whom there was still hope,--one who +seemed as though he were seeking absolution from the ends of the +earth. Minna suspected the galley-slave of glory in the man; Seraphita +recognized him. Both admired and both pitied him. Whence came their +prescience? Nothing could be more simple nor yet more extraordinary. +As soon as we seek to penetrate the secrets of Nature, where nothing +is secret, and where it is only necessary to have the eyes to see, we +perceive that the simple produces the marvellous. + +"Seraphitus," said Minna one evening a few days after Wilfrid's arrival +in Jarvis, "you read the soul of this stranger while I have only vague +impressions of it. He chills me or else he excites me; but you seem to +know the cause of this cold and of this heat; tell me what it means, for +you know all about him." + +"Yes, I have seen the causes," said Seraphitus, lowing his large +eyelids. + +"By what power?" asked the curious Minna. + +"I have the gift of Specialism," he answered. "Specialism is an inward +sight which can penetrate all things; you will only understand its full +meaning through a comparison. In the great cities of Europe where works +are produced by which the human Hand seeks to represent the effects of +the moral nature was well as those of the physical nature, there are +glorious men who express ideas in marble. The sculptor acts on the +stone; he fashions it; he puts a realm of ideas into it. There +are statues which the hand of man has endowed with the faculty of +representing the noble side of humanity, or the whole evil side; most +men see in such marbles a human figure and nothing more; a few other +men, a little higher in the scale of being, perceive a fraction of the +thoughts expressed in the statue; but the Initiates in the secrets of +art are of the same intellect as the sculptor; they see in his work +the whole universe of his thought. Such persons are in themselves the +principles of art; they bear within them a mirror which reflects nature +in her slightest manifestations. Well! so it is with me; I have within +me a mirror before which the moral nature, with its causes and effects, +appears and is reflected. Entering thus into the consciousness of others +I am able to divine both the future and the past. How? do you still ask +how? Imagine that the marble statue is the body of a man, a piece of +statuary in which we see the emotion, sentiment, passion, vice or crime, +virtue or repentance which the creating hand has put into it, and +you will then comprehend how it is that I read the soul of this +foreigner--though what I have said does not explain the gift of +Specialism; for to conceive the nature of that gift we must possess it." + +Though Wilfrid belonged to the two first divisions of humanity, the men +of force and the men of thought, yet his excesses, his tumultuous life, +and his misdeeds had often turned him towards Faith; for doubt has two +sides; a side to the light and a side to the darkness. Wilfrid had too +closely clasped the world under its forms of Matter and of Mind not to +have acquired that thirst for the unknown, that longing to _go beyond_ +which lay their grasp upon the men who know, and wish, and will. +But neither his knowledge, nor his actions, nor his will, had found +direction. He had fled from social life from necessity; as a great +criminal seeks the cloister. Remorse, that virtue of weak beings, +did not touch him. Remorse is impotence, impotence which sins again. +Repentance alone is powerful; it ends all. But in traversing the world, +which he made his cloister, Wilfrid had found no balm for his wounds; he +saw nothing in nature to which he could attach himself. In him, despair +had dried the sources of desire. He was one of those beings who, having +gone through all passions and come out victorious, have nothing more to +raise in their hot-beds, and who, lacking opportunity to put themselves +at the head of their fellow-men to trample under iron heel entire +populations, buy, at the price of a horrible martyrdom, the faculty of +ruining themselves in some belief,--rocks sublime, which await the touch +of a wand that comes not to bring the waters gushing from their far-off +spring. + +Led by a scheme of his restless, inquiring life to the shores of Norway, +the sudden arrival of winter had detained the wanderer at Jarvis. The +day on which, for the first time, he saw Seraphita, the whole past of +his life faded from his mind. The young girl excited emotions which he +had thought could never be revived. The ashes gave forth a lingering +flame at the first murmurings of that voice. Who has ever felt himself +return to youth and purity after growing cold and numb with age and +soiled with impurity? Suddenly, Wilfrid loved as he had never loved; he +loved secretly, with faith, with fear, with inward madness. His life was +stirred to the very source of his being at the mere thought of seeing +Seraphita. As he listened to her he was transported into unknown worlds; +he was mute before her, she magnetized him. There, beneath the snows, +among the glaciers, bloomed the celestial flower to which his hopes, so +long betrayed, aspired; the sight of which awakened ideas of freshness, +purity, and faith which grouped about his soul and lifted it to higher +regions,--as Angels bear to heaven the Elect in those symbolic pictures +inspired by the guardian spirit of a great master. Celestial perfumes +softened the granite hardness of the rocky scene; light endowed with +speech shed its divine melodies on the path of him who looked to heaven. +After emptying the cup of terrestrial love which his teeth had bitten as +he drank it, he saw before him the chalice of salvation where the limpid +waters sparkled, making thirsty for ineffable delights whoever dare +apply his lips burning with a faith so strong that the crystal shall not +be shattered. + +But Wilfrid now encountered the wall of brass for which he had been +seeking up and down the earth. He went impetuously to Seraphita, meaning +to express the whole force and bearing of a passion under which he +bounded like the fabled horse beneath the iron horseman, firm in his +saddle, whom nothing moves while the efforts of the fiery animal only +made the rider heavier and more solid. He sought her to relate his +life,--to prove the grandeur of his soul by the grandeur of his faults, +to show the ruins of his desert. But no sooner had he crossed +her threshold, and found himself within the zone of those eyes of +scintillating azure, that met no limits forward and left none behind, +than he grew calm and submissive, as a lion, springing on his prey in +the plains of Africa, receives from the wings of the wind a message +of love, and stops his bound. A gulf opened before him, into which his +frenzied words fell and disappeared, and from which uprose a voice which +changed his being; he became as a child, a child of sixteen, timid and +frightened before this maiden with serene brow, this white figure whose +inalterable calm was like the cruel impassibility of human justice. The +combat between them had never ceased until this evening, when with a +glance she brought him down, as a falcon making his dizzy spirals in +the air around his prey causes it to fall stupefied to earth, before +carrying it to his eyrie. + +We may note within ourselves many a long struggle the end of which is +one of our own actions,--struggles which are, as it were, the reverse +side of humanity. This reverse side belongs to God; the obverse side to +men. More than once Seraphita had proved to Wilfrid that she knew this +hidden and ever varied side, which is to the majority of men a second +being. Often she said to him in her dove-like voice: "Why all this +vehemence?" when on his way to her he had sworn she should be his. +Wilfrid was, however, strong enough to raise the cry of revolt to which +he had given utterance in Monsieur Becker's study. The narrative of +the old pastor had calmed him. Sceptical and derisive as he was, he saw +belief like a sidereal brilliance dawning on his life. He asked himself +if Seraphita were not an exile from the higher spheres seeking the +homeward way. The fanciful deifications of all ordinary lovers he could +not give to this lily of Norway in whose divinity he believed. Why lived +she here beside this fiord? What did she? Questions that received no +answer filled his mind. Above all, what was about to happen between +them? What fate had brought him there? To him, Seraphita was the +motionless marble, light nevertheless as a vapor, which Minna had seen +that day poised above the precipices of the Falberg. Could she thus +stand on the edge of all gulfs without danger, without a tremor of the +arching eyebrows, or a quiver of the light of the eye? If his love was +to be without hope, it was not without curiosity. + +From the moment when Wilfrid suspected the ethereal nature of the +enchantress who had told him the secrets of his life in melodious +utterance, he had longed to try to subject her, to keep her to himself, +to tear her from the heaven where, perhaps, she was awaited. Earth and +Humanity seized their prey; he would imitate them. His pride, the only +sentiment through which man can long be exalted, would make him happy in +this triumph for the rest of his life. The idea sent the blood boiling +through his veins, and his heart swelled. If he did not succeed, he +would destroy her,--it is so natural to destroy that which we cannot +possess, to deny what we cannot comprehend, to insult that which we +envy. + +On the morrow, Wilfrid, laden with ideas which the extraordinary events +of the previous night naturally awakened in his mind, resolved to +question David, and went to find him on the pretext of asking after +Seraphita's health. Though Monsieur Becker spoke of the old servant as +falling into dotage, Wilfrid relied on his own perspicacity to discover +scraps of truth in the torrent of the old man's rambling talk. + +David had the immovable, undecided, physiognomy of an octogenarian. +Under his white hair lay a forehead lined with wrinkles like the stone +courses of a ruined wall; and his face was furrowed like the bed of a +dried-up torrent. His life seemed to have retreated wholly to the eyes, +where light still shone, though its gleams were obscured by a mistiness +which seemed to indicate either an active mental alienation or the +stupid stare of drunkenness. His slow and heavy movements betrayed the +glacial weight of age, and communicated an icy influence to whoever +allowed themselves to look long at him,--for he possessed the magnetic +force of torpor. His limited intelligence was only roused by the sight, +the hearing, or the recollection of his mistress. She was the soul of +this wholly material fragment of an existence. Any one seeing David +alone by himself would have thought him a corpse; let Seraphita enter, +let her voice be heard, or a mention of her be made, and the dead came +forth from his grave and recovered speech and motion. The dry bones +were not more truly awakened by the divine breath in the valley of +Jehoshaphat, and never was that apocalyptic vision better realized than +in this Lazarus issuing from the sepulchre into life at the voice of +a young girl. His language, which was always figurative and often +incomprehensible, prevented the inhabitants of the village from talking +with him; but they respected a mind that deviated so utterly from common +ways,--a thing which the masses instinctively admire. + +Wilfrid found him in the antechamber, apparently asleep beside the +stove. Like a dog who recognizes a friend of the family, the old man +raised his eyes, saw the foreigner, and did not stir. + +"Where is she?" inquired Wilfrid, sitting down beside him. + +David fluttered his fingers in the air as if to express the flight of a +bird. + +"Does she still suffer?" asked Wilfrid. + +"Beings vowed to Heaven are able so to suffer that suffering does not +lessen their love; this is the mark of the true faith," answered the old +man, solemnly, like an instrument which, on being touched, gives forth +an accidental note. + +"Who taught you those words?" + +"The Spirit." + +"What happened to her last night? Did you force your way past the +Vertumni standing sentinel? did you evade the Mammons?" + +"Yes"; answered David, as though awaking from a dream. + +The misty gleam of his eyes melted into a ray that came direct from +the soul and made it by degrees brilliant as that of an eagle, as +intelligent as that of a poet. + +"What did you see?" asked Wilfrid, astonished at this sudden change. + +"I saw Species and Shapes; I heard the Spirit of all things; I beheld +the revolt of the Evil Ones; I listened to the words of the Good. Seven +devils came, and seven archangels descended from on high. The archangels +stood apart and looked on through veils. The devils were close by; they +shone, they acted. Mammon came on his pearly shell in the shape of a +beautiful naked woman; her snowy body dazzled the eye, no human form +ever equalled it; and he said, 'I am Pleasure; thou shalt possess me!' +Lucifer, prince of serpents, was there in sovereign robes; his Manhood +was glorious as the beauty of an angel, and he said, 'Humanity shall be +at thy feet!' The Queen of misers,--she who gives back naught that she +has ever received,--the Sea, came wrapped in her virent mantle; she +opened her bosom, she showed her gems, she brought forth her treasures +and offered them; waves of sapphire and of emerald came at her bidding; +her hidden wonders stirred, they rose to the surface of her breast, they +spoke; the rarest pearl of Ocean spread its iridescent wings and gave +voice to its marine melodies, saying, 'Twin daughter of suffering, we +are sisters! await me; let us go together; all I need is to become a +Woman.' The Bird with the wings of an eagle and the paws of a lion, the +head of a woman and the body of a horse, the Animal, fell down before +her and licked her feet, and promised seven hundred years of plenty to +her best-beloved daughter. Then came the most formidable of all, the +Child, weeping at her knees, and saying, 'Wilt thou leave me, feeble +and suffering as I am? oh, my mother, stay!' and he played with her, +and shed languor on the air, and the Heavens themselves had pity for +his wail. The Virgin of pure song brought forth her choirs to relax the +soul. The Kings of the East came with their slaves, their armies, and +their women; the Wounded asked her for succor, the Sorrowful stretched +forth their hands: 'Do not leave us! do not leave us!' they cried. I, +too, I cried, 'Do not leave us! we adore thee! stay!' Flowers, bursting +from the seed, bathed her in their fragrance which uttered, 'Stay!' The +giant Enakim came forth from Jupiter, leading Gold and its friends and +all the Spirits of the Astral Regions which are joined with him, and +they said, 'We are thine for seven hundred years.' At last came Death on +his pale horse, crying, 'I will obey thee!' One and all fell prostrate +before her. Could you but have seen them! They covered as it were a vast +plain, and they cried aloud to her, 'We have nurtured thee, thou art our +child; do not abandon us!' At length Life issued from her Ruby Waters, +and said, 'I will not leave thee!' then, finding Seraphita silent, she +flamed upon her as the sun, crying out, 'I am light!' '_The light_ +is there!' cried Seraphita, pointing to the clouds where stood the +archangels; but she was wearied out; Desire had wrung her nerves, she +could only cry, 'My God! my God!' Ah! many an Angelic Spirit, scaling +the mountain and nigh to the summit, has set his foot upon a rolling +stone which plunged him back into the abyss! All these lost Spirits +adored her constancy; they stood around her,--a choir without a +song,--weeping and whispering, 'Courage!' At last she conquered; +Desire--let loose upon her in every Shape and every Species--was +vanquished. She stood in prayer, and when at last her eyes were lifted +she saw the feet of Angels circling in the Heavens." + +"She saw the feet of Angels?" repeated Wilfrid. + +"Yes," said the old man. + +"Was it a dream that she told you?" asked Wilfrid. + +"A dream as real as your life," answered David; "I was there." + +The calm assurance of the old servant affected Wilfrid powerfully. +He went away asking himself whether these visions were any less +extraordinary than those he had read of in Swedenborg the night before. + +"If Spirits exist, they must act," he was saying to himself as he +entered the parsonage, where he found Monsieur Becker alone. + +"Dear pastor," he said, "Seraphita is connected with us in form only, +and even that form is inexplicable. Do not think me a madman or a lover; +a profound conviction cannot be argued with. Convert my belief into +scientific theories, and let us try to enlighten each other. To-morrow +evening we shall both be with her." + +"What then?" said Monsieur Becker. + +"If her eye ignores space," replied Wilfrid, "if her thought is an +intelligent sight which enables her to perceive all things in their +essence, and to connect them with the general evolution of the universe, +if, in a word, she sees and knows all, let us seat the Pythoness on her +tripod, let us force this pitiless eagle by threats to spread its wings! +Help me! I breathe a fire which burns my vitals; I must quench it or it +will consume me. I have found a prey at last, and it shall be mine!" + +"The conquest will be difficult," said the pastor, "because this girl +is--" + +"Is what?" cried Wilfrid. + +"Mad," said the old man. + +"I will not dispute her madness, but neither must you dispute her +wonderful powers. Dear Monsieur Becker, she has often confounded me with +her learning. Has she travelled?" + +"From her house to the fiord, no further." + +"Never left this place!" exclaimed Wilfrid. "Then she must have read +immensely." + +"Not a page, not one iota! I am the only person who possesses any books +in Jarvis. The works of Swedenborg--the only books that were in the +chateau--you see before you. She has never looked into a single one of +them." + +"Have you tried to talk with her?" + +"What good would that do?" + +"Does no one live with her in that house?" + +"She has no friends but you and Minna, nor any servant except old +David." + +"It cannot be that she knows nothing of science nor of art." + +"Who should teach her?" said the pastor. + +"But if she can discuss such matters pertinently, as she has often done +with me, what do you make of it?" + +"The girl may have acquired through years of silence the faculties +enjoyed by Apollonius of Tyana and other pretended sorcerers burned +by the Inquisition, which did not choose to admit the fact of +second-sight." + +"If she can speak Arabic, what would you say to that?" + +"The history of medical science gives many authentic instances of girls +who have spoken languages entirely unknown to them." + +"What can I do?" exclaimed Wilfrid. "She knows of secrets in my past +life known only to me." + +"I shall be curious if she can tell me thoughts that I have confided to +no living person," said Monsieur Becker. + +Minna entered the room. + +"Well, my daughter, and how is your familiar spirit?" + +"He suffers, father," she answered, bowing to Wilfrid. "Human passions, +clothed in their false riches, surrounded him all night, and showed him +all the glories of the world. But you think these things mere tales." + +"Tales as beautiful to those who read them in their brains as the +'Arabian Nights' to common minds," said the pastor, smiling. + +"Did not Satan carry our Savior to the pinnacle of the Temple, and show +him all the kingdoms of the world?" she said. + +"The Evangelists," replied her father, "did not correct their copies +very carefully, and several versions are in existence." + +"You believe in the reality of these visions?" said Wilfrid to Minna. + +"Who can doubt when he relates them." + +"He?" demanded Wilfrid. "Who?" + +"He who is there," replied Minna, motioning towards the chateau. + +"Are you speaking of Seraphita?" he said. + +The young girl bent her head, and looked at him with an expression of +gentle mischief. + +"You too!" exclaimed Wilfrid, "you take pleasure in confounding me. Who +and what is she? What do you think of her?" + +"What I feel is inexplicable," said Minna, blushing. + +"You are all crazy!" cried the pastor. + +"Farewell, until to-morrow evening," said Wilfrid. + + + + +CHAPTER IV. THE CLOUDS OF THE SANCTUARY + + +There are pageants in which all the material splendors that man arrays +co-operate. Nations of slaves and divers have searched the sands of +ocean and the bowels of earth for the pearls and diamonds which adorn +the spectators. Transmitted as heirlooms from generation to generation, +these treasures have shone on consecrated brows and could be the most +faithful of historians had they speech. They know the joys and sorrows +of the great and those of the small. Everywhere do they go; they are +worn with pride at festivals, carried in despair to usurers, borne off +in triumph amid blood and pillage, enshrined in masterpieces conceived +by art for their protection. None, except the pearl of Cleopatra, +has been lost. The Great and the Fortunate assemble to witness the +coronation of some king, whose trappings are the work of men's hands, +but the purple of whose raiment is less glorious than that of the +flowers of the field. These festivals, splendid in light, bathed in +music which the hand of man creates, aye, all the triumphs of that hand +are subdued by a thought, crushed by a sentiment. The Mind can illumine +in a man and round a man a light more vivid, can open his ear to more +melodious harmonies, can seat him on clouds of shining constellations +and teach him to question them. The Heart can do still greater things. +Man may come into the presence of one sole being and find in a single +word, a single look, an influence so weighty to bear, of so luminous a +light, so penetrating a sound, that he succumbs and kneels before it. +The most real of all splendors are not in outward things, they are +within us. A single secret of science is a realm of wonders to the man +of learning. Do the trumpets of Power, the jewels of Wealth, the music +of Joy, or a vast concourse of people attend his mental festival? No, he +finds his glory in some dim retreat where, perchance, a pallid suffering +man whispers a single word into his ear; that word, like a torch lighted +in a mine, reveals to him a Science. All human ideas, arrayed in every +attractive form which Mystery can invent surrounded a blind man seated +in a wayside ditch. Three worlds, the Natural, the Spiritual, the +Divine, with all their spheres, opened their portals to a Florentine +exile; he walked attended by the Happy and the Unhappy; by those who +prayed and those who moaned; by angels and by souls in hell. When the +Sent of God, who knew and could accomplish all things, appeared to three +of his disciples it was at eventide, at the common table of the humblest +of inns; and then and there the Light broke forth, shattering Material +Forms, illuminating the Spiritual Faculties, so that they saw him in his +glory, and the earth lay at their feet like a cast-off sandal. + +Monsieur Becker, Wilfrid, and Minna were all under the influence of fear +as they took their way to meet the extraordinary being whom each desired +to question. To them, in their several ways, the Swedish castle had +grown to mean some gigantic representation, some spectacle like those +whose colors and masses are skilfully and harmoniously marshalled by the +poets, and whose personages, imaginary actors to men, are real to +those who begin to penetrate the Spiritual World. On the tiers of this +Coliseum Monsieur Becker seated the gray legions of Doubt, the stern +ideas, the specious formulas of Dispute. He convoked the various +antagonistic worlds of philosophy and religion, and they all appeared, +in the guise of a fleshless shape, like that in which art embodies +Time,--an old man bearing in one hand a scythe, in the other a broken +globe, the human universe. + +Wilfrid had bidden to the scene his earliest illusions and his latest +hopes, human destiny and its conflicts, religion and its conquering +powers. + +Minna saw heaven confusedly by glimpses; love raised a curtain wrought +with mysterious images, and the melodious sounds which met her ear +redoubled her curiosity. + +To all three, therefore, this evening was to be what that other evening +had been for the pilgrims to Emmaus, what a vision was to Dante, an +inspiration to Homer,--to them, three aspects of the world revealed, +veils rent away, doubts dissipated, darkness illumined. Humanity in all +its moods expecting light could not be better represented than here by +this young girl, this man in the vigor of his age, and these old men, +of whom one was learned enough to doubt, the other ignorant enough +to believe. Never was any scene more simple in appearance, nor more +portentous in reality. + +When they entered the room, ushered in by old David, they found +Seraphita standing by a table on which were served the various dishes +which compose a "tea"; a form of collation which in the North takes the +place of wine and its pleasures,--reserved more exclusively for Southern +climes. Certainly nothing proclaimed in her, or in him, a being with the +strange power of appearing under two distinct forms; nothing about her +betrayed the manifold powers which she wielded. Like a careful housewife +attending to the comfort of her guests, she ordered David to put more +wood into the stove. + +"Good evening, my neighbors," she said. "Dear Monsieur Becker, you do +right to come; you see me living for the last time, perhaps. This winter +has killed me. Will you sit there?" she said to Wilfrid. "And you, +Minna, here?" pointing to a chair beside her. "I see you have brought +your embroidery. Did you invent that stitch? the design is very pretty. +For whom is it,--your father, or monsieur?" she added, turning to +Wilfrid. "Surely we ought to give him, before we part, a remembrance of +the daughters of Norway." + +"Did you suffer much yesterday?" asked Wilfrid. + +"It was nothing," she answered; "the suffering gladdened me; it was +necessary, to enable me to leave this life." + +"Then death does not alarm you?" said Monsieur Becker, smiling, for he +did not think her ill. + +"No, dear pastor; there are two ways of dying: to some, death is +victory, to others, defeat." + +"Do you think that you have conquered?" asked Minna. + +"I do not know," she said, "perhaps I have only taken a step in the +path." + +The lustrous splendor of her brow grew dim, her eyes were veiled beneath +slow-dropping lids; a simple movement which affected the prying guests +and kept them silent. Monsieur Becker was the first to recover courage. + +"Dear child," he said, "you are truth itself, and you are ever kind. +I would ask of you to-night something other than the dainties of your +tea-table. If we may believe certain persons, you know amazing things; +if this be true, would it not be charitable in you to solve a few of our +doubts?" + +"Ah!" she said smiling, "I walk on the clouds. I visit the depths of +the fiord; the sea is my steed and I bridle it; I know where the singing +flower grows, and the talking light descends, and fragrant colors shine! +I wear the seal of Solomon; I am a fairy; I cast my orders to the wind +which, like an abject slave, fulfils them; my eyes can pierce the earth +and behold its treasures; for lo! am I not the virgin to whom the pearls +dart from their ocean depths and--" + +"--who led me safely to the summit of the Falberg?" said Minna, +interrupting her. + +"Thou! thou too!" exclaimed the strange being, with a luminous glance +at the young girl which filled her soul with trouble. "Had I not the +faculty of reading through your foreheads the desires which have brought +you here, should I be what you think I am?" she said, encircling all +three with her controlling glance, to David's great satisfaction. The +old man rubbed his hands with pleasure as he left the room. + +"Ah!" she resumed after a pause, "you have come, all of you, with the +curiosity of children. You, my poor Monsieur Becker, have asked yourself +how it was possible that a girl of seventeen should know even a single +one of those secrets which men of science seek with their noses to the +earth,--instead of raising their eyes to heaven. Were I to tell you how +and at what point the plant merges into the animal you would begin +to doubt your doubts. You have plotted to question me; you will admit +that?" + +"Yes, dear Seraphita," answered Wilfrid; "but the desire is a natural +one to men, is it not?" + +"You will bore this dear child with such topics," she said, passing her +hand lightly over Minna's hair with a caressing gesture. + +The young girl raised her eyes and seemed as though she longed to lose +herself in him. + +"Speech is the endowment of us all," resumed the mysterious creature, +gravely. "Woe to him who keeps silence, even in a desert, believing +that no one hears him; all voices speak and all ears listen here below. +Speech moves the universe. Monsieur Becker, I desire to say nothing +unnecessarily. I know the difficulties that beset your mind; would you +not think it a miracle if I were now to lay bare the past history of +your consciousness? Well, the miracle shall be accomplished. You have +never admitted to yourself the full extent of your doubts. I alone, +immovable in my faith, I can show it to you; I can terrify you with +yourself. + +"You stand on the darkest side of Doubt. You do not believe in +God,--although you know it not,--and all things here below are secondary +to him who rejects the first principle of things. Let us leave aside the +fruitless discussions of false philosophy. The spiritualist generations +made as many and as vain efforts to deny Matter as the materialist +generations have made to deny Spirit. Why such discussions? Does not man +himself offer irrefragable proof of both systems? Do we not find in him +material things and spiritual things? None but a madman can refuse to +see in the human body a fragment of Matter; your natural sciences, when +they decompose it, find little difference between its elements and those +of other animals. On the other hand, the idea produced in man by the +comparison of many objects has never seemed to any one to belong to the +domain of Matter. As to this, I offer no opinion. I am now concerned +with your doubts, not with my certainties. To you, as to the majority of +thinkers, the relations between things, the reality of which is proved +to you by your sensations and which you possess the faculty to discover, +do not seem Material. The Natural universe of things and beings ends, in +man, with the Spiritual universe of similarities or differences which +he perceives among the innumerable forms of Nature,--relations so +multiplied as to seem infinite; for if, up to the present time, no one +has been able to enumerate the separate terrestrial creations, who +can reckon their correlations? Is not the fraction which you know, in +relation to their totality, what a single number is to infinity? Here, +then, you fall into a perception of the infinite which undoubtedly +obliges you to conceive of a purely Spiritual world. + +"Thus man himself offers sufficient proof of the two orders,--Matter +and Spirit. In him culminates a visible finite universe; in him begins a +universe invisible and infinite,--two worlds unknown to each other. Have +the pebbles of the fiord a perception of their combined being? have they +a consciousness of the colors they present to the eye of man? do they +hear the music of the waves that lap them? Let us therefore spring over +and not attempt to sound the abysmal depths presented to our minds in +the union of a Material universe and a Spiritual universe,--a creation +visible, ponderable, tangible, terminating in a creation invisible, +imponderable, intangible; completely dissimilar, separated by the void, +yet united by indisputable bonds and meeting in a being who derives +equally from the one and from the other! Let us mingle in one world +these two worlds, absolutely irreconcilable to your philosophies, but +conjoined by fact. However abstract man may suppose the relation which +binds two things together, the line of junction is perceptible. How? +Where? We are not now in search of the vanishing point where Matter +subtilizes. If such were the question, I cannot see why He who has, by +physical relations, studded with stars at immeasurable distances the +heavens which veil Him, may not have created solid substances, nor why +you deny Him the faculty of giving a body to thought. + +"Thus your invisible moral universe and your visible physical universe +are one and the same matter. We will not separate properties from +substances, nor objects from effects. All that exists, all that presses +upon us and overwhelms us from above or from below, before us or in +us, all that which our eyes and our minds perceive, all these named and +unnamed things compose--in order to fit the problem of Creation to the +measure of your logic--a block of finite Matter; but were it infinite, +God would still not be its master. Now, reasoning with your views, dear +pastor, no matter in what way God the infinite is concerned with this +block of finite Matter, He cannot exist and retain the attributes with +which man invests Him. Seek Him in facts, and He is not; spiritually and +materially, you have made God impossible. Listen to the Word of human +Reason forced to its ultimate conclusions. + +"In bringing God face to face with the Great Whole, we see that only +two states are possible between them,--either God and Matter are +contemporaneous, or God existed alone before Matter. Were +Reason--the light that has guided the human race from the dawn of its +existence--accumulated in one brain, even that mighty brain could not +invent a third mode of being without suppressing both Matter and God. +Let human philosophies pile mountain upon mountain of words and of +ideas, let religions accumulate images and beliefs, revelations and +mysteries, you must face at last this terrible dilemma and choose +between the two propositions which compose it; you have no option, and +one as much as the other leads human reason to Doubt. + +"The problem thus established, what signifies Spirit or Matter? Why +trouble about the march of the worlds in one direction or in another, +since the Being who guides them is shown to be an absurdity? Why +continue to ask whether man is approaching heaven or receding from it, +whether creation is rising towards Spirit or descending towards Matter, +if the questioned universe gives no reply? What signifies theogonies and +their armies, theologies and their dogmas, since whichever side of the +problem is man's choice, his God exists not? Let us for a moment take up +the first proposition, and suppose God contemporaneous with Matter. +Is subjection to the action or the co-existence of an alien substance +consistent with being God at all? In such a system, would not God become +a secondary agent compelled to organize Matter? If so, who compelled +Him? Between His material gross companion and Himself, who was the +arbiter? Who paid the wages of the six days' labor imputed to the great +Designer? Has any determining force been found which was neither God nor +Matter? God being regarded as the manufacturer of the machinery of the +worlds, is it not as ridiculous to call Him God as to call the slave who +turns the grindstone a Roman citizen? Besides, another difficulty, as +insoluble to this supreme human reason as it is to God, presents itself. + +"If we carry the problem higher, shall we not be like the Hindus, who +put the world upon a tortoise, the tortoise on an elephant, and do not +know on what the feet of their elephant may rest? This supreme will, +issuing from the contest between God and Matter, this God, this more +than God, can He have existed throughout eternity without willing what +He afterwards willed,--admitting that Eternity can be divided into two +eras. No matter where God is, what becomes of His intuitive intelligence +if He did not know His ultimate thought? Which, then, is the true +Eternity,--the created Eternity or the uncreated? But if God throughout +all time did will the world such as it is, this new necessity, which +harmonizes with the idea of sovereign intelligence, implies the +co-eternity of Matter. Whether Matter be co-eternal by a divine will +necessarily accordant with itself from the beginning, or whether +Matter be co-eternal of its own being, the power of God, which must be +absolute, perishes if His will is circumscribed; for in that case God +would find within Him a determining force which would control Him. Can +He be God if He can no more separate Himself from His creation in a past +eternity than in the coming eternity? + +"This face of the problem is insoluble in its cause. Let us now inquire +into its effects. If a God compelled to have created the world from all +eternity seems inexplicable, He is quite as unintelligible in perpetual +cohesion with His work. God, constrained to live eternally united to His +creation is held down to His first position as workman. Can you conceive +of a God who shall be neither independent of nor dependent on His work? +Could He destroy that work without challenging Himself? Ask yourself, +and decide! Whether He destroys it some day, or whether He never +destroys it, either way is fatal to the attributes without which God +cannot exist. Is the world an experiment? is it a perishable form to +which destruction must come? If it is, is not God inconsistent and +impotent? inconsistent, because He ought to have seen the result before +the attempt,--moreover why should He delay to destroy that which He is +to destroy?--impotent, for how else could He have created an imperfect +man? + +"If an imperfect creation contradicts the faculties which man attributes +to God we are forced back upon the question, Is creation perfect? The +idea is in harmony with that of a God supremely intelligent who could +make no mistakes; but then, what means the degradation of His work, +and its regeneration? Moreover, a perfect world is, necessarily, +indestructible; its forms would not perish, it could neither advance nor +recede, it would revolve in the everlasting circumference from which it +would never issue. In that case God would be dependent on His work; +it would be co-eternal with Him; and so we fall back into one of the +propositions most antagonistic to God. If the world is imperfect, it +can progress; if perfect, it is stationary. On the other hand, if it +be impossible to admit of a progressive God ignorant through a past +eternity of the results of His creative work, can there be a stationary +God? would not that imply the triumph of Matter? would it not be the +greatest of all negations? Under the first hypothesis God perishes +through weakness; under the second through the Force of his inertia. + +"Therefore, to all sincere minds the supposition that Matter, in the +conception and execution of the worlds, is contemporaneous with God, is +to deny God. Forced to choose, in order to govern the nations, between +the two alternatives of the problem, whole generations have preferred +this solution of it. Hence the doctrine of the two principles of +Magianism, brought from Asia and adopted in Europe under the form of +Satan warring with the Eternal Father. But this religious formula and +the innumerable aspects of divinity that have sprung from it are surely +crimes against the Majesty Divine. What other term can we apply to +the belief which sets up as a rival to God a personification of Evil, +striving eternally against the Omnipotent Mind without the possibility +of ultimate triumph? Your statics declare that two Forces thus pitted +against each other are reciprocally rendered null. + +"Do you turn back, therefore, to the other side of the problem, and say +that God pre-existed, original, alone? + +"I will not go over the preceding arguments (which here return in full +force) as to the severance of Eternity into two parts; nor the questions +raised by the progression or the immobility of the worlds; let us +look only at the difficulties inherent to this second theory. If God +pre-existed alone, the world must have emanated from Him; Matter was +therefore drawn from His essence; consequently Matter in itself is +non-existent; all forms are veils to cover the Divine Spirit. If this +be so, the World is Eternal, and also it must be God. Is not this +proposition even more fatal than the former to the attributes conferred +on God by human reason? How can the actual condition of Matter be +explained if we suppose it to issue from the bosom of God and to be +ever united with Him? Is it possible to believe that the All-Powerful, +supremely good in His essence and in His faculties, has engendered +things dissimilar to Himself. Must He not in all things and through all +things be like unto Himself? Can there be in God certain evil parts +of which at some future day he may rid Himself?--a conjecture less +offensive and absurd than terrible, for the reason that it drags back +into Him the two principles which the preceding theory proved to be +inadmissible. God must be ONE; He cannot be divided without renouncing +the most important condition of His existence. It is therefore +impossible to admit of a fraction of God which yet is not God. This +hypothesis seemed so criminal to the Roman Church that she has made the +omnipresence of God in the least particles of the Eucharist an article +of faith. + +"But how then can we imagine an omnipotent mind which does not triumph? +How associate it unless in triumph with Nature? But Nature is not +triumphant; she seeks, combines, remodels, dies, and is born again; she +is even more convulsed when creating than when all was fusion; Nature +suffers, groans, is ignorant, degenerates, does evil; deceives herself, +annihilates herself, disappears, and begins again. If God is associated +with Nature, how can we explain the inoperative indifference of the +divine principle? Wherefore death? How came it that Evil, king of +the earth, was born of a God supremely good in His essence and in His +faculties, who can produce nothing that is not made in His own image? + +"But if, from this relentless conclusion which leads at once to +absurdity, we pass to details, what end are we to assign to the world? +If all is God, all is reciprocally cause and effect; all is _One_ as God +is _One_, and we can perceive neither points of likeness nor points of +difference. Can the real end be a rotation of Matter which subtilizes +and disappears? In whatever sense it were done, would not this +mechanical trick of Matter issuing from God and returning to God seem +a sort of child's play? Why should God make himself gross with Matter? +Under which form is he most God? Which has the ascendant, Matter or +Spirit, when neither can in any way do wrong? Who can comprehend the +Deity engaged in this perpetual business, by which he divides Himself +into two Natures, one of which knows nothing, while the other knows all? +Can you conceive of God amusing Himself in the form of man, laughing at +His own efforts, dying Friday, to be born again Sunday, and continuing +this play from age to age, knowing the end from all eternity, and +telling nothing to Himself, the Creature, of what He the Creator, does? +The God of the preceding hypothesis, a God so nugatory by the very power +of His inertia, seems the more possible of the two if we are compelled +to choose between the impossibilities with which this God, so dull a +jester, fusillades Himself when two sections of humanity argue face to +face, weapons in hand. + +"However absurd this outcome of the second problem may seem, it +was adopted by half the human race in the sunny lands where smiling +mythologies were created. Those amorous nations were consistent; +with them all was God, even Fear and its dastardy, even crime and its +bacchanals. If we accept pantheism,--the religion of many a great human +genius,--who shall say where the greater reason lies? Is it with the +savage, free in the desert, clothed in his nudity, listening to the sun, +talking to the sea, sublime and always true in his deeds whatever they +may be; or shall we find it in civilized man, who derives his chief +enjoyments through lies; who wrings Nature and all her resources to put +a musket on his shoulder; who employs his intellect to hasten the hour +of his death and to create diseases out of pleasures? When the rake of +pestilence and the ploughshare of war and the demon of desolation have +passed over a corner of the globe and obliterated all things, who will +be found to have the greater reason,--the Nubian savage or the patrician +of Thebes? Your doubts descend the scale, they go from heights to +depths, they embrace all, the end as well as the means. + +"But if the physical world seems inexplicable, the moral world presents +still stronger arguments against God. Where, then, is progress? If all +things are indeed moving toward perfection why do we die young? why do +not nations perpetuate themselves? The world having issued from God and +being contained in God can it be stationary? Do we live once, or do +we live always? If we live once, hurried onward by the march of the +Great-Whole, a knowledge of which has not been given to us, let us act +as we please. If we are eternal, let things take their course. Is the +created being guilty if he exists at the instant of the transitions? If +he sins at the moment of a great transformation will he be punished for +it after being its victim? What becomes of the Divine goodness if we are +not transferred to the regions of the blest--should any such exist? +What becomes of God's prescience if He is ignorant of the results of the +trials to which He subjects us? What is this alternative offered to man +by all religions,--either to boil in some eternal cauldron or to walk +in white robes, a palm in his hand and a halo round his head? Can it +be that this pagan invention is the final word of God? Where is the +generous soul who does not feel that the calculating virtue which seeks +the eternity of pleasure offered by all religions to whoever fulfils +at stray moments certain fanciful and often unnatural conditions, is +unworthy of man and of God? Is it not a mockery to give to man impetuous +senses and forbid him to satisfy them? Besides, what mean these ascetic +objections if Good and Evil are equally abolished? Does Evil exist? +If substance in all its forms is God, then Evil is God. The faculty of +reasoning as well as the faculty of feeling having been given to man +to use, nothing can be more excusable in him than to seek to know the +meaning of human suffering and the prospects of the future. + +"If these rigid and rigorous arguments lead to such conclusions +confusion must reign. The world would have no fixedness; nothing +would advance, nothing would pause, all would change, nothing would be +destroyed, all would reappear after self-renovation; for if your mind +does not clearly demonstrate to you an end, it is equally impossible to +demonstrate the destruction of the smallest particle of Matter; Matter +can transform but not annihilate itself. + +"Though blind force may provide arguments for the atheist, intelligent +force is inexplicable; for if it emanates from God, why should it meet +with obstacles? ought not its triumph to be immediate? Where is God? +If the living cannot perceive Him, can the dead find Him? Crumble, +ye idolatries and ye religions! Fall, feeble keystones of all social +arches, powerless to retard the decay, the death, the oblivion that +have overtaken all nations however firmly founded! Fall, morality and +justice! our crimes are purely relative; they are divine effects whose +causes we are not allowed to know. All is God. Either we are God or God +is not!--Child of a century whose every year has laid upon your brow, +old man, the ice of its unbelief, here, here is the summing up of your +lifetime of thought, of your science and your reflections! Dear Monsieur +Becker, you have laid your head upon the pillow of Doubt, because it is +the easiest of solutions; acting in this respect with the majority +of mankind, who say in their hearts: 'Let us think no more of these +problems, since God has not vouchsafed to grant us the algebraic +demonstrations that could solve them, while He has given us so many +other ways to get from earth to heaven.' + +"Tell me, dear pastor, are not these your secret thoughts? Have I evaded +the point of any? nay, rather, have I not clearly stated all? First, in +the dogma of two principles,--an antagonism in which God perishes for +the reason that being All-Powerful He chose to combat. Secondly, in the +absurd pantheism where, all being God, God exists no longer. These two +sources, from which have flowed all the religions for whose triumph +Earth has toiled and prayed, are equally pernicious. Behold in them the +double-bladed axe with which you decapitate the white old man whom you +enthrone among your painted clouds! And now, to me the axe, I wield it!" + +Monsieur Becker and Wilfrid gazed at the young girl with something like +terror. + +"To believe," continued Seraphita, in her Woman's voice, for the Man +had finished speaking, "to believe is a gift. To believe is to feel. +To believe in God we must feel God. This feeling is a possession slowly +acquired by the human being, just as other astonishing powers which you +admire in great men, warriors, artists, scholars, those who know and +those who act, are acquired. Thought, that budget of the relations which +you perceive among created things, is an intellectual language which can +be learned, is it not? Belief, the budget of celestial truths, is also a +language as superior to thought as thought is to instinct. This language +also can be learned. The Believer answers with a single cry, a single +gesture; Faith puts within his hand a flaming sword with which he +pierces and illumines all. The Seer attains to heaven and descends not. +But there are beings who believe and see, who know and will, who love +and pray and wait. Submissive, yet aspiring to the kingdom of light, +they have neither the aloofness of the Believer nor the silence of the +Seer; they listen and reply. To them the doubt of the twilight ages +is not a murderous weapon, but a divining rod; they accept the contest +under every form; they train their tongues to every language; they are +never angered, though they groan; the acrimony of the aggressor is not +in them, but rather the softness and tenuity of light, which penetrates +and warms and illumines. To their eyes Doubt is neither an impiety, nor +a blasphemy, nor a crime, but a transition through which men return upon +their steps in the Darkness, or advance into the Light. This being so, +dear pastor, let us reason together. + +"You do not believe in God? Why? God, to your thinking, is +incomprehensible, inexplicable. Agreed. I will not reply that to +comprehend God in His entirety would be to be God; nor will I tell you +that you deny what seems to you inexplicable so as to give me the right +to affirm that which to me is believable. There is, for you, one +evident fact, which lies within yourself. In you, Matter has ended in +intelligence; can you therefore think that human intelligence will +end in darkness, doubt, and nothingness? God may seem to you +incomprehensible and inexplicable, but you must admit Him to be, in all +things purely physical, a splendid and consistent workman. Why should +His craft stop short at man, His most finished creation? + +"If that question is not convincing, at least it compels meditation. +Happily, although you deny God, you are obliged, in order to establish +your doubts, to admit those double-bladed facts, which kill your +arguments as much as your arguments kill God. We have also admitted that +Matter and Spirit are two creations which do not comprehend each other; +that the spiritual world is formed of infinite relations to which the +finite material world has given rise; that if no one on earth is able +to identify himself by the power of his spirit with the great-whole of +terrestrial creations, still less is he able to rise to the knowledge of +the relations which the spirit perceives between these creations. + +"We might end the argument here in one word, by denying you the faculty +of comprehending God, just as you deny to the pebbles of the fiord the +faculties of counting and of seeing each other. How do you know that the +stones themselves do not deny the existence of man, though man makes +use of them to build his houses? There is one fact that appals +you,--the Infinite; if you feel it within, why will you not admit its +consequences? Can the finite have a perfect knowledge of the infinite? +If you cannot perceive those relations which, according to your own +admission, are infinite, how can you grasp a sense of the far-off end to +which they are converging? Order, the revelation of which is one of your +needs, being infinite, can your limited reason apprehend it? Do not ask +why man does not comprehend that which he is able to perceive, for he is +equally able to perceive that which he does not comprehend. If I prove +to you that your mind ignores that which lies within its compass, will +you grant that it is impossible for it to conceive whatever is beyond +it? This being so, am I not justified in saying to you: 'One of the two +propositions under which God is annihilated before the tribunal of our +reason must be true, the other is false. Inasmuch as creation exists, +you feel the necessity of an end, and that end should be good, should it +not? Now, if Matter terminates in man by intelligence, why are you not +satisfied to believe that the end of human intelligence is the Light of +the higher spheres, where alone an intuition of that God who seems so +insoluble a problem is obtained? The species which are beneath you have +no conception of the universe, and you have; why should there not be +other species above you more intelligent than your own? Man ought to be +better informed than he is about himself before he spends his strength +in measuring God. Before attacking the stars that light us, and the +higher certainties, ought he not to understand the certainties which are +actually about him?' + +"But no! to the negations of doubt I ought rather to reply by negations. +Therefore I ask you whether there is anything here below so evident +that I can put faith in it? I will show you in a moment that you believe +firmly in things which act, and yet are not beings; in things which +engender thought, and yet are not spirits; in living abstractions which +the understanding cannot grasp in any shape, which are in fact nowhere, +but which you perceive everywhere; which have, and can have, on name, +but which, nevertheless, you have named; and which, like the God +of flesh upon whom you figure to yourself, remain inexplicable, +incomprehensible, and absurd. I shall also ask you why, after admitting +the existence of these incomprehensible things, you reserve your doubts +for God? + +"You believe, for instance, in Number,--a base on which you have built +the edifice of sciences which you call 'exact.' Without Number, what +would become of mathematics? Well, what mysterious being endowed with +the faculty of living forever could utter, and what language would be +compact to word the Number which contains the infinite numbers whose +existence is revealed to you by thought? Ask it of the loftiest human +genius; he might ponder it for a thousand years and what would be his +answer? You know neither where Number begins, nor where it pauses, nor +where it ends. Here you call it Time, there you call it Space. Nothing +exists except by Number. Without it, all would be one and the same +substance; for Number alone differentiates and qualifies substance. +Number is to your Spirit what it is to Matter, an incomprehensible +agent. Will you make a Deity of it? Is it a being? Is it a breath +emanating from God to organize the material universe where nothing +obtains form except by the Divinity which is an effect of Number? The +least as well as the greatest of creations are distinguishable from +each other by quantities, qualities, dimensions, forces,--all attributes +created by Number. The infinitude of Numbers is a fact proved to your +soul, but of which no material proof can be given. The mathematician +himself tells you that the infinite of numbers exists, but cannot be +proved. + +"God, dear pastor, is a Number endowed with motion,--felt, but not seen, +the Believer will tell you. Like the Unit, He begins Number, with which +He has nothing in common. The existence of Number depends on the Unit, +which without being a number engenders Number. God, dear pastor is a +glorious Unit who has nothing in common with His creations but who, +nevertheless, engenders them. Will you not therefore agree with me that +you are just as ignorant of where Number begins and ends as you are of +where created Eternity begins and ends? + +"Why, then, if you believe in Number, do you deny God? Is not Creation +interposed between the Infinite of unorganized substances and the +Infinite of the divine spheres, just as the Unit stands between the +Cipher of the fractions you have lately named Decimals, and the Infinite +of Numbers which you call Wholes? Man alone on earth comprehends Number, +that first step of the peristyle which leads to God, and yet his reason +stumbles on it! What! you can neither measure nor grasp the first +abstraction which God delivers to you, and yet you try to subject His +ends to your own tape-line! Suppose that I plunge you into the abyss of +Motion, the force that organizes Number. If I tell you that the Universe +is naught else than Number and Motion, you would see at once that we +speak two different languages. I understand them both; you understand +neither. + +"Suppose I add that Motion and Number are engendered by the Word, namely +the supreme Reason of Seers and Prophets who in the olden time heard the +Breath of God beneath which Saul fell to the earth. That Word, you +scoff at it, you men, although you well know that all visible works, +societies, monuments, deeds, passions, proceed from the breath of your +own feeble word, and that without that word you would resemble the +African gorilla, the nearest approach to man, the Negro. You believe +firmly in Number and in Motion, a force and a result both inexplicable, +incomprehensible, to the existence of which I may apply the logical +dilemma which, as we have seen, prevents you from believing in God. +Powerful reasoner that you are, you do not need that I should prove to +you that the Infinite must everywhere be like unto Itself, and that, +necessarily, it is One. God alone is Infinite, for surely there cannot +be two Infinities, two Ones. If, to make use of human terms, anything +demonstrated to you here below seems to you infinite, be sure that +within it you will find some one aspect of God. But to continue. + +"You have appropriated to yourself a place in the Infinite of Number; +you have fitted it to your own proportions by creating (if indeed you +did create) arithmetic, the basis on which all things rest, even your +societies. Just as Number--the only thing in which your self-styled +atheists believe--organized physical creations, so arithmetic, in the +employ of Number, organized the moral world. This numeration must +be absolute, like all else that is true in itself; but it is purely +relative, it does not exist absolutely, and no proof can be given of its +reality. In the first place, though Numeration is able to take account +of organized substances, it is powerless in relation to unorganized +forces, the ones being finite and the others infinite. The man who can +conceive the Infinite by his intelligence cannot deal with it in its +entirety; if he could, he would be God. Your Numeration, applying to +things finite and not to the Infinite, is therefore true in relation to +the details which you are able to perceive, and false in relation to +the Whole, which you are unable to perceive. Though Nature is like unto +herself in the organizing force or in her principles which are infinite, +she is not so in her finite effects. Thus you will never find in Nature +two objects identically alike. In the Natural Order two and two never +make four; to do so, four exactly similar units must be had, and you +know how impossible it is to find two leaves alike on the same tree, +or two trees alike of the same species. This axiom of your numeration, +false in visible nature, is equally false in the invisible universe of +your abstractions, where the same variance takes place in your ideas, +which are the things of the visible world extended by means of their +relations; so that the variations here are even more marked than +elsewhere. In fact, all being relative to the temperament, strength, +habits, and customs of individuals, who never resemble each other, the +smallest objects take the color of personal feelings. For instance, man +has been able to create units and to give an equal weight and value to +bits of gold. Well, take the ducat of the rich man and the ducat of the +poor man to a money-changer and they are rated exactly equal, but to +the mind of the thinker one is of greater importance than the other; one +represents a month of comfort, the other an ephemeral caprice. Two and +two, therefore, only make four through a false conception. + +"Again: fraction does not exist in Nature, where what you call a +fragment is a finished whole. Does it not often happen (have you not +many proofs of it?) that the hundredth part of a substance is stronger +than what you term the whole of it? If fraction does not exist in the +Natural Order, still less shall we find it in the Moral Order, where +ideas and sentiments may be as varied as the species of the Vegetable +kingdom and yet be always whole. The theory of fractions is therefore +another signal instance of the servility of your mind. + +"Thus Number, with its infinite minuteness and its infinite expansion, +is a power whose weakest side is known to you, but whose real import +escapes your perception. You have built yourself a hut in the Infinite +of numbers, you have adorned it with hieroglyphics scientifically +arranged and painted, and you cry out, 'All is here!' + +"Let us pass from pure, unmingled Number to corporate Number. Your +geometry establishes that a straight line is the shortest way from one +point to another, but your astronomy proves that God has proceeded +by curves. Here, then, we find two truths equally proved by the +same science,--one by the testimony of your senses reinforced by the +telescope, the other by the testimony of your mind; and yet the one +contradicts the other. Man, liable to err, affirms one, and the Maker +of the worlds, whom, so far, you have not detected in error, contradicts +it. Who shall decide between rectalinear and curvilinear geometry? +between the theory of the straight line and that of the curve? If, in +His vast work, the mysterious Artificer, who knows how to reach His ends +miraculously fast, never employs a straight line except to cut off an +angle and so obtain a curve, neither does man himself always rely upon +it. The bullet which he aims direct proceeds by a curve, and when you +wish to strike a certain point in space, you impel your bombshell along +its cruel parabola. None of your men of science have drawn from this +fact the simple deduction that the Curve is the law of the material +worlds and the Straight line that of the Spiritual worlds; one is the +theory of finite creations, the other the theory of the infinite. Man, +who alone in the world has a knowledge of the Infinite, can alone know +the straight line; he alone has the sense of verticality placed in a +special organ. A fondness for the creations of the curve would seem to +be in certain men an indication of the impurity of their nature still +conjoined to the material substances which engender us; and the love of +great souls for the straight line seems to show in them an intuition of +heaven. Between these two lines there is a gulf fixed like that between +the finite and the infinite, between matter and spirit, between man and +the idea, between motion and the object moved, between the creature and +God. Ask Love the Divine to grant you his wings and you can cross that +gulf. Beyond it begins the revelation of the Word. + +"No part of those things which you call material is without its own +meaning; lines are the boundaries of solid parts and imply a force +of action which you suppress in your formulas,--thus rendering those +formulas false in relation to substances taken as a whole. Hence the +constant destruction of the monuments of human labor, which you supply, +unknown to yourselves, with acting properties. Nature has substances; +your science combines only their appearances. At every step Nature +gives the lie to all your laws. Can you find a single one that is not +disproved by a fact? Your Static laws are at the mercy of a thousand +accidents; a fluid can overthrow a solid mountain and prove that the +heaviest substances may be lifted by one that is imponderable. + +"Your laws on Acoustics and Optics are defied by the sounds which you +hear within yourselves in sleep, and by the light of an electric sun +whose rays often overcome you. You know no more how light makes itself +seen within you, than you know the simple and natural process which +changes it on the throats of tropic birds to rubies, sapphires, +emeralds, and opals, or keeps it gray and brown on the breasts of the +same birds under the cloudy skies of Europe, or whitens it here in the +bosom of our polar Nature. You know not how to decide whether color is a +faculty with which all substances are endowed, or an effect produced by +an effluence of light. You admit the saltness of the sea without +being able to prove that the water is salt at its greatest depth. You +recognize the existence of various substances which span what you think +to be the void,--substances which are not tangible under any of the +forms assumed by Matter, although they put themselves in harmony with +Matter in spite of every obstacle. + +"All this being so, you believe in the results of Chemistry, although +that science still knows no way of gauging the changes produced by the +flux and reflux of substances which come and go across your crystals and +your instruments on the impalpable filaments of heat or light conducted +and projected by the affinities of metal or vitrified flint. You obtain +none but dead substances, from which you have driven the unknown force +that holds in check the decomposition of all things here below, and of +which cohesion, attraction, vibration, and polarity are but phenomena. +Life is the thought of substances; bodies are only the means of +fixing life and holding it to its way. If bodies were beings living of +themselves they would be Cause itself, and could not die. + +"When a man discovers the results of the general movement, which is +shared by all creations according to their faculty of absorption, you +proclaim him mighty in science, as though genius consisted in explaining +a thing that is! Genius ought to cast its eyes beyond effects. Your men +of science would laugh if you said to them: 'There exist such positive +relations between two human beings, one of whom may be here, and +the other in Java, that they can at the same instant feel the same +sensation, and be conscious of so doing; they can question each other +and reply without mistake'; and yet there are mineral substances which +exhibit sympathies as far off from each other as those of which I speak. +You believe in the power of the electricity which you find in the magnet +and you deny that which emanates from the soul! According to you, the +moon, whose influence upon the tides you think fixed, has none whatever +upon the winds, nor upon navigation, nor upon men; she moves the sea, +but she must not affect the sick folk; she has undeniable relations +with one half of humanity, and nothing at all to do with the other half. +These are your vaunted certainties! + +"Let us go a step further. You believe in physics. But your physics +begin, like the Catholic religion, with an _act of faith_. Do they not +pre-suppose some external force distinct from substance to which it +communicates motion? You see its effects, but what is it? where is it? +what is the essence of its nature, its life? has it any limits?--and +yet, you deny God! + +"Thus, the majority of your scientific axioms, true to their relation to +man, are false in relation to the Great Whole. Science is One, but you +have divided it. To know the real meaning of the laws of phenomena must +we not know the correlations which exist between phenomena and the law +of the Whole? There is, in all things, an appearance which strikes +your senses; under that appearance stirs a soul; a body is there and a +faculty is there. Where do you teach the study of the relations which +bind things to each other? Nowhere. Consequently you have nothing +positive. Your strongest certainties rest upon the analysis of material +forms whose essence you persistently ignore. + +"There is a Higher Knowledge of which, too late, some men obtain a +glimpse, though they dare not avow it. Such men comprehend the necessity +of considering substances not merely in their mathematical properties +but also in their entirety, in their occult relations and affinities. +The greatest man among you divined, in his latter days, that all was +reciprocally cause and effect; that the visible worlds were co-ordinated +among themselves and subject to worlds invisible. He groaned at the +recollection of having tried to establish fixed precepts. Counting up +his worlds, like grape-seeds scattered through ether, he had explained +their coherence by the laws of planetary and molecular attraction. +You bowed before that man of science--well! I tell you that he died in +despair. By supposing that the centrifugal and centripetal forces, +which he had invented to explain to himself the universe, were equal, he +stopped the universe; yet he admitted motion in an indeterminate +sense; but supposing those forces unequal, then utter confusion of the +planetary system ensued. His laws therefore were not absolute; some +higher problem existed than the principle on which his false glory +rested. The connection of the stars with one another and the centripetal +action of their internal motion did not deter him from seeking the +parent stalk on which his clusters hung. Alas, poor man! the more he +widened space the heavier his burden grew. He told you how there came +to be equilibrium among the parts, but whither went the whole? His mind +contemplated the vast extent, illimitable to human eyes, filled with +those groups of worlds a mere fraction of which is all our telescopes +can reach, but whose immensity is revealed by the rapidity of light. +This sublime contemplation enabled him to perceive myriads of worlds, +planted in space like flowers in a field, which are born like infants, +grow like men, die as the aged die, and live by assimilating from their +atmosphere the substances suitable for their nourishment,--having +a centre and a principal of life, guaranteeing to each other their +circuits, absorbed and absorbing like plants, and forming a vast Whole +endowed with life and possessing a destiny. + +"At that sight your man of science trembled! He knew that life is +produced by the union of the thing and its principle, that death or +inertia or gravity is produced by a rupture between a thing and the +movement which appertains to it. Then it was that he foresaw the +crumbling of the worlds and their destruction if God should withdraw the +Breath of His Word. He searched the Apocalypse for the traces of that +Word. You thought him mad. Understand him better! He was seeking pardon +for the work of his genius. + +"Wilfrid, you have come here hoping to make me solve equations, or rise +upon a rain-cloud, or plunge into the fiord and reappear a swan. If +science or miracles were the end and object of humanity, Moses would +have bequeathed to you the law of fluxions; Jesus Christ would have +lightened the darkness of your sciences; his apostles would have told +you whence come those vast trains of gas and melted metals, attached +to cores which revolve and solidify as they dart through ether, or +violently enter some system and combine with a star, jostling and +displacing it by the shock, or destroying it by the infiltration of +their deadly gases; Saint Paul, instead of telling you to live in God, +would have explained why food is the secret bond among all creations and +the evident tie between all living Species. In these days the greatest +miracle of all would be the discovery of the squaring of the circle,--a +problem which you hold to be insoluble, but which is doubtless solved in +the march of worlds by the intersection of some mathematical lines whose +course is visible to the eye of spirits who have reached the higher +spheres. Believe me, miracles are in us, not without us. Here natural +facts occur which men call supernatural. God would have been strangely +unjust had he confined the testimony of his power to certain generations +and peoples and denied them to others. The brazen rod belongs to all. +Neither Moses, nor Jacob, nor Zoroaster, nor Paul, nor Pythagoras, nor +Swedenborg, not the humblest Messenger nor the loftiest Prophet of the +Most High are greater than you are capable of being. Only, there come to +nations as to men certain periods when Faith is theirs. + +"If material sciences be the end and object of human effort, tell +me, both of you, would societies,--those great centres where men +congregate,--would they perpetually be dispersed? If civilization were +the object of our Species, would intelligence perish? would it continue +purely individual? The grandeur of all nations that were truly great was +based on exceptions; when the exception ceased their power died. If such +were the End-all, Prophets, Seers, and Messengers of God would have lent +their hand to Science rather than have given it to Belief. Surely they +would have quickened your brains sooner than have touched your hearts! +But no; one and all they came to lead the nations back to God; they +proclaimed the sacred Path in simple words that showed the way to +heaven; all were wrapped in love and faith, all were inspired by that +_word_ which hovers above the inhabitants of earth, enfolding them, +inspiriting them, uplifting them; none were prompted by any human +interest. Your great geniuses, your poets, your kings, your learned men +are engulfed with their cities; while the names of these good pastors of +humanity, ever blessed, have survived all cataclysms. + +"Alas! we cannot understand each other on any point. We are separated by +an abyss. You are on the side of darkness, while I--I live in the light, +the true Light! Is this the word that you ask of me? I say it with joy; +it may change you. Know this: there are sciences of matter and sciences +of spirit. There, where you see substances, I see forces that stretch +one toward another with generating power. To me, the character of bodies +is the indication of their principles and the sign of their properties. +Those principles beget affinities which escape your knowledge, and +which are linked to centres. The different species among which life is +distributed are unfailing streams which correspond unfailingly among +themselves. Each has his own vocation. Man is effect and cause. He is +fed, but he feeds in turn. When you call God a Creator, you dwarf Him. +He did not create, as you think He did, plants or animals or stars. +Could He proceed by a variety of means? Must He not act by unity +of composition? Moreover, He gave forth principles to be developed, +according to His universal law, at the will of the surroundings in which +they were placed. Hence a single substance and motion, a single plant, a +single animal, but correlations everywhere. In fact, all affinities are +linked together by contiguous similitudes; the life of the worlds is +drawn toward the centres by famished aspiration, as you are drawn by +hunger to seek food. + +"To give you an example of affinities linked to similitudes (a secondary +law on which the creations of your thought are based), music, that +celestial art, is the working out of this principle; for is it not a +complement of sounds harmonized by number? Is not sound a modification +of air, compressed, dilated, echoed? You know the composition of +air,--oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. As you cannot obtain sound from +the void, it is plain that music and the human voice are the result of +organized chemical substances, which put themselves in unison with the +same substances prepared within you by your thought, co-ordinated +by means of light, the great nourisher of your globe. Have you ever +meditated on the masses of nitre deposited by the snow, have you ever +observed a thunderstorm and seen the plants breathing in from the air +about them the metal it contains, without concluding that the sun has +fused and distributed the subtle essence which nourishes all things here +below? Swedenborg has said, 'The earth is a man.' + +"Your Science, which makes you great in your own eyes, is paltry indeed +beside the light which bathes a Seer. Cease, cease to question me; our +languages are different. For a moment I have used yours to cast, if it +be possible, a ray of faith into your soul; to give you, as it were, the +hem of my garment and draw you up into the regions of Prayer. Can God +abase Himself to you? Is it not for you to rise to Him? If human reason +finds the ladder of its own strength too weak to bring God down to it, +is it not evident that you must find some other path to reach Him? That +Path is in ourselves. The Seer and the Believer find eyes within their +souls more piercing far than eyes that probe the things of earth,--they +see the Dawn. Hear this truth: Your science, let it be never so exact, +your meditations, however bold, your noblest lights are Clouds. Above, +above is the Sanctuary whence the true Light flows." + +She sat down and remained silent; her calm face bore no sign of the +agitation which orators betray after their least fervid improvisations. + +Wilfrid bent toward Monsieur Becker and said in a low voice, "Who taught +her that?" + +"I do not know," he answered. + +"He was gentler on the Falberg," Minna whispered to herself. + +Seraphita passed her hand across her eyes and then she said, smiling:-- + +"You are very thoughtful to-night, gentlemen. You treat Minna and me as +though we were men to whom you must talk politics or commerce; whereas +we are young girls, and you ought to tell us tales while you drink +your tea. That is what we do, Monsieur Wilfrid, in our long Norwegian +evenings. Come, dear pastor, tell me some Saga that I have not +heard,--that of Frithiof, the chronicle that you believe and have so +often promised me. Tell us the story of the peasant lad who owned the +ship that talked and had a soul. Come! I dream of the frigate Ellida, +the fairy with the sails young girls should navigate!" + +"Since we have returned to the regions of Jarvis," said Wilfrid, whose +eyes were fastened on Seraphita as those of a robber, lurking in the +darkness, fasten on the spot where he knows the jewels lie, "tell me why +you do not marry?" + +"You are all born widows and widowers," she replied; "but my marriage +was arranged at my birth. I am betrothed." + +"To whom?" they cried. + +"Ask not my secret," she said; "I will promise, if our father permits +it, to invite you to these mysterious nuptials." + +"Will they be soon?" + +"I think so." + +A long silence followed these words. + +"The spring has come!" said Seraphita, suddenly. "The noise of the +waters and the breaking of the ice begins. Come, let us welcome the +first spring of the new century." + +She rose, followed by Wilfrid, and together they went to a window which +David had opened. After the long silence of winter, the waters stirred +beneath the ice and resounded through the fiord like music,--for there +are sounds which space refines, so that they reach the ear in waves of +light and freshness. + +"Wilfrid, cease to nourish evil thoughts whose triumph would be hard to +bear. Your desires are easily read in the fire of your eyes. Be kind; +take one step forward in well-doing. Advance beyond the love of man and +sacrifice yourself completely to the happiness of her you love. Obey me; +I will lead you in a path where you shall obtain the distinctions which +you crave, and where Love is infinite indeed." + +She left him thoughtful. + +"That soft creature!" he said within himself; "is she indeed the +prophetess whose eyes have just flashed lightnings, whose voice has +rung through worlds, whose hand has wielded the axe of doubt against our +sciences? Have we been dreaming? Am I awake?" + +"Minna," said Seraphita, returning to the young girl, "the eagle swoops +where the carrion lies, but the dove seeks the mountain spring beneath +the peaceful greenery of the glades. The eagle soars to heaven, the dove +descends from it. Cease to venture into regions where thou canst find +no spring of waters, no umbrageous shade. If on the Falberg thou couldst +not gaze into the abyss and live, keep all thy strength for him who will +love thee. Go, poor girl; thou knowest, I am betrothed." + +Minna rose and followed Seraphita to the window where Wilfrid stood. All +three listened to the Sieg bounding out the rush of the upper waters, +which brought down trees uprooted by the ice; the fiord had regained +its voice; all illusions were dispelled! They rejoiced in Nature as she +burst her bonds and seemed to answer with sublime accord to the Spirit +whose breath had wakened her. + +When the three guests of this mysterious being left the house, they were +filled with the vague sensation which is neither sleep, nor torpor, +nor astonishment, but partakes of the nature of each,--a state that is +neither dusk nor dawn, but which creates a thirst for light. All three +were thinking. + +"I begin to believe that she is indeed a Spirit hidden in human form," +said Monsieur Becker. + +Wilfrid, re-entering his own apartments, calm and convinced, was unable +to struggle against that influence so divinely majestic. + +Minna said in her heart, "Why will he not let me love him!" + + + + +CHAPTER V. FAREWELL + + +There is in man an almost hopeless phenomenon for thoughtful minds who +seek a meaning in the march of civilization, and who endeavor to give +laws of progression to the movement of intelligence. However portentous +a fact may be, or even supernatural,--if such facts exist,--however +solemnly a miracle may be done in sight of all, the lightning of that +fact, the thunderbolt of that miracle is quickly swallowed up in the +ocean of life, whose surface, scarcely stirred by the brief convulsion, +returns to the level of its habitual flow. + +A Voice is heard from the jaws of an Animal; a Hand writes on the wall +before a feasting Court; an Eye gleams in the slumber of a king, and a +Prophet explains the dream; Death, evoked, rises on the confines of the +luminous sphere were faculties revive; Spirit annihilates Matter at the +foot of that mystic ladder of the Seven Spiritual Worlds, one resting +upon another in space and revealing themselves in shining waves that +break in light upon the steps of the celestial Tabernacle. But however +solemn the inward Revelation, however clear the visible outward Sign, +be sure that on the morrow Balaam doubts both himself and his ass, +Belshazzar and Pharoah call Moses and Daniel to qualify the Word. The +Spirit, descending, bears man above this earth, opens the seas and lets +him see their depths, shows him lost species, wakens dry bones whose +dust is the soil of valleys; the Apostle writes the Apocalypse, and +twenty centuries later human science ratifies his words and turns his +visions into maxims. And what comes of it all? Why this,--that the +peoples live as they have ever lived, as they lived in the first +Olympiad, as they lived on the morrow of Creation, and on the eve of the +great cataclysm. The waves of Doubt have covered all things. The same +floods surge with the same measured motion on the human granite which +serves as a boundary to the ocean of intelligence. When man has inquired +of himself whether he has seen that which he has seen, whether he has +heard the words that entered his ears, whether the facts were facts and +the idea is indeed an idea, then he resumes his wonted bearing, thinks +of his worldly interests, obeys some envoy of death and of oblivion +whose dusky mantle covers like a pall an ancient Humanity of which +the moderns retain no memory. Man never pauses; he goes his round, +he vegetates until the appointed day when his Axe falls. If this wave +force, this pressure of bitter waters prevents all progress, no doubt it +also warns of death. Spirits prepared by faith among the higher souls of +earth can alone perceive the mystic ladder of Jacob. + +After listening to Seraphita's answer in which (being earnestly +questioned) she unrolled before their eyes a Divine Perspective,--as an +organ fills a church with sonorous sound and reveals a musical universe, +its solemn tones rising to the loftiest arches and playing, like light, +upon their foliated capitals,--Wilfrid returned to his own room, awed +by the sight of a world in ruins, and on those ruins the brilliance of +mysterious lights poured forth in torrents by the hand of a young girl. +On the morrow he still thought of these things, but his awe was gone; he +felt he was neither destroyed nor changed; his passions, his ideas awoke +in full force, fresh and vigorous. He went to breakfast with Monsieur +Becker and found the old man absorbed in the "Treatise on Incantations," +which he had searched since early morning to convince his guest that +there was nothing unprecedented in all that they had seen and heard at +the Swedish castle. With the childlike trustfulness of a true scholar +he had folded down the pages in which Jean Wier related authentic facts +which proved the possibility of the events that had happened the night +before,--for to learned men an idea is a event, just as the greatest +events often present no idea at all to them. By the time they had +swallowed their fifth cup of tea, these philosophers had come to think +the mysterious scene of the preceding evening wholly natural. The +celestial truths to which they had listened were arguments susceptible +of examination; Seraphita was a girl, more or less eloquent; allowance +must be made for the charms of her voice, her seductive beauty, her +fascinating motions, in short, for all those oratorical arts by which an +actor puts a world of sentiment and thought into phrases which are often +commonplace. + +"Bah!" said the worthy pastor, making a philosophical grimace as he +spread a layer of salt butter on his slice of bread, "the final word of +all these fine enigmas is six feet under ground." + +"But," said Wilfrid, sugaring his tea, "I cannot image how a young girl +of seventeen can know so much; what she said was certainly a compact +argument." + +"Read the account of that Italian woman," said Monsieur Becker, "who at +the age of twelve spoke forty-two languages, ancient and modern; also +the history of that monk who could guess thought by smell. I can give +you a thousand such cases from Jean Wier and other writers." + +"I admit all that, dear pastor; but to my thinking, Seraphita would make +a perfect wife." + +"She is all mind," said Monsieur Becker, dubiously. + +Several days went by, during which the snow in the valleys melted +gradually away; the green of the forests and of the grass began to show; +Norwegian Nature made ready her wedding garments for her brief bridal +of a day. During this period, when the softened air invited every one +to leave the house, Seraphita remained at home in solitude. When at last +she admitted Minna the latter saw at once the ravages of inward fever; +Seraphita's voice was hollow, her skin pallid; hitherto a poet might +have compared her lustre to that of diamonds,--now it was that of a +topaz. + +"Have you seen her?" asked Wilfrid, who had wandered around the Swedish +dwelling waiting for Minna's return. + +"Yes," answered the young girl, weeping; "We must lose him!" + +"Mademoiselle," cried Wilfrid, endeavoring to repress the loud tones of +his angry voice, "do not jest with me. You can love Seraphita only +as one young girl can love another, and not with the love which she +inspires in me. You do not know your danger if my jealousy were really +aroused. Why can I not go to her? Is it you who stand in my way?" + +"I do not know by what right you probe my heart," said Minna, calm +in appearance, but inwardly terrified. "Yes, I love him," she said, +recovering the courage of her convictions, that she might, for once, +confess the religion of her heart. "But my jealousy, natural as it is +in love, fears no one here below. Alas! I am jealous of a secret feeling +that absorbs him. Between him and me there is a great gulf fixed which +I cannot cross. Would that I knew who loves him best, the stars or I! +which of us would sacrifice our being most eagerly for his happiness! +Why should I not be free to avow my love? In the presence of death we +may declare our feelings,--and Seraphitus is about to die." + +"Minna, you are mistaken; the siren I so love and long for, she, whom +I have seen, feeble and languid, on her couch of furs, is not a young +man." + +"Monsieur," answered Minna, distressfully, "the being whose powerful +hand guided me on the Falberg, who led me to the saeter sheltered +beneath the Ice-Cap, there--" she said, pointing to the peak, "is not +a feeble girl. Ah, had you but heard him prophesying! His poem was the +music of thought. A young girl never uttered those solemn tones of a +voice which stirred my soul." + +"What certainty have you?" said Wilfrid. + +"None but that of the heart," answered Minna. + +"And I," cried Wilfrid, casting on his companion the terrible glance of +the earthly desire that kills, "I, too, know how powerful is her empire +over me, and I will undeceive you." + +At this moment, while the words were rushing from Wilfrid's lips as +rapidly as the thoughts surged in his brain, they saw Seraphita coming +towards them from the house, followed by David. The apparition calmed +the man's excitement. + +"Look," he said, "could any but a woman move with that grace and +langor?" + +"He suffers; he comes forth for the last time," said Minna. + +David went back at a sign from his mistress, who advanced towards +Wilfrid and Minna. + +"Let us go to the falls of the Sieg," she said, expressing one of those +desires which suddenly possess the sick and which the well hasten to +obey. + +A thin white mist covered the valleys around the fiord and the sides +of the mountains, whose icy summits, sparkling like stars, pierced the +vapor and gave it the appearance of a moving milky way. The sun was +visible through the haze like a globe of red fire. Though winter still +lingered, puffs of warm air laden with the scent of the birch-trees, +already adorned with their rosy efflorescence, and of the larches, +whose silken tassels were beginning to appear,--breezes tempered by the +incense and the sighs of earth,--gave token of the glorious Northern +spring, the rapid, fleeting joy of that most melancholy of Natures. +The wind was beginning to lift the veil of mist which half-obscured the +gulf. The birds sang. The bark of the trees where the sun had not yet +dried the clinging hoar-frost shone gayly to the eye in its fantastic +wreathings which trickled away in murmuring rivulets as the warmth +reached them. The three friends walked in silence along the shore. +Wilfrid and Minna alone noticed the magic transformation that was taking +place in the monotonous picture of the winter landscape. Their companion +walked in thought, as though a voice were sounding to her ears in this +concert of Nature. + +Presently they reached the ledge of rocks through which the Sieg had +forced its way, after escaping from the long avenue cut by its waters +in an undulating line through the forest,--a fluvial pathway flanked +by aged firs and roofed with strong-ribbed arches like those of a +cathedral. Looking back from that vantage-ground, the whole extent of +the fiord could be seen at a glance, with the open sea sparkling on the +horizon beyond it like a burnished blade. + +At this moment the mist, rolling away, left the sky blue and clear. +Among the valleys and around the trees flitted the shining fragments,--a +diamond dust swept by the freshening breeze. The torrent rolled on +toward them; along its length a vapor rose, tinted by the sun with every +color of his light; the decomposing rays flashing prismatic fires along +the many-tinted scarf of waters. The rugged ledge on which they stood +was carpeted by several kinds of lichen, forming a noble mat variegated +by moisture and lustrous like the sheen of a silken fabric. Shrubs, +already in bloom, crowned the rocks with garlands. Their waving foliage, +eager for the freshness of the water, drooped its tresses above the +stream; the larches shook their light fringes and played with the pines, +stiff and motionless as aged men. This luxuriant beauty was foiled by +the solemn colonnades of the forest-trees, rising in terraces upon the +mountains, and by the calm sheet of the fiord, lying below, where the +torrent buried its fury and was still. Beyond, the sea hemmed in this +page of Nature, written by the greatest of poets, Chance; to whom the +wild luxuriance of creation when apparently abandoned to itself is +owing. + +The village of Jarvis was a lost point in the landscape, in this +immensity of Nature, sublime at this moment like all things else of +ephemeral life which present a fleeting image of perfection; for, by a +law fatal to no eyes but our own, creations which appear complete--the +love of our heart and the desire of our eyes--have but one spring-tide +here below. Standing on this breast-work of rock these three persons +might well suppose themselves alone in the universe. + +"What beauty!" cried Wilfrid. + +"Nature sings hymns," said Seraphita. "Is not her music exquisite? Tell +me, Wilfrid, could any of the women you once knew create such a glorious +retreat for herself as this? I am conscious here of a feeling seldom +inspired by the sight of cities, a longing to lie down amid this +quickening verdure. Here, with eyes to heaven and an open heart, lost in +the bosom of immensity, I could hear the sighings of the flower, scarce +budded, which longs for wings, or the cry of the eider grieving that it +can only fly, and remember the desires of man who, issuing from all, +is none the less ever longing. But that, Wilfrid, is only a woman's +thought. You find seductive fancies in the wreathing mists, the +light embroidered veils which Nature dons like a coy maiden, in this +atmosphere where she perfumes for her spousals the greenery of her +tresses. You seek the naiad's form amid the gauzy vapors, and to your +thinking my ears should listen only to the virile voice of the Torrent." + +"But Love is there, like the bee in the calyx of the flower," replied +Wilfrid, perceiving for the first time a trace of earthly sentiment in +her words, and fancying the moment favorable for an expression of his +passionate tenderness. + +"Always there?" said Seraphita, smiling. Minna had left them for a +moment to gather the blue saxifrages growing on a rock above. + +"Always," repeated Wilfrid. "Hear me," he said, with a masterful glance +which was foiled as by a diamond breast-plate. "You know not what I am, +nor what I can be, nor what I will. Do not reject my last entreaty. +Be mine for the good of that world whose happiness you bear upon your +heart. Be mine that my conscience may be pure; that a voice divine +may sound in my ears and infuse Good into the great enterprise I have +undertaken prompted by my hatred to the nations, but which I swear to +accomplish for their benefit if you will walk beside me. What higher +mission can you ask for love? what nobler part can woman aspire to? I +came to Norway to meditate a grand design." + +"And you will sacrifice its grandeur," she said, "to an innocent girl +who loves you, and who will lead you in the paths of peace." + +"What matters sacrifice," he cried, "if I have you? Hear my secret. I +have gone from end to end of the North,--that great smithy from whose +anvils new races have spread over the earth, like human tides appointed +to refresh the wornout civilizations. I wished to begin my work at some +Northern point, to win the empire which force and intellect must ever +give over a primitive people; to form that people for battle, to drive +them to wars which should ravage Europe like a conflagration, crying +liberty to some, pillage to others, glory here, pleasure there!--I, +myself, remaining an image of Destiny, cruel, implacable, advancing like +the whirlwind, which sucks from the atmosphere the particles that make +the thunderbolt, and falls like a devouring scourge upon the nations. +Europe is at an epoch when she awaits the new Messiah who shall destroy +society and remake it. She can no longer believe except in him who +crushes her under foot. The day is at hand when poets and historians +will justify me, exalt me, and borrow my ideas, mine! And all the while +my triumph will be a jest, written in blood, the jest of my vengeance! +But not here, Seraphita; what I see in the North disgusts me. Hers is +a mere blind force; I thirst for the Indies! I would rather fight a +selfish, cowardly, mercantile government. Besides, it is easier to stir +the imagination of the peoples at the feet of the Caucasus than to argue +with the intellect of the icy lands which here surround me. Therefore am +I tempted to cross the Russian steps and pour my triumphant human tide +through Asia to the Ganges, and overthrow the British rule. Seven men +have done this thing before me in other epochs of the world. I will +emulate them. I will spread Art like the Saracens, hurled by Mohammed +upon Europe. Mine shall be no paltry sovereignty like those that govern +to-day the ancient provinces of the Roman empire, disputing with their +subjects about a customs right! No, nothing can bar my way! Like Genghis +Khan, my feet shall tread a third of the globe, my hand shall grasp +the throat of Asia like Aurung-Zeb. Be my companion! Let me seat thee, +beautiful and noble being, on a throne! I do not doubt success, but live +within my heart and I am sure of it." + +"I have already reigned," said Seraphita, coldly. + +The words fell as the axe of a skilful woodman falls at the root of a +young tree and brings it down at a single blow. Men alone can comprehend +the rage that a woman excites in the soul of a man when, after showing +her his strength, his power, his wisdom, his superiority, the capricious +creature bends her head and says, "All that is nothing"; when, unmoved, +she smiles and says, "Such things are known to me," as though his power +were nought. + +"What!" cried Wilfrid, in despair, "can the riches of art, the riches of +worlds, the splendors of a court--" + +She stopped him by a single inflexion of her lips, and said, "Beings +more powerful than you have offered me far more." + +"Thou hast no soul," he cried,--"no soul, if thou art not persuaded by +the thought of comforting a great man, who is willing now to sacrifice +all things to live beside thee in a little house on the shores of a +lake." + +"But," she said, "I am loved with a boundless love." + +"By whom?" cried Wilfrid, approaching Seraphita with a frenzied +movement, as if to fling her into the foaming basin of the Sieg. + +She looked at him and slowly extended her arm, pointing to Minna, who +now sprang towards her, fair and glowing and lovely as the flowers she +held in her hand. + +"Child!" said Seraphitus, advancing to meet her. + +Wilfrid remained where she left him, motionless as the rock on which he +stood, lost in thought, longing to let himself go into the torrent +of the Sieg, like the fallen trees which hurried past his eyes and +disappeared in the bosom of the gulf. + +"I gathered them for you," said Minna, offering the bunch of saxifrages +to the being she adored. "One of them, see, this one," she added, +selecting a flower, "is like that you found on the Falberg." + +Seraphitus looked alternately at the flower and at Minna. + +"Why question me? Dost thou doubt me?" + +"No," said the young girl, "my trust in you is infinite. You are +more beautiful to look upon than this glorious nature, but your mind +surpasses in intellect that of all humanity. When I have been with you I +seem to have prayed to God. I long--" + +"For what?" said Seraphitus, with a glance that revealed to the young +girl the vast distance which separated them. + +"To suffer in your stead." + +"Ah, dangerous being!" cried Seraphitus in his heart. "Is it wrong, oh +my God! to desire to offer her to Thee? Dost thou remember, Minna, +what I said to thee up there?" he added, pointing to the summit of the +Ice-Cap. + +"He is terrible again," thought Minna, trembling with fear. + +The voice of the Sieg accompanied the thoughts of the three beings +united on this platform of projecting rock, but separated in soul by the +abysses of the Spiritual World. + +"Seraphitus! teach me," said Minna in a silvery voice, soft as the +motion of a sensitive plant, "teach me how to cease to love you. Who +could fail to admire you; love is an admiration that never wearies." + +"Poor child!" said Seraphitus, turning pale; "there is but one whom thou +canst love in that way." + +"Who?" asked Minna. + +"Thou shalt know hereafter," he said, in the feeble voice of a man who +lies down to die. + +"Help, help! he is dying!" cried Minna. + +Wilfrid ran towards them. Seeing Seraphita as she lay on a fragment of +gneiss, where time had cast its velvet mantle of lustrous lichen and +tawny mosses now burnished in the sunlight, he whispered softly, "How +beautiful she is!" + +"One other look! the last that I shall ever cast upon this nature in +travail," said Seraphitus, rallying her strength and rising to her feet. + +She advanced to the edge of the rocky platform, whence her eyes took in +the scenery of that grand and glorious landscape, so verdant, flowery, +and animated, yet so lately buried in its winding-sheet of snow. + +"Farewell," she said, "farewell, home of Earth, warmed by the fires of +Love; where all things press with ardent force from the centre to the +extremities; where the extremities are gathered up, like a woman's hair, +to weave the mysterious braid which binds us in that invisible ether to +the Thought Divine! + +"Behold the man bending above that furrow moistened with his tears, +who lifts his head for an instant to question Heaven; behold the woman +gathering her children that she may feed them with her milk; see him +who lashes the ropes in the height of the gale; see her who sits in the +hollow of the rocks, awaiting the father! Behold all they who stretch +their hands in want after a lifetime spent in thankless toil. To all +peace and courage, and to all farewell! + +"Hear you the cry of the soldier, dying nameless and unknown? the wail +of the man deceived who weeps in the desert? To them peace and courage; +to all farewell! + +"Farewell, you who die for the kings of the earth! Farewell, ye people +without a country and ye countries without a people, each, with a mutual +want. Above all, farewell to Thee who knew not where to lay Thy head, +Exile divine! Farewell, mothers beside your dying sons! Farewell, ye +Little Ones, ye Feeble, ye Suffering, you whose sorrows I have so often +borne! Farewell, all ye who have descended into the sphere of Instinct +that you may suffer there for others! + +"Farewell, ye mariners who seek the Orient through the thick darkness of +your abstractions, vast as principles! Farewell, martyrs of thought, +led by thought into the presence of the True Light. Farewell, regions +of study where mine ears can hear the plaint of genius neglected and +insulted, the sigh of the patient scholar to whom enlightenment comes +too late! + +"I see the angelic choir, the wafting of perfumes, the incense of the +heart of those who go their way consoling, praying, imparting celestial +balm and living light to suffering souls! Courage, ye choir of Love! +you to whom the peoples cry, 'Comfort us, comfort us, defend us!' To you +courage! and farewell! + +"Farewell, ye granite rocks that shall bloom a flower; farewell, flower +that becomes a dove; farewell, dove that shalt be woman; farewell, +woman, who art Suffering, man, who art Belief! Farewell, you who shall +be all love, all prayer!" + +Broken with fatigue, this inexplicable being leaned for the first time +on Wilfrid and on Minna to be taken home. Wilfrid and Minna felt +the shock of a mysterious contact in and through the being who thus +connected them. They had scarcely advanced a few steps when David +met them, weeping. "She will die," he said, "why have you brought her +hither?" + +The old man raised her in his arms with the vigor of youth and bore her +to the gate of the Swedish castle like an eagle bearing a white lamb to +his mountain eyrie. + + + + +CHAPTER VI. THE PATH TO HEAVEN + + +The day succeeding that on which Seraphita foresaw her death and bade +farewell to Earth, as a prisoner looks round his dungeon before leaving +it forever, she suffered pains which obliged her to remain in the +helpless immobility of those whose pangs are great. Wilfrid and Minna +went to see her, and found her lying on her couch of furs. Still veiled +in flesh, her soul shone through that veil, which grew more and more +transparent day by day. The progress of the Spirit, piercing the last +obstacle between itself and the Infinite, was called an illness, the +hour of Life went by the name of death. David wept as he watched +her sufferings; unreasonable as a child, he would not listen to his +mistress's consolations. Monsieur Becker wished Seraphita to try +remedies; but all were useless. + +One morning she sent for the two beings whom she loved, telling them +that this would be the last of her bad days. Wilfrid and Minna came in +terror, knowing well that they were about to lose her. Seraphita smiled +to them as one departing to a better world; her head drooped like a +flower heavy with dew, which opens its calyx for the last time to waft +its fragrance on the breeze. She looked at these friends with a sadness +that was for them, not for herself; she thought no longer of herself, +and they felt this with a grief mingled with gratitude which they were +unable to express. Wilfrid stood silent and motionless, lost in thoughts +excited by events whose vast bearings enabled him to conceive of some +illimitable immensity. + +Emboldened by the weakness of the being lately so powerful, or perhaps +by the fear of losing him forever, Minna bent down over the couch and +said, "Seraphitus, let me follow thee!" + +"Can I forbid thee?" + +"Why will thou not love me enough to stay with me?" + +"I can love nothing here." + +"What canst thou love?" + +"Heaven." + +"Is it worthy of heaven to despise the creatures of God?" + +"Minna, can we love two beings at once? Would our beloved be indeed our +beloved if he did not fill our hearts? Must he not be the first, the +last, the only one? She who is all love, must she not leave the world +for her beloved? Human ties are but a memory, she has no ties except to +him! Her soul is hers no longer; it is his. If she keeps within her +soul anything that is not his, does she love? No, she loves not. To +love feebly, is that to love at all? The voice of her beloved makes her +joyful; it flows through her veins in a crimson tide more glowing far +than blood; his glance is the light that penetrates her; her being melts +into his being. He is warm to her soul. He is the light that lightens; +near to him there is neither cold nor darkness. He is never absent, he +is always with us; we think in him, to him, by him! Minna, that is how I +love him." + +"Love whom?" said Minna, tortured with sudden jealousy. + +"God," replied Seraphitus, his voice glowing in their souls like fires +of liberty from peak to peak upon the mountains,--"God, who does not +betray us! God, who will never abandon us! who crowns our wishes; who +satisfies His creatures with joy--joy unalloyed and infinite! God, +who never wearies but ever smiles! God, who pours into the soul fresh +treasures day by day; who purifies and leaves no bitterness; who is all +harmony, all flame! God, who has placed Himself within our hearts to +blossom there; who hearkens to our prayers; who does not stand aloof +when we are His, but gives His presence absolutely! He who revives us, +magnifies us, and multiplies us in Himself; _God_! Minna, I love thee +because thou mayst be His! I love thee because if thou come to Him thou +wilt be mine." + +"Lead me to Him," cried Minna, kneeling down; "take me by the hand; I +will not leave thee!" + +"Lead us, Seraphita!" cried Wilfrid, coming to Minna's side with an +impetuous movement. "Yes, thou hast given me a thirst for Light, a +thirst for the Word. I am parched with the Love thou hast put into my +heart; I desire to keep thy soul in mine; thy will is mine; I will do +whatsoever thou biddest me. Since I cannot obtain thee, I will keep thy +will and all the thoughts that thou hast given me. If I may not unite +myself with thee except by the power of my spirit, I will cling to thee +in soul as the flame to what it laps. Speak!" + +"Angel!" exclaimed the mysterious being, enfolding them both in +one glance, as it were with an azure mantle, "Heaven shall by thine +heritage!" + +Silence fell among them after these words, which sounded in the souls of +the man and of the woman like the first notes of some celestial harmony. + +"If you would teach your feet to tread the Path to heaven, know that +the way is hard at first," said the weary sufferer; "God wills that you +shall seek Him for Himself. In that sense, He is jealous; He demands +your whole self. But when you have given Him yourself, never, never will +He abandon you. I leave with you the keys of the kingdom of His Light, +where evermore you shall dwell in the bosom of the Father, in the heart +of the Bridegroom. No sentinels guard the approaches, you may enter +where you will; His palaces, His treasures, His sceptre, all are +free. 'Take them!' He says. But--you must _will_ to go there. Like +one preparing for a journey, a man must leave his home, renounce his +projects, bid farewell to friends, to father, mother, sister, even +to the helpless brother who cries after him,--yes, farewell to them +eternally; you will no more return than did the martyrs on their way to +the stake. You must strip yourself of every sentiment, of everything to +which man clings. Unless you do this you are but half-hearted in your +enterprise. + +"Do for God what you do for your ambitious projects, what you do in +consecrating yourself to Art, what you have done when you loved a human +creature or sought some secret of human science. Is not God the whole +of science, the all of love, the source of poetry? Surely His riches +are worthy of being coveted! His treasure is inexhaustible, His poem +infinite, His love immutable, His science sure and darkened by no +mysteries. Be anxious for nothing, He will give you all. Yes, in His +heart are treasures with which the petty joys you lose on earth are not +to be compared. What I tell you is true; you shall possess His power; +you may use it as you would use the gifts of lover or mistress. Alas! +men doubt, they lack faith, and will, and persistence. If some set their +feet in the path, they look behind them and presently turn back. Few +decide between the two extremes,--to go or stay, heaven or the mire. All +hesitate. Weakness leads astray, passion allures into dangerous paths, +vice becomes habitual, man flounders in the mud and makes no progress +towards a better state. + +"All human beings go through a previous life in the sphere of Instinct, +where they are brought to see the worthlessness of earthly treasures, +to amass which they gave themselves such untold pains! Who can tell how +many times the human being lives in the sphere of Instinct before he +is prepared to enter the sphere of Abstractions, where thought expends +itself on erring science, where mind wearies at last of human language? +for, when Matter is exhausted, Spirit enters. Who knows how many fleshly +forms the heir of heaven occupies before he can be brought to understand +the value of that silence and solitude whose starry plains are but the +vestibule of Spiritual Worlds? He feels his way amid the void, makes +trial of nothingness, and then at last his eyes revert upon the Path. +Then follow other existences,--all to be lived to reach the place +where Light effulgent shines. Death is the post-house of the journey. A +lifetime may be needed merely to gain the virtues which annul the +errors of man's preceding life. First comes the life of suffering, whose +tortures create a thirst for love. Next the life of love and devotion +to the creature, teaching devotion to the Creator,--a life where the +virtues of love, its martyrdoms, its joys followed by sorrows, its +angelic hopes, its patience, its resignation, excite an appetite for +things divine. Then follows the life which seeks in silence the traces +of the Word; in which the soul grows humble and charitable. Next the +life of longing; and lastly, the life of prayer. In that is the noonday +sun; there are the flowers, there the harvest! + +"The virtues we acquire, which develop slowly within us, are +the invisible links that bind each one of our existences to the +others,--existences which the spirit alone remembers, for Matter has no +memory for spiritual things. Thought alone holds the tradition of the +bygone life. The endless legacy of the past to the present is the secret +source of human genius. Some receive the gift of form, some the gift +of numbers, others the gift of harmony. All these gifts are steps of +progress in the Path of Light. Yes, he who possesses a single one of +them touches at that point the Infinite. Earth has divided the Word--of +which I here reveal some syllables--into particles, she has reduced it +to dust and has scattered it through her works, her dogmas, her poems. +If some impalpable grain shines like a diamond in a human work, men cry: +'How grand! how true! how glorious!' That fragment vibrates in their +souls and wakes a presentiment of heaven: to some, a melody that +weans from earth; to others, the solitude that draws to God. To all, +whatsoever sends us back upon ourselves, whatsoever strikes us down and +crushes us, lifts or abases us,--_that_ is but a syllable of the Divine +Word. + +"When a human soul draws its first furrow straight, the rest will follow +surely. One thought borne inward, one prayer uplifted, one suffering +endured, one echo of the Word within us, and our souls are forever +changed. All ends in God; and many are the ways to find Him by walking +straight before us. When the happy day arrives in which you set your +feet upon the Path and begin your pilgrimage, the world will know +nothing of it; earth no longer understands you; you no longer understand +each other. Men who attain a knowledge of these things, who lisp a few +syllables of the Word, often have not where to lay their head; hunted +like beasts they perish on the scaffold, to the joy of assembled +peoples, while Angels open to them the gates of heaven. Therefore, your +destiny is a secret between yourself and God, just as love is a secret +between two hearts. You may be the buried treasure, trodden under the +feet of men thirsting for gold yet all-unknowing that you are there +beneath them. + +"Henceforth your existence becomes a thing of ceaseless activity; each +act has a meaning which connects you with God, just as in love your +actions and your thoughts are filled with the loved one. But love and +its joys, love and its pleasures limited by the senses, are but the +imperfect image of the love which unites you to your celestial Spouse. +All earthly joy is mixed with anguish, with discontent. If love ought +not to pall then death should end it while its flame is high, so that +we see no ashes. But in God our wretchedness becomes delight, joy lives +upon itself and multiplies, and grows, and has no limit. In the Earthly +life our fleeting love is ended by tribulation; in the Spiritual life +the tribulations of a day end in joys unending. The soul is ceaselessly +joyful. We feel God with us, in us; He gives a sacred savor to all +things; He shines in the soul; He imparts to us His sweetness; He stills +our interest in the world viewed for ourselves; He quickens our interest +in it viewed for His sake, and grants us the exercise of His power upon +it. In His name we do the works which He inspires, we act for Him, we +have no self except in Him, we love His creatures with undying love, we +dry their tears and long to bring them unto Him, as a loving woman longs +to see the inhabitants of earth obey her well-beloved. + +"The final life, the fruition of all other lives, to which the powers +of the soul have tended, and whose merits open the Sacred Portals to +perfected man, is the life of Prayer. Who can make you comprehend the +grandeur, the majesty, the might of Prayer? May my voice, these words of +mine, ring in your hearts and change them. Be now, here, what you may +be after cruel trial! There are privileged beings, Prophets, Seers, +Messengers, and Martyrs, all those who suffer for the Word and who +proclaim it; such souls spring at a bound across the human sphere and +rise at once to Prayer. So, too, with those whose souls receive the fire +of Faith. Be one of those brave souls! God welcomes boldness. He loves +to be taken by violence; He will never reject those who force their way +to Him. Know this! desire, the torrent of your will, is so all-powerful +that a single emission of it, made with force, can obtain all; a single +cry, uttered under the pressure of Faith, suffices. Be one of such +beings, full of force, of will, of love! Be conquerors on the earth! Let +the hunger and thirst of God possess you. Fly to Him as the hart panting +for the water-brooks. Desire shall lend you its wings; tears, those +blossoms of repentance, shall be the celestial baptism from which your +nature will issue purified. Cast yourself on the breast of the stream in +Prayer! Silence and meditation are the means of following the Way. God +reveals Himself, unfailingly, to the solitary, thoughtful seeker. + +"It is thus that the separation takes place between Matter, which so +long has wrapped its darkness round you, and Spirit, which was in you +from the beginning, the light which lighted you and now brings noon-day +to your soul. Yes, your broken heart shall receive the light; the light +shall bathe it. Then you will no longer feel convictions, they will +have changed to certainties. The Poet utters; the Thinker meditates; the +Righteous acts; but he who stands upon the borders of the Divine World +prays; and his prayer is word, thought, action, in one! Yes, prayer +includes all, contains all; it completes nature, for it reveals to you +the mind within it and its progression. White and shining virgin of all +human virtues, ark of the covenant between earth and heaven, tender and +strong companion partaking of the lion and of the lamb, Prayer! Prayer +will give you the key of heaven! Bold and pure as innocence, strong, +like all that is single and simple, this glorious, invincible Queen +rests, nevertheless, on the material world; she takes possession of it; +like the sun, she clasps it in a circle of light. The universe belongs +to him who wills, who knows, who prays; but he must will, he must know, +he must pray; in a word, he must possess force, wisdom, and faith. + +"Therefore Prayer, issuing from so many trials, is the consummation +of all truths, all powers, all feelings. Fruit of the laborious, +progressive, continued development of natural properties and faculties +vitalized anew by the divine breath of the Word, Prayer has occult +activity; it is the final worship--not the material worship of images, +nor the spiritual worship of formulas, but the worship of the Divine +World. We say no prayers,--prayer forms within us; it is a faculty which +acts of itself; it has attained a way of action which lifts it outside +of forms; it links the soul to God, with whom we unite as the root of +the tree unites with the soil; our veins draw life from the principle of +life, and we live by the life of the universe. Prayer bestows external +conviction by making us penetrate the Material World through the +cohesion of all our faculties with the elementary substances; it bestows +internal conviction by developing our essence and mingling it with that +of the Spiritual Worlds. To be able to pray thus, you must attain to an +utter abandonment of flesh; you must acquire through the fires of the +furnace the purity of the diamond; for this complete communion with the +Divine is obtained only in absolute repose, where storms and conflicts +are at rest. + +"Yes, Prayer--the aspiration of the soul freed absolutely from the +body--bears all forces within it, and applies them to the constant and +perseverant union of the Visible and the Invisible. When you possess +the faculty of praying without weariness, with love, with force, with +certainty, with intelligence, your spiritualized nature will presently +be invested with power. Like a rushing wind, like a thunderbolt, it cuts +its way through all things and shares the power of God. The quickness +of the Spirit becomes yours; in an instant you may pass from region to +region; like the Word itself, you are transported from the ends of the +world to other worlds. Harmony exists, and you are part of it! Light is +there and your eyes possess it! Melody is heard and you echo it! Under +such conditions, you feel your perceptions developing, widening; the +eyes of your mind reach to vast distances. There is, in truth, neither +time nor place to the Spirit; space and duration are proportions created +for Matter; spirit and matter have naught in common. + +"Though these things take place in stillness, in silence, without +agitation, without external movement, yet Prayer is all action; but it +is spiritual action, stripped of substantiality, and reduced, like +the motion of the worlds, to an invisible pure force. It penetrates +everywhere like light; it gives vitality to souls that come beneath its +rays, as Nature beneath the sun. It resuscitates virtue, purifies and +sanctifies all actions, peoples solitude, and gives a foretaste of +eternal joys. When you have once felt the delights of the divine +intoxication which comes of this internal travail, then all is yours! +once take the lute on which we sing to God within your hands, and you +will never part with it. Hence the solitude in which Angelic Spirits +live; hence their disdain of human joys. They are withdrawn from those +who must die to live; they hear the language of such beings, but they no +longer understand their ideas; they wonder at their movements, at +what the world terms policies, material laws, societies. For them all +mysteries are over; truth, and truth alone, is theirs. They who have +reached the point where their eyes discern the Sacred Portals, who, not +looking back, not uttering one regret, contemplate worlds and comprehend +their destinies, such as they keep silence, wait, and bear their final +struggles. The worst of all those struggles is the last; at the zenith +of all virtue is Resignation,--to be an exile and not lament, no longer +to delight in earthly things and yet to smile, to belong to God and yet +to stay with men! You hear the voice that cries to you, 'Advance!' Often +celestial visions of descending Angels compass you about with songs +of praise; then, tearless, uncomplaining, must you watch them as they +reascent the skies! To murmur is to forfeit all. Resignation is a fruit +that ripens at the gates of heaven. How powerful, how glorious the calm +smile, the pure brow of the resigned human creature. Radiant is the +light of that brow. They who live in its atmosphere grow purer. That +calm glance penetrates and softens. More eloquent by silence than the +prophet by speech, such beings triumph by their simple presence. Their +ears are quick to hear as a faithful dog listening for his master. +Brighter than hope, stronger than love, higher than faith, that creature +of resignation is the virgin standing on the earth, who holds for a +moment the conquered palm, then, rising heavenward, leaves behind her +the imprint of her white, pure feet. When she has passed away men flock +around and cry, 'See! See!' Sometimes God holds her still in sight,--a +figure to whose feet creep Forms and Species of Animality to be shown +their way. She wafts the light exhaling from her hair, and they see; she +speaks, and they hear. 'A miracle!' they cry. Often she triumphs in the +name of God; frightened men deny her and put her to death; smiling, she +lays down her sword and goes to the stake, having saved the Peoples. +How many a pardoned Angel has passed from martyrdom to heaven! Sinai, +Golgotha are not in this place nor in that; Angels are crucified +in every place, in every sphere. Sighs pierce to God from the whole +universe. This earth on which we live is but a single sheaf of the great +harvest; humanity is but a species in the vast garden where the flowers +of heaven are cultivated. Everywhere God is like unto Himself, and +everywhere, by prayer, it is easy to reach Him." + +With these words, which fell from the lips of another Hagar in the +wilderness, burning the souls of the hearers as the live coal of the +word inflamed Isaiah, this mysterious being paused as though to gather +some remaining strength. Wilfrid and Minna dared not speak. Suddenly HE +lifted himself up to die:-- + +"Soul of all things, oh my God, thou whom I love for Thyself! Thou, +Judge and Father, receive a love which has no limit. Give me of thine +essence and thy faculties that I be wholly thine! Take me, that I no +longer be myself! Am I not purified? then cast me back into the furnace! +If I be not yet proved in the fire, make me some nurturing ploughshare, +or the Sword of victory! Grant me a glorious martyrdom in which to +proclaim thy Word! Rejected, I will bless thy justice. But if excess +of love may win in a moment that which hard and patient labor cannot +attain, then bear me upward in thy chariot of fire! Grant me triumph, or +further trial, still will I bless thee! To suffer for thee, is not that +to triumph? Take me, seize me, bear me away! nay, if thou wilt, reject +me! Thou art He who can do no evil. Ah!" he cried, after a pause, "the +bonds are breaking. + +"Spirits of the pure, ye sacred flock, come forth from the hidden +places, come on the surface of the luminous waves! The hour now is; +come, assemble! Let us sing at the gates of the Sanctuary; our songs +shall drive away the final clouds. With one accord let us hail the Dawn +of the Eternal Day. Behold the rising of the one True Light! Ah, why may +I not take with me these my friends! Farewell, poor earth, Farewell!" + + + + +CHAPTER VII. THE ASSUMPTION + + +The last psalm was uttered neither by word, look, nor gesture, nor by +any of those signs which men employ to communicate their thoughts, but +as the soul speaks to itself; for at the moment when Seraphita revealed +herself in her true nature, her thoughts were no longer enslaved by +human words. The violence of that last prayer had burst her bonds. Her +soul, like a white dove, remained for an instant poised above the body +whose exhausted substances were about to be annihilated. + +The aspiration of the Soul toward heaven was so contagious that Wilfrid +and Minna, beholding those radiant scintillations of Life, perceived not +Death. + +They had fallen on their knees when _he_ had turned toward his Orient, +and they shared his ecstasy. + +The fear of the Lord, which creates man a second time, purging away his +dross, mastered their hearts. + +Their eyes, veiled to the things of Earth, were opened to the Brightness +of Heaven. + +Though, like the Seers of old called Prophets by men, they were filled +with the terror of the Most High, yet like them they continued firm +when they found themselves within the radiance where the Glory of the +_Spirit_ shone. + +The veil of flesh, which, until now, had hidden that glory from their +eyes, dissolved imperceptibly away, and left them free to behold the +Divine substance. + +They stood in the twilight of the Coming Dawn, whose feeble rays +prepared them to look upon the True Light, to hear the Living Word, and +yet not die. + +In this state they began to perceive the immeasurable differences which +separate the things of earth from the things of Heaven. + +_Life_, on the borders of which they stood, leaning upon each other, +trembling and illuminated, like two children standing under shelter +in presence of a conflagration, That Life offered no lodgment to the +senses. + +The ideas they used to interpret their vision to themselves were to +the things seen what the visible senses of a man are to his soul, the +material covering of a divine essence. + +The departing _spirit_ was above them, shedding incense without odor, +melody without sound. About them, where they stood, were neither +surfaces, nor angles, nor atmosphere. + +They dared neither question him nor contemplate him; they stood in the +shadow of that Presence as beneath the burning rays of a tropical sun, +fearing to raise their eyes lest the light should blast them. + +They knew they were beside him, without being able to perceive how it +was that they stood, as in a dream, on the confines of the Visible and +the Invisible, nor how they had lost sight of the Visible and how they +beheld the Invisible. + +To each other they said: "If he touches us, we can die!" But the +_spirit_ was now within the Infinite, and they knew not that neither +time, nor space, nor death, existed there, and that a great gulf lay +between them, although they thought themselves beside him. + +Their souls were not prepared to receive in its fulness a knowledge +of the faculties of that Life; they could have only faint and confused +perceptions of it, suited to their weakness. + +Were it not so, the thunder of the _Living Word_, whose far-off tones +now reached their ears, and whose meaning entered their souls as life +unites with body,--one echo of that Word would have consumed their being +as a whirlwind of fire laps up a fragile straw. + +Therefore they saw only that which their nature, sustained by the +strength of the _spirit_, permitted them to see; they heard that only +which they were able to hear. + +And yet, though thus protected, they shuddered when the Voice of the +anguished soul broke forth above them--the prayer of the _Spirit_ +awaiting Life and imploring it with a cry. + +That cry froze them to the very marrow of their bones. + +The _Spirit_ knocked at the _sacred portal_. "What wilt thou?" answered +a _choir_, whose question echoed among the worlds. "To go to God." "Hast +thou conquered?" "I have conquered the flesh through abstinence, I +have conquered false knowledge by humility, I have conquered pride by +charity, I have conquered the earth by love; I have paid my dues by +suffering, I am purified in the fires of faith, I have longed for Life +by prayer: I wait in adoration, and I am resigned." + +No answer came. + +"God's will be done!" answered the _Spirit_, believing that he was about +to be rejected. + +His tears flowed and fell like dew upon the heads of the two kneeling +witnesses, who trembled before the justice of God. + +Suddenly the trumpets sounded,--the last trumpets of Victory won by the +_Angel_ in this last trial. The reverberation passed through space +as sound through its echo, filling it, and shaking the universe which +Wilfrid and Minna felt like an atom beneath their feet. They trembled +under an anguish caused by the dread of the mystery about to be +accomplished. + +A great movement took place, as though the Eternal Legions, putting +themselves in motion, were passing upward in spiral columns. The worlds +revolved like clouds driven by a furious wind. It was all rapid. + +Suddenly the veils were rent away. They saw on high as it were a star, +incomparably more lustrous than the most luminous of material stars, +which detached itself, and fell like a thunderbolt, dazzling as +lightning. Its passage paled the faces of the pair, who thought it to be +_the Light_ Itself. + +It was the Messenger of good tidings, the plume of whose helmet was a +flame of Life. + +Behind him lay the swath of his way gleaming with a flood of the lights +through which he passed. + +He bore a palm and a sword. He touched the _Spirit_ with the palm, and +the _Spirit_ was transfigured. Its white wings noiselessly unfolded. + +This communication of _the Light_, changing the _Spirit_ into a _Seraph_ +and clothing it with a glorious form, a celestial armor, poured down +such effulgent rays that the two Seers were paralyzed. + +Like the three apostles to whom Jesus showed himself, they felt the +dead weight of their bodies which denied them a complete and cloudless +intuition of _the Word_ and _the True Life_. + +They comprehended the nakedness of their souls; they were able +to measure the poverty of their light by comparing it--a humbling +task--with the halo of the _Seraph_. + +A passionate desire to plunge back into the mire of earth and suffer +trial took possession of them,--trial through which they might +victoriously utter at the _sacred gates_ the words of that radiant +_Seraph_. + +The _Seraph_ knelt before the _Sanctuary_, beholding it, at last, face +to face; and he said, raising his hands thitherward, "Grant that these +two may have further sight; they will love the Lord and proclaim His +word." + +At this prayer a veil fell. Whether it were that the hidden force which +held the Seers had momentarily annihilated their physical bodies, or +that it raised their spirits above those bodies, certain it is that they +felt within them a rending of the pure from the impure. + +The tears of the _Seraph_ rose about them like a vapor, which hid the +lower worlds from their knowledge, held them in its folds, bore them +upwards, gave them forgetfulness of earthly meanings and the power of +comprehending the meanings of things divine. + +The True Light shone; it illumined the Creations, which seemed to them +barren when they saw the source from which all worlds--Terrestrial, +Spiritual, and Divine-derived their Motion. + +Each world possessed a centre to which converged all points of its +circumference. These worlds were themselves the points which moved +toward the centre of their system. Each system had its centre in great +celestial regions which communicated with the flaming and quenchless +_motor of all that is_. + +Thus, from the greatest to the smallest of the worlds, and from the +smallest of the worlds to the smallest portion of the beings who compose +it, all was individual, and all was, nevertheless, One and indivisible. + +What was the design of the Being, fixed in His essence and in His +faculties, who transmitted that essence and those faculties without +losing them? who manifested them outside of Himself without separating +them from Himself? who rendered his creations outside of Himself fixed +in their essence and mutable in their form? The pair thus called to the +celestial festival could only see the order and arrangement of created +beings and admire the immediate result. The Angels alone see more. They +know the means; they comprehend the final end. + +But what the two Elect were granted power to contemplate, what they were +able to bring back as a testimony which enlightened their minds forever +after, was the proof of the action of the Worlds and of Beings; the +consciousness of the effort with which they all converge to the Result. + +They heard the divers parts of the Infinite forming one living +melody; and each time that the accord made itself felt like a mighty +respiration, the Worlds drawn by the concordant movement inclined +themselves toward the Supreme Being who, from His impenetrable centre, +issued all things and recalled all things to Himself. + +This ceaseless alternation of voices and silence seemed the rhythm of +the sacred hymn which resounds and prolongs its sound from age to age. + +Wilfrid and Minna were enabled to understand some of the mysterious +sayings of Him who had appeared on earth in the form which to each of +them had rendered him comprehensible,--to one Seraphitus, to the other +Seraphita,--for they saw that all was homogeneous in the sphere where he +now was. + +Light gave birth to melody, melody gave birth to light; colors were +light and melody; motion was a Number endowed with Utterance; all +things were at once sonorous, diaphanous, and mobile; so that each +interpenetrated the other, the whole vast area was unobstructed and the +Angels could survey it from the depths of the Infinite. + +They perceived the puerility of human sciences, of which he had spoken +to them. + +The scene was to them a prospect without horizon, a boundless space into +which an all-consuming desire prompted them to plunge. But, fastened to +their miserable bodies, they had the desire without the power to fulfil +it. + +The _Seraph_, preparing for his flight, no longer looked towards them; +he had nothing now in common with Earth. + +Upward he rose; the shadow of his luminous presence covered the two +Seers like a merciful veil, enabling them to raise their eyes and see +him, rising in his glory to Heaven in company with the glad Archangel. + +He rose as the sun from the bosom of the Eastern waves; but, more +majestic than the orb and vowed to higher destinies, he could not be +enchained like inferior creations in the spiral movement of the worlds; +he followed the line of the Infinite, pointing without deviation to the +One Centre, there to enter his eternal life,--to receive there, in his +faculties and in his essence, the power to enjoy through Love, and the +gift of comprehending through Wisdom. + +The scene which suddenly unveiled itself to the eyes of the two Seers +crushed them with a sense of its vastness; they felt like atoms, whose +minuteness was not to be compared even to the smallest particle which +the infinite of divisibility enabled the mind of man to imagine, brought +into the presence of the infinite of Numbers, which God alone can +comprehend as He alone can comprehend Himself. + +Strength and Love! what heights, what depths in those two entities, whom +the _Seraph's_ first prayer placed like two links, as it were, to unite +the immensities of the lower worlds with the immensity of the higher +universe! + +They comprehended the invisible ties by which the material worlds are +bound to the spiritual worlds. Remembering the sublime efforts of human +genius, they were able to perceive the principle of all melody in the +songs of heaven which gave sensations of color, of perfume, of thought, +which recalled the innumerable details of all creations, as the songs of +earth revive the infinite memories of love. + +Brought by the exaltation of their faculties to a point that cannot +be described in any language, they were able to cast their eyes for an +instant into the Divine World. There all was Rejoicing. + +Myriads of angels were flocking together, without confusion; all alike +yet all dissimilar, simple as the flower of the fields, majestic as the +universe. + +Wilfrid and Minna saw neither their coming nor their going; they +appeared suddenly in the Infinite and filled it with their presence, as +the stars shine in the invisible ether. + +The scintillations of their united diadems illumined space like the +fires of the sky at dawn upon the mountains. Waves of light flowed from +their hair, and their movements created tremulous undulations in space +like the billows of a phosphorescent sea. + +The two Seers beheld the _Seraph_ dimly in the midst of the immortal +legions. Suddenly, as though all the arrows of a quiver had darted +together, the Spirits swept away with a breath the last vestiges of the +human form; as the _Seraph_ rose he became yet purer; soon he seemed +to them but a faint outline of what he had been at the moment of his +transfiguration,--lines of fire without shadow. + +Higher he rose, receiving from circle to circle some new gift, while the +sign of his election was transmitted to each sphere into which, more and +more purified, he entered. + +No voice was silent; the hymn diffused and multiplied itself in all its +modulations:-- + +"Hail to him who enters living! Come, flower of the Worlds! diamond from +the fires of suffering! pearl without spot, desire without flesh, new +link of earth and heaven, be Light! Conquering spirit, Queen of the +world, come for thy crown! Victor of earth, receive thy diadem! Thou art +of us!" + +The virtues of the _Seraph_ shone forth in all their beauty. + +His earliest desire for heaven re-appeared, tender as childhood. +The deeds of his life, like constellations, adorned him with their +brightness. His acts of faith shone like the Jacinth of heaven, the +color of sidereal fires. The pearls of Charity were upon him,--a chaplet +of garnered tears! Love divine surrounded him with roses; and the +whiteness of his Resignation obliterated all earthly trace. + +Soon, to the eyes of the Seers, he was but a point of flame, growing +brighter and brighter as its motion was lost in the melodious +acclamations which welcomed his entrance into heaven. + +The celestial accents made the two exiles weep. + +Suddenly a silence as of death spread like a mourning veil from the +first to the highest sphere, throwing Wilfrid and Minna into a state of +intolerable expectation. + +At this moment the _Seraph_ was lost to sight within the _sanctuary_, +receiving there the gift of Life Eternal. + +A movement of adoration made by the Host of heaven filled the two Seers +with ecstasy mingled with terror. They felt that all were prostrate +before the Throne, in all the spheres, in the Spheres Divine, in the +Spiritual Spheres, and in the Worlds of Darkness. + +The Angels bent the knee to celebrate the _Seraph's_ glory; the Spirits +bent the knee in token of their impatience; others bent the knee in the +dark abysses, shuddering with awe. + +A mighty cry of joy gushed forth, as the spring gushes forth to its +millions of flowering herbs sparkling with diamond dew-drops in the +sunlight; at that instant the _Seraph_ reappeared, effulgent, crying, +"_Eternal! Eternal! Eternal_!" + +The universe heard the cry and understood it; it penetrated the spheres +as God penetrates them; it took possession of the infinite; the Seven +Divine Worlds heard the Voice and answered. + +A mighty movement was perceptible, as though whole planets, purified, +were rising in dazzling light to become Eternal. + +Had the _Seraph_ obtained, as a first mission, the work of calling to +God the creations permeated by His Word? + +But already the sublime _hallelujah_ was sounding in the ear of the +desolate ones as the distant undulations of an ended melody. Already +the celestial lights were fading like the gold and crimson tints of a +setting sun. Death and Impurity recovered their prey. + +As the two mortals re-entered the prison of flesh, from which their +spirit had momentarily been delivered by some priceless sleep, they felt +like those who wake after a night of brilliant dreams, the memory +of which still lingers in their soul, though their body retains no +consciousness of them, and human language is unable to give utterance to +them. + +The deep darkness of the sphere that was now about them was that of the +sun of the visible worlds. + +"Let us descend to those lower regions," said Wilfrid. + +"Let us do what he told us to do," answered Minna. "We have seen the +worlds on their march to God; we know the Path. Our diadem of stars is +There." + +Floating downward through the abysses, they re-entered the dust of the +lesser worlds, and saw the Earth, like a subterranean cavern, suddenly +illuminated to their eyes by the light which their souls brought with +them, and which still environed them in a cloud of the paling harmonies +of heaven. The sight was that which of old struck the inner eyes +of Seers and Prophets. Ministers of all religions, Preachers of all +pretended truths, Kings consecrated by Force and Terror, Warriors and +Mighty men apportioning the Peoples among them, the Learned and the Rich +standing above the suffering, noisy crowd, and noisily grinding them +beneath their feet,--all were there, accompanied by their wives and +servants; all were robed in stuffs of gold and silver and azure studded +with pearls and gems torn from the bowels of Earth, stolen from the +depths of Ocean, for which Humanity had toiled throughout the centuries, +sweating and blaspheming. But these treasures, these splendors, +constructed of blood, seemed worn-out rags to the eyes of the two +Exiles. "What do you there, in motionless ranks?" cried Wilfrid. They +answered not. "What do you there, motionless?" They answered not. +Wilfrid waved his hands over them, crying in a loud voice, "What do you +there, in motionless ranks?" All, with unanimous action, opened their +garments and gave to sight their withered bodies, eaten with worms, +putrefied, crumbling to dust, rotten with horrible diseases. + +"You lead the nations to Death," Wilfrid said to them. "You have +depraved the earth, perverted the Word, prostituted justice. After +devouring the grass of the fields you have killed the lambs of the fold. +Do you think yourself justified because of your sores? I will warn my +brethren who have ears to hear the Voice, and they will come and drink +of the spring of Living Waters which you have hidden." + +"Let us save our strength for Prayer," said Minna. "Wilfrid, thy mission +is not that of the Prophets or the Avenger or the Messenger; we are +still on the confines of the lowest sphere; let us endeavor to rise +through space on the wings of Prayer." + +"Thou shalt be all my love!" + +"Thou shalt be all my strength!" + +"We have seen the Mysteries; we are, each to the other, the only being +here below to whom Joy and Sadness are comprehensible; let us pray, +therefore: we know the Path, let us walk in it." + +"Give me thy hand," said the Young Girl, "if we walk together, the way +will be to me less hard and long." + +"With thee, with thee alone," replied the Man, "can I cross the awful +solitude without complaint." + +"Together we will go to Heaven," she said. + +The clouds gathered and formed a darksome dais. Suddenly the pair found +themselves kneeling beside a body which old David was guarding from +curious eyes, resolved to bury it himself. + +Beyond those walls the first summer of the nineteenth century shone +forth in all its glory. The two lovers believed they heard a Voice +in the sun-rays. They breathed a celestial essence from the new-born +flowers. Holding each other by the hand, they said, "That illimitable +ocean which shines below us is but an image of what we saw above." + +"Where are you going?" asked Monsieur Becker. + +"To God," they answered. "Come with us, father." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seraphita, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERAPHITA *** + +***** This file should be named 1432.txt or 1432.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/1432/ + +Produced by John Bickers, and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + http://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. diff --git a/old/1432.zip b/old/1432.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..c1376b3 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/1432.zip diff --git a/old/old/20050907-1432.txt b/old/old/20050907-1432.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c332a43 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/20050907-1432.txt @@ -0,0 +1,5738 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Seraphita, by Honore de Balzac + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net + + +Title: Seraphita + +Author: Honore de Balzac + +Translator: Katharine Prescott Wormeley + +Release Date: September 7, 2005 [EBook #1432] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERAPHITA *** + + + + +Produced by John Bickers; and Dagny + + + + + + SERAPHITA + + BY + + HONORE DE BALZAC + + + + Translated by + Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + DEDICATION + + To Madame Eveline de Hanska, nee Comtesse Rzewuska. + + Madame,--Here is the work which you asked of me. I am happy, in + thus dedicating it, to offer you a proof of the respectful + affection you allow me to bear you. If I am reproached for + impotence in this attempt to draw from the depths of mysticism a + book which seeks to give, in the lucid transparency of our + beautiful language, the luminous poesy of the Orient, to you the + blame! Did you not command this struggle (resembling that of + Jacob) by telling me that the most imperfect sketch of this + Figure, dreamed of by you, as it has been by me since childhood, + would still be something to you? + + Here, then, it is,--that something. Would that this book could + belong exclusively to noble spirits, preserved like yours from + worldly pettiness by solitude! THEY would know how to give to it + the melodious rhythm that it lacks, which might have made it, in + the hands of a poet, the glorious epic that France still awaits. + But from me they must accept it as one of those sculptured + balustrades, carved by a hand of faith, on which the pilgrims + lean, in the choir of some glorious church, to think upon the end + of man. + +I am, madame, with respect, +Your devoted servant, +De Balzac. + + + + SERAPHITA + + + + CHAPTER I + + SERAPHITUS + +As the eye glances over a map of the coasts of Norway, can the +imagination fail to marvel at their fantastic indentations and +serrated edges, like a granite lace, against which the surges of the +North Sea roar incessantly? Who has not dreamed of the majestic sights +to be seen on those beachless shores, of that multitude of creeks and +inlets and little bays, no two of them alike, yet all trackless +abysses? We may almost fancy that Nature took pleasure in recording by +ineffaceable hieroglyphics the symbol of Norwegian life, bestowing on +these coasts the conformation of a fish's spine, fishery being the +staple commerce of the country, and well-nigh the only means of living +of the hardy men who cling like tufts of lichen to the arid cliffs. +Here, through fourteen degrees of longitude, barely seven hundred +thousand souls maintain existence. Thanks to perils devoid of glory, +to year-long snows which clothe the Norway peaks and guard them from +profaning foot of traveller, these sublime beauties are virgin still; +they will be seen to harmonize with human phenomena, also virgin--at +least to poetry--which here took place, the history of which it is our +purpose to relate. + +If one of these inlets, mere fissures to the eyes of the eider-ducks, +is wide enough for the sea not to freeze between the prison-walls of +rock against which it surges, the country-people call the little bay a +"fiord,"--a word which geographers of every nation have adopted into +their respective languages. Though a certain resemblance exists among +all these fiords, each has its own characteristics. The sea has +everywhere forced its way as through a breach, yet the rocks about +each fissure are diversely rent, and their tumultuous precipices defy +the rules of geometric law. Here the scarp is dentelled like a saw; +there the narrow ledges barely allow the snow to lodge or the noble +crests of the Northern pines to spread themselves; farther on, some +convulsion of Nature may have rounded a coquettish curve into a lovely +valley flanked in rising terraces with black-plumed pines. Truly we +are tempted to call this land the Switzerland of Ocean. + +Midway between Trondhjem and Christiansand lies an inlet called the +Strom-fiord. If the Strom-fiord is not the loveliest of these rocky +landscapes, it has the merit of displaying the terrestrial grandeurs +of Norway, and of enshrining the scenes of a history that is indeed +celestial. + +The general outline of the Strom-fiord seems at first sight to be that +of a funnel washed out by the sea. The passage which the waves have +forced present to the eye an image of the eternal struggle between old +Ocean and the granite rock,--two creations of equal power, one through +inertia, the other by ceaseless motion. Reefs of fantastic shape run +out on either side, and bar the way of ships and forbid their +entrance. The intrepid sons of Norway cross these reefs on foot, +springing from rock to rock, undismayed at the abyss--a hundred +fathoms deep and only six feet wide--which yawns beneath them. Here a +tottering block of gneiss falling athwart two rocks gives an uncertain +footway; there the hunters or the fishermen, carrying their loads, +have flung the stems of fir-trees in guise of bridges, to join the +projecting reefs, around and beneath which the surges roar +incessantly. This dangerous entrance to the little bay bears obliquely +to the right with a serpentine movement, and there encounters a +mountain rising some twenty-five hundred feet above sea-level, the +base of which is a vertical palisade of solid rock more than a mile +and a half long, the inflexible granite nowhere yielding to clefts or +undulations until it reaches a height of two hundred feet above the +water. Rushing violently in, the sea is driven back with equal +violence by the inert force of the mountain to the opposite shore, +gently curved by the spent force of the retreating waves. + +The fiord is closed at the upper end by a vast gneiss formation +crowned with forests, down which a river plunges in cascades, becomes +a torrent when the snows are melting, spreads into a sheet of waters, +and then falls with a roar into the bay,--vomiting as it does so the +hoary pines and the aged larches washed down from the forests and +scarce seen amid the foam. These trees plunge headlong into the fiord +and reappear after a time on the surface, clinging together and +forming islets which float ashore on the beaches, where the +inhabitants of a village on the left bank of the Strom-fiord gather +them up, split, broken (though sometimes whole), and always stripped +of bark and branches. The mountain which receives at its base the +assaults of Ocean, and at its summit the buffeting of the wild North +wind, is called the Falberg. Its crest, wrapped at all seasons in a +mantle of snow and ice, is the sharpest peak of Norway; its proximity +to the pole produces, at the height of eighteen hundred feet, a degree +of cold equal to that of the highest mountains of the globe. The +summit of this rocky mass, rising sheer from the fiord on one side, +slopes gradually downward to the east, where it joins the declivities +of the Sieg and forms a series of terraced valleys, the chilly +temperature of which allows no growth but that of shrubs and stunted +trees. + +The upper end of the fiord, where the waters enter it as they come +down from the forest, is called the Siegdahlen,--a word which may be +held to mean "the shedding of the Sieg,"--the river itself receiving +that name. The curving shore opposite to the face of the Falberg is +the valley of Jarvis,--a smiling scene overlooked by hills clothed +with firs, birch-trees, and larches, mingled with a few oaks and +beeches, the richest coloring of all the varied tapestries which +Nature in these northern regions spreads upon the surface of her +rugged rocks. The eye can readily mark the line where the soil, warmed +by the rays of the sun, bears cultivation and shows the native growth +of the Norwegian flora. Here the expanse of the fiord is broad enough +to allow the sea, dashed back by the Falberg, to spend its expiring +force in gentle murmurs upon the lower slope of these hills,--a shore +bordered with finest sand, strewn with mica and sparkling pebbles, +porphyry, and marbles of a thousand tints, brought from Sweden by the +river floods, together with ocean waifs, shells, and flowers of the +sea driven in by tempests, whether of the Pole or Tropics. + +At the foot of the hills of Jarvis lies a village of some two hundred +wooden houses, where an isolated population lives like a swarm of bees +in a forest, without increasing or diminishing; vegetating happily, +while wringing their means of living from the breast of a stern +Nature. The almost unknown existence of the little hamlet is readily +accounted for. Few of its inhabitants were bold enough to risk their +lives among the reefs to reach the deep-sea fishing,--the staple +industry of Norwegians on the least dangerous portions of their coast. +The fish of the fiord were numerous enough to suffice, in part at +least, for the sustenance of the inhabitants; the valley pastures +provided milk and butter; a certain amount of fruitful, well-tilled +soil yielded rye and hemp and vegetables, which necessity taught the +people to protect against the severity of the cold and the fleeting +but terrible heat of the sun with the shrewd ability which Norwegians +display in the two-fold struggle. The difficulty of communication with +the outer world, either by land where the roads are impassable, or by +sea where none but tiny boats can thread their way through the +maritime defiles that guard the entrance to the bay, hinder these +people from growing rich by the sale of their timber. It would cost +enormous sums to either blast a channel out to sea or construct a way +to the interior. The roads from Christiana to Trondhjem all turn +toward the Strom-fiord, and cross the Sieg by a bridge some score of +miles above its fall into the bay. The country to the north, between +Jarvis and Trondhjem, is covered with impenetrable forests, while to +the south the Falberg is nearly as much separated from Christiana by +inaccessible precipices. The village of Jarvis might perhaps have +communicated with the interior of Norway and Sweden by the river Sieg; +but to do this and to be thus brought into contact with civilization, +the Strom-fiord needed the presence of a man of genius. Such a man did +actually appear there,--a poet, a Swede of great religious fervor, who +died admiring, even reverencing this region as one of the noblest +works of the Creator. + +Minds endowed by study with an inward sight, and whose quick +perceptions bring before the soul, as though painted on a canvas, the +contrasting scenery of this universe, will now apprehend the general +features of the Strom-fiord. They alone, perhaps, can thread their way +through the tortuous channels of the reef, or flee with the battling +waves to the everlasting rebuff of the Falberg whose white peaks +mingle with the vaporous clouds of the pearl-gray sky, or watch with +delight the curving sheet of waters, or hear the rushing of the Sieg +as it hangs for an instant in long fillets and then falls over a +picturesque abatis of noble trees toppled confusedly together, +sometimes upright, sometimes half-sunken beneath the rocks. It may be +that such minds alone can dwell upon the smiling scenes nestling among +the lower hills of Jarvis; where the luscious Northern vegetables +spring up in families, in myriads, where the white birches bend, +graceful as maidens, where colonnades of beeches rear their boles +mossy with the growth of centuries, where shades of green contrast, +and white clouds float amid the blackness of the distant pines, and +tracts of many-tinted crimson and purple shrubs are shaded endlessly; +in short, where blend all colors, all perfumes of a flora whose +wonders are still ignored. Widen the boundaries of this limited +ampitheatre, spring upward to the clouds, lose yourself among the +rocks where the seals are lying and even then your thought cannot +compass the wealth of beauty nor the poetry of this Norwegian coast. +Can your thought be as vast as the ocean that bounds it? as weird as +the fantastic forms drawn by these forests, these clouds, these +shadows, these changeful lights? + +Do you see above the meadows on that lowest slope which undulates +around the higher hills of Jarvis two or three hundred houses roofed +with "noever," a sort of thatch made of birch-bark,--frail houses, +long and low, looking like silk-worms on a mulberry-leaf tossed hither +by the winds? Above these humble, peaceful dwellings stands the +church, built with a simplicity in keeping with the poverty of the +villagers. A graveyard surrounds the chancel, and a little farther on +you see the parsonage. Higher up, on a projection of the mountain is a +dwelling-house, the only one of stone; for which reason the +inhabitants of the village call it "the Swedish Castle." In fact, a +wealthy Swede settled in Jarvis about thirty years before this history +begins, and did his best to ameliorate its condition. This little +house, certainly not a castle, built with the intention of leading the +inhabitants to build others like it, was noticeable for its solidity +and for the wall that inclosed it, a rare thing in Norway where, +notwithstanding the abundance of stone, wood alone is used for all +fences, even those of fields. This Swedish house, thus protected +against the climate, stood on rising ground in the centre of an +immense courtyard. The windows were sheltered by those projecting +pent-house roofs supported by squared trunks of trees which give so +patriarchal an air to Northern dwellings. From beneath them the eye +could see the savage nudity of the Falberg, or compare the infinitude +of the open sea with the tiny drop of water in the foaming fiord; the +ear could hear the flowing of the Sieg, whose white sheet far away +looked motionless as it fell into its granite cup edged for miles +around with glaciers,--in short, from this vantage ground the whole +landscape whereon our simple yet superhuman drama was about to be +enacted could be seen and noted. + +The winter of 1799-1800 was one of the most severe ever known to +Europeans. The Norwegian sea was frozen in all the fiords, where, as a +usual thing, the violence of the surf kept the ice from forming. A +wind, whose effects were like those of the Spanish levanter, swept the +ice of the Strom-fiord, driving the snow to the upper end of the gulf. +Seldom indeed could the people of Jarvis see the mirror of frozen +waters reflecting the colors of the sky; a wondrous site in the bosom +of these mountains when all other aspects of nature are levelled +beneath successive sheets of snow, and crests and valleys are alike +mere folds of the vast mantle flung by winter across a landscape at +once so mournfully dazzling and so monotonous. The falling volume of +the Sieg, suddenly frozen, formed an immense arcade beneath which the +inhabitants might have crossed under shelter from the blast had any +dared to risk themselves inland. But the dangers of every step away +from their own surroundings kept even the boldest hunters in their +homes, afraid lest the narrow paths along the precipices, the clefts +and fissures among the rocks, might be unrecognizable beneath the +snow. + +Thus it was that no human creature gave life to the white desert where +Boreas reigned, his voice alone resounding at distant intervals. The +sky, nearly always gray, gave tones of polished steel to the ice of +the fiord. Perchance some ancient eider-duck crossed the expanse, +trusting to the warm down beneath which dream, in other lands, the +luxurious rich, little knowing of the dangers through which their +luxury has come to them. Like the Bedouin of the desert who darts +alone across the sands of Africa, the bird is neither seen nor heard; +the torpid atmosphere, deprived of its electrical conditions, echoes +neither the whirr of its wings nor its joyous notes. Besides, what +human eye was strong enough to bear the glitter of those pinnacles +adorned with sparkling crystals, or the sharp reflections of the snow, +iridescent on the summits in the rays of a pallid sun which +infrequently appeared, like a dying man seeking to make known that he +still lives. Often, when the flocks of gray clouds, driven in +squadrons athwart the mountains and among the tree-tops, hid the sky +with their triple veils Earth, lacking the celestial lights, lit +herself by herself. + +Here, then, we meet the majesty of Cold, seated eternally at the pole +in that regal silence which is the attribute of all absolute monarchy. +Every extreme principle carries with it an appearance of negation and +the symptoms of death; for is not life the struggle of two forces? +Here in this Northern nature nothing lived. One sole power--the +unproductive power of ice--reigned unchallenged. The roar of the open +sea no longer reached the deaf, dumb inlet, where during one short +season of the year Nature made haste to produce the slender harvests +necessary for the food of the patient people. A few tall pine-trees +lifted their black pyramids garlanded with snow, and the form of their +long branches and depending shoots completed the mourning garments of +those solemn heights. + +Each household gathered in its chimney-corner, in houses carefully +closed from the outer air, and well supplied with biscuit, melted +butter, dried fish, and other provisions laid in for the seven-months +winter. The very smoke of these dwellings was hardly seen, half-hidden +as they were beneath the snow, against the weight of which they were +protected by long planks reaching from the roof and fastened at some +distance to solid blocks on the ground, forming a covered way around +each building. + +During these terrible winter months the women spun and dyed the +woollen stuffs and the linen fabrics with which they clothed their +families, while the men read, or fell into those endless meditations +which have given birth to so many profound theories, to the mystic +dreams of the North, to its beliefs, to its studies (so full and so +complete in one science, at least, sounded as with a plummet), to its +manners and its morals, half-monastic, which force the soul to react +and feed upon itself and make the Norwegian peasant a being apart +among the peoples of Europe. + +Such was the condition of the Strom-fiord in the first year of the +nineteenth century and about the middle of the month of May. + +On a morning when the sun burst forth upon this landscape, lighting +the fires of the ephemeral diamonds produced by crystallizations of +the snow and ice, two beings crossed the fiord and flew along the base +of the Falberg, rising thence from ledge to ledge toward the summit. +What were they? human creatures, or two arrows? They might have been +taken for eider-ducks sailing in consort before the wind. Not the +boldest hunter nor the most superstitious fisherman would have +attributed to human beings the power to move safely along the slender +lines traced beneath the snow by the granite ledges, where yet this +couple glided with the terrifying dexterity of somnambulists who, +forgetting their own weight and the dangers of the slightest +deviation, hurry along a ridge-pole and keep their equilibrium by the +power of some mysterious force. + +"Stop me, Seraphitus," said a pale young girl, "and let me breathe. I +look at you, you only, while scaling these walls of the gulf; +otherwise, what would become of me? I am such a feeble creature. Do I +tire you?" + +"No," said the being on whose arm she leaned. "But let us go on, +Minna; the place where we are is not firm enough to stand on." + +Once more the snow creaked sharply beneath the long boards fastened to +their feet, and soon they reached the upper terrace of the first +ledge, clearly defined upon the flank of the precipice. The person +whom Minna had addressed as Seraphitus threw his weight upon his right +heel, arresting the plank--six and a half feet long and narrow as the +foot of a child--which was fastened to his boot by a double thong of +leather. This plank, two inches thick, was covered with reindeer skin, +which bristled against the snow when the foot was raised, and served +to stop the wearer. Seraphitus drew in his left foot, furnished with +another "skee," which was only two feet long, turned swiftly where he +stood, caught his timid companion in his arms, lifted her in spite of +the long boards on her feet, and placed her on a projecting rock from +which he brushed the snow with his pelisse. + +"You are safe there, Minna; you can tremble at your ease." + +"We are a third of the way up the Ice-Cap," she said, looking at the +peak to which she gave the popular name by which it is known in +Norway; "I can hardly believe it." + +Too much out of breath to say more, she smiled at Seraphitus, who, +without answering, laid his hand upon her heart and listened to its +sounding throbs, rapid as those of a frightened bird. + +"It often beats as fast when I run," she said. + +Seraphitus inclined his head with a gesture that was neither coldness +nor indifference, and yet, despite the grace which made the movement +almost tender, it none the less bespoke a certain negation, which in a +woman would have seemed an exquisite coquetry. Seraphitus clasped the +young girl in his arms. Minna accepted the caress as an answer to her +words, continuing to gaze at him. As he raised his head, and threw +back with impatient gesture the golden masses of his hair to free his +brow, he saw an expression of joy in the eyes of his companion. + +"Yes, Minna," he said in a voice whose paternal accents were charming +from the lips of a being who was still adolescent, "Keep your eyes on +me; do not look below you." + +"Why not?" she asked. + +"You wish to know why? then look!" + +Minna glanced quickly at her feet and cried out suddenly like a child +who sees a tiger. The awful sensation of abysses seized her; one +glance sufficed to communicate its contagion. The fiord, eager for +food, bewildered her with its loud voice ringing in her ears, +interposing between herself and life as though to devour her more +surely. From the crown of her head to her feet and along her spine an +icy shudder ran; then suddenly intolerable heat suffused her nerves, +beat in her veins and overpowered her extremities with electric shocks +like those of the torpedo. Too feeble to resist, she felt herself +drawn by a mysterious power to the depths below, wherein she fancied +that she saw some monster belching its venom, a monster whose magnetic +eyes were charming her, whose open jaws appeared to craunch their prey +before they seized it. + +"I die, my Seraphitus, loving none but thee," she said, making a +mechanical movement to fling herself into the abyss. + +Seraphitus breathed softly on her forehead and eyes. Suddenly, like a +traveller relaxed after a bath, Minna forgot these keen emotions, +already dissipated by that caressing breath which penetrated her body +and filled it with balsamic essences as quickly as the breath itself +had crossed the air. + +"Who art thou?" she said, with a feeling of gentle terror. "Ah, but I +know! thou art my life. How canst thou look into that gulf and not +die?" she added presently. + +Seraphitus left her clinging to the granite rock and placed himself at +the edge of the narrow platform on which they stood, whence his eyes +plunged to the depths of the fiord, defying its dazzling invitation. +His body did not tremble, his brow was white and calm as that of a +marble statue,--an abyss facing an abyss. + +"Seraphitus! dost thou not love me? come back!" she cried. "Thy danger +renews my terror. Who art thou to have such superhuman power at thy +age?" she asked as she felt his arms inclosing her once more. + +"But, Minna," answered Seraphitus, "you look fearlessly at greater +spaces far than that." + +Then with raised finger, this strange being pointed upward to the blue +dome, which parting clouds left clear above their heads, where stars +could be seen in open day by virtue of atmospheric laws as yet +unstudied. + +"But what a difference!" she answered smiling. + +"You are right," he said; "we are born to stretch upward to the skies. +Our native land, like the face of a mother, cannot terrify her +children." + +His voice vibrated through the being of his companion, who made no +reply. + +"Come! let us go on," he said. + +The pair darted forward along the narrow paths traced back and forth +upon the mountain, skimming from terrace to terrace, from line to +line, with the rapidity of a barb, that bird of the desert. Presently +they reached an open space, carpeted with turf and moss and flowers, +where no foot had ever trod. + +"Oh, the pretty saeter!" cried Minna, giving to the upland meadow its +Norwegian name. "But how comes it here, at such a height?" + +"Vegetation ceases here, it is true," said Seraphitus. "These few +plants and flowers are due to that sheltering rock which protects the +meadow from the polar winds. Put that tuft in your bosom, Minna," he +added, gathering a flower,--"that balmy creation which no eye has ever +seen; keep the solitary matchless flower in memory of this one +matchless morning of your life. You will find no other guide to lead +you again to this saeter." + +So saying, he gave her the hybrid plant his falcon eye had seen amid +the tufts of gentian acaulis and saxifrages,--a marvel, brought to +bloom by the breath of angels. With girlish eagerness Minna seized the +tufted plant of transparent green, vivid as emerald, which was formed +of little leaves rolled trumpet-wise, brown at the smaller end but +changing tint by tint to their delicately notched edges, which were +green. These leaves were so tightly pressed together that they seemed +to blend and form a mat or cluster of rosettes. Here and there from +this green ground rose pure white stars edged with a line of gold, and +from their throats came crimson anthers but no pistils. A fragrance, +blended of roses and of orange blossoms, yet ethereal and fugitive, +gave something as it were celestial to that mysterious flower, which +Seraphitus sadly contemplated, as though it uttered plaintive thoughts +which he alone could understand. But to Minna this mysterious +phenomenon seemed a mere caprice of nature giving to stone the +freshness, softness, and perfume of plants. + +"Why do you call it matchless? can it not reproduce itself?" she +asked, looking at Seraphitus, who colored and turned away. + +"Let us sit down," he said presently; "look below you, Minna. See! At +this height you will have no fear. The abyss is so far beneath us that +we no longer have a sense of its depths; it acquires the perspective +uniformity of ocean, the vagueness of clouds, the soft coloring of the +sky. See, the ice of the fiord is a turquoise, the dark pine forests +are mere threads of brown; for us all abysses should be thus adorned." + +Seraphitus said the words with that fervor of tone and gesture seen +and known only by those who have ascended the highest mountains of the +globe,--a fervor so involuntarily acquired that the haughtiest of men +is forced to regard his guide as a brother, forgetting his own +superior station till he descends to the valleys and the abodes of his +kind. Seraphitus unfastened the skees from Minna's feet, kneeling +before her. The girl did not notice him, so absorbed was she in the +marvellous view now offered of her native land, whose rocky outlines +could here be seen at a glance. She felt, with deep emotion, the +solemn permanence of those frozen summits, to which words could give +no adequate utterance. + +"We have not come here by human power alone," she said, clasping her +hands. "But perhaps I dream." + +"You think that facts the causes of which you cannot perceive are +supernatural," replied her companion. + +"Your replies," she said, "always bear the stamp of some deep thought. +When I am near you I understand all things without an effort. Ah, I am +free!" + +"If so, you will not need your skees," he answered. + +"Oh!" she said; "I who would fain unfasten yours and kiss your feet!" + +"Keep such words for Wilfrid," said Seraphitus, gently. + +"Wilfrid!" cried Minna angrily; then, softening as she glanced at her +companion's face and trying, but in vain, to take his hand, she added, +"You are never angry, never; you are so hopelessly perfect in all +things." + +"From which you conclude that I am unfeeling." + +Minna was startled at this lucid interpretation of her thought. + +"You prove to me, at any rate, that we understand each other," she +said, with the grace of a loving woman. + +Seraphitus softly shook his head and looked sadly and gently at her. + +"You, who know all things," said Minna, "tell me why it is that the +timidity I felt below is over now that I have mounted higher. Why do I +dare to look at you for the first time face to face, while lower down +I scarcely dared to give a furtive glance?" + +"Perhaps because we are withdrawn from the pettiness of earth," he +answered, unfastening his pelisse. + +"Never, never have I seen you so beautiful!" cried Minna, sitting down +on a mossy rock and losing herself in contemplation of the being who +had now guided her to a part of the peak hitherto supposed to be +inaccessible. + +Never, in truth, had Seraphitus shone with so bright a radiance,--the +only word which can render the illumination of his face and the aspect +of his whole person. Was this splendor due to the lustre which the +pure air of mountains and the reflections of the snow give to the +complexion? Was it produced by the inward impulse which excites the +body at the instant when exertion is arrested? Did it come from the +sudden contrast between the glory of the sun and the darkness of the +clouds, from whose shadow the charming couple had just emerged? +Perhaps to all these causes we may add the effect of a phenomenon, one +of the noblest which human nature has to offer. If some able +physiologist had studied this being (who, judging by the pride on his +brow and the lightning in his eyes seemed a youth of about seventeen +years of age), and if the student had sought for the springs of that +beaming life beneath the whitest skin that ever the North bestowed +upon her offspring, he would undoubtedly have believed either in some +phosphoric fluid of the nerves shining beneath the cuticle, or in the +constant presence of an inward luminary, whose rays issued through the +being of Seraphitus like a light through an alabaster vase. Soft and +slender as were his hands, ungloved to remove his companion's +snow-boots, they seemed possessed of a strength equal to that which the +Creator gave to the diaphanous tentacles of the crab. The fire darting +from his vivid glance seemed to struggle with the beams of the sun, +not to take but to give them light. His body, slim and delicate as +that of a woman, gave evidence of one of those natures which are +feeble apparently, but whose strength equals their will, rendering +them at times powerful. Of medium height, Seraphitus appeared to grow +in stature as he turned fully round and seemed about to spring upward. +His hair, curled by a fairy's hand and waving to the breeze, increased +the illusion produced by this aerial attitude; yet his bearing, wholly +without conscious effort, was the result far more of a moral +phenomenon than of a corporal habit. + +Minna's imagination seconded this illusion, under the dominion of +which all persons would assuredly have fallen,--an illusion which gave +to Seraphitus the appearance of a vision dreamed of in happy sleep. No +known type conveys an image of that form so majestically made to +Minna, but which to the eyes of a man would have eclipsed in womanly +grace the fairest of Raphael's creations. That painter of heaven has +ever put a tranquil joy, a loving sweetness, into the lines of his +angelic conceptions; but what soul, unless it contemplated Seraphitus +himself, could have conceived the ineffable emotions imprinted on his +face? Who would have divined, even in the dreams of artists, where all +things become possible, the shadow cast by some mysterious awe upon +that brow, shining with intellect, which seemed to question Heaven and +to pity Earth? The head hovered awhile disdainfully, as some majestic +bird whose cries reverberate on the atmosphere, then bowed itself +resignedly, like the turtledove uttering soft notes of tenderness in +the depths of the silent woods. His complexion was of marvellous +whiteness, which brought out vividly the coral lips, the brown +eyebrows, and the silken lashes, the only colors that trenched upon +the paleness of that face, whose perfect regularity did not detract +from the grandeur of the sentiments expressed in it; nay, thought and +emotion were reflected there, without hindrance or violence, with the +majestic and natural gravity which we delight in attributing to +superior beings. That face of purest marble expressed in all things +strength and peace. + +Minna rose to take the hand of Seraphitus, hoping thus to draw him to +her, and to lay on that seductive brow a kiss given more from +admiration than from love; but a glance at the young man's eyes, which +pierced her as a ray of sunlight penetrates a prism, paralyzed the +young girl. She felt, but without comprehending, a gulf between them; +then she turned away her head and wept. Suddenly a strong hand seized +her by the waist, and a soft voice said to her: "Come!" She obeyed, +resting her head, suddenly revived, upon the heart of her companion, +who, regulating his step to hers with gentle and attentive conformity, +led her to a spot whence they could see the radiant glories of the +polar Nature. + +"Before I look, before I listen to you, tell me, Seraphitus, why you +repulse me. Have I displeased you? and how? tell me! I want nothing +for myself; I would that all my earthly goods were yours, for the +riches of my heart are yours already. I would that light came to my +eyes only though your eyes just as my thought is born of your thought. +I should not then fear to offend you, for I should give you back the +echoes of your soul, the words of your heart, day by day,--as we +render to God the meditations with which his spirit nourishes our +minds. I would be thine alone." + +"Minna, a constant desire is that which shapes our future. Hope on! +But if you would be pure in heart mingle the idea of the All-Powerful +with your affections here below; then you will love all creatures, and +your heart will rise to heights indeed." + +"I will do all you tell me," she answered, lifting her eyes to his +with a timid movement. + +"I cannot be your companion," said Seraphitus sadly. + +He seemed to repress some thoughts, then stretched his arms towards +Christiana, just visible like a speck on the horizon and said:-- + +"Look!" + +"We are very small," she said. + +"Yes, but we become great through feeling and through intellect," +answered Seraphitus. "With us, and us alone, Minna, begins the +knowledge of things; the little that we learn of the laws of the +visible world enables us to apprehend the immensity of the worlds +invisible. I know not if the time has come to speak thus to you, but I +would, ah, I would communicate to you the flame of my hopes! Perhaps +we may one day be together in the world where Love never dies." + +"Why not here and now?" she said, murmuring. + +"Nothing is stable here," he said, disdainfully. "The passing joys of +earthly love are gleams which reveal to certain souls the coming of +joys more durable; just as the discovery of a single law of nature +leads certain privileged beings to a conception of the system of the +universe. Our fleeting happiness here below is the forerunning proof +of another and a perfect happiness, just as the earth, a fragment of +the world, attests the universe. We cannot measure the vast orbit of +the Divine thought of which we are but an atom as small as God is +great; but we can feel its vastness, we can kneel, adore, and wait. +Men ever mislead themselves in science by not perceiving that all +things on their globe are related and co-ordinated to the general +evolution, to a constant movement and production which bring with +them, necessarily, both advancement and an End. Man himself is not a +finished creation; if he were, God would not Be." + +"How is it that in thy short life thou hast found the time to learn so +many things?" said the young girl. + +"I remember," he replied. + +"Thou art nobler than all else I see." + +"We are the noblest of God's greatest works. Has He not given us the +faculty of reflecting on Nature; of gathering it within us by thought; +of making it a footstool and stepping-stone from and by which to rise +to Him? We love according to the greater or the lesser portion of +heaven our souls contain. But do not be unjust, Minna; behold the +magnificence spread before you. Ocean expands at your feet like a +carpet; the mountains resemble ampitheatres; heaven's ether is above +them like the arching folds of a stage curtain. Here we may breathe +the thoughts of God, as it were like a perfume. See! the angry billows +which engulf the ships laden with men seem to us, where we are, mere +bubbles; and if we raise our eyes and look above, all there is blue. +Behold that diadem of stars! Here the tints of earthly impressions +disappear; standing on this nature rarefied by space do you not feel +within you something deeper far than mind, grander than enthusiasm, of +greater energy than will? Are you not conscious of emotions whose +interpretation is no longer in us? Do you not feel your pinions? Let +us pray." + +Seraphitus knelt down and crossed his hands upon his breast, while +Minna fell, weeping, on her knees. Thus they remained for a time, +while the azure dome above their heads grew larger and strong rays of +light enveloped them without their knowledge. + +"Why dost thou not weep when I weep?" said Minna, in a broken voice. + +"They who are all spirit do not weep," replied Seraphitus rising; "Why +should I weep? I see no longer human wretchedness. Here, Good appears +in all its majesty. There, beneath us, I hear the supplications and +the wailings of that harp of sorrows which vibrates in the hands of +captive souls. Here, I listen to the choir of harps harmonious. There, +below, is hope, the glorious inception of faith; but here is faith--it +reigns, hope realized!" + +"You will never love me; I am too imperfect; you disdain me," said the +young girl. + +"Minna, the violet hidden at the feet of the oak whispers to itself: +'The sun does not love me; he comes not.' The sun says: 'If my rays +shine upon her she will perish, poor flower.' Friend of the flower, he +sends his beams through the oak leaves, he veils, he tempers them, and +thus they color the petals of his beloved. I have not veils enough, I +fear lest you see me too closely; you would tremble if you knew me +better. Listen: I have no taste for earthly fruits. Your joys, I know +them all too well, and, like the sated emperors of pagan Rome, I have +reached disgust of all things; I have received the gift of vision. +Leave me! abandon me!" he murmured, sorrowfully. + +Seraphitus turned and seated himself on a projecting rock, dropping +his head upon his breast. + +"Why do you drive me to despair?" said Minna. + +"Go, go!" cried Seraphitus, "I have nothing that you want of me. Your +love is too earthly for my love. Why do you not love Wilfrid? Wilfrid +is a man, tested by passions; he would clasp you in his vigorous arms +and make you feel a hand both broad and strong. His hair is black, his +eyes are full of human thoughts, his heart pours lava in every word he +utters; he could kill you with caresses. Let him be your beloved, your +husband! Yes, thine be Wilfrid!" + +Minna wept aloud. + +"Dare you say that you do not love him?" he went on, in a voice which +pierced her like a dagger. + +"Have mercy, have mercy, my Seraphitus!" + +"Love him, poor child of Earth to which thy destiny has indissolubly +bound thee," said the strange being, beckoning Minna by a gesture, and +forcing her to the edge of the saeter, whence he pointed downward to a +scene that might well inspire a young girl full of enthusiasm with the +fancy that she stood above this earth. + +"I longed for a companion to the kingdom of Light; I wished to show +you that morsel of mud, I find you bound to it. Farewell. Remain on +earth; enjoy through the senses; obey your nature; turn pale with +pallid men; blush with women; sport with children; pray with the +guilty; raise your eyes to heaven when sorrows overtake you; tremble, +hope, throb in all your pulses; you will have a companion; you can +laugh and weep, and give and receive. I,--I am an exile, far from +heaven; a monster, far from earth. I live of myself and by myself. I +feel by the spirit; I breathe through my brow; I see by thought; I die +of impatience and of longing. No one here below can fulfil my desires +or calm my griefs. I have forgotten how to weep. I am alone. I resign +myself, and I wait." + +Seraphitus looked at the flowery mound on which he had seated Minna; +then he turned and faced the frowning heights, whose pinnacles were +wrapped in clouds; to them he cast, unspoken, the remainder of his +thoughts. + +"Minna, do you hear those delightful strains?" he said after a pause, +with the voice of a dove, for the eagle's cry was hushed; "it is like +the music of those Eolian harps your poets hang in forests and on the +mountains. Do you see the shadowy figures passing among the clouds, +the winged feet of those who are making ready the gifts of heaven? +They bring refreshment to the soul; the skies are about to open and +shed the flowers of spring upon the earth. See, a gleam is darting +from the pole. Let us fly, let us fly! It is time we go!" + +In a moment their skees were refastened, and the pair descended the +Falberg by the steep slopes which join the mountain to the valleys of +the Sieg. Miraculous perception guided their course, or, to speak more +properly, their flight. When fissures covered with snow intercepted +them, Seraphitus caught Minna in his arms and darted with rapid +motion, lightly as a bird, over the crumbling causeways of the abyss. +Sometimes, while propelling his companion, he deviated to the right or +left to avoid a precipice, a tree, a projecting rock, which he seemed +to see beneath the snow, as an old sailor, familiar with the ocean, +discerns the hidden reefs by the color, the trend, or the eddying of +the water. When they reached the paths of the Siegdahlen, where they +could fearlessly follow a straight line to regain the ice of the +fiord, Seraphitus stopped Minna. + +"You have nothing to say to me?" he asked. + +"I thought you would rather think alone," she answered respectfully. + +"Let us hasten, Minette; it is almost night," he said. + +Minna quivered as she heard the voice, now so changed, of her guide, +--a pure voice, like that of a young girl, which dissolved the +fantastic dream through which she had been passing. Seraphitus seemed +to be laying aside his male force and the too keen intellect that +flames from his eyes. Presently the charming pair glided across the +fiord and reached the snow-field which divides the shore from the +first range of houses; then, hurrying forward as daylight faded, they +sprang up the hill toward the parsonage, as though they were mounting +the steps of a great staircase. + +"My father must be anxious," said Minna. + +"No," answered Seraphitus. + +As he spoke the couple reached the porch of the humble dwelling where +Monsieur Becker, the pastor of Jarvis, sat reading while awaiting his +daughter for the evening meal. + +"Dear Monsieur Becker," said Seraphitus, "I have brought Minna back to +you safe and sound." + +"Thank you, mademoiselle," said the old man, laying his spectacles on +his book; "you must be very tired." + +"Oh, no," said Minna, and as she spoke she felt the soft breath of her +companion on her brow. + +"Dear heart, will you come day after to-morrow evening and take tea +with me?" + +"Gladly, dear." + +"Monsieur Becker, you will bring her, will you not?" + +"Yes, mademoiselle." + +Seraphitus inclined his head with a pretty gesture, and bowed to the +old pastor as he left the house. A few moments later he reached the +great courtyard of the Swedish villa. An old servant, over eighty +years of age, appeared in the portico bearing a lantern. Seraphitus +slipped off his snow-shoes with the graceful dexterity of a woman, +then darting into the salon he fell exhausted and motionless on a wide +divan covered with furs. + +"What will you take?" asked the old man, lighting the immensely tall +wax-candles that are used in Norway. + +"Nothing, David, I am too weary." + +Seraphitus unfastened his pelisse lined with sable, threw it over him, +and fell asleep. The old servant stood for several minutes gazing with +loving eyes at the singular being before him, whose sex it would have +been difficult for any one at that moment to determine. Wrapped as he +was in a formless garment, which resembled equally a woman's robe and +a man's mantle, it was impossible not to fancy that the slender feet +which hung at the side of the couch were those of a woman, and equally +impossible not to note how the forehead and the outlines of the head +gave evidence of power brought to its highest pitch. + +"She suffers, and she will not tell me," thought the old man. "She is +dying, like a flower wilted by the burning sun." + +And the old man wept. + + + + CHAPTER II + + SERAPHITA + +Later in the evening David re-entered the salon. + +"I know who it is you have come to announce," said Seraphita in a +sleepy voice. "Wilfrid may enter." + +Hearing these words a man suddenly presented himself, crossed the room +and sat down beside her. + +"My dear Seraphita, are you ill?" he said. "You look paler than +usual." + +She turned slowly towards him, tossing back her hair like a pretty +woman whose aching head leaves her no strength even for complaint. + +"I was foolish enough to cross the fiord with Minna," she said. "We +ascended the Falberg." + +"Do you mean to kill yourself?" he said with a lover's terror. + +"No, my good Wilfrid; I took the greatest care of your Minna." + +Wilfrid struck his hand violently on a table, rose hastily, and made +several steps towards the door with an exclamation full of pain; then +he returned and seemed about to remonstrate. + +"Why this disturbance if you think me ill?" she said. + +"Forgive me, have mercy!" he cried, kneeling beside her. "Speak to me +harshly if you will; exact all that the cruel fancies of a woman lead +you to imagine I least can bear; but oh, my beloved, do not doubt my +love. You take Minna like an axe to hew me down. Have mercy!" + +"Why do you say these things, my friend, when you know that they are +useless?" she replied, with a look which grew in the end so soft that +Wilfrid ceased to behold her eyes, but saw in their place a fluid +light, the shimmer of which was like the last vibrations of an Italian +song. + +"Ah! no man dies of anguish!" he murmured. + +"You are suffering?" she said in a voice whose intonations produced +upon his heart the same effect as that of her look. "Would I could +help you!" + +"Love me as I love you." + +"Poor Minna!" she replied. + +"Why am I unarmed!" exclaimed Wilfrid, violently. + +"You are out of temper," said Seraphita, smiling. "Come, have I not +spoken to you like those Parisian women whose loves you tell of?" + +Wilfrid sat down, crossed his arms, and looked gloomily at Seraphita. +"I forgive you," he said; "for you know not what you do." + +"You mistake," she replied; "every woman from the days of Eve does +good and evil knowingly." + +"I believe it"; he said. + +"I am sure of it, Wilfrid. Our instinct is precisely that which makes +us perfect. What you men learn, we feel." + +"Why, then, do you not feel how much I love you?" + +"Because you do not love me." + +"Good God!" + +"If you did, would you complain of your own sufferings?" + +"You are terrible to-night, Seraphita. You are a demon." + +"No, but I am gifted with the faculty of comprehending, and it is +awful. Wilfrid, sorrow is a lamp which illumines life." + +"Why did you ascend the Falberg?" + +"Minna will tell you. I am too weary to talk. You must talk to me, +--you who know so much, who have learned all things and forgotten +nothing; you who have passed through every social test. Talk to me, +amuse me, I am listening." + +"What can I tell you that you do not know? Besides, the request is +ironical. You allow yourself no intercourse with social life; you +trample on its conventions, its laws, its customs, sentiments, and +sciences; you reduce them all to the proportions such things take when +viewed by you beyond this universe." + +"Therefore you see, my friend, that I am not a woman. You do wrong to +love me. What! am I to leave the ethereal regions of my pretended +strength, make myself humbly small, cringe like the hapless female of +all species, that you may lift me up? and then, when I, helpless and +broken, ask you for help, when I need your arm, you will repulse me! +No, we can never come to terms." + +"You are more maliciously unkind to-night than I have ever known you." + +"Unkind!" she said, with a look which seemed to blend all feelings +into one celestial emotion, "no, I am ill, I suffer, that is all. +Leave me, my friend; it is your manly right. We women should ever +please you, entertain you, be gay in your presence and have no whims +save those that amuse you. Come, what shall I do for you, friend? +Shall I sing, shall I dance, though weariness deprives me of the use +of voice and limbs?--Ah! gentlemen, be we on our deathbeds, we yet +must smile to please you; you call that, methinks, your right. Poor +women! I pity them. Tell me, you who abandon them when they grow old, +is it because they have neither hearts nor souls? Wilfrid, I am a +hundred years old; leave me! leave me! go to Minna!" + +"Oh, my eternal love!" + +"Do you know the meaning of eternity? Be silent, Wilfrid. You desire +me, but you do not love me. Tell me, do I not seem to you like those +coquettish Parisian women?" + +"Certainly I no longer find you the pure celestial maiden I first saw +in the church of Jarvis." + +At these words Seraphita passed her hands across her brow, and when +she removed them Wilfrid was amazed at the saintly expression that +overspread her face. + +"You are right, my friend," she said; "I do wrong whenever I set my +feet upon your earth." + +"Oh, Seraphita, be my star! stay where you can ever bless me with that +clear light!" + +As he spoke, he stretched forth his hand to take that of the young +girl, but she withdrew it, neither disdainfully nor in anger. Wilfrid +rose abruptly and walked to the window that she might not see the +tears that rose to his eyes. + +"Why do you weep?" she said. "You are not a child, Wilfrid. Come back +to me. I wish it. You are annoyed if I show just displeasure. You see +that I am fatigued and ill, yet you force me to think and speak, and +listen to persuasions and ideas that weary me. If you had any real +perception of my nature, you would have made some music, you would +have lulled my feelings--but no, you love me for yourself and not for +myself." + +The storm which convulsed the young man's heart calmed down at these +words. He slowly approached her, letting his eyes take in the +seductive creature who lay exhausted before him, her head resting in +her hand and her elbow on the couch. + +"You think that I do not love you," she resumed. "You are mistaken. +Listen to me, Wilfrid. You are beginning to know much; you have +suffered much. Let me explain your thoughts to you. You wished to take +my hand just now"; she rose to a sitting posture, and her graceful +motions seemed to emit light. "When a young girl allows her hand to be +taken it is as though she made a promise, is it not? and ought she not +to fulfil it? You well know that I cannot be yours. Two sentiments +divide and inspire the love of all the women of the earth. Either they +devote themselves to suffering, degraded, and criminal beings whom +they desire to console, uplift, redeem; or they give themselves to +superior men, sublime and strong, whom they adore and seek to +comprehend, and by whom they are often annihilated. You have been +degraded, though now you are purified by the fires of repentance, and +to-day you are once more noble; but I know myself too feeble to be +your equal, and too religious to bow before any power but that On +High. I may refer thus to your life, my friend, for we are in the +North, among the clouds, where all things are abstractions." + +"You stab me, Seraphita, when you speak like this. It wounds me to +hear you apply the dreadful knowledge with which you strip from all +things human the properties that time and space and form have given +them, and consider them mathematically in the abstract, as geometry +treats substances from which it extracts solidity." + +"Well, I will respect your wishes, Wilfrid. Let the subject drop. Tell +me what you think of this bearskin rug which my poor David has spread +out." + +"It is very handsome." + +"Did you ever see me wear this 'doucha greka'?" + +She pointed to a pelisse made of cashmere and lined with the skin of +the black fox,--the name she gave it signifying "warm to the soul." + +"Do you believe that any sovereign has a fur that can equal it?" she +asked. + +"It is worthy of her who wears it." + +"And whom you think beautiful?" + +"Human words do not apply to her. Heart to heart is the only language +I can use." + +"Wilfrid, you are kind to soothe my griefs with such sweet words +--which you have said to others." + +"Farewell!" + +"Stay. I love both you and Minna, believe me. To me you two are as one +being. United thus you can be my brother or, if you will, my sister. +Marry her; let me see you both happy before I leave this world of +trial and of pain. My God! the simplest of women obtain what they ask +of a lover; they whisper 'Hush!' and he is silent; 'Die' and he dies; +'Love me afar' and he stays at a distance, like courtiers before a +king! All I desire is to see you happy, and you refuse me! Am I then +powerless?--Wilfrid, listen, come nearer to me. Yes, I should grieve +to see you marry Minna but--when I am here no longer, then--promise me +to marry her; heaven destined you for each other." + +"I listen to you with fascination, Seraphita. Your words are +incomprehensible, but they charm me. What is it you mean to say?" + +"You are right; I forget to be foolish,--to be the poor creature whose +weaknesses gratify you. I torment you, Wilfrid. You came to these +Northern lands for rest, you, worn-out by the impetuous struggle of +genius unrecognized, you, weary with the patient toils of science, +you, who well-nigh dyed your hands in crime and wore the fetters of +human justice--" + +Wilfrid dropped speechless on the carpet. Seraphita breathed softly on +his forehead, and in a moment he fell asleep at her feet. + +"Sleep! rest!" she said, rising. + +She passed her hands over Wilfrid's brow; then the following sentences +escaped her lips, one by one,--all different in tone and accent, but +all melodious, full of a Goodness that seemed to emanate from her head +in vaporous waves, like the gleams the goddess chastely lays upon +Endymion sleeping. + +"I cannot show myself such as I am to thee, dear Wilfrid,--to thee who +art strong. + +"The hour is come; the hour when the effulgent lights of the future +cast their reflections backward on the soul; the hour when the soul +awakes into freedom. + +"Now am I permitted to tell thee how I love thee. Dost thou not see +the nature of my love, a love without self-interest; a sentiment full +of thee, thee only; a love which follows thee into the future to light +that future for thee--for it is the one True Light. Canst thou now +conceive with what ardor I would have thee leave this life which +weighs thee down, and behold thee nearer than thou art to that world +where Love is never-failing? Can it be aught but suffering to love for +one life only? Hast thou not felt a thirst for the eternal love? Dost +thou not feel the bliss to which a creature rises when, with twin-soul, +it loves the Being who betrays not love, Him before whom we kneel in +adoration? + +"Would I had wings to cover thee, Wilfrid; power to give thee strength +to enter now into that world where all the purest joys of purest +earthly attachments are but shadows in the Light that shines, +unceasing, to illumine and rejoice all hearts. + +"Forgive a friendly soul for showing thee the picture of thy sins, in +the charitable hope of soothing the sharp pangs of thy remorse. Listen +to the pardoning choir; refresh thy soul in the dawn now rising for +thee beyond the night of death. Yes, thy life, thy true life is there! + +"May my words now reach thee clothed in the glorious forms of dreams; +may they deck themselves with images glowing and radiant as they hover +round you. Rise, rise, to the height where men can see themselves +distinctly, pressed together though they be like grains of sand upon a +sea-shore. Humanity rolls out like a many-colored ribbon. See the +diverse shades of that flower of the celestial gardens. Behold the +beings who lack intelligence, those who begin to receive it, those who +have passed through trials, those who love, those who follow wisdom +and aspire to the regions of Light! + +"Canst thou comprehend, through this thought made visible, the destiny +of humanity?--whence it came, whither to goeth? Continue steadfast in +the Path. Reaching the end of thy journey thou shalt hear the clarions +of omnipotence sounding the cries of victory in chords of which a +single one would shake the earth, but which are lost in the spaces of +a world that hath neither east nor west. + +"Canst thou comprehend, my poor beloved Tried-one, that unless the +torpor and the veils of sleep had wrapped thee, such sights would rend +and bear away thy mind as the whirlwinds rend and carry into space the +feeble sails, depriving thee forever of thy reason? Dost thou +understand that the Soul itself, raised to its utmost power can +scarcely endure in dreams the burning communications of the Spirit? + +"Speed thy way through the luminous spheres; behold, admire, hasten! +Flying thus thou canst pause or advance without weariness. Like other +men, thou wouldst fain be plunged forever in these spheres of light +and perfume where now thou art, free of thy swooning body, and where +thy thought alone has utterance. Fly! enjoy for a fleeting moment the +wings thou shalt surely win when Love has grown so perfect in thee +that thou hast no senses left; when thy whole being is all mind, all +love. The higher thy flight the less canst thou see the abysses. There +are none in heaven. Look at the friend who speaks to thee; she who +holds thee above this earth in which are all abysses. Look, behold, +contemplate me yet a moment longer, for never again wilt thou see me, +save imperfectly as the pale twilight of this world may show me to +thee." + +Seraphita stood erect, her head with floating hair inclining gently +forward, in that aerial attitude which great painters give to +messengers from heaven; the folds of her raiment fell with the same +unspeakable grace which holds an artist--the man who translates all +things into sentiment--before the exquisite well-known lines of +Polyhymnia's veil. Then she stretched forth her hand. Wilfrid rose. +When he looked at Seraphita she was lying on the bear's-skin, her head +resting on her hand, her face calm, her eyes brilliant. Wilfrid gazed +at her silently; but his face betrayed a deferential fear in its +almost timid expression. + +"Yes, dear," he said at last, as though he were answering some +question; "we are separated by worlds. I resign myself; I can only +adore you. But what will become of me, poor and alone!" + +"Wilfrid, you have Minna." + +He shook his head. + +"Do not be so disdainful; woman understands all things through love; +what she does not understand she feels; what she does not feel she +sees; when she neither sees, nor feels, nor understands, this angel of +earth divines to protect you, and hides her protection beneath the +grace of love." + +"Seraphita, am I worthy to belong to a woman?" + +"Ah, now," she said, smiling, "you are suddenly very modest; is it a +snare? A woman is always so touched to see her weakness glorified. +Well, come and take tea with me the day after to-morrow evening; good +Monsieur Becker will be here, and Minna, the purest and most artless +creature I have known on earth. Leave me now, my friend; I need to +make long prayers and expiate my sins." + +"You, can you commit sin?" + +"Poor friend! if we abuse our power, is not that the sin of pride? I +have been very proud to-day. Now leave me, till to-morrow." + +"Till to-morrow," said Wilfrid faintly, casting a long glance at the +being of whom he desired to carry with him an ineffaceable memory. + +Though he wished to go far away, he was held, as it were, outside the +house for some moments, watching the light which shone from all the +windows of the Swedish dwelling. + +"What is the matter with me?" he asked himself. "No, she is not a mere +creature, but a whole creation. Of her world, even through veils and +clouds, I have caught echoes like the memory of sufferings healed, +like the dazzling vertigo of dreams in which we hear the plaints of +generations mingling with the harmonies of some higher sphere where +all is Light and all is Love. Am I awake? Do I still sleep? Are these +the eyes before which the luminous space retreated further and further +indefinitely while the eyes followed it? The night is cold, yet my +head is on fire. I will go to the parsonage. With the pastor and his +daughter I shall recover the balance of my mind." + +But still he did not leave the spot whence his eyes could plunge into +Seraphita's salon. The mysterious creature seemed to him the radiating +centre of a luminous circle which formed an atmosphere about her wider +than that of other beings; whoever entered it felt the compelling +influence of, as it were, a vortex of dazzling light and all consuming +thoughts. Forced to struggle against this inexplicable power, Wilfrid +only prevailed after strong efforts; but when he reached and passed +the inclosing wall of the courtyard, he regained his freedom of will, +walked rapidly towards the parsonage, and was soon beneath the high +wooden arch which formed a sort of peristyle to Monsieur Becker's +dwelling. He opened the first door, against which the wind had driven +the snow, and knocked on the inner one, saying:-- + +"Will you let me spend the evening with you, Monsieur Becker?" + +"Yes," cried two voices, mingling their intonations. + +Entering the parlor, Wilfrid returned by degrees to real life. He +bowed affectionately to Minna, shook hands with Monsieur Becker, and +looked about at the picture of a home which calmed the convulsions of +his physical nature, in which a phenomenon was taking place analogous +to that which sometimes seizes upon men who have given themselves up +to protracted contemplations. If some strong thought bears upward on +phantasmal wing a man of learning or a poet, isolates him from the +external circumstances which environ him here below, and leads him +forward through illimitable regions where vast arrays of facts become +abstractions, where the greatest works of Nature are but images, then +woe betide him if a sudden noise strikes sharply on his senses and +calls his errant soul back to its prison-house of flesh and bones. The +shock of the reunion of these two powers, body and mind,--one of which +partakes of the unseen qualities of a thunderbolt, while the other +shares with sentient nature that soft resistant force which deifies +destruction,--this shock, this struggle, or, rather let us say, this +painful meeting and co-mingling, gives rise to frightful sufferings. +The body receives back the flame that consumes it; the flame has once +more grasped its prey. This fusion, however, does not take place +without convulsions, explosions, tortures; analogous and visible signs +of which may be seen in chemistry, when two antagonistic substances +which science has united separate. + +For the last few days whenever Wilfrid entered Seraphita's presence +his body seemed to fall away from him into nothingness. With a single +glance this strange being led him in spirit through the spheres where +meditation leads the learned man, prayer the pious heart, where vision +transports the artist, and sleep the souls of men,--each and all have +their own path to the Height, their own guide to reach it, their own +individual sufferings in the dire return. In that sphere alone all +veils are rent away, and the revelation, the awful flaming certainty +of an unknown world, of which the soul brings back mere fragments to +this lower sphere, stands revealed. To Wilfrid one hour passed with +Seraphita was like the sought-for dreams of Theriakis, in which each +knot of nerves becomes the centre of a radiating delight. But he left +her bruised and wearied as some young girl endeavoring to keep step +with a giant. + +The cold air, with its stinging flagellations, had begun to still the +nervous tremors which followed the reunion of his two natures, so +powerfully disunited for a time; he was drawn towards the parsonage, +then towards Minna, by the sight of the every-day home life for which +he thirsted as the wandering European thirsts for his native land when +nostalgia seizes him amid the fairy scenes of Orient that have seduced +his senses. More weary than he had ever yet been, Wilfrid dropped into +a chair and looked about him for a time, like a man who awakens from +sleep. Monsieur Becker and his daughter accustomed, perhaps, to the +apparent eccentricity of their guest, continued the employments in +which they were engaged. + +The parlor was ornamented with a collection of the shells and insects +of Norway. These curiosities, admirably arranged on a background of +the yellow pine which panelled the room, formed, as it were, a rich +tapestry to which the fumes of tobacco had imparted a mellow tone. At +the further end of the room, opposite to the door, was an immense +wrought-iron stove, carefully polished by the serving-woman till it +shone like burnished steel. Seated in a large tapestried armchair near +the stove, before a table, with his feet in a species of muff, +Monsieur Becker was reading a folio volume which was propped against a +pile of other books as on a desk. At his left stood a jug of beer and +a glass, at his right burned a smoky lamp fed by some species of +fish-oil. The pastor seemed about sixty years of age. His face belonged +to a type often painted by Rembrandt; the same small bright eyes, set +in wrinkles and surmounted by thick gray eyebrows; the same white hair +escaping in snowy flakes from a black velvet cap; the same broad, bald +brow, and a contour of face which the ample chin made almost square; +and lastly, the same calm tranquillity, which, to an observer, denoted +the possession of some inward power, be it the supremacy bestowed by +money, or the magisterial influence of the burgomaster, or the +consciousness of art, or the cubic force of blissful ignorance. This +fine old man, whose stout body proclaimed his vigorous health, was +wrapped in a dressing-gown of rough gray cloth plainly bound. Between +his lips was a meerschaum pipe, from which, at regular intervals, he +blew the smoke, following with abstracted vision its fantastic +wreathings,--his mind employed, no doubt, in assimilating through some +meditative process the thoughts of the author whose works he was +studying. + +On the other side of the stove and near a door which communicated with +the kitchen Minna was indistinctly visible in the haze of the good +man's smoke, to which she was apparently accustomed. Beside her on a +little table were the implements of household work, a pile of napkins, +and another of socks waiting to be mended, also a lamp like that which +shone on the white page of the book in which the pastor was absorbed. +Her fresh young face, with its delicate outline, expressed an infinite +purity which harmonized with the candor of the white brow and the +clear blue eyes. She sat erect, turning slightly toward the lamp for +better light, unconsciously showing as she did so the beauty of her +waist and bust. She was already dressed for the night in a long robe +of white cotton; a cambric cap, without other ornament than a frill of +the same, confined her hair. Though evidently plunged in some inward +meditation, she counted without a mistake the threads of her napkins +or the meshes of her socks. Sitting thus, she presented the most +complete image, the truest type, of the woman destined for terrestrial +labor, whose glance may piece the clouds of the sanctuary while her +thought, humble and charitable, keeps her ever on the level of man. + +Wilfrid had flung himself into a chair between the two tables and was +contemplating with a species of intoxication this picture full of +harmony, to which the clouds of smoke did no despite. The single +window which lighted the parlor during the fine weather was now +carefully closed. An old tapestry, used for a curtain and fastened to +a stick, hung before it in heavy folds. Nothing in the room was +picturesque, nothing brilliant; everything denoted rigorous +simplicity, true heartiness, the ease of unconventional nature, and +the habits of a domestic life which knew neither cares nor troubles. +Many a dwelling is like a dream, the sparkle of passing pleasure seems +to hide some ruin beneath the cold smile of luxury; but this parlor, +sublime in reality, harmonious in tone, diffused the patriarchal ideas +of a full and self-contained existence. The silence was unbroken save +by the movements of the servant in the kitchen engaged in preparing +the supper, and by the sizzling of the dried fish which she was frying +in salt butter according to the custom of the country. + +"Will you smoke a pipe?" said the pastor, seizing a moment when he +thought that Wilfrid might listen to him. + +"Thank you, no, dear Monsieur Becker," replied the visitor. + +"You seem to suffer more to-day than usual," said Minna, struck by the +feeble tones of the stranger's voice. + +"I am always so when I leave the chateau." + +Minna quivered. + +"A strange being lives there, Monsieur Becker," he continued after a +pause. "For the six months that I have been in this village I have +never yet dared to question you about her, and even now I do violence +to my feelings in speaking of her. I began by keenly regretting that +my journey in this country was arrested by the winter weather and that +I was forced to remain here. But during the last two months chains +have been forged and riveted which bind me irrevocably to Jarvis, till +now I fear to end my days here. You know how I first met Seraphita, +what impression her look and voice made upon me, and how at last I was +admitted to her home where she receives no one. From the very first +day I have longed to ask you the history of this mysterious being. On +that day began, for me, a series of enchantments." + +"Enchantments!" cried the pastor shaking the ashes of his pipe into an +earthen-ware dish full of sand, "are there enchantments in these +days?" + +"You, who are carefully studying at this moment that volume of the +'Incantations' of Jean Wier, will surely understand the explanation of +my sensations if I try to give it to you," replied Wilfrid. "If we +study Nature attentively in its great evolutions as in its minutest +works, we cannot fail to recognize the possibility of enchantment +--giving to that word its exact significance. Man does not create +forces; he employs the only force that exists and which includes all +others namely Motion, the breath incomprehensible of the sovereign +Maker of the universe. Species are too distinctly separated for the +human hand to mingle them. The only miracle of which man is capable is +done through the conjunction of two antagonistic substances. Gunpowder +for instance is germane to a thunderbolt. As to calling forth a +creation, and a sudden one, all creation demands time, and time +neither recedes nor advances at the word of command. So, in the world +without us, plastic nature obeys laws the order and exercise of which +cannot be interfered with by the hand of man. But after fulfilling, as +it were, the function of Matter, it would be unreasonable not to +recognize within us the existence of a gigantic power, the effects of +which are so incommensurable that the known generations of men have +never yet been able to classify them. I do not speak of man's faculty +of abstraction, of constraining Nature to confine itself within the +Word,--a gigantic act on which the common mind reflects as little as +it does on the nature of Motion, but which, nevertheless, has led the +Indian theosophists to explain creation by a word to which they give +an inverse power. The smallest atom of their subsistence, namely, the +grain of rice, from which a creation issues and in which alternately +creation again is held, presented to their minds so perfect an image +of the creative word, and of the abstractive word, that to them it was +easy to apply the same system to the creation of worlds. The majority +of men content themselves with the grain of rice sown in the first +chapter of all the Geneses. Saint John, when he said the Word was God +only complicated the difficulty. But the fructification, germination, +and efflorescence of our ideas is of little consequence if we compare +that property, shared by many men, with the wholly individual faculty +of communicating to that property, by some mysterious concentration, +forces that are more or less active, of carrying it up to a third, a +ninth, or a twenty-seventh power, of making it thus fasten upon the +masses and obtain magical results by condensing the processes of +nature. + +"What I mean by enchantments," continued Wilfrid after a moment's +pause, "are those stupendous actions taking place between two +membranes in the tissue of the brain. We find in the unexplorable +nature of the Spiritual World certain beings armed with these wondrous +faculties, comparable only to the terrible power of certain gases in +the physical world, beings who combine with other beings, penetrate +them as active agents, and produce upon them witchcrafts, charms, +against which these helpless slaves are wholly defenceless; they are, +in fact, enchanted, brought under subjection, reduced to a condition +of dreadful vassalage. Such mysterious beings overpower others with +the sceptre and the glory of a superior nature,--acting upon them at +times like the torpedo which electrifies or paralyzes the fisherman, +at other times like a dose of phosphorous which stimulates life and +accelerates its propulsion; or again, like opium, which puts to sleep +corporeal nature, disengages the spirit from every bond, enables it to +float above the world and shows this earth to the spiritual eye as +through a prism, extracting from it the food most needed; or, yet +again, like catalepsy, which deadens all faculties for the sake of one +only vision. Miracles, enchantments, incantations, witchcrafts, +spells, and charms, in short, all those acts improperly termed +supernatural, are only possible and can only be explained by the +despotism with which some spirit compels us to feel the effects of a +mysterious optic which increases, or diminishes, or exalts creation, +moves within us as it pleases, deforms or embellishes all things to +our eyes, tears us from heaven, or drags us to hell,--two terms by +which men agree to express the two extremes of joy and misery. + +"These phenomena are within us, not without us," Wilfrid went on. "The +being whom we call Seraphita seems to me one of those rare and +terrible spirits to whom power is given to bind men, to crush nature, +to enter into participation of the occult power of God. The course of +her enchantments over me began on that first day, when silence as to +her was imposed upon me against my will. Each time that I have wished +to question you it seemed as though I were about to reveal a secret of +which I ought to be the incorruptible guardian. Whenever I have tried +to speak, a burning seal has been laid upon my lips, and I myself have +become the involuntary minister of these mysteries. You see me here +to-night, for the hundredth time, bruised, defeated, broken, after +leaving the hallucinating sphere which surrounds that young girl, so +gentle, so fragile to both of you, but to me the cruellest of +magicians! Yes, to me she is like a sorcerer holding in her right hand +the invisible wand that moves the globe, and in her left the +thunderbolt that rends asunder all things at her will. No longer can I +look upon her brow; the light of it is insupportable. I skirt the +borders of the abyss of madness too closely to be longer silent. I +must speak. I seize this moment, when courage comes to me, to resist +the power which drags me onward without inquiring whether or not I +have the force to follow. Who is she? Did you know her young? What of +her birth? Had she father and mother, or was she born of the +conjunction of ice and sun? She burns and yet she freeze; she shows +herself and then withdraws; she attracts me and repulses me; she +brings me life, she gives me death; I love her and yet I hate her! I +cannot live thus; let me be wholly in heaven or in hell!" + +Holding his refilled pipe in one hand, and in the other the cover +which he forgot to replace, Monsieur Becker listened to Wilfrid with a +mysterious expression on his face, looking occasionally at his +daughter, who seemed to understand the man's language as in harmony +with the strange being who inspired it. Wilfrid was splendid to behold +at this moment,--like Hamlet listening to the ghost of his father as +it rises for him alone in the midst of the living. + +"This is certainly the language of a man in love," said the good +pastor, innocently. + +"In love!" cried Wilfrid, "yes, to common minds. But, dear Monsieur +Becker, no words can express the frenzy which draws me to the feet of +that unearthly being." + +"Then you do love her?" said Minna, in a tone of reproach. + +"Mademoiselle, I feel such extraordinary agitation when I see her, and +such deep sadness when I see her no more, that in any other man what I +feel would be called love. But that sentiment draws those who feel it +ardently together, whereas between her and me a great gulf lies, whose +icy coldness penetrates my very being in her presence; though the +feeling dies away when I see her no longer. I leave her in despair; I +return to her with ardor,--like men of science who seek a secret from +Nature only to be baffled, or like the painter who would fain put life +upon his canvas and strives with all the resources of his art in the +vain attempt." + +"Monsieur, all that you say is true," replied the young girl, +artlessly. + +"How can you know, Minna?" asked the old pastor. + +"Ah! my father, had you been with us this morning on the summit of the +Falberg, had you seen him praying, you would not ask me that question. +You would say, like Monsieur Wilfrid, that he saw his Seraphita for +the first time in our temple, 'It is the Spirit of Prayer.'" + +These words were followed by a moment's silence. + +"Ah, truly!" said Wilfrid, "she has nothing in common with the +creatures who grovel upon this earth." + +"On the Falberg!" said the old pastor, "how could you get there?" + +"I do not know," replied Minna; "the way is like a dream to me, of +which no more than a memory remains. Perhaps I should hardly believe +that I had been there were it not for this tangible proof." + +She drew the flower from her bosom and showed it to them. All three +gazed at the pretty saxifrage, which was still fresh, and now shone in +the light of the two lamps like a third luminary. + +"This is indeed supernatural," said the old man, astounded at the +sight of a flower blooming in winter. + +"A mystery!" cried Wilfrid, intoxicated with its perfume. + +"The flower makes me giddy," said Minna; "I fancy I still hear that +voice,--the music of thought; that I still see the light of that look, +which is Love." + +"I implore you, my dear Monsieur Becker, tell me the history of +Seraphita,--enigmatical human flower,--whose image is before us in +this mysterious bloom." + +"My dear friend," said the old man, emitting a puff of smoke, "to +explain the birth of that being it is absolutely necessary that I +disperse the clouds which envelop the most obscure of Christian +doctrines. It is not easy to make myself clear when speaking of that +incomprehensible revelation,--the last effulgence of faith that has +shone upon our lump of mud. Do you know Swedenborg?" + +"By name only,--of him, of his books, and his religion I know +nothing." + +"Then I must relate to you the whole chronicle of Swedenborg." + + + + CHAPTER III + + SERAPHITA-SERAPHITUS + +After a pause, during which the pastor seemed to be gathering his +recollections, he continued in the following words:-- + +"Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Upsala in Sweden, in the month of +January, 1688, according to various authors,--in 1689, according to +his epitaph. His father was Bishop of Skara. Swedenborg lived +eighty-five years; his death occurred in London, March 29, 1772. I use +that term to convey the idea of a simple change of state. According to +his disciples, Swedenborg was seen at Jarvis and in Paris after that +date. Allow me, my dear Monsieur Wilfrid," said Monsieur Becker, making +a gesture to prevent all interruption, "I relate these facts without +either affirming or denying them. Listen; afterwards you can think and +say what you like. I will inform you when I judge, criticise, and +discuss these doctrines, so as to keep clearly in view my own +intellectual neutrality between HIM and Reason. + +"The life of Swedenborg was divided into two parts," continued the +pastor. "From 1688 to 1745 Baron Emanuel Swedenborg appeared in the +world as a man of vast learning, esteemed and cherished for his +virtues, always irreproachable and constantly useful. While fulfilling +high public functions in Sweden, he published, between 1709 and 1740, +several important works on mineralogy, physics, mathematics, and +astronomy, which enlightened the world of learning. He originated a +method of building docks suitable for the reception of large vessels, +and he wrote many treatises on various important questions, such as +the rise of tides, the theory of the magnet and its qualities, the +motion and position of the earth and planets, and while Assessor in +the Royal College of Mines, on the proper system of working salt +mines. He discovered means to construct canal-locks or sluices; and he +also discovered and applied the simplest methods of extracting ore and +of working metals. In fact he studied no science without advancing it. +In youth he learned Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, also the oriental +languages, with which he became so familiar that many distinguished +scholars consulted him, and he was able to decipher the vestiges of +the oldest known books of Scripture, namely: 'The Wars of Jehovah' and +'The Enunciations,' spoken of by Moses (Numbers xxi. 14, 15, 27-30), +also by Joshua, Jeremiah, and Samuel,--'The Wars of Jehovah' being the +historical part and 'The Enunciations' the prophetical part of the +Mosaical Books anterior to Genesis. Swedenborg even affirms that 'the +Book of Jasher,' the Book of the Righteous, mentioned by Joshua, was +in existence in Eastern Tartary, together with the doctrine of +Correspondences. A Frenchman has lately, so they tell me, justified +these statements of Swedenborg, by the discovery at Bagdad of several +portions of the Bible hitherto unknown to Europe. During the +widespread discussion on animal magnetism which took its rise in +Paris, and in which most men of Western science took an active part +about the year 1785, Monsieur le Marquis de Thome vindicated the +memory of Swedenborg by calling attention to certain assertions made +by the Commission appointed by the King of France to investigate the +subject. These gentlemen declared that no theory of magnetism existed, +whereas Swedenborg had studied and promulgated it ever since the year +1720. Monsieur de Thome seizes this opportunity to show the reason why +so many men of science relegated Swedenborg to oblivion while they +delved into his treasure-house and took his facts to aid their work. +'Some of the most illustrious of these men,' said Monsieur de Thome, +alluding to the 'Theory of the Earth' by Buffon, 'have had the +meanness to wear the plumage of the noble bird and refuse him all +acknowledgment'; and he proved, by masterly quotations drawn from the +encyclopaedic works of Swedenborg, that the great prophet had +anticipated by over a century the slow march of human science. It +suffices to read his philosophical and mineralogical works to be +convinced of this. In one passage he is seen as the precursor of +modern chemistry by the announcement that the productions of organized +nature are decomposable and resolve into two simple principles; also +that water, air, and fire are _not elements_. In another, he goes in a +few words to the heart of magnetic mysteries and deprives Mesmer of +the honors of a first knowledge of them. + +"There," said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a long shelf against the +wall between the stove and the window on which were ranged books of +all sizes, "behold him! here are seventeen works from his pen, of +which one, his 'Philosophical and Mineralogical Works,' published in +1734, is in three folio volumes. These productions, which prove the +incontestable knowledge of Swedenborg, were given to me by Monsieur +Seraphitus, his cousin and the father of Seraphita. + +"In 1740," continued Monsieur Becker, after a slight pause, +"Swedenborg fell into a state of absolute silence, from which he +emerged to bid farewell to all his earthly occupations; after which +his thoughts turned exclusively to the Spiritual Life. He received the +first commands of heaven in 1745, and he thus relates the nature of +the vocation to which he was called: One evening, in London, after +dining with a great appetite, a thick white mist seemed to fill his +room. When the vapor dispersed a creature in human form rose from one +corner of the apartment, and said in a stern tone, 'Do not eat so +much.' He refrained. The next night the same man returned, radiant in +light, and said to him, 'I am sent of God, who has chosen you to +explain to men the meaning of his Word and his Creation. I will tell +you what to write.' The vision lasted but a few moments. The _angel_ +was clothed in purple. During that night the eyes of his _inner man_ +were opened, and he was forced to look into the heavens, into the world +of spirits, and into hell,--three separate spheres; where he encountered +persons of his acquaintance who had departed from their human form, +some long since, others lately. Thenceforth Swedenborg lived wholly in +the spiritual life, remaining in this world only as the messenger of +God. His mission was ridiculed by the incredulous, but his conduct was +plainly that of a being superior to humanity. In the first place, +though limited in means to the bare necessaries of life, he gave away +enormous sums, and publicly, in several cities, restored the fortunes +of great commercial houses when they were on the brink of failure. No +one ever appealed to his generosity who was not immediately satisfied. +A sceptical Englishman, determined to know the truth, followed him to +Paris, and relates that there his doors stood always open. One day a +servant complained of this apparent negligence, which laid him open to +suspicion of thefts that might be committed by others. 'He need feel +no anxiety,' said Swedenborg, smiling. 'But I do not wonder at his +fear; he cannot see the guardian who protects my door.' In fact, no +matter in what country he made his abode he never closed his doors, +and nothing was ever stolen from him. At Gottenburg--a town situated +some sixty miles from Stockholm--he announced, eight days before the +news arrived by courier, the conflagration which ravaged Stockholm, +and the exact time at which it took place. The Queen of Sweden wrote +to her brother, the King, at Berlin, that one of her ladies-in-waiting, +who was ordered by the courts to pay a sum of money which she was +certain her husband had paid before his death, went to Swedenborg +and begged him to ask her husband where she could find proof of the +payment. The following day Swedenborg, having done as the lady +requested, pointed out the place where the receipt would be found. He +also begged the deceased to appear to his wife, and the latter saw her +husband in a dream, wrapped in a dressing-gown which he wore just +before his death; and he showed her the paper in the place indicated +by Swedenborg, where it had been securely put away. At another time, +embarking from London in a vessel commanded by Captain Dixon, he +overheard a lady asking if there were plenty of provisions on board. +'We do not want a great quantity,' he said; 'in eight days and two +hours we shall reach Stockholm,'--which actually happened. This +peculiar state of vision as to the things of the earth--into which +Swedenborg could put himself at will, and which astonished those about +him--was, nevertheless, but a feeble representative of his faculty of +looking into heaven. + +"Not the least remarkable of his published visions is that in which he +relates his journeys through the Astral Regions; his descriptions +cannot fail to astonish the reader, partly through the crudity of +their details. A man whose scientific eminence is incontestable, and +who united in his own person powers of conception, will, and +imagination, would surely have invented better if he had invented at +all. The fantastic literature of the East offers nothing that can give +an idea of this astounding work, full of the essence of poetry, if it +is permissible to compare a work of faith with one of oriental fancy. +The transportation of Swedenborg by the Angel who served as guide to +this first journey is told with a sublimity which exceeds, by the +distance which God has placed betwixt the earth and the sun, the great +epics of Klopstock, Milton, Tasso, and Dante. This description, which +serves in fact as an introduction to his work on the Astral Regions, +has never been published; it is among the oral traditions left by +Swedenborg to the three disciples who were nearest to his heart. +Monsieur Silverichm has written them down. Monsieur Seraphitus +endeavored more than once to talk to me about them; but the +recollection of his cousin's words was so burning a memory that he +always stopped short at the first sentence and became lost in a revery +from which I could not rouse him." + +The old pastor sighed as he continued: "The baron told me that the +argument by which the Angel proved to Swedenborg that these bodies are +not made to wander through space puts all human science out of sight +beneath the grandeur of a divine logic. According to the Seer, the +inhabitants of Jupiter will not cultivate the sciences, which they +call darkness; those of Mercury abhor the expression of ideas by +speech, which seems to them too material,--their language is ocular; +those of Saturn are continually tempted by evil spirits; those of the +Moon are as small as six-year-old children, their voices issue from +the abdomen, on which they crawl; those of Venus are gigantic in +height, but stupid, and live by robbery,--although a part of this +latter planet is inhabited by beings of great sweetness, who live in +the love of Good. In short, he describes the customs and morals of all +the peoples attached to the different globes, and explains the general +meaning of their existence as related to the universe in terms so +precise, giving explanations which agree so well with their visible +evolutions in the system of the world, that some day, perhaps, +scientific men will come to drink of these living waters. + +"Here," said Monsieur Becker, taking down a book and opening it at a +mark, "here are the words with which he ended this work:-- + +"'If any man doubts that I was transported through a vast number of +Astral Regions, let him recall my observation of the distances in that +other life, namely, that they exist only in relation to the external +state of man; now, being transformed within like unto the Angelic +Spirits of those Astral Spheres, I was able to understand them.' + +"The circumstances to which we of this canton owe the presence among +us of Baron Seraphitus, the beloved cousin of Swedenborg, enabled me +to know all the events of the extraordinary life of that prophet. He +has lately been accused of imposture in certain quarters of Europe, +and the public prints reported the following fact based on a letter +written by the Chevalier Baylon. Swedenborg, they said, informed by +certain senators of a secret correspondence of the late Queen of +Sweden with her brother, the Prince of Prussia, revealed his knowledge +of the secrets contained in that correspondence to the Queen, making +her believe he had obtained this knowledge by supernatural means. A +man worthy of all confidence, Monsieur Charles-Leonhard de +Stahlhammer, captain in the Royal guard and knight of the Sword, +answered the calumny with a convincing letter." + +The pastor opened a drawer of his table and looked through a number of +papers until he found a gazette which he held out to Wilfrid, asking +him to read aloud the following letter:-- + +Stockholm, May 18, 1788. + + I have read with amazement a letter which purports to relate the + interview of the famous Swedenborg with Queen Louisa-Ulrika. The + circumstances therein stated are wholly false; and I hope the + writer will excuse me for showing him by the following faithful + narration, which can be proved by the testimony of many + distinguished persons then present and still living, how + completely he has been deceived. + + In 1758, shortly after the death of the Prince of Prussia + Swedenborg came to court, where he was in the habit of attending + regularly. He had scarcely entered the queen's presence before she + said to him: "Well, Mr. Assessor, have you seen my brother?" + Swedenborg answered no, and the queen rejoined: "If you do see + him, greet him for me." In saying this she meant no more than a + pleasant jest, and had no thought whatever of asking him for + information about her brother. Eight days later (not twenty-four + as stated, nor was the audience a private one), Swedenborg again + came to court, but so early that the queen had not left her + apartment called the White Room, where she was conversing with her + maids-of-honor and other ladies attached to the court. Swedenborg + did not wait until she came forth, but entered the said room and + whispered something in her ear. The queen, overcome with + amazement, was taken ill, and it was some time before she + recovered herself. When she did so she said to those about her: + "Only God and my brother knew the thing that he has just spoken + of." She admitted that it related to her last correspondence with + the prince on a subject which was known to them alone. I cannot + explain how Swedenborg came to know the contents of that letter, + but I can affirm on my honor, that neither Count H---- (as the + writer of the article states) nor any other person intercepted, or + read, the queen's letters. The senate allowed her to write to her + brother in perfect security, considering the correspondence as of + no interest to the State. It is evident that the author of the + said article is ignorant of the character of Count H----. This + honored gentleman, who has done many important services to his + country, unites the qualities of a noble heart to gifts of mind, + and his great age has not yet weakened these precious possessions. + During his whole administration he added the weight of scrupulous + integrity to his enlightened policy and openly declared himself + the enemy of all secret intrigues and underhand dealings, which he + regarded as unworthy means to attain an end. Neither did the + writer of that article understand the Assessor Swedenborg. The + only weakness of that essentially honest man was a belief in the + apparition of spirits; but I knew him for many years, and I can + affirm that he was as fully convinced that he met and talked with + spirits as I am that I am writing at this moment. As a citizen and + as a friend his integrity was absolute; he abhorred deception and + led the most exemplary of lives. The version which the Chevalier + Baylon gave of these facts is, therefore, entirely without + justification; the visit stated to have been made to Swedenborg in + the night-time by Count H---- and Count T---- is hereby + contradicted. In conclusion, the writer of the letter may rest + assured that I am not a follower of Swedenborg. The love of truth + alone impels me to give this faithful account of a fact which has + been so often stated with details that are entirely false. I + certify to the truth of what I have written by adding my + signature. + + Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer. + + +"The proofs which Swedenborg gave of his mission to the royal families +of Sweden and Prussia were no doubt the foundation of the belief in +his doctrines which is prevalent at the two courts," said Monsieur +Becker, putting the gazette into the drawer. "However," he continued, +"I shall not tell you all the facts of his visible and material life; +indeed his habits prevented them from being fully known. He lived a +hidden life; not seeking either riches or fame. He was even noted for +a sort of repugnance to making proselytes; he opened his mind to few +persons, and never showed his external powers of second-sight to any +who were not eminent in faith, wisdom, and love. He could recognize at +a glance the state of the soul of every person who approached him, and +those whom he desired to reach with his inward language he converted +into Seers. After the year 1745, his disciples never saw him do a +single thing from any human motive. One man alone, a Swedish priest, +named Mathesius, set afloat a story that he went mad in London in +1744. But a eulogium on Swedenborg prepared with minute care as to all +the known events of his life, was pronounced after his death in 1772 +on behalf of the Royal Academy of Sciences in the Hall of the Nobles +at Stockholm, by Monsieur Sandels, counsellor of the Board of Mines. A +declaration made before the Lord Mayor of London gives the details of +his last illness and death, in which he received the ministrations of +Monsieur Ferelius a Swedish priest of the highest standing, and pastor +of the Swedish Church in London, Mathesius being his assistant. All +persons present attested that so far from denying the value of his +writings Swedenborg firmly asserted their truth. 'In one hundred +years,' Monsieur Ferelius quotes him as saying, 'my doctrine will +guide the _Church_.' He predicted the day and hour of his death. On that +day, Sunday, March 29, 1772, hearing the clock strike, he asked what +time it was. 'Five o'clock' was the answer. 'It is well,' he answered; +'thank you, God bless you.' Ten minutes later he tranquilly departed, +breathing a gentle sigh. Simplicity, moderation, and solitude were the +features of his life. When he had finished writing any of his books he +sailed either for London or for Holland, where he published them, and +never spoke of them again. He published in this way twenty-seven +different treatises, all written, he said, from the dictation of +Angels. Be it true or false, few men have been strong enough to endure +the flames of oral illumination. + +"There they all are," said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a second shelf +on which were some sixty volumes. "The treatises on which the Divine +Spirit casts its most vivid gleams are seven in number, namely: +'Heaven and Hell'; 'Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the +Divine Wisdom'; 'Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence'; +'The Apocalypse Revealed'; 'Conjugial Love and its Chaste Delights'; +'The True Christian Religion'; and 'An Exposition of the Internal +Sense.' Swedenborg's explanation of the Apocalypse begins with these +words," said Monsieur Becker, taking down and opening the volume +nearest to him: "'Herein I have written nothing of mine own; I speak +as I am bidden by the Lord, who said, through the same angel, to John: +"Thou shalt not seal the sayings of this Prophecy."' (Revelation xxii. +10.) + +"My dear Monsieur Wilfrid," said the old man, looking at his guest, "I +often tremble in every limb as I read, during the long winter evenings +the awe-inspiring works in which this man declares with perfect +artlessness the wonders that are revealed to him. 'I have seen,' he +says, 'Heaven and the Angels. The spiritual man sees his spiritual +fellows far better than the terrestrial man sees the men of earth. In +describing the wonders of heaven and beneath the heavens I obey the +Lord's command. Others have the right to believe me or not as they +choose. I cannot put them into the state in which God has put me; it +is not in my power to enable them to converse with Angels, nor to work +miracles within their understanding; they alone can be the instrument +of their rise to angelic intercourse. It is now twenty-eight years +since I have lived in the Spiritual world with angels, and on earth +with men; for it pleased God to open the eyes of my spirit as he did +that of Paul, and of Daniel and Elisha.' + +"And yet," continued the pastor, thoughtfully, "certain persons have +had visions of the spiritual world through the complete detachment +which somnambulism produces between their external form and their +inner being. 'In this state,' says Swedenborg in his treatise on +Angelic Wisdom (No. 257) 'Man may rise into the region of celestial +light because, his corporeal senses being abolished, the influence of +heaven acts without hindrance on his inner man.' Many persons who do +not doubt that Swedenborg received celestial revelations think that +his writings are not all the result of divine inspiration. Others +insist on absolute adherence to him; while admitting his many +obscurities, they believe that the imperfection of earthly language +prevented the prophet from clearly revealing those spiritual visions +whose clouds disperse to the eyes of those whom faith regenerates; +for, to use the words of his greatest disciple, 'Flesh is but an +external propagation.' To poets and to writers his presentation of the +marvellous is amazing; to Seers it is simply reality. To some +Christians his descriptions have seemed scandalous. Certain critics +have ridiculed the celestial substance of his temples, his golden +palaces, his splendid cities where angels disport themselves; they +laugh at his groves of miraculous trees, his gardens where the flowers +speak and the air is white, and the mystical stones, the sard, +carbuncle, chrysolite, chrysoprase, jacinth, chalcedony, beryl, the +Urim and Thummim, are endowed with motion, express celestial truths, +and reply by variations of light to questions put to them ('True +Christian Religion,' 219). Many noble souls will not admit his +spiritual worlds where colors are heard in delightful concert, where +language flames and flashes, where the Word is writ in pointed spiral +letters ('True Christian Religion,' 278). Even in the North some +writers have laughed at the gates of pearl, and the diamonds which +stud the floors and walls of his New Jerusalem, where the most +ordinary utensils are made of the rarest substances of the globe. +'But,' say his disciples, 'because such things are sparsely scattered +on this earth does it follow that they are not abundant in other +worlds? On earth they are terrestrial substances, whereas in heaven +they assume celestial forms and are in keeping with angels.' In this +connection Swedenborg has used the very words of Jesus Christ, who +said, 'If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall +ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?' + +"Monsieur," continued the pastor, with an emphatic gesture, "I have +read the whole of Swedenborg's works; and I say it with pride, because +I have done it and yet retained my reason. In reading him men either +miss his meaning or become Seers like him. Though I have evaded both +extremes, I have often experienced unheard-of delights, deep emotions, +inward joys, which alone can reveal to us the plenitude of truth,--the +evidence of celestial Light. All things here below seem small indeed +when the soul is lost in the perusal of these Treatises. It is +impossible not to be amazed when we think that in the short space of +thirty years this man wrote and published, on the truths of the +Spiritual World, twenty-five quarto volumes, composed in Latin, of +which the shortest has five hundred pages, all of them printed in +small type. He left, they say, twenty others in London, bequeathed to +his nephew, Monsieur Silverichm, formerly almoner to the King of +Sweden. Certainly a man who, between the ages of twenty and sixty, had +already exhausted himself in publishing a series of encyclopaedical +works, must have received supernatural assistance in composing these +later stupendous treatises, at an age, too, when human vigor is on the +wane. You will find in these writings thousands of propositions, all +numbered, none of which have been refuted. Throughout we see method +and precision; the presence of the spirit issuing and flowing down +from a single fact,--the existence of angels. His 'True Christian +Religion,' which sums up his whole doctrine and is vigorous with +light, was conceived and written at the age of eighty-three. In fact, +his amazing vigor and omniscience are not denied by any of his +critics, not even by his enemies. + +"Nevertheless," said Monsieur Becker, slowly, "though I have drunk +deep in this torrent of divine light, God has not opened the eyes of +my inner being, and I judge these writings by the reason of an +unregenerated man. I have often felt that the _inspired_ Swedenborg +must have misunderstood the Angels. I have laughed over certain visions +which, according to his disciples, I ought to have believed with +veneration. I have failed to imagine the spiral writing of the Angels +or their golden belts, on which the gold is of great or lesser +thickness. If, for example, this statement, 'Some angels are +solitary,' affected me powerfully for a time, I was, on reflection, +unable to reconcile this solitude with their marriages. I have not +understood why the Virgin Mary should continue to wear blue satin +garments in heaven. I have even dared to ask myself why those gigantic +demons, Enakim and Hephilim, came so frequently to fight the cherubim +on the apocalyptic plains of Armageddon; and I cannot explain to my +own mind how Satans can argue with Angels. Monsieur le Baron +Seraphitus assured me that those details concerned only the angels who +live on earth in human form. The visions of the prophet are often +blurred with grotesque figures. One of his spiritual tales, or +'Memorable relations,' as he called them, begins thus: 'I see the +spirits assembling, they have hats upon their heads.' In another of +these Memorabilia he receives from heaven a bit of paper, on which he +saw, he says, the hieroglyphics of the primitive peoples, which were +composed of curved lines traced from the finger-rings that are worn in +heaven. However, perhaps I am wrong; possibly the material absurdities +with which his works are strewn have spiritual significations. +Otherwise, how shall we account for the growing influence of his +religion? His church numbers to-day more than seven hundred thousand +believers,--as many in the United States of America as in England, +where there are seven thousand Swedenborgians in the city of +Manchester alone. Many men of high rank in knowledge and in social +position in Germany, in Prussia, and in the Northern kingdoms have +publicly adopted the beliefs of Swedenborg; which, I may remark, are +more comforting than those of all other Christian communions. I wish I +had the power to explain to you clearly in succinct language the +leading points of the doctrine on which Swedenborg founded his church; +but I fear such a summary, made from recollection, would be +necessarily defective. I shall, therefore, allow myself to speak only +of those 'Arcana' which concern the birth of Seraphita." + +Here Monsieur Becker paused, as though composing his mind to gather up +his ideas. Presently he continued, as follows:-- + +"After establishing mathematically that man lives eternally in spheres +of either a lower or a higher grade, Swedenborg applies the term +'Spiritual Angels' to beings who in this world are prepared for +heaven, where they become angels. According to him, God has not +created angels; none exist who have not been men upon the earth. The +earth is the nursery-ground of heaven. The Angels are therefore not +Angels as such ('Angelic Wisdom,' 57), they are transformed through +their close conjunction with God; which conjunction God never refuses, +because the essence of God is not negative, but essentially active. +The spiritual angels pass through three natures of love, because man +is only regenerated through successive stages ('True Religion'). +First, the _love of self_: the supreme expression of this love is human +genius, whose works are worshipped. Next, _love of life_: this love +produces prophets,--great men whom the world accepts as guides and +proclaims to be divine. Lastly, _love of heaven_, and this creates the +Spiritual Angel. These angels are, so to speak, the flowers of +humanity, which culminates in them and works for that culmination. +They must possess either the love of heaven or the wisdom of heaven, +but always Love before Wisdom. + +"Thus the transformation of the natural man is into Love. To reach +this first degree, his previous existences must have passed through +Hope and Charity, which prepare him for Faith and Prayer. The ideas +acquired by the exercise of these virtues are transmitted to each of +the human envelopes within which are hidden the metamorphoses of the +_inner being_; for nothing is separate, each existence is necessary to +the other existences. Hope cannot advance without Charity, nor Faith +without Prayer; they are the four fronts of a solid square. 'One +virtue missing,' he said, 'and the Spiritual Angel is like a broken +pearl.' Each of these existences is therefore a circle in which +revolves the celestial riches of the inner being. The perfection of +the Spiritual Angels comes from this mysterious progression in which +nothing is lost of the high qualities that are successfully acquired +to attain each glorious incarnation; for at each transformation they +cast away unconsciously the flesh and its errors. When the man lives +in Love he has shed all evil passions: Hope, Charity, Faith, and +Prayer have, in the words of Isaiah, purged the dross of his inner +being, which can never more be polluted by earthly affections. Hence +the grand saying of Christ quoted by Saint Matthew, 'Lay up for +yourselves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth +corrupt,' and those still grander words: 'If ye were of this world the +world would love you, but I have chosen you out of the world; be ye +therefore perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.' + +"The second transformation of man is to Wisdom. Wisdom is the +understanding of celestial things to which the Spirit is brought by +Love. The Spirit of Love has acquired strength, the result of all +vanquished terrestrial passions; it loves God blindly. But the Spirit +of Wisdom has risen to understanding and knows why it loves. The wings +of the one are spread and bear the spirit to God; the wings of the +other are held down by the awe that comes of understanding: the spirit +knows God. The one longs incessantly to see God and to fly to Him; the +other attains to Him and trembles. The union effected between the +Spirit of Love and the Spirit of Wisdom carries the human being into a +Divine state during which time his soul is _woman_ and his body _man_, +the last human manifestation in which the Spirit conquers Form, or Form +still struggles against the Spirit,--for Form, that is, the flesh, is +ignorant, rebels, and desires to continue gross. This supreme trial +creates untold sufferings seen by Heaven alone,--the agony of Christ +in the Garden of Olives. + +"After death the first heaven opens to this dual and purified human +nature. Therefore it is that man dies in despair while the Spirit dies +in ecstasy. Thus, the _natural_, the state of beings not yet +regenerated; the _spiritual_, the state of those who have become Angelic +Spirits, and the _divine_, the state in which the Angel exists before he +breaks from his covering of flesh, are the three degrees of existence +through which man enters heaven. One of Swedenborg's thoughts +expressed in his own words will explain to you with wonderful +clearness the difference between the _natural_ and the _spiritual_. 'To +the minds of men,' he says, 'the Natural passes into the Spiritual; +they regard the world under its visible aspects, they perceive it only +as it can be realized by their senses. But to the apprehension of +Angelic Spirits, the Spiritual passes into the Natural; they regard +the world in its inward essence and not in its form.' Thus human +sciences are but analyses of form. The man of science as the world +goes is purely external like his knowledge; his inner being is only +used to preserve his aptitude for the perception of external truths. +The Angelic Spirit goes far beyond that; his knowledge is the thought +of which human science is but the utterance; he derives that knowledge +from the Logos, and learns the law of _correspondences_ by which the +world is placed in unison with heaven. The _word of God_ was wholly +written by pure Correspondences, and covers an esoteric or spiritual +meaning, which according to the science of Correspondences, cannot be +understood. 'There exist,' says Swedenborg ('Celestial Doctrine' 26), +'innumerable Arcana within the hidden meaning of the Correspondences. +Thus the men who scoff at the books of the Prophets where the Word is +enshrined are as densely ignorant as those other men who know nothing +of a science and yet ridicule its truths. To know the Correspondences +which exist between the things visible and ponderable in the +terrestrial world and the things invisible and imponderable in the +spiritual world, is to hold heaven within our comprehension. All the +objects of the manifold creations having emanated from God necessarily +enfold a hidden meaning; according, indeed, to the grand thought of +Isaiah, 'The earth is a garment.' + +"This mysterious link between Heaven and the smallest atoms of created +matter constitutes what Swedenborg calls a Celestial Arcanum, and his +treatise on the 'Celestial Arcana' in which he explains the +correspondences or significances of the Natural with, and to, the +Spiritual, giving, to use the words of Jacob Boehm, the sign and seal +of all things, occupies not less than sixteen volumes containing +thirty thousand propositions. 'This marvellous knowledge of +Correspondences which the goodness of God granted to Swedenborg,' says +one of his disciples, 'is the secret of the interest which draws men +to his works. According to him, all things are derived from heaven, +all things lead back to heaven. His writings are sublime and clear; he +speaks in heaven, and earth hears him. Take one of his sentences by +itself and a volume could be made of it'; and the disciple quotes the +following passages taken from a thousand others that would answer the +same purpose. + +"'The kingdom of heaven,' says Swedenborg ('Celestial Arcana'), 'is +the kingdom of motives. _Action_ is born in heaven, thence into the +world, and, by degrees, to the infinitely remote parts of earth. +Terrestrial effects being thus linked to celestial causes, all things +are _correspondent_ and _significant_. Man is the means of union +between the Natural and the Spiritual.' + +"The Angelic Spirits therefore know the very nature of the +Correspondences which link to heaven all earthly things; they know, +too, the inner meaning of the prophetic words which foretell their +evolutions. Thus to these Spirits everything here below has its +significance; the tiniest flower is a thought,--a life which +corresponds to certain lineaments of the Great Whole, of which they +have a constant intuition. To them Adultery and the excesses spoken of +in Scripture and by the Prophets, often garbled by self-styled +scholars, mean the state of those souls which in this world persist in +tainting themselves with earthly affections, thus compelling their +divorce from Heaven. Clouds signify the veil of the Most High. +Torches, shew-bread, horses and horsemen, harlots, precious stones, in +short, everything named in Scripture, has to them a clear-cut meaning, +and reveals the future of terrestrial facts in their relation to +Heaven. They penetrate the truths contained in the Revelation of Saint +John the divine, which human science has subsequently demonstrated and +proved materially; such, for instance, as the following ('big,' said +Swedenborg, 'with many human sciences'): 'I saw a new heaven and a new +earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away' +(Revelation xxi. 1). These Spirits know the supper at which the flesh +of kings and the flesh of all men, free and bond, is eaten, to which +an Angel standing in the sun has bidden them. They see the winged +woman, clothed with the sun, and the mailed man. 'The horse of the +Apocalypse,' says Swedenborg, 'is the visible image of human intellect +ridden by Death, for it bears within itself the elements of its own +destruction.' Moreover, they can distinguish beings concealed under +forms which to ignorant eyes would seem fantastic. When a man is +disposed to receive the prophetic afflation of Correspondences, it +rouses within him a perception of the Word; he comprehends that the +creations are transformations only; his intellect is sharpened, a +burning thirst takes possession of him which only Heaven can quench. +He conceives, according to the greater or lesser perfection of his +inner being, the power of the Angelic Spirits; and he advances, led by +Desire (the least imperfect state of unregenerated man) towards Hope, +the gateway to the world of Spirits, whence he reaches Prayer, which +gives him the Key of Heaven. + +"What being here below would not desire to render himself worthy of +entrance into the sphere of those who live in secret by Love and +Wisdom? Here on earth, during their lifetime, such spirits remain +pure; they neither see, nor think, nor speak like other men. There are +two ways by which perception comes,--one internal, the other external. +Man is wholly external, the Angelic Spirit wholly internal. The Spirit +goes to the depth of Numbers, possesses a full sense of them, knows +their significances. It controls Motion, and by reason of its ubiquity +it shares in all things. 'An Angel,' says Swedenborg, 'is ever present +to a man when desired' ('Angelic Wisdom'); for the Angel has the gift +of detaching himself from his body, and he sees into heaven as the +prophets and as Swedenborg himself saw into it. 'In this state,' +writes Swedenborg ('True Religion,' 136), 'the spirit of a man may +move from one place to another, his body remaining where it is,--a +condition in which I lived for over twenty-six years.' It is thus that +we should interpret all Biblical statements which begin, 'The Spirit +led me.' Angelic Wisdom is to human wisdom what the innumerable forces +of nature are to its action, which is one. All things live again, and +move and have their being in the Spirit, which is in God. Saint Paul +expresses this truth when he says, 'In Deo sumus, movemur, et +vivimus,'--we live, we act, we are in God. + +"Earth offers no hindrance to the Angelic Spirit, just as the Word +offers him no obscurity. His approaching divinity enables him to see +the thought of God veiled in the Logos, just as, living by his inner +being, the Spirit is in communion with the hidden meaning of all +things on this earth. Science is the language of the Temporal world, +Love is that of the Spiritual world. Thus man takes note of more than +he is able to explain, while the Angelic Spirit sees and comprehends. +Science depresses man; Love exalts the Angel. Science is still +seeking, Love has found. Man judges Nature according to his own +relations to her; the Angelic Spirit judges it in its relation to +Heaven. In short, all things have a voice for the Spirit. Spirits are +in the secret of the harmony of all creations with each other; they +comprehend the spirit of sound, the spirit of color, the spirit of +vegetable life; they can question the mineral, and the mineral makes +answer to their thoughts. What to them are sciences and the treasures +of the earth when they grasp all things by the eye at all moments, +when the worlds which absorb the minds of so many men are to them but +the last step from which they spring to God? Love of heaven, or the +Wisdom of heaven, is made manifest to them by a circle of light which +surrounds them, and is visible to the Elect. Their innocence, of which +that of children is a symbol, possesses, nevertheless, a knowledge +which children have not; they are both innocent and learned. 'And,' +says Swedenborg, 'the innocence of Heaven makes such an impression +upon the soul that those whom it affects keep a rapturous memory of it +which lasts them all their lives, as I myself have experienced. It is +perhaps sufficient,' he goes on, 'to have only a minimum perception of +it to be forever changed, to long to enter Heaven and the sphere of +Hope.' + +"His doctrine of Marriage can be reduced to the following words: 'The +Lord has taken the beauty and the grace of the life of man and +bestowed them upon woman. When man is not reunited to this beauty and +this grace of his life, he is harsh, sad, and sullen; when he is +reunited to them he is joyful and complete.' The Angels are ever at +the perfect point of beauty. Marriages are celebrated by wondrous +ceremonies. In these unions, which produce no children, man +contributes the _understanding_, woman the _will_; they become one +being, one Flesh here below, and pass to heaven clothed in the celestial +form. On this earth, the natural attraction of the sexes towards +enjoyment is an Effect which allures, fatigues and disgusts; but in +the form celestial the pair, now _one_ in Spirit find within theirself +a ceaseless source of joy. Swedenborg was led to see these nuptials of +the Spirits, which in the words of Saint Luke (xx. 35) are neither +marrying nor giving in marriage, and which inspire none but spiritual +pleasures. An Angel offered to make him witness of such a marriage and +bore him thither on his wings (the wings are a symbol and not a +reality). The Angel clothed him in a wedding garment and when +Swedenborg, finding himself thus robed in light, asked why, the answer +was: 'For these events, our garments are illuminated; they shine; they +are made nuptial.' ('Conjugial Love,' 19, 20, 21.) Then he saw the two +Angels, one coming from the South, the other from the East; the Angel +of the South was in a chariot drawn by two white horses, with reins of +the color and brilliance of the dawn; but lo, when they were near him +in the sky, chariot and horses vanished. The Angel of the East, +clothed in crimson, and the Angel of the South, in purple, drew +together, like breaths, and mingled: one was the Angel of Love, the +other the Angel of Wisdom. Swedenborg's guide told him that the two +Angels had been linked together on earth by an inward friendship and +ever united though separated in life by great distances. Consent, the +essence of all good marriage upon earth, is the habitual state of +Angels in Heaven. Love is the light of their world. The eternal +rapture of Angels comes from the faculty that God communicates to them +to render back to Him the joy they feel through Him. This reciprocity +of infinitude forms their life. They become infinite by participating +of the essence of God, who generates Himself by Himself. + +"The immensity of the Heavens where the Angels dwell is such that if +man were endowed with sight as rapid as the darting of light from the +sun to the earth, and if he gazed throughout eternity, his eyes could +not reach the horizon, nor find an end. Light alone can give an idea +of the joys of heaven. 'It is,' says Swedenborg ('Angelic Wisdom,' 7, +25, 26, 27), 'a vapor of the virtue of God, a pure emanation of His +splendor, beside which our greatest brilliance is obscurity. It can +compass all; it can renew all, and is never absorbed: it environs the +Angel and unites him to God by infinite joys which multiply infinitely +of themselves. This Light destroys whosoever is not prepared to +receive it. No one here below, nor yet in Heaven can see God and live. +This is the meaning of the saying (Exodus xix. 12, 13, 21-23) "Take +heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount--lest ye break +through unto the Lord to gaze, and many perish." And again (Exodus +xxxiv. 29-35), "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two +Tables of testimony in his hand, his face shone, so that he put a veil +upon it when he spake with the people, lest any of them die." The +Transfiguration of Jesus Christ likewise revealed the light +surrounding the Messengers from on high and the ineffable joys of the +Angels who are forever imbued with it. "His face," says Saint Matthew +(xvii. 1-5), "did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the +light--and a bright cloud overshadowed them."' + +"When a planet contains only those beings who reject the Lord, when +his word is ignored, then the Angelic Spirits are gathered together by +the four winds, and God sends forth an Exterminating Angel to change +the face of the refractory earth, which in the immensity of this +universe is to Him what an unfruitful seed is to Nature. Approaching +the globe, this Exterminating Angel, borne by a comet, causes the +planet to turn upon its axis, and the lands lately covered by the seas +reappear, adorned in freshness and obedient to the laws proclaimed in +Genesis; the Word of God is once more powerful on this new earth, +which everywhere exhibits the effects of terrestrial waters and +celestial flames. The light brought by the Angel from On High, causes +the sun to pale. 'Then,' says Isaiah, (xix. 20) 'men will hide in the +clefts of the rock and roll themselves in the dust of the earth.' +'They will cry to the mountains' (Revelation), 'Fall on us! and to the +seas, Swallow us up! Hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the +throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb!' The Lamb is the great figure +and hope of the Angels misjudged and persecuted here below. Christ +himself has said, 'Blessed are those who mourn! Blessed are the +simple-hearted! Blessed are they that love!'--All Swedenborg is there! +Suffer, Believe, Love. To love truly must we not suffer? must we not +believe? Love begets Strength, Strength bestows Wisdom, thence +Intelligence; for Strength and Wisdom demand Will. To be intelligent, +is not that to Know, to Wish, and to Will,--the three attributes of +the Angelic Spirit? 'If the universe has a meaning,' Monsieur +Saint-Martin said to me when I met him during a journey which he made +in Sweden, 'surely this is the one most worthy of God.' + +"But, Monsieur," continued the pastor after a thoughtful pause, "of +what avail to you are these shreds of thoughts taken here and there +from the vast extent of a work of which no true idea can be given +except by comparing it to a river of light, to billows of flame? When +a man plunges into it he is carried away as by an awful current. +Dante's poem seems but a speck to the reader submerged in the almost +Biblical verses with which Swedenborg renders palpable the Celestial +Worlds, as Beethoven built his palaces of harmony with thousands of +notes, as architects have reared cathedrals with millions of stones. +We roll in soundless depths, where our minds will not always sustain +us. Ah, surely a great and powerful intellect is needed to bring us +back, safe and sound, to our own social beliefs. + +"Swedenborg," resumed the pastor, "was particularly attached to the +Baron de Seraphitz, whose name, according to an old Swedish custom, +had taken from time immemorial the Latin termination of 'us.' The +baron was an ardent disciple of the Swedish prophet, who had opened +the eyes of his Inner-Man and brought him to a life in conformity with +the decrees from On-High. He sought for an Angelic Spirit among women; +Swedenborg found her for him in a vision. His bride was the daughter +of a London shoemaker, in whom, said Swedenborg, the life of Heaven +shone, she having passed through all anterior trials. After the death, +that is, the transformation of the prophet, the baron came to Jarvis +to accomplish his celestial nuptials with the observances of Prayer. +As for me, who am not a Seer, I have only known the terrestrial works +of this couple. Their lives were those of saints whose virtues are the +glory of the Roman Church. They ameliorated the condition of our +people; they supplied them all with means in return for work,--little, +perhaps, but enough for all their wants. Those who lived with them in +constant intercourse never saw them show a sign of anger or +impatience; they were constantly beneficent and gentle, full of +courtesy and loving-kindness; their marriage was the harmony of two +souls indissolubly united. Two eiders winging the same flight, the +sound in the echo, the thought in the word,--these, perhaps, are true +images of their union. Every one here in Jarvis loved them with an +affection which I can compare only to the love of a plant for the sun. +The wife was simple in her manners, beautiful in form, lovely in face, +with a dignity of bearing like that of august personages. In 1783, +being then twenty-six years old, she conceived a child; her pregnancy +was to the pair a solemn joy. They prepared to bid the earth farewell; +for they told me they should be transformed when their child had +passed the state of infancy which needed their fostering care until +the strength to exist alone should be given to her. + +"Their child was born,--the Seraphita we are now concerned with. From +the moment of her conception father and mother lived a still more +solitary life than in the past, lifting themselves up to heaven by +Prayer. They hoped to see Swedenborg, and faith realized their hope. +The day on which Seraphita came into the world Swedenborg appeared in +Jarvis, and filled the room of the new-born child with light. I was +told that he said, 'The work is accomplished; the Heavens rejoice!' +Sounds of unknown melodies were heard throughout the house, seeming to +come from the four points of heaven on the wings of the wind. The +spirit of Swedenborg led the father forth to the shores of the fiord +and there quitted him. Certain inhabitants of Jarvis, having +approached Monsieur Seraphitus as he stood on the shore, heard him +repeat those blissful words of Scripture: 'How beautiful on the +mountains are the feet of Him who is sent of God!' + +"I had left the parsonage on my way to baptize the infant and name it, +and perform the other duties required by law, when I met the baron +returning to the house. 'Your ministrations are superfluous,' he said; +'our child is to be without name on this earth. You must not baptize +in the waters of an earthly Church one who has just been immersed in +the fires of Heaven. This child will remain a blossom, it will not +grow old; you will see it pass away. You exist, but our child has +life; you have outward senses, the child has none, its being is always +inward.' These words were uttered in so strange and supernatural a +voice that I was more affected by them than by the shining of his +face, from which light appeared to exude. His appearance realized the +phantasmal ideas which we form of inspired beings as we read the +prophesies of the Bible. But such effects are not rare among our +mountains, where the nitre of perpetual snows produces extraordinary +phenomena in the human organization. + +"I asked him the cause of his emotion. 'Swedenborg came to us; he has +just left me; I have breathed the air of heaven,' he replied. 'Under +what form did he appear?' I said. 'Under his earthly form; dressed as +he was the last time I saw him in London, at the house of Richard +Shearsmith, Coldbath-fields, in July, 1771. He wore his brown frieze +coat with steel buttons, his waistcoat buttoned to the throat, a white +cravat, and the same magisterial wig rolled and powdered at the sides +and raised high in front, showing his vast and luminous brow, in +keeping with the noble square face, where all is power and +tranquillity. I recognized the large nose with its fiery nostril, the +mouth that ever smiled,--angelic mouth from which these words, the +pledge of my happiness, have just issued, "We shall meet soon."' + +"The conviction that shone on the baron's face forbade all discussion; +I listened in silence. His voice had a contagious heat which made my +bosom burn within me; his fanaticism stirred my heart as the anger of +another makes our nerves vibrate. I followed him in silence to his +house, where I saw the nameless child lying mysteriously folded to its +mother's breast. The babe heard my step and turned its head toward me; +its eyes were not those of an ordinary child. To give you an idea of +the impression I received, I must say that already they saw and +thought. The childhood of this predestined being was attended by +circumstances quite extraordinary in our climate. For nine years our +winters were milder and our summers longer than usual. This phenomenon +gave rise to several discussions among scientific men; but none of +their explanations seemed sufficient to academicians, and the baron +smiled when I told him of them. The child was never seen in its nudity +as other children are; it was never touched by man or woman, but lived +a sacred thing upon the mother's breast, and it never cried. If you +question old David he will confirm these facts about his mistress, for +whom he feels an adoration like that of Louis IX. for the saint whose +name he bore. + +"At nine years of age the child began to pray; prayer is her life. You +saw her in the church at Christmas, the only day on which she comes +there; she is separated from the other worshippers by a visible space. +If that space does not exist between herself and men she suffers. That +is why she passes nearly all her time alone in the chateau. The events +of her life are unknown; she is seldom seen; her days are spent in the +state of mystical contemplation which was, so Catholic writers tell +us, habitual with the early Christian solitaries, in whom the oral +tradition of Christ's own words still remained. Her mind, her soul, +her body, all within her is virgin as the snow on those mountains. At +ten years of age she was just what you see her now. When she was nine +her father and mother expired together, without pain or visible +malady, after naming the day and hour at which they would cease to be. +Standing at their feet she looked at them with a calm eye, not showing +either sadness, or grief, or joy, or curiosity. When we approached to +remove the two bodies she said, 'Carry them away!' 'Seraphita,' I +said, for so we called her, 'are you not affected by the death of your +father and your mother who loved you so much?' 'Dead?' she answered, +'no, they live in me forever-- That is nothing,' she pointed without +emotion to the bodies they were bearing away. I then saw her for the +third time only since her birth. In church it is difficult to +distinguish her; she stands near a column which, seen from the pulpit, +is in shadow, so that I cannot observe her features. + +"Of all the servants of the household there remained after the death +of the master and mistress only old David, who, in spite of his +eighty-two years, suffices to wait on his mistress. Some of our Jarvis +people tell wonderful tales about her. These have a certain weight in +a land so essentially conducive to mystery as ours; and I am now +studying the treatise on Incantations by Jean Wier and other works +relating to demonology, where pretended supernatural events are +recorded, hoping to find facts analogous to those which are attributed +to her." + +"Then you do not believe in her?" said Wilfrid. + +"Oh yes, I do," said the pastor, genially, "I think her a very +capricious girl; a little spoilt by her parents, who turned her head +with the religious ideas I have just revealed to you." + +Minna shook her head in a way that gently expressed contradiction. + +"Poor girl!" continued the old man, "her parents bequeathed to her +that fatal exaltation of soul which misleads mystics and renders them +all more or less mad. She subjects herself to fasts which horrify poor +David. The good old man is like a sensitive plant which quivers at the +slightest breeze, and glows under the first sun-ray. His mistress, +whose incomprehensible language has become his, is the breeze and the +sun-ray to him; in his eyes her feet are diamonds and her brow is +strewn with stars; she walks environed with a white and luminous +atmosphere; her voice is accompanied by music; she has the gift of +rendering herself invisible. If you ask to see her, he will tell you +she has gone to the _astral regions_. It is difficult to believe such a +story, is it not? You know all miracles bear more or less resemblance +to the story of the Golden Tooth. We have our golden tooth in Jarvis, +that is all. Duncker the fisherman asserts that he has seen her plunge +into the fiord and come up in the shape of an eider-duck, at other +times walking on the billows of a storm. Fergus, who leads the flocks +to the saeters, says that in rainy weather a circle of clear sky can +be seen over the Swedish castle; and that the heavens are always blue +above Seraphita's head when she is on the mountain. Many women hear +the tones of a mighty organ when Seraphita enters the church, and ask +their neighbors earnestly if they too do not hear them. But my +daughter, for whom during the last two years Seraphita has shown much +affection, has never heard this music, and has never perceived the +heavenly perfumes which, they say, make the air fragrant about her +when she moves. Minna, to be sure, has often on returning from their +walks together expressed to me the delight of a young girl in the +beauties of our spring-time, in the spicy odors of budding larches and +pines and the earliest flowers; but after our long winters what can be +more natural than such pleasure? The companionship of this so-called +spirit has nothing so very extraordinary in it, has it, my child?" + +"The secrets of that spirit are not mine," said Minna. "Near it I know +all, away from it I know nothing; near that exquisite life I am no +longer myself, far from it I forget all. The time we pass together is +a dream which my memory scarcely retains. I may have heard yet not +remember the music which the women tell of; in that presence, I may +have breathed celestial perfumes, seen the glory of the heavens, and +yet be unable to recollect them here." + +"What astonishes me most," resumed the pastor, addressing Wilfrid, "is +to notice that you suffer from being near her." + +"Near her!" exclaimed the stranger, "she has never so much as let me +touch her hand. When she saw me for the first time her glance +intimidated me; she said: 'You are welcome here, for you were to +come.' I fancied that she knew me. I trembled. It is fear that forces +me to believe in her." + +"With me it is love," said Minna, without a blush. + +"Are you making fun of me?" said Monsieur Becker, laughing +good-humoredly; "you my daughter, in calling yourself a Spirit of Love, +and you, Monsieur Wilfrid, in pretending to be a Spirit of Wisdom?" + +He drank a glass of beer and so did not see the singular look which +Wilfrid cast upon Minna. + +"Jesting apart," resumed the old gentleman, "I have been much +astonished to hear that these two mad-caps ascended to the summit of +the Falberg; it must be a girlish exaggeration; they probably went to +the crest of a ledge. It is impossible to reach the peaks of the +Falberg." + +"If so, father," said Minna, in an agitated voice, "I must have been +under the power of a spirit; for indeed we reached the summit of the +Ice-Cap." + +"This is really serious," said Monsieur Becker. "Minna is always +truthful." + +"Monsieur Becker," said Wilfrid, "I swear to you that Seraphita +exercises such extraordinary power over me that I know no language in +which I can give you the least idea of it. She has revealed to me +things known to myself alone." + +"Somnambulism!" said the old man. "A great many such effects are +related by Jean Wier as phenomena easily explained and formerly +observed in Egypt." + +"Lend me Swedenborg's theosophical works," said Wilfrid, "and let me +plunge into those gulfs of light,--you have given me a thirst for +them." + +Monsieur Becker took down a volume and gave it to his guest, who +instantly began to read it. It was about nine o'clock in the evening. +The serving-woman brought in the supper. Minna made tea. The repast +over, each turned silently to his or her occupation; the pastor read +the Incantations; Wilfrid pursued the spirit of Swedenborg; and the +young girl continued to sew, her mind absorbed in recollections. It +was a true Norwegian evening--peaceful, studious, and domestic; full +of thoughts, flowers blooming beneath the snow. Wilfrid, as he +devoured the pages of the prophet, lived by his inner senses only; the +pastor, looking up at times from his book, called Minna's attention to +the absorption of their guest with an air that was half-serious, +half-jesting. To Minna's thoughts the face of Seraphitus smiled upon her +as it hovered above the clouds of smoke which enveloped them. The clock +struck twelve. Suddenly the outer door was opened violently. Heavy but +hurried steps, the steps of a terrified old man, were heard in the +narrow vestibule between the two doors; then David burst into the +parlor. + +"Danger, danger!" he cried. "Come! come, all! The evil spirits are +unchained! Fiery mitres are on their heads! Demons, Vertumni, Sirens! +they tempt her as Jesus was tempted on the mountain! Come, come! and +drive them away." + +"Do you not recognize the language of Swedenborg?" said the pastor, +laughing, to Wilfrid. "Here it is; pure from the source." + +But Wilfrid and Minna were gazing in terror at old David, who, with +hair erect, and eyes distraught, his legs trembling and covered with +snow, for he had come without snow-shoes, stood swaying from side to +side, as if some boisterous wind were shaking him. + +"Is he harmed?" cried Minna. + +"The devils hope and try to conquer her," replied the old man. + +The words made Wilfrid's pulses throb. + +"For the last five hours she has stood erect, her eyes raised to +heaven and her arms extended; she suffers, she cries to God. I cannot +cross the barrier; Hell has posted the Vertumni as sentinels. They +have set up an iron wall between her and her old David. She wants me, +but what can I do? Oh, help me! help me! Come and pray!" + +The old man's despair was terrible to see. + +"The Light of God is defending her," he went on, with infectious +faith, "but oh! she might yield to violence." + +"Silence, David! you are raving. This is a matter to be verified. We +will go with you," said the pastor, "and you shall see that there are +no Vertumni, nor Satans, nor Sirens, in that house." + +"Your father is blind," whispered David to Minna. + +Wilfrid, on whom the reading of Swedenborg's first treatise, which he +had rapidly gone through, had produced a powerful effect, was already +in the corridor putting on his skees; Minna was ready in a few +moments, and both left the old men far behind as they darted forward +to the Swedish castle. + +"Do you hear that cracking sound?" said Wilfrid. + +"The ice of the fiord stirs," answered Minna; "the spring is coming." + +Wilfrid was silent. When the two reached the courtyard they were +conscious that they had neither the faculty nor the strength to enter +the house. + +"What think you of her?" asked Wilfrid. + +"See that radiance!" cried Minna, going towards the window of the +salon. "He is there! How beautiful! O my Seraphitus, take me!" + +The exclamation was uttered inwardly. She saw Seraphitus standing +erect, lightly swathed in an opal-tinted mist that disappeared at a +little distance from the body, which seemed almost phosphorescent. + +"How beautiful she is!" cried Wilfrid, mentally. + +Just then Monsieur Becker arrived, followed by David; he saw his +daughter and guest standing before the window; going up to them, he +looked into the salon and said quietly, "Well, my good David, she is +only saying her prayers." + +"Ah, but try to enter, Monsieur." + +"Why disturb those who pray?" answered the pastor. + +At this instant the moon, rising above the Falberg, cast its rays upon +the window. All three turned round, attracted by this natural effect +which made them quiver; when they turned back to again look at +Seraphita she had disappeared. + +"How strange!" exclaimed Wilfrid. + +"I hear delightful sounds," said Minna. + +"Well," said the pastor, "it is all plain enough; she is going to +bed." + +David had entered the house. The others took their way back in +silence; none of them interpreted the vision in the same manner, +--Monsieur Becker doubted, Minna adored, Wilfrid longed. + +Wilfrid was a man about thirty-six years of age. His figure, though +broadly developed, was not wanting in symmetry. Like most men who +distinguish themselves above their fellows, he was of medium height; +his chest and shoulders were broad, and his neck short,--a +characteristic of those whose hearts are near their heads; his hair +was black, thick, and fine; his eyes, of a yellow brown, had, as it +were, a solar brilliancy, which proclaimed with what avidity his +nature aspired to Light. Though these strong and virile features were +defective through the absence of an inward peace,--granted only to a +life without storms or conflicts,--they plainly showed the +inexhaustible resources of impetuous senses and the appetites of +instinct; just as every motion revealed the perfection of the man's +physical apparatus, the flexibility of his senses, and their fidelity +when brought into play. This man might contend with savages, and hear, +as they do, the tread of enemies in distant forests; he could follow a +scent in the air, a trail on the ground, or see on the horizon the +signal of a friend. His sleep was light, like that of all creatures +who will not allow themselves to be surprised. His body came quickly +into harmony with the climate of any country where his tempestuous +life conducted him. Art and science would have admired his +organization in the light of a human model. Everything about him was +symmetrical and well-balanced,--action and heart, intelligence and +will. At first sight he might be classed among purely instinctive +beings, who give themselves blindly up to the material wants of life; +but in the very morning of his days he had flung himself into a higher +social world, with which his feelings harmonized; study had widened +his mind, reflection had sharpened his power of thought, and the +sciences had enlarged his understanding. He had studied human laws, +--the working of self-interests brought into conflict by the passions, +and he seemed to have early familiarized himself with the abstractions +on which societies rest. He had pored over books,--those deeds of dead +humanity; he had spent whole nights of pleasure in every European +capital; he had slept on fields of battle the night before the combat +and the night that followed victory. His stormy youth may have flung +him on the deck of some corsair and sent him among the contrasting +regions of the globe; thus it was that he knew the actions of a living +humanity. He knew the present and the past,--a double history; that of +to-day, that of other days. Many men have been, like Wilfrid, equally +powerful by the Hand, by the Heart, by the Head; like him, the +majority have abused their triple power. But though this man still +held by certain outward liens to the slimy side of humanity, he +belonged also and positively to the sphere where force is intelligent. +In spite of the many veils which enveloped his soul, there were +certain ineffable symptoms of this fact which were visible to pure +spirits, to the eyes of the child whose innocence has known no breath +of evil passions, to the eyes of the old man who has lived to regain +his purity. + +These signs revealed a Cain for whom there was still hope,--one who +seemed as though he were seeking absolution from the ends of the +earth. Minna suspected the galley-slave of glory in the man; Seraphita +recognized him. Both admired and both pitied him. Whence came their +prescience? Nothing could be more simple nor yet more extraordinary. +As soon as we seek to penetrate the secrets of Nature, where nothing +is secret, and where it is only necessary to have the eyes to see, we +perceive that the simple produces the marvellous. + +"Seraphitus," said Minna one evening a few days after Wilfrid's +arrival in Jarvis, "you read the soul of this stranger while I have +only vague impressions of it. He chills me or else he excites me; but +you seem to know the cause of this cold and of this heat; tell me what +it means, for you know all about him." + +"Yes, I have seen the causes," said Seraphitus, lowing his large +eyelids. + +"By what power?" asked the curious Minna. + +"I have the gift of Specialism," he answered. "Specialism is an inward +sight which can penetrate all things; you will only understand its +full meaning through a comparison. In the great cities of Europe where +works are produced by which the human Hand seeks to represent the +effects of the moral nature was well as those of the physical nature, +there are glorious men who express ideas in marble. The sculptor acts +on the stone; he fashions it; he puts a realm of ideas into it. There +are statues which the hand of man has endowed with the faculty of +representing the noble side of humanity, or the whole evil side; most +men see in such marbles a human figure and nothing more; a few other +men, a little higher in the scale of being, perceive a fraction of the +thoughts expressed in the statue; but the Initiates in the secrets of +art are of the same intellect as the sculptor; they see in his work +the whole universe of his thought. Such persons are in themselves the +principles of art; they bear within them a mirror which reflects +nature in her slightest manifestations. Well! so it is with me; I have +within me a mirror before which the moral nature, with its causes and +effects, appears and is reflected. Entering thus into the +consciousness of others I am able to divine both the future and the +past. How? do you still ask how? Imagine that the marble statue is the +body of a man, a piece of statuary in which we see the emotion, +sentiment, passion, vice or crime, virtue or repentance which the +creating hand has put into it, and you will then comprehend how it is +that I read the soul of this foreigner--though what I have said does +not explain the gift of Specialism; for to conceive the nature of that +gift we must possess it." + +Though Wilfrid belonged to the two first divisions of humanity, the +men of force and the men of thought, yet his excesses, his tumultuous +life, and his misdeeds had often turned him towards Faith; for doubt +has two sides; a side to the light and a side to the darkness. Wilfrid +had too closely clasped the world under its forms of Matter and of +Mind not to have acquired that thirst for the unknown, that longing to +_go beyond_ which lay their grasp upon the men who know, and wish, and +will. But neither his knowledge, nor his actions, nor his will, had +found direction. He had fled from social life from necessity; as a +great criminal seeks the cloister. Remorse, that virtue of weak +beings, did not touch him. Remorse is impotence, impotence which sins +again. Repentance alone is powerful; it ends all. But in traversing +the world, which he made his cloister, Wilfrid had found no balm for +his wounds; he saw nothing in nature to which he could attach himself. +In him, despair had dried the sources of desire. He was one of those +beings who, having gone through all passions and come out victorious, +have nothing more to raise in their hot-beds, and who, lacking +opportunity to put themselves at the head of their fellow-men to +trample under iron heel entire populations, buy, at the price of a +horrible martyrdom, the faculty of ruining themselves in some belief, +--rocks sublime, which await the touch of a wand that comes not to +bring the waters gushing from their far-off spring. + +Led by a scheme of his restless, inquiring life to the shores of +Norway, the sudden arrival of winter had detained the wanderer at +Jarvis. The day on which, for the first time, he saw Seraphita, the +whole past of his life faded from his mind. The young girl excited +emotions which he had thought could never be revived. The ashes gave +forth a lingering flame at the first murmurings of that voice. Who has +ever felt himself return to youth and purity after growing cold and +numb with age and soiled with impurity? Suddenly, Wilfrid loved as he +had never loved; he loved secretly, with faith, with fear, with inward +madness. His life was stirred to the very source of his being at the +mere thought of seeing Seraphita. As he listened to her he was +transported into unknown worlds; he was mute before her, she +magnetized him. There, beneath the snows, among the glaciers, bloomed +the celestial flower to which his hopes, so long betrayed, aspired; +the sight of which awakened ideas of freshness, purity, and faith +which grouped about his soul and lifted it to higher regions,--as +Angels bear to heaven the Elect in those symbolic pictures inspired by +the guardian spirit of a great master. Celestial perfumes softened the +granite hardness of the rocky scene; light endowed with speech shed +its divine melodies on the path of him who looked to heaven. After +emptying the cup of terrestrial love which his teeth had bitten as he +drank it, he saw before him the chalice of salvation where the limpid +waters sparkled, making thirsty for ineffable delights whoever dare +apply his lips burning with a faith so strong that the crystal shall +not be shattered. + +But Wilfrid now encountered the wall of brass for which he had been +seeking up and down the earth. He went impetuously to Seraphita, +meaning to express the whole force and bearing of a passion under +which he bounded like the fabled horse beneath the iron horseman, firm +in his saddle, whom nothing moves while the efforts of the fiery +animal only made the rider heavier and more solid. He sought her to +relate his life,--to prove the grandeur of his soul by the grandeur of +his faults, to show the ruins of his desert. But no sooner had he +crossed her threshold, and found himself within the zone of those eyes +of scintillating azure, that met no limits forward and left none +behind, than he grew calm and submissive, as a lion, springing on his +prey in the plains of Africa, receives from the wings of the wind a +message of love, and stops his bound. A gulf opened before him, into +which his frenzied words fell and disappeared, and from which uprose a +voice which changed his being; he became as a child, a child of +sixteen, timid and frightened before this maiden with serene brow, +this white figure whose inalterable calm was like the cruel +impassibility of human justice. The combat between them had never +ceased until this evening, when with a glance she brought him down, as +a falcon making his dizzy spirals in the air around his prey causes it +to fall stupefied to earth, before carrying it to his eyrie. + +We may note within ourselves many a long struggle the end of which is +one of our own actions,--struggles which are, as it were, the reverse +side of humanity. This reverse side belongs to God; the obverse side +to men. More than once Seraphita had proved to Wilfrid that she knew +this hidden and ever varied side, which is to the majority of men a +second being. Often she said to him in her dove-like voice: "Why all +this vehemence?" when on his way to her he had sworn she should be +his. Wilfrid was, however, strong enough to raise the cry of revolt to +which he had given utterance in Monsieur Becker's study. The narrative +of the old pastor had calmed him. Sceptical and derisive as he was, he +saw belief like a sidereal brilliance dawning on his life. He asked +himself if Seraphita were not an exile from the higher spheres seeking +the homeward way. The fanciful deifications of all ordinary lovers he +could not give to this lily of Norway in whose divinity he believed. +Why lived she here beside this fiord? What did she? Questions that +received no answer filled his mind. Above all, what was about to +happen between them? What fate had brought him there? To him, +Seraphita was the motionless marble, light nevertheless as a vapor, +which Minna had seen that day poised above the precipices of the +Falberg. Could she thus stand on the edge of all gulfs without danger, +without a tremor of the arching eyebrows, or a quiver of the light of +the eye? If his love was to be without hope, it was not without +curiosity. + +From the moment when Wilfrid suspected the ethereal nature of the +enchantress who had told him the secrets of his life in melodious +utterance, he had longed to try to subject her, to keep her to +himself, to tear her from the heaven where, perhaps, she was awaited. +Earth and Humanity seized their prey; he would imitate them. His +pride, the only sentiment through which man can long be exalted, would +make him happy in this triumph for the rest of his life. The idea sent +the blood boiling through his veins, and his heart swelled. If he did +not succeed, he would destroy her,--it is so natural to destroy that +which we cannot possess, to deny what we cannot comprehend, to insult +that which we envy. + +On the morrow, Wilfrid, laden with ideas which the extraordinary +events of the previous night naturally awakened in his mind, resolved +to question David, and went to find him on the pretext of asking after +Seraphita's health. Though Monsieur Becker spoke of the old servant as +falling into dotage, Wilfrid relied on his own perspicacity to +discover scraps of truth in the torrent of the old man's rambling +talk. + +David had the immovable, undecided, physiognomy of an octogenarian. +Under his white hair lay a forehead lined with wrinkles like the stone +courses of a ruined wall; and his face was furrowed like the bed of a +dried-up torrent. His life seemed to have retreated wholly to the +eyes, where light still shone, though its gleams were obscured by a +mistiness which seemed to indicate either an active mental alienation +or the stupid stare of drunkenness. His slow and heavy movements +betrayed the glacial weight of age, and communicated an icy influence +to whoever allowed themselves to look long at him,--for he possessed +the magnetic force of torpor. His limited intelligence was only roused +by the sight, the hearing, or the recollection of his mistress. She +was the soul of this wholly material fragment of an existence. Any one +seeing David alone by himself would have thought him a corpse; let +Seraphita enter, let her voice be heard, or a mention of her be made, +and the dead came forth from his grave and recovered speech and +motion. The dry bones were not more truly awakened by the divine +breath in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and never was that apocalyptic +vision better realized than in this Lazarus issuing from the sepulchre +into life at the voice of a young girl. His language, which was always +figurative and often incomprehensible, prevented the inhabitants of +the village from talking with him; but they respected a mind that +deviated so utterly from common ways,--a thing which the masses +instinctively admire. + +Wilfrid found him in the antechamber, apparently asleep beside the +stove. Like a dog who recognizes a friend of the family, the old man +raised his eyes, saw the foreigner, and did not stir. + +"Where is she?" inquired Wilfrid, sitting down beside him. + +David fluttered his fingers in the air as if to express the flight of +a bird. + +"Does she still suffer?" asked Wilfrid. + +"Beings vowed to Heaven are able so to suffer that suffering does not +lessen their love; this is the mark of the true faith," answered the +old man, solemnly, like an instrument which, on being touched, gives +forth an accidental note. + +"Who taught you those words?" + +"The Spirit." + +"What happened to her last night? Did you force your way past the +Vertumni standing sentinel? did you evade the Mammons?" + +"Yes"; answered David, as though awaking from a dream. + +The misty gleam of his eyes melted into a ray that came direct from +the soul and made it by degrees brilliant as that of an eagle, as +intelligent as that of a poet. + +"What did you see?" asked Wilfrid, astonished at this sudden change. + +"I saw Species and Shapes; I heard the Spirit of all things; I beheld +the revolt of the Evil Ones; I listened to the words of the Good. +Seven devils came, and seven archangels descended from on high. The +archangels stood apart and looked on through veils. The devils were +close by; they shone, they acted. Mammon came on his pearly shell in +the shape of a beautiful naked woman; her snowy body dazzled the eye, +no human form ever equalled it; and he said, 'I am Pleasure; thou +shalt possess me!' Lucifer, prince of serpents, was there in sovereign +robes; his Manhood was glorious as the beauty of an angel, and he +said, 'Humanity shall be at thy feet!' The Queen of misers,--she who +gives back naught that she has ever received,--the Sea, came wrapped +in her virent mantle; she opened her bosom, she showed her gems, she +brought forth her treasures and offered them; waves of sapphire and of +emerald came at her bidding; her hidden wonders stirred, they rose to +the surface of her breast, they spoke; the rarest pearl of Ocean +spread its iridescent wings and gave voice to its marine melodies, +saying, 'Twin daughter of suffering, we are sisters! await me; let us +go together; all I need is to become a Woman.' The Bird with the wings +of an eagle and the paws of a lion, the head of a woman and the body +of a horse, the Animal, fell down before her and licked her feet, and +promised seven hundred years of plenty to her best-beloved daughter. +Then came the most formidable of all, the Child, weeping at her knees, +and saying, 'Wilt thou leave me, feeble and suffering as I am? oh, my +mother, stay!' and he played with her, and shed languor on the air, +and the Heavens themselves had pity for his wail. The Virgin of pure +song brought forth her choirs to relax the soul. The Kings of the East +came with their slaves, their armies, and their women; the Wounded +asked her for succor, the Sorrowful stretched forth their hands: 'Do +not leave us! do not leave us!' they cried. I, too, I cried, 'Do not +leave us! we adore thee! stay!' Flowers, bursting from the seed, +bathed her in their fragrance which uttered, 'Stay!' The giant Enakim +came forth from Jupiter, leading Gold and its friends and all the +Spirits of the Astral Regions which are joined with him, and they +said, 'We are thine for seven hundred years.' At last came Death on +his pale horse, crying, 'I will obey thee!' One and all fell prostrate +before her. Could you but have seen them! They covered as it were a +vast plain, and they cried aloud to her, 'We have nurtured thee, thou +art our child; do not abandon us!' At length Life issued from her Ruby +Waters, and said, 'I will not leave thee!' then, finding Seraphita +silent, she flamed upon her as the sun, crying out, 'I am light!' '_The +light_ is there!' cried Seraphita, pointing to the clouds where stood +the archangels; but she was wearied out; Desire had wrung her nerves, +she could only cry, 'My God! my God!' Ah! many an Angelic Spirit, +scaling the mountain and nigh to the summit, has set his foot upon a +rolling stone which plunged him back into the abyss! All these lost +Spirits adored her constancy; they stood around her,--a choir without +a song,--weeping and whispering, 'Courage!' At last she conquered; +Desire--let loose upon her in every Shape and every Species--was +vanquished. She stood in prayer, and when at last her eyes were lifted +she saw the feet of Angels circling in the Heavens." + +"She saw the feet of Angels?" repeated Wilfrid. + +"Yes," said the old man. + +"Was it a dream that she told you?" asked Wilfrid. + +"A dream as real as your life," answered David; "I was there." + +The calm assurance of the old servant affected Wilfrid powerfully. He +went away asking himself whether these visions were any less +extraordinary than those he had read of in Swedenborg the night +before. + +"If Spirits exist, they must act," he was saying to himself as he +entered the parsonage, where he found Monsieur Becker alone. + +"Dear pastor," he said, "Seraphita is connected with us in form only, +and even that form is inexplicable. Do not think me a madman or a +lover; a profound conviction cannot be argued with. Convert my belief +into scientific theories, and let us try to enlighten each other. +To-morrow evening we shall both be with her." + +"What then?" said Monsieur Becker. + +"If her eye ignores space," replied Wilfrid, "if her thought is an +intelligent sight which enables her to perceive all things in their +essence, and to connect them with the general evolution of the +universe, if, in a word, she sees and knows all, let us seat the +Pythoness on her tripod, let us force this pitiless eagle by threats +to spread its wings! Help me! I breathe a fire which burns my vitals; +I must quench it or it will consume me. I have found a prey at last, +and it shall be mine!" + +"The conquest will be difficult," said the pastor, "because this girl +is--" + +"Is what?" cried Wilfrid. + +"Mad," said the old man. + +"I will not dispute her madness, but neither must you dispute her +wonderful powers. Dear Monsieur Becker, she has often confounded me +with her learning. Has she travelled?" + +"From her house to the fiord, no further." + +"Never left this place!" exclaimed Wilfrid. "Then she must have read +immensely." + +"Not a page, not one iota! I am the only person who possesses any +books in Jarvis. The works of Swedenborg--the only books that were in +the chateau--you see before you. She has never looked into a single +one of them." + +"Have you tried to talk with her?" + +"What good would that do?" + +"Does no one live with her in that house?" + +"She has no friends but you and Minna, nor any servant except old +David." + +"It cannot be that she knows nothing of science nor of art." + +"Who should teach her?" said the pastor. + +"But if she can discuss such matters pertinently, as she has often +done with me, what do you make of it?" + +"The girl may have acquired through years of silence the faculties +enjoyed by Apollonius of Tyana and other pretended sorcerers burned +by the Inquisition, which did not choose to admit the fact of +second-sight." + +"If she can speak Arabic, what would you say to that?" + +"The history of medical science gives many authentic instances of +girls who have spoken languages entirely unknown to them." + +"What can I do?" exclaimed Wilfrid. "She knows of secrets in my past +life known only to me." + +"I shall be curious if she can tell me thoughts that I have confided +to no living person," said Monsieur Becker. + +Minna entered the room. + +"Well, my daughter, and how is your familiar spirit?" + +"He suffers, father," she answered, bowing to Wilfrid. "Human +passions, clothed in their false riches, surrounded him all night, and +showed him all the glories of the world. But you think these things +mere tales." + +"Tales as beautiful to those who read them in their brains as the +'Arabian Nights' to common minds," said the pastor, smiling. + +"Did not Satan carry our Savior to the pinnacle of the Temple, and +show him all the kingdoms of the world?" she said. + +"The Evangelists," replied her father, "did not correct their copies +very carefully, and several versions are in existence." + +"You believe in the reality of these visions?" said Wilfrid to Minna. + +"Who can doubt when he relates them." + +"He?" demanded Wilfrid. "Who?" + +"He who is there," replied Minna, motioning towards the chateau. + +"Are you speaking of Seraphita?" he said. + +The young girl bent her head, and looked at him with an expression of +gentle mischief. + +"You too!" exclaimed Wilfrid, "you take pleasure in confounding me. +Who and what is she? What do you think of her?" + +"What I feel is inexplicable," said Minna, blushing. + +"You are all crazy!" cried the pastor. + +"Farewell, until to-morrow evening," said Wilfrid. + + + + CHAPTER IV + + THE CLOUDS OF THE SANCTUARY + +There are pageants in which all the material splendors that man arrays +co-operate. Nations of slaves and divers have searched the sands of +ocean and the bowels of earth for the pearls and diamonds which adorn +the spectators. Transmitted as heirlooms from generation to +generation, these treasures have shone on consecrated brows and could +be the most faithful of historians had they speech. They know the joys +and sorrows of the great and those of the small. Everywhere do they +go; they are worn with pride at festivals, carried in despair to +usurers, borne off in triumph amid blood and pillage, enshrined in +masterpieces conceived by art for their protection. None, except the +pearl of Cleopatra, has been lost. The Great and the Fortunate +assemble to witness the coronation of some king, whose trappings are +the work of men's hands, but the purple of whose raiment is less +glorious than that of the flowers of the field. These festivals, +splendid in light, bathed in music which the hand of man creates, aye, +all the triumphs of that hand are subdued by a thought, crushed by a +sentiment. The Mind can illumine in a man and round a man a light more +vivid, can open his ear to more melodious harmonies, can seat him on +clouds of shining constellations and teach him to question them. The +Heart can do still greater things. Man may come into the presence of +one sole being and find in a single word, a single look, an influence +so weighty to bear, of so luminous a light, so penetrating a sound, +that he succumbs and kneels before it. The most real of all splendors +are not in outward things, they are within us. A single secret of +science is a realm of wonders to the man of learning. Do the trumpets +of Power, the jewels of Wealth, the music of Joy, or a vast concourse +of people attend his mental festival? No, he finds his glory in some +dim retreat where, perchance, a pallid suffering man whispers a single +word into his ear; that word, like a torch lighted in a mine, reveals +to him a Science. All human ideas, arrayed in every attractive form +which Mystery can invent surrounded a blind man seated in a wayside +ditch. Three worlds, the Natural, the Spiritual, the Divine, with all +their spheres, opened their portals to a Florentine exile; he walked +attended by the Happy and the Unhappy; by those who prayed and those +who moaned; by angels and by souls in hell. When the Sent of God, who +knew and could accomplish all things, appeared to three of his +disciples it was at eventide, at the common table of the humblest of +inns; and then and there the Light broke forth, shattering Material +Forms, illuminating the Spiritual Faculties, so that they saw him in +his glory, and the earth lay at their feet like a cast-off sandal. + +Monsieur Becker, Wilfrid, and Minna were all under the influence of +fear as they took their way to meet the extraordinary being whom each +desired to question. To them, in their several ways, the Swedish +castle had grown to mean some gigantic representation, some spectacle +like those whose colors and masses are skilfully and harmoniously +marshalled by the poets, and whose personages, imaginary actors to +men, are real to those who begin to penetrate the Spiritual World. On +the tiers of this Coliseum Monsieur Becker seated the gray legions of +Doubt, the stern ideas, the specious formulas of Dispute. He convoked +the various antagonistic worlds of philosophy and religion, and they +all appeared, in the guise of a fleshless shape, like that in which +art embodies Time,--an old man bearing in one hand a scythe, in the +other a broken globe, the human universe. + +Wilfrid had bidden to the scene his earliest illusions and his latest +hopes, human destiny and its conflicts, religion and its conquering +powers. + +Minna saw heaven confusedly by glimpses; love raised a curtain wrought +with mysterious images, and the melodious sounds which met her ear +redoubled her curiosity. + +To all three, therefore, this evening was to be what that other +evening had been for the pilgrims to Emmaus, what a vision was to +Dante, an inspiration to Homer,--to them, three aspects of the world +revealed, veils rent away, doubts dissipated, darkness illumined. +Humanity in all its moods expecting light could not be better +represented than here by this young girl, this man in the vigor of his +age, and these old men, of whom one was learned enough to doubt, the +other ignorant enough to believe. Never was any scene more simple in +appearance, nor more portentous in reality. + +When they entered the room, ushered in by old David, they found +Seraphita standing by a table on which were served the various dishes +which compose a "tea"; a form of collation which in the North takes +the place of wine and its pleasures,--reserved more exclusively for +Southern climes. Certainly nothing proclaimed in her, or in him, a +being with the strange power of appearing under two distinct forms; +nothing about her betrayed the manifold powers which she wielded. Like +a careful housewife attending to the comfort of her guests, she +ordered David to put more wood into the stove. + +"Good evening, my neighbors," she said. "Dear Monsieur Becker, you do +right to come; you see me living for the last time, perhaps. This +winter has killed me. Will you sit there?" she said to Wilfrid. "And +you, Minna, here?" pointing to a chair beside her. "I see you have +brought your embroidery. Did you invent that stitch? the design is +very pretty. For whom is it,--your father, or monsieur?" she added, +turning to Wilfrid. "Surely we ought to give him, before we part, a +remembrance of the daughters of Norway." + +"Did you suffer much yesterday?" asked Wilfrid. + +"It was nothing," she answered; "the suffering gladdened me; it was +necessary, to enable me to leave this life." + +"Then death does not alarm you?" said Monsieur Becker, smiling, for he +did not think her ill. + +"No, dear pastor; there are two ways of dying: to some, death is +victory, to others, defeat." + +"Do you think that you have conquered?" asked Minna. + +"I do not know," she said, "perhaps I have only taken a step in the +path." + +The lustrous splendor of her brow grew dim, her eyes were veiled +beneath slow-dropping lids; a simple movement which affected the +prying guests and kept them silent. Monsieur Becker was the first to +recover courage. + +"Dear child," he said, "you are truth itself, and you are ever kind. I +would ask of you to-night something other than the dainties of your +tea-table. If we may believe certain persons, you know amazing things; +if this be true, would it not be charitable in you to solve a few of +our doubts?" + +"Ah!" she said smiling, "I walk on the clouds. I visit the depths of +the fiord; the sea is my steed and I bridle it; I know where the +singing flower grows, and the talking light descends, and fragrant +colors shine! I wear the seal of Solomon; I am a fairy; I cast my +orders to the wind which, like an abject slave, fulfils them; my eyes +can pierce the earth and behold its treasures; for lo! am I not the +virgin to whom the pearls dart from their ocean depths and--" + +"--who led me safely to the summit of the Falberg?" said Minna, +interrupting her. + +"Thou! thou too!" exclaimed the strange being, with a luminous glance +at the young girl which filled her soul with trouble. "Had I not the +faculty of reading through your foreheads the desires which have +brought you here, should I be what you think I am?" she said, +encircling all three with her controlling glance, to David's great +satisfaction. The old man rubbed his hands with pleasure as he left +the room. + +"Ah!" she resumed after a pause, "you have come, all of you, with the +curiosity of children. You, my poor Monsieur Becker, have asked +yourself how it was possible that a girl of seventeen should know even +a single one of those secrets which men of science seek with their +noses to the earth,--instead of raising their eyes to heaven. Were I +to tell you how and at what point the plant merges into the animal you +would begin to doubt your doubts. You have plotted to question me; you +will admit that?" + +"Yes, dear Seraphita," answered Wilfrid; "but the desire is a natural +one to men, is it not?" + +"You will bore this dear child with such topics," she said, passing +her hand lightly over Minna's hair with a caressing gesture. + +The young girl raised her eyes and seemed as though she longed to lose +herself in him. + +"Speech is the endowment of us all," resumed the mysterious creature, +gravely. "Woe to him who keeps silence, even in a desert, believing +that no one hears him; all voices speak and all ears listen here +below. Speech moves the universe. Monsieur Becker, I desire to say +nothing unnecessarily. I know the difficulties that beset your mind; +would you not think it a miracle if I were now to lay bare the past +history of your consciousness? Well, the miracle shall be +accomplished. You have never admitted to yourself the full extent of +your doubts. I alone, immovable in my faith, I can show it to you; I +can terrify you with yourself. + +"You stand on the darkest side of Doubt. You do not believe in God, +--although you know it not,--and all things here below are secondary +to him who rejects the first principle of things. Let us leave aside +the fruitless discussions of false philosophy. The spiritualist +generations made as many and as vain efforts to deny Matter as the +materialist generations have made to deny Spirit. Why such +discussions? Does not man himself offer irrefragable proof of both +systems? Do we not find in him material things and spiritual things? +None but a madman can refuse to see in the human body a fragment of +Matter; your natural sciences, when they decompose it, find little +difference between its elements and those of other animals. On the +other hand, the idea produced in man by the comparison of many objects +has never seemed to any one to belong to the domain of Matter. As to +this, I offer no opinion. I am now concerned with your doubts, not +with my certainties. To you, as to the majority of thinkers, the +relations between things, the reality of which is proved to you by +your sensations and which you possess the faculty to discover, do not +seem Material. The Natural universe of things and beings ends, in man, +with the Spiritual universe of similarities or differences which he +perceives among the innumerable forms of Nature,--relations so +multiplied as to seem infinite; for if, up to the present time, no one +has been able to enumerate the separate terrestrial creations, who can +reckon their correlations? Is not the fraction which you know, in +relation to their totality, what a single number is to infinity? Here, +then, you fall into a perception of the infinite which undoubtedly +obliges you to conceive of a purely Spiritual world. + +"Thus man himself offers sufficient proof of the two orders,--Matter +and Spirit. In him culminates a visible finite universe; in him begins +a universe invisible and infinite,--two worlds unknown to each other. +Have the pebbles of the fiord a perception of their combined being? +have they a consciousness of the colors they present to the eye of +man? do they hear the music of the waves that lap them? Let us +therefore spring over and not attempt to sound the abysmal depths +presented to our minds in the union of a Material universe and a +Spiritual universe,--a creation visible, ponderable, tangible, +terminating in a creation invisible, imponderable, intangible; +completely dissimilar, separated by the void, yet united by +indisputable bonds and meeting in a being who derives equally from the +one and from the other! Let us mingle in one world these two worlds, +absolutely irreconcilable to your philosophies, but conjoined by fact. +However abstract man may suppose the relation which binds two things +together, the line of junction is perceptible. How? Where? We are not +now in search of the vanishing point where Matter subtilizes. If such +were the question, I cannot see why He who has, by physical relations, +studded with stars at immeasurable distances the heavens which veil +Him, may not have created solid substances, nor why you deny Him the +faculty of giving a body to thought. + +"Thus your invisible moral universe and your visible physical universe +are one and the same matter. We will not separate properties from +substances, nor objects from effects. All that exists, all that +presses upon us and overwhelms us from above or from below, before us +or in us, all that which our eyes and our minds perceive, all these +named and unnamed things compose--in order to fit the problem of +Creation to the measure of your logic--a block of finite Matter; but +were it infinite, God would still not be its master. Now, reasoning +with your views, dear pastor, no matter in what way God the infinite +is concerned with this block of finite Matter, He cannot exist and +retain the attributes with which man invests Him. Seek Him in facts, +and He is not; spiritually and materially, you have made God +impossible. Listen to the Word of human Reason forced to its ultimate +conclusions. + +"In bringing God face to face with the Great Whole, we see that only +two states are possible between them,--either God and Matter are +contemporaneous, or God existed alone before Matter. Were Reason--the +light that has guided the human race from the dawn of its existence +--accumulated in one brain, even that mighty brain could not invent a +third mode of being without suppressing both Matter and God. Let human +philosophies pile mountain upon mountain of words and of ideas, let +religions accumulate images and beliefs, revelations and mysteries, +you must face at last this terrible dilemma and choose between the two +propositions which compose it; you have no option, and one as much as +the other leads human reason to Doubt. + +"The problem thus established, what signifies Spirit or Matter? Why +trouble about the march of the worlds in one direction or in another, +since the Being who guides them is shown to be an absurdity? Why +continue to ask whether man is approaching heaven or receding from it, +whether creation is rising towards Spirit or descending towards +Matter, if the questioned universe gives no reply? What signifies +theogonies and their armies, theologies and their dogmas, since +whichever side of the problem is man's choice, his God exists not? Let +us for a moment take up the first proposition, and suppose God +contemporaneous with Matter. Is subjection to the action or the +co-existence of an alien substance consistent with being God at all? +In such a system, would not God become a secondary agent compelled to +organize Matter? If so, who compelled Him? Between His material gross +companion and Himself, who was the arbiter? Who paid the wages of the +six days' labor imputed to the great Designer? Has any determining +force been found which was neither God nor Matter? God being regarded +as the manufacturer of the machinery of the worlds, is it not as +ridiculous to call Him God as to call the slave who turns the +grindstone a Roman citizen? Besides, another difficulty, as insoluble +to this supreme human reason as it is to God, presents itself. + +"If we carry the problem higher, shall we not be like the Hindus, who +put the world upon a tortoise, the tortoise on an elephant, and do not +know on what the feet of their elephant may rest? This supreme will, +issuing from the contest between God and Matter, this God, this more +than God, can He have existed throughout eternity without willing what +He afterwards willed,--admitting that Eternity can be divided into two +eras. No matter where God is, what becomes of His intuitive +intelligence if He did not know His ultimate thought? Which, then, is +the true Eternity,--the created Eternity or the uncreated? But if God +throughout all time did will the world such as it is, this new +necessity, which harmonizes with the idea of sovereign intelligence, +implies the co-eternity of Matter. Whether Matter be co-eternal by a +divine will necessarily accordant with itself from the beginning, or +whether Matter be co-eternal of its own being, the power of God, which +must be absolute, perishes if His will is circumscribed; for in that +case God would find within Him a determining force which would control +Him. Can He be God if He can no more separate Himself from His +creation in a past eternity than in the coming eternity? + +"This face of the problem is insoluble in its cause. Let us now +inquire into its effects. If a God compelled to have created the world +from all eternity seems inexplicable, He is quite as unintelligible in +perpetual cohesion with His work. God, constrained to live eternally +united to His creation is held down to His first position as workman. +Can you conceive of a God who shall be neither independent of nor +dependent on His work? Could He destroy that work without challenging +Himself? Ask yourself, and decide! Whether He destroys it some day, or +whether He never destroys it, either way is fatal to the attributes +without which God cannot exist. Is the world an experiment? is it a +perishable form to which destruction must come? If it is, is not God +inconsistent and impotent? inconsistent, because He ought to have seen +the result before the attempt,--moreover why should He delay to +destroy that which He is to destroy?--impotent, for how else could He +have created an imperfect man? + +"If an imperfect creation contradicts the faculties which man +attributes to God we are forced back upon the question, Is creation +perfect? The idea is in harmony with that of a God supremely +intelligent who could make no mistakes; but then, what means the +degradation of His work, and its regeneration? Moreover, a perfect +world is, necessarily, indestructible; its forms would not perish, it +could neither advance nor recede, it would revolve in the everlasting +circumference from which it would never issue. In that case God would +be dependent on His work; it would be co-eternal with Him; and so we +fall back into one of the propositions most antagonistic to God. If +the world is imperfect, it can progress; if perfect, it is stationary. +On the other hand, if it be impossible to admit of a progressive God +ignorant through a past eternity of the results of His creative work, +can there be a stationary God? would not that imply the triumph of +Matter? would it not be the greatest of all negations? Under the first +hypothesis God perishes through weakness; under the second through the +Force of his inertia. + +"Therefore, to all sincere minds the supposition that Matter, in the +conception and execution of the worlds, is contemporaneous with God, +is to deny God. Forced to choose, in order to govern the nations, +between the two alternatives of the problem, whole generations have +preferred this solution of it. Hence the doctrine of the two +principles of Magianism, brought from Asia and adopted in Europe under +the form of Satan warring with the Eternal Father. But this religious +formula and the innumerable aspects of divinity that have sprung from +it are surely crimes against the Majesty Divine. What other term can +we apply to the belief which sets up as a rival to God a +personification of Evil, striving eternally against the Omnipotent +Mind without the possibility of ultimate triumph? Your statics declare +that two Forces thus pitted against each other are reciprocally +rendered null. + +"Do you turn back, therefore, to the other side of the problem, and +say that God pre-existed, original, alone? + +"I will not go over the preceding arguments (which here return in full +force) as to the severance of Eternity into two parts; nor the +questions raised by the progression or the immobility of the worlds; +let us look only at the difficulties inherent to this second theory. +If God pre-existed alone, the world must have emanated from Him; +Matter was therefore drawn from His essence; consequently Matter in +itself is non-existent; all forms are veils to cover the Divine +Spirit. If this be so, the World is Eternal, and also it must be God. +Is not this proposition even more fatal than the former to the +attributes conferred on God by human reason? How can the actual +condition of Matter be explained if we suppose it to issue from the +bosom of God and to be ever united with Him? Is it possible to believe +that the All-Powerful, supremely good in His essence and in His +faculties, has engendered things dissimilar to Himself. Must He not in +all things and through all things be like unto Himself? Can there be +in God certain evil parts of which at some future day he may rid +Himself?--a conjecture less offensive and absurd than terrible, for +the reason that it drags back into Him the two principles which the +preceding theory proved to be inadmissible. God must be ONE; He cannot +be divided without renouncing the most important condition of His +existence. It is therefore impossible to admit of a fraction of God +which yet is not God. This hypothesis seemed so criminal to the Roman +Church that she has made the omnipresence of God in the least +particles of the Eucharist an article of faith. + +"But how then can we imagine an omnipotent mind which does not +triumph? How associate it unless in triumph with Nature? But Nature is +not triumphant; she seeks, combines, remodels, dies, and is born +again; she is even more convulsed when creating than when all was +fusion; Nature suffers, groans, is ignorant, degenerates, does evil; +deceives herself, annihilates herself, disappears, and begins again. +If God is associated with Nature, how can we explain the inoperative +indifference of the divine principle? Wherefore death? How came it +that Evil, king of the earth, was born of a God supremely good in His +essence and in His faculties, who can produce nothing that is not made +in His own image? + +"But if, from this relentless conclusion which leads at once to +absurdity, we pass to details, what end are we to assign to the world? +If all is God, all is reciprocally cause and effect; all is _One_ as God +is _One_, and we can perceive neither points of likeness nor points of +difference. Can the real end be a rotation of Matter which subtilizes +and disappears? In whatever sense it were done, would not this +mechanical trick of Matter issuing from God and returning to God seem +a sort of child's play? Why should God make himself gross with Matter? +Under which form is he most God? Which has the ascendant, Matter or +Spirit, when neither can in any way do wrong? Who can comprehend the +Deity engaged in this perpetual business, by which he divides Himself +into two Natures, one of which knows nothing, while the other knows +all? Can you conceive of God amusing Himself in the form of man, +laughing at His own efforts, dying Friday, to be born again Sunday, +and continuing this play from age to age, knowing the end from all +eternity, and telling nothing to Himself, the Creature, of what He the +Creator, does? The God of the preceding hypothesis, a God so nugatory +by the very power of His inertia, seems the more possible of the two +if we are compelled to choose between the impossibilities with which +this God, so dull a jester, fusillades Himself when two sections of +humanity argue face to face, weapons in hand. + +"However absurd this outcome of the second problem may seem, it was +adopted by half the human race in the sunny lands where smiling +mythologies were created. Those amorous nations were consistent; with +them all was God, even Fear and its dastardy, even crime and its +bacchanals. If we accept pantheism,--the religion of many a great +human genius,--who shall say where the greater reason lies? Is it with +the savage, free in the desert, clothed in his nudity, listening to +the sun, talking to the sea, sublime and always true in his deeds +whatever they may be; or shall we find it in civilized man, who +derives his chief enjoyments through lies; who wrings Nature and all +her resources to put a musket on his shoulder; who employs his +intellect to hasten the hour of his death and to create diseases out +of pleasures? When the rake of pestilence and the ploughshare of war +and the demon of desolation have passed over a corner of the globe and +obliterated all things, who will be found to have the greater +reason,--the Nubian savage or the patrician of Thebes? Your doubts +descend the scale, they go from heights to depths, they embrace all, +the end as well as the means. + +"But if the physical world seems inexplicable, the moral world +presents still stronger arguments against God. Where, then, is +progress? If all things are indeed moving toward perfection why do we +die young? why do not nations perpetuate themselves? The world having +issued from God and being contained in God can it be stationary? Do we +live once, or do we live always? If we live once, hurried onward by +the march of the Great-Whole, a knowledge of which has not been given +to us, let us act as we please. If we are eternal, let things take +their course. Is the created being guilty if he exists at the instant +of the transitions? If he sins at the moment of a great transformation +will he be punished for it after being its victim? What becomes of the +Divine goodness if we are not transferred to the regions of the blest +--should any such exist? What becomes of God's prescience if He is +ignorant of the results of the trials to which He subjects us? What is +this alternative offered to man by all religions,--either to boil in +some eternal cauldron or to walk in white robes, a palm in his hand +and a halo round his head? Can it be that this pagan invention is the +final word of God? Where is the generous soul who does not feel that +the calculating virtue which seeks the eternity of pleasure offered by +all religions to whoever fulfils at stray moments certain fanciful and +often unnatural conditions, is unworthy of man and of God? Is it not a +mockery to give to man impetuous senses and forbid him to satisfy +them? Besides, what mean these ascetic objections if Good and Evil are +equally abolished? Does Evil exist? If substance in all its forms is +God, then Evil is God. The faculty of reasoning as well as the faculty +of feeling having been given to man to use, nothing can be more +excusable in him than to seek to know the meaning of human suffering +and the prospects of the future. + +"If these rigid and rigorous arguments lead to such conclusions +confusion must reign. The world would have no fixedness; nothing would +advance, nothing would pause, all would change, nothing would be +destroyed, all would reappear after self-renovation; for if your mind +does not clearly demonstrate to you an end, it is equally impossible +to demonstrate the destruction of the smallest particle of Matter; +Matter can transform but not annihilate itself. + +"Though blind force may provide arguments for the atheist, intelligent +force is inexplicable; for if it emanates from God, why should it meet +with obstacles? ought not its triumph to be immediate? Where is God? +If the living cannot perceive Him, can the dead find Him? Crumble, ye +idolatries and ye religions! Fall, feeble keystones of all social +arches, powerless to retard the decay, the death, the oblivion that +have overtaken all nations however firmly founded! Fall, morality and +justice! our crimes are purely relative; they are divine effects whose +causes we are not allowed to know. All is God. Either we are God or +God is not!--Child of a century whose every year has laid upon your +brow, old man, the ice of its unbelief, here, here is the summing up +of your lifetime of thought, of your science and your reflections! +Dear Monsieur Becker, you have laid your head upon the pillow of +Doubt, because it is the easiest of solutions; acting in this respect +with the majority of mankind, who say in their hearts: 'Let us think +no more of these problems, since God has not vouchsafed to grant us +the algebraic demonstrations that could solve them, while He has given +us so many other ways to get from earth to heaven.' + +"Tell me, dear pastor, are not these your secret thoughts? Have I +evaded the point of any? nay, rather, have I not clearly stated all? +First, in the dogma of two principles,--an antagonism in which God +perishes for the reason that being All-Powerful He chose to combat. +Secondly, in the absurd pantheism where, all being God, God exists no +longer. These two sources, from which have flowed all the religions +for whose triumph Earth has toiled and prayed, are equally pernicious. +Behold in them the double-bladed axe with which you decapitate the +white old man whom you enthrone among your painted clouds! And now, to +me the axe, I wield it!" + +Monsieur Becker and Wilfrid gazed at the young girl with something +like terror. + +"To believe," continued Seraphita, in her Woman's voice, for the Man +had finished speaking, "to believe is a gift. To believe is to feel. +To believe in God we must feel God. This feeling is a possession +slowly acquired by the human being, just as other astonishing powers +which you admire in great men, warriors, artists, scholars, those who +know and those who act, are acquired. Thought, that budget of the +relations which you perceive among created things, is an intellectual +language which can be learned, is it not? Belief, the budget of +celestial truths, is also a language as superior to thought as thought +is to instinct. This language also can be learned. The Believer +answers with a single cry, a single gesture; Faith puts within his +hand a flaming sword with which he pierces and illumines all. The Seer +attains to heaven and descends not. But there are beings who believe +and see, who know and will, who love and pray and wait. Submissive, +yet aspiring to the kingdom of light, they have neither the aloofness +of the Believer nor the silence of the Seer; they listen and reply. To +them the doubt of the twilight ages is not a murderous weapon, but a +divining rod; they accept the contest under every form; they train +their tongues to every language; they are never angered, though they +groan; the acrimony of the aggressor is not in them, but rather the +softness and tenuity of light, which penetrates and warms and +illumines. To their eyes Doubt is neither an impiety, nor a blasphemy, +nor a crime, but a transition through which men return upon their +steps in the Darkness, or advance into the Light. This being so, dear +pastor, let us reason together. + +"You do not believe in God? Why? God, to your thinking, is +incomprehensible, inexplicable. Agreed. I will not reply that to +comprehend God in His entirety would be to be God; nor will I tell you +that you deny what seems to you inexplicable so as to give me the +right to affirm that which to me is believable. There is, for you, one +evident fact, which lies within yourself. In you, Matter has ended in +intelligence; can you therefore think that human intelligence will end +in darkness, doubt, and nothingness? God may seem to you +incomprehensible and inexplicable, but you must admit Him to be, in +all things purely physical, a splendid and consistent workman. Why +should His craft stop short at man, His most finished creation? + +"If that question is not convincing, at least it compels meditation. +Happily, although you deny God, you are obliged, in order to establish +your doubts, to admit those double-bladed facts, which kill your +arguments as much as your arguments kill God. We have also admitted +that Matter and Spirit are two creations which do not comprehend each +other; that the spiritual world is formed of infinite relations to +which the finite material world has given rise; that if no one on +earth is able to identify himself by the power of his spirit with the +great-whole of terrestrial creations, still less is he able to rise to +the knowledge of the relations which the spirit perceives between +these creations. + +"We might end the argument here in one word, by denying you the +faculty of comprehending God, just as you deny to the pebbles of the +fiord the faculties of counting and of seeing each other. How do you +know that the stones themselves do not deny the existence of man, +though man makes use of them to build his houses? There is one fact +that appals you,--the Infinite; if you feel it within, why will you +not admit its consequences? Can the finite have a perfect knowledge of +the infinite? If you cannot perceive those relations which, according +to your own admission, are infinite, how can you grasp a sense of the +far-off end to which they are converging? Order, the revelation of +which is one of your needs, being infinite, can your limited reason +apprehend it? Do not ask why man does not comprehend that which he is +able to perceive, for he is equally able to perceive that which he +does not comprehend. If I prove to you that your mind ignores that +which lies within its compass, will you grant that it is impossible +for it to conceive whatever is beyond it? This being so, am I not +justified in saying to you: 'One of the two propositions under which +God is annihilated before the tribunal of our reason must be true, the +other is false. Inasmuch as creation exists, you feel the necessity of +an end, and that end should be good, should it not? Now, if Matter +terminates in man by intelligence, why are you not satisfied to +believe that the end of human intelligence is the Light of the higher +spheres, where alone an intuition of that God who seems so insoluble a +problem is obtained? The species which are beneath you have no +conception of the universe, and you have; why should there not be +other species above you more intelligent than your own? Man ought to +be better informed than he is about himself before he spends his +strength in measuring God. Before attacking the stars that light us, +and the higher certainties, ought he not to understand the certainties +which are actually about him?' + +"But no! to the negations of doubt I ought rather to reply by +negations. Therefore I ask you whether there is anything here below so +evident that I can put faith in it? I will show you in a moment that +you believe firmly in things which act, and yet are not beings; in +things which engender thought, and yet are not spirits; in living +abstractions which the understanding cannot grasp in any shape, which +are in fact nowhere, but which you perceive everywhere; which have, +and can have, on name, but which, nevertheless, you have named; and +which, like the God of flesh upon whom you figure to yourself, remain +inexplicable, incomprehensible, and absurd. I shall also ask you why, +after admitting the existence of these incomprehensible things, you +reserve your doubts for God? + +"You believe, for instance, in Number,--a base on which you have built +the edifice of sciences which you call 'exact.' Without Number, what +would become of mathematics? Well, what mysterious being endowed with +the faculty of living forever could utter, and what language would be +compact to word the Number which contains the infinite numbers whose +existence is revealed to you by thought? Ask it of the loftiest human +genius; he might ponder it for a thousand years and what would be his +answer? You know neither where Number begins, nor where it pauses, nor +where it ends. Here you call it Time, there you call it Space. Nothing +exists except by Number. Without it, all would be one and the same +substance; for Number alone differentiates and qualifies substance. +Number is to your Spirit what it is to Matter, an incomprehensible +agent. Will you make a Deity of it? Is it a being? Is it a breath +emanating from God to organize the material universe where nothing +obtains form except by the Divinity which is an effect of Number? The +least as well as the greatest of creations are distinguishable from +each other by quantities, qualities, dimensions, forces,--all +attributes created by Number. The infinitude of Numbers is a fact +proved to your soul, but of which no material proof can be given. The +mathematician himself tells you that the infinite of numbers exists, +but cannot be proved. + +"God, dear pastor, is a Number endowed with motion,--felt, but not +seen, the Believer will tell you. Like the Unit, He begins Number, +with which He has nothing in common. The existence of Number depends +on the Unit, which without being a number engenders Number. God, dear +pastor is a glorious Unit who has nothing in common with His creations +but who, nevertheless, engenders them. Will you not therefore agree +with me that you are just as ignorant of where Number begins and ends +as you are of where created Eternity begins and ends? + +"Why, then, if you believe in Number, do you deny God? Is not Creation +interposed between the Infinite of unorganized substances and the +Infinite of the divine spheres, just as the Unit stands between the +Cipher of the fractions you have lately named Decimals, and the +Infinite of Numbers which you call Wholes? Man alone on earth +comprehends Number, that first step of the peristyle which leads to +God, and yet his reason stumbles on it! What! you can neither measure +nor grasp the first abstraction which God delivers to you, and yet you +try to subject His ends to your own tape-line! Suppose that I plunge +you into the abyss of Motion, the force that organizes Number. If I +tell you that the Universe is naught else than Number and Motion, you +would see at once that we speak two different languages. I understand +them both; you understand neither. + +"Suppose I add that Motion and Number are engendered by the Word, +namely the supreme Reason of Seers and Prophets who in the olden time +heard the Breath of God beneath which Saul fell to the earth. That +Word, you scoff at it, you men, although you well know that all +visible works, societies, monuments, deeds, passions, proceed from the +breath of your own feeble word, and that without that word you would +resemble the African gorilla, the nearest approach to man, the Negro. +You believe firmly in Number and in Motion, a force and a result both +inexplicable, incomprehensible, to the existence of which I may apply +the logical dilemma which, as we have seen, prevents you from +believing in God. Powerful reasoner that you are, you do not need that +I should prove to you that the Infinite must everywhere be like unto +Itself, and that, necessarily, it is One. God alone is Infinite, for +surely there cannot be two Infinities, two Ones. If, to make use of +human terms, anything demonstrated to you here below seems to you +infinite, be sure that within it you will find some one aspect of God. +But to continue. + +"You have appropriated to yourself a place in the Infinite of Number; +you have fitted it to your own proportions by creating (if indeed you +did create) arithmetic, the basis on which all things rest, even your +societies. Just as Number--the only thing in which your self-styled +atheists believe--organized physical creations, so arithmetic, in the +employ of Number, organized the moral world. This numeration must be +absolute, like all else that is true in itself; but it is purely +relative, it does not exist absolutely, and no proof can be given of +its reality. In the first place, though Numeration is able to take +account of organized substances, it is powerless in relation to +unorganized forces, the ones being finite and the others infinite. The +man who can conceive the Infinite by his intelligence cannot deal with +it in its entirety; if he could, he would be God. Your Numeration, +applying to things finite and not to the Infinite, is therefore true +in relation to the details which you are able to perceive, and false +in relation to the Whole, which you are unable to perceive. Though +Nature is like unto herself in the organizing force or in her +principles which are infinite, she is not so in her finite effects. +Thus you will never find in Nature two objects identically alike. In +the Natural Order two and two never make four; to do so, four exactly +similar units must be had, and you know how impossible it is to find +two leaves alike on the same tree, or two trees alike of the same +species. This axiom of your numeration, false in visible nature, is +equally false in the invisible universe of your abstractions, where +the same variance takes place in your ideas, which are the things of +the visible world extended by means of their relations; so that the +variations here are even more marked than elsewhere. In fact, all +being relative to the temperament, strength, habits, and customs of +individuals, who never resemble each other, the smallest objects take +the color of personal feelings. For instance, man has been able to +create units and to give an equal weight and value to bits of gold. +Well, take the ducat of the rich man and the ducat of the poor man to +a money-changer and they are rated exactly equal, but to the mind of +the thinker one is of greater importance than the other; one +represents a month of comfort, the other an ephemeral caprice. Two and +two, therefore, only make four through a false conception. + +"Again: fraction does not exist in Nature, where what you call a +fragment is a finished whole. Does it not often happen (have you not +many proofs of it?) that the hundredth part of a substance is stronger +than what you term the whole of it? If fraction does not exist in the +Natural Order, still less shall we find it in the Moral Order, where +ideas and sentiments may be as varied as the species of the Vegetable +kingdom and yet be always whole. The theory of fractions is therefore +another signal instance of the servility of your mind. + +"Thus Number, with its infinite minuteness and its infinite expansion, +is a power whose weakest side is known to you, but whose real import +escapes your perception. You have built yourself a hut in the Infinite +of numbers, you have adorned it with hieroglyphics scientifically +arranged and painted, and you cry out, 'All is here!' + +"Let us pass from pure, unmingled Number to corporate Number. Your +geometry establishes that a straight line is the shortest way from one +point to another, but your astronomy proves that God has proceeded by +curves. Here, then, we find two truths equally proved by the same +science,--one by the testimony of your senses reinforced by the +telescope, the other by the testimony of your mind; and yet the one +contradicts the other. Man, liable to err, affirms one, and the Maker +of the worlds, whom, so far, you have not detected in error, +contradicts it. Who shall decide between rectalinear and curvilinear +geometry? between the theory of the straight line and that of the +curve? If, in His vast work, the mysterious Artificer, who knows how +to reach His ends miraculously fast, never employs a straight line +except to cut off an angle and so obtain a curve, neither does man +himself always rely upon it. The bullet which he aims direct proceeds +by a curve, and when you wish to strike a certain point in space, you +impel your bombshell along its cruel parabola. None of your men of +science have drawn from this fact the simple deduction that the Curve +is the law of the material worlds and the Straight line that of the +Spiritual worlds; one is the theory of finite creations, the other the +theory of the infinite. Man, who alone in the world has a knowledge of +the Infinite, can alone know the straight line; he alone has the sense +of verticality placed in a special organ. A fondness for the creations +of the curve would seem to be in certain men an indication of the +impurity of their nature still conjoined to the material substances +which engender us; and the love of great souls for the straight line +seems to show in them an intuition of heaven. Between these two lines +there is a gulf fixed like that between the finite and the infinite, +between matter and spirit, between man and the idea, between motion +and the object moved, between the creature and God. Ask Love the +Divine to grant you his wings and you can cross that gulf. Beyond it +begins the revelation of the Word. + +"No part of those things which you call material is without its own +meaning; lines are the boundaries of solid parts and imply a force of +action which you suppress in your formulas,--thus rendering those +formulas false in relation to substances taken as a whole. Hence the +constant destruction of the monuments of human labor, which you +supply, unknown to yourselves, with acting properties. Nature has +substances; your science combines only their appearances. At every +step Nature gives the lie to all your laws. Can you find a single one +that is not disproved by a fact? Your Static laws are at the mercy of +a thousand accidents; a fluid can overthrow a solid mountain and prove +that the heaviest substances may be lifted by one that is +imponderable. + +"Your laws on Acoustics and Optics are defied by the sounds which you +hear within yourselves in sleep, and by the light of an electric sun +whose rays often overcome you. You know no more how light makes itself +seen within you, than you know the simple and natural process which +changes it on the throats of tropic birds to rubies, sapphires, +emeralds, and opals, or keeps it gray and brown on the breasts of the +same birds under the cloudy skies of Europe, or whitens it here in the +bosom of our polar Nature. You know not how to decide whether color is +a faculty with which all substances are endowed, or an effect produced +by an effluence of light. You admit the saltness of the sea without +being able to prove that the water is salt at its greatest depth. You +recognize the existence of various substances which span what you +think to be the void,--substances which are not tangible under any of +the forms assumed by Matter, although they put themselves in harmony +with Matter in spite of every obstacle. + +"All this being so, you believe in the results of Chemistry, although +that science still knows no way of gauging the changes produced by the +flux and reflux of substances which come and go across your crystals +and your instruments on the impalpable filaments of heat or light +conducted and projected by the affinities of metal or vitrified flint. +You obtain none but dead substances, from which you have driven the +unknown force that holds in check the decomposition of all things here +below, and of which cohesion, attraction, vibration, and polarity are +but phenomena. Life is the thought of substances; bodies are only the +means of fixing life and holding it to its way. If bodies were beings +living of themselves they would be Cause itself, and could not die. + +"When a man discovers the results of the general movement, which is +shared by all creations according to their faculty of absorption, you +proclaim him mighty in science, as though genius consisted in +explaining a thing that is! Genius ought to cast its eyes beyond +effects. Your men of science would laugh if you said to them: 'There +exist such positive relations between two human beings, one of whom +may be here, and the other in Java, that they can at the same instant +feel the same sensation, and be conscious of so doing; they can +question each other and reply without mistake'; and yet there are +mineral substances which exhibit sympathies as far off from each other +as those of which I speak. You believe in the power of the electricity +which you find in the magnet and you deny that which emanates from the +soul! According to you, the moon, whose influence upon the tides you +think fixed, has none whatever upon the winds, nor upon navigation, +nor upon men; she moves the sea, but she must not affect the sick +folk; she has undeniable relations with one half of humanity, and +nothing at all to do with the other half. These are your vaunted +certainties! + +"Let us go a step further. You believe in physics. But your physics +begin, like the Catholic religion, with an _act of faith_. Do they not +pre-suppose some external force distinct from substance to which it +communicates motion? You see its effects, but what is it? where is it? +what is the essence of its nature, its life? has it any limits?--and +yet, you deny God! + +"Thus, the majority of your scientific axioms, true to their relation +to man, are false in relation to the Great Whole. Science is One, but +you have divided it. To know the real meaning of the laws of phenomena +must we not know the correlations which exist between phenomena and +the law of the Whole? There is, in all things, an appearance which +strikes your senses; under that appearance stirs a soul; a body is +there and a faculty is there. Where do you teach the study of the +relations which bind things to each other? Nowhere. Consequently you +have nothing positive. Your strongest certainties rest upon the +analysis of material forms whose essence you persistently ignore. + +"There is a Higher Knowledge of which, too late, some men obtain a +glimpse, though they dare not avow it. Such men comprehend the +necessity of considering substances not merely in their mathematical +properties but also in their entirety, in their occult relations and +affinities. The greatest man among you divined, in his latter days, +that all was reciprocally cause and effect; that the visible worlds +were co-ordinated among themselves and subject to worlds invisible. He +groaned at the recollection of having tried to establish fixed +precepts. Counting up his worlds, like grape-seeds scattered through +ether, he had explained their coherence by the laws of planetary and +molecular attraction. You bowed before that man of science--well! I +tell you that he died in despair. By supposing that the centrifugal +and centripetal forces, which he had invented to explain to himself +the universe, were equal, he stopped the universe; yet he admitted +motion in an indeterminate sense; but supposing those forces unequal, +then utter confusion of the planetary system ensued. His laws +therefore were not absolute; some higher problem existed than the +principle on which his false glory rested. The connection of the stars +with one another and the centripetal action of their internal motion +did not deter him from seeking the parent stalk on which his clusters +hung. Alas, poor man! the more he widened space the heavier his burden +grew. He told you how there came to be equilibrium among the parts, +but whither went the whole? His mind contemplated the vast extent, +illimitable to human eyes, filled with those groups of worlds a mere +fraction of which is all our telescopes can reach, but whose immensity +is revealed by the rapidity of light. This sublime contemplation +enabled him to perceive myriads of worlds, planted in space like +flowers in a field, which are born like infants, grow like men, die as +the aged die, and live by assimilating from their atmosphere the +substances suitable for their nourishment,--having a centre and a +principal of life, guaranteeing to each other their circuits, absorbed +and absorbing like plants, and forming a vast Whole endowed with life +and possessing a destiny. + +"At that sight your man of science trembled! He knew that life is +produced by the union of the thing and its principle, that death or +inertia or gravity is produced by a rupture between a thing and the +movement which appertains to it. Then it was that he foresaw the +crumbling of the worlds and their destruction if God should withdraw +the Breath of His Word. He searched the Apocalypse for the traces of +that Word. You thought him mad. Understand him better! He was seeking +pardon for the work of his genius. + +"Wilfrid, you have come here hoping to make me solve equations, or +rise upon a rain-cloud, or plunge into the fiord and reappear a swan. +If science or miracles were the end and object of humanity, Moses +would have bequeathed to you the law of fluxions; Jesus Christ would +have lightened the darkness of your sciences; his apostles would have +told you whence come those vast trains of gas and melted metals, +attached to cores which revolve and solidify as they dart through +ether, or violently enter some system and combine with a star, +jostling and displacing it by the shock, or destroying it by the +infiltration of their deadly gases; Saint Paul, instead of telling you +to live in God, would have explained why food is the secret bond among +all creations and the evident tie between all living Species. In these +days the greatest miracle of all would be the discovery of the +squaring of the circle,--a problem which you hold to be insoluble, but +which is doubtless solved in the march of worlds by the intersection +of some mathematical lines whose course is visible to the eye of +spirits who have reached the higher spheres. Believe me, miracles are +in us, not without us. Here natural facts occur which men call +supernatural. God would have been strangely unjust had he confined the +testimony of his power to certain generations and peoples and denied +them to others. The brazen rod belongs to all. Neither Moses, nor +Jacob, nor Zoroaster, nor Paul, nor Pythagoras, nor Swedenborg, not +the humblest Messenger nor the loftiest Prophet of the Most High are +greater than you are capable of being. Only, there come to nations as +to men certain periods when Faith is theirs. + +"If material sciences be the end and object of human effort, tell me, +both of you, would societies,--those great centres where men +congregate,--would they perpetually be dispersed? If civilization were +the object of our Species, would intelligence perish? would it +continue purely individual? The grandeur of all nations that were +truly great was based on exceptions; when the exception ceased their +power died. If such were the End-all, Prophets, Seers, and Messengers +of God would have lent their hand to Science rather than have given it +to Belief. Surely they would have quickened your brains sooner than +have touched your hearts! But no; one and all they came to lead the +nations back to God; they proclaimed the sacred Path in simple words +that showed the way to heaven; all were wrapped in love and faith, all +were inspired by that _word_ which hovers above the inhabitants of +earth, enfolding them, inspiriting them, uplifting them; none were +prompted by any human interest. Your great geniuses, your poets, your +kings, your learned men are engulfed with their cities; while the +names of these good pastors of humanity, ever blessed, have survived +all cataclysms. + +"Alas! we cannot understand each other on any point. We are separated +by an abyss. You are on the side of darkness, while I--I live in the +light, the true Light! Is this the word that you ask of me? I say it +with joy; it may change you. Know this: there are sciences of matter +and sciences of spirit. There, where you see substances, I see forces +that stretch one toward another with generating power. To me, the +character of bodies is the indication of their principles and the sign +of their properties. Those principles beget affinities which escape +your knowledge, and which are linked to centres. The different species +among which life is distributed are unfailing streams which correspond +unfailingly among themselves. Each has his own vocation. Man is effect +and cause. He is fed, but he feeds in turn. When you call God a +Creator, you dwarf Him. He did not create, as you think He did, plants +or animals or stars. Could He proceed by a variety of means? Must He +not act by unity of composition? Moreover, He gave forth principles to +be developed, according to His universal law, at the will of the +surroundings in which they were placed. Hence a single substance and +motion, a single plant, a single animal, but correlations everywhere. +In fact, all affinities are linked together by contiguous similitudes; +the life of the worlds is drawn toward the centres by famished +aspiration, as you are drawn by hunger to seek food. + +"To give you an example of affinities linked to similitudes (a +secondary law on which the creations of your thought are based), +music, that celestial art, is the working out of this principle; for +is it not a complement of sounds harmonized by number? Is not sound a +modification of air, compressed, dilated, echoed? You know the +composition of air,--oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. As you cannot +obtain sound from the void, it is plain that music and the human voice +are the result of organized chemical substances, which put themselves +in unison with the same substances prepared within you by your +thought, co-ordinated by means of light, the great nourisher of your +globe. Have you ever meditated on the masses of nitre deposited by the +snow, have you ever observed a thunderstorm and seen the plants +breathing in from the air about them the metal it contains, without +concluding that the sun has fused and distributed the subtle essence +which nourishes all things here below? Swedenborg has said, 'The earth +is a man.' + +"Your Science, which makes you great in your own eyes, is paltry +indeed beside the light which bathes a Seer. Cease, cease to question +me; our languages are different. For a moment I have used yours to +cast, if it be possible, a ray of faith into your soul; to give you, +as it were, the hem of my garment and draw you up into the regions of +Prayer. Can God abase Himself to you? Is it not for you to rise to +Him? If human reason finds the ladder of its own strength too weak to +bring God down to it, is it not evident that you must find some other +path to reach Him? That Path is in ourselves. The Seer and the +Believer find eyes within their souls more piercing far than eyes that +probe the things of earth,--they see the Dawn. Hear this truth: Your +science, let it be never so exact, your meditations, however bold, +your noblest lights are Clouds. Above, above is the Sanctuary whence +the true Light flows." + +She sat down and remained silent; her calm face bore no sign of the +agitation which orators betray after their least fervid +improvisations. + +Wilfrid bent toward Monsieur Becker and said in a low voice, "Who +taught her that?" + +"I do not know," he answered. + +"He was gentler on the Falberg," Minna whispered to herself. + +Seraphita passed her hand across her eyes and then she said, +smiling:-- + +"You are very thoughtful to-night, gentlemen. You treat Minna and me +as though we were men to whom you must talk politics or commerce; +whereas we are young girls, and you ought to tell us tales while you +drink your tea. That is what we do, Monsieur Wilfrid, in our long +Norwegian evenings. Come, dear pastor, tell me some Saga that I have +not heard,--that of Frithiof, the chronicle that you believe and have +so often promised me. Tell us the story of the peasant lad who owned +the ship that talked and had a soul. Come! I dream of the frigate +Ellida, the fairy with the sails young girls should navigate!" + +"Since we have returned to the regions of Jarvis," said Wilfrid, whose +eyes were fastened on Seraphita as those of a robber, lurking in the +darkness, fasten on the spot where he knows the jewels lie, "tell me +why you do not marry?" + +"You are all born widows and widowers," she replied; "but my marriage +was arranged at my birth. I am betrothed." + +"To whom?" they cried. + +"Ask not my secret," she said; "I will promise, if our father permits +it, to invite you to these mysterious nuptials." + +"Will they be soon?" + +"I think so." + +A long silence followed these words. + +"The spring has come!" said Seraphita, suddenly. "The noise of the +waters and the breaking of the ice begins. Come, let us welcome the +first spring of the new century." + +She rose, followed by Wilfrid, and together they went to a window +which David had opened. After the long silence of winter, the waters +stirred beneath the ice and resounded through the fiord like music, +--for there are sounds which space refines, so that they reach the +ear in waves of light and freshness. + +"Wilfrid, cease to nourish evil thoughts whose triumph would be hard +to bear. Your desires are easily read in the fire of your eyes. Be +kind; take one step forward in well-doing. Advance beyond the love of +man and sacrifice yourself completely to the happiness of her you +love. Obey me; I will lead you in a path where you shall obtain the +distinctions which you crave, and where Love is infinite indeed." + +She left him thoughtful. + +"That soft creature!" he said within himself; "is she indeed the +prophetess whose eyes have just flashed lightnings, whose voice has +rung through worlds, whose hand has wielded the axe of doubt against +our sciences? Have we been dreaming? Am I awake?" + +"Minna," said Seraphita, returning to the young girl, "the eagle +swoops where the carrion lies, but the dove seeks the mountain spring +beneath the peaceful greenery of the glades. The eagle soars to +heaven, the dove descends from it. Cease to venture into regions where +thou canst find no spring of waters, no umbrageous shade. If on the +Falberg thou couldst not gaze into the abyss and live, keep all thy +strength for him who will love thee. Go, poor girl; thou knowest, I am +betrothed." + +Minna rose and followed Seraphita to the window where Wilfrid stood. +All three listened to the Sieg bounding out the rush of the upper +waters, which brought down trees uprooted by the ice; the fiord had +regained its voice; all illusions were dispelled! They rejoiced in +Nature as she burst her bonds and seemed to answer with sublime accord +to the Spirit whose breath had wakened her. + +When the three guests of this mysterious being left the house, they +were filled with the vague sensation which is neither sleep, nor +torpor, nor astonishment, but partakes of the nature of each,--a state +that is neither dusk nor dawn, but which creates a thirst for light. +All three were thinking. + +"I begin to believe that she is indeed a Spirit hidden in human form," +said Monsieur Becker. + +Wilfrid, re-entering his own apartments, calm and convinced, was +unable to struggle against that influence so divinely majestic. + +Minna said in her heart, "Why will he not let me love him!" + + + + CHAPTER V + + FAREWELL + +There is in man an almost hopeless phenomenon for thoughtful minds who +seek a meaning in the march of civilization, and who endeavor to give +laws of progression to the movement of intelligence. However +portentous a fact may be, or even supernatural,--if such facts exist, +--however solemnly a miracle may be done in sight of all, the +lightning of that fact, the thunderbolt of that miracle is quickly +swallowed up in the ocean of life, whose surface, scarcely stirred by +the brief convulsion, returns to the level of its habitual flow. + +A Voice is heard from the jaws of an Animal; a Hand writes on the wall +before a feasting Court; an Eye gleams in the slumber of a king, and a +Prophet explains the dream; Death, evoked, rises on the confines of +the luminous sphere were faculties revive; Spirit annihilates Matter +at the foot of that mystic ladder of the Seven Spiritual Worlds, one +resting upon another in space and revealing themselves in shining +waves that break in light upon the steps of the celestial Tabernacle. +But however solemn the inward Revelation, however clear the visible +outward Sign, be sure that on the morrow Balaam doubts both himself +and his ass, Belshazzar and Pharoah call Moses and Daniel to qualify +the Word. The Spirit, descending, bears man above this earth, opens +the seas and lets him see their depths, shows him lost species, wakens +dry bones whose dust is the soil of valleys; the Apostle writes the +Apocalypse, and twenty centuries later human science ratifies his +words and turns his visions into maxims. And what comes of it all? Why +this,--that the peoples live as they have ever lived, as they lived in +the first Olympiad, as they lived on the morrow of Creation, and on +the eve of the great cataclysm. The waves of Doubt have covered all +things. The same floods surge with the same measured motion on the +human granite which serves as a boundary to the ocean of intelligence. +When man has inquired of himself whether he has seen that which he has +seen, whether he has heard the words that entered his ears, whether +the facts were facts and the idea is indeed an idea, then he resumes +his wonted bearing, thinks of his worldly interests, obeys some envoy +of death and of oblivion whose dusky mantle covers like a pall an +ancient Humanity of which the moderns retain no memory. Man never +pauses; he goes his round, he vegetates until the appointed day when +his Axe falls. If this wave force, this pressure of bitter waters +prevents all progress, no doubt it also warns of death. Spirits +prepared by faith among the higher souls of earth can alone perceive +the mystic ladder of Jacob. + +After listening to Seraphita's answer in which (being earnestly +questioned) she unrolled before their eyes a Divine Perspective,--as +an organ fills a church with sonorous sound and reveals a musical +universe, its solemn tones rising to the loftiest arches and playing, +like light, upon their foliated capitals,--Wilfrid returned to his own +room, awed by the sight of a world in ruins, and on those ruins the +brilliance of mysterious lights poured forth in torrents by the hand +of a young girl. On the morrow he still thought of these things, but +his awe was gone; he felt he was neither destroyed nor changed; his +passions, his ideas awoke in full force, fresh and vigorous. He went +to breakfast with Monsieur Becker and found the old man absorbed in +the "Treatise on Incantations," which he had searched since early +morning to convince his guest that there was nothing unprecedented in +all that they had seen and heard at the Swedish castle. With the +childlike trustfulness of a true scholar he had folded down the pages +in which Jean Wier related authentic facts which proved the +possibility of the events that had happened the night before,--for to +learned men an idea is a event, just as the greatest events often +present no idea at all to them. By the time they had swallowed their +fifth cup of tea, these philosophers had come to think the mysterious +scene of the preceding evening wholly natural. The celestial truths to +which they had listened were arguments susceptible of examination; +Seraphita was a girl, more or less eloquent; allowance must be made +for the charms of her voice, her seductive beauty, her fascinating +motions, in short, for all those oratorical arts by which an actor +puts a world of sentiment and thought into phrases which are often +commonplace. + +"Bah!" said the worthy pastor, making a philosophical grimace as he +spread a layer of salt butter on his slice of bread, "the final word +of all these fine enigmas is six feet under ground." + +"But," said Wilfrid, sugaring his tea, "I cannot image how a young +girl of seventeen can know so much; what she said was certainly a +compact argument." + +"Read the account of that Italian woman," said Monsieur Becker, "who +at the age of twelve spoke forty-two languages, ancient and modern; +also the history of that monk who could guess thought by smell. I can +give you a thousand such cases from Jean Wier and other writers." + +"I admit all that, dear pastor; but to my thinking, Seraphita would +make a perfect wife." + +"She is all mind," said Monsieur Becker, dubiously. + +Several days went by, during which the snow in the valleys melted +gradually away; the green of the forests and of the grass began to +show; Norwegian Nature made ready her wedding garments for her brief +bridal of a day. During this period, when the softened air invited +every one to leave the house, Seraphita remained at home in solitude. +When at last she admitted Minna the latter saw at once the ravages of +inward fever; Seraphita's voice was hollow, her skin pallid; hitherto +a poet might have compared her lustre to that of diamonds,--now it was +that of a topaz. + +"Have you seen her?" asked Wilfrid, who had wandered around the +Swedish dwelling waiting for Minna's return. + +"Yes," answered the young girl, weeping; "We must lose him!" + +"Mademoiselle," cried Wilfrid, endeavoring to repress the loud tones +of his angry voice, "do not jest with me. You can love Seraphita only +as one young girl can love another, and not with the love which she +inspires in me. You do not know your danger if my jealousy were really +aroused. Why can I not go to her? Is it you who stand in my way?" + +"I do not know by what right you probe my heart," said Minna, calm in +appearance, but inwardly terrified. "Yes, I love him," she said, +recovering the courage of her convictions, that she might, for once, +confess the religion of her heart. "But my jealousy, natural as it is +in love, fears no one here below. Alas! I am jealous of a secret +feeling that absorbs him. Between him and me there is a great gulf +fixed which I cannot cross. Would that I knew who loves him best, the +stars or I! which of us would sacrifice our being most eagerly for his +happiness! Why should I not be free to avow my love? In the presence +of death we may declare our feelings,--and Seraphitus is about to +die." + +"Minna, you are mistaken; the siren I so love and long for, she, whom +I have seen, feeble and languid, on her couch of furs, is not a young +man." + +"Monsieur," answered Minna, distressfully, "the being whose powerful +hand guided me on the Falberg, who led me to the saeter sheltered +beneath the Ice-Cap, there--" she said, pointing to the peak, "is not +a feeble girl. Ah, had you but heard him prophesying! His poem was the +music of thought. A young girl never uttered those solemn tones of a +voice which stirred my soul." + +"What certainty have you?" said Wilfrid. + +"None but that of the heart," answered Minna. + +"And I," cried Wilfrid, casting on his companion the terrible glance +of the earthly desire that kills, "I, too, know how powerful is her +empire over me, and I will undeceive you." + +At this moment, while the words were rushing from Wilfrid's lips as +rapidly as the thoughts surged in his brain, they saw Seraphita coming +towards them from the house, followed by David. The apparition calmed +the man's excitement. + +"Look," he said, "could any but a woman move with that grace and +langor?" + +"He suffers; he comes forth for the last time," said Minna. + +David went back at a sign from his mistress, who advanced towards +Wilfrid and Minna. + +"Let us go to the falls of the Sieg," she said, expressing one of +those desires which suddenly possess the sick and which the well +hasten to obey. + +A thin white mist covered the valleys around the fiord and the sides +of the mountains, whose icy summits, sparkling like stars, pierced the +vapor and gave it the appearance of a moving milky way. The sun was +visible through the haze like a globe of red fire. Though winter still +lingered, puffs of warm air laden with the scent of the birch-trees, +already adorned with their rosy efflorescence, and of the larches, +whose silken tassels were beginning to appear,--breezes tempered by +the incense and the sighs of earth,--gave token of the glorious +Northern spring, the rapid, fleeting joy of that most melancholy of +Natures. The wind was beginning to lift the veil of mist which +half-obscured the gulf. The birds sang. The bark of the trees where the +sun had not yet dried the clinging hoar-frost shone gayly to the eye in +its fantastic wreathings which trickled away in murmuring rivulets as +the warmth reached them. The three friends walked in silence along the +shore. Wilfrid and Minna alone noticed the magic transformation that +was taking place in the monotonous picture of the winter landscape. +Their companion walked in thought, as though a voice were sounding to +her ears in this concert of Nature. + +Presently they reached the ledge of rocks through which the Sieg had +forced its way, after escaping from the long avenue cut by its waters +in an undulating line through the forest,--a fluvial pathway flanked +by aged firs and roofed with strong-ribbed arches like those of a +cathedral. Looking back from that vantage-ground, the whole extent of +the fiord could be seen at a glance, with the open sea sparkling on +the horizon beyond it like a burnished blade. + +At this moment the mist, rolling away, left the sky blue and clear. +Among the valleys and around the trees flitted the shining fragments, +--a diamond dust swept by the freshening breeze. The torrent rolled on +toward them; along its length a vapor rose, tinted by the sun with +every color of his light; the decomposing rays flashing prismatic +fires along the many-tinted scarf of waters. The rugged ledge on which +they stood was carpeted by several kinds of lichen, forming a noble +mat variegated by moisture and lustrous like the sheen of a silken +fabric. Shrubs, already in bloom, crowned the rocks with garlands. +Their waving foliage, eager for the freshness of the water, drooped +its tresses above the stream; the larches shook their light fringes +and played with the pines, stiff and motionless as aged men. This +luxuriant beauty was foiled by the solemn colonnades of the +forest-trees, rising in terraces upon the mountains, and by the calm +sheet of the fiord, lying below, where the torrent buried its fury and +was still. Beyond, the sea hemmed in this page of Nature, written by +the greatest of poets, Chance; to whom the wild luxuriance of creation +when apparently abandoned to itself is owing. + +The village of Jarvis was a lost point in the landscape, in this +immensity of Nature, sublime at this moment like all things else of +ephemeral life which present a fleeting image of perfection; for, by a +law fatal to no eyes but our own, creations which appear complete--the +love of our heart and the desire of our eyes--have but one spring-tide +here below. Standing on this breast-work of rock these three persons +might well suppose themselves alone in the universe. + +"What beauty!" cried Wilfrid. + +"Nature sings hymns," said Seraphita. "Is not her music exquisite? +Tell me, Wilfrid, could any of the women you once knew create such a +glorious retreat for herself as this? I am conscious here of a feeling +seldom inspired by the sight of cities, a longing to lie down amid +this quickening verdure. Here, with eyes to heaven and an open heart, +lost in the bosom of immensity, I could hear the sighings of the +flower, scarce budded, which longs for wings, or the cry of the eider +grieving that it can only fly, and remember the desires of man who, +issuing from all, is none the less ever longing. But that, Wilfrid, is +only a woman's thought. You find seductive fancies in the wreathing +mists, the light embroidered veils which Nature dons like a coy +maiden, in this atmosphere where she perfumes for her spousals the +greenery of her tresses. You seek the naiad's form amid the gauzy +vapors, and to your thinking my ears should listen only to the virile +voice of the Torrent." + +"But Love is there, like the bee in the calyx of the flower," replied +Wilfrid, perceiving for the first time a trace of earthly sentiment in +her words, and fancying the moment favorable for an expression of his +passionate tenderness. + +"Always there?" said Seraphita, smiling. Minna had left them for a +moment to gather the blue saxifrages growing on a rock above. + +"Always," repeated Wilfrid. "Hear me," he said, with a masterful +glance which was foiled as by a diamond breast-plate. "You know not +what I am, nor what I can be, nor what I will. Do not reject my last +entreaty. Be mine for the good of that world whose happiness you bear +upon your heart. Be mine that my conscience may be pure; that a voice +divine may sound in my ears and infuse Good into the great enterprise +I have undertaken prompted by my hatred to the nations, but which I +swear to accomplish for their benefit if you will walk beside me. What +higher mission can you ask for love? what nobler part can woman aspire +to? I came to Norway to meditate a grand design." + +"And you will sacrifice its grandeur," she said, "to an innocent girl +who loves you, and who will lead you in the paths of peace." + +"What matters sacrifice," he cried, "if I have you? Hear my secret. I +have gone from end to end of the North,--that great smithy from whose +anvils new races have spread over the earth, like human tides +appointed to refresh the wornout civilizations. I wished to begin my +work at some Northern point, to win the empire which force and +intellect must ever give over a primitive people; to form that people +for battle, to drive them to wars which should ravage Europe like a +conflagration, crying liberty to some, pillage to others, glory here, +pleasure there!--I, myself, remaining an image of Destiny, cruel, +implacable, advancing like the whirlwind, which sucks from the +atmosphere the particles that make the thunderbolt, and falls like a +devouring scourge upon the nations. Europe is at an epoch when she +awaits the new Messiah who shall destroy society and remake it. She +can no longer believe except in him who crushes her under foot. The +day is at hand when poets and historians will justify me, exalt me, +and borrow my ideas, mine! And all the while my triumph will be a +jest, written in blood, the jest of my vengeance! But not here, +Seraphita; what I see in the North disgusts me. Hers is a mere blind +force; I thirst for the Indies! I would rather fight a selfish, +cowardly, mercantile government. Besides, it is easier to stir the +imagination of the peoples at the feet of the Caucasus than to argue +with the intellect of the icy lands which here surround me. Therefore +am I tempted to cross the Russian steps and pour my triumphant human +tide through Asia to the Ganges, and overthrow the British rule. Seven +men have done this thing before me in other epochs of the world. I +will emulate them. I will spread Art like the Saracens, hurled by +Mohammed upon Europe. Mine shall be no paltry sovereignty like those +that govern to-day the ancient provinces of the Roman empire, +disputing with their subjects about a customs right! No, nothing can +bar my way! Like Genghis Khan, my feet shall tread a third of the +globe, my hand shall grasp the throat of Asia like Aurung-Zeb. Be my +companion! Let me seat thee, beautiful and noble being, on a throne! I +do not doubt success, but live within my heart and I am sure of it." + +"I have already reigned," said Seraphita, coldly. + +The words fell as the axe of a skilful woodman falls at the root of a +young tree and brings it down at a single blow. Men alone can +comprehend the rage that a woman excites in the soul of a man when, +after showing her his strength, his power, his wisdom, his +superiority, the capricious creature bends her head and says, "All +that is nothing"; when, unmoved, she smiles and says, "Such things are +known to me," as though his power were nought. + +"What!" cried Wilfrid, in despair, "can the riches of art, the riches +of worlds, the splendors of a court--" + +She stopped him by a single inflexion of her lips, and said, "Beings +more powerful than you have offered me far more." + +"Thou hast no soul," he cried,--"no soul, if thou art not persuaded by +the thought of comforting a great man, who is willing now to sacrifice +all things to live beside thee in a little house on the shores of a +lake." + +"But," she said, "I am loved with a boundless love." + +"By whom?" cried Wilfrid, approaching Seraphita with a frenzied +movement, as if to fling her into the foaming basin of the Sieg. + +She looked at him and slowly extended her arm, pointing to Minna, who +now sprang towards her, fair and glowing and lovely as the flowers she +held in her hand. + +"Child!" said Seraphitus, advancing to meet her. + +Wilfrid remained where she left him, motionless as the rock on which +he stood, lost in thought, longing to let himself go into the torrent +of the Sieg, like the fallen trees which hurried past his eyes and +disappeared in the bosom of the gulf. + +"I gathered them for you," said Minna, offering the bunch of +saxifrages to the being she adored. "One of them, see, this one," she +added, selecting a flower, "is like that you found on the Falberg." + +Seraphitus looked alternately at the flower and at Minna. + +"Why question me? Dost thou doubt me?" + +"No," said the young girl, "my trust in you is infinite. You are more +beautiful to look upon than this glorious nature, but your mind +surpasses in intellect that of all humanity. When I have been with you +I seem to have prayed to God. I long--" + +"For what?" said Seraphitus, with a glance that revealed to the young +girl the vast distance which separated them. + +"To suffer in your stead." + +"Ah, dangerous being!" cried Seraphitus in his heart. "Is it wrong, oh +my God! to desire to offer her to Thee? Dost thou remember, Minna, +what I said to thee up there?" he added, pointing to the summit of the +Ice-Cap. + +"He is terrible again," thought Minna, trembling with fear. + +The voice of the Sieg accompanied the thoughts of the three beings +united on this platform of projecting rock, but separated in soul by +the abysses of the Spiritual World. + +"Seraphitus! teach me," said Minna in a silvery voice, soft as the +motion of a sensitive plant, "teach me how to cease to love you. Who +could fail to admire you; love is an admiration that never wearies." + +"Poor child!" said Seraphitus, turning pale; "there is but one whom +thou canst love in that way." + +"Who?" asked Minna. + +"Thou shalt know hereafter," he said, in the feeble voice of a man who +lies down to die. + +"Help, help! he is dying!" cried Minna. + +Wilfrid ran towards them. Seeing Seraphita as she lay on a fragment of +gneiss, where time had cast its velvet mantle of lustrous lichen and +tawny mosses now burnished in the sunlight, he whispered softly, "How +beautiful she is!" + +"One other look! the last that I shall ever cast upon this nature in +travail," said Seraphitus, rallying her strength and rising to her +feet. + +She advanced to the edge of the rocky platform, whence her eyes took +in the scenery of that grand and glorious landscape, so verdant, +flowery, and animated, yet so lately buried in its winding-sheet of +snow. + +"Farewell," she said, "farewell, home of Earth, warmed by the fires of +Love; where all things press with ardent force from the centre to the +extremities; where the extremities are gathered up, like a woman's +hair, to weave the mysterious braid which binds us in that invisible +ether to the Thought Divine! + +"Behold the man bending above that furrow moistened with his tears, +who lifts his head for an instant to question Heaven; behold the woman +gathering her children that she may feed them with her milk; see him +who lashes the ropes in the height of the gale; see her who sits in +the hollow of the rocks, awaiting the father! Behold all they who +stretch their hands in want after a lifetime spent in thankless toil. +To all peace and courage, and to all farewell! + +"Hear you the cry of the soldier, dying nameless and unknown? the wail +of the man deceived who weeps in the desert? To them peace and +courage; to all farewell! + +"Farewell, you who die for the kings of the earth! Farewell, ye people +without a country and ye countries without a people, each, with a +mutual want. Above all, farewell to Thee who knew not where to lay Thy +head, Exile divine! Farewell, mothers beside your dying sons! +Farewell, ye Little Ones, ye Feeble, ye Suffering, you whose sorrows I +have so often borne! Farewell, all ye who have descended into the +sphere of Instinct that you may suffer there for others! + +"Farewell, ye mariners who seek the Orient through the thick darkness +of your abstractions, vast as principles! Farewell, martyrs of +thought, led by thought into the presence of the True Light. Farewell, +regions of study where mine ears can hear the plaint of genius +neglected and insulted, the sigh of the patient scholar to whom +enlightenment comes too late! + +"I see the angelic choir, the wafting of perfumes, the incense of the +heart of those who go their way consoling, praying, imparting +celestial balm and living light to suffering souls! Courage, ye choir +of Love! you to whom the peoples cry, 'Comfort us, comfort us, defend +us!' To you courage! and farewell! + +"Farewell, ye granite rocks that shall bloom a flower; farewell, +flower that becomes a dove; farewell, dove that shalt be woman; +farewell, woman, who art Suffering, man, who art Belief! Farewell, you +who shall be all love, all prayer!" + +Broken with fatigue, this inexplicable being leaned for the first time +on Wilfrid and on Minna to be taken home. Wilfrid and Minna felt the +shock of a mysterious contact in and through the being who thus +connected them. They had scarcely advanced a few steps when David met +them, weeping. "She will die," he said, "why have you brought her +hither?" + +The old man raised her in his arms with the vigor of youth and bore +her to the gate of the Swedish castle like an eagle bearing a white +lamb to his mountain eyrie. + + + + CHAPTER VI + + THE PATH TO HEAVEN + +The day succeeding that on which Seraphita foresaw her death and bade +farewell to Earth, as a prisoner looks round his dungeon before +leaving it forever, she suffered pains which obliged her to remain in +the helpless immobility of those whose pangs are great. Wilfrid and +Minna went to see her, and found her lying on her couch of furs. Still +veiled in flesh, her soul shone through that veil, which grew more and +more transparent day by day. The progress of the Spirit, piercing the +last obstacle between itself and the Infinite, was called an illness, +the hour of Life went by the name of death. David wept as he watched +her sufferings; unreasonable as a child, he would not listen to his +mistress's consolations. Monsieur Becker wished Seraphita to try +remedies; but all were useless. + +One morning she sent for the two beings whom she loved, telling them +that this would be the last of her bad days. Wilfrid and Minna came in +terror, knowing well that they were about to lose her. Seraphita +smiled to them as one departing to a better world; her head drooped +like a flower heavy with dew, which opens its calyx for the last time +to waft its fragrance on the breeze. She looked at these friends with +a sadness that was for them, not for herself; she thought no longer of +herself, and they felt this with a grief mingled with gratitude which +they were unable to express. Wilfrid stood silent and motionless, lost +in thoughts excited by events whose vast bearings enabled him to +conceive of some illimitable immensity. + +Emboldened by the weakness of the being lately so powerful, or perhaps +by the fear of losing him forever, Minna bent down over the couch and +said, "Seraphitus, let me follow thee!" + +"Can I forbid thee?" + +"Why will thou not love me enough to stay with me?" + +"I can love nothing here." + +"What canst thou love?" + +"Heaven." + +"Is it worthy of heaven to despise the creatures of God?" + +"Minna, can we love two beings at once? Would our beloved be indeed +our beloved if he did not fill our hearts? Must he not be the first, +the last, the only one? She who is all love, must she not leave the +world for her beloved? Human ties are but a memory, she has no ties +except to him! Her soul is hers no longer; it is his. If she keeps +within her soul anything that is not his, does she love? No, she loves +not. To love feebly, is that to love at all? The voice of her beloved +makes her joyful; it flows through her veins in a crimson tide more +glowing far than blood; his glance is the light that penetrates her; +her being melts into his being. He is warm to her soul. He is the +light that lightens; near to him there is neither cold nor darkness. +He is never absent, he is always with us; we think in him, to him, by +him! Minna, that is how I love him." + +"Love whom?" said Minna, tortured with sudden jealousy. + +"God," replied Seraphitus, his voice glowing in their souls like fires +of liberty from peak to peak upon the mountains,--"God, who does not +betray us! God, who will never abandon us! who crowns our wishes; who +satisfies His creatures with joy--joy unalloyed and infinite! God, who +never wearies but ever smiles! God, who pours into the soul fresh +treasures day by day; who purifies and leaves no bitterness; who is +all harmony, all flame! God, who has placed Himself within our hearts +to blossom there; who hearkens to our prayers; who does not stand +aloof when we are His, but gives His presence absolutely! He who +revives us, magnifies us, and multiplies us in Himself; _God_! Minna, I +love thee because thou mayst be His! I love thee because if thou come +to Him thou wilt be mine." + +"Lead me to Him," cried Minna, kneeling down; "take me by the hand; I +will not leave thee!" + +"Lead us, Seraphita!" cried Wilfrid, coming to Minna's side with an +impetuous movement. "Yes, thou hast given me a thirst for Light, a +thirst for the Word. I am parched with the Love thou hast put into my +heart; I desire to keep thy soul in mine; thy will is mine; I will do +whatsoever thou biddest me. Since I cannot obtain thee, I will keep +thy will and all the thoughts that thou hast given me. If I may not +unite myself with thee except by the power of my spirit, I will cling +to thee in soul as the flame to what it laps. Speak!" + +"Angel!" exclaimed the mysterious being, enfolding them both in one +glance, as it were with an azure mantle, "Heaven shall by thine +heritage!" + +Silence fell among them after these words, which sounded in the souls +of the man and of the woman like the first notes of some celestial +harmony. + +"If you would teach your feet to tread the Path to heaven, know that +the way is hard at first," said the weary sufferer; "God wills that +you shall seek Him for Himself. In that sense, He is jealous; He +demands your whole self. But when you have given Him yourself, never, +never will He abandon you. I leave with you the keys of the kingdom of +His Light, where evermore you shall dwell in the bosom of the Father, +in the heart of the Bridegroom. No sentinels guard the approaches, you +may enter where you will; His palaces, His treasures, His sceptre, all +are free. 'Take them!' He says. But--you must _will_ to go there. Like +one preparing for a journey, a man must leave his home, renounce his +projects, bid farewell to friends, to father, mother, sister, even to +the helpless brother who cries after him,--yes, farewell to them +eternally; you will no more return than did the martyrs on their way +to the stake. You must strip yourself of every sentiment, of +everything to which man clings. Unless you do this you are but +half-hearted in your enterprise. + +"Do for God what you do for your ambitious projects, what you do in +consecrating yourself to Art, what you have done when you loved a +human creature or sought some secret of human science. Is not God the +whole of science, the all of love, the source of poetry? Surely His +riches are worthy of being coveted! His treasure is inexhaustible, His +poem infinite, His love immutable, His science sure and darkened by no +mysteries. Be anxious for nothing, He will give you all. Yes, in His +heart are treasures with which the petty joys you lose on earth are +not to be compared. What I tell you is true; you shall possess His +power; you may use it as you would use the gifts of lover or mistress. +Alas! men doubt, they lack faith, and will, and persistence. If some +set their feet in the path, they look behind them and presently turn +back. Few decide between the two extremes,--to go or stay, heaven or +the mire. All hesitate. Weakness leads astray, passion allures into +dangerous paths, vice becomes habitual, man flounders in the mud and +makes no progress towards a better state. + +"All human beings go through a previous life in the sphere of +Instinct, where they are brought to see the worthlessness of earthly +treasures, to amass which they gave themselves such untold pains! Who +can tell how many times the human being lives in the sphere of +Instinct before he is prepared to enter the sphere of Abstractions, +where thought expends itself on erring science, where mind wearies at +last of human language? for, when Matter is exhausted, Spirit enters. +Who knows how many fleshly forms the heir of heaven occupies before he +can be brought to understand the value of that silence and solitude +whose starry plains are but the vestibule of Spiritual Worlds? He +feels his way amid the void, makes trial of nothingness, and then at +last his eyes revert upon the Path. Then follow other existences,--all +to be lived to reach the place where Light effulgent shines. Death is +the post-house of the journey. A lifetime may be needed merely to gain +the virtues which annul the errors of man's preceding life. First +comes the life of suffering, whose tortures create a thirst for love. +Next the life of love and devotion to the creature, teaching devotion +to the Creator,--a life where the virtues of love, its martyrdoms, its +joys followed by sorrows, its angelic hopes, its patience, its +resignation, excite an appetite for things divine. Then follows the +life which seeks in silence the traces of the Word; in which the soul +grows humble and charitable. Next the life of longing; and lastly, the +life of prayer. In that is the noonday sun; there are the flowers, +there the harvest! + +"The virtues we acquire, which develop slowly within us, are the +invisible links that bind each one of our existences to the others, +--existences which the spirit alone remembers, for Matter has no memory +for spiritual things. Thought alone holds the tradition of the bygone +life. The endless legacy of the past to the present is the secret +source of human genius. Some receive the gift of form, some the gift +of numbers, others the gift of harmony. All these gifts are steps of +progress in the Path of Light. Yes, he who possesses a single one of +them touches at that point the Infinite. Earth has divided the Word +--of which I here reveal some syllables--into particles, she has reduced +it to dust and has scattered it through her works, her dogmas, her +poems. If some impalpable grain shines like a diamond in a human work, +men cry: 'How grand! how true! how glorious!' That fragment vibrates +in their souls and wakes a presentiment of heaven: to some, a melody +that weans from earth; to others, the solitude that draws to God. To +all, whatsoever sends us back upon ourselves, whatsoever strikes us +down and crushes us, lifts or abases us,--_that_ is but a syllable of +the Divine Word. + +"When a human soul draws its first furrow straight, the rest will +follow surely. One thought borne inward, one prayer uplifted, one +suffering endured, one echo of the Word within us, and our souls are +forever changed. All ends in God; and many are the ways to find Him by +walking straight before us. When the happy day arrives in which you +set your feet upon the Path and begin your pilgrimage, the world will +know nothing of it; earth no longer understands you; you no longer +understand each other. Men who attain a knowledge of these things, who +lisp a few syllables of the Word, often have not where to lay their +head; hunted like beasts they perish on the scaffold, to the joy of +assembled peoples, while Angels open to them the gates of heaven. +Therefore, your destiny is a secret between yourself and God, just as +love is a secret between two hearts. You may be the buried treasure, +trodden under the feet of men thirsting for gold yet all-unknowing +that you are there beneath them. + +"Henceforth your existence becomes a thing of ceaseless activity; each +act has a meaning which connects you with God, just as in love your +actions and your thoughts are filled with the loved one. But love and +its joys, love and its pleasures limited by the senses, are but the +imperfect image of the love which unites you to your celestial Spouse. +All earthly joy is mixed with anguish, with discontent. If love ought +not to pall then death should end it while its flame is high, so that +we see no ashes. But in God our wretchedness becomes delight, joy +lives upon itself and multiplies, and grows, and has no limit. In the +Earthly life our fleeting love is ended by tribulation; in the +Spiritual life the tribulations of a day end in joys unending. The +soul is ceaselessly joyful. We feel God with us, in us; He gives a +sacred savor to all things; He shines in the soul; He imparts to us +His sweetness; He stills our interest in the world viewed for +ourselves; He quickens our interest in it viewed for His sake, and +grants us the exercise of His power upon it. In His name we do the +works which He inspires, we act for Him, we have no self except in +Him, we love His creatures with undying love, we dry their tears and +long to bring them unto Him, as a loving woman longs to see the +inhabitants of earth obey her well-beloved. + +"The final life, the fruition of all other lives, to which the powers +of the soul have tended, and whose merits open the Sacred Portals to +perfected man, is the life of Prayer. Who can make you comprehend the +grandeur, the majesty, the might of Prayer? May my voice, these words +of mine, ring in your hearts and change them. Be now, here, what you +may be after cruel trial! There are privileged beings, Prophets, +Seers, Messengers, and Martyrs, all those who suffer for the Word and +who proclaim it; such souls spring at a bound across the human sphere +and rise at once to Prayer. So, too, with those whose souls receive +the fire of Faith. Be one of those brave souls! God welcomes boldness. +He loves to be taken by violence; He will never reject those who force +their way to Him. Know this! desire, the torrent of your will, is so +all-powerful that a single emission of it, made with force, can obtain +all; a single cry, uttered under the pressure of Faith, suffices. Be +one of such beings, full of force, of will, of love! Be conquerors on +the earth! Let the hunger and thirst of God possess you. Fly to Him as +the hart panting for the water-brooks. Desire shall lend you its +wings; tears, those blossoms of repentance, shall be the celestial +baptism from which your nature will issue purified. Cast yourself on +the breast of the stream in Prayer! Silence and meditation are the +means of following the Way. God reveals Himself, unfailingly, to the +solitary, thoughtful seeker. + +"It is thus that the separation takes place between Matter, which so +long has wrapped its darkness round you, and Spirit, which was in you +from the beginning, the light which lighted you and now brings +noon-day to your soul. Yes, your broken heart shall receive the light; +the light shall bathe it. Then you will no longer feel convictions, +they will have changed to certainties. The Poet utters; the Thinker +meditates; the Righteous acts; but he who stands upon the borders of +the Divine World prays; and his prayer is word, thought, action, in +one! Yes, prayer includes all, contains all; it completes nature, for +it reveals to you the mind within it and its progression. White and +shining virgin of all human virtues, ark of the covenant between earth +and heaven, tender and strong companion partaking of the lion and of +the lamb, Prayer! Prayer will give you the key of heaven! Bold and +pure as innocence, strong, like all that is single and simple, this +glorious, invincible Queen rests, nevertheless, on the material world; +she takes possession of it; like the sun, she clasps it in a circle of +light. The universe belongs to him who wills, who knows, who prays; +but he must will, he must know, he must pray; in a word, he must +possess force, wisdom, and faith. + +"Therefore Prayer, issuing from so many trials, is the consummation of +all truths, all powers, all feelings. Fruit of the laborious, +progressive, continued development of natural properties and faculties +vitalized anew by the divine breath of the Word, Prayer has occult +activity; it is the final worship--not the material worship of images, +nor the spiritual worship of formulas, but the worship of the Divine +World. We say no prayers,--prayer forms within us; it is a faculty +which acts of itself; it has attained a way of action which lifts it +outside of forms; it links the soul to God, with whom we unite as the +root of the tree unites with the soil; our veins draw life from the +principle of life, and we live by the life of the universe. Prayer +bestows external conviction by making us penetrate the Material World +through the cohesion of all our faculties with the elementary +substances; it bestows internal conviction by developing our essence +and mingling it with that of the Spiritual Worlds. To be able to pray +thus, you must attain to an utter abandonment of flesh; you must +acquire through the fires of the furnace the purity of the diamond; +for this complete communion with the Divine is obtained only in +absolute repose, where storms and conflicts are at rest. + +"Yes, Prayer--the aspiration of the soul freed absolutely from the +body--bears all forces within it, and applies them to the constant and +perseverant union of the Visible and the Invisible. When you possess +the faculty of praying without weariness, with love, with force, with +certainty, with intelligence, your spiritualized nature will presently +be invested with power. Like a rushing wind, like a thunderbolt, it +cuts its way through all things and shares the power of God. The +quickness of the Spirit becomes yours; in an instant you may pass from +region to region; like the Word itself, you are transported from the +ends of the world to other worlds. Harmony exists, and you are part of +it! Light is there and your eyes possess it! Melody is heard and you +echo it! Under such conditions, you feel your perceptions developing, +widening; the eyes of your mind reach to vast distances. There is, in +truth, neither time nor place to the Spirit; space and duration are +proportions created for Matter; spirit and matter have naught in +common. + +"Though these things take place in stillness, in silence, without +agitation, without external movement, yet Prayer is all action; but it +is spiritual action, stripped of substantiality, and reduced, like the +motion of the worlds, to an invisible pure force. It penetrates +everywhere like light; it gives vitality to souls that come beneath +its rays, as Nature beneath the sun. It resuscitates virtue, purifies +and sanctifies all actions, peoples solitude, and gives a foretaste of +eternal joys. When you have once felt the delights of the divine +intoxication which comes of this internal travail, then all is yours! +once take the lute on which we sing to God within your hands, and you +will never part with it. Hence the solitude in which Angelic Spirits +live; hence their disdain of human joys. They are withdrawn from those +who must die to live; they hear the language of such beings, but they +no longer understand their ideas; they wonder at their movements, at +what the world terms policies, material laws, societies. For them all +mysteries are over; truth, and truth alone, is theirs. They who have +reached the point where their eyes discern the Sacred Portals, who, +not looking back, not uttering one regret, contemplate worlds and +comprehend their destinies, such as they keep silence, wait, and bear +their final struggles. The worst of all those struggles is the last; +at the zenith of all virtue is Resignation,--to be an exile and not +lament, no longer to delight in earthly things and yet to smile, to +belong to God and yet to stay with men! You hear the voice that cries +to you, 'Advance!' Often celestial visions of descending Angels +compass you about with songs of praise; then, tearless, uncomplaining, +must you watch them as they reascent the skies! To murmur is to +forfeit all. Resignation is a fruit that ripens at the gates of +heaven. How powerful, how glorious the calm smile, the pure brow of +the resigned human creature. Radiant is the light of that brow. They +who live in its atmosphere grow purer. That calm glance penetrates and +softens. More eloquent by silence than the prophet by speech, such +beings triumph by their simple presence. Their ears are quick to hear +as a faithful dog listening for his master. Brighter than hope, +stronger than love, higher than faith, that creature of resignation is +the virgin standing on the earth, who holds for a moment the conquered +palm, then, rising heavenward, leaves behind her the imprint of her +white, pure feet. When she has passed away men flock around and cry, +'See! See!' Sometimes God holds her still in sight,--a figure to whose +feet creep Forms and Species of Animality to be shown their way. She +wafts the light exhaling from her hair, and they see; she speaks, and +they hear. 'A miracle!' they cry. Often she triumphs in the name of +God; frightened men deny her and put her to death; smiling, she lays +down her sword and goes to the stake, having saved the Peoples. How +many a pardoned Angel has passed from martyrdom to heaven! Sinai, +Golgotha are not in this place nor in that; Angels are crucified in +every place, in every sphere. Sighs pierce to God from the whole +universe. This earth on which we live is but a single sheaf of the +great harvest; humanity is but a species in the vast garden where the +flowers of heaven are cultivated. Everywhere God is like unto Himself, +and everywhere, by prayer, it is easy to reach Him." + +With these words, which fell from the lips of another Hagar in the +wilderness, burning the souls of the hearers as the live coal of the +word inflamed Isaiah, this mysterious being paused as though to gather +some remaining strength. Wilfrid and Minna dared not speak. Suddenly +HE lifted himself up to die:-- + +"Soul of all things, oh my God, thou whom I love for Thyself! Thou, +Judge and Father, receive a love which has no limit. Give me of thine +essence and thy faculties that I be wholly thine! Take me, that I no +longer be myself! Am I not purified? then cast me back into the +furnace! If I be not yet proved in the fire, make me some nurturing +ploughshare, or the Sword of victory! Grant me a glorious martyrdom in +which to proclaim thy Word! Rejected, I will bless thy justice. But if +excess of love may win in a moment that which hard and patient labor +cannot attain, then bear me upward in thy chariot of fire! Grant me +triumph, or further trial, still will I bless thee! To suffer for +thee, is not that to triumph? Take me, seize me, bear me away! nay, if +thou wilt, reject me! Thou art He who can do no evil. Ah!" he cried, +after a pause, "the bonds are breaking. + +"Spirits of the pure, ye sacred flock, come forth from the hidden +places, come on the surface of the luminous waves! The hour now is; +come, assemble! Let us sing at the gates of the Sanctuary; our songs +shall drive away the final clouds. With one accord let us hail the +Dawn of the Eternal Day. Behold the rising of the one True Light! Ah, +why may I not take with me these my friends! Farewell, poor earth, +Farewell!" + + + + CHAPTER VII + + THE ASSUMPTION + +The last psalm was uttered neither by word, look, nor gesture, nor by +any of those signs which men employ to communicate their thoughts, but +as the soul speaks to itself; for at the moment when Seraphita +revealed herself in her true nature, her thoughts were no longer +enslaved by human words. The violence of that last prayer had burst +her bonds. Her soul, like a white dove, remained for an instant poised +above the body whose exhausted substances were about to be +annihilated. + +The aspiration of the Soul toward heaven was so contagious that +Wilfrid and Minna, beholding those radiant scintillations of Life, +perceived not Death. + +They had fallen on their knees when _he_ had turned toward his Orient, +and they shared his ecstasy. + +The fear of the Lord, which creates man a second time, purging away +his dross, mastered their hearts. + +Their eyes, veiled to the things of Earth, were opened to the +Brightness of Heaven. + +Though, like the Seers of old called Prophets by men, they were filled +with the terror of the Most High, yet like them they continued firm +when they found themselves within the radiance where the Glory of the +_Spirit_ shone. + +The veil of flesh, which, until now, had hidden that glory from their +eyes, dissolved imperceptibly away, and left them free to behold the +Divine substance. + +They stood in the twilight of the Coming Dawn, whose feeble rays +prepared them to look upon the True Light, to hear the Living Word, +and yet not die. + +In this state they began to perceive the immeasurable differences +which separate the things of earth from the things of Heaven. + +_Life_, on the borders of which they stood, leaning upon each other, +trembling and illuminated, like two children standing under shelter in +presence of a conflagration, That Life offered no lodgment to the +senses. + +The ideas they used to interpret their vision to themselves were to +the things seen what the visible senses of a man are to his soul, the +material covering of a divine essence. + +The departing _spirit_ was above them, shedding incense without odor, +melody without sound. About them, where they stood, were neither +surfaces, nor angles, nor atmosphere. + +They dared neither question him nor contemplate him; they stood in the +shadow of that Presence as beneath the burning rays of a tropical sun, +fearing to raise their eyes lest the light should blast them. + +They knew they were beside him, without being able to perceive how it +was that they stood, as in a dream, on the confines of the Visible and +the Invisible, nor how they had lost sight of the Visible and how they +beheld the Invisible. + +To each other they said: "If he touches us, we can die!" But the +_spirit_ was now within the Infinite, and they knew not that neither +time, nor space, nor death, existed there, and that a great gulf lay +between them, although they thought themselves beside him. + +Their souls were not prepared to receive in its fulness a knowledge of +the faculties of that Life; they could have only faint and confused +perceptions of it, suited to their weakness. + +Were it not so, the thunder of the _Living Word_, whose far-off tones +now reached their ears, and whose meaning entered their souls as life +unites with body,--one echo of that Word would have consumed their +being as a whirlwind of fire laps up a fragile straw. + +Therefore they saw only that which their nature, sustained by the +strength of the _spirit_, permitted them to see; they heard that only +which they were able to hear. + +And yet, though thus protected, they shuddered when the Voice of the +anguished soul broke forth above them--the prayer of the _Spirit_ +awaiting Life and imploring it with a cry. + +That cry froze them to the very marrow of their bones. + +The _Spirit_ knocked at the _sacred portal_. "What wilt thou?" answered +a _choir_, whose question echoed among the worlds. "To go to God." "Hast +thou conquered?" "I have conquered the flesh through abstinence, I +have conquered false knowledge by humility, I have conquered pride by +charity, I have conquered the earth by love; I have paid my dues by +suffering, I am purified in the fires of faith, I have longed for Life +by prayer: I wait in adoration, and I am resigned." + +No answer came. + +"God's will be done!" answered the _Spirit_, believing that he was about +to be rejected. + +His tears flowed and fell like dew upon the heads of the two kneeling +witnesses, who trembled before the justice of God. + +Suddenly the trumpets sounded,--the last trumpets of Victory won by +the _Angel_ in this last trial. The reverberation passed through space +as sound through its echo, filling it, and shaking the universe which +Wilfrid and Minna felt like an atom beneath their feet. They trembled +under an anguish caused by the dread of the mystery about to be +accomplished. + +A great movement took place, as though the Eternal Legions, putting +themselves in motion, were passing upward in spiral columns. The +worlds revolved like clouds driven by a furious wind. It was all +rapid. + +Suddenly the veils were rent away. They saw on high as it were a star, +incomparably more lustrous than the most luminous of material stars, +which detached itself, and fell like a thunderbolt, dazzling as +lightning. Its passage paled the faces of the pair, who thought it to +be _the Light_ Itself. + +It was the Messenger of good tidings, the plume of whose helmet was a +flame of Life. + +Behind him lay the swath of his way gleaming with a flood of the +lights through which he passed. + +He bore a palm and a sword. He touched the _Spirit_ with the palm, and +the _Spirit_ was transfigured. Its white wings noiselessly unfolded. + +This communication of _the Light_, changing the _Spirit_ into a _Seraph_ +and clothing it with a glorious form, a celestial armor, poured down +such effulgent rays that the two Seers were paralyzed. + +Like the three apostles to whom Jesus showed himself, they felt the +dead weight of their bodies which denied them a complete and cloudless +intuition of _the Word_ and _the True Life_. + +They comprehended the nakedness of their souls; they were able to +measure the poverty of their light by comparing it--a humbling task +--with the halo of the _Seraph_. + +A passionate desire to plunge back into the mire of earth and suffer +trial took possession of them,--trial through which they might +victoriously utter at the _sacred gates_ the words of that radiant +_Seraph_. + +The _Seraph_ knelt before the _Sanctuary_, beholding it, at last, face +to face; and he said, raising his hands thitherward, "Grant that these +two may have further sight; they will love the Lord and proclaim His +word." + +At this prayer a veil fell. Whether it were that the hidden force +which held the Seers had momentarily annihilated their physical +bodies, or that it raised their spirits above those bodies, certain it +is that they felt within them a rending of the pure from the impure. + +The tears of the _Seraph_ rose about them like a vapor, which hid the +lower worlds from their knowledge, held them in its folds, bore them +upwards, gave them forgetfulness of earthly meanings and the power of +comprehending the meanings of things divine. + +The True Light shone; it illumined the Creations, which seemed to them +barren when they saw the source from which all worlds--Terrestrial, +Spiritual, and Divine-derived their Motion. + +Each world possessed a centre to which converged all points of its +circumference. These worlds were themselves the points which moved +toward the centre of their system. Each system had its centre in great +celestial regions which communicated with the flaming and quenchless +_motor of all that is_. + +Thus, from the greatest to the smallest of the worlds, and from the +smallest of the worlds to the smallest portion of the beings who +compose it, all was individual, and all was, nevertheless, One and +indivisible. + +What was the design of the Being, fixed in His essence and in His +faculties, who transmitted that essence and those faculties without +losing them? who manifested them outside of Himself without separating +them from Himself? who rendered his creations outside of Himself fixed +in their essence and mutable in their form? The pair thus called to +the celestial festival could only see the order and arrangement of +created beings and admire the immediate result. The Angels alone see +more. They know the means; they comprehend the final end. + +But what the two Elect were granted power to contemplate, what they +were able to bring back as a testimony which enlightened their minds +forever after, was the proof of the action of the Worlds and of +Beings; the consciousness of the effort with which they all converge +to the Result. + +They heard the divers parts of the Infinite forming one living melody; +and each time that the accord made itself felt like a mighty +respiration, the Worlds drawn by the concordant movement inclined +themselves toward the Supreme Being who, from His impenetrable centre, +issued all things and recalled all things to Himself. + +This ceaseless alternation of voices and silence seemed the rhythm of +the sacred hymn which resounds and prolongs its sound from age to age. + +Wilfrid and Minna were enabled to understand some of the mysterious +sayings of Him who had appeared on earth in the form which to each of +them had rendered him comprehensible,--to one Seraphitus, to the other +Seraphita,--for they saw that all was homogeneous in the sphere where +he now was. + +Light gave birth to melody, melody gave birth to light; colors were +light and melody; motion was a Number endowed with Utterance; all +things were at once sonorous, diaphanous, and mobile; so that each +interpenetrated the other, the whole vast area was unobstructed and +the Angels could survey it from the depths of the Infinite. + +They perceived the puerility of human sciences, of which he had spoken +to them. + +The scene was to them a prospect without horizon, a boundless space +into which an all-consuming desire prompted them to plunge. But, +fastened to their miserable bodies, they had the desire without the +power to fulfil it. + +The _Seraph_, preparing for his flight, no longer looked towards them; +he had nothing now in common with Earth. + +Upward he rose; the shadow of his luminous presence covered the two +Seers like a merciful veil, enabling them to raise their eyes and see +him, rising in his glory to Heaven in company with the glad Archangel. + +He rose as the sun from the bosom of the Eastern waves; but, more +majestic than the orb and vowed to higher destinies, he could not be +enchained like inferior creations in the spiral movement of the +worlds; he followed the line of the Infinite, pointing without +deviation to the One Centre, there to enter his eternal life,--to +receive there, in his faculties and in his essence, the power to enjoy +through Love, and the gift of comprehending through Wisdom. + +The scene which suddenly unveiled itself to the eyes of the two Seers +crushed them with a sense of its vastness; they felt like atoms, whose +minuteness was not to be compared even to the smallest particle which +the infinite of divisibility enabled the mind of man to imagine, +brought into the presence of the infinite of Numbers, which God alone +can comprehend as He alone can comprehend Himself. + +Strength and Love! what heights, what depths in those two entities, +whom the _Seraph's_ first prayer placed like two links, as it were, to +unite the immensities of the lower worlds with the immensity of the +higher universe! + +They comprehended the invisible ties by which the material worlds are +bound to the spiritual worlds. Remembering the sublime efforts of +human genius, they were able to perceive the principle of all melody +in the songs of heaven which gave sensations of color, of perfume, of +thought, which recalled the innumerable details of all creations, as +the songs of earth revive the infinite memories of love. + +Brought by the exaltation of their faculties to a point that cannot be +described in any language, they were able to cast their eyes for an +instant into the Divine World. There all was Rejoicing. + +Myriads of angels were flocking together, without confusion; all alike +yet all dissimilar, simple as the flower of the fields, majestic as +the universe. + +Wilfrid and Minna saw neither their coming nor their going; they +appeared suddenly in the Infinite and filled it with their presence, +as the stars shine in the invisible ether. + +The scintillations of their united diadems illumined space like the +fires of the sky at dawn upon the mountains. Waves of light flowed +from their hair, and their movements created tremulous undulations in +space like the billows of a phosphorescent sea. + +The two Seers beheld the _Seraph_ dimly in the midst of the immortal +legions. Suddenly, as though all the arrows of a quiver had darted +together, the Spirits swept away with a breath the last vestiges of +the human form; as the _Seraph_ rose he became yet purer; soon he +seemed to them but a faint outline of what he had been at the moment +of his transfiguration,--lines of fire without shadow. + +Higher he rose, receiving from circle to circle some new gift, while +the sign of his election was transmitted to each sphere into which, +more and more purified, he entered. + +No voice was silent; the hymn diffused and multiplied itself in all +its modulations:-- + +"Hail to him who enters living! Come, flower of the Worlds! diamond +from the fires of suffering! pearl without spot, desire without flesh, +new link of earth and heaven, be Light! Conquering spirit, Queen of +the world, come for thy crown! Victor of earth, receive thy diadem! +Thou art of us!" + +The virtues of the _Seraph_ shone forth in all their beauty. + +His earliest desire for heaven re-appeared, tender as childhood. The +deeds of his life, like constellations, adorned him with their +brightness. His acts of faith shone like the Jacinth of heaven, the +color of sidereal fires. The pearls of Charity were upon him,--a +chaplet of garnered tears! Love divine surrounded him with roses; and +the whiteness of his Resignation obliterated all earthly trace. + +Soon, to the eyes of the Seers, he was but a point of flame, growing +brighter and brighter as its motion was lost in the melodious +acclamations which welcomed his entrance into heaven. + +The celestial accents made the two exiles weep. + +Suddenly a silence as of death spread like a mourning veil from the +first to the highest sphere, throwing Wilfrid and Minna into a state +of intolerable expectation. + +At this moment the _Seraph_ was lost to sight within the _sanctuary_, +receiving there the gift of Life Eternal. + +A movement of adoration made by the Host of heaven filled the two +Seers with ecstasy mingled with terror. They felt that all were +prostrate before the Throne, in all the spheres, in the Spheres +Divine, in the Spiritual Spheres, and in the Worlds of Darkness. + +The Angels bent the knee to celebrate the _Seraph's_ glory; the Spirits +bent the knee in token of their impatience; others bent the knee in +the dark abysses, shuddering with awe. + +A mighty cry of joy gushed forth, as the spring gushes forth to its +millions of flowering herbs sparkling with diamond dew-drops in the +sunlight; at that instant the _Seraph_ reappeared, effulgent, crying, +"_Eternal! Eternal! Eternal_!" + +The universe heard the cry and understood it; it penetrated the +spheres as God penetrates them; it took possession of the infinite; +the Seven Divine Worlds heard the Voice and answered. + +A mighty movement was perceptible, as though whole planets, purified, +were rising in dazzling light to become Eternal. + +Had the _Seraph_ obtained, as a first mission, the work of calling to +God the creations permeated by His Word? + +But already the sublime _hallelujah_ was sounding in the ear of the +desolate ones as the distant undulations of an ended melody. Already +the celestial lights were fading like the gold and crimson tints of a +setting sun. Death and Impurity recovered their prey. + +As the two mortals re-entered the prison of flesh, from which their +spirit had momentarily been delivered by some priceless sleep, they +felt like those who wake after a night of brilliant dreams, the memory +of which still lingers in their soul, though their body retains no +consciousness of them, and human language is unable to give utterance +to them. + +The deep darkness of the sphere that was now about them was that of +the sun of the visible worlds. + +"Let us descend to those lower regions," said Wilfrid. + +"Let us do what he told us to do," answered Minna. "We have seen the +worlds on their march to God; we know the Path. Our diadem of stars is +There." + +Floating downward through the abysses, they re-entered the dust of the +lesser worlds, and saw the Earth, like a subterranean cavern, suddenly +illuminated to their eyes by the light which their souls brought with +them, and which still environed them in a cloud of the paling +harmonies of heaven. The sight was that which of old struck the inner +eyes of Seers and Prophets. Ministers of all religions, Preachers of +all pretended truths, Kings consecrated by Force and Terror, Warriors +and Mighty men apportioning the Peoples among them, the Learned and +the Rich standing above the suffering, noisy crowd, and noisily +grinding them beneath their feet,--all were there, accompanied by +their wives and servants; all were robed in stuffs of gold and silver +and azure studded with pearls and gems torn from the bowels of Earth, +stolen from the depths of Ocean, for which Humanity had toiled +throughout the centuries, sweating and blaspheming. But these +treasures, these splendors, constructed of blood, seemed worn-out rags +to the eyes of the two Exiles. "What do you there, in motionless +ranks?" cried Wilfrid. They answered not. "What do you there, +motionless?" They answered not. Wilfrid waved his hands over them, +crying in a loud voice, "What do you there, in motionless ranks?" All, +with unanimous action, opened their garments and gave to sight their +withered bodies, eaten with worms, putrefied, crumbling to dust, +rotten with horrible diseases. + +"You lead the nations to Death," Wilfrid said to them. "You have +depraved the earth, perverted the Word, prostituted justice. After +devouring the grass of the fields you have killed the lambs of the +fold. Do you think yourself justified because of your sores? I will +warn my brethren who have ears to hear the Voice, and they will come +and drink of the spring of Living Waters which you have hidden." + +"Let us save our strength for Prayer," said Minna. "Wilfrid, thy +mission is not that of the Prophets or the Avenger or the Messenger; +we are still on the confines of the lowest sphere; let us endeavor to +rise through space on the wings of Prayer." + +"Thou shalt be all my love!" + +"Thou shalt be all my strength!" + +"We have seen the Mysteries; we are, each to the other, the only being +here below to whom Joy and Sadness are comprehensible; let us pray, +therefore: we know the Path, let us walk in it." + +"Give me thy hand," said the Young Girl, "if we walk together, the way +will be to me less hard and long." + +"With thee, with thee alone," replied the Man, "can I cross the awful +solitude without complaint." + +"Together we will go to Heaven," she said. + +The clouds gathered and formed a darksome dais. Suddenly the pair +found themselves kneeling beside a body which old David was guarding +from curious eyes, resolved to bury it himself. + +Beyond those walls the first summer of the nineteenth century shone +forth in all its glory. The two lovers believed they heard a Voice in +the sun-rays. They breathed a celestial essence from the new-born +flowers. Holding each other by the hand, they said, "That illimitable +ocean which shines below us is but an image of what we saw above." + +"Where are you going?" asked Monsieur Becker. + +"To God," they answered. "Come with us, father." + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Seraphita, by Honore de Balzac + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK SERAPHITA *** + +***** This file should be named 1432.txt or 1432.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/1/4/3/1432/ + +Produced by John Bickers; and Dagny + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. 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FOR PUBLIC DOMAIN ETEXTS*Ver.04.29.93*END* + + + + + +Etext prepared by John Bickers, jbickers@templar.actrix.gen.nz +and Dagny, dagnyj@hotmail.com + + + + + +SERAPHITA + +BY + +HONORE DE BALZAC + + + +Translated By +Katharine Prescott Wormeley + + + + +DEDICATION + + To Madame Eveline de Hanska, nee Comtesse Rzewuska. + + Madame,--Here is the work which you asked of me. I am happy, in + thus dedicating it, to offer you a proof of the respectful + affection you allow me to bear you. If I am reproached for + impotence in this attempt to draw from the depths of mysticism a + book which seeks to give, in the lucid transparency of our + beautiful language, the luminous poesy of the Orient, to you the + blame! Did you not command this struggle (resembling that of + Jacob) by telling me that the most imperfect sketch of this + Figure, dreamed of by you, as it has been by me since childhood, + would still be something to you? + + Here, then, it is,--that something. Would that this book could + belong exclusively to noble spirits, preserved like yours from + worldly pettiness by solitude! THEY would know how to give to it + the melodious rhythm that it lacks, which might have made it, in + the hands of a poet, the glorious epic that France still awaits. + But from me they must accept it as one of those sculptured + balustrades, carved by a hand of faith, on which the pilgrims + lean, in the choir of some glorious church, to think upon the end + of man. + +I am, madame, with respect, +Your devoted servant, +De Balzac. + + + + +SERAPHITA + + + +CHAPTER I + +SERAPHITUS + +As the eye glances over a map of the coasts of Norway, can the +imagination fail to marvel at their fantastic indentations and +serrated edges, like a granite lace, against which the surges of the +North Sea roar incessantly? Who has not dreamed of the majestic sights +to be seen on those beachless shores, of that multitude of creeks and +inlets and little bays, no two of them alike, yet all trackless +abysses? We may almost fancy that Nature took pleasure in recording by +ineffaceable hieroglyphics the symbol of Norwegian life, bestowing on +these coasts the conformation of a fish's spine, fishery being the +staple commerce of the country, and well-nigh the only means of living +of the hardy men who cling like tufts of lichen to the arid cliffs. +Here, through fourteen degrees of longitude, barely seven hundred +thousand souls maintain existence. Thanks to perils devoid of glory, +to year-long snows which clothe the Norway peaks and guard them from +profaning foot of traveller, these sublime beauties are virgin still; +they will be seen to harmonize with human phenomena, also virgin--at +least to poetry--which here took place, the history of which it is our +purpose to relate. + +If one of these inlets, mere fissures to the eyes of the eider-ducks, +is wide enough for the sea not to freeze between the prison-walls of +rock against which it surges, the country-people call the little bay a +"fiord,"--a word which geographers of every nation have adopted into +their respective languages. Though a certain resemblance exists among +all these fiords, each has its own characteristics. The sea has +everywhere forced its way as through a breach, yet the rocks about +each fissure are diversely rent, and their tumultuous precipices defy +the rules of geometric law. Here the scarp is dentelled like a saw; +there the narrow ledges barely allow the snow to lodge or the noble +crests of the Northern pines to spread themselves; farther on, some +convulsion of Nature may have rounded a coquettish curve into a lovely +valley flanked in rising terraces with black-plumed pines. Truly we +are tempted to call this land the Switzerland of Ocean. + +Midway between Trondhjem and Christiansand lies an inlet called the +Strom-fiord. If the Strom-fiord is not the loveliest of these rocky +landscapes, it has the merit of displaying the terrestrial grandeurs +of Norway, and of enshrining the scenes of a history that is indeed +celestial. + +The general outline of the Strom-fiord seems at first sight to be that +of a funnel washed out by the sea. The passage which the waves have +forced present to the eye an image of the eternal struggle between old +Ocean and the granite rock,--two creations of equal power, one through +inertia, the other by ceaseless motion. Reefs of fantastic shape run +out on either side, and bar the way of ships and forbid their +entrance. The intrepid sons of Norway cross these reefs on foot, +springing from rock to rock, undismayed at the abyss--a hundred +fathoms deep and only six feet wide--which yawns beneath them. Here a +tottering block of gneiss falling athwart two rocks gives an uncertain +footway; there the hunters or the fishermen, carrying their loads, +have flung the stems of fir-trees in guise of bridges, to join the +projecting reefs, around and beneath which the surges roar +incessantly. This dangerous entrance to the little bay bears obliquely +to the right with a serpentine movement, and there encounters a +mountain rising some twenty-five hundred feet above sea-level, the +base of which is a vertical palisade of solid rock more than a mile +and a half long, the inflexible granite nowhere yielding to clefts or +undulations until it reaches a height of two hundred feet above the +water. Rushing violently in, the sea is driven back with equal +violence by the inert force of the mountain to the opposite shore, +gently curved by the spent force of the retreating waves. + +The fiord is closed at the upper end by a vast gneiss formation +crowned with forests, down which a river plunges in cascades, becomes +a torrent when the snows are melting, spreads into a sheet of waters, +and then falls with a roar into the bay,--vomiting as it does so the +hoary pines and the aged larches washed down from the forests and +scarce seen amid the foam. These trees plunge headlong into the fiord +and reappear after a time on the surface, clinging together and +forming islets which float ashore on the beaches, where the +inhabitants of a village on the left bank of the Strom-fiord gather +them up, split, broken (though sometimes whole), and always stripped +of bark and branches. The mountain which receives at its base the +assaults of Ocean, and at its summit the buffeting of the wild North +wind, is called the Falberg. Its crest, wrapped at all seasons in a +mantle of snow and ice, is the sharpest peak of Norway; its proximity +to the pole produces, at the height of eighteen hundred feet, a degree +of cold equal to that of the highest mountains of the globe. The +summit of this rocky mass, rising sheer from the fiord on one side, +slopes gradually downward to the east, where it joins the declivities +of the Sieg and forms a series of terraced valleys, the chilly +temperature of which allows no growth but that of shrubs and stunted +trees. + +The upper end of the fiord, where the waters enter it as they come +down from the forest, is called the Siegdahlen,--a word which may be +held to mean "the shedding of the Sieg,"--the river itself receiving +that name. The curving shore opposite to the face of the Falberg is +the valley of Jarvis,--a smiling scene overlooked by hills clothed +with firs, birch-trees, and larches, mingled with a few oaks and +beeches, the richest coloring of all the varied tapestries which +Nature in these northern regions spreads upon the surface of her +rugged rocks. The eye can readily mark the line where the soil, warmed +by the rays of the sun, bears cultivation and shows the native growth +of the Norwegian flora. Here the expanse of the fiord is broad enough +to allow the sea, dashed back by the Falberg, to spend its expiring +force in gentle murmurs upon the lower slope of these hills,--a shore +bordered with finest sand, strewn with mica and sparkling pebbles, +porphyry, and marbles of a thousand tints, brought from Sweden by the +river floods, together with ocean waifs, shells, and flowers of the +sea driven in by tempests, whether of the Pole or Tropics. + +At the foot of the hills of Jarvis lies a village of some two hundred +wooden houses, where an isolated population lives like a swarm of bees +in a forest, without increasing or diminishing; vegetating happily, +while wringing their means of living from the breast of a stern +Nature. The almost unknown existence of the little hamlet is readily +accounted for. Few of its inhabitants were bold enough to risk their +lives among the reefs to reach the deep-sea fishing,--the staple +industry of Norwegians on the least dangerous portions of their coast. +The fish of the fiord were numerous enough to suffice, in part at +least, for the sustenance of the inhabitants; the valley pastures +provided milk and butter; a certain amount of fruitful, well-tilled +soil yielded rye and hemp and vegetables, which necessity taught the +people to protect against the severity of the cold and the fleeting +but terrible heat of the sun with the shrewd ability which Norwegians +display in the two-fold struggle. The difficulty of communication with +the outer world, either by land where the roads are impassable, or by +sea where none but tiny boats can thread their way through the +maritime defiles that guard the entrance to the bay, hinder these +people from growing rich by the sale of their timber. It would cost +enormous sums to either blast a channel out to sea or construct a way +to the interior. The roads from Christiana to Trondhjem all turn +toward the Strom-fiord, and cross the Sieg by a bridge some score of +miles above its fall into the bay. The country to the north, between +Jarvis and Trondhjem, is covered with impenetrable forests, while to +the south the Falberg is nearly as much separated from Christiana by +inaccessible precipices. The village of Jarvis might perhaps have +communicated with the interior of Norway and Sweden by the river Sieg; +but to do this and to be thus brought into contact with civilization, +the Strom-fiord needed the presence of a man of genius. Such a man did +actually appear there,--a poet, a Swede of great religious fervor, who +died admiring, even reverencing this region as one of the noblest +works of the Creator. + +Minds endowed by study with an inward sight, and whose quick +perceptions bring before the soul, as though painted on a canvas, the +contrasting scenery of this universe, will now apprehend the general +features of the Strom-fiord. They alone, perhaps, can thread their way +through the tortuous channels of the reef, or flee with the battling +waves to the everlasting rebuff of the Falberg whose white peaks +mingle with the vaporous clouds of the pearl-gray sky, or watch with +delight the curving sheet of waters, or hear the rushing of the Sieg +as it hangs for an instant in long fillets and then falls over a +picturesque abatis of noble trees toppled confusedly together, +sometimes upright, sometimes half-sunken beneath the rocks. It may be +that such minds alone can dwell upon the smiling scenes nestling among +the lower hills of Jarvis; where the luscious Northern vegetables +spring up in families, in myriads, where the white birches bend, +graceful as maidens, where colonnades of beeches rear their boles +mossy with the growth of centuries, where shades of green contrast, +and white clouds float amid the blackness of the distant pines, and +tracts of many-tinted crimson and purple shrubs are shaded endlessly; +in short, where blend all colors, all perfumes of a flora whose +wonders are still ignored. Widen the boundaries of this limited +ampitheatre, spring upward to the clouds, lose yourself among the +rocks where the seals are lying and even then your thought cannot +compass the wealth of beauty nor the poetry of this Norwegian coast. +Can your thought be as vast as the ocean that bounds it? as weird as +the fantastic forms drawn by these forests, these clouds, these +shadows, these changeful lights? + +Do you see above the meadows on that lowest slope which undulates +around the higher hills of Jarvis two or three hundred houses roofed +with "noever," a sort of thatch made of birch-bark,--frail houses, +long and low, looking like silk-worms on a mulberry-leaf tossed hither +by the winds? Above these humble, peaceful dwellings stands the +church, built with a simplicity in keeping with the poverty of the +villagers. A graveyard surrounds the chancel, and a little farther on +you see the parsonage. Higher up, on a projection of the mountain is a +dwelling-house, the only one of stone; for which reason the +inhabitants of the village call it "the Swedish Castle." In fact, a +wealthy Swede settled in Jarvis about thirty years before this history +begins, and did his best to ameliorate its condition. This little +house, certainly not a castle, built with the intention of leading the +inhabitants to build others like it, was noticeable for its solidity +and for the wall that inclosed it, a rare thing in Norway where, +notwithstanding the abundance of stone, wood alone is used for all +fences, even those of fields. This Swedish house, thus protected +against the climate, stood on rising ground in the centre of an +immense courtyard. The windows were sheltered by those projecting +pent-house roofs supported by squared trunks of trees which give so +patriarchal an air to Northern dwellings. From beneath them the eye +could see the savage nudity of the Falberg, or compare the infinitude +of the open sea with the tiny drop of water in the foaming fiord; the +ear could hear the flowing of the Sieg, whose white sheet far away +looked motionless as it fell into its granite cup edged for miles +around with glaciers,--in short, from this vantage ground the whole +landscape whereon our simple yet superhuman drama was about to be +enacted could be seen and noted. + +The winter of 1799-1800 was one of the most severe ever known to +Europeans. The Norwegian sea was frozen in all the fiords, where, as a +usual thing, the violence of the surf kept the ice from forming. A +wind, whose effects were like those of the Spanish levanter, swept the +ice of the Strom-fiord, driving the snow to the upper end of the gulf. +Seldom indeed could the people of Jarvis see the mirror of frozen +waters reflecting the colors of the sky; a wondrous site in the bosom +of these mountains when all other aspects of nature are levelled +beneath successive sheets of snow, and crests and valleys are alike +mere folds of the vast mantle flung by winter across a landscape at +once so mournfully dazzling and so monotonous. The falling volume of +the Sieg, suddenly frozen, formed an immense arcade beneath which the +inhabitants might have crossed under shelter from the blast had any +dared to risk themselves inland. But the dangers of every step away +from their own surroundings kept even the boldest hunters in their +homes, afraid lest the narrow paths along the precipices, the clefts +and fissures among the rocks, might be unrecognizable beneath the +snow. + +Thus it was that no human creature gave life to the white desert where +Boreas reigned, his voice alone resounding at distant intervals. The +sky, nearly always gray, gave tones of polished steel to the ice of +the fiord. Perchance some ancient eider-duck crossed the expanse, +trusting to the warm down beneath which dream, in other lands, the +luxurious rich, little knowing of the dangers through which their +luxury has come to them. Like the Bedouin of the desert who darts +alone across the sands of Africa, the bird is neither seen nor heard; +the torpid atmosphere, deprived of its electrical conditions, echoes +neither the whirr of its wings nor its joyous notes. Besides, what +human eye was strong enough to bear the glitter of those pinnacles +adorned with sparkling crystals, or the sharp reflections of the snow, +iridescent on the summits in the rays of a pallid sun which +infrequently appeared, like a dying man seeking to make known that he +still lives. Often, when the flocks of gray clouds, driven in +squadrons athwart the mountains and among the tree-tops, hid the sky +with their triple veils Earth, lacking the celestial lights, lit +herself by herself. + +Here, then, we meet the majesty of Cold, seated eternally at the pole +in that regal silence which is the attribute of all absolute monarchy. +Every extreme principle carries with it an appearance of negation and +the symptoms of death; for is not life the struggle of two forces? +Here in this Northern nature nothing lived. One sole power--the +unproductive power of ice--reigned unchallenged. The roar of the open +sea no longer reached the deaf, dumb inlet, where during one short +season of the year Nature made haste to produce the slender harvests +necessary for the food of the patient people. A few tall pine-trees +lifted their black pyramids garlanded with snow, and the form of their +long branches and depending shoots completed the mourning garments of +those solemn heights. + +Each household gathered in its chimney-corner, in houses carefully +closed from the outer air, and well supplied with biscuit, melted +butter, dried fish, and other provisions laid in for the seven-months +winter. The very smoke of these dwellings was hardly seen, half-hidden +as they were beneath the snow, against the weight of which they were +protected by long planks reaching from the roof and fastened at some +distance to solid blocks on the ground, forming a covered way around +each building. + +During these terrible winter months the women spun and dyed the +woollen stuffs and the linen fabrics with which they clothed their +families, while the men read, or fell into those endless meditations +which have given birth to so many profound theories, to the mystic +dreams of the North, to its beliefs, to its studies (so full and so +complete in one science, at least, sounded as with a plummet), to its +manners and its morals, half-monastic, which force the soul to react +and feed upon itself and make the Norwegian peasant a being apart +among the peoples of Europe. + +Such was the condition of the Strom-fiord in the first year of the +nineteenth century and about the middle of the month of May. + +On a morning when the sun burst forth upon this landscape, lighting +the fires of the ephemeral diamonds produced by crystallizations of +the snow and ice, two beings crossed the fiord and flew along the base +of the Falberg, rising thence from ledge to ledge toward the summit. +What were they? human creatures, or two arrows? They might have been +taken for eider-ducks sailing in consort before the wind. Not the +boldest hunter nor the most superstitious fisherman would have +attributed to human beings the power to move safely along the slender +lines traced beneath the snow by the granite ledges, where yet this +couple glided with the terrifying dexterity of somnambulists who, +forgetting their own weight and the dangers of the slightest +deviation, hurry along a ridge-pole and keep their equilibrium by the +power of some mysterious force. + +"Stop me, Seraphitus," said a pale young girl, "and let me breathe. I +look at you, you only, while scaling these walls of the gulf; +otherwise, what would become of me? I am such a feeble creature. Do I +tire you?" + +"No," said the being on whose arm she leaned. "But let us go on, +Minna; the place where we are is not firm enough to stand on." + +Once more the snow creaked sharply beneath the long boards fastened to +their feet, and soon they reached the upper terrace of the first +ledge, clearly defined upon the flank of the precipice. The person +whom Minna had addressed as Seraphitus threw his weight upon his right +heel, arresting the plank--six and a half feet long and narrow as the +foot of a child--which was fastened to his boot by a double thong of +leather. This plank, two inches thick, was covered with reindeer skin, +which bristled against the snow when the foot was raised, and served +to stop the wearer. Seraphitus drew in his left foot, furnished with +another "skee," which was only two feet long, turned swiftly where he +stood, caught his timid companion in his arms, lifted her in spite of +the long boards on her feet, and placed her on a projecting rock from +which he brushed the snow with his pelisse. + +"You are safe there, Minna; you can tremble at your ease." + +"We are a third of the way up the Ice-Cap," she said, looking at the +peak to which she gave the popular name by which it is known in +Norway; "I can hardly believe it." + +Too much out of breath to say more, she smiled at Seraphitus, who, +without answering, laid his hand upon her heart and listened to its +sounding throbs, rapid as those of a frightened bird. + +"It often beats as fast when I run," she said. + +Seraphitus inclined his head with a gesture that was neither coldness +nor indifference, and yet, despite the grace which made the movement +almost tender, it none the less bespoke a certain negation, which in a +woman would have seemed an exquisite coquetry. Seraphitus clasped the +young girl in his arms. Minna accepted the caress as an answer to her +words, continuing to gaze at him. As he raised his head, and threw +back with impatient gesture the golden masses of his hair to free his +brow, he saw an expression of joy in the eyes of his companion. + +"Yes, Minna," he said in a voice whose paternal accents were charming +from the lips of a being who was still adolescent, "Keep your eyes on +me; do not look below you." + +"Why not?" she asked. + +"You wish to know why? then look!" + +Minna glanced quickly at her feet and cried out suddenly like a child +who sees a tiger. The awful sensation of abysses seized her; one +glance sufficed to communicate its contagion. The fiord, eager for +food, bewildered her with its loud voice ringing in her ears, +interposing between herself and life as though to devour her more +surely. From the crown of her head to her feet and along her spine an +icy shudder ran; then suddenly intolerable heat suffused her nerves, +beat in her veins and overpowered her extremities with electric shocks +like those of the torpedo. Too feeble to resist, she felt herself +drawn by a mysterious power to the depths below, wherein she fancied +that she saw some monster belching its venom, a monster whose magnetic +eyes were charming her, whose open jaws appeared to craunch their prey +before they seized it. + +"I die, my Seraphitus, loving none but thee," she said, making a +mechanical movement to fling herself into the abyss. + +Seraphitus breathed softly on her forehead and eyes. Suddenly, like a +traveller relaxed after a bath, Minna forgot these keen emotions, +already dissipated by that caressing breath which penetrated her body +and filled it with balsamic essences as quickly as the breath itself +had crossed the air. + +"Who art thou?" she said, with a feeling of gentle terror. "Ah, but I +know! thou art my life. How canst thou look into that gulf and not +die?" she added presently. + +Seraphitus left her clinging to the granite rock and placed himself at +the edge of the narrow platform on which they stood, whence his eyes +plunged to the depths of the fiord, defying its dazzling invitation. +His body did not tremble, his brow was white and calm as that of a +marble statue,--an abyss facing an abyss. + +"Seraphitus! dost thou not love me? come back!" she cried. "Thy danger +renews my terror. Who art thou to have such superhuman power at thy +age?" she asked as she felt his arms inclosing her once more. + +"But, Minna," answered Seraphitus, "you look fearlessly at greater +spaces far than that." + +Then with raised finger, this strange being pointed upward to the blue +dome, which parting clouds left clear above their heads, where stars +could be seen in open day by virtue of atmospheric laws as yet +unstudied. + +"But what a difference!" she answered smiling. + +"You are right," he said; "we are born to stretch upward to the skies. +Our native land, like the face of a mother, cannot terrify her +children." + +His voice vibrated through the being of his companion, who made no +reply. + +"Come! let us go on," he said. + +The pair darted forward along the narrow paths traced back and forth +upon the mountain, skimming from terrace to terrace, from line to +line, with the rapidity of a barb, that bird of the desert. Presently +they reached an open space, carpeted with turf and moss and flowers, +where no foot had ever trod. + +"Oh, the pretty saeter!" cried Minna, giving to the upland meadow its +Norwegian name. "But how comes it here, at such a height?" + +"Vegetation ceases here, it is true," said Seraphitus. "These few +plants and flowers are due to that sheltering rock which protects the +meadow from the polar winds. Put that tuft in your bosom, Minna," he +added, gathering a flower,--"that balmy creation which no eye has ever +seen; keep the solitary matchless flower in memory of this one +matchless morning of your life. You will find no other guide to lead +you again to this saeter." + +So saying, he gave her the hybrid plant his falcon eye had seen amid +the tufts of gentian acaulis and saxifrages,--a marvel, brought to +bloom by the breath of angels. With girlish eagerness Minna seized the +tufted plant of transparent green, vivid as emerald, which was formed +of little leaves rolled trumpet-wise, brown at the smaller end but +changing tint by tint to their delicately notched edges, which were +green. These leaves were so tightly pressed together that they seemed +to blend and form a mat or cluster of rosettes. Here and there from +this green ground rose pure white stars edged with a line of gold, and +from their throats came crimson anthers but no pistils. A fragrance, +blended of roses and of orange blossoms, yet ethereal and fugitive, +gave something as it were celestial to that mysterious flower, which +Seraphitus sadly contemplated, as though it uttered plaintive thoughts +which he alone could understand. But to Minna this mysterious +phenomenon seemed a mere caprice of nature giving to stone the +freshness, softness, and perfume of plants. + +"Why do you call it matchless? can it not reproduce itself?" she +asked, looking at Seraphitus, who colored and turned away. + +"Let us sit down," he said presently; "look below you, Minna. See! At +this height you will have no fear. The abyss is so far beneath us that +we no longer have a sense of its depths; it acquires the perspective +uniformity of ocean, the vagueness of clouds, the soft coloring of the +sky. See, the ice of the fiord is a turquoise, the dark pine forests +are mere threads of brown; for us all abysses should be thus adorned." + +Seraphitus said the words with that fervor of tone and gesture seen +and known only by those who have ascended the highest mountains of the +globe,--a fervor so involuntarily acquired that the haughtiest of men +is forced to regard his guide as a brother, forgetting his own +superior station till he descends to the valleys and the abodes of his +kind. Seraphitus unfastened the skees from Minna's feet, kneeling +before her. The girl did not notice him, so absorbed was she in the +marvellous view now offered of her native land, whose rocky outlines +could here be seen at a glance. She felt, with deep emotion, the +solemn permanence of those frozen summits, to which words could give +no adequate utterance. + +"We have not come here by human power alone," she said, clasping her +hands. "But perhaps I dream." + +"You think that facts the causes of which you cannot perceive are +supernatural," replied her companion. + +"Your replies," she said, "always bear the stamp of some deep thought. +When I am near you I understand all things without an effort. Ah, I am +free!" + +"If so, you will not need your skees," he answered. + +"Oh!" she said; "I who would fain unfasten yours and kiss your feet!" + +"Keep such words for Wilfrid," said Seraphitus, gently. + +"Wilfrid!" cried Minna angrily; then, softening as she glanced at her +companion's face and trying, but in vain, to take his hand, she added, +"You are never angry, never; you are so hopelessly perfect in all +things." + +"From which you conclude that I am unfeeling." + +Minna was startled at this lucid interpretation of her thought. + +"You prove to me, at any rate, that we understand each other," she +said, with the grace of a loving woman. + +Seraphitus softly shook his head and looked sadly and gently at her. + +"You, who know all things," said Minna, "tell me why it is that the +timidity I felt below is over now that I have mounted higher. Why do I +dare to look at you for the first time face to face, while lower down +I scarcely dared to give a furtive glance?" + +"Perhaps because we are withdrawn from the pettiness of earth," he +answered, unfastening his pelisse. + +"Never, never have I seen you so beautiful!" cried Minna, sitting down +on a mossy rock and losing herself in contemplation of the being who +had now guided her to a part of the peak hitherto supposed to be +inaccessible. + +Never, in truth, had Seraphitus shone with so bright a radiance,--the +only word which can render the illumination of his face and the aspect +of his whole person. Was this splendor due to the lustre which the +pure air of mountains and the reflections of the snow give to the +complexion? Was it produced by the inward impulse which excites the +body at the instant when exertion is arrested? Did it come from the +sudden contrast between the glory of the sun and the darkness of the +clouds, from whose shadow the charming couple had just emerged? +Perhaps to all these causes we may add the effect of a phenomenon, one +of the noblest which human nature has to offer. If some able +physiologist had studied this being (who, judging by the pride on his +brow and the lightning in his eyes seemed a youth of about seventeen +years of age), and if the student had sought for the springs of that +beaming life beneath the whitest skin that ever the North bestowed +upon her offspring, he would undoubtedly have believed either in some +phosphoric fluid of the nerves shining beneath the cuticle, or in the +constant presence of an inward luminary, whose rays issued through the +being of Seraphitus like a light through an alabaster vase. Soft and +slender as were his hands, ungloved to remove his companion's snow- +boots, they seemed possessed of a strength equal to that which the +Creator gave to the diaphanous tentacles of the crab. The fire darting +from his vivid glance seemed to struggle with the beams of the sun, +not to take but to give them light. His body, slim and delicate as +that of a woman, gave evidence of one of those natures which are +feeble apparently, but whose strength equals their will, rendering +them at times powerful. Of medium height, Seraphitus appeared to grow +in stature as he turned fully round and seemed about to spring upward. +His hair, curled by a fairy's hand and waving to the breeze, increased +the illusion produced by this aerial attitude; yet his bearing, wholly +without conscious effort, was the result far more of a moral +phenomenon than of a corporal habit. + +Minna's imagination seconded this illusion, under the dominion of +which all persons would assuredly have fallen,--an illusion which gave +to Seraphitus the appearance of a vision dreamed of in happy sleep. No +known type conveys an image of that form so majestically made to +Minna, but which to the eyes of a man would have eclipsed in womanly +grace the fairest of Raphael's creations. That painter of heaven has +ever put a tranquil joy, a loving sweetness, into the lines of his +angelic conceptions; but what soul, unless it contemplated Seraphitus +himself, could have conceived the ineffable emotions imprinted on his +face? Who would have divined, even in the dreams of artists, where all +things become possible, the shadow cast by some mysterious awe upon +that brow, shining with intellect, which seemed to question Heaven and +to pity Earth? The head hovered awhile disdainfully, as some majestic +bird whose cries reverberate on the atmosphere, then bowed itself +resignedly, like the turtledove uttering soft notes of tenderness in +the depths of the silent woods. His complexion was of marvellous +whiteness, which brought out vividly the coral lips, the brown +eyebrows, and the silken lashes, the only colors that trenched upon +the paleness of that face, whose perfect regularity did not detract +from the grandeur of the sentiments expressed in it; nay, thought and +emotion were reflected there, without hindrance or violence, with the +majestic and natural gravity which we delight in attributing to +superior beings. That face of purest marble expressed in all things +strength and peace. + +Minna rose to take the hand of Seraphitus, hoping thus to draw him to +her, and to lay on that seductive brow a kiss given more from +admiration than from love; but a glance at the young man's eyes, which +pierced her as a ray of sunlight penetrates a prism, paralyzed the +young girl. She felt, but without comprehending, a gulf between them; +then she turned away her head and wept. Suddenly a strong hand seized +her by the waist, and a soft voice said to her: "Come!" She obeyed, +resting her head, suddenly revived, upon the heart of her companion, +who, regulating his step to hers with gentle and attentive conformity, +led her to a spot whence they could see the radiant glories of the +polar Nature. + +"Before I look, before I listen to you, tell me, Seraphitus, why you +repulse me. Have I displeased you? and how? tell me! I want nothing +for myself; I would that all my earthly goods were yours, for the +riches of my heart are yours already. I would that light came to my +eyes only though your eyes just as my thought is born of your thought. +I should not then fear to offend you, for I should give you back the +echoes of your soul, the words of your heart, day by day,--as we +render to God the meditations with which his spirit nourishes our +minds. I would be thine alone." + +"Minna, a constant desire is that which shapes our future. Hope on! +But if you would be pure in heart mingle the idea of the All-Powerful +with your affections here below; then you will love all creatures, and +your heart will rise to heights indeed." + +"I will do all you tell me," she answered, lifting her eyes to his +with a timid movement. + +"I cannot be your companion," said Seraphitus sadly. + +He seemed to repress some thoughts, then stretched his arms towards +Christiana, just visible like a speck on the horizon and said:-- + +"Look!" + +"We are very small," she said. + +"Yes, but we become great through feeling and through intellect," +answered Seraphitus. "With us, and us alone, Minna, begins the +knowledge of things; the little that we learn of the laws of the +visible world enables us to apprehend the immensity of the worlds +invisible. I know not if the time has come to speak thus to you, but I +would, ah, I would communicate to you the flame of my hopes! Perhaps +we may one day be together in the world where Love never dies." + +"Why not here and now?" she said, murmuring. + +"Nothing is stable here," he said, disdainfully. "The passing joys of +earthly love are gleams which reveal to certain souls the coming of +joys more durable; just as the discovery of a single law of nature +leads certain privileged beings to a conception of the system of the +universe. Our fleeting happiness here below is the forerunning proof +of another and a perfect happiness, just as the earth, a fragment of +the world, attests the universe. We cannot measure the vast orbit of +the Divine thought of which we are but an atom as small as God is +great; but we can feel its vastness, we can kneel, adore, and wait. +Men ever mislead themselves in science by not perceiving that all +things on their globe are related and co-ordinated to the general +evolution, to a constant movement and production which bring with +them, necessarily, both advancement and an End. Man himself is not a +finished creation; if he were, God would not Be." + +"How is it that in thy short life thou hast found the time to learn so +many things?" said the young girl. + +"I remember," he replied. + +"Thou art nobler than all else I see." + +"We are the noblest of God's greatest works. Has He not given us the +faculty of reflecting on Nature; of gathering it within us by thought; +of making it a footstool and stepping-stone from and by which to rise +to Him? We love according to the greater or the lesser portion of +heaven our souls contain. But do not be unjust, Minna; behold the +magnificence spread before you. Ocean expands at your feet like a +carpet; the mountains resemble ampitheatres; heaven's ether is above +them like the arching folds of a stage curtain. Here we may breathe +the thoughts of God, as it were like a perfume. See! the angry billows +which engulf the ships laden with men seem to us, where we are, mere +bubbles; and if we raise our eyes and look above, all there is blue. +Behold that diadem of stars! Here the tints of earthly impressions +disappear; standing on this nature rarefied by space do you not feel +within you something deeper far than mind, grander than enthusiasm, of +greater energy than will? Are you not conscious of emotions whose +interpretation is no longer in us? Do you not feel your pinions? Let +us pray." + +Seraphitus knelt down and crossed his hands upon his breast, while +Minna fell, weeping, on her knees. Thus they remained for a time, +while the azure dome above their heads grew larger and strong rays of +light enveloped them without their knowledge. + +"Why dost thou not weep when I weep?" said Minna, in a broken voice. + +"They who are all spirit do not weep," replied Seraphitus rising; "Why +should I weep? I see no longer human wretchedness. Here, Good appears +in all its majesty. There, beneath us, I hear the supplications and +the wailings of that harp of sorrows which vibrates in the hands of +captive souls. Here, I listen to the choir of harps harmonious. There, +below, is hope, the glorious inception of faith; but here is faith--it +reigns, hope realized!" + +"You will never love me; I am too imperfect; you disdain me," said the +young girl. + +"Minna, the violet hidden at the feet of the oak whispers to itself: +'The sun does not love me; he comes not.' The sun says: 'If my rays +shine upon her she will perish, poor flower.' Friend of the flower, he +sends his beams through the oak leaves, he veils, he tempers them, and +thus they color the petals of his beloved. I have not veils enough, I +fear lest you see me too closely; you would tremble if you knew me +better. Listen: I have no taste for earthly fruits. Your joys, I know +them all too well, and, like the sated emperors of pagan Rome, I have +reached disgust of all things; I have received the gift of vision. +Leave me! abandon me!" he murmured, sorrowfully. + +Seraphitus turned and seated himself on a projecting rock, dropping +his head upon his breast. + +"Why do you drive me to despair?" said Minna. + +"Go, go!" cried Seraphitus, "I have nothing that you want of me. Your +love is too earthly for my love. Why do you not love Wilfrid? Wilfrid +is a man, tested by passions; he would clasp you in his vigorous arms +and make you feel a hand both broad and strong. His hair is black, his +eyes are full of human thoughts, his heart pours lava in every word he +utters; he could kill you with caresses. Let him be your beloved, your +husband! Yes, thine be Wilfrid!" + +Minna wept aloud. + +"Dare you say that you do not love him?" he went on, in a voice which +pierced her like a dagger. + +"Have mercy, have mercy, my Seraphitus!" + +"Love him, poor child of Earth to which thy destiny has indissolubly +bound thee," said the strange being, beckoning Minna by a gesture, and +forcing her to the edge of the saeter, whence he pointed downward to a +scene that might well inspire a young girl full of enthusiasm with the +fancy that she stood above this earth. + +"I longed for a companion to the kingdom of Light; I wished to show +you that morsel of mud, I find you bound to it. Farewell. Remain on +earth; enjoy through the senses; obey your nature; turn pale with +pallid men; blush with women; sport with children; pray with the +guilty; raise your eyes to heaven when sorrows overtake you; tremble, +hope, throb in all your pulses; you will have a companion; you can +laugh and weep, and give and receive. I,--I am an exile, far from +heaven; a monster, far from earth. I live of myself and by myself. I +feel by the spirit; I breathe through my brow; I see by thought; I die +of impatience and of longing. No one here below can fulfil my desires +or calm my griefs. I have forgotten how to weep. I am alone. I resign +myself, and I wait." + +Seraphitus looked at the flowery mound on which he had seated Minna; +then he turned and faced the frowning heights, whose pinnacles were +wrapped in clouds; to them he cast, unspoken, the remainder of his +thoughts. + +"Minna, do you hear those delightful strains?" he said after a pause, +with the voice of a dove, for the eagle's cry was hushed; "it is like +the music of those Eolian harps your poets hang in forests and on the +mountains. Do you see the shadowy figures passing among the clouds, +the winged feet of those who are making ready the gifts of heaven? +They bring refreshment to the soul; the skies are about to open and +shed the flowers of spring upon the earth. See, a gleam is darting +from the pole. Let us fly, let us fly! It is time we go!" + +In a moment their skees were refastened, and the pair descended the +Falberg by the steep slopes which join the mountain to the valleys of +the Sieg. Miraculous perception guided their course, or, to speak more +properly, their flight. When fissures covered with snow intercepted +them, Seraphitus caught Minna in his arms and darted with rapid +motion, lightly as a bird, over the crumbling causeways of the abyss. +Sometimes, while propelling his companion, he deviated to the right or +left to avoid a precipice, a tree, a projecting rock, which he seemed +to see beneath the snow, as an old sailor, familiar with the ocean, +discerns the hidden reefs by the color, the trend, or the eddying of +the water. When they reached the paths of the Siegdahlen, where they +could fearlessly follow a straight line to regain the ice of the +fiord, Seraphitus stopped Minna. + +"You have nothing to say to me?" he asked. + +"I thought you would rather think alone," she answered respectfully. + +"Let us hasten, Minette; it is almost night," he said. + +Minna quivered as she heard the voice, now so changed, of her guide,-- +a pure voice, like that of a young girl, which dissolved the fantastic +dream through which she had been passing. Seraphitus seemed to be +laying aside his male force and the too keen intellect that flames +from his eyes. Presently the charming pair glided across the fiord and +reached the snow-field which divides the shore from the first range of +houses; then, hurrying forward as daylight faded, they sprang up the +hill toward the parsonage, as though they were mounting the steps of a +great staircase. + +"My father must be anxious," said Minna. + +"No," answered Seraphitus. + +As he spoke the couple reached the porch of the humble dwelling where +Monsieur Becker, the pastor of Jarvis, sat reading while awaiting his +daughter for the evening meal. + +"Dear Monsieur Becker," said Seraphitus, "I have brought Minna back to +you safe and sound." + +"Thank you, mademoiselle," said the old man, laying his spectacles on +his book; "you must be very tired." + +"Oh, no," said Minna, and as she spoke she felt the soft breath of her +companion on her brow. + +"Dear heart, will you come day after to-morrow evening and take tea +with me?" + +"Gladly, dear." + +"Monsieur Becker, you will bring her, will you not?" + +"Yes, mademoiselle." + +Seraphitus inclined his head with a pretty gesture, and bowed to the +old pastor as he left the house. A few moments later he reached the +great courtyard of the Swedish villa. An old servant, over eighty +years of age, appeared in the portico bearing a lantern. Seraphitus +slipped off his snow-shoes with the graceful dexterity of a woman, +then darting into the salon he fell exhausted and motionless on a wide +divan covered with furs. + +"What will you take?" asked the old man, lighting the immensely tall +wax-candles that are used in Norway. + +"Nothing, David, I am too weary." + +Seraphitus unfastened his pelisse lined with sable, threw it over him, +and fell asleep. The old servant stood for several minutes gazing with +loving eyes at the singular being before him, whose sex it would have +been difficult for any one at that moment to determine. Wrapped as he +was in a formless garment, which resembled equally a woman's robe and +a man's mantle, it was impossible not to fancy that the slender feet +which hung at the side of the couch were those of a woman, and equally +impossible not to note how the forehead and the outlines of the head +gave evidence of power brought to its highest pitch. + +"She suffers, and she will not tell me," thought the old man. "She is +dying, like a flower wilted by the burning sun." + +And the old man wept. + + + +CHAPTER II + +SERAPHITA + +Later in the evening David re-entered the salon. + +"I know who it is you have come to announce," said Seraphita in a +sleepy voice. "Wilfrid may enter." + +Hearing these words a man suddenly presented himself, crossed the room +and sat down beside her. + +"My dear Seraphita, are you ill?" he said. "You look paler than +usual." + +She turned slowly towards him, tossing back her hair like a pretty +woman whose aching head leaves her no strength even for complaint. + +"I was foolish enough to cross the fiord with Minna," she said. "We +ascended the Falberg." + +"Do you mean to kill yourself?" he said with a lover's terror. + +"No, my good Wilfrid; I took the greatest care of your Minna." + +Wilfrid struck his hand violently on a table, rose hastily, and made +several steps towards the door with an exclamation full of pain; then +he returned and seemed about to remonstrate. + +"Why this disturbance if you think me ill?" she said. + +"Forgive me, have mercy!" he cried, kneeling beside her. "Speak to me +harshly if you will; exact all that the cruel fancies of a woman lead +you to imagine I least can bear; but oh, my beloved, do not doubt my +love. You take Minna like an axe to hew me down. Have mercy!" + +"Why do you say these things, my friend, when you know that they are +useless?" she replied, with a look which grew in the end so soft that +Wilfrid ceased to behold her eyes, but saw in their place a fluid +light, the shimmer of which was like the last vibrations of an Italian +song. + +"Ah! no man dies of anguish!" he murmured. + +"You are suffering?" she said in a voice whose intonations produced +upon his heart the same effect as that of her look. "Would I could +help you!" + +"Love me as I love you." + +"Poor Minna!" she replied. + +"Why am I unarmed!" exclaimed Wilfrid, violently. + +"You are out of temper," said Seraphita, smiling. "Come, have I not +spoken to you like those Parisian women whose loves you tell of?" + +Wilfrid sat down, crossed his arms, and looked gloomily at Seraphita. +"I forgive you," he said; "for you know not what you do." + +"You mistake," she replied; "every woman from the days of Eve does +good and evil knowingly." + +"I believe it"; he said. + +"I am sure of it, Wilfrid. Our instinct is precisely that which makes +us perfect. What you men learn, we feel." + +"Why, then, do you not feel how much I love you?" + +"Because you do not love me." + +"Good God!" + +"If you did, would you complain of your own sufferings?" + +"You are terrible to-night, Seraphita. You are a demon." + +"No, but I am gifted with the faculty of comprehending, and it is +awful. Wilfrid, sorrow is a lamp which illumines life." + +"Why did you ascend the Falberg?" + +"Minna will tell you. I am too weary to talk. You must talk to me,-- +you who know so much, who have learned all things and forgotten +nothing; you who have passed through every social test. Talk to me, +amuse me, I am listening." + +"What can I tell you that you do not know? Besides, the request is +ironical. You allow yourself no intercourse with social life; you +trample on its conventions, its laws, its customs, sentiments, and +sciences; you reduce them all to the proportions such things take when +viewed by you beyond this universe." + +"Therefore you see, my friend, that I am not a woman. You do wrong to +love me. What! am I to leave the ethereal regions of my pretended +strength, make myself humbly small, cringe like the hapless female of +all species, that you may lift me up? and then, when I, helpless and +broken, ask you for help, when I need your arm, you will repulse me! +No, we can never come to terms." + +"You are more maliciously unkind to-night than I have ever known you." + +"Unkind!" she said, with a look which seemed to blend all feelings +into one celestial emotion, "no, I am ill, I suffer, that is all. +Leave me, my friend; it is your manly right. We women should ever +please you, entertain you, be gay in your presence and have no whims +save those that amuse you. Come, what shall I do for you, friend? +Shall I sing, shall I dance, though weariness deprives me of the use +of voice and limbs?--Ah! gentlemen, be we on our deathbeds, we yet +must smile to please you; you call that, methinks, your right. Poor +women! I pity them. Tell me, you who abandon them when they grow old, +is it because they have neither hearts nor souls? Wilfrid, I am a +hundred years old; leave me! leave me! go to Minna!" + +"Oh, my eternal love!" + +"Do you know the meaning of eternity? Be silent, Wilfrid. You desire +me, but you do not love me. Tell me, do I not seem to you like those +coquettish Parisian women?" + +"Certainly I no longer find you the pure celestial maiden I first saw +in the church of Jarvis." + +At these words Seraphita passed her hands across her brow, and when +she removed them Wilfrid was amazed at the saintly expression that +overspread her face. + +"You are right, my friend," she said; "I do wrong whenever I set my +feet upon your earth." + +"Oh, Seraphita, be my star! stay where you can ever bless me with that +clear light!" + +As he spoke, he stretched forth his hand to take that of the young +girl, but she withdrew it, neither disdainfully nor in anger. Wilfrid +rose abruptly and walked to the window that she might not see the +tears that rose to his eyes. + +"Why do you weep?" she said. "You are not a child, Wilfrid. Come back +to me. I wish it. You are annoyed if I show just displeasure. You see +that I am fatigued and ill, yet you force me to think and speak, and +listen to persuasions and ideas that weary me. If you had any real +perception of my nature, you would have made some music, you would +have lulled my feelings--but no, you love me for yourself and not for +myself." + +The storm which convulsed the young man's heart calmed down at these +words. He slowly approached her, letting his eyes take in the +seductive creature who lay exhausted before him, her head resting in +her hand and her elbow on the couch. + +"You think that I do not love you," she resumed. "You are mistaken. +Listen to me, Wilfrid. You are beginning to know much; you have +suffered much. Let me explain your thoughts to you. You wished to take +my hand just now"; she rose to a sitting posture, and her graceful +motions seemed to emit light. "When a young girl allows her hand to be +taken it is as though she made a promise, is it not? and ought she not +to fulfil it? You well know that I cannot be yours. Two sentiments +divide and inspire the love of all the women of the earth. Either they +devote themselves to suffering, degraded, and criminal beings whom +they desire to console, uplift, redeem; or they give themselves to +superior men, sublime and strong, whom they adore and seek to +comprehend, and by whom they are often annihilated. You have been +degraded, though now you are purified by the fires of repentance, and +to-day you are once more noble; but I know myself too feeble to be +your equal, and too religious to bow before any power but that On +High. I may refer thus to your life, my friend, for we are in the +North, among the clouds, where all things are abstractions." + +"You stab me, Seraphita, when you speak like this. It wounds me to +hear you apply the dreadful knowledge with which you strip from all +things human the properties that time and space and form have given +them, and consider them mathematically in the abstract, as geometry +treats substances from which it extracts solidity." + +"Well, I will respect your wishes, Wilfrid. Let the subject drop. Tell +me what you think of this bearskin rug which my poor David has spread +out." + +"It is very handsome." + +"Did you ever see me wear this 'doucha greka'?" + +She pointed to a pelisse made of cashmere and lined with the skin of +the black fox,--the name she gave it signifying "warm to the soul." + +"Do you believe that any sovereign has a fur that can equal it?" she +asked. + +"It is worthy of her who wears it." + +"And whom you think beautiful?" + +"Human words do not apply to her. Heart to heart is the only language +I can use." + +"Wilfrid, you are kind to soothe my griefs with such sweet words-- +which you have said to others." + +"Farewell!" + +"Stay. I love both you and Minna, believe me. To me you two are as one +being. United thus you can be my brother or, if you will, my sister. +Marry her; let me see you both happy before I leave this world of +trial and of pain. My God! the simplest of women obtain what they ask +of a lover; they whisper 'Hush!' and he is silent; 'Die' and he dies; +'Love me afar' and he stays at a distance, like courtiers before a +king! All I desire is to see you happy, and you refuse me! Am I then +powerless?--Wilfrid, listen, come nearer to me. Yes, I should grieve +to see you marry Minna but--when I am here no longer, then--promise me +to marry her; heaven destined you for each other." + +"I listen to you with fascination, Seraphita. Your words are +incomprehensible, but they charm me. What is it you mean to say?" + +"You are right; I forget to be foolish,--to be the poor creature whose +weaknesses gratify you. I torment you, Wilfrid. You came to these +Northern lands for rest, you, worn-out by the impetuous struggle of +genius unrecognized, you, weary with the patient toils of science, +you, who well-nigh dyed your hands in crime and wore the fetters of +human justice--" + +Wilfrid dropped speechless on the carpet. Seraphita breathed softly on +his forehead, and in a moment he fell asleep at her feet. + +"Sleep! rest!" she said, rising. + +She passed her hands over Wilfrid's brow; then the following sentences +escaped her lips, one by one,--all different in tone and accent, but +all melodious, full of a Goodness that seemed to emanate from her head +in vaporous waves, like the gleams the goddess chastely lays upon +Endymion sleeping. + +"I cannot show myself such as I am to thee, dear Wilfrid,--to thee who +art strong. + +"The hour is come; the hour when the effulgent lights of the future +cast their reflections backward on the soul; the hour when the soul +awakes into freedom. + +"Now am I permitted to tell thee how I love thee. Dost thou not see +the nature of my love, a love without self-interest; a sentiment full +of thee, thee only; a love which follows thee into the future to light +that future for thee--for it is the one True Light. Canst thou now +conceive with what ardor I would have thee leave this life which +weighs thee down, and behold thee nearer than thou art to that world +where Love is never-failing? Can it be aught but suffering to love for +one life only? Hast thou not felt a thirst for the eternal love? Dost +thou not feel the bliss to which a creature rises when, with twin- +soul, it loves the Being who betrays not love, Him before whom we +kneel in adoration? + +"Would I had wings to cover thee, Wilfrid; power to give thee strength +to enter now into that world where all the purest joys of purest +earthly attachments are but shadows in the Light that shines, +unceasing, to illumine and rejoice all hearts. + +"Forgive a friendly soul for showing thee the picture of thy sins, in +the charitable hope of soothing the sharp pangs of thy remorse. Listen +to the pardoning choir; refresh thy soul in the dawn now rising for +thee beyond the night of death. Yes, thy life, thy true life is there! + +"May my words now reach thee clothed in the glorious forms of dreams; +may they deck themselves with images glowing and radiant as they hover +round you. Rise, rise, to the height where men can see themselves +distinctly, pressed together though they be like grains of sand upon a +sea-shore. Humanity rolls out like a many-colored ribbon. See the +diverse shades of that flower of the celestial gardens. Behold the +beings who lack intelligence, those who begin to receive it, those who +have passed through trials, those who love, those who follow wisdom +and aspire to the regions of Light! + +"Canst thou comprehend, through this thought made visible, the destiny +of humanity?--whence it came, whither to goeth? Continue steadfast in +the Path. Reaching the end of thy journey thou shalt hear the clarions +of omnipotence sounding the cries of victory in chords of which a +single one would shake the earth, but which are lost in the spaces of +a world that hath neither east nor west. + +"Canst thou comprehend, my poor beloved Tried-one, that unless the +torpor and the veils of sleep had wrapped thee, such sights would rend +and bear away thy mind as the whirlwinds rend and carry into space the +feeble sails, depriving thee forever of thy reason? Dost thou +understand that the Soul itself, raised to its utmost power can +scarcely endure in dreams the burning communications of the Spirit? + +"Speed thy way through the luminous spheres; behold, admire, hasten! +Flying thus thou canst pause or advance without weariness. Like other +men, thou wouldst fain be plunged forever in these spheres of light +and perfume where now thou art, free of thy swooning body, and where +thy thought alone has utterance. Fly! enjoy for a fleeting moment the +wings thou shalt surely win when Love has grown so perfect in thee +that thou hast no senses left; when thy whole being is all mind, all +love. The higher thy flight the less canst thou see the abysses. There +are none in heaven. Look at the friend who speaks to thee; she who +holds thee above this earth in which are all abysses. Look, behold, +contemplate me yet a moment longer, for never again wilt thou see me, +save imperfectly as the pale twilight of this world may show me to +thee." + +Seraphita stood erect, her head with floating hair inclining gently +forward, in that aerial attitude which great painters give to +messengers from heaven; the folds of her raiment fell with the same +unspeakable grace which holds an artist--the man who translates all +things into sentiment--before the exquisite well-known lines of +Polyhymnia's veil. Then she stretched forth her hand. Wilfrid rose. +When he looked at Seraphita she was lying on the bear's-skin, her head +resting on her hand, her face calm, her eyes brilliant. Wilfrid gazed +at her silently; but his face betrayed a deferential fear in its +almost timid expression. + +"Yes, dear," he said at last, as though he were answering some +question; "we are separated by worlds. I resign myself; I can only +adore you. But what will become of me, poor and alone!" + +"Wilfrid, you have Minna." + +He shook his head. + +"Do not be so disdainful; woman understands all things through love; +what she does not understand she feels; what she does not feel she +sees; when she neither sees, nor feels, nor understands, this angel of +earth divines to protect you, and hides her protection beneath the +grace of love." + +"Seraphita, am I worthy to belong to a woman?" + +"Ah, now," she said, smiling, "you are suddenly very modest; is it a +snare? A woman is always so touched to see her weakness glorified. +Well, come and take tea with me the day after to-morrow evening; good +Monsieur Becker will be here, and Minna, the purest and most artless +creature I have known on earth. Leave me now, my friend; I need to +make long prayers and expiate my sins." + +"You, can you commit sin?" + +"Poor friend! if we abuse our power, is not that the sin of pride? I +have been very proud to-day. Now leave me, till to-morrow." + +"Till to-morrow," said Wilfrid faintly, casting a long glance at the +being of whom he desired to carry with him an ineffaceable memory. + +Though he wished to go far away, he was held, as it were, outside the +house for some moments, watching the light which shone from all the +windows of the Swedish dwelling. + +"What is the matter with me?" he asked himself. "No, she is not a mere +creature, but a whole creation. Of her world, even through veils and +clouds, I have caught echoes like the memory of sufferings healed, +like the dazzling vertigo of dreams in which we hear the plaints of +generations mingling with the harmonies of some higher sphere where +all is Light and all is Love. Am I awake? Do I still sleep? Are these +the eyes before which the luminous space retreated further and further +indefinitely while the eyes followed it? The night is cold, yet my +head is on fire. I will go to the parsonage. With the pastor and his +daughter I shall recover the balance of my mind." + +But still he did not leave the spot whence his eyes could plunge into +Seraphita's salon. The mysterious creature seemed to him the radiating +centre of a luminous circle which formed an atmosphere about her wider +than that of other beings; whoever entered it felt the compelling +influence of, as it were, a vortex of dazzling light and all consuming +thoughts. Forced to struggle against this inexplicable power, Wilfrid +only prevailed after strong efforts; but when he reached and passed +the inclosing wall of the courtyard, he regained his freedom of will, +walked rapidly towards the parsonage, and was soon beneath the high +wooden arch which formed a sort of peristyle to Monsieur Becker's +dwelling. He opened the first door, against which the wind had driven +the snow, and knocked on the inner one, saying:-- + +"Will you let me spend the evening with you, Monsieur Becker?" + +"Yes," cried two voices, mingling their intonations. + +Entering the parlor, Wilfrid returned by degrees to real life. He +bowed affectionately to Minna, shook hands with Monsieur Becker, and +looked about at the picture of a home which calmed the convulsions of +his physical nature, in which a phenomenon was taking place analogous +to that which sometimes seizes upon men who have given themselves up +to protracted contemplations. If some strong thought bears upward on +phantasmal wing a man of learning or a poet, isolates him from the +external circumstances which environ him here below, and leads him +forward through illimitable regions where vast arrays of facts become +abstractions, where the greatest works of Nature are but images, then +woe betide him if a sudden noise strikes sharply on his senses and +calls his errant soul back to its prison-house of flesh and bones. The +shock of the reunion of these two powers, body and mind,--one of which +partakes of the unseen qualities of a thunderbolt, while the other +shares with sentient nature that soft resistant force which deifies +destruction,--this shock, this struggle, or, rather let us say, this +painful meeting and co-mingling, gives rise to frightful sufferings. +The body receives back the flame that consumes it; the flame has once +more grasped its prey. This fusion, however, does not take place +without convulsions, explosions, tortures; analogous and visible signs +of which may be seen in chemistry, when two antagonistic substances +which science has united separate. + +For the last few days whenever Wilfrid entered Seraphita's presence +his body seemed to fall away from him into nothingness. With a single +glance this strange being led him in spirit through the spheres where +meditation leads the learned man, prayer the pious heart, where vision +transports the artist, and sleep the souls of men,--each and all have +their own path to the Height, their own guide to reach it, their own +individual sufferings in the dire return. In that sphere alone all +veils are rent away, and the revelation, the awful flaming certainty +of an unknown world, of which the soul brings back mere fragments to +this lower sphere, stands revealed. To Wilfrid one hour passed with +Seraphita was like the sought-for dreams of Theriakis, in which each +knot of nerves becomes the centre of a radiating delight. But he left +her bruised and wearied as some young girl endeavoring to keep step +with a giant. + +The cold air, with its stinging flagellations, had begun to still the +nervous tremors which followed the reunion of his two natures, so +powerfully disunited for a time; he was drawn towards the parsonage, +then towards Minna, by the sight of the every-day home life for which +he thirsted as the wandering European thirsts for his native land when +nostalgia seizes him amid the fairy scenes of Orient that have seduced +his senses. More weary than he had ever yet been, Wilfrid dropped into +a chair and looked about him for a time, like a man who awakens from +sleep. Monsieur Becker and his daughter accustomed, perhaps, to the +apparent eccentricity of their guest, continued the employments in +which they were engaged. + +The parlor was ornamented with a collection of the shells and insects +of Norway. These curiosities, admirably arranged on a background of +the yellow pine which panelled the room, formed, as it were, a rich +tapestry to which the fumes of tobacco had imparted a mellow tone. At +the further end of the room, opposite to the door, was an immense +wrought-iron stove, carefully polished by the serving-woman till it +shone like burnished steel. Seated in a large tapestried armchair near +the stove, before a table, with his feet in a species of muff, +Monsieur Becker was reading a folio volume which was propped against a +pile of other books as on a desk. At his left stood a jug of beer and +a glass, at his right burned a smoky lamp fed by some species of fish- +oil. The pastor seemed about sixty years of age. His face belonged to +a type often painted by Rembrandt; the same small bright eyes, set in +wrinkles and surmounted by thick gray eyebrows; the same white hair +escaping in snowy flakes from a black velvet cap; the same broad, bald +brow, and a contour of face which the ample chin made almost square; +and lastly, the same calm tranquillity, which, to an observer, denoted +the possession of some inward power, be it the supremacy bestowed by +money, or the magisterial influence of the burgomaster, or the +consciousness of art, or the cubic force of blissful ignorance. This +fine old man, whose stout body proclaimed his vigorous health, was +wrapped in a dressing-gown of rough gray cloth plainly bound. Between +his lips was a meerschaum pipe, from which, at regular intervals, he +blew the smoke, following with abstracted vision its fantastic +wreathings,--his mind employed, no doubt, in assimilating through some +meditative process the thoughts of the author whose works he was +studying. + +On the other side of the stove and near a door which communicated with +the kitchen Minna was indistinctly visible in the haze of the good +man's smoke, to which she was apparently accustomed. Beside her on a +little table were the implements of household work, a pile of napkins, +and another of socks waiting to be mended, also a lamp like that which +shone on the white page of the book in which the pastor was absorbed. +Her fresh young face, with its delicate outline, expressed an infinite +purity which harmonized with the candor of the white brow and the +clear blue eyes. She sat erect, turning slightly toward the lamp for +better light, unconsciously showing as she did so the beauty of her +waist and bust. She was already dressed for the night in a long robe +of white cotton; a cambric cap, without other ornament than a frill of +the same, confined her hair. Though evidently plunged in some inward +meditation, she counted without a mistake the threads of her napkins +or the meshes of her socks. Sitting thus, she presented the most +complete image, the truest type, of the woman destined for terrestrial +labor, whose glance may piece the clouds of the sanctuary while her +thought, humble and charitable, keeps her ever on the level of man. + +Wilfrid had flung himself into a chair between the two tables and was +contemplating with a species of intoxication this picture full of +harmony, to which the clouds of smoke did no despite. The single +window which lighted the parlor during the fine weather was now +carefully closed. An old tapestry, used for a curtain and fastened to +a stick, hung before it in heavy folds. Nothing in the room was +picturesque, nothing brilliant; everything denoted rigorous +simplicity, true heartiness, the ease of unconventional nature, and +the habits of a domestic life which knew neither cares nor troubles. +Many a dwelling is like a dream, the sparkle of passing pleasure seems +to hide some ruin beneath the cold smile of luxury; but this parlor, +sublime in reality, harmonious in tone, diffused the patriarchal ideas +of a full and self-contained existence. The silence was unbroken save +by the movements of the servant in the kitchen engaged in preparing +the supper, and by the sizzling of the dried fish which she was frying +in salt butter according to the custom of the country. + +"Will you smoke a pipe?" said the pastor, seizing a moment when he +thought that Wilfrid might listen to him. + +"Thank you, no, dear Monsieur Becker," replied the visitor. + +"You seem to suffer more to-day than usual," said Minna, struck by the +feeble tones of the stranger's voice. + +"I am always so when I leave the chateau." + +Minna quivered. + +"A strange being lives there, Monsieur Becker," he continued after a +pause. "For the six months that I have been in this village I have +never yet dared to question you about her, and even now I do violence +to my feelings in speaking of her. I began by keenly regretting that +my journey in this country was arrested by the winter weather and that +I was forced to remain here. But during the last two months chains +have been forged and riveted which bind me irrevocably to Jarvis, till +now I fear to end my days here. You know how I first met Seraphita, +what impression her look and voice made upon me, and how at last I was +admitted to her home where she receives no one. From the very first +day I have longed to ask you the history of this mysterious being. On +that day began, for me, a series of enchantments." + +"Enchantments!" cried the pastor shaking the ashes of his pipe into an +earthen-ware dish full of sand, "are there enchantments in these +days?" + +"You, who are carefully studying at this moment that volume of the +'Incantations' of Jean Wier, will surely understand the explanation of +my sensations if I try to give it to you," replied Wilfrid. "If we +study Nature attentively in its great evolutions as in its minutest +works, we cannot fail to recognize the possibility of enchantment-- +giving to that word its exact significance. Man does not create +forces; he employs the only force that exists and which includes all +others namely Motion, the breath incomprehensible of the sovereign +Maker of the universe. Species are too distinctly separated for the +human hand to mingle them. The only miracle of which man is capable is +done through the conjunction of two antagonistic substances. Gunpowder +for instance is germane to a thunderbolt. As to calling forth a +creation, and a sudden one, all creation demands time, and time +neither recedes nor advances at the word of command. So, in the world +without us, plastic nature obeys laws the order and exercise of which +cannot be interfered with by the hand of man. But after fulfilling, as +it were, the function of Matter, it would be unreasonable not to +recognize within us the existence of a gigantic power, the effects of +which are so incommensurable that the known generations of men have +never yet been able to classify them. I do not speak of man's faculty +of abstraction, of constraining Nature to confine itself within the +Word,--a gigantic act on which the common mind reflects as little as +it does on the nature of Motion, but which, nevertheless, has led the +Indian theosophists to explain creation by a word to which they give +an inverse power. The smallest atom of their subsistence, namely, the +grain of rice, from which a creation issues and in which alternately +creation again is held, presented to their minds so perfect an image +of the creative word, and of the abstractive word, that to them it was +easy to apply the same system to the creation of worlds. The majority +of men content themselves with the grain of rice sown in the first +chapter of all the Geneses. Saint John, when he said the Word was God +only complicated the difficulty. But the fructification, germination, +and efflorescence of our ideas is of little consequence if we compare +that property, shared by many men, with the wholly individual faculty +of communicating to that property, by some mysterious concentration, +forces that are more or less active, of carrying it up to a third, a +ninth, or a twenty-seventh power, of making it thus fasten upon the +masses and obtain magical results by condensing the processes of +nature. + +"What I mean by enchantments," continued Wilfrid after a moment's +pause, "are those stupendous actions taking place between two +membranes in the tissue of the brain. We find in the unexplorable +nature of the Spiritual World certain beings armed with these wondrous +faculties, comparable only to the terrible power of certain gases in +the physical world, beings who combine with other beings, penetrate +them as active agents, and produce upon them witchcrafts, charms, +against which these helpless slaves are wholly defenceless; they are, +in fact, enchanted, brought under subjection, reduced to a condition +of dreadful vassalage. Such mysterious beings overpower others with +the sceptre and the glory of a superior nature,--acting upon them at +times like the torpedo which electrifies or paralyzes the fisherman, +at other times like a dose of phosphorous which stimulates life and +accelerates its propulsion; or again, like opium, which puts to sleep +corporeal nature, disengages the spirit from every bond, enables it to +float above the world and shows this earth to the spiritual eye as +through a prism, extracting from it the food most needed; or, yet +again, like catalepsy, which deadens all faculties for the sake of one +only vision. Miracles, enchantments, incantations, witchcrafts, +spells, and charms, in short, all those acts improperly termed +supernatural, are only possible and can only be explained by the +despotism with which some spirit compels us to feel the effects of a +mysterious optic which increases, or diminishes, or exalts creation, +moves within us as it pleases, deforms or embellishes all things to +our eyes, tears us from heaven, or drags us to hell,--two terms by +which men agree to express the two extremes of joy and misery. + +"These phenomena are within us, not without us," Wilfrid went on. "The +being whom we call Seraphita seems to me one of those rare and +terrible spirits to whom power is given to bind men, to crush nature, +to enter into participation of the occult power of God. The course of +her enchantments over me began on that first day, when silence as to +her was imposed upon me against my will. Each time that I have wished +to question you it seemed as though I were about to reveal a secret of +which I ought to be the incorruptible guardian. Whenever I have tried +to speak, a burning seal has been laid upon my lips, and I myself have +become the involuntary minister of these mysteries. You see me here +to-night, for the hundredth time, bruised, defeated, broken, after +leaving the hallucinating sphere which surrounds that young girl, so +gentle, so fragile to both of you, but to me the cruellest of +magicians! Yes, to me she is like a sorcerer holding in her right hand +the invisible wand that moves the globe, and in her left the +thunderbolt that rends asunder all things at her will. No longer can I +look upon her brow; the light of it is insupportable. I skirt the +borders of the abyss of madness too closely to be longer silent. I +must speak. I seize this moment, when courage comes to me, to resist +the power which drags me onward without inquiring whether or not I +have the force to follow. Who is she? Did you know her young? What of +her birth? Had she father and mother, or was she born of the +conjunction of ice and sun? She burns and yet she freeze; she shows +herself and then withdraws; she attracts me and repulses me; she +brings me life, she gives me death; I love her and yet I hate her! I +cannot live thus; let me be wholly in heaven or in hell!" + +Holding his refilled pipe in one hand, and in the other the cover +which he forgot to replace, Monsieur Becker listened to Wilfrid with a +mysterious expression on his face, looking occasionally at his +daughter, who seemed to understand the man's language as in harmony +with the strange being who inspired it. Wilfrid was splendid to behold +at this moment,--like Hamlet listening to the ghost of his father as +it rises for him alone in the midst of the living. + +"This is certainly the language of a man in love," said the good +pastor, innocently. + +"In love!" cried Wilfrid, "yes, to common minds. But, dear Monsieur +Becker, no words can express the frenzy which draws me to the feet of +that unearthly being." + +"Then you do love her?" said Minna, in a tone of reproach. + +"Mademoiselle, I feel such extraordinary agitation when I see her, and +such deep sadness when I see her no more, that in any other man what I +feel would be called love. But that sentiment draws those who feel it +ardently together, whereas between her and me a great gulf lies, whose +icy coldness penetrates my very being in her presence; though the +feeling dies away when I see her no longer. I leave her in despair; I +return to her with ardor,--like men of science who seek a secret from +Nature only to be baffled, or like the painter who would fain put life +upon his canvas and strives with all the resources of his art in the +vain attempt." + +"Monsieur, all that you say is true," replied the young girl, +artlessly. + +"How can you know, Minna?" asked the old pastor. + +"Ah! my father, had you been with us this morning on the summit of the +Falberg, had you seen him praying, you would not ask me that question. +You would say, like Monsieur Wilfrid, that he saw his Seraphita for +the first time in our temple, 'It is the Spirit of Prayer.'" + +These words were followed by a moment's silence. + +"Ah, truly!" said Wilfrid, "she has nothing in common with the +creatures who grovel upon this earth." + +"On the Falberg!" said the old pastor, "how could you get there?" + +"I do not know," replied Minna; "the way is like a dream to me, of +which no more than a memory remains. Perhaps I should hardly believe +that I had been there were it not for this tangible proof." + +She drew the flower from her bosom and showed it to them. All three +gazed at the pretty saxifrage, which was still fresh, and now shone in +the light of the two lamps like a third luminary. + +"This is indeed supernatural," said the old man, astounded at the +sight of a flower blooming in winter. + +"A mystery!" cried Wilfrid, intoxicated with its perfume. + +"The flower makes me giddy," said Minna; "I fancy I still hear that +voice,--the music of thought; that I still see the light of that look, +which is Love." + +"I implore you, my dear Monsieur Becker, tell me the history of +Seraphita,--enigmatical human flower,--whose image is before us in +this mysterious bloom." + +"My dear friend," said the old man, emitting a puff of smoke, "to +explain the birth of that being it is absolutely necessary that I +disperse the clouds which envelop the most obscure of Christian +doctrines. It is not easy to make myself clear when speaking of that +incomprehensible revelation,--the last effulgence of faith that has +shone upon our lump of mud. Do you know Swedenborg?" + +"By name only,--of him, of his books, and his religion I know +nothing." + +"Then I must relate to you the whole chronicle of Swedenborg." + + + +CHAPTER III + +SERAPHITA-SERAPHITUS + +After a pause, during which the pastor seemed to be gathering his +recollections, he continued in the following words:-- + +"Emanuel Swedenborg was born at Upsala in Sweden, in the month of +January, 1688, according to various authors,--in 1689, according to +his epitaph. His father was Bishop of Skara. Swedenborg lived eighty- +five years; his death occurred in London, March 29, 1772. I use that +term to convey the idea of a simple change of state. According to his +disciples, Swedenborg was seen at Jarvis and in Paris after that date. +Allow me, my dear Monsieur Wilfrid," said Monsieur Becker, making a +gesture to prevent all interruption, "I relate these facts without +either affirming or denying them. Listen; afterwards you can think and +say what you like. I will inform you when I judge, criticise, and +discuss these doctrines, so as to keep clearly in view my own +intellectual neutrality between HIM and Reason. + +"The life of Swedenborg was divided into two parts," continued the +pastor. "From 1688 to 1745 Baron Emanuel Swedenborg appeared in the +world as a man of vast learning, esteemed and cherished for his +virtues, always irreproachable and constantly useful. While fulfilling +high public functions in Sweden, he published, between 1709 and 1740, +several important works on mineralogy, physics, mathematics, and +astronomy, which enlightened the world of learning. He originated a +method of building docks suitable for the reception of large vessels, +and he wrote many treatises on various important questions, such as +the rise of tides, the theory of the magnet and its qualities, the +motion and position of the earth and planets, and while Assessor in +the Royal College of Mines, on the proper system of working salt +mines. He discovered means to construct canal-locks or sluices; and he +also discovered and applied the simplest methods of extracting ore and +of working metals. In fact he studied no science without advancing it. +In youth he learned Hebrew, Greek, and Latin, also the oriental +languages, with which he became so familiar that many distinguished +scholars consulted him, and he was able to decipher the vestiges of +the oldest known books of Scripture, namely: 'The Wars of Jehovah' and +'The Enunciations,' spoken of by Moses (Numbers xxi. 14, 15, 27-30), +also by Joshua, Jeremiah, and Samuel,--'The Wars of Jehovah' being the +historical part and 'The Enunciations' the prophetical part of the +Mosaical Books anterior to Genesis. Swedenborg even affirms that 'the +Book of Jasher,' the Book of the Righteous, mentioned by Joshua, was +in existence in Eastern Tartary, together with the doctrine of +Correspondences. A Frenchman has lately, so they tell me, justified +these statements of Swedenborg, by the discovery at Bagdad of several +portions of the Bible hitherto unknown to Europe. During the +widespread discussion on animal magnetism which took its rise in +Paris, and in which most men of Western science took an active part +about the year 1785, Monsieur le Marquis de Thome vindicated the +memory of Swedenborg by calling attention to certain assertions made +by the Commission appointed by the King of France to investigate the +subject. These gentlemen declared that no theory of magnetism existed, +whereas Swedenborg had studied and promulgated it ever since the year +1720. Monsieur de Thome seizes this opportunity to show the reason why +so many men of science relegated Swedenborg to oblivion while they +delved into his treasure-house and took his facts to aid their work. +'Some of the most illustrious of these men,' said Monsieur de Thome, +alluding to the 'Theory of the Earth' by Buffon, 'have had the +meanness to wear the plumage of the noble bird and refuse him all +acknowledgment'; and he proved, by masterly quotations drawn from the +encyclopaedic works of Swedenborg, that the great prophet had +anticipated by over a century the slow march of human science. It +suffices to read his philosophical and mineralogical works to be +convinced of this. In one passage he is seen as the precursor of +modern chemistry by the announcement that the productions of organized +nature are decomposable and resolve into two simple principles; also +that water, air, and fire are NOT ELEMENTS. In another, he goes in a +few words to the heart of magnetic mysteries and deprives Mesmer of +the honors of a first knowledge of them. + +"There," said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a long shelf against the +wall between the stove and the window on which were ranged books of +all sizes, "behold him! here are seventeen works from his pen, of +which one, his 'Philosophical and Mineralogical Works,' published in +1734, is in three folio volumes. These productions, which prove the +incontestable knowledge of Swedenborg, were given to me by Monsieur +Seraphitus, his cousin and the father of Seraphita. + +"In 1740," continued Monsieur Becker, after a slight pause, +"Swedenborg fell into a state of absolute silence, from which he +emerged to bid farewell to all his earthly occupations; after which +his thoughts turned exclusively to the Spiritual Life. He received the +first commands of heaven in 1745, and he thus relates the nature of +the vocation to which he was called: One evening, in London, after +dining with a great appetite, a thick white mist seemed to fill his +room. When the vapor dispersed a creature in human form rose from one +corner of the apartment, and said in a stern tone, 'Do not eat so +much.' He refrained. The next night the same man returned, radiant in +light, and said to him, 'I am sent of God, who has chosen you to +explain to men the meaning of his Word and his Creation. I will tell +you what to write.' The vision lasted but a few moments. The ANGEL was +clothed in purple. During that night the eyes of his INNER MAN were +opened, and he was forced to look into the heavens, into the world of +spirits, and into hell,--three separate spheres; where he encountered +persons of his acquaintance who had departed from their human form, +some long since, others lately. Thenceforth Swedenborg lived wholly in +the spiritual life, remaining in this world only as the messenger of +God. His mission was ridiculed by the incredulous, but his conduct was +plainly that of a being superior to humanity. In the first place, +though limited in means to the bare necessaries of life, he gave away +enormous sums, and publicly, in several cities, restored the fortunes +of great commercial houses when they were on the brink of failure. No +one ever appealed to his generosity who was not immediately satisfied. +A sceptical Englishman, determined to know the truth, followed him to +Paris, and relates that there his doors stood always open. One day a +servant complained of this apparent negligence, which laid him open to +suspicion of thefts that might be committed by others. 'He need feel +no anxiety,' said Swedenborg, smiling. 'But I do not wonder at his +fear; he cannot see the guardian who protects my door.' In fact, no +matter in what country he made his abode he never closed his doors, +and nothing was ever stolen from him. At Gottenburg--a town situated +some sixty miles from Stockholm--he announced, eight days before the +news arrived by courier, the conflagration which ravaged Stockholm, +and the exact time at which it took place. The Queen of Sweden wrote +to her brother, the King, at Berlin, that one of her ladies-in- +waiting, who was ordered by the courts to pay a sum of money which she +was certain her husband had paid before his death, went to Swedenborg +and begged him to ask her husband where she could find proof of the +payment. The following day Swedenborg, having done as the lady +requested, pointed out the place where the receipt would be found. He +also begged the deceased to appear to his wife, and the latter saw her +husband in a dream, wrapped in a dressing-gown which he wore just +before his death; and he showed her the paper in the place indicated +by Swedenborg, where it had been securely put away. At another time, +embarking from London in a vessel commanded by Captain Dixon, he +overheard a lady asking if there were plenty of provisions on board. +'We do not want a great quantity,' he said; 'in eight days and two +hours we shall reach Stockholm,'--which actually happened. This +peculiar state of vision as to the things of the earth--into which +Swedenborg could put himself at will, and which astonished those about +him--was, nevertheless, but a feeble representative of his faculty of +looking into heaven. + +"Not the least remarkable of his published visions is that in which he +relates his journeys through the Astral Regions; his descriptions +cannot fail to astonish the reader, partly through the crudity of +their details. A man whose scientific eminence is incontestable, and +who united in his own person powers of conception, will, and +imagination, would surely have invented better if he had invented at +all. The fantastic literature of the East offers nothing that can give +an idea of this astounding work, full of the essence of poetry, if it +is permissible to compare a work of faith with one of oriental fancy. +The transportation of Swedenborg by the Angel who served as guide to +this first journey is told with a sublimity which exceeds, by the +distance which God has placed betwixt the earth and the sun, the great +epics of Klopstock, Milton, Tasso, and Dante. This description, which +serves in fact as an introduction to his work on the Astral Regions, +has never been published; it is among the oral traditions left by +Swedenborg to the three disciples who were nearest to his heart. +Monsieur Silverichm has written them down. Monsieur Seraphitus +endeavored more than once to talk to me about them; but the +recollection of his cousin's words was so burning a memory that he +always stopped short at the first sentence and became lost in a revery +from which I could not rouse him." + +The old pastor sighed as he continued: "The baron told me that the +argument by which the Angel proved to Swedenborg that these bodies are +not made to wander through space puts all human science out of sight +beneath the grandeur of a divine logic. According to the Seer, the +inhabitants of Jupiter will not cultivate the sciences, which they +call darkness; those of Mercury abhor the expression of ideas by +speech, which seems to them too material,--their language is ocular; +those of Saturn are continually tempted by evil spirits; those of the +Moon are as small as six-year-old children, their voices issue from +the abdomen, on which they crawl; those of Venus are gigantic in +height, but stupid, and live by robbery,--although a part of this +latter planet is inhabited by beings of great sweetness, who live in +the love of Good. In short, he describes the customs and morals of all +the peoples attached to the different globes, and explains the general +meaning of their existence as related to the universe in terms so +precise, giving explanations which agree so well with their visible +evolutions in the system of the world, that some day, perhaps, +scientific men will come to drink of these living waters. + +"Here," said Monsieur Becker, taking down a book and opening it at a +mark, "here are the words with which he ended this work:-- + +"'If any man doubts that I was transported through a vast number of +Astral Regions, let him recall my observation of the distances in that +other life, namely, that they exist only in relation to the external +state of man; now, being transformed within like unto the Angelic +Spirits of those Astral Spheres, I was able to understand them.' + +"The circumstances to which we of this canton owe the presence among +us of Baron Seraphitus, the beloved cousin of Swedenborg, enabled me +to know all the events of the extraordinary life of that prophet. He +has lately been accused of imposture in certain quarters of Europe, +and the public prints reported the following fact based on a letter +written by the Chevalier Baylon. Swedenborg, they said, informed by +certain senators of a secret correspondence of the late Queen of +Sweden with her brother, the Prince of Prussia, revealed his knowledge +of the secrets contained in that correspondence to the Queen, making +her believe he had obtained this knowledge by supernatural means. A +man worthy of all confidence, Monsieur Charles-Leonhard de +Stahlhammer, captain in the Royal guard and knight of the Sword, +answered the calumny with a convincing letter." + +The pastor opened a drawer of his table and looked through a number of +papers until he found a gazette which he held out to Wilfrid, asking +him to read aloud the following letter:-- + +Stockholm, May 18, 1788. + + I have read with amazement a letter which purports to relate the + interview of the famous Swedenborg with Queen Louisa-Ulrika. The + circumstances therein stated are wholly false; and I hope the + writer will excuse me for showing him by the following faithful + narration, which can be proved by the testimony of many + distinguished persons then present and still living, how + completely he has been deceived. + + In 1758, shortly after the death of the Prince of Prussia + Swedenborg came to court, where he was in the habit of attending + regularly. He had scarcely entered the queen's presence before she + said to him: "Well, Mr. Assessor, have you seen my brother?" + Swedenborg answered no, and the queen rejoined: "If you do see + him, greet him for me." In saying this she meant no more than a + pleasant jest, and had no thought whatever of asking him for + information about her brother. Eight days later (not twenty-four + as stated, nor was the audience a private one), Swedenborg again + came to court, but so early that the queen had not left her + apartment called the White Room, where she was conversing with her + maids-of-honor and other ladies attached to the court. Swedenborg + did not wait until she came forth, but entered the said room and + whispered something in her ear. The queen, overcome with + amazement, was taken ill, and it was some time before she + recovered herself. When she did so she said to those about her: + "Only God and my brother knew the thing that he has just spoken + of." She admitted that it related to her last correspondence with + the prince on a subject which was known to them alone. I cannot + explain how Swedenborg came to know the contents of that letter, + but I can affirm on my honor, that neither Count H---- (as the + writer of the article states) nor any other person intercepted, or + read, the queen's letters. The senate allowed her to write to her + brother in perfect security, considering the correspondence as of + no interest to the State. It is evident that the author of the + said article is ignorant of the character of Count H----. This + honored gentleman, who has done many important services to his + country, unites the qualities of a noble heart to gifts of mind, + and his great age has not yet weakened these precious possessions. + During his whole administration he added the weight of scrupulous + integrity to his enlightened policy and openly declared himself + the enemy of all secret intrigues and underhand dealings, which he + regarded as unworthy means to attain an end. Neither did the + writer of that article understand the Assessor Swedenborg. The + only weakness of that essentially honest man was a belief in the + apparition of spirits; but I knew him for many years, and I can + affirm that he was as fully convinced that he met and talked with + spirits as I am that I am writing at this moment. As a citizen and + as a friend his integrity was absolute; he abhorred deception and + led the most exemplary of lives. The version which the Chevalier + Baylon gave of these facts is, therefore, entirely without + justification; the visit stated to have been made to Swedenborg in + the night-time by Count H---- and Count T---- is hereby + contradicted. In conclusion, the writer of the letter may rest + assured that I am not a follower of Swedenborg. The love of truth + alone impels me to give this faithful account of a fact which has + been so often stated with details that are entirely false. I + certify to the truth of what I have written by adding my + signature. + + +Charles-Leonhard de Stahlhammer. +"The proofs which Swedenborg gave of his mission to the royal families +of Sweden and Prussia were no doubt the foundation of the belief in +his doctrines which is prevalent at the two courts," said Monsieur +Becker, putting the gazette into the drawer. "However," he continued, +"I shall not tell you all the facts of his visible and material life; +indeed his habits prevented them from being fully known. He lived a +hidden life; not seeking either riches or fame. He was even noted for +a sort of repugnance to making proselytes; he opened his mind to few +persons, and never showed his external powers of second-sight to any +who were not eminent in faith, wisdom, and love. He could recognize at +a glance the state of the soul of every person who approached him, and +those whom he desired to reach with his inward language he converted +into Seers. After the year 1745, his disciples never saw him do a +single thing from any human motive. One man alone, a Swedish priest, +named Mathesius, set afloat a story that he went mad in London in +1744. But a eulogium on Swedenborg prepared with minute care as to all +the known events of his life, was pronounced after his death in 1772 +on behalf of the Royal Academy of Sciences in the Hall of the Nobles +at Stockholm, by Monsieur Sandels, counsellor of the Board of Mines. A +declaration made before the Lord Mayor of London gives the details of +his last illness and death, in which he received the ministrations of +Monsieur Ferelius a Swedish priest of the highest standing, and pastor +of the Swedish Church in London, Mathesius being his assistant. All +persons present attested that so far from denying the value of his +writings Swedenborg firmly asserted their truth. 'In one hundred +years,' Monsieur Ferelius quotes him as saying, 'my doctrine will +guide the CHURCH.' He predicted the day and hour of his death. On that +day, Sunday, March 29, 1772, hearing the clock strike, he asked what +time it was. 'Five o'clock' was the answer. 'It is well,' he answered; +'thank you, God bless you.' Ten minutes later he tranquilly departed, +breathing a gentle sigh. Simplicity, moderation, and solitude were the +features of his life. When he had finished writing any of his books he +sailed either for London or for Holland, where he published them, and +never spoke of them again. He published in this way twenty-seven +different treatises, all written, he said, from the dictation of +Angels. Be it true or false, few men have been strong enough to endure +the flames of oral illumination. + +"There they all are," said Monsieur Becker, pointing to a second shelf +on which were some sixty volumes. "The treatises on which the Divine +Spirit casts its most vivid gleams are seven in number, namely: +'Heaven and Hell'; 'Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Love and the +Divine Wisdom'; 'Angelic Wisdom concerning the Divine Providence'; +'The Apocalypse Revealed'; 'Conjugial Love and its Chaste Delights'; +'The True Christian Religion'; and 'An Exposition of the Internal +Sense.' Swedenborg's explanation of the Apocalypse begins with these +words," said Monsieur Becker, taking down and opening the volume +nearest to him: "'Herein I have written nothing of mine own; I speak +as I am bidden by the Lord, who said, through the same angel, to John: +"Thou shalt not seal the sayings of this Prophecy."' (Revelation xxii. +10.) + +"My dear Monsieur Wilfrid," said the old man, looking at his guest, "I +often tremble in every limb as I read, during the long winter evenings +the awe-inspiring works in which this man declares with perfect +artlessness the wonders that are revealed to him. 'I have seen,' he +says, 'Heaven and the Angels. The spiritual man sees his spiritual +fellows far better than the terrestrial man sees the men of earth. In +describing the wonders of heaven and beneath the heavens I obey the +Lord's command. Others have the right to believe me or not as they +choose. I cannot put them into the state in which God has put me; it +is not in my power to enable them to converse with Angels, nor to work +miracles within their understanding; they alone can be the instrument +of their rise to angelic intercourse. It is now twenty-eight years +since I have lived in the Spiritual world with angels, and on earth +with men; for it pleased God to open the eyes of my Spirit as he did +that of Paul, and of Daniel and Elisha.' + +"And yet," continued the pastor, thoughtfully, "certain persons have +had visions of the spiritual world through the complete detachment +which somnambulism produces between their external form and their +inner being. 'In this state,' says Swedenborg in his treatise on +Angelic Wisdom (No. 257) 'Man may rise into the region of celestial +light because, his corporeal senses being abolished, the influence of +heaven acts without hindrance on his inner man.' Many persons who do +not doubt that Swedenborg received celestial revelations think that +his writings are not all the result of divine inspiration. Others +insist on absolute adherence to him; while admitting his many +obscurities, they believe that the imperfection of earthly language +prevented the prophet from clearly revealing those spiritual visions +whose clouds disperse to the eyes of those whom faith regenerates; +for, to use the words of his greatest disciple, 'Flesh is but an +external propagation.' To poets and to writers his presentation of the +marvellous is amazing; to Seers it is simply reality. To some +Christians his descriptions have seemed scandalous. Certain critics +have ridiculed the celestial substance of his temples, his golden +palaces, his splendid cities where angels disport themselves; they +laugh at his groves of miraculous trees, his gardens where the flowers +speak and the air is white, and the mystical stones, the sard, +carbuncle, chrysolite, chrysoprase, jacinth, chalcedony, beryl, the +Urim and Thummim, are endowed with motion, express celestial truths, +and reply by variations of light to questions put to them ('True +Christian Religion,' 219). Many noble souls will not admit his +spiritual worlds where colors are heard in delightful concert, where +language flames and flashes, where the Word is writ in pointed spiral +letters ('True Christian Religion,' 278). Even in the North some +writers have laughed at the gates of pearl, and the diamonds which +stud the floors and walls of his New Jerusalem, where the most +ordinary utensils are made of the rarest substances of the globe. +'But,' say his disciples, 'because such things are sparsely scattered +on this earth does it follow that they are not abundant in other +worlds? On earth they are terrestrial substances, whereas in heaven +they assume celestial forms and are in keeping with angels.' In this +connection Swedenborg has used the very words of Jesus Christ, who +said, 'If I have told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall +ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things?' + +"Monsieur," continued the pastor, with an emphatic gesture, "I have +read the whole of Swedenborg's works; and I say it with pride, because +I have done it and yet retained my reason. In reading him men either +miss his meaning or become Seers like him. Though I have evaded both +extremes, I have often experienced unheard-of delights, deep emotions, +inward joys, which alone can reveal to us the plenitude of truth,--the +evidence of celestial Light. All things here below seem small indeed +when the soul is lost in the perusal of these Treatises. It is +impossible not to be amazed when we think that in the short space of +thirty years this man wrote and published, on the truths of the +Spiritual World, twenty-five quarto volumes, composed in Latin, of +which the shortest has five hundred pages, all of them printed in +small type. He left, they say, twenty others in London, bequeathed to +his nephew, Monsieur Silverichm, formerly almoner to the King of +Sweden. Certainly a man who, between the ages of twenty and sixty, had +already exhausted himself in publishing a series of encyclopaedical +works, must have received supernatural assistance in composing these +later stupendous treatises, at an age, too, when human vigor is on the +wane. You will find in these writings thousands of propositions, all +numbered, none of which have been refuted. Throughout we see method +and precision; the presence of the Spirit issuing and flowing down +from a single fact,--the existence of angels. His 'True Christian +Religion,' which sums up his whole doctrine and is vigorous with +light, was conceived and written at the age of eighty-three. In fact, +his amazing vigor and omniscience are not denied by any of his +critics, not even by his enemies. + +"Nevertheless," said Monsieur Becker, slowly, "though I have drunk +deep in this torrent of divine light, God has not opened the eyes of +my inner being, and I judge these writings by the reason of an +unregenerated man. I have often felt that the INSPIRED Swedenborg must +have misunderstood the Angels. I have laughed over certain visions +which, according to his disciples, I ought to have believed with +veneration. I have failed to imagine the spiral writing of the Angels +or their golden belts, on which the gold is of great or lesser +thickness. If, for example, this statement, 'Some angels are +solitary,' affected me powerfully for a time, I was, on reflection, +unable to reconcile this solitude with their marriages. I have not +understood why the Virgin Mary should continue to wear blue satin +garments in heaven. I have even dared to ask myself why those gigantic +demons, Enakim and Hephilim, came so frequently to fight the cherubim +on the apocalyptic plains of Armageddon; and I cannot explain to my +own mind how Satans can argue with Angels. Monsieur le Baron +Seraphitus assured me that those details concerned only the angels who +live on earth in human form. The visions of the prophet are often +blurred with grotesque figures. One of his spiritual tales, or +'Memorable relations,' as he called them, begins thus: 'I see the +spirits assembling, they have hats upon their heads.' In another of +these Memorabilia he receives from heaven a bit of paper, on which he +saw, he says, the hieroglyphics of the primitive peoples, which were +composed of curved lines traced from the finger-rings that are worn in +heaven. However, perhaps I am wrong; possibly the material absurdities +with which his works are strewn have spiritual significations. +Otherwise, how shall we account for the growing influence of his +religion? His church numbers to-day more than seven hundred thousand +believers,--as many in the United States of America as in England, +where there are seven thousand Swedenborgians in the city of +Manchester alone. Many men of high rank in knowledge and in social +position in Germany, in Prussia, and in the Northern kingdoms have +publicly adopted the beliefs of Swedenborg; which, I may remark, are +more comforting than those of all other Christian communions. I wish I +had the power to explain to you clearly in succinct language the +leading points of the doctrine on which Swedenborg founded his church; +but I fear such a summary, made from recollection, would be +necessarily defective. I shall, therefore, allow myself to speak only +of those 'Arcana' which concern the birth of Seraphita." + +Here Monsieur Becker paused, as though composing his mind to gather up +his ideas. Presently he continued, as follows:-- + +"After establishing mathematically that man lives eternally in spheres +of either a lower or a higher grade, Swedenborg applies the term +'Spiritual Angels' to beings who in this world are prepared for +heaven, where they become angels. According to him, God has not +created angels; none exist who have not been men upon the earth. The +earth is the nursery-ground of heaven. The Angels are therefore not +Angels as such ('Angelic Wisdom,' 57), they are transformed through +their close conjunction with God; which conjunction God never refuses, +because the essence of God is not negative, but essentially active. +The spiritual angels pass through three natures of love, because man +is only regenerated through successive stages ('True Religion'). +First, the LOVE OF SELF: the supreme expression of this love is human +genius, whose works are worshipped. Next, LOVE OF LIFE: this love +produces prophets,--great men whom the world accepts as guides and +proclaims to be divine. Lastly, LOVE OF HEAVEN, and this creates the +Spiritual Angel. These angels are, so to speak, the flowers of +humanity, which culminates in them and works for that culmination. +They must possess either the love of heaven or the wisdom of heaven, +but always Love before Wisdom. + +"Thus the transformation of the natural man is into Love. To reach +this first degree, his previous existences must have passed through +Hope and Charity, which prepare him for Faith and Prayer. The ideas +acquired by the exercise of these virtues are transmitted to each of +the human envelopes within which are hidden the metamorphoses of the +INNER BEING; for nothing is separate, each existence is necessary to +the other existences. Hope cannot advance without Charity, nor Faith +without Prayer; they are the four fronts of a solid square. 'One +virtue missing,' he said, 'and the Spiritual Angel is like a broken +pearl.' Each of these existences is therefore a circle in which +revolves the celestial riches of the inner being. The perfection of +the Spiritual Angels comes from this mysterious progression in which +nothing is lost of the high qualities that are successfully acquired +to attain each glorious incarnation; for at each transformation they +cast away unconsciously the flesh and its errors. When the man lives +in Love he has shed all evil passions: Hope, Charity, Faith, and +Prayer have, in the words of Isaiah, purged the dross of his inner +being, which can never more be polluted by earthly affections. Hence +the grand saying of Christ quoted by Saint Matthew, 'Lay up for +yourselves treasures in Heaven where neither moth nor rust doth +corrupt,' and those still grander words: 'If ye were of this world the +world would love you, but I have chosen you out of the world; be ye +therefore perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.' + +"The second transformation of man is to Wisdom. Wisdom is the +understanding of celestial things to which the spirit is brought by +Love. The Spirit of Love has acquired strength, the result of all +vanquished terrestrial passions; it loves God blindly. But the Spirit +of Wisdom has risen to understanding and knows why it loves. The wings +of the one are spread and bear the spirit to God; the wings of the +other are held down by the awe that comes of understanding: the spirit +knows God. The one longs incessantly to see God and to fly to Him; the +other attains to Him and trembles. The union effected between the +Spirit of Love and the Spirit of Wisdom carries the human being into a +Divine state during which time his soul is WOMAN and his body MAN, the +last human manifestation in which the Spirit conquers Form, or Form +still struggles against the Spirit,--for Form, that is, the flesh, is +ignorant, rebels, and desires to continue gross. This supreme trial +creates untold sufferings seen by Heaven alone,--the agony of Christ +in the Garden of Olives. + +"After death the first heaven opens to this dual and purified human +nature. Therefore it is that man dies in despair while the Spirit dies +in ecstasy. Thus, the NATURAL, the state of beings not yet +regenerated; the SPIRITUAL, the state of those who have become Angelic +Spirits, and the DIVINE, the state in which the Angel exists before he +breaks from his covering of flesh, are the three degrees of existence +through which man enters heaven. One of Swedenborg's thoughts +expressed in his own words will explain to you with wonderful +clearness the difference between the NATURAL and the SPIRITUAL. 'To +the minds of men,' he says, 'the Natural passes into the Spiritual; +they regard the world under its visible aspects, they perceive it only +as it can be realized by their senses. But to the apprehension of +Angelic Spirits, the Spiritual passes into the Natural; they regard +the world in its inward essence and not in its form.' Thus human +sciences are but analyses of form. The man of science as the world +goes is purely external like his knowledge; his inner being is only +used to preserve his aptitude for the perception of external truths. +The Angelic Spirit goes far beyond that; his knowledge is the thought +of which human science is but the utterance; he derives that knowledge +from the Logos, and learns the law of CORRESPONDENCES by which the +world is placed in unison with heaven. The WORD OF GOD was wholly +written by pure Correspondences, and covers an esoteric or spiritual +meaning, which according to the science of Correspondences, cannot be +understood. 'There exist,' says Swedenborg ('Celestial Doctrine' 26), +'innumerable Arcana within the hidden meaning of the Correspondences. +Thus the men who scoff at the books of the Prophets where the Word is +enshrined are as densely ignorant as those other men who know nothing +of a science and yet ridicule its truths. To know the Correspondences +which exist between the things visible and ponderable in the +terrestrial world and the things invisible and imponderable in the +spiritual world, is to hold heaven within our comprehension. All the +objects of the manifold creations having emanated from God necessarily +enfold a hidden meaning; according, indeed, to the grand thought of +Isaiah, 'The earth is a garment.' + +"This mysterious link between Heaven and the smallest atoms of created +matter constitutes what Swedenborg calls a Celestial Arcanum, and his +treatise on the 'Celestial Arcana' in which he explains the +correspondences or significances of the Natural with, and to, the +Spiritual, giving, to use the words of Jacob Boehm, the sign and seal +of all things, occupies not less than sixteen volumes containing +thirty thousand propositions. 'This marvellous knowledge of +Correspondences which the goodness of God granted to Swedenborg,' says +one of his disciples, 'is the secret of the interest which draws men +to his works. According to him, all things are derived from heaven, +all things lead back to heaven. His writings are sublime and clear; he +speaks in heaven, and earth hears him. Take one of his sentences by +itself and a volume could be made of it'; and the disciple quotes the +following passages taken from a thousand others that would answer the +same purpose. + +"'The kingdom of heaven,' says Swedenborg ('Celestial Arcana'), 'is +the kingdom of motives. ACTION is born in heaven, thence into the +world, and, by degrees, to the infinitely remote parts of earth. +Terrestrial effects being thus linked to celestial causes, all things +are CORRESPONDENT and SIGNIFICANT. Man is the means of union between +the Natural and the Spiritual.' + +"The Angelic Spirits therefore know the very nature of the +Correspondences which link to heaven all earthly things; they know, +too, the inner meaning of the prophetic words which foretell their +evolutions. Thus to these Spirits everything here below has its +significance; the tiniest flower is a thought,--a life which +corresponds to certain lineaments of the Great Whole, of which they +have a constant intuition. To them Adultery and the excesses spoken of +in Scripture and by the Prophets, often garbled by self-styled +scholars, mean the state of those souls which in this world persist in +tainting themselves with earthly affections, thus compelling their +divorce from Heaven. Clouds signify the veil of the Most High. +Torches, shew-bread, horses and horsemen, harlots, precious stones, in +short, everything named in Scripture, has to them a clear-cut meaning, +and reveals the future of terrestrial facts in their relation to +Heaven. They penetrate the truths contained in the Revelation of Saint +John the divine, which human science has subsequently demonstrated and +proved materially; such, for instance, as the following ('big,' said +Swedenborg, 'with many human sciences'): 'I saw a new heaven and a new +earth, for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away' +(Revelation xxi. 1). These Spirits know the supper at which the flesh +of kings and the flesh of all men, free and bond, is eaten, to which +an Angel standing in the sun has bidden them. They see the winged +woman, clothed with the sun, and the mailed man. 'The horse of the +Apocalypse,' says Swedenborg, 'is the visible image of human intellect +ridden by Death, for it bears within itself the elements of its own +destruction.' Moreover, they can distinguish beings concealed under +forms which to ignorant eyes would seem fantastic. When a man is +disposed to receive the prophetic afflation of Correspondences, it +rouses within him a perception of the Word; he comprehends that the +creations are transformations only; his intellect is sharpened, a +burning thirst takes possession of him which only Heaven can quench. +He conceives, according to the greater or lesser perfection of his +inner being, the power of the Angelic Spirits; and he advances, led by +Desire (the least imperfect state of unregenerated man) towards Hope, +the gateway to the world of Spirits, whence he reaches Prayer, which +gives him the Key of Heaven. + +"What being here below would not desire to render himself worthy of +entrance into the sphere of those who live in secret by Love and +Wisdom? Here on earth, during their lifetime, such spirits remain +pure; they neither see, nor think, nor speak like other men. There are +two ways by which perception comes,--one internal, the other external. +Man is wholly external, the Angelic Spirit wholly internal. The Spirit +goes to the depth of Numbers, possesses a full sense of them, knows +their significances. It controls Motion, and by reason of its ubiquity +it shares in all things. 'An Angel,' says Swedenborg, 'is ever present +to a man when desired' ('Angelic Wisdom'); for the Angel has the gift +of detaching himself from his body, and he sees into heaven as the +prophets and as Swedenborg himself saw into it. 'In this state,' +writes Swedenborg ('True Religion,' 136), 'the spirit of a man may +move from one place to another, his body remaining where it is,--a +condition in which I lived for over twenty-six years.' It is thus that +we should interpret all Biblical statements which begin, 'The Spirit +led me.' Angelic Wisdom is to human wisdom what the innumerable forces +of nature are to its action, which is one. All things live again, and +move and have their being in the Spirit, which is in God. Saint Paul +expresses this truth when he says, 'In Deo sumus, movemur, et +vivimus,'--we live, we act, we are in God. + +"Earth offers no hindrance to the Angelic Spirit, just as the Word +offers him no obscurity. His approaching divinity enables him to see +the thought of God veiled in the Logos, just as, living by his inner +being, the Spirit is in communion with the hidden meaning of all +things on this earth. Science is the language of the Temporal world, +Love is that of the Spiritual world. Thus man takes note of more than +he is able to explain, while the Angelic Spirit sees and comprehends. +Science depresses man; Love exalts the Angel. Science is still +seeking, Love has found. Man judges Nature according to his own +relations to her; the Angelic Spirit judges it in its relation to +Heaven. In short, all things have a voice for the Spirit. Spirits are +in the secret of the harmony of all creations with each other; they +comprehend the spirit of sound, the spirit of color, the spirit of +vegetable life; they can question the mineral, and the mineral makes +answer to their thoughts. What to them are sciences and the treasures +of the earth when they grasp all things by the eye at all moments, +when the worlds which absorb the minds of so many men are to them but +the last step from which they spring to God? Love of heaven, or the +Wisdom of heaven, is made manifest to them by a circle of light which +surrounds them, and is visible to the Elect. Their innocence, of which +that of children is a symbol, possesses, nevertheless, a knowledge +which children have not; they are both innocent and learned. 'And,' +says Swedenborg, 'the innocence of Heaven makes such an impression +upon the soul that those whom it affects keep a rapturous memory of it +which lasts them all their lives, as I myself have experienced. It is +perhaps sufficient,' he goes on, 'to have only a minimum perception of +it to be forever changed, to long to enter Heaven and the sphere of +Hope.' + +"His doctrine of Marriage can be reduced to the following words: 'The +Lord has taken the beauty and the grace of the life of man and +bestowed them upon woman. When man is not reunited to this beauty and +this grace of his life, he is harsh, sad, and sullen; when he is +reunited to them he is joyful and complete.' The Angels are ever at +the perfect point of beauty. Marriages are celebrated by wondrous +ceremonies. In these unions, which produce no children, man +contributes the UNDERSTANDING, woman the WILL; they become one being, +one Flesh here below, and pass to heaven clothed in the celestial +form. On this earth, the natural attraction of the sexes towards +enjoyment is an Effect which allures, fatigues and disgusts; but in +the form celestial the pair, now ONE in Spirit find within theirself a +ceaseless source of joy. Swedenborg was led to see these nuptials of +the Spirits, which in the words of Saint Luke (xx. 35) are neither +marrying nor giving in marriage, and which inspire none but spiritual +pleasures. An Angel offered to make him witness of such a marriage and +bore him thither on his wings (the wings are a symbol and not a +reality). The Angel clothed him in a wedding garment and when +Swedenborg, finding himself thus robed in light, asked why, the answer +was: 'For these events, our garments are illuminated; they shine; they +are made nuptial.' ('Conjugial Love,' 19, 20, 21.) Then he saw the two +Angels, one coming from the South, the other from the East; the Angel +of the South was in a chariot drawn by two white horses, with reins of +the color and brilliance of the dawn; but lo, when they were near him +in the sky, chariot and horses vanished. The Angel of the East, +clothed in crimson, and the Angel of the South, in purple, drew +together, like breaths, and mingled: one was the Angel of Love, the +other the Angel of Wisdom. Swedenborg's guide told him that the two +Angels had been linked together on earth by an inward friendship and +ever united though separated in life by great distances. Consent, the +essence of all good marriage upon earth, is the habitual state of +Angels in Heaven. Love is the light of their world. The eternal +rapture of Angels comes from the faculty that God communicates to them +to render back to Him the joy they feel through Him. This reciprocity +of infinitude forms their life. They become infinite by participating +of the essence of God, who generates Himself by Himself. + +"The immensity of the Heavens where the Angels dwell is such that if +man were endowed with sight as rapid as the darting of light from the +sun to the earth, and if he gazed throughout eternity, his eyes could +not reach the horizon, nor find an end. Light alone can give an idea +of the joys of heaven. 'It is,' says Swedenborg ('Angelic Wisdom,' 7, +25, 26, 27), 'a vapor of the virtue of God, a pure emanation of His +splendor, beside which our greatest brilliance is obscurity. It can +compass all; it can renew all, and is never absorbed: it environs the +Angel and unites him to God by infinite joys which multiply infinitely +of themselves. This Light destroys whosoever is not prepared to +receive it. No one here below, nor yet in Heaven can see God and live. +This is the meaning of the saying (Exodus xix. 12, 13, 21-23) "Take +heed to yourselves that ye go not up into the mount--lest ye break +through unto the Lord to gaze, and many perish." And again (Exodus +xxxiv. 29-35), "When Moses came down from Mount Sinai with the two +Tables of testimony in his hand, his face shone, so that he put a veil +upon it when he spake with the people, lest any of them die." The +Transfiguration of Jesus Christ likewise revealed the light +surrounding the Messengers from on high and the ineffable joys of the +Angels who are forever imbued with it. "His face," says Saint Matthew +(xvii. 1-5), "did shine as the sun and his raiment was white as the +light--and a bright cloud overshadowed them."' + +"When a planet contains only those beings who reject the Lord, when +his word is ignored, then the Angelic Spirits are gathered together by +the four winds, and God sends forth an Exterminating Angel to change +the face of the refractory earth, which in the immensity of this +universe is to Him what an unfruitful seed is to Nature. Approaching +the globe, this Exterminating Angel, borne by a comet, causes the +planet to turn upon its axis, and the lands lately covered by the seas +reappear, adorned in freshness and obedient to the laws proclaimed in +Genesis; the Word of God is once more powerful on this new earth, +which everywhere exhibits the effects of terrestrial waters and +celestial flames. The light brought by the Angel from On High, causes +the sun to pale. 'Then,' says Isaiah, (xix. 20) 'men will hide in the +clefts of the rock and roll themselves in the dust of the earth.' +'They will cry to the mountains' (Revelation), 'Fall on us! and to the +seas, Swallow us up! Hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the +throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb!' The Lamb is the great figure +and hope of the Angels misjudged and persecuted here below. Christ +himself has said, 'Blessed are those who mourn! Blessed are the +simple-hearted! Blessed are they that love!'--All Swedenborg is there! +Suffer, Believe, Love. To love truly must we not suffer? must we not +believe? Love begets Strength, Strength bestows Wisdom, thence +Intelligence; for Strength and Wisdom demand Will. To be intelligent, +is not that to Know, to Wish, and to Will,--the three attributes of +the Angelic Spirit? 'If the universe has a meaning,' Monsieur Saint- +Martin said to me when I met him during a journey which he made in +Sweden, 'surely this is the one most worthy of God.' + +"But, Monsieur," continued the pastor after a thoughtful pause, "of +what avail to you are these shreds of thoughts taken here and there +from the vast extent of a work of which no true idea can be given +except by comparing it to a river of light, to billows of flame? When +a man plunges into it he is carried away as by an awful current. +Dante's poem seems but a speck to the reader submerged in the almost +Biblical verses with which Swedenborg renders palpable the Celestial +Worlds, as Beethoven built his palaces of harmony with thousands of +notes, as architects have reared cathedrals with millions of stones. +We roll in soundless depths, where our minds will not always sustain +us. Ah, surely a great and powerful intellect is needed to bring us +back, safe and sound, to our own social beliefs. + +"Swedenborg," resumed the pastor, "was particularly attached to the +Baron de Seraphitz, whose name, according to an old Swedish custom, +had taken from time immemorial the Latin termination of 'us.' The +baron was an ardent disciple of the Swedish prophet, who had opened +the eyes of his Inner-Man and brought him to a life in conformity with +the decrees from On-High. He sought for an Angelic Spirit among women; +Swedenborg found her for him in a vision. His bride was the daughter +of a London shoemaker, in whom, said Swedenborg, the life of Heaven +shone, she having passed through all anterior trials. After the death, +that is, the transformation of the prophet, the baron came to Jarvis +to accomplish his celestial nuptials with the observances of Prayer. +As for me, who am not a Seer, I have only known the terrestrial works +of this couple. Their lives were those of saints whose virtues are the +glory of the Roman Church. They ameliorated the condition of our +people; they supplied them all with means in return for work,--little, +perhaps, but enough for all their wants. Those who lived with them in +constant intercourse never saw them show a sign of anger or +impatience; they were constantly beneficent and gentle, full of +courtesy and loving-kindness; their marriage was the harmony of two +souls indissolubly united. Two eiders winging the same flight, the +sound in the echo, the thought in the word,--these, perhaps, are true +images of their union. Every one here in Jarvis loved them with an +affection which I can compare only to the love of a plant for the sun. +The wife was simple in her manners, beautiful in form, lovely in face, +with a dignity of bearing like that of august personages. In 1783, +being then twenty-six years old, she conceived a child; her pregnancy +was to the pair a solemn joy. They prepared to bid the earth farewell; +for they told me they should be transformed when their child had +passed the state of infancy which needed their fostering care until +the strength to exist alone should be given to her. + +"Their child was born,--the Seraphita we are now concerned with. From +the moment of her conception father and mother lived a still more +solitary life than in the past, lifting themselves up to heaven by +Prayer. They hoped to see Swedenborg, and faith realized their hope. +The day on which Seraphita came into the world Swedenborg appeared in +Jarvis, and filled the room of the new-born child with light. I was +told that he said, 'The work is accomplished; the Heavens rejoice!' +Sounds of unknown melodies were heard throughout the house, seeming to +come from the four points of heaven on the wings of the wind. The +spirit of Swedenborg led the father forth to the shores of the fiord +and there quitted him. Certain inhabitants of Jarvis, having +approached Monsieur Seraphitus as he stood on the shore, heard him +repeat those blissful words of Scripture: 'How beautiful on the +mountains are the feet of Him who is sent of God!' + +"I had left the parsonage on my way to baptize the infant and name it, +and perform the other duties required by law, when I met the baron +returning to the house. 'Your ministrations are superfluous,' he said; +'our child is to be without name on this earth. You must not baptize +in the waters of an earthly Church one who has just been immersed in +the fires of Heaven. This child will remain a blossom, it will not +grow old; you will see it pass away. You exist, but our child has +life; you have outward senses, the child has none, its being is always +inward.' These words were uttered in so strange and supernatural a +voice that I was more affected by them than by the shining of his +face, from which light appeared to exude. His appearance realized the +phantasmal ideas which we form of inspired beings as we read the +prophesies of the Bible. But such effects are not rare among our +mountains, where the nitre of perpetual snows produces extraordinary +phenomena in the human organization. + +"I asked him the cause of his emotion. 'Swedenborg came to us; he has +just left me; I have breathed the air of heaven,' he replied. 'Under +what form did he appear?' I said. 'Under his earthly form; dressed as +he was the last time I saw him in London, at the house of Richard +Shearsmith, Coldbath-fields, in July, 1771. He wore his brown frieze +coat with steel buttons, his waistcoat buttoned to the throat, a white +cravat, and the same magisterial wig rolled and powdered at the sides +and raised high in front, showing his vast and luminous brow, in +keeping with the noble square face, where all is power and +tranquillity. I recognized the large nose with its fiery nostril, the +mouth that ever smiled,--angelic mouth from which these words, the +pledge of my happiness, have just issued, "We shall meet soon."' + +"The conviction that shone on the baron's face forbade all discussion; +I listened in silence. His voice had a contagious heat which made my +bosom burn within me; his fanaticism stirred my heart as the anger of +another makes our nerves vibrate. I followed him in silence to his +house, where I saw the nameless child lying mysteriously folded to its +mother's breast. The babe heard my step and turned its head toward me; +its eyes were not those of an ordinary child. To give you an idea of +the impression I received, I must say that already they saw and +thought. The childhood of this predestined being was attended by +circumstances quite extraordinary in our climate. For nine years our +winters were milder and our summers longer than usual. This phenomenon +gave rise to several discussions among scientific men; but none of +their explanations seemed sufficient to academicians, and the baron +smiled when I told him of them. The child was never seen in its nudity +as other children are; it was never touched by man or woman, but lived +a sacred thing upon the mother's breast, and it never cried. If you +question old David he will confirm these facts about his mistress, for +whom he feels an adoration like that of Louis IX. for the saint whose +name he bore. + +"At nine years of age the child began to pray; prayer is her life. You +saw her in the church at Christmas, the only day on which she comes +there; she is separated from the other worshippers by a visible space. +If that space does not exist between herself and men she suffers. That +is why she passes nearly all her time alone in the chateau. The events +of her life are unknown; she is seldom seen; her days are spent in the +state of mystical contemplation which was, so Catholic writers tell +us, habitual with the early Christian solitaries, in whom the oral +tradition of Christ's own words still remained. Her mind, her soul, +her body, all within her is virgin as the snow on those mountains. At +ten years of age she was just what you see her now. When she was nine +her father and mother expired together, without pain or visible +malady, after naming the day and hour at which they would cease to be. +Standing at their feet she looked at them with a calm eye, not showing +either sadness, or grief, or joy, or curiosity. When we approached to +remove the two bodies she said, 'Carry them away!' 'Seraphita,' I +said, for so we called her, 'are you not affected by the death of your +father and your mother who loved you so much?' 'Dead?' she answered, +'no, they live in me forever-- That is nothing,' she pointed without +emotion to the bodies they were bearing away. I then saw her for the +third time only since her birth. In church it is difficult to +distinguish her; she stands near a column which, seen from the pulpit, +is in shadow, so that I cannot observe her features. + +"Of all the servants of the household there remained after the death +of the master and mistress only old David, who, in spite of his +eighty-two years, suffices to wait on his mistress. Some of our Jarvis +people tell wonderful tales about her. These have a certain weight in +a land so essentially conducive to mystery as ours; and I am now +studying the treatise on Incantations by Jean Wier and other works +relating to demonology, where pretended supernatural events are +recorded, hoping to find facts analogous to those which are attributed +to her." + +"Then you do not believe in her?" said Wilfrid. + +"Oh yes, I do," said the pastor, genially, "I think her a very +capricious girl; a little spoilt by her parents, who turned her head +with the religious ideas I have just revealed to you." + +Minna shook her head in a way that gently expressed contradiction. + +"Poor girl!" continued the old man, "her parents bequeathed to her +that fatal exaltation of soul which misleads mystics and renders them +all more or less mad. She subjects herself to fasts which horrify poor +David. The good old man is like a sensitive plant which quivers at the +slightest breeze, and glows under the first sun-ray. His mistress, +whose incomprehensible language has become his, is the breeze and the +sun-ray to him; in his eyes her feet are diamonds and her brow is +strewn with stars; she walks environed with a white and luminous +atmosphere; her voice is accompanied by music; she has the gift of +rendering herself invisible. If you ask to see her, he will tell you +she has gone to the ASTRAL REGIONS. It is difficult to believe such a +story, is it not? You know all miracles bear more or less resemblance +to the story of the Golden Tooth. We have our golden tooth in Jarvis, +that is all. Duncker the fisherman asserts that he has seen her plunge +into the fiord and come up in the shape of an eider-duck, at other +times walking on the billows of a storm. Fergus, who leads the flocks +to the saeters, says that in rainy weather a circle of clear sky can +be seen over the Swedish castle; and that the heavens are always blue +above Seraphita's head when she is on the mountain. Many women hear +the tones of a mighty organ when Seraphita enters the church, and ask +their neighbors earnestly if they too do not hear them. But my +daughter, for whom during the last two years Seraphita has shown much +affection, has never heard this music, and has never perceived the +heavenly perfumes which, they say, make the air fragrant about her +when she moves. Minna, to be sure, has often on returning from their +walks together expressed to me the delight of a young girl in the +beauties of our spring-time, in the spicy odors of budding larches and +pines and the earliest flowers; but after our long winters what can be +more natural than such pleasure? The companionship of this so-called +spirit has nothing so very extraordinary in it, has it, my child?" + +"The secrets of that spirit are not mine," said Minna. "Near it I know +all, away from it I know nothing; near that exquisite life I am no +longer myself, far from it I forget all. The time we pass together is +a dream which my memory scarcely retains. I may have heard yet not +remember the music which the women tell of; in that presence, I may +have breathed celestial perfumes, seen the glory of the heavens, and +yet be unable to recollect them here." + +"What astonishes me most," resumed the pastor, addressing Wilfrid, "is +to notice that you suffer from being near her." + +"Near her!" exclaimed the stranger, "she has never so much as let me +touch her hand. When she saw me for the first time her glance +intimidated me; she said: 'You are welcome here, for you were to +come.' I fancied that she knew me. I trembled. It is fear that forces +me to believe in her." + +"With me it is love," said Minna, without a blush. + +"Are you making fun of me?" said Monsieur Becker, laughing good- +humoredly; "you my daughter, in calling yourself a Spirit of Love, and +you, Monsieur Wilfrid, in pretending to be a Spirit of Wisdom?" + +He drank a glass of beer and so did not see the singular look which +Wilfrid cast upon Minna. + +"Jesting apart," resumed the old gentleman, "I have been much +astonished to hear that these two mad-caps ascended to the summit of +the Falberg; it must be a girlish exaggeration; they probably went to +the crest of a ledge. It is impossible to reach the peaks of the +Falberg." + +"If so, father," said Minna, in an agitated voice, "I must have been +under the power of a spirit; for indeed we reached the summit of the +Ice-Cap." + +"This is really serious," said Monsieur Becker. "Minna is always +truthful." + +"Monsieur Becker," said Wilfrid, "I swear to you that Seraphita +exercises such extraordinary power over me that I know no language in +which I can give you the least idea of it. She has revealed to me +things known to myself alone." + +"Somnambulism!" said the old man. "A great many such effects are +related by Jean Wier as phenomena easily explained and formerly +observed in Egypt." + +"Lend me Swedenborg's theosophical works," said Wilfrid, "and let me +plunge into those gulfs of light,--you have given me a thirst for +them." + +Monsieur Becker took down a volume and gave it to his guest, who +instantly began to read it. It was about nine o'clock in the evening. +The serving-woman brought in the supper. Minna made tea. The repast +over, each turned silently to his or her occupation; the pastor read +the Incantations; Wilfrid pursued the spirit of Swedenborg; and the +young girl continued to sew, her mind absorbed in recollections. It +was a true Norwegian evening--peaceful, studious, and domestic; full +of thoughts, flowers blooming beneath the snow. Wilfrid, as he +devoured the pages of the prophet, lived by his inner senses only; the +pastor, looking up at times from his book, called Minna's attention to +the absorption of their guest with an air that was half-serious, half- +jesting. To Minna's thoughts the face of Seraphitus smiled upon her as +it hovered above the clouds of smoke which enveloped them. The clock +struck twelve. Suddenly the outer door was opened violently. Heavy but +hurried steps, the steps of a terrified old man, were heard in the +narrow vestibule between the two doors; then David burst into the +parlor. + +"Danger, danger!" he cried. "Come! come, all! The evil spirits are +unchained! Fiery mitres are on their heads! Demons, Vertumni, Sirens! +they tempt her as Jesus was tempted on the mountain! Come, come! and +drive them away." + +"Do you not recognize the language of Swedenborg?" said the pastor, +laughing, to Wilfrid. "Here it is; pure from the source." + +But Wilfrid and Minna were gazing in terror at old David, who, with +hair erect, and eyes distraught, his legs trembling and covered with +snow, for he had come without snow-shoes, stood swaying from side to +side, as if some boisterous wind were shaking him. + +"Is he harmed?" cried Minna. + +"The devils hope and try to conquer her," replied the old man. + +The words made Wilfrid's pulses throb. + +"For the last five hours she has stood erect, her eyes raised to +heaven and her arms extended; she suffers, she cries to God. I cannot +cross the barrier; Hell has posted the Vertumni as sentinels. They +have set up an iron wall between her and her old David. She wants me, +but what can I do? Oh, help me! help me! Come and pray!" + +The old man's despair was terrible to see. + +"The Light of God is defending her," he went on, with infectious +faith, "but oh! she might yield to violence." + +"Silence, David! you are raving. This is a matter to be verified. We +will go with you," said the pastor, "and you shall see that there are +no Vertumni, nor Satans, nor Sirens, in that house." + +"Your father is blind," whispered David to Minna. + +Wilfrid, on whom the reading of Swedenborg's first treatise, which he +had rapidly gone through, had produced a powerful effect, was already +in the corridor putting on his skees; Minna was ready in a few +moments, and both left the old men far behind as they darted forward +to the Swedish castle. + +"Do you hear that cracking sound?" said Wilfrid. + +"The ice of the fiord stirs," answered Minna; "the spring is coming." + +Wilfrid was silent. When the two reached the courtyard they were +conscious that they had neither the faculty nor the strength to enter +the house. + +"What think you of her?" asked Wilfrid. + +"See that radiance!" cried Minna, going towards the window of the +salon. "He is there! How beautiful! O my Seraphitus, take me!" + +The exclamation was uttered inwardly. She saw Seraphitus standing +erect, lightly swathed in an opal-tinted mist that disappeared at a +little distance from the body, which seemed almost phosphorescent. + +"How beautiful she is!" cried Wilfrid, mentally. + +Just then Monsieur Becker arrived, followed by David; he saw his +daughter and guest standing before the window; going up to them, he +looked into the salon and said quietly, "Well, my good David, she is +only saying her prayers." + +"Ah, but try to enter, Monsieur." + +"Why disturb those who pray?" answered the pastor. + +At this instant the moon, rising above the Falberg, cast its rays upon +the window. All three turned round, attracted by this natural effect +which made them quiver; when they turned back to again look at +Seraphita she had disappeared. + +"How strange!" exclaimed Wilfrid. + +"I hear delightful sounds," said Minna. + +"Well," said the pastor, "it is all plain enough; she is going to +bed." + +David had entered the house. The others took their way back in +silence; none of them interpreted the vision in the same manner,-- +Monsieur Becker doubted, Minna adored, Wilfrid longed. + +Wilfrid was a man about thirty-six years of age. His figure, though +broadly developed, was not wanting in symmetry. Like most men who +distinguish themselves above their fellows, he was of medium height; +his chest and shoulders were broad, and his neck short,--a +characteristic of those whose hearts are near their heads; his hair +was black, thick, and fine; his eyes, of a yellow brown, had, as it +were, a solar brilliancy, which proclaimed with what avidity his +nature aspired to Light. Though these strong and virile features were +defective through the absence of an inward peace,--granted only to a +life without storms or conflicts,--they plainly showed the +inexhaustible resources of impetuous senses and the appetites of +instinct; just as every motion revealed the perfection of the man's +physical apparatus, the flexibility of his senses, and their fidelity +when brought into play. This man might contend with savages, and hear, +as they do, the tread of enemies in distant forests; he could follow a +scent in the air, a trail on the ground, or see on the horizon the +signal of a friend. His sleep was light, like that of all creatures +who will not allow themselves to be surprised. His body came quickly +into harmony with the climate of any country where his tempestuous +life conducted him. Art and science would have admired his +organization in the light of a human model. Everything about him was +symmetrical and well-balanced,--action and heart, intelligence and +will. At first sight he might be classed among purely instinctive +beings, who give themselves blindly up to the material wants of life; +but in the very morning of his days he had flung himself into a higher +social world, with which his feelings harmonized; study had widened +his mind, reflection had sharpened his power of thought, and the +sciences had enlarged his understanding. He had studied human laws,-- +the working of self-interests brought into conflict by the passions, +and he seemed to have early familiarized himself with the abstractions +on which societies rest. He had pored over books,--those deeds of dead +humanity; he had spent whole nights of pleasure in every European +capital; he had slept on fields of battle the night before the combat +and the night that followed victory. His stormy youth may have flung +him on the deck of some corsair and sent him among the contrasting +regions of the globe; thus it was that he knew the actions of a living +humanity. He knew the present and the past,--a double history; that of +to-day, that of other days. Many men have been, like Wilfrid, equally +powerful by the Hand, by the Heart, by the Head; like him, the +majority have abused their triple power. But though this man still +held by certain outward liens to the slimy side of humanity, he +belonged also and positively to the sphere where force is intelligent. +In spite of the many veils which enveloped his soul, there were +certain ineffable symptoms of this fact which were visible to pure +spirits, to the eyes of the child whose innocence has known no breath +of evil passions, to the eyes of the old man who has lived to regain +his purity. + +These signs revealed a Cain for whom there was still hope,--one who +seemed as though he were seeking absolution from the ends of the +earth. Minna suspected the galley-slave of glory in the man; Seraphita +recognized him. Both admired and both pitied him. Whence came their +prescience? Nothing could be more simple nor yet more extraordinary. +As soon as we seek to penetrate the secrets of Nature, where nothing +is secret, and where it is only necessary to have the eyes to see, we +perceive that the simple produces the marvellous. + +"Seraphitus," said Minna one evening a few days after Wilfrid's +arrival in Jarvis, "you read the soul of this stranger while I have +only vague impressions of it. He chills me or else he excites me; but +you seem to know the cause of this cold and of this heat; tell me what +it means, for you know all about him." + +"Yes, I have seen the causes," said Seraphitus, lowing his large +eyelids. + +"By what power?" asked the curious Minna. + +"I have the gift of Specialism," he answered. "Specialism is an inward +sight which can penetrate all things; you will only understand its +full meaning through a comparison. In the great cities of Europe where +works are produced by which the human Hand seeks to represent the +effects of the moral nature was well as those of the physical nature, +there are glorious men who express ideas in marble. The sculptor acts +on the stone; he fashions it; he puts a realm of ideas into it. There +are statues which the hand of man has endowed with the faculty of +representing the noble side of humanity, or the whole evil side; most +men see in such marbles a human figure and nothing more; a few other +men, a little higher in the scale of being, perceive a fraction of the +thoughts expressed in the statue; but the Initiates in the secrets of +art are of the same intellect as the sculptor; they see in his work +the whole universe of his thought. Such persons are in themselves the +principles of art; they bear within them a mirror which reflects +nature in her slightest manifestations. Well! so it is with me; I have +within me a mirror before which the moral nature, with its causes and +effects, appears and is reflected. Entering thus into the +consciousness of others I am able to divine both the future and the +past. How? do you still ask how? Imagine that the marble statue is the +body of a man, a piece of statuary in which we see the emotion, +sentiment, passion, vice or crime, virtue or repentance which the +creating hand has put into it, and you will then comprehend how it is +that I read the soul of this foreigner--though what I have said does +not explain the gift of Specialism; for to conceive the nature of that +gift we must possess it." + +Though Wilfrid belonged to the two first divisions of humanity, the +men of force and the men of thought, yet his excesses, his tumultuous +life, and his misdeeds had often turned him towards Faith; for doubt +has two sides; a side to the light and a side to the darkness. Wilfrid +had too closely clasped the world under its forms of Matter and of +Mind not to have acquired that thirst for the unknown, that longing to +GO BEYOND which lay their grasp upon the men who know, and wish, and +will. But neither his knowledge, nor his actions, nor his will, had +found direction. He had fled from social life from necessity; as a +great criminal seeks the cloister. Remorse, that virtue of weak +beings, did not touch him. Remorse is impotence, impotence which sins +again. Repentance alone is powerful; it ends all. But in traversing +the world, which he made his cloister, Wilfrid had found no balm for +his wounds; he saw nothing in nature to which he could attach himself. +In him, despair had dried the sources of desire. He was one of those +beings who, having gone through all passions and come out victorious, +have nothing more to raise in their hot-beds, and who, lacking +opportunity to put themselves at the head of their fellow-men to +trample under iron heel entire populations, buy, at the price of a +horrible martyrdom, the faculty of ruining themselves in some belief, +--rocks sublime, which await the touch of a wand that comes not to +bring the waters gushing from their far-off spring. + +Led by a scheme of his restless, inquiring life to the shores of +Norway, the sudden arrival of winter had detained the wanderer at +Jarvis. The day on which, for the first time, he saw Seraphita, the +whole past of his life faded from his mind. The young girl excited +emotions which he had thought could never be revived. The ashes gave +forth a lingering flame at the first murmurings of that voice. Who has +ever felt himself return to youth and purity after growing cold and +numb with age and soiled with impurity? Suddenly, Wilfrid loved as he +had never loved; he loved secretly, with faith, with fear, with inward +madness. His life was stirred to the very source of his being at the +mere thought of seeing Seraphita. As he listened to her he was +transported into unknown worlds; he was mute before her, she +magnetized him. There, beneath the snows, among the glaciers, bloomed +the celestial flower to which his hopes, so long betrayed, aspired; +the sight of which awakened ideas of freshness, purity, and faith +which grouped about his soul and lifted it to higher regions,--as +Angels bear to heaven the Elect in those symbolic pictures inspired by +the guardian spirit of a great master. Celestial perfumes softened the +granite hardness of the rocky scene; light endowed with speech shed +its divine melodies on the path of him who looked to heaven. After +emptying the cup of terrestrial love which his teeth had bitten as he +drank it, he saw before him the chalice of salvation where the limpid +waters sparkled, making thirsty for ineffable delights whoever dare +apply his lips burning with a faith so strong that the crystal shall +not be shattered. + +But Wilfrid now encountered the wall of brass for which he had been +seeking up and down the earth. He went impetuously to Seraphita, +meaning to express the whole force and bearing of a passion under +which he bounded like the fabled horse beneath the iron horseman, firm +in his saddle, whom nothing moves while the efforts of the fiery +animal only made the rider heavier and more solid. He sought her to +relate his life,--to prove the grandeur of his soul by the grandeur of +his faults, to show the ruins of his desert. But no sooner had he +crossed her threshold, and found himself within the zone of those eyes +of scintillating azure, that met no limits forward and left none +behind, than he grew calm and submissive, as a lion, springing on his +prey in the plains of Africa, receives from the wings of the wind a +message of love, and stops his bound. A gulf opened before him, into +which his frenzied words fell and disappeared, and from which uprose a +voice which changed his being; he became as a child, a child of +sixteen, timid and frightened before this maiden with serene brow, +this white figure whose inalterable calm was like the cruel +impassibility of human justice. The combat between them had never +ceased until this evening, when with a glance she brought him down, as +a falcon making his dizzy spirals in the air around his prey causes it +to fall stupefied to earth, before carrying it to his eyrie. + +We may note within ourselves many a long struggle the end of which is +one of our own actions,--struggles which are, as it were, the reverse +side of humanity. This reverse side belongs to God; the obverse side +to men. More than once Seraphita had proved to Wilfrid that she knew +this hidden and ever varied side, which is to the majority of men a +second being. Often she said to him in her dove-like voice: "Why all +this vehemence?" when on his way to her he had sworn she should be +his. Wilfrid was, however, strong enough to raise the cry of revolt to +which he had given utterance in Monsieur Becker's study. The narrative +of the old pastor had calmed him. Sceptical and derisive as he was, he +saw belief like a sidereal brilliance dawning on his life. He asked +himself if Seraphita were not an exile from the higher spheres seeking +the homeward way. The fanciful deifications of all ordinary lovers he +could not give to this lily of Norway in whose divinity he believed. +Why lived she here beside this fiord? What did she? Questions that +received no answer filled his mind. Above all, what was about to +happen between them? What fate had brought him there? To him, +Seraphita was the motionless marble, light nevertheless as a vapor, +which Minna had seen that day poised above the precipices of the +Falberg. Could she thus stand on the edge of all gulfs without danger, +without a tremor of the arching eyebrows, or a quiver of the light of +the eye? If his love was to be without hope, it was not without +curiosity. + +From the moment when Wilfrid suspected the ethereal nature of the +enchantress who had told him the secrets of his life in melodious +utterance, he had longed to try to subject her, to keep her to +himself, to tear her from the heaven where, perhaps, she was awaited. +Earth and Humanity seized their prey; he would imitate them. His +pride, the only sentiment through which man can long be exalted, would +make him happy in this triumph for the rest of his life. The idea sent +the blood boiling through his veins, and his heart swelled. If he did +not succeed, he would destroy her,--it is so natural to destroy that +which we cannot possess, to deny what we cannot comprehend, to insult +that which we envy. + +On the morrow, Wilfrid, laden with ideas which the extraordinary +events of the previous night naturally awakened in his mind, resolved +to question David, and went to find him on the pretext of asking after +Seraphita's health. Though Monsieur Becker spoke of the old servant as +falling into dotage, Wilfrid relied on his own perspicacity to +discover scraps of truth in the torrent of the old man's rambling +talk. + +David had the immovable, undecided, physiognomy of an octogenarian. +Under his white hair lay a forehead lined with wrinkles like the stone +courses of a ruined wall; and his face was furrowed like the bed of a +dried-up torrent. His life seemed to have retreated wholly to the +eyes, where light still shone, though its gleams were obscured by a +mistiness which seemed to indicate either an active mental alienation +or the stupid stare of drunkenness. His slow and heavy movements +betrayed the glacial weight of age, and communicated an icy influence +to whoever allowed themselves to look long at him,--for he possessed +the magnetic force of torpor. His limited intelligence was only roused +by the sight, the hearing, or the recollection of his mistress. She +was the soul of this wholly material fragment of an existence. Any one +seeing David alone by himself would have thought him a corpse; let +Seraphita enter, let her voice be heard, or a mention of her be made, +and the dead came forth from his grave and recovered speech and +motion. The dry bones were not more truly awakened by the divine +breath in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and never was that apocalyptic +vision better realized than in this Lazarus issuing from the sepulchre +into life at the voice of a young girl. His language, which was always +figurative and often incomprehensible, prevented the inhabitants of +the village from talking with him; but they respected a mind that +deviated so utterly from common ways,--a thing which the masses +instinctively admire. + +Wilfrid found him in the antechamber, apparently asleep beside the +stove. Like a dog who recognizes a friend of the family, the old man +raised his eyes, saw the foreigner, and did not stir. + +"Where is she?" inquired Wilfrid, sitting down beside him. + +David fluttered his fingers in the air as if to express the flight of +a bird. + +"Does she still suffer?" asked Wilfrid. + +"Beings vowed to Heaven are able so to suffer that suffering does not +lessen their love; this is the mark of the true faith," answered the +old man, solemnly, like an instrument which, on being touched, gives +forth an accidental note. + +"Who taught you those words?" + +"The Spirit." + +"What happened to her last night? Did you force your way past the +Vertumni standing sentinel? did you evade the Mammons?" + +"Yes"; answered David, as though awaking from a dream. + +The misty gleam of his eyes melted into a ray that came direct from +the soul and made it by degrees brilliant as that of an eagle, as +intelligent as that of a poet. + +"What did you see?" asked Wilfrid, astonished at this sudden change. + +"I saw Species and Shapes; I heard the Spirit of all things; I beheld +the revolt of the Evil Ones; I listened to the words of the Good. +Seven devils came, and seven archangels descended from on high. The +archangels stood apart and looked on through veils. The devils were +close by; they shone, they acted. Mammon came on his pearly shell in +the shape of a beautiful naked woman; her snowy body dazzled the eye, +no human form ever equalled it; and he said, 'I am Pleasure; thou +shalt possess me!' Lucifer, prince of serpents, was there in sovereign +robes; his Manhood was glorious as the beauty of an angel, and he +said, 'Humanity shall be at thy feet!' The Queen of misers,--she who +gives back naught that she has ever received,--the Sea, came wrapped +in her virent mantle; she opened her bosom, she showed her gems, she +brought forth her treasures and offered them; waves of sapphire and of +emerald came at her bidding; her hidden wonders stirred, they rose to +the surface of her breast, they spoke; the rarest pearl of Ocean +spread its iridescent wings and gave voice to its marine melodies, +saying, 'Twin daughter of suffering, we are sisters! await me; let us +go together; all I need is to become a Woman.' The Bird with the wings +of an eagle and the paws of a lion, the head of a woman and the body +of a horse, the Animal, fell down before her and licked her feet, and +promised seven hundred years of plenty to her best-beloved daughter. +Then came the most formidable of all, the Child, weeping at her knees, +and saying, 'Wilt thou leave me, feeble and suffering as I am? oh, my +mother, stay!' and he played with her, and shed languor on the air, +and the Heavens themselves had pity for his wail. The Virgin of pure +song brought forth her choirs to relax the soul. The Kings of the East +came with their slaves, their armies, and their women; the Wounded +asked her for succor, the Sorrowful stretched forth their hands: 'Do +not leave us! do not leave us!' they cried. I, too, I cried, 'Do not +leave us! we adore thee! stay!' Flowers, bursting from the seed, +bathed her in their fragrance which uttered, 'Stay!' The giant Enakim +came forth from Jupiter, leading Gold and its friends and all the +Spirits of the Astral Regions which are joined with him, and they +said, 'We are thine for seven hundred years.' At last came Death on +his pale horse, crying, 'I will obey thee!' One and all fell prostrate +before her. Could you but have seen them! They covered as it were a +vast plain, and they cried aloud to her, 'We have nurtured thee, thou +art our child; do not abandon us!' At length Life issued from her Ruby +Waters, and said, 'I will not leave thee!' then, finding Seraphita +silent, she flamed upon her as the sun, crying out, 'I am light!' 'THE +LIGHT is there!' cried Seraphita, pointing to the clouds where stood +the archangels; but she was wearied out; Desire had wrung her nerves, +she could only cry, 'My God! my God!' Ah! many an Angelic Spirit, +scaling the mountain and nigh to the summit, has set his foot upon a +rolling stone which plunged him back into the abyss! All these lost +Spirits adored her constancy; they stood around her,--a choir without +a song,--weeping and whispering, 'Courage!' At last she conquered; +Desire--let loose upon her in every Shape and every Species--was +vanquished. She stood in prayer, and when at last her eyes were lifted +she saw the feet of Angels circling in the Heavens." + +"She saw the feet of Angels?" repeated Wilfrid. + +"Yes," said the old man. + +"Was it a dream that she told you?" asked Wilfrid. + +"A dream as real as your life," answered David; "I was there." + +The calm assurance of the old servant affected Wilfrid powerfully. He +went away asking himself whether these visions were any less +extraordinary than those he had read of in Swedenborg the night +before. + +"If Spirits exist, they must act," he was saying to himself as he +entered the parsonage, where he found Monsieur Becker alone. + +"Dear pastor," he said, "Seraphita is connected with us in form only, +and even that form is inexplicable. Do not think me a madman or a +lover; a profound conviction cannot be argued with. Convert my belief +into scientific theories, and let us try to enlighten each other. To- +morrow evening we shall both be with her." + +"What then?" said Monsieur Becker. + +"If her eye ignores space," replied Wilfrid, "if her thought is an +intelligent sight which enables her to perceive all things in their +essence, and to connect them with the general evolution of the +universe, if, in a word, she sees and knows all, let us seat the +Pythoness on her tripod, let us force this pitiless eagle by threats +to spread its wings! Help me! I breathe a fire which burns my vitals; +I must quench it or it will consume me. I have found a prey at last, +and it shall be mine!" + +"The conquest will be difficult," said the pastor, "because this girl +is--" + +"Is what?" cried Wilfrid. + +"Mad," said the old man. + +"I will not dispute her madness, but neither must you dispute her +wonderful powers. Dear Monsieur Becker, she has often confounded me +with her learning. Has she travelled?" + +"From her house to the fiord, no further." + +"Never left this place!" exclaimed Wilfrid. "Then she must have read +immensely." + +"Not a page, not one iota! I am the only person who possesses any +books in Jarvis. The works of Swedenborg--the only books that were in +the chateau--you see before you. She has never looked into a single +one of them." + +"Have you tried to talk with her?" + +"What good would that do?" + +"Does no one live with her in that house?" + +"She has no friends but you and Minna, nor any servant except old +David." + +"It cannot be that she knows nothing of science nor of art." + +"Who should teach her?" said the pastor. + +"But if she can discuss such matters pertinently, as she has often +done with me, what do you make of it?" + +"The girl may have acquired through years of silence the faculties +enjoyed by Apollonius of Tyana and other pretended sorcerers burned by +the Inquisition, which did not choose to admit the fact of second- +sight." + +"If she can speak Arabic, what would you say to that?" + +"The history of medical science gives many authentic instances of +girls who have spoken languages entirely unknown to them." + +"What can I do?" exclaimed Wilfrid. "She knows of secrets in my past +life known only to me." + +"I shall be curious if she can tell me thoughts that I have confided +to no living person," said Monsieur Becker. + +Minna entered the room. + +"Well, my daughter, and how is your familiar spirit?" + +"He suffers, father," she answered, bowing to Wilfrid. "Human +passions, clothed in their false riches, surrounded him all night, and +showed him all the glories of the world. But you think these things +mere tales." + +"Tales as beautiful to those who read them in their brains as the +'Arabian Nights' to common minds," said the pastor, smiling. + +"Did not Satan carry our Savior to the pinnacle of the Temple, and +show him all the kingdoms of the world?" she said. + +"The Evangelists," replied her father, "did not correct their copies +very carefully, and several versions are in existence." + +"You believe in the reality of these visions?" said Wilfrid to Minna. + +"Who can doubt when he relates them." + +"He?" demanded Wilfrid. "Who?" + +"He who is there," replied Minna, motioning towards the chateau. + +"Are you speaking of Seraphita?" he said. + +The young girl bent her head, and looked at him with an expression of +gentle mischief. + +"You too!" exclaimed Wilfrid, "you take pleasure in confounding me. +Who and what is she? What do you think of her?" + +"What I feel is inexplicable," said Minna, blushing. + +"You are all crazy!" cried the pastor. + +"Farewell, until to-morrow evening," said Wilfrid. + + + +CHAPTER IV + +THE CLOUDS OF THE SANCTUARY + +There are pageants in which all the material splendors that man arrays +co-operate. Nations of slaves and divers have searched the sands of +ocean and the bowels of earth for the pearls and diamonds which adorn +the spectators. Transmitted as heirlooms from generation to +generation, these treasures have shone on consecrated brows and could +be the most faithful of historians had they speech. They know the joys +and sorrows of the great and those of the small. Everywhere do they +go; they are worn with pride at festivals, carried in despair to +usurers, borne off in triumph amid blood and pillage, enshrined in +masterpieces conceived by art for their protection. None, except the +pearl of Cleopatra, has been lost. The Great and the Fortunate +assemble to witness the coronation of some king, whose trappings are +the work of men's hands, but the purple of whose raiment is less +glorious than that of the flowers of the field. These festivals, +splendid in light, bathed in music which the hand of man creates, aye, +all the triumphs of that hand are subdued by a thought, crushed by a +sentiment. The Mind can illumine in a man and round a man a light more +vivid, can open his ear to more melodious harmonies, can seat him on +clouds of shining constellations and teach him to question them. The +Heart can do still greater things. Man may come into the presence of +one sole being and find in a single word, a single look, an influence +so weighty to bear, of so luminous a light, so penetrating a sound, +that he succumbs and kneels before it. The most real of all splendors +are not in outward things, they are within us. A single secret of +science is a realm of wonders to the man of learning. Do the trumpets +of Power, the jewels of Wealth, the music of Joy, or a vast concourse +of people attend his mental festival? No, he finds his glory in some +dim retreat where, perchance, a pallid suffering man whispers a single +word into his ear; that word, like a torch lighted in a mine, reveals +to him a Science. All human ideas, arrayed in every attractive form +which Mystery can invent surrounded a blind man seated in a wayside +ditch. Three worlds, the Natural, the Spiritual, the Divine, with all +their spheres, opened their portals to a Florentine exile; he walked +attended by the Happy and the Unhappy; by those who prayed and those +who moaned; by angels and by souls in hell. When the Sent of God, who +knew and could accomplish all things, appeared to three of his +disciples it was at eventide, at the common table of the humblest of +inns; and then and there the Light broke forth, shattering Material +Forms, illuminating the Spiritual Faculties, so that they saw him in +his glory, and the earth lay at their feet like a cast-off sandal. + +Monsieur Becker, Wilfrid, and Minna were all under the influence of +fear as they took their way to meet the extraordinary being whom each +desired to question. To them, in their several ways, the Swedish +castle had grown to mean some gigantic representation, some spectacle +like those whose colors and masses are skilfully and harmoniously +marshalled by the poets, and whose personages, imaginary actors to +men, are real to those who begin to penetrate the Spiritual World. On +the tiers of this Coliseum Monsieur Becker seated the gray legions of +Doubt, the stern ideas, the specious formulas of Dispute. He convoked +the various antagonistic worlds of philosophy and religion, and they +all appeared, in the guise of a fleshless shape, like that in which +art embodies Time,--an old man bearing in one hand a scythe, in the +other a broken globe, the human universe. + +Wilfrid had bidden to the scene his earliest illusions and his latest +hopes, human destiny and its conflicts, religion and its conquering +powers. + +Minna saw heaven confusedly by glimpses; love raised a curtain wrought +with mysterious images, and the melodious sounds which met her ear +redoubled her curiosity. + +To all three, therefore, this evening was to be what that other +evening had been for the pilgrims to Emmaus, what a vision was to +Dante, an inspiration to Homer,--to them, three aspects of the world +revealed, veils rent away, doubts dissipated, darkness illumined. +Humanity in all its moods expecting light could not be better +represented than here by this young girl, this man in the vigor of his +age, and these old men, of whom one was learned enough to doubt, the +other ignorant enough to believe. Never was any scene more simple in +appearance, nor more portentous in reality. + +When they entered the room, ushered in by old David, they found +Seraphita standing by a table on which were served the various dishes +which compose a "tea"; a form of collation which in the North takes +the place of wine and its pleasures,--reserved more exclusively for +Southern climes. Certainly nothing proclaimed in her, or in him, a +being with the strange power of appearing under two distinct forms; +nothing about her betrayed the manifold powers which she wielded. Like +a careful housewife attending to the comfort of her guests, she +ordered David to put more wood into the stove. + +"Good evening, my neighbors," she said. "Dear Monsieur Becker, you do +right to come; you see me living for the last time, perhaps. This +winter has killed me. Will you sit there?" she said to Wilfrid. "And +you, Minna, here?" pointing to a chair beside her. "I see you have +brought your embroidery. Did you invent that stitch? the design is +very pretty. For whom is it,--your father, or monsieur?" she added, +turning to Wilfrid. "Surely we ought to give him, before we part, a +remembrance of the daughters of Norway." + +"Did you suffer much yesterday?" asked Wilfrid. + +"It was nothing," she answered; "the suffering gladdened me; it was +necessary, to enable me to leave this life." + +"Then death does not alarm you?" said Monsieur Becker, smiling, for he +did not think her ill. + +"No, dear pastor; there are two ways of dying: to some, death is +victory, to others, defeat." + +"Do you think that you have conquered?" asked Minna. + +"I do not know," she said, "perhaps I have only taken a step in the +path." + +The lustrous splendor of her brow grew dim, her eyes were veiled +beneath slow-dropping lids; a simple movement which affected the +prying guests and kept them silent. Monsieur Becker was the first to +recover courage. + +"Dear child," he said, "you are truth itself, and you are ever kind. I +would ask of you to-night something other than the dainties of your +tea-table. If we may believe certain persons, you know amazing things; +if this be true, would it not be charitable in you to solve a few of +our doubts?" + +"Ah!" she said smiling, "I walk on the clouds. I visit the depths of +the fiord; the sea is my steed and I bridle it; I know where the +singing flower grows, and the talking light descends, and fragrant +colors shine! I wear the seal of Solomon; I am a fairy; I cast my +orders to the wind which, like an abject slave, fulfils them; my eyes +can pierce the earth and behold its treasures; for lo! am I not the +virgin to whom the pearls dart from their ocean depths and--" + +"--who led me safely to the summit of the Falberg?" said Minna, +interrupting her. + +"Thou! thou too!" exclaimed the strange being, with a luminous glance +at the young girl which filled her soul with trouble. "Had I not the +faculty of reading through your foreheads the desires which have +brought you here, should I be what you think I am?" she said, +encircling all three with her controlling glance, to David's great +satisfaction. The old man rubbed his hands with pleasure as he left +the room. + +"Ah!" she resumed after a pause, "you have come, all of you, with the +curiosity of children. You, my poor Monsieur Becker, have asked +yourself how it was possible that a girl of seventeen should know even +a single one of those secrets which men of science seek with their +noses to the earth,--instead of raising their eyes to heaven. Were I +to tell you how and at what point the plant merges into the animal you +would begin to doubt your doubts. You have plotted to question me; you +will admit that?" + +"Yes, dear Seraphita," answered Wilfrid; "but the desire is a natural +one to men, is it not?" + +"You will bore this dear child with such topics," she said, passing +her hand lightly over Minna's hair with a caressing gesture. + +The young girl raised her eyes and seemed as though she longed to lose +herself in him. + +"Speech is the endowment of us all," resumed the mysterious creature, +gravely. "Woe to him who keeps silence, even in a desert, believing +that no one hears him; all voices speak and all ears listen here +below. Speech moves the universe. Monsieur Becker, I desire to say +nothing unnecessarily. I know the difficulties that beset your mind; +would you not think it a miracle if I were now to lay bare the past +history of your consciousness? Well, the miracle shall be +accomplished. You have never admitted to yourself the full extent of +your doubts. I alone, immovable in my faith, I can show it to you; I +can terrify you with yourself. + +"You stand on the darkest side of Doubt. You do not believe in God,-- +although you know it not,--and all things here below are secondary to +him who rejects the first principle of things. Let us leave aside the +fruitless discussions of false philosophy. The spiritualist +generations made as many and as vain efforts to deny Matter as the +materialist generations have made to deny Spirit. Why such +discussions? Does not man himself offer irrefragable proof of both +systems? Do we not find in him material things and spiritual things? +None but a madman can refuse to see in the human body a fragment of +Matter; your natural sciences, when they decompose it, find little +difference between its elements and those of other animals. On the +other hand, the idea produced in man by the comparison of many objects +has never seemed to any one to belong to the domain of Matter. As to +this, I offer no opinion. I am now concerned with your doubts, not +with my certainties. To you, as to the majority of thinkers, the +relations between things, the reality of which is proved to you by +your sensations and which you possess the faculty to discover, do not +seem Material. The Natural universe of things and beings ends, in man, +with the Spiritual universe of similarities or differences which he +perceives among the innumerable forms of Nature,--relations so +multiplied as to seem infinite; for if, up to the present time, no one +has been able to enumerate the separate terrestrial creations, who can +reckon their correlations? Is not the fraction which you know, in +relation to their totality, what a single number is to infinity? Here, +then, you fall into a perception of the infinite which undoubtedly +obliges you to conceive of a purely Spiritual world. + +"Thus man himself offers sufficient proof of the two orders,--Matter +and Spirit. In him culminates a visible finite universe; in him begins +a universe invisible and infinite,--two worlds unknown to each other. +Have the pebbles of the fiord a perception of their combined being? +have they a consciousness of the colors they present to the eye of +man? do they hear the music of the waves that lap them? Let us +therefore spring over and not attempt to sound the abysmal depths +presented to our minds in the union of a Material universe and a +Spiritual universe,--a creation visible, ponderable, tangible, +terminating in a creation invisible, imponderable, intangible; +completely dissimilar, separated by the void, yet united by +indisputable bonds and meeting in a being who derives equally from the +one and from the other! Let us mingle in one world these two worlds, +absolutely irreconcilable to your philosophies, but conjoined by fact. +However abstract man may suppose the relation which binds two things +together, the line of junction is perceptible. How? Where? We are not +now in search of the vanishing point where Matter subtilizes. If such +were the question, I cannot see why He who has, by physical relations, +studded with stars at immeasurable distances the heavens which veil +Him, may not have created solid substances, nor why you deny Him the +faculty of giving a body to thought. + +"Thus your invisible moral universe and your visible physical universe +are one and the same matter. We will not separate properties from +substances, nor objects from effects. All that exists, all that +presses upon us and overwhelms us from above or from below, before us +or in us, all that which our eyes and our minds perceive, all these +named and unnamed things compose--in order to fit the problem of +Creation to the measure of your logic--a block of finite Matter; but +were it infinite, God would still not be its master. Now, reasoning +with your views, dear pastor, no matter in what way God the infinite +is concerned with this block of finite Matter, He cannot exist and +retain the attributes with which man invests Him. Seek Him in facts, +and He is not; spiritually and materially, you have made God +impossible. Listen to the Word of human Reason forced to its ultimate +conclusions. + +"In bringing God face to face with the Great Whole, we see that only +two states are possible between them,--either God and Matter are +contemporaneous, or God existed alone before Matter. Were Reason--the +light that has guided the human race from the dawn of its existence-- +accumulated in one brain, even that mighty brain could not invent a +third mode of being without suppressing both Matter and God. Let human +philosophies pile mountain upon mountain of words and of ideas, let +religions accumulate images and beliefs, revelations and mysteries, +you must face at last this terrible dilemma and choose between the two +propositions which compose it; you have no option, and one as much as +the other leads human reason to Doubt. + +"The problem thus established, what signifies Spirit or Matter? Why +trouble about the march of the worlds in one direction or in another, +since the Being who guides them is shown to be an absurdity? Why +continue to ask whether man is approaching heaven or receding from it, +whether creation is rising towards Spirit or descending towards +Matter, if the questioned universe gives no reply? What signifies +theogonies and their armies, theologies and their dogmas, since +whichever side of the problem is man's choice, his God exists not? Let +us for a moment take up the first proposition, and suppose God +contemporaneous with Matter. Is subjection to the action or the co- +existence of an alien substance consistent with being God at all? In +such a system, would not God become a secondary agent compelled to +organize Matter? If so, who compelled Him? Between His material gross +companion and Himself, who was the arbiter? Who paid the wages of the +six days' labor imputed to the great Designer? Has any determining +force been found which was neither God nor Matter? God being regarded +as the manufacturer of the machinery of the worlds, is it not as +ridiculous to call Him God as to call the slave who turns the +grindstone a Roman citizen? Besides, another difficulty, as insoluble +to this supreme human reason as it is to God, presents itself. + +"If we carry the problem higher, shall we not be like the Hindus, who +put the world upon a tortoise, the tortoise on an elephant, and do not +know on what the feet of their elephant may rest? This supreme will, +issuing from the contest between God and Matter, this God, this more +than God, can He have existed throughout eternity without willing what +He afterwards willed,--admitting that Eternity can be divided into two +eras. No matter where God is, what becomes of His intuitive +intelligence if He did not know His ultimate thought? Which, then, is +the true Eternity,--the created Eternity or the uncreated? But if God +throughout all time did will the world such as it is, this new +necessity, which harmonizes with the idea of sovereign intelligence, +implies the co-eternity of Matter. Whether Matter be co-eternal by a +divine will necessarily accordant with itself from the beginning, or +whether Matter be co-eternal of its own being, the power of God, which +must be absolute, perishes if His will is circumscribed; for in that +case God would find within Him a determining force which would control +Him. Can He be God if He can no more separate Himself from His +creation in a past eternity than in the coming eternity? + +"This face of the problem is insoluble in its cause. Let us now +inquire into its effects. If a God compelled to have created the world +from all eternity seems inexplicable, He is quite as unintelligible in +perpetual cohesion with His work. God, constrained to live eternally +united to His creation is held down to His first position as workman. +Can you conceive of a God who shall be neither independent of nor +dependent on His work? Could He destroy that work without challenging +Himself? Ask yourself, and decide! Whether He destroys it some day, or +whether He never destroys it, either way is fatal to the attributes +without which God cannot exist. Is the world an experiment? is it a +perishable form to which destruction must come? If it is, is not God +inconsistent and impotent? inconsistent, because He ought to have seen +the result before the attempt,--moreover why should He delay to +destroy that which He is to destroy?--impotent, for how else could He +have created an imperfect man? + +"If an imperfect creation contradicts the faculties which man +attributes to God we are forced back upon the question, Is creation +perfect? The idea is in harmony with that of a God supremely +intelligent who could make no mistakes; but then, what means the +degradation of His work, and its regeneration? Moreover, a perfect +world is, necessarily, indestructible; its forms would not perish, it +could neither advance nor recede, it would revolve in the everlasting +circumference from which it would never issue. In that case God would +be dependent on His work; it would be co-eternal with Him; and so we +fall back into one of the propositions most antagonistic to God. If +the world is imperfect, it can progress; if perfect, it is stationary. +On the other hand, if it be impossible to admit of a progressive God +ignorant through a past eternity of the results of His creative work, +can there be a stationary God? would not that imply the triumph of +Matter? would it not be the greatest of all negations? Under the first +hypothesis God perishes through weakness; under the second through the +Force of his inertia. + +"Therefore, to all sincere minds the supposition that Matter, in the +conception and execution of the worlds, is contemporaneous with God, +is to deny God. Forced to choose, in order to govern the nations, +between the two alternatives of the problem, whole generations have +preferred this solution of it. Hence the doctrine of the two +principles of Magianism, brought from Asia and adopted in Europe under +the form of Satan warring with the Eternal Father. But this religious +formula and the innumerable aspects of divinity that have sprung from +it are surely crimes against the Majesty Divine. What other term can +we apply to the belief which sets up as a rival to God a +personification of Evil, striving eternally against the Omnipotent +Mind without the possibility of ultimate triumph? Your statics declare +that two Forces thus pitted against each other are reciprocally +rendered null. + +"Do you turn back, therefore, to the other side of the problem, and +say that God pre-existed, original, alone? + +"I will not go over the preceding arguments (which here return in full +force) as to the severance of Eternity into two parts; nor the +questions raised by the progression or the immobility of the worlds; +let us look only at the difficulties inherent to this second theory. +If God pre-existed alone, the world must have emanated from Him; +Matter was therefore drawn from His essence; consequently Matter in +itself is non-existent; all forms are veils to cover the Divine +Spirit. If this be so, the World is Eternal, and also it must be God. +Is not this proposition even more fatal than the former to the +attributes conferred on God by human reason? How can the actual +condition of Matter be explained if we suppose it to issue from the +bosom of God and to be ever united with Him? Is it possible to believe +that the All-Powerful, supremely good in His essence and in His +faculties, has engendered things dissimilar to Himself. Must He not in +all things and through all things be like unto Himself? Can there be +in God certain evil parts of which at some future day he may rid +Himself?--a conjecture less offensive and absurd than terrible, for +the reason that it drags back into Him the two principles which the +preceding theory proved to be inadmissible. God must be ONE; He cannot +be divided without renouncing the most important condition of His +existence. It is therefore impossible to admit of a fraction of God +which yet is not God. This hypothesis seemed so criminal to the Roman +Church that she has made the omnipresence of God in the least +particles of the Eucharist an article of faith. + +"But how then can we imagine an omnipotent mind which does not +triumph? How associate it unless in triumph with Nature? But Nature is +not triumphant; she seeks, combines, remodels, dies, and is born +again; she is even more convulsed when creating than when all was +fusion; Nature suffers, groans, is ignorant, degenerates, does evil; +deceives herself, annihilates herself, disappears, and begins again. +If God is associated with Nature, how can we explain the inoperative +indifference of the divine principle? Wherefore death? How came it +that Evil, king of the earth, was born of a God supremely good in His +essence and in His faculties, who can produce nothing that is not made +in His own image? + +"But if, from this relentless conclusion which leads at once to +absurdity, we pass to details, what end are we to assign to the world? +If all is God, all is reciprocally cause and effect; all is ONE as God +is ONE, and we can perceive neither points of likeness nor points of +difference. Can the real end be a rotation of Matter which subtilizes +and disappears? In whatever sense it were done, would not this +mechanical trick of Matter issuing from God and returning to God seem +a sort of child's play? Why should God make himself gross with Matter? +Under which form is he most God? Which has the ascendant, Matter or +Spirit, when neither can in any way do wrong? Who can comprehend the +Deity engaged in this perpetual business, by which he divides Himself +into two Natures, one of which knows nothing, while the other knows +all? Can you conceive of God amusing Himself in the form of man, +laughing at His own efforts, dying Friday, to be born again Sunday, +and continuing this play from age to age, knowing the end from all +eternity, and telling nothing to Himself, the Creature, of what He the +Creator, does? The God of the preceding hypothesis, a God so nugatory +by the very power of His inertia, seems the more possible of the two +if we are compelled to choose between the impossibilities with which +this God, so dull a jester, fusillades Himself when two sections of +humanity argue face to face, weapons in hand. + +"However absurd this outcome of the second problem may seem, it was +adopted by half the human race in the sunny lands where smiling +mythologies were created. Those amorous nations were consistent; with +them all was God, even Fear and its dastardy, even crime and its +bacchanals. If we accept pantheism,--the religion of many a great +human genius,--who shall say where the greater reason lies? Is it with +the savage, free in the desert, clothed in his nudity, listening to +the sun, talking to the sea, sublime and always true in his deeds +whatever they may be; or shall we find it in civilized man, who +derives his chief enjoyments through lies; who wrings Nature and all +her resources to put a musket on his shoulder; who employs his +intellect to hasten the hour of his death and to create diseases out +of pleasures? When the rake of pestilence and the ploughshare of war +and the demon of desolation have passed over a corner of the globe and +obliterated all things, who will be found to have the greater +reason,--the Nubian savage or the patrician of Thebes? Your doubts +descend the scale, they go from heights to depths, they embrace all, +the end as well as the means. + +"But if the physical world seems inexplicable, the moral world +presents still stronger arguments against God. Where, then, is +progress? If all things are indeed moving toward perfection why do we +die young? why do not nations perpetuate themselves? The world having +issued from God and being contained in God can it be stationary? Do we +live once, or do we live always? If we live once, hurried onward by +the march of the Great-Whole, a knowledge of which has not been given +to us, let us act as we please. If we are eternal, let things take +their course. Is the created being guilty if he exists at the instant +of the transitions? If he sins at the moment of a great transformation +will he be punished for it after being its victim? What becomes of the +Divine goodness if we are not transferred to the regions of the blest +--should any such exist? What becomes of God's prescience if He is +ignorant of the results of the trials to which He subjects us? What is +this alternative offered to man by all religions,--either to boil in +some eternal cauldron or to walk in white robes, a palm in his hand +and a halo round his head? Can it be that this pagan invention is the +final word of God? Where is the generous soul who does not feel that +the calculating virtue which seeks the eternity of pleasure offered by +all religions to whoever fulfils at stray moments certain fanciful and +often unnatural conditions, is unworthy of man and of God? Is it not a +mockery to give to man impetuous senses and forbid him to satisfy +them? Besides, what mean these ascetic objections if Good and Evil are +equally abolished? Does Evil exist? If substance in all its forms is +God, then Evil is God. The faculty of reasoning as well as the faculty +of feeling having been given to man to use, nothing can be more +excusable in him than to seek to know the meaning of human suffering +and the prospects of the future. + +"If these rigid and rigorous arguments lead to such conclusions +confusion must reign. The world would have no fixedness; nothing would +advance, nothing would pause, all would change, nothing would be +destroyed, all would reappear after self-renovation; for if your mind +does not clearly demonstrate to you an end, it is equally impossible +to demonstrate the destruction of the smallest particle of Matter; +Matter can transform but not annihilate itself. + +"Though blind force may provide arguments for the atheist, intelligent +force is inexplicable; for if it emanates from God, why should it meet +with obstacles? ought not its triumph to be immediate? Where is God? +If the living cannot perceive Him, can the dead find Him? Crumble, ye +idolatries and ye religions! Fall, feeble keystones of all social +arches, powerless to retard the decay, the death, the oblivion that +have overtaken all nations however firmly founded! Fall, morality and +justice! our crimes are purely relative; they are divine effects whose +causes we are not allowed to know. All is God. Either we are God or +God is not!--Child of a century whose every year has laid upon your +brow, old man, the ice of its unbelief, here, here is the summing up +of your lifetime of thought, of your science and your reflections! +Dear Monsieur Becker, you have laid your head upon the pillow of +Doubt, because it is the easiest of solutions; acting in this respect +with the majority of mankind, who say in their hearts: 'Let us think +no more of these problems, since God has not vouchsafed to grant us +the algebraic demonstrations that could solve them, while He has given +us so many other ways to get from earth to heaven.' + +"Tell me, dear pastor, are not these your secret thoughts? Have I +evaded the point of any? nay, rather, have I not clearly stated all? +First, in the dogma of two principles,--an antagonism in which God +perishes for the reason that being All-Powerful He chose to combat. +Secondly, in the absurd pantheism where, all being God, God exists no +longer. These two sources, from which have flowed all the religions +for whose triumph Earth has toiled and prayed, are equally pernicious. +Behold in them the double-bladed axe with which you decapitate the +white old man whom you enthrone among your painted clouds! And now, to +me the axe, I wield it!" + +Monsieur Becker and Wilfrid gazed at the young girl with something +like terror. + +"To believe," continued Seraphita, in her Woman's voice, for the Man +had finished speaking, "to believe is a gift. To believe is to feel. +To believe in God we must feel God. This feeling is a possession +slowly acquired by the human being, just as other astonishing powers +which you admire in great men, warriors, artists, scholars, those who +know and those who act, are acquired. Thought, that budget of the +relations which you perceive among created things, is an intellectual +language which can be learned, is it not? Belief, the budget of +celestial truths, is also a language as superior to thought as thought +is to instinct. This language also can be learned. The Believer +answers with a single cry, a single gesture; Faith puts within his +hand a flaming sword with which he pierces and illumines all. The Seer +attains to heaven and descends not. But there are beings who believe +and see, who know and will, who love and pray and wait. Submissive, +yet aspiring to the kingdom of light, they have neither the aloofness +of the Believer nor the silence of the Seer; they listen and reply. To +them the doubt of the twilight ages is not a murderous weapon, but a +divining rod; they accept the contest under every form; they train +their tongues to every language; they are never angered, though they +groan; the acrimony of the aggressor is not in them, but rather the +softness and tenuity of light, which penetrates and warms and +illumines. To their eyes Doubt is neither an impiety, nor a blasphemy, +nor a crime, but a transition through which men return upon their +steps in the Darkness, or advance into the Light. This being so, dear +pastor, let us reason together. + +"You do not believe in God? Why? God, to your thinking, is +incomprehensible, inexplicable. Agreed. I will not reply that to +comprehend God in His entirety would be to be God; nor will I tell you +that you deny what seems to you inexplicable so as to give me the +right to affirm that which to me is believable. There is, for you, one +evident fact, which lies within yourself. In you, Matter has ended in +intelligence; can you therefore think that human intelligence will end +in darkness, doubt, and nothingness? God may seem to you +incomprehensible and inexplicable, but you must admit Him to be, in +all things purely physical, a splendid and consistent workman. Why +should His craft stop short at man, His most finished creation? + +"If that question is not convincing, at least it compels meditation. +Happily, although you deny God, you are obliged, in order to establish +your doubts, to admit those double-bladed facts, which kill your +arguments as much as your arguments kill God. We have also admitted +that Matter and Spirit are two creations which do not comprehend each +other; that the spiritual world is formed of infinite relations to +which the finite material world has given rise; that if no one on +earth is able to identify himself by the power of his spirit with the +great-whole of terrestrial creations, still less is he able to rise to +the knowledge of the relations which the spirit perceives between +these creations. + +"We might end the argument here in one word, by denying you the +faculty of comprehending God, just as you deny to the pebbles of the +fiord the faculties of counting and of seeing each other. How do you +know that the stones themselves do not deny the existence of man, +though man makes use of them to build his houses? There is one fact +that appals you,--the Infinite; if you feel it within, why will you +not admit its consequences? Can the finite have a perfect knowledge of +the infinite? If you cannot perceive those relations which, according +to your own admission, are infinite, how can you grasp a sense of the +far-off end to which they are converging? Order, the revelation of +which is one of your needs, being infinite, can your limited reason +apprehend it? Do not ask why man does not comprehend that which he is +able to perceive, for he is equally able to perceive that which he +does not comprehend. If I prove to you that your mind ignores that +which lies within its compass, will you grant that it is impossible +for it to conceive whatever is beyond it? This being so, am I not +justified in saying to you: 'One of the two propositions under which +God is annihilated before the tribunal of our reason must be true, the +other is false. Inasmuch as creation exists, you feel the necessity of +an end, and that end should be good, should it not? Now, if Matter +terminates in man by intelligence, why are you not satisfied to +believe that the end of human intelligence is the Light of the higher +spheres, where alone an intuition of that God who seems so insoluble a +problem is obtained? The species which are beneath you have no +conception of the universe, and you have; why should there not be +other species above you more intelligent than your own? Man ought to +be better informed than he is about himself before he spends his +strength in measuring God. Before attacking the stars that light us, +and the higher certainties, ought he not to understand the certainties +which are actually about him?' + +"But no! to the negations of doubt I ought rather to reply by +negations. Therefore I ask you whether there is anything here below so +evident that I can put faith in it? I will show you in a moment that +you believe firmly in things which act, and yet are not beings; in +things which engender thought, and yet are not spirits; in living +abstractions which the understanding cannot grasp in any shape, which +are in fact nowhere, but which you perceive everywhere; which have, +and can have, on name, but which, nevertheless, you have named; and +which, like the God of flesh upon whom you figure to yourself, remain +inexplicable, incomprehensible, and absurd. I shall also ask you why, +after admitting the existence of these incomprehensible things, you +reserve your doubts for God? + +"You believe, for instance, in Number,--a base on which you have built +the edifice of sciences which you call 'exact.' Without Number, what +would become of mathematics? Well, what mysterious being endowed with +the faculty of living forever could utter, and what language would be +compact to word the Number which contains the infinite numbers whose +existence is revealed to you by thought? Ask it of the loftiest human +genius; he might ponder it for a thousand years and what would be his +answer? You know neither where Number begins, nor where it pauses, nor +where it ends. Here you call it Time, there you call it Space. Nothing +exists except by Number. Without it, all would be one and the same +substance; for Number alone differentiates and qualifies substance. +Number is to your Spirit what it is to Matter, an incomprehensible +agent. Will you make a Deity of it? Is it a being? Is it a breath +emanating from God to organize the material universe where nothing +obtains form except by the Divinity which is an effect of Number? The +least as well as the greatest of creations are distinguishable from +each other by quantities, qualities, dimensions, forces,--all +attributes created by Number. The infinitude of Numbers is a fact +proved to your soul, but of which no material proof can be given. The +mathematician himself tells you that the infinite of numbers exists, +but cannot be proved. + +"God, dear pastor, is a Number endowed with motion,--felt, but not +seen, the Believer will tell you. Like the Unit, He begins Number, +with which He has nothing in common. The existence of Number depends +on the Unit, which without being a number engenders Number. God, dear +pastor is a glorious Unit who has nothing in common with His creations +but who, nevertheless, engenders them. Will you not therefore agree +with me that you are just as ignorant of where Number begins and ends +as you are of where created Eternity begins and ends? + +"Why, then, if you believe in Number, do you deny God? Is not Creation +interposed between the Infinite of unorganized substances and the +Infinite of the divine spheres, just as the Unit stands between the +Cipher of the fractions you have lately named Decimals, and the +Infinite of Numbers which you call Wholes? Man alone on earth +comprehends Number, that first step of the peristyle which leads to +God, and yet his reason stumbles on it! What! you can neither measure +nor grasp the first abstraction which God delivers to you, and yet you +try to subject His ends to your own tape-line! Suppose that I plunge +you into the abyss of Motion, the force that organizes Number. If I +tell you that the Universe is naught else than Number and Motion, you +would see at once that we speak two different languages. I understand +them both; you understand neither. + +"Suppose I add that Motion and Number are engendered by the Word, +namely the supreme Reason of Seers and Prophets who in the olden time +heard the Breath of God beneath which Saul fell to the earth. That +Word, you scoff at it, you men, although you well know that all +visible works, societies, monuments, deeds, passions, proceed from the +breath of your own feeble word, and that without that word you would +resemble the African gorilla, the nearest approach to man, the Negro. +You believe firmly in Number and in Motion, a force and a result both +inexplicable, incomprehensible, to the existence of which I may apply +the logical dilemma which, as we have seen, prevents you from +believing in God. Powerful reasoner that you are, you do not need that +I should prove to you that the Infinite must everywhere be like unto +Itself, and that, necessarily, it is One. God alone is Infinite, for +surely there cannot be two Infinities, two Ones. If, to make use of +human terms, anything demonstrated to you here below seems to you +infinite, be sure that within it you will find some one aspect of God. +But to continue. + +"You have appropriated to yourself a place in the Infinite of Number; +you have fitted it to your own proportions by creating (if indeed you +did create) arithmetic, the basis on which all things rest, even your +societies. Just as Number--the only thing in which your self-styled +atheists believe--organized physical creations, so arithmetic, in the +employ of Number, organized the moral world. This numeration must be +absolute, like all else that is true in itself; but it is purely +relative, it does not exist absolutely, and no proof can be given of +its reality. In the first place, though Numeration is able to take +account of organized substances, it is powerless in relation to +unorganized forces, the ones being finite and the others infinite. The +man who can conceive the Infinite by his intelligence cannot deal with +it in its entirety; if he could, he would be God. Your Numeration, +applying to things finite and not to the Infinite, is therefore true +in relation to the details which you are able to perceive, and false +in relation to the Whole, which you are unable to perceive. Though +Nature is like unto herself in the organizing force or in her +principles which are infinite, she is not so in her finite effects. +Thus you will never find in Nature two objects identically alike. In +the Natural Order two and two never make four; to do so, four exactly +similar units must be had, and you know how impossible it is to find +two leaves alike on the same tree, or two trees alike of the same +species. This axiom of your numeration, false in visible nature, is +equally false in the invisible universe of your abstractions, where +the same variance takes place in your ideas, which are the things of +the visible world extended by means of their relations; so that the +variations here are even more marked than elsewhere. In fact, all +being relative to the temperament, strength, habits, and customs of +individuals, who never resemble each other, the smallest objects take +the color of personal feelings. For instance, man has been able to +create units and to give an equal weight and value to bits of gold. +Well, take the ducat of the rich man and the ducat of the poor man to +a money-changer and they are rated exactly equal, but to the mind of +the thinker one is of greater importance than the other; one +represents a month of comfort, the other an ephemeral caprice. Two and +two, therefore, only make four through a false conception. + +"Again: fraction does not exist in Nature, where what you call a +fragment is a finished whole. Does it not often happen (have you not +many proofs of it?) that the hundredth part of a substance is stronger +than what you term the whole of it? If fraction does not exist in the +Natural Order, still less shall we find it in the Moral Order, where +ideas and sentiments may be as varied as the species of the Vegetable +kingdom and yet be always whole. The theory of fractions is therefore +another signal instance of the servility of your mind. + +"Thus Number, with its infinite minuteness and its infinite expansion, +is a power whose weakest side is known to you, but whose real import +escapes your perception. You have built yourself a hut in the Infinite +of numbers, you have adorned it with hieroglyphics scientifically +arranged and painted, and you cry out, 'All is here!' + +"Let us pass from pure, unmingled Number to corporate Number. Your +geometry establishes that a straight line is the shortest way from one +point to another, but your astronomy proves that God has proceeded by +curves. Here, then, we find two truths equally proved by the same +science,--one by the testimony of your senses reinforced by the +telescope, the other by the testimony of your mind; and yet the one +contradicts the other. Man, liable to err, affirms one, and the Maker +of the worlds, whom, so far, you have not detected in error, +contradicts it. Who shall decide between rectalinear and curvilinear +geometry? between the theory of the straight line and that of the +curve? If, in His vast work, the mysterious Artificer, who knows how +to reach His ends miraculously fast, never employs a straight line +except to cut off an angle and so obtain a curve, neither does man +himself always rely upon it. The bullet which he aims direct proceeds +by a curve, and when you wish to strike a certain point in space, you +impel your bombshell along its cruel parabola. None of your men of +science have drawn from this fact the simple deduction that the Curve +is the law of the material worlds and the Straight line that of the +Spiritual worlds; one is the theory of finite creations, the other the +theory of the infinite. Man, who alone in the world has a knowledge of +the Infinite, can alone know the straight line; he alone has the sense +of verticality placed in a special organ. A fondness for the creations +of the curve would seem to be in certain men an indication of the +impurity of their nature still conjoined to the material substances +which engender us; and the love of great souls for the straight line +seems to show in them an intuition of heaven. Between these two lines +there is a gulf fixed like that between the finite and the infinite, +between matter and spirit, between man and the idea, between motion +and the object moved, between the creature and God. Ask Love the +Divine to grant you his wings and you can cross that gulf. Beyond it +begins the revelation of the Word. + +"No part of those things which you call material is without its own +meaning; lines are the boundaries of solid parts and imply a force of +action which you suppress in your formulas,--thus rendering those +formulas false in relation to substances taken as a whole. Hence the +constant destruction of the monuments of human labor, which you +supply, unknown to yourselves, with acting properties. Nature has +substances; your science combines only their appearances. At every +step Nature gives the lie to all your laws. Can you find a single one +that is not disproved by a fact? Your Static laws are at the mercy of +a thousand accidents; a fluid can overthrow a solid mountain and prove +that the heaviest substances may be lifted by one that is +imponderable. + +"Your laws on Acoustics and Optics are defied by the sounds which you +hear within yourselves in sleep, and by the light of an electric sun +whose rays often overcome you. You know no more how light makes itself +seen within you, than you know the simple and natural process which +changes it on the throats of tropic birds to rubies, sapphires, +emeralds, and opals, or keeps it gray and brown on the breasts of the +same birds under the cloudy skies of Europe, or whitens it here in the +bosom of our polar Nature. You know not how to decide whether color is +a faculty with which all substances are endowed, or an effect produced +by an effluence of light. You admit the saltness of the sea without +being able to prove that the water is salt at its greatest depth. You +recognize the existence of various substances which span what you +think to be the void,--substances which are not tangible under any of +the forms assumed by Matter, although they put themselves in harmony +with Matter in spite of every obstacle. + +"All this being so, you believe in the results of Chemistry, although +that science still knows no way of gauging the changes produced by the +flux and reflux of substances which come and go across your crystals +and your instruments on the impalpable filaments of heat or light +conducted and projected by the affinities of metal or vitrified flint. +You obtain none but dead substances, from which you have driven the +unknown force that holds in check the decomposition of all things here +below, and of which cohesion, attraction, vibration, and polarity are +but phenomena. Life is the thought of substances; bodies are only the +means of fixing life and holding it to its way. If bodies were beings +living of themselves they would be Cause itself, and could not die. + +"When a man discovers the results of the general movement, which is +shared by all creations according to their faculty of absorption, you +proclaim him mighty in science, as though genius consisted in +explaining a thing that is! Genius ought to cast its eyes beyond +effects. Your men of science would laugh if you said to them: 'There +exist such positive relations between two human beings, one of whom +may be here, and the other in Java, that they can at the same instant +feel the same sensation, and be conscious of so doing; they can +question each other and reply without mistake'; and yet there are +mineral substances which exhibit sympathies as far off from each other +as those of which I speak. You believe in the power of the electricity +which you find in the magnet and you deny that which emanates from the +soul! According to you, the moon, whose influence upon the tides you +think fixed, has none whatever upon the winds, nor upon navigation, +nor upon men; she moves the sea, but she must not affect the sick +folk; she has undeniable relations with one half of humanity, and +nothing at all to do with the other half. These are your vaunted +certainties! + +"Let us go a step further. You believe in physics. But your physics +begin, like the Catholic religion, with an ACT OF FAITH. Do they not +pre-suppose some external force distinct from substance to which it +communicates motion? You see its effects, but what is it? where is it? +what is the essence of its nature, its life? has it any limits?--and +yet, you deny God! + +"Thus, the majority of your scientific axioms, true to their relation +to man, are false in relation to the Great Whole. Science is One, but +you have divided it. To know the real meaning of the laws of phenomena +must we not know the correlations which exist between phenomena and +the law of the Whole? There is, in all things, an appearance which +strikes your senses; under that appearance stirs a soul; a body is +there and a faculty is there. Where do you teach the study of the +relations which bind things to each other? Nowhere. Consequently you +have nothing positive. Your strongest certainties rest upon the +analysis of material forms whose essence you persistently ignore. + +"There is a Higher Knowledge of which, too late, some men obtain a +glimpse, though they dare not avow it. Such men comprehend the +necessity of considering substances not merely in their mathematical +properties but also in their entirety, in their occult relations and +affinities. The greatest man among you divined, in his latter days, +that all was reciprocally cause and effect; that the visible worlds +were co-ordinated among themselves and subject to worlds invisible. He +groaned at the recollection of having tried to establish fixed +precepts. Counting up his worlds, like grape-seeds scattered through +ether, he had explained their coherence by the laws of planetary and +molecular attraction. You bowed before that man of science--well! I +tell you that he died in despair. By supposing that the centrifugal +and centripetal forces, which he had invented to explain to himself +the universe, were equal, he stopped the universe; yet he admitted +motion in an indeterminate sense; but supposing those forces unequal, +then utter confusion of the planetary system ensued. His laws +therefore were not absolute; some higher problem existed than the +principle on which his false glory rested. The connection of the stars +with one another and the centripetal action of their internal motion +did not deter him from seeking the parent stalk on which his clusters +hung. Alas, poor man! the more he widened space the heavier his burden +grew. He told you how there came to be equilibrium among the parts, +but whither went the whole? His mind contemplated the vast extent, +illimitable to human eyes, filled with those groups of worlds a mere +fraction of which is all our telescopes can reach, but whose immensity +is revealed by the rapidity of light. This sublime contemplation +enabled him to perceive myriads of worlds, planted in space like +flowers in a field, which are born like infants, grow like men, die as +the aged die, and live by assimilating from their atmosphere the +substances suitable for their nourishment,--having a centre and a +principal of life, guaranteeing to each other their circuits, absorbed +and absorbing like plants, and forming a vast Whole endowed with life +and possessing a destiny. + +"At that sight your man of science trembled! He knew that life is +produced by the union of the thing and its principle, that death or +inertia or gravity is produced by a rupture between a thing and the +movement which appertains to it. Then it was that he foresaw the +crumbling of the worlds and their destruction if God should withdraw +the Breath of His Word. He searched the Apocalypse for the traces of +that Word. You thought him mad. Understand him better! He was seeking +pardon for the work of his genius. + +"Wilfrid, you have come here hoping to make me solve equations, or +rise upon a rain-cloud, or plunge into the fiord and reappear a swan. +If science or miracles were the end and object of humanity, Moses +would have bequeathed to you the law of fluxions; Jesus Christ would +have lightened the darkness of your sciences; his apostles would have +told you whence come those vast trains of gas and melted metals, +attached to cores which revolve and solidify as they dart through +ether, or violently enter some system and combine with a star, +jostling and displacing it by the shock, or destroying it by the +infiltration of their deadly gases; Saint Paul, instead of telling you +to live in God, would have explained why food is the secret bond among +all creations and the evident tie between all living Species. In these +days the greatest miracle of all would be the discovery of the +squaring of the circle,--a problem which you hold to be insoluble, but +which is doubtless solved in the march of worlds by the intersection +of some mathematical lines whose course is visible to the eye of +spirits who have reached the higher spheres. Believe me, miracles are +in us, not without us. Here natural facts occur which men call +supernatural. God would have been strangely unjust had he confined the +testimony of his power to certain generations and peoples and denied +them to others. The brazen rod belongs to all. Neither Moses, nor +Jacob, nor Zoroaster, nor Paul, nor Pythagoras, nor Swedenborg, not +the humblest Messenger nor the loftiest Prophet of the Most High are +greater than you are capable of being. Only, there come to nations as +to men certain periods when Faith is theirs. + +"If material sciences be the end and object of human effort, tell me, +both of you, would societies,--those great centres where men +congregate,--would they perpetually be dispersed? If civilization were +the object of our Species, would intelligence perish? would it +continue purely individual? The grandeur of all nations that were +truly great was based on exceptions; when the exception ceased their +power died. If such were the End-all, Prophets, Seers, and Messengers +of God would have lent their hand to Science rather than have given it +to Belief. Surely they would have quickened your brains sooner than +have touched your hearts! But no; one and all they came to lead the +nations back to God; they proclaimed the sacred Path in simple words +that showed the way to heaven; all were wrapped in love and faith, all +were inspired by that WORD which hovers above the inhabitants of +earth, enfolding them, inspiriting them, uplifting them; none were +prompted by any human interest. Your great geniuses, your poets, your +kings, your learned men are engulfed with their cities; while the +names of these good pastors of humanity, ever blessed, have survived +all cataclysms. + +"Alas! we cannot understand each other on any point. We are separated +by an abyss. You are on the side of darkness, while I--I live in the +light, the true Light! Is this the word that you ask of me? I say it +with joy; it may change you. Know this: there are sciences of matter +and sciences of spirit. There, where you see substances, I see forces +that stretch one toward another with generating power. To me, the +character of bodies is the indication of their principles and the sign +of their properties. Those principles beget affinities which escape +your knowledge, and which are linked to centres. The different species +among which life is distributed are unfailing streams which correspond +unfailingly among themselves. Each has his own vocation. Man is effect +and cause. He is fed, but he feeds in turn. When you call God a +Creator, you dwarf Him. He did not create, as you think He did, plants +or animals or stars. Could He proceed by a variety of means? Must He +not act by unity of composition? Moreover, He gave forth principles to +be developed, according to His universal law, at the will of the +surroundings in which they were placed. Hence a single substance and +motion, a single plant, a single animal, but correlations everywhere. +In fact, all affinities are linked together by contiguous similitudes; +the life of the worlds is drawn toward the centres by famished +aspiration, as you are drawn by hunger to seek food. + +"To give you an example of affinities linked to similitudes (a +secondary law on which the creations of your thought are based), +music, that celestial art, is the working out of this principle; for +is it not a complement of sounds harmonized by number? Is not sound a +modification of air, compressed, dilated, echoed? You know the +composition of air,--oxygen, nitrogen, and carbon. As you cannot +obtain sound from the void, it is plain that music and the human voice +are the result of organized chemical substances, which put themselves +in unison with the same substances prepared within you by your +thought, co-ordinated by means of light, the great nourisher of your +globe. Have you ever meditated on the masses of nitre deposited by the +snow, have you ever observed a thunderstorm and seen the plants +breathing in from the air about them the metal it contains, without +concluding that the sun has fused and distributed the subtle essence +which nourishes all things here below? Swedenborg has said, 'The earth +is a man.' + +"Your Science, which makes you great in your own eyes, is paltry +indeed beside the light which bathes a Seer. Cease, cease to question +me; our languages are different. For a moment I have used yours to +cast, if it be possible, a ray of faith into your soul; to give you, +as it were, the hem of my garment and draw you up into the regions of +Prayer. Can God abase Himself to you? Is it not for you to rise to +Him? If human reason finds the ladder of its own strength too weak to +bring God down to it, is it not evident that you must find some other +path to reach Him? That Path is in ourselves. The Seer and the +Believer find eyes within their souls more piercing far than eyes that +probe the things of earth,--they see the Dawn. Hear this truth: Your +science, let it be never so exact, your meditations, however bold, +your noblest lights are Clouds. Above, above is the Sanctuary whence +the true Light flows." + +She sat down and remained silent; her calm face bore no sign of the +agitation which orators betray after their least fervid +improvisations. + +Wilfrid bent toward Monsieur Becker and said in a low voice, "Who +taught her that?" + +"I do not know," he answered. + +"He was gentler on the Falberg," Minna whispered to herself. + +Seraphita passed her hand across her eyes and then she said, +smiling:-- + +"You are very thoughtful to-night, gentlemen. You treat Minna and me +as though we were men to whom you must talk politics or commerce; +whereas we are young girls, and you ought to tell us tales while you +drink your tea. That is what we do, Monsieur Wilfrid, in our long +Norwegian evenings. Come, dear pastor, tell me some Saga that I have +not heard,--that of Frithiof, the chronicle that you believe and have +so often promised me. Tell us the story of the peasant lad who owned +the ship that talked and had a soul. Come! I dream of the frigate +Ellida, the fairy with the sails young girls should navigate!" + +"Since we have returned to the regions of Jarvis," said Wilfrid, whose +eyes were fastened on Seraphita as those of a robber, lurking in the +darkness, fasten on the spot where he knows the jewels lie, "tell me +why you do not marry?" + +"You are all born widows and widowers," she replied; "but my marriage +was arranged at my birth. I am betrothed." + +"To whom?" they cried. + +"Ask not my secret," she said; "I will promise, if our father permits +it, to invite you to these mysterious nuptials." + +"Will they be soon?" + +"I think so." + +A long silence followed these words. + +"The spring has come!" said Seraphita, suddenly. "The noise of the +waters and the breaking of the ice begins. Come, let us welcome the +first spring of the new century." + +She rose, followed by Wilfrid, and together they went to a window +which David had opened. After the long silence of winter, the waters +stirred beneath the ice and resounded through the fiord like music,-- +for there are sounds which space refines, so that they reach the ear +in waves of light and freshness. + +"Wilfrid, cease to nourish evil thoughts whose triumph would be hard +to bear. Your desires are easily read in the fire of your eyes. Be +kind; take one step forward in well-doing. Advance beyond the love of +man and sacrifice yourself completely to the happiness of her you +love. Obey me; I will lead you in a path where you shall obtain the +distinctions which you crave, and where Love is infinite indeed." + +She left him thoughtful. + +"That soft creature!" he said within himself; "is she indeed the +prophetess whose eyes have just flashed lightnings, whose voice has +rung through worlds, whose hand has wielded the axe of doubt against +our sciences? Have we been dreaming? Am I awake?" + +"Minna," said Seraphita, returning to the young girl, "the eagle +swoops where the carrion lies, but the dove seeks the mountain spring +beneath the peaceful greenery of the glades. The eagle soars to +heaven, the dove descends from it. Cease to venture into regions where +thou canst find no spring of waters, no umbrageous shade. If on the +Falberg thou couldst not gaze into the abyss and live, keep all thy +strength for him who will love thee. Go, poor girl; thou knowest, I am +betrothed." + +Minna rose and followed Seraphita to the window where Wilfrid stood. +All three listened to the Sieg bounding out the rush of the upper +waters, which brought down trees uprooted by the ice; the fiord had +regained its voice; all illusions were dispelled! They rejoiced in +Nature as she burst her bonds and seemed to answer with sublime accord +to the Spirit whose breath had wakened her. + +When the three guests of this mysterious being left the house, they +were filled with the vague sensation which is neither sleep, nor +torpor, nor astonishment, but partakes of the nature of each,--a state +that is neither dusk nor dawn, but which creates a thirst for light. +All three were thinking. + +"I begin to believe that she is indeed a Spirit hidden in human form," +said Monsieur Becker. + +Wilfrid, re-entering his own apartments, calm and convinced, was +unable to struggle against that influence so divinely majestic. + +Minna said in her heart, "Why will he not let me love him!" + + + +CHAPTER V + +FAREWELL + +There is in man an almost hopeless phenomenon for thoughtful minds who +seek a meaning in the march of civilization, and who endeavor to give +laws of progression to the movement of intelligence. However +portentous a fact may be, or even supernatural,--if such facts exist, +--however solemnly a miracle may be done in sight of all, the +lightning of that fact, the thunderbolt of that miracle is quickly +swallowed up in the ocean of life, whose surface, scarcely stirred by +the brief convulsion, returns to the level of its habitual flow. + +A Voice is heard from the jaws of an Animal; a Hand writes on the wall +before a feasting Court; an Eye gleams in the slumber of a king, and a +Prophet explains the dream; Death, evoked, rises on the confines of +the luminous sphere were faculties revive; Spirit annihilates Matter +at the foot of that mystic ladder of the Seven Spiritual Worlds, one +resting upon another in space and revealing themselves in shining +waves that break in light upon the steps of the celestial Tabernacle. +But however solemn the inward Revelation, however clear the visible +outward Sign, be sure that on the morrow Balaam doubts both himself +and his ass, Belshazzar and Pharoah call Moses and Daniel to qualify +the Word. The Spirit, descending, bears man above this earth, opens +the seas and lets him see their depths, shows him lost species, wakens +dry bones whose dust is the soil of valleys; the Apostle writes the +Apocalypse, and twenty centuries later human science ratifies his +words and turns his visions into maxims. And what comes of it all? Why +this,--that the peoples live as they have ever lived, as they lived in +the first Olympiad, as they lived on the morrow of Creation, and on +the eve of the great cataclysm. The waves of Doubt have covered all +things. The same floods surge with the same measured motion on the +human granite which serves as a boundary to the ocean of intelligence. +When man has inquired of himself whether he has seen that which he has +seen, whether he has heard the words that entered his ears, whether +the facts were facts and the idea is indeed an idea, then he resumes +his wonted bearing, thinks of his worldly interests, obeys some envoy +of death and of oblivion whose dusky mantle covers like a pall an +ancient Humanity of which the moderns retain no memory. Man never +pauses; he goes his round, he vegetates until the appointed day when +his Axe falls. If this wave force, this pressure of bitter waters +prevents all progress, no doubt it also warns of death. Spirits +prepared by faith among the higher souls of earth can alone perceive +the mystic ladder of Jacob. + +After listening to Seraphita's answer in which (being earnestly +questioned) she unrolled before their eyes a Divine Perspective,--as +an organ fills a church with sonorous sound and reveals a musical +universe, its solemn tones rising to the loftiest arches and playing, +like light, upon their foliated capitals,--Wilfrid returned to his own +room, awed by the sight of a world in ruins, and on those ruins the +brilliance of mysterious lights poured forth in torrents by the hand +of a young girl. On the morrow he still thought of these things, but +his awe was gone; he felt he was neither destroyed nor changed; his +passions, his ideas awoke in full force, fresh and vigorous. He went +to breakfast with Monsieur Becker and found the old man absorbed in +the "Treatise on Incantations," which he had searched since early +morning to convince his guest that there was nothing unprecedented in +all that they had seen and heard at the Swedish castle. With the +childlike trustfulness of a true scholar he had folded down the pages +in which Jean Wier related authentic facts which proved the +possibility of the events that had happened the night before,--for to +learned men an idea is a event, just as the greatest events often +present no idea at all to them. By the time they had swallowed their +fifth cup of tea, these philosophers had come to think the mysterious +scene of the preceding evening wholly natural. The celestial truths to +which they had listened were arguments susceptible of examination; +Seraphita was a girl, more or less eloquent; allowance must be made +for the charms of her voice, her seductive beauty, her fascinating +motions, in short, for all those oratorical arts by which an actor +puts a world of sentiment and thought into phrases which are often +commonplace. + +"Bah!" said the worthy pastor, making a philosophical grimace as he +spread a layer of salt butter on his slice of bread, "the final word +of all these fine enigmas is six feet under ground." + +"But," said Wilfrid, sugaring his tea, "I cannot image how a young +girl of seventeen can know so much; what she said was certainly a +compact argument." + +"Read the account of that Italian woman," said Monsieur Becker, "who +at the age of twelve spoke forty-two languages, ancient and modern; +also the history of that monk who could guess thought by smell. I can +give you a thousand such cases from Jean Wier and other writers." + +"I admit all that, dear pastor; but to my thinking, Seraphita would +make a perfect wife." + +"She is all mind," said Monsieur Becker, dubiously. + +Several days went by, during which the snow in the valleys melted +gradually away; the green of the forests and of the grass began to +show; Norwegian Nature made ready her wedding garments for her brief +bridal of a day. During this period, when the softened air invited +every one to leave the house, Seraphita remained at home in solitude. +When at last she admitted Minna the latter saw at once the ravages of +inward fever; Seraphita's voice was hollow, her skin pallid; hitherto +a poet might have compared her lustre to that of diamonds,--now it was +that of a topaz. + +"Have you seen her?" asked Wilfrid, who had wandered around the +Swedish dwelling waiting for Minna's return. + +"Yes," answered the young girl, weeping; "We must lose him!" + +"Mademoiselle," cried Wilfrid, endeavoring to repress the loud tones +of his angry voice, "do not jest with me. You can love Seraphita only +as one young girl can love another, and not with the love which she +inspires in me. You do not know your danger if my jealousy were really +aroused. Why can I not go to her? Is it you who stand in my way?" + +"I do not know by what right you probe my heart," said Minna, calm in +appearance, but inwardly terrified. "Yes, I love him," she said, +recovering the courage of her convictions, that she might, for once, +confess the religion of her heart. "But my jealousy, natural as it is +in love, fears no one here below. Alas! I am jealous of a secret +feeling that absorbs him. Between him and me there is a great gulf +fixed which I cannot cross. Would that I knew who loves him best, the +stars or I! which of us would sacrifice our being most eagerly for his +happiness! Why should I not be free to avow my love? In the presence +of death we may declare our feelings,--and Seraphitus is about to +die." + +"Minna, you are mistaken; the siren I so love and long for, she, whom +I have seen, feeble and languid, on her couch of furs, is not a young +man." + +"Monsieur," answered Minna, distressfully, "the being whose powerful +hand guided me on the Falberg, who led me to the saeter sheltered +beneath the Ice-Cap, there--" she said, pointing to the peak, "is not +a feeble girl. Ah, had you but heard him prophesying! His poem was the +music of thought. A young girl never uttered those solemn tones of a +voice which stirred my soul." + +"What certainty have you?" said Wilfrid. + +"None but that of the heart," answered Minna. + +"And I," cried Wilfrid, casting on his companion the terrible glance +of the earthly desire that kills, "I, too, know how powerful is her +empire over me, and I will undeceive you." + +At this moment, while the words were rushing from Wilfrid's lips as +rapidly as the thoughts surged in his brain, they saw Seraphita coming +towards them from the house, followed by David. The apparition calmed +the man's excitement. + +"Look," he said, "could any but a woman move with that grace and +langor?" + +"He suffers; he comes forth for the last time," said Minna. + +David went back at a sign from his mistress, who advanced towards +Wilfrid and Minna. + +"Let us go to the falls of the Sieg," she said, expressing one of +those desires which suddenly possess the sick and which the well +hasten to obey. + +A thin white mist covered the valleys around the fiord and the sides +of the mountains, whose icy summits, sparkling like stars, pierced the +vapor and gave it the appearance of a moving milky way. The sun was +visible through the haze like a globe of red fire. Though winter still +lingered, puffs of warm air laden with the scent of the birch-trees, +already adorned with their rosy efflorescence, and of the larches, +whose silken tassels were beginning to appear,--breezes tempered by +the incense and the sighs of earth,--gave token of the glorious +Northern spring, the rapid, fleeting joy of that most melancholy of +Natures. The wind was beginning to lift the veil of mist which half- +obscured the gulf. The birds sang. The bark of the trees where the sun +had not yet dried the clinging hoar-frost shone gayly to the eye in +its fantastic wreathings which trickled away in murmuring rivulets as +the warmth reached them. The three friends walked in silence along the +shore. Wilfrid and Minna alone noticed the magic transformation that +was taking place in the monotonous picture of the winter landscape. +Their companion walked in thought, as though a voice were sounding to +her ears in this concert of Nature. + +Presently they reached the ledge of rocks through which the Sieg had +forced its way, after escaping from the long avenue cut by its waters +in an undulating line through the forest,--a fluvial pathway flanked +by aged firs and roofed with strong-ribbed arches like those of a +cathedral. Looking back from that vantage-ground, the whole extent of +the fiord could be seen at a glance, with the open sea sparkling on +the horizon beyond it like a burnished blade. + +At this moment the mist, rolling away, left the sky blue and clear. +Among the valleys and around the trees flitted the shining fragments, +--a diamond dust swept by the freshening breeze. The torrent rolled on +toward them; along its length a vapor rose, tinted by the sun with +every color of his light; the decomposing rays flashing prismatic +fires along the many-tinted scarf of waters. The rugged ledge on which +they stood was carpeted by several kinds of lichen, forming a noble +mat variegated by moisture and lustrous like the sheen of a silken +fabric. Shrubs, already in bloom, crowned the rocks with garlands. +Their waving foliage, eager for the freshness of the water, drooped +its tresses above the stream; the larches shook their light fringes +and played with the pines, stiff and motionless as aged men. This +luxuriant beauty was foiled by the solemn colonnades of the forest- +trees, rising in terraces upon the mountains, and by the calm sheet of +the fiord, lying below, where the torrent buried its fury and was +still. Beyond, the sea hemmed in this page of Nature, written by the +greatest of poets, Chance; to whom the wild luxuriance of creation +when apparently abandoned to itself is owing. + +The village of Jarvis was a lost point in the landscape, in this +immensity of Nature, sublime at this moment like all things else of +ephemeral life which present a fleeting image of perfection; for, by a +law fatal to no eyes but our own, creations which appear complete--the +love of our heart and the desire of our eyes--have but one spring-tide +here below. Standing on this breast-work of rock these three persons +might well suppose themselves alone in the universe. + +"What beauty!" cried Wilfrid. + +"Nature sings hymns," said Seraphita. "Is not her music exquisite? +Tell me, Wilfrid, could any of the women you once knew create such a +glorious retreat for herself as this? I am conscious here of a feeling +seldom inspired by the sight of cities, a longing to lie down amid +this quickening verdure. Here, with eyes to heaven and an open heart, +lost in the bosom of immensity, I could hear the sighings of the +flower, scarce budded, which longs for wings, or the cry of the eider +grieving that it can only fly, and remember the desires of man who, +issuing from all, is none the less ever longing. But that, Wilfrid, is +only a woman's thought. You find seductive fancies in the wreathing +mists, the light embroidered veils which Nature dons like a coy +maiden, in this atmosphere where she perfumes for her spousals the +greenery of her tresses. You seek the naiad's form amid the gauzy +vapors, and to your thinking my ears should listen only to the virile +voice of the Torrent." + +"But Love is there, like the bee in the calyx of the flower," replied +Wilfrid, perceiving for the first time a trace of earthly sentiment in +her words, and fancying the moment favorable for an expression of his +passionate tenderness. + +"Always there?" said Seraphita, smiling. Minna had left them for a +moment to gather the blue saxifrages growing on a rock above. + +"Always," repeated Wilfrid. "Hear me," he said, with a masterful +glance which was foiled as by a diamond breast-plate. "You know not +what I am, nor what I can be, nor what I will. Do not reject my last +entreaty. Be mine for the good of that world whose happiness you bear +upon your heart. Be mine that my conscience may be pure; that a voice +divine may sound in my ears and infuse Good into the great enterprise +I have undertaken prompted by my hatred to the nations, but which I +swear to accomplish for their benefit if you will walk beside me. What +higher mission can you ask for love? what nobler part can woman aspire +to? I came to Norway to meditate a grand design." + +"And you will sacrifice its grandeur," she said, "to an innocent girl +who loves you, and who will lead you in the paths of peace." + +"What matters sacrifice," he cried, "if I have you? Hear my secret. I +have gone from end to end of the North,--that great smithy from whose +anvils new races have spread over the earth, like human tides +appointed to refresh the wornout civilizations. I wished to begin my +work at some Northern point, to win the empire which force and +intellect must ever give over a primitive people; to form that people +for battle, to drive them to wars which should ravage Europe like a +conflagration, crying liberty to some, pillage to others, glory here, +pleasure there!--I, myself, remaining an image of Destiny, cruel, +implacable, advancing like the whirlwind, which sucks from the +atmosphere the particles that make the thunderbolt, and falls like a +devouring scourge upon the nations. Europe is at an epoch when she +awaits the new Messiah who shall destroy society and remake it. She +can no longer believe except in him who crushes her under foot. The +day is at hand when poets and historians will justify me, exalt me, +and borrow my ideas, mine! And all the while my triumph will be a +jest, written in blood, the jest of my vengeance! But not here, +Seraphita; what I see in the North disgusts me. Hers is a mere blind +force; I thirst for the Indies! I would rather fight a selfish, +cowardly, mercantile government. Besides, it is easier to stir the +imagination of the peoples at the feet of the Caucasus than to argue +with the intellect of the icy lands which here surround me. Therefore +am I tempted to cross the Russian steps and pour my triumphant human +tide through Asia to the Ganges, and overthrow the British rule. Seven +men have done this thing before me in other epochs of the world. I +will emulate them. I will spread Art like the Saracens, hurled by +Mohammed upon Europe. Mine shall be no paltry sovereignty like those +that govern to-day the ancient provinces of the Roman empire, +disputing with their subjects about a customs right! No, nothing can +bar my way! Like Genghis Khan, my feet shall tread a third of the +globe, my hand shall grasp the throat of Asia like Aurung-Zeb. Be my +companion! Let me seat thee, beautiful and noble being, on a throne! I +do not doubt success, but live within my heart and I am sure of it." + +"I have already reigned," said Seraphita, coldly. + +The words fell as the axe of a skilful woodman falls at the root of a +young tree and brings it down at a single blow. Men alone can +comprehend the rage that a woman excites in the soul of a man when, +after showing her his strength, his power, his wisdom, his +superiority, the capricious creature bends her head and says, "All +that is nothing"; when, unmoved, she smiles and says, "Such things are +known to me," as though his power were nought. + +"What!" cried Wilfrid, in despair, "can the riches of art, the riches +of worlds, the splendors of a court--" + +She stopped him by a single inflexion of her lips, and said, "Beings +more powerful than you have offered me far more." + +"Thou hast no soul," he cried,--"no soul, if thou art not persuaded by +the thought of comforting a great man, who is willing now to sacrifice +all things to live beside thee in a little house on the shores of a +lake." + +"But," she said, "I am loved with a boundless love." + +"By whom?" cried Wilfrid, approaching Seraphita with a frenzied +movement, as if to fling her into the foaming basin of the Sieg. + +She looked at him and slowly extended her arm, pointing to Minna, who +now sprang towards her, fair and glowing and lovely as the flowers she +held in her hand. + +"Child!" said Seraphitus, advancing to meet her. + +Wilfrid remained where she left him, motionless as the rock on which +he stood, lost in thought, longing to let himself go into the torrent +of the Sieg, like the fallen trees which hurried past his eyes and +disappeared in the bosom of the gulf. + +"I gathered them for you," said Minna, offering the bunch of +saxifrages to the being she adored. "One of them, see, this one," she +added, selecting a flower, "is like that you found on the Falberg." + +Seraphitus looked alternately at the flower and at Minna. + +"Why question me? Dost thou doubt me?" + +"No," said the young girl, "my trust in you is infinite. You are more +beautiful to look upon than this glorious nature, but your mind +surpasses in intellect that of all humanity. When I have been with you +I seem to have prayed to God. I long--" + +"For what?" said Seraphitus, with a glance that revealed to the young +girl the vast distance which separated them. + +"To suffer in your stead." + +"Ah, dangerous being!" cried Seraphitus in his heart. "Is it wrong, oh +my God! to desire to offer her to Thee? Dost thou remember, Minna, +what I said to thee up there?" he added, pointing to the summit of the +Ice-Cap. + +"He is terrible again," thought Minna, trembling with fear. + +The voice of the Sieg accompanied the thoughts of the three beings +united on this platform of projecting rock, but separated in soul by +the abysses of the Spiritual World. + +"Seraphitus! teach me," said Minna in a silvery voice, soft as the +motion of a sensitive plant, "teach me how to cease to love you. Who +could fail to admire you; love is an admiration that never wearies." + +"Poor child!" said Seraphitus, turning pale; "there is but one whom +thou canst love in that way." + +"Who?" asked Minna. + +"Thou shalt know hereafter," he said, in the feeble voice of a man who +lies down to die. + +"Help, help! he is dying!" cried Minna. + +Wilfrid ran towards them. Seeing Seraphita as she lay on a fragment of +gneiss, where time had cast its velvet mantle of lustrous lichen and +tawny mosses now burnished in the sunlight, he whispered softly, "How +beautiful she is!" + +"One other look! the last that I shall ever cast upon this nature in +travail," said Seraphitus, rallying her strength and rising to her +feet. + +She advanced to the edge of the rocky platform, whence her eyes took +in the scenery of that grand and glorious landscape, so verdant, +flowery, and animated, yet so lately buried in its winding-sheet of +snow. + +"Farewell," she said, "farewell, home of Earth, warmed by the fires of +Love; where all things press with ardent force from the centre to the +extremities; where the extremities are gathered up, like a woman's +hair, to weave the mysterious braid which binds us in that invisible +ether to the Thought Divine! + +"Behold the man bending above that furrow moistened with his tears, +who lifts his head for an instant to question Heaven; behold the woman +gathering her children that she may feed them with her milk; see him +who lashes the ropes in the height of the gale; see her who sits in +the hollow of the rocks, awaiting the father! Behold all they who +stretch their hands in want after a lifetime spent in thankless toil. +To all peace and courage, and to all farewell! + +"Hear you the cry of the soldier, dying nameless and unknown? the wail +of the man deceived who weeps in the desert? To them peace and +courage; to all farewell! + +"Farewell, you who die for the kings of the earth! Farewell, ye people +without a country and ye countries without a people, each, with a +mutual want. Above all, farewell to Thee who knew not where to lay Thy +head, Exile divine! Farewell, mothers beside your dying sons! +Farewell, ye Little Ones, ye Feeble, ye Suffering, you whose sorrows I +have so often borne! Farewell, all ye who have descended into the +sphere of Instinct that you may suffer there for others! + +"Farewell, ye mariners who seek the Orient through the thick darkness +of your abstractions, vast as principles! Farewell, martyrs of +thought, led by thought into the presence of the True Light. Farewell, +regions of study where mine ears can hear the plaint of genius +neglected and insulted, the sigh of the patient scholar to whom +enlightenment comes too late! + +"I see the angelic choir, the wafting of perfumes, the incense of the +heart of those who go their way consoling, praying, imparting +celestial balm and living light to suffering souls! Courage, ye choir +of Love! you to whom the peoples cry, 'Comfort us, comfort us, defend +us!' To you courage! and farewell! + +"Farewell, ye granite rocks that shall bloom a flower; farewell, +flower that becomes a dove; farewell, dove that shalt be woman; +farewell, woman, who art Suffering, man, who art Belief! Farewell, you +who shall be all love, all prayer!" + +Broken with fatigue, this inexplicable being leaned for the first time +on Wilfrid and on Minna to be taken home. Wilfrid and Minna felt the +shock of a mysterious contact in and through the being who thus +connected them. They had scarcely advanced a few steps when David met +them, weeping. "She will die," he said, "why have you brought her +hither?" + +The old man raised her in his arms with the vigor of youth and bore +her to the gate of the Swedish castle like an eagle bearing a white +lamb to his mountain eyrie. + + + +CHAPTER VI + +THE PATH TO HEAVEN + +The day succeeding that on which Seraphita foresaw her death and bade +farewell to Earth, as a prisoner looks round his dungeon before +leaving it forever, she suffered pains which obliged her to remain in +the helpless immobility of those whose pangs are great. Wilfrid and +Minna went to see her, and found her lying on her couch of furs. Still +veiled in flesh, her soul shone through that veil, which grew more and +more transparent day by day. The progress of the Spirit, piercing the +last obstacle between itself and the Infinite, was called an illness, +the hour of Life went by the name of death. David wept as he watched +her sufferings; unreasonable as a child, he would not listen to his +mistress's consolations. Monsieur Becker wished Seraphita to try +remedies; but all were useless. + +One morning she sent for the two beings whom she loved, telling them +that this would be the last of her bad days. Wilfrid and Minna came in +terror, knowing well that they were about to lose her. Seraphita +smiled to them as one departing to a better world; her head drooped +like a flower heavy with dew, which opens its calyx for the last time +to waft its fragrance on the breeze. She looked at these friends with +a sadness that was for them, not for herself; she thought no longer of +herself, and they felt this with a grief mingled with gratitude which +they were unable to express. Wilfrid stood silent and motionless, lost +in thoughts excited by events whose vast bearings enabled him to +conceive of some illimitable immensity. + +Emboldened by the weakness of the being lately so powerful, or perhaps +by the fear of losing him forever, Minna bent down over the couch and +said, "Seraphitus, let me follow thee!" + +"Can I forbid thee?" + +"Why will thou not love me enough to stay with me?" + +"I can love nothing here." + +"What canst thou love?" + +"Heaven." + +"Is it worthy of heaven to despise the creatures of God?" + +"Minna, can we love two beings at once? Would our beloved be indeed +our beloved if he did not fill our hearts? Must he not be the first, +the last, the only one? She who is all love, must she not leave the +world for her beloved? Human ties are but a memory, she has no ties +except to him! Her soul is hers no longer; it is his. If she keeps +within her soul anything that is not his, does she love? No, she loves +not. To love feebly, is that to love at all? The voice of her beloved +makes her joyful; it flows through her veins in a crimson tide more +glowing far than blood; his glance is the light that penetrates her; +her being melts into his being. He is warm to her soul. He is the +light that lightens; near to him there is neither cold nor darkness. +He is never absent, he is always with us; we think in him, to him, by +him! Minna, that is how I love him." + +"Love whom?" said Minna, tortured with sudden jealousy. + +"God," replied Seraphitus, his voice glowing in their souls like fires +of liberty from peak to peak upon the mountains,--"God, who does not +betray us! God, who will never abandon us! who crowns our wishes; who +satisfies His creatures with joy--joy unalloyed and infinite! God, who +never wearies but ever smiles! God, who pours into the soul fresh +treasures day by day; who purifies and leaves no bitterness; who is +all harmony, all flame! God, who has placed Himself within our hearts +to blossom there; who hearkens to our prayers; who does not stand +aloof when we are His, but gives His presence absolutely! He who +revives us, magnifies us, and multiplies us in Himself; GOD! Minna, I +love thee because thou mayst be His! I love thee because if thou come +to Him thou wilt be mine." + +"Lead me to Him," cried Minna, kneeling down; "take me by the hand; I +will not leave thee!" + +"Lead us, Seraphita!" cried Wilfrid, coming to Minna's side with an +impetuous movement. "Yes, thou hast given me a thirst for Light, a +thirst for the Word. I am parched with the Love thou hast put into my +heart; I desire to keep thy soul in mine; thy will is mine; I will do +whatsoever thou biddest me. Since I cannot obtain thee, I will keep +thy will and all the thoughts that thou hast given me. If I may not +unite myself with thee except by the power of my spirit, I will cling +to thee in soul as the flame to what it laps. Speak!" + +"Angel!" exclaimed the mysterious being, enfolding them both in one +glance, as it were with an azure mantle, "Heaven shall by thine +heritage!" + +Silence fell among them after these words, which sounded in the souls +of the man and of the woman like the first notes of some celestial +harmony. + +"If you would teach your feet to tread the Path to heaven, know that +the way is hard at first," said the weary sufferer; "God wills that +you shall seek Him for Himself. In that sense, He is jealous; He +demands your whole self. But when you have given Him yourself, never, +never will He abandon you. I leave with you the keys of the kingdom of +His Light, where evermore you shall dwell in the bosom of the Father, +in the heart of the Bridegroom. No sentinels guard the approaches, you +may enter where you will; His palaces, His treasures, His sceptre, all +are free. 'Take them!' He says. But--you must WILL to go there. Like +one preparing for a journey, a man must leave his home, renounce his +projects, bid farewell to friends, to father, mother, sister, even to +the helpless brother who cries after him,--yes, farewell to them +eternally; you will no more return than did the martyrs on their way +to the stake. You must strip yourself of every sentiment, of +everything to which man clings. Unless you do this you are but half- +hearted in your enterprise. + +"Do for God what you do for your ambitious projects, what you do in +consecrating yourself to Art, what you have done when you loved a +human creature or sought some secret of human science. Is not God the +whole of science, the all of love, the source of poetry? Surely His +riches are worthy of being coveted! His treasure is inexhaustible, His +poem infinite, His love immutable, His science sure and darkened by no +mysteries. Be anxious for nothing, He will give you all. Yes, in His +heart are treasures with which the petty joys you lose on earth are +not to be compared. What I tell you is true; you shall possess His +power; you may use it as you would use the gifts of lover or mistress. +Alas! men doubt, they lack faith, and will, and persistence. If some +set their feet in the path, they look behind them and presently turn +back. Few decide between the two extremes,--to go or stay, heaven or +the mire. All hesitate. Weakness leads astray, passion allures into +dangerous paths, vice becomes habitual, man flounders in the mud and +makes no progress towards a better state. + +"All human beings go through a previous life in the sphere of +Instinct, where they are brought to see the worthlessness of earthly +treasures, to amass which they gave themselves such untold pains! Who +can tell how many times the human being lives in the sphere of +Instinct before he is prepared to enter the sphere of Abstractions, +where thought expends itself on erring science, where mind wearies at +last of human language? for, when Matter is exhausted, Spirit enters. +Who knows how many fleshly forms the heir of heaven occupies before he +can be brought to understand the value of that silence and solitude +whose starry plains are but the vestibule of Spiritual Worlds? He +feels his way amid the void, makes trial of nothingness, and then at +last his eyes revert upon the Path. Then follow other existences,--all +to be lived to reach the place where Light effulgent shines. Death is +the post-house of the journey. A lifetime may be needed merely to gain +the virtues which annul the errors of man's preceding life. First +comes the life of suffering, whose tortures create a thirst for love. +Next the life of love and devotion to the creature, teaching devotion +to the Creator,--a life where the virtues of love, its martyrdoms, its +joys followed by sorrows, its angelic hopes, its patience, its +resignation, excite an appetite for things divine. Then follows the +life which seeks in silence the traces of the Word; in which the soul +grows humble and charitable. Next the life of longing; and lastly, the +life of prayer. In that is the noonday sun; there are the flowers, +there the harvest! + +"The virtues we acquire, which develop slowly within us, are the +invisible links that bind each one of our existences to the others,-- +existences which the spirit alone remembers, for Matter has no memory +for spiritual things. Thought alone holds the tradition of the bygone +life. The endless legacy of the past to the present is the secret +source of human genius. Some receive the gift of form, some the gift +of numbers, others the gift of harmony. All these gifts are steps of +progress in the Path of Light. Yes, he who possesses a single one of +them touches at that point the Infinite. Earth has divided the Word-- +of which I here reveal some syllables--into particles, she has reduced +it to dust and has scattered it through her works, her dogmas, her +poems. If some impalpable grain shines like a diamond in a human work, +men cry: 'How grand! how true! how glorious!' That fragment vibrates +in their souls and wakes a presentiment of heaven: to some, a melody +that weans from earth; to others, the solitude that draws to God. To +all, whatsoever sends us back upon ourselves, whatsoever strikes us +down and crushes us, lifts or abases us,--THAT is but a syllable of +the Divine Word. + +"When a human soul draws its first furrow straight, the rest will +follow surely. One thought borne inward, one prayer uplifted, one +suffering endured, one echo of the Word within us, and our souls are +forever changed. All ends in God; and many are the ways to find Him by +walking straight before us. When the happy day arrives in which you +set your feet upon the Path and begin your pilgrimage, the world will +know nothing of it; earth no longer understands you; you no longer +understand each other. Men who attain a knowledge of these things, who +lisp a few syllables of the Word, often have not where to lay their +head; hunted like beasts they perish on the scaffold, to the joy of +assembled peoples, while Angels open to them the gates of heaven. +Therefore, your destiny is a secret between yourself and God, just as +love is a secret between two hearts. You may be the buried treasure, +trodden under the feet of men thirsting for gold yet all-unknowing +that you are there beneath them. + +"Henceforth your existence becomes a thing of ceaseless activity; each +act has a meaning which connects you with God, just as in love your +actions and your thoughts are filled with the loved one. But love and +its joys, love and its pleasures limited by the senses, are but the +imperfect image of the love which unites you to your celestial Spouse. +All earthly joy is mixed with anguish, with discontent. If love ought +not to pall then death should end it while its flame is high, so that +we see no ashes. But in God our wretchedness becomes delight, joy +lives upon itself and multiplies, and grows, and has no limit. In the +Earthly life our fleeting love is ended by tribulation; in the +Spiritual life the tribulations of a day end in joys unending. The +soul is ceaselessly joyful. We feel God with us, in us; He gives a +sacred savor to all things; He shines in the soul; He imparts to us +His sweetness; He stills our interest in the world viewed for +ourselves; He quickens our interest in it viewed for His sake, and +grants us the exercise of His power upon it. In His name we do the +works which He inspires, we act for Him, we have no self except in +Him, we love His creatures with undying love, we dry their tears and +long to bring them unto Him, as a loving woman longs to see the +inhabitants of earth obey her well-beloved. + +"The final life, the fruition of all other lives, to which the powers +of the soul have tended, and whose merits open the Sacred Portals to +perfected man, is the life of Prayer. Who can make you comprehend the +grandeur, the majesty, the might of Prayer? May my voice, these words +of mine, ring in your hearts and change them. Be now, here, what you +may be after cruel trial! There are privileged beings, Prophets, +Seers, Messengers, and Martyrs, all those who suffer for the Word and +who proclaim it; such souls spring at a bound across the human sphere +and rise at once to Prayer. So, too, with those whose souls receive +the fire of Faith. Be one of those brave souls! God welcomes boldness. +He loves to be taken by violence; He will never reject those who force +their way to Him. Know this! desire, the torrent of your will, is so +all-powerful that a single emission of it, made with force, can obtain +all; a single cry, uttered under the pressure of Faith, suffices. Be +one of such beings, full of force, of will, of love! Be conquerors on +the earth! Let the hunger and thirst of God possess you. Fly to Him as +the hart panting for the water-brooks. Desire shall lend you its +wings; tears, those blossoms of repentance, shall be the celestial +baptism from which your nature will issue purified. Cast yourself on +the breast of the stream in Prayer! Silence and meditation are the +means of following the Way. God reveals Himself, unfailingly, to the +solitary, thoughtful seeker. + +"It is thus that the separation takes place between Matter, which so +long has wrapped its darkness round you, and Spirit, which was in you +from the beginning, the light which lighted you and now brings noon- +day to your soul. Yes, your broken heart shall receive the light; the +light shall bathe it. Then you will no longer feel convictions, they +will have changed to certainties. The Poet utters; the Thinker +meditates; the Righteous acts; but he who stands upon the borders of +the Divine World prays; and his prayer is word, thought, action, in +one! Yes, prayer includes all, contains all; it completes nature, for +it reveals to you the mind within it and its progression. White and +shining virgin of all human virtues, ark of the covenant between earth +and heaven, tender and strong companion partaking of the lion and of +the lamb, Prayer! Prayer will give you the key of heaven! Bold and +pure as innocence, strong, like all that is single and simple, this +glorious, invincible Queen rests, nevertheless, on the material world; +she takes possession of it; like the sun, she clasps it in a circle of +light. The universe belongs to him who wills, who knows, who prays; +but he must will, he must know, he must pray; in a word, he must +possess force, wisdom, and faith. + +"Therefore Prayer, issuing from so many trials, is the consummation of +all truths, all powers, all feelings. Fruit of the laborious, +progressive, continued development of natural properties and faculties +vitalized anew by the divine breath of the Word, Prayer has occult +activity; it is the final worship--not the material worship of images, +nor the spiritual worship of formulas, but the worship of the Divine +World. We say no prayers,--prayer forms within us; it is a faculty +which acts of itself; it has attained a way of action which lifts it +outside of forms; it links the soul to God, with whom we unite as the +root of the tree unites with the soil; our veins draw life from the +principle of life, and we live by the life of the universe. Prayer +bestows external conviction by making us penetrate the Material World +through the cohesion of all our faculties with the elementary +substances; it bestows internal conviction by developing our essence +and mingling it with that of the Spiritual Worlds. To be able to pray +thus, you must attain to an utter abandonment of flesh; you must +acquire through the fires of the furnace the purity of the diamond; +for this complete communion with the Divine is obtained only in +absolute repose, where storms and conflicts are at rest. + +"Yes, Prayer--the aspiration of the soul freed absolutely from the +body--bears all forces within it, and applies them to the constant and +perseverant union of the Visible and the Invisible. When you possess +the faculty of praying without weariness, with love, with force, with +certainty, with intelligence, your spiritualized nature will presently +be invested with power. Like a rushing wind, like a thunderbolt, it +cuts its way through all things and shares the power of God. The +quickness of the Spirit becomes yours; in an instant you may pass from +region to region; like the Word itself, you are transported from the +ends of the world to other worlds. Harmony exists, and you are part of +it! Light is there and your eyes possess it! Melody is heard and you +echo it! Under such conditions, you feel your perceptions developing, +widening; the eyes of your mind reach to vast distances. There is, in +truth, neither time nor place to the Spirit; space and duration are +proportions created for Matter; spirit and matter have naught in +common. + +"Though these things take place in stillness, in silence, without +agitation, without external movement, yet Prayer is all action; but it +is spiritual action, stripped of substantiality, and reduced, like the +motion of the worlds, to an invisible pure force. It penetrates +everywhere like light; it gives vitality to souls that come beneath +its rays, as Nature beneath the sun. It resuscitates virtue, purifies +and sanctifies all actions, peoples solitude, and gives a foretaste of +eternal joys. When you have once felt the delights of the divine +intoxication which comes of this internal travail, then all is yours! +once take the lute on which we sing to God within your hands, and you +will never part with it. Hence the solitude in which Angelic Spirits +live; hence their disdain of human joys. They are withdrawn from those +who must die to live; they hear the language of such beings, but they +no longer understand their ideas; they wonder at their movements, at +what the world terms policies, material laws, societies. For them all +mysteries are over; truth, and truth alone, is theirs. They who have +reached the point where their eyes discern the Sacred Portals, who, +not looking back, not uttering one regret, contemplate worlds and +comprehend their destinies, such as they keep silence, wait, and bear +their final struggles. The worst of all those struggles is the last; +at the zenith of all virtue is Resignation,--to be an exile and not +lament, no longer to delight in earthly things and yet to smile, to +belong to God and yet to stay with men! You hear the voice that cries +to you, 'Advance!' Often celestial visions of descending Angels +compass you about with songs of praise; then, tearless, uncomplaining, +must you watch them as they reascent the skies! To murmur is to +forfeit all. Resignation is a fruit that ripens at the gates of +heaven. How powerful, how glorious the calm smile, the pure brow of +the resigned human creature. Radiant is the light of that brow. They +who live in its atmosphere grow purer. That calm glance penetrates and +softens. More eloquent by silence than the prophet by speech, such +beings triumph by their simple presence. Their ears are quick to hear +as a faithful dog listening for his master. Brighter than hope, +stronger than love, higher than faith, that creature of resignation is +the virgin standing on the earth, who holds for a moment the conquered +palm, then, rising heavenward, leaves behind her the imprint of her +white, pure feet. When she has passed away men flock around and cry, +'See! See!' Sometimes God holds her still in sight,--a figure to whose +feet creep Forms and Species of Animality to be shown their way. She +wafts the light exhaling from her hair, and they see; she speaks, and +they hear. 'A miracle!' they cry. Often she triumphs in the name of +God; frightened men deny her and put her to death; smiling, she lays +down her sword and goes to the stake, having saved the Peoples. How +many a pardoned Angel has passed from martyrdom to heaven! Sinai, +Golgotha are not in this place nor in that; Angels are crucified in +every place, in every sphere. Sighs pierce to God from the whole +universe. This earth on which we live is but a single sheaf of the +great harvest; humanity is but a species in the vast garden where the +flowers of heaven are cultivated. Everywhere God is like unto Himself, +and everywhere, by prayer, it is easy to reach Him." + +With these words, which fell from the lips of another Hagar in the +wilderness, burning the souls of the hearers as the live coal of the +word inflamed Isaiah, this mysterious being paused as though to gather +some remaining strength. Wilfrid and Minna dared not speak. Suddenly +HE lifted himself up to die:-- + +"Soul of all things, oh my God, thou whom I love for Thyself! Thou, +Judge and Father, receive a love which has no limit. Give me of thine +essence and thy faculties that I be wholly thine! Take me, that I no +longer be myself! Am I not purified? then cast me back into the +furnace! If I be not yet proved in the fire, make me some nurturing +ploughshare, or the Sword of victory! Grant me a glorious martyrdom in +which to proclaim thy Word! Rejected, I will bless thy justice. But if +excess of love may win in a moment that which hard and patient labor +cannot attain, then bear me upward in thy chariot of fire! Grant me +triumph, or further trial, still will I bless thee! To suffer for +thee, is not that to triumph? Take me, seize me, bear me away! nay, if +thou wilt, reject me! Thou art He who can do no evil. Ah!" he cried, +after a pause, "the bonds are breaking. + +"Spirits of the pure, ye sacred flock, come forth from the hidden +places, come on the surface of the luminous waves! The hour now is; +come, assemble! Let us sing at the gates of the Sanctuary; our songs +shall drive away the final clouds. With one accord let us hail the +Dawn of the Eternal Day. Behold the rising of the one True Light! Ah, +why may I not take with me these my friends! Farewell, poor earth, +Farewell!" + + + +CHAPTER VII + +THE ASSUMPTION + +The last psalm was uttered neither by word, look, nor gesture, nor by +any of those signs which men employ to communicate their thoughts, but +as the soul speaks to itself; for at the moment when Seraphita +revealed herself in her true nature, her thoughts were no longer +enslaved by human words. The violence of that last prayer had burst +her bonds. Her soul, like a white dove, remained for an instant poised +above the body whose exhausted substances were about to be +annihilated. + +The aspiration of the Soul toward heaven was so contagious that +Wilfrid and Minna, beholding those radiant scintillations of Life, +perceived not Death. + +They had fallen on their knees when HE had turned toward his Orient, +and they shared his ecstasy. + +The fear of the Lord, which creates man a second time, purging away +his dross, mastered their hearts. + +Their eyes, veiled to the things of Earth, were opened to the +Brightness of Heaven. + +Though, like the Seers of old called Prophets by men, they were filled +with the terror of the Most High, yet like them they continued firm +when they found themselves within the radiance where the Glory of the +SPIRIT shone. + +The veil of flesh, which, until now, had hidden that glory from their +eyes, dissolved imperceptibly away, and left them free to behold the +Divine substance. + +They stood in the twilight of the Coming Dawn, whose feeble rays +prepared them to look upon the True Light, to hear the Living Word, +and yet not die. + +In this state they began to perceive the immeasurable differences +which separate the things of earth from the things of Heaven. + +LIFE, on the borders of which they stood, leaning upon each other, +trembling and illuminated, like two children standing under shelter in +presence of a conflagration, That Life offered no lodgment to the +senses. + +The ideas they used to interpret their vision to themselves were to +the things seen what the visible senses of a man are to his soul, the +material covering of a divine essence. + +The departing SPIRIT was above them, shedding incense without odor, +melody without sound. About them, where they stood, were neither +surfaces, nor angles, nor atmosphere. + +They dared neither question him nor contemplate him; they stood in the +shadow of that Presence as beneath the burning rays of a tropical sun, +fearing to raise their eyes lest the light should blast them. + +They knew they were beside him, without being able to perceive how it +was that they stood, as in a dream, on the confines of the Visible and +the Invisible, nor how they had lost sight of the Visible and how they +beheld the Invisible. + +To each other they said: "If he touches us, we can die!" But the +SPIRIT was now within the Infinite, and they knew not that neither +time, nor space, nor death, existed there, and that a great gulf lay +between them, although they thought themselves beside him. + +Their souls were not prepared to receive in its fulness a knowledge of +the faculties of that Life; they could have only faint and confused +perceptions of it, suited to their weakness. + +Were it not so, the thunder of the LIVING WORD, whose far-off tones +now reached their ears, and whose meaning entered their souls as life +unites with body,--one echo of that Word would have consumed their +being as a whirlwind of fire laps up a fragile straw. + +Therefore they saw only that which their nature, sustained by the +strength of the SPIRIT, permitted them to see; they heard that only +which they were able to hear. + +And yet, though thus protected, they shuddered when the Voice of the +anguished soul broke forth above them--the prayer of the SPIRIT +awaiting Life and imploring it with a cry. + +That cry froze them to the very marrow of their bones. + +The SPIRIT knocked at the SACRED PORTAL. "What wilt thou?" answered a +CHOIR, whose question echoed among the worlds. "To go to God." "Hast +thou conquered?" "I have conquered the flesh through abstinence, I +have conquered false knowledge by humility, I have conquered pride by +charity, I have conquered the earth by love; I have paid my dues by +suffering, I am purified in the fires of faith, I have longed for Life +by prayer: I wait in adoration, and I am resigned." + +No answer came. + +"God's will be done!" answered the SPIRIT, believing that he was about +to be rejected. + +His tears flowed and fell like dew upon the heads of the two kneeling +witnesses, who trembled before the justice of God. + +Suddenly the trumpets sounded,--the last trumpets of Victory won by +the ANGEL in this last trial. The reverberation passed through space +as sound through its echo, filling it, and shaking the universe which +Wilfrid and Minna felt like an atom beneath their feet. They trembled +under an anguish caused by the dread of the mystery about to be +accomplished. + +A great movement took place, as though the Eternal Legions, putting +themselves in motion, were passing upward in spiral columns. The +worlds revolved like clouds driven by a furious wind. It was all +rapid. + +Suddenly the veils were rent away. They saw on high as it were a star, +incomparably more lustrous than the most luminous of material stars, +which detached itself, and fell like a thunderbolt, dazzling as +lightning. Its passage paled the faces of the pair, who thought it to +be THE LIGHT Itself. + +It was the Messenger of good tidings, the plume of whose helmet was a +flame of Life. + +Behind him lay the swath of his way gleaming with a flood of the +lights through which he passed. + +He bore a palm and a sword. He touched the SPIRIT with the palm, and +the SPIRIT was transfigured. Its white wings noiselessly unfolded. + +This communication of THE LIGHT, changing the SPIRIT into a SERAPH and +clothing it with a glorious form, a celestial armor, poured down such +effulgent rays that the two Seers were paralyzed. + +Like the three apostles to whom Jesus showed himself, they felt the +dead weight of their bodies which denied them a complete and cloudless +intuition of THE WORD and THE TRUE LIFE. + +They comprehended the nakedness of their souls; they were able to +measure the poverty of their light by comparing it--a humbling task-- +with the halo of the SERAPH. + +A passionate desire to plunge back into the mire of earth and suffer +trial took possession of them,--trial through which they might +victoriously utter at the SACRED GATES the words of that radiant +Seraph. + +The Seraph knelt before the SANCTUARY, beholding it, at last, face to +face; and he said, raising his hands thitherward, "Grant that these +two may have further sight; they will love the Lord and proclaim His +word." + +At this prayer a veil fell. Whether it were that the hidden force +which held the Seers had momentarily annihilated their physical +bodies, or that it raised their spirits above those bodies, certain it +is that they felt within them a rending of the pure from the impure. + +The tears of the Seraph rose about them like a vapor, which hid the +lower worlds from their knowledge, held them in its folds, bore them +upwards, gave them forgetfulness of earthly meanings and the power of +comprehending the meanings of things divine. + +The True Light shone; it illumined the Creations, which seemed to them +barren when they saw the source from which all worlds--Terrestrial, +Spiritual, and Divine-derived their Motion. + +Each world possessed a centre to which converged all points of its +circumference. These worlds were themselves the points which moved +toward the centre of their system. Each system had its centre in great +celestial regions which communicated with the flaming and quenchless +MOTOR OF ALL THAT IS. + +Thus, from the greatest to the smallest of the worlds, and from the +smallest of the worlds to the smallest portion of the beings who +compose it, all was individual, and all was, nevertheless, One and +indivisible. + +What was the design of the Being, fixed in His essence and in His +faculties, who transmitted that essence and those faculties without +losing them? who manifested them outside of Himself without separating +them from Himself? who rendered his creations outside of Himself fixed +in their essence and mutable in their form? The pair thus called to +the celestial festival could only see the order and arrangement of +created beings and admire the immediate result. The Angels alone see +more. They know the means; they comprehend the final end. + +But what the two Elect were granted power to contemplate, what they +were able to bring back as a testimony which enlightened their minds +forever after, was the proof of the action of the Worlds and of +Beings; the consciousness of the effort with which they all converge +to the Result. + +They heard the divers parts of the Infinite forming one living melody; +and each time that the accord made itself felt like a mighty +respiration, the Worlds drawn by the concordant movement inclined +themselves toward the Supreme Being who, from His impenetrable centre, +issued all things and recalled all things to Himself. + +This ceaseless alternation of voices and silence seemed the rhythm of +the sacred hymn which resounds and prolongs its sound from age to age. + +Wilfrid and Minna were enabled to understand some of the mysterious +sayings of Him who had appeared on earth in the form which to each of +them had rendered him comprehensible,--to one Seraphitus, to the other +Seraphita,--for they saw that all was homogeneous in the sphere where +he now was. + +Light gave birth to melody, melody gave birth to light; colors were +light and melody; motion was a Number endowed with Utterance; all +things were at once sonorous, diaphanous, and mobile; so that each +interpenetrated the other, the whole vast area was unobstructed and +the Angels could survey it from the depths of the Infinite. + +They perceived the puerility of human sciences, of which he had spoken +to them. + +The scene was to them a prospect without horizon, a boundless space +into which an all-consuming desire prompted them to plunge. But, +fastened to their miserable bodies, they had the desire without the +power to fulfil it. + +The SERAPH, preparing for his flight, no longer looked towards them; +he had nothing now in common with Earth. + +Upward he rose; the shadow of his luminous presence covered the two +Seers like a merciful veil, enabling them to raise their eyes and see +him, rising in his glory to Heaven in company with the glad Archangel. + +He rose as the sun from the bosom of the Eastern waves; but, more +majestic than the orb and vowed to higher destinies, he could not be +enchained like inferior creations in the spiral movement of the +worlds; he followed the line of the Infinite, pointing without +deviation to the One Centre, there to enter his eternal life,--to +receive there, in his faculties and in his essence, the power to enjoy +through Love, and the gift of comprehending through Wisdom. + +The scene which suddenly unveiled itself to the eyes of the two Seers +crushed them with a sense of its vastness; they felt like atoms, whose +minuteness was not to be compared even to the smallest particle which +the infinite of divisibility enabled the mind of man to imagine, +brought into the presence of the infinite of Numbers, which God alone +can comprehend as He alone can comprehend Himself. + +Strength and Love! what heights, what depths in those two entities, +whom the Seraph's first prayer placed like two links, as it were, to +unite the immensities of the lower worlds with the immensity of the +higher universe! + +They comprehended the invisible ties by which the material worlds are +bound to the spiritual worlds. Remembering the sublime efforts of +human genius, they were able to perceive the principle of all melody +in the songs of heaven which gave sensations of color, of perfume, of +thought, which recalled the innumerable details of all creations, as +the songs of earth revive the infinite memories of love. + +Brought by the exaltation of their faculties to a point that cannot be +described in any language, they were able to cast their eyes for an +instant into the Divine World. There all was Rejoicing. + +Myriads of angels were flocking together, without confusion; all alike +yet all dissimilar, simple as the flower of the fields, majestic as +the universe. + +Wilfrid and Minna saw neither their coming nor their going; they +appeared suddenly in the Infinite and filled it with their presence, +as the stars shine in the invisible ether. + +The scintillations of their united diadems illumined space like the +fires of the sky at dawn upon the mountains. Waves of light flowed +from their hair, and their movements created tremulous undulations in +space like the billows of a phosphorescent sea. + +The two Seers beheld the SERAPH dimly in the midst of the immortal +legions. Suddenly, as though all the arrows of a quiver had darted +together, the Spirits swept away with a breath the last vestiges of +the human form; as the SERAPH rose he became yet purer; soon he seemed +to them but a faint outline of what he had been at the moment of his +transfiguration,--lines of fire without shadow. + +Higher he rose, receiving from circle to circle some new gift, while +the sign of his election was transmitted to each sphere into which, +more and more purified, he entered. + +No voice was silent; the hymn diffused and multiplied itself in all +its modulations:-- + +"Hail to him who enters living! Come, flower of the Worlds! diamond +from the fires of suffering! pearl without spot, desire without flesh, +new link of earth and heaven, be Light! Conquering spirit, Queen of +the world, come for thy crown! Victor of earth, receive thy diadem! +Thou art of us!" + +The virtues of the SERAPH shone forth in all their beauty. + +His earliest desire for heaven re-appeared, tender as childhood. The +deeds of his life, like constellations, adorned him with their +brightness. His acts of faith shone like the Jacinth of heaven, the +color of sidereal fires. The pearls of Charity were upon him,--a +chaplet of garnered tears! Love divine surrounded him with roses; and +the whiteness of his Resignation obliterated all earthly trace. + +Soon, to the eyes of the Seers, he was but a point of flame, growing +brighter and brighter as its motion was lost in the melodious +acclamations which welcomed his entrance into heaven. + +The celestial accents made the two exiles weep. + +Suddenly a silence as of death spread like a mourning veil from the +first to the highest sphere, throwing Wilfrid and Minna into a state +of intolerable expectation. + +At this moment the SERAPH was lost to sight within the SANCTUARY, +receiving there the gift of Life Eternal. + +A movement of adoration made by the Host of heaven filled the two +Seers with ecstasy mingled with terror. They felt that all were +prostrate before the Throne, in all the spheres, in the Spheres +Divine, in the Spiritual Spheres, and in the Worlds of Darkness. + +The Angels bent the knee to celebrate the SERAPH'S glory; the Spirits +bent the knee in token of their impatience; others bent the knee in +the dark abysses, shuddering with awe. + +A mighty cry of joy gushed forth, as the spring gushes forth to its +millions of flowering herbs sparkling with diamond dew-drops in the +sunlight; at that instant the SERAPH reappeared, effulgent, crying, +"ETERNAL! ETERNAL! ETERNAL!" + +The universe heard the cry and understood it; it penetrated the +spheres as God penetrates them; it took possession of the infinite; +the Seven Divine Worlds heard the Voice and answered. + +A mighty movement was perceptible, as though whole planets, purified, +were rising in dazzling light to become Eternal. + +Had the SERAPH obtained, as a first mission, the work of calling to +God the creations permeated by His Word? + +But already the sublime HALLELUJAH was sounding in the ear of the +desolate ones as the distant undulations of an ended melody. Already +the celestial lights were fading like the gold and crimson tints of a +setting sun. Death and Impurity recovered their prey. + +As the two mortals re-entered the prison of flesh, from which their +spirit had momentarily been delivered by some priceless sleep, they +felt like those who wake after a night of brilliant dreams, the memory +of which still lingers in their soul, though their body retains no +consciousness of them, and human language is unable to give utterance +to them. + +The deep darkness of the sphere that was now about them was that of +the sun of the visible worlds. + +"Let us descend to those lower regions," said Wilfrid. + +"Let us do what he told us to do," answered Minna. "We have seen the +worlds on their march to God; we know the Path. Our diadem of stars is +There." + +Floating downward through the abysses, they re-entered the dust of the +lesser worlds, and saw the Earth, like a subterranean cavern, suddenly +illuminated to their eyes by the light which their souls brought with +them, and which still environed them in a cloud of the paling +harmonies of heaven. The sight was that which of old struck the inner +eyes of Seers and Prophets. Ministers of all religions, Preachers of +all pretended truths, Kings consecrated by Force and Terror, Warriors +and Mighty men apportioning the Peoples among them, the Learned and +the Rich standing above the suffering, noisy crowd, and noisily +grinding them beneath their feet,--all were there, accompanied by +their wives and servants; all were robed in stuffs of gold and silver +and azure studded with pearls and gems torn from the bowels of Earth, +stolen from the depths of Ocean, for which Humanity had toiled +throughout the centuries, sweating and blaspheming. But these +treasures, these splendors, constructed of blood, seemed worn-out rags +to the eyes of the two Exiles. "What do you there, in motionless +ranks?" cried Wilfrid. They answered not. "What do you there, +motionless?" They answered not. Wilfrid waved his hands over them, +crying in a loud voice, "What do you there, in motionless ranks?" All, +with unanimous action, opened their garments and gave to sight their +withered bodies, eaten with worms, putrefied, crumbling to dust, +rotten with horrible diseases. + +"You lead the nations to Death," Wilfrid said to them. "You have +depraved the earth, perverted the Word, prostituted justice. After +devouring the grass of the fields you have killed the lambs of the +fold. Do you think yourself justified because of your sores? I will +warn my brethren who have ears to hear the Voice, and they will come +and drink of the spring of Living Waters which you have hidden." + +"Let us save our strength for Prayer," said Minna. "Wilfrid, thy +mission is not that of the Prophets or the Avenger or the Messenger; +we are still on the confines of the lowest sphere; let us endeavor to +rise through space on the wings of Prayer." + +"Thou shalt be all my love!" + +"Thou shalt be all my strength!" + +"We have seen the Mysteries; we are, each to the other, the only being +here below to whom Joy and Sadness are comprehensible; let us pray, +therefore: we know the Path, let us walk in it." + +"Give me thy hand," said the Young Girl, "if we walk together, the way +will be to me less hard and long." + +"With thee, with thee alone," replied the Man, "can I cross the awful +solitude without complaint." + +"Together we will go to Heaven," she said. + +The clouds gathered and formed a darksome dais. Suddenly the pair +found themselves kneeling beside a body which old David was guarding +from curious eyes, resolved to bury it himself. + +Beyond those walls the first summer of the nineteenth century shone +forth in all its glory. The two lovers believed they heard a Voice in +the sun-rays. They breathed a celestial essence from the new-born +flowers. Holding each other by the hand, they said, "That illimitable +ocean which shines below us is but an image of what we saw above." + +"Where are you going?" asked Monsieur Becker. + +"To God," they answered. "Come with us, father." + + + + + +End of The Project Gutenberg Etext of Seraphita, by Honore de Balzac + diff --git a/old/old/sraph10.zip b/old/old/sraph10.zip Binary files differnew file mode 100644 index 0000000..bc87d1b --- /dev/null +++ b/old/old/sraph10.zip |