Seraphita

ning David re-en

o announce," said Seraphita in a

nly presented himself, crossed

you ill?" he said. "Yo

her hair like a pretty woman whose aching he

the fiord with Minna," she sa

yourself?" he said

; I took the greates

nd made several steps towards the door with an exclamation fu

ance if you think

exact all that the cruel fancies of a woman lead you to imagine I least can bear; but oh,

ith a look which grew in the end so soft that Wilfrid ceased to behold her eyes, but saw in t

es of anguish!

ntonations produced upon his heart the same effe

as I lo

nna!" sh

d!" exclaimed Wi

ling. "Come, have I not spoken to you like t

oked gloomily at Seraphita. "I forgive you

very woman from the days of Ev

ve it,"

ct is precisely that which makes us p

ou not feel how

you do no

od

you complain of y

to-night, Seraphit

comprehending, and it is awful. Wilfrid

u ascend th

know so much, who have learned all things and forgotten nothing; you who ha

ercourse with social life; you trample on its conventions, its laws, its customs, sentiments, and scie

pretended strength, make myself humbly small, cringe like the hapless female of all species, that you may lift me up? and th

ly unkind to-night than

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

eterna

d. You desire me, but you do not love me. Tell me, do I

the pure celestial maiden I fi

r brow, and when she removed them Wilfrid was amaze

e said; "I do wrong whenever I

stay where you can ever bles

she withdrew it, neither disdainfully nor in anger. Wilfrid rose abruptly and

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 perc

slowly approached her, letting his eyes take in the seductive creature who la

e, 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, an

th which you strip from all things human the properties that time and space and form have given them, and c

the subject drop. Tell me what you think of this

very ha

ee me wear this

lined with the skin of the black fox,-the na

sovereign has a fur that

hy of her w

you think

o her. Heart to heart is th

my griefs with such sweet words

rew

. 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

ta. Your words are incomprehensible, but t

You came to these Northern lands for rest, you, worn-out by the impetuous struggle of genius unrecognized, you, weary

Seraphita breathed softly on his forehead,

st!" she s

e,-all different in tone and accent, but all melodious, full of a Goodness that seemed to emanate

as I am to thee, dear Wilfr

s of the future cast their reflections backward on t

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 sufferin

ow into that world where all the purest joys of purest earthly attachments are bu

soothing the sharp pangs of thy remorse. Listen to the pardoning choir; refresh thy soul in t

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

eadfast in the Path. Reaching the end of thy journey thou shalt hear the clarions of omnipotence sounding the cries of victory in

end and bear away thy mind as the whirlwinds rend and carry into space the feeble sails, depriving thee forever of thy reason? Dost th

hy 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 a

e 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 Se

e question; "we are separated by worlds. I resign myself; I c

, you ha

ok his

d she feels; what she does not feel she sees; when she neither sees, nor feels, nor understands,

I worthy to bel

orified. Well, come and take tea with me the day after to-morrow evening; good Monsieur Becker will be here, and Minna, the pur

n you co

t that the sin of pride? I have been very

ng a long glance at the being of whom he desi

, outside the house for some moments, watching the light

g 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 luminou

mpelling 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 hi

nd the evening with

voices, mingling

rcumstances 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

nd 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 me

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 d

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

bed. 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 fril

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 l

stor, seizing a moment when he thoug

r Monsieur Becker,"

usual," said Minna, struck by the f

o when I leave

quiv

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

hes of his pipe into an earthen-ware dish full

d 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 creati

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

een 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

ession 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

age of a man in love," said

dear Monsieur Becker, no words can express the frenz

er?" said Minna, in

dently 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

say is true," replied th

w, Minna?" asked

en him praying, you would not ask me that question. You would say, like Monsieur Wilfrid,

followed by a m

as nothing in common with the cre

d the old pastor, "ho

f which no more than a memory remains. Perhaps I should hardly be

three gazed at the pretty saxifrage, which was still fresh, an

d the old man, astounded at the si

Wilfrid, intoxicate

still hear that voice,-the music of thought; that

he history of Seraphita,-enigmatical human flower,

t I disperse the clouds which envelop the most obscure of Christian doctrines. It is not easy to make myself clear when speaking

of his books, and his r

to you the whole chr