第44章

"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!"