第 33 节
作者:
这就是结局 更新:2021-02-20 15:58 字数:9322
〃Say; rather; that; unaccustomed to continuous labour; you were
fatigued with your employment。〃
〃That is true。 Shall I confess it? I began to miss the world
without。 It seemed to me as if; while I lavished my heart and my
youth upon visions of beauty; I was losing the beautiful
realities of actual life。 And I envied the merry fisherman;
singing as he passed below my casement; and the lover conversing
with his mistress。〃
〃And;〃 said Zanoni; with an encouraging smile; 〃do you blame
yourself for the natural and necessary return to earth; in which
even the most habitual visitor of the Heavens of Invention seeks
his relaxation and repose? Man's genius is a bird that cannot be
always on the wing; when the craving for the actual world is
felt; it is a hunger that must be appeased。 They who command
best the ideal; enjoy ever most the real。 See the true artist;
when abroad in men's thoroughfares; ever observant; ever diving
into the heart; ever alive to the least as to the greatest of the
complicated truths of existence; descending to what pedants would
call the trivial and the frivolous。 From every mesh in the
social web; he can disentangle a grace。 And for him each airy
gossamer floats in the gold of the sunlight。 Know you not that
around the animalcule that sports in the water there shines a
halo; as around the star (The monas mica; found in the purest
pools; is encompassed with a halo。 And this is frequent amongst
many other species of animalcule。) that revolves in bright
pastime through the space? True art finds beauty everywhere。 In
the street; in the market…place; in the hovel; it gathers food
for the hive of its thoughts。 In the mire of politics; Dante and
Milton selected pearls for the wreath of song。
〃Who ever told you that Raphael did not enjoy the life without;
carrying everywhere with him the one inward idea of beauty which
attracted and imbedded in its own amber every straw that the feet
of the dull man trampled into mud? As some lord of the forest
wanders abroad for its prey; and scents and follows it over plain
and hill; through brake and jungle; but; seizing it at last;
bears the quarry to its unwitnessed cave;so Genius searches
through wood and waste; untiringly and eagerly; every sense
awake; every nerve strained to speed and strength; for the
scattered and flying images of matter; that it seizes at last
with its mighty talons; and bears away with it into solitudes no
footstep can invade。 Go; seek the world without; it is for art
the inexhaustible pasture…ground and harvest to the world
within!〃
〃You comfort me;〃 said Glyndon; brightening。 〃I had imagined my
weariness a proof of my deficiency! But not now would I speak to
you of these labours。 Pardon me; if I pass from the toil to the
reward。 You have uttered dim prophecies of my future; if I wed
one who; in the judgment of the sober world; would only darken
its prospects and obstruct its ambition。 Do you speak from the
wisdom which is experience; or that which aspires to prediction?〃
〃Are they not allied? Is it not he best accustomed to
calculation who can solve at a glance any new problem in the
arithmetic of chances?〃
〃You evade my question。〃
〃No; but I will adapt my answer the better to your comprehension;
for it is upon this very point that I have sought you。 Listen to
me!〃 Zanoni fixed his eyes earnestly on his listener; and
continued: 〃For the accomplishment of whatever is great and
lofty; the clear perception of truths is the first requisite;
truths adapted to the object desired。 The warrior thus reduces
the chances of battle to combinations almost of mathematics。 He
can predict a result; if he can but depend upon the materials he
is forced to employ。 At such a loss he can cross that bridge; in
such a time he can reduce that fort。 Still more accurately; for
he depends less on material causes than ideas at his command; can
the commander of the purer science or diviner art; if he once
perceive the truths that are in him and around; foretell what he
can achieve; and in what he is condemned to fail。 But this
perception of truths is disturbed by many causes;vanity;
passion; fear; indolence in himself; ignorance of the fitting
means without to accomplish what he designs。 He may miscalculate
his own forces; he may have no chart of the country he would
invade。 It is only in a peculiar state of the mind that it is
capable of perceiving truth; and that state is profound serenity。
Your mind is fevered by a desire for truth: you would compel it
to your embraces; you would ask me to impart to you; without
ordeal or preparation; the grandest secrets that exist in Nature。
But truth can no more be seen by the mind unprepared for it; than
the sun can dawn upon the midst of night。 Such a mind receives
truth only to pollute it: to use the simile of one who has
wandered near to the secret of the sublime Goetia (or the magic
that lies within Nature; as electricity within the cloud); 'He
who pours water into the muddy well; does but disturb the mud。'〃
(〃Iamb。 de Vit。 Pythag。〃)
〃What do you tend to?〃
〃This: that you have faculties that may attain to surpassing
power; that may rank you among those enchanters who; greater than
the magian; leave behind them an enduring influence; worshipped
wherever beauty is comprehended; wherever the soul is sensible of
a higher world than that in which matter struggles for crude and
incomplete existence。
〃But to make available those faculties; need I be a prophet to
tell you that you must learn to concentre upon great objects all
your desires? The heart must rest; that the mind may be active。
At present you wander from aim to aim。 As the ballast to the
ship; so to the spirit are faith and love。 With your whole
heart; affections; humanity; centred in one object; your mind and
aspirations will become equally steadfast and in earnest。 Viola
is a child as yet; you do not perceive the high nature the trials
of life will develop。 Pardon me; if I say that her soul; purer
and loftier than your own; will bear it upward; as a secret hymn
carries aloft the spirits of the world。 Your nature wants the
harmony; the music which; as the Pythagoreans wisely taught; at
once elevates and soothes。 I offer you that music in her love。〃
〃But am I sure that she does love me?〃
〃Artist; no; she loves you not at present; her affections are
full of another。 But if I could transfer to you; as the
loadstone transfers its attraction to the magnet; the love that
she has now for me;if I could cause her to see in you the ideal
of her dreams〃
〃Is such a gift in the power of man?〃
〃I offer it to you; if your love be lawful; if your faith in
virtue and yourself be deep and loyal; if not; think you that I
would disenchant her with truth to make her adore a falsehood?〃
〃But if;〃 persisted Glyndon;〃if she be all that you tell me;
and if she love you; how can you rob yourself of so priceless a
treasure?〃
〃Oh; shallow and mean heart of man!〃 exclaimed Zanoni; with
unaccustomed passion and vehemence; 〃dost thou conceive so little
of love as not to know that it sacrifices alllove itselffor
the happiness of the thing it loves? Hear me!〃 And Zanoni's
face grew pale。 〃Hear me! I press this upon you; because I love
her; and because I fear that with me her fate will be less fair
than with yourself。 Why;ask not; for I will not tell you。
Enough! Time presses now for your answer; it cannot long be
delayed。 Before the night of the third day from this; all choice
will be forbid you!〃
〃But;〃 said Glyndon; still doubting and suspicious;〃but why
this haste?〃
〃Man; you are not worthy of her when you ask me。 All I can tell
you here; you should have known yourself。 This ravisher; this
man of will; this son of the old Visconti; unlike you;
steadfast; resolute; earnest even in his crimes;never
relinquishes an object。 But one passion controls his lust;it
is his avarice。 The day after his attempt on Viola; his uncle;
the Cardinal ; from whom he has large expectations of land and
gold; sent for him; and forbade him; on pain of forfeiting all
the possessions which his schemes already had parcelled out; to
pursue with dishonourable designs one whom the Cardinal had
heeded and loved from childhood。 This is the cause of his
present pause from his pursuit。 While we speak; the cause
expires。 Before the hand of the clock reaches the hour of noon;
the Cardinal will be no more。 At this very moment thy friend;
Jean Nicot; is with the Prince di 。〃
〃He! wherefore?〃
〃To ask what dower shall go with Viola Pisani; the morning that
she leaves the palace of the prince。〃
〃And how do you know all this?〃
〃Fool! I tell thee again; because a lover is a watcher by night
and day; because love never sleeps when danger menaces the
beloved one!〃
〃And y