第 34 节
作者:这就是结局      更新:2021-02-20 15:58      字数:9320
  and day; because love never sleeps when danger menaces the
  beloved one!〃
  〃And you it was that informed the Cardinal ?〃
  〃Yes; and what has been my task might as easily have been thine。
  Speak;thine answer!〃
  〃You shall have it on the third day from this。〃
  〃Be it so。  Put off; poor waverer; thy happiness to the last
  hour。  On the third day from this; I will ask thee thy resolve。〃
  〃And where shall we meet?〃
  〃Before midnight; where you may least expect me。  You cannot shun
  me; though you may seek to do so!〃
  〃Stay one moment!  You condemn me as doubtful; irresolute;
  suspicious。  Have I no cause?  Can I yield without a struggle to
  the strange fascination you exert upon my mind?  What interest
  can you have in me; a stranger; that you should thus dictate to
  me the gravest action in the life of man?  Do you suppose that
  any one in his senses would not pause; and deliberate; and ask
  himself; 'Why should this stranger care thus for me?'〃
  〃And yet;〃 said Zanoni; 〃if I told thee that I could initiate
  thee into the secrets of that magic which the philosophy of the
  whole existing world treats as a chimera; or imposture; if I
  promised to show thee how to command the beings of air and ocean;
  how to accumulate wealth more easily than a child can gather
  pebbles on the shore; to place in thy hands the essence of the
  herbs which prolong life from age to age; the mystery of that
  attraction by which to awe all danger and disarm all violence and
  subdue man as the serpent charms the bird;if I told thee that
  all these it was mine to possess and to communicate; thou wouldst
  listen to me then; and obey me without a doubt!〃
  〃It is true; and I can account for this only by the imperfect
  associations of my childhood;by traditions in our house of〃
  〃Your forefather; who; in the revival of science; sought the
  secrets of Apollonius and Paracelsus。〃
  〃What!〃 said Glyndon; amazed; 〃are you so well acquainted with
  the annals of an obscure lineage?〃
  〃To the man who aspires to know; no man who has been the meanest
  student of knowledge should be unknown。  You ask me why I have
  shown this interest in your fate?  There is one reason which I
  have not yet told you。  There is a fraternity as to whose laws
  and whose mysteries the most inquisitive schoolmen are in the
  dark。  By those laws all are pledged to warn; to aid; and to
  guide even the remotest descendants of men who have toiled;
  though vainly; like your ancestor; in the mysteries of the Order。
  We are bound to advise them to their welfare; nay; more;if they
  command us to it; we must accept them as our pupils。  I am a
  survivor of that most ancient and immemorial union。  This it was
  that bound me to thee at the first; this; perhaps; attracted
  thyself unconsciously; Son of our Brotherhood; to me。〃
  〃If this be so; I command thee; in the name of the laws thou
  obeyest; to receive me as thy pupil!〃
  〃What do you ask?〃 said Zanoni; passionately。  〃Learn; first; the
  conditions。  No neophyte must have; at his initiation; one
  affection or desire that chains him to the world。  He must be
  pure from the love of woman; free from avarice and ambition; free
  from the dreams even of art; or the hope of earthly fame。  The
  first sacrifice thou must make isViola herself。  And for what?
  For an ordeal that the most daring courage only can encounter;
  the most ethereal natures alone survive!  Thou art unfit for the
  science that has made me and others what we are or have been; for
  thy whole nature is one fear!〃
  〃Fear!〃 cried Glyndon; colouring with resentment; and rising to
  the full height of his stature。
  〃Fear! and the worst fear;fear of the world's opinion; fear of
  the Nicots and the Mervales; fear of thine own impulses when most
  generous; fear of thine own powers when thy genius is most bold;
  fear that virtue is not eternal; fear that God does not live in
  heaven to keep watch on earth; fear; the fear of little men; and
  that fear is never known to the great。〃
  With these words Zanoni abruptly left the artist; humbled;
  bewildered; and not convinced。  He remained alone with his
  thoughts till he was aroused by the striking of the clock; he
  then suddenly remembered Zanoni's prediction of the Cardinal's
  death; and; seized with an intense desire to learn its truth; he
  hurried into the streets;he gained the Cardinal's palace。  Five
  minutes before noon his Eminence had expired; after an illness of
  less than an hour。  Zanoni's visit had occupied more time than
  the illness of the Cardinal。  Awed and perplexed; he turned from
  the palace; and as he walked through the Chiaja; he saw Jean
  Nicot emerge from the portals of the Prince di 。
  CHAPTER 3。V。
  Two loves I have of comfort and despair;
  Which like two spirits do suggest me still。
  Shakespeare。
  Venerable Brotherhood; so sacred and so little known; from whose
  secret and precious archives the materials for this history have
  been drawn; ye who have retained; from century to century; all
  that time has spared of the august and venerable science;thanks
  to you; if now; for the first time; some record of the thoughts
  and actions of no false and self…styled luminary of your Order be
  given; however imperfectly; to the world。  Many have called
  themselves of your band; many spurious pretenders have been
  so…called by the learned ignorance which still; baffled and
  perplexed; is driven to confess that it knows nothing of your
  origin; your ceremonies or doctrines; nor even if you still have
  local habitation on the earth。  Thanks to you if I; the only one
  of my country; in this age; admitted; with a profane footstep;
  into your mysterious Academe (The reader will have the goodness
  to remember that this is said by the author of the original MS。;
  not by the editor。); have been by you empowered and instructed to
  adapt to the comprehension of the uninitiated; some few of the
  starry truths which shone on the great Shemaia of the Chaldean
  Lore; and gleamed dimly through the darkened knowledge of latter
  disciples; labouring; like Psellus and Iamblichus; to revive the
  embers of the fire which burned in the Hamarin of the East。
  Though not to us of an aged and hoary world is vouchsafed the
  NAME which; so say the earliest oracles of the earth; 〃rushes
  into the infinite worlds;〃 yet is it ours to trace the reviving
  truths; through each new discovery of the philosopher and
  chemist。  The laws of attraction; of electricity; and of the yet
  more mysterious agency of that great principal of life; which; if
  drawn from the universe; would leave the universe a grave; were
  but the code in which the Theurgy of old sought the guides that
  led it to a legislation and science of its own。  To rebuild on
  words the fragments of this history; it seems to me as if; in a
  solemn trance; I was led through the ruins of a city whose only
  remains were tombs。  From the sarcophagus and the urn I awake the
  genius (The Greek Genius of Death。) of the extinguished Torch;
  and so closely does its shape resemble Eros; that at moments I
  scarcely know which of ye dictates to me;O Love!  O Death!
  And it stirred in the virgin's heart;this new; unfathomable;
  and divine emotion!  Was it only the ordinary affection of the
  pulse and the fancy; of the eye to the Beautiful; of the ear to
  the Eloquent; or did it not justify the notion she herself
  conceived of it;that it was born not of the senses; that it was
  less of earthly and human love than the effect of some wondrous
  but not unholy charm?  I said that; from that day in which; no
  longer with awe and trembling; she surrendered herself to the
  influence of Zanoni; she had sought to put her thoughts into
  words。  Let the thoughts attest their own nature。
  THE SELF CONFESSIONAL。
  〃Is it the daylight that shines on me; or the memory of thy
  presence?  Wherever I look; the world seems full of thee; in
  every ray that trembles on the water; that smiles upon the
  leaves; I behold but a likeness to thine eyes。  What is this
  change; that alters not only myself; but the face of the whole
  universe?
  。。。
  How instantaneously leaped into life the power with which thou
  swayest my heart in its ebb and flow。  Thousands were around me;
  and I saw but thee。  That was the night in which I first entered
  upon the world which crowds life into a drama; and has no
  language but music。  How strangely and how suddenly with thee
  became that world evermore connected!  What the delusion of the
  stage was to others; thy presence was to me。  My life; too;
  seemed to centre into those short hours; and from thy lips I
  heard a music; mute to all ears but mine。  I sit in the room
  where my father dwelt。  Here; on that happy night; forgetting why
  THEY were so happy; I shrunk into the shadow; and sought to guess
  what thou wert to me; and my mother's low voice woke me; and I
  crept to my father's side; closeclose; from fear of my own
  thoughts。