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。