第 91 节
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这就是结局 更新:2021-02-20 15:59 字数:9322
with all the parchment laws of a hundred system…shapers; and the
pikes of his dauntless multitude; carve; at his will; a
constitution not more vicious than the one which the madness of a
mob could overthrow? When; in that far time to which I have
referred; the student aspired to the heights to which thou
wouldst have sprung at a single bound; he was trained from his
very cradle to the career he was to run。 The internal and the
outward nature were made clear to his eyes; year after year; as
they opened on the day。 He was not admitted to the practical
initiation till not one earthly wish chained that sublimest
faculty which you call the IMAGINATION; one carnal desire clouded
the penetrative essence that you call the INTELLECT。 And even
then; and at the best; how few attained to the last mystery!
Happier inasmuch as they attained the earlier to the holy glories
for which Death is the heavenliest gate。〃
Zanoni paused; and a shade of thought and sorrow darkened his
celestial beauty。
〃And are there; indeed; others; besides thee and Mejnour; who lay
claim to thine attributes; and have attained to thy secrets?〃
〃Others there have been before us; but we two now are alone on
earth。〃
〃Imposter; thou betrayest thyself! If they could conquer Death;
why live they not yet?〃 (Glyndon appears to forget that Mejnour
had before answered the very question which his doubts here a
second time suggest。)
〃Child of a day!〃 answered Zanoni; mournfully; 〃have I not told
thee the error of our knowledge was the forgetfulness of the
desires and passions which the spirit never can wholly and
permanently conquer while this matter cloaks it? Canst thou
think that it is no sorrow; either to reject all human ties; all
friendship; and all love; or to see; day after day; friendship
and love wither from our life; as blossoms from the stem? Canst
thou wonder how; with the power to live while the world shall
last; ere even our ordinary date be finished we yet may prefer to
die? Wonder rather that there are two who have clung so
faithfully to earth! Me; I confess; that earth can enamour yet。
Attaining to the last secret while youth was in its bloom; youth
still colours all around me with its own luxuriant beauty; to me;
yet; to breathe is to enjoy。 The freshness has not faded from
the face of Nature; and not an herb in which I cannot discover a
new charm;an undetected wonder。
As with my youth; so with Mejnour's age: he will tell you that
life to him is but a power to examine; and not till he has
exhausted all the marvels which the Creator has sown on earth;
would he desire new habitations for the renewed Spirit to
explore。 We are the types of the two essences of what is
imperishable;'ART; that enjoys; and SCIENCE; that
contemplates!' And now; that thou mayest be contented that the
secrets are not vouchsafed to thee; learn that so utterly must
the idea detach itself from what makes up the occupation and
excitement of men; so must it be void of whatever would covet; or
love; or hate;that for the ambitious man; for the lover; the
hater; the power avails not。 And I; at last; bound and blinded
by the most common of household ties; I; darkened and helpless;
adjure thee; the baffled and discontented;I adjure thee to
direct; to guide me; where are they? Oh; tell me;speak! My
wife;my child? Silent!oh; thou knowest now that I am no
sorcerer; no enemy。 I cannot give thee what thy faculties deny;
I cannot achieve what the passionless Mejnour failed to
accomplish; but I can give thee the next…best boon; perhaps the
fairest;I can reconcile thee to the daily world; and place
peace between thy conscience and thyself。〃
〃Wilt thou promise?〃
〃By their sweet lives; I promise!〃
Glyndon looked and believed。 He whispered the address to the
house whither his fatal step already had brought woe and doom。
〃Bless thee for this;〃 exclaimed Zanoni; passionately; 〃and thou
shalt be blessed! What! couldst thou not perceive that at the
entrance to all the grander worlds dwell the race that intimidate
and awe? Who in thy daily world ever left the old regions of
Custom and Prescription; and felt not the first seizure of the
shapeless and nameless Fear? Everywhere around thee where men
aspire and labour; though they see it not;in the closet of the
sage; in the council of the demagogue; in the camp of the
warrior;everywhere cowers and darkens the Unutterable Horror。
But there; where thou hast ventured; alone is the Phantom
VISIBLE; and never will it cease to haunt; till thou canst pass
to the Infinite; as the seraph; or return to the Familiar; as a
child! But answer me this: when; seeking to adhere to some calm
resolve of virtue; the Phantom hath stalked suddenly to thy side;
when its voice hath whispered thee despair; when its ghastly eyes
would scare thee back to those scenes of earthly craft or riotous
excitement from which; as it leaves thee to worse foes to the
soul; its presence is ever absent;hast thou never bravely
resisted the spectre and thine own horror; hast thou never said;
'Come what may; to Virtue I will cling?'〃
〃Alas!〃 answered Glyndon; 〃only of late have I dared to do so。〃
〃And thou hast felt then that the Phantom grew more dim and its
power more faint?〃
〃It is true。〃
〃Rejoice; then!thou hast overcome the true terror and mystery
of the ordeal。 Resolve is the first success。 Rejoice; for the
exorcism is sure! Thou art not of those who; denying a life to
come; are the victims of the Inexorable Horror。 Oh; when shall
men learn; at last; that if the Great Religion inculcates so
rigidly the necessity of FAITH; it is not alone that FAITH leads
to the world to be; but that without faith there is no excellence
in this;faith in something wiser; happier; diviner; than we see
on earth!the artist calls it the Ideal;the priest; Faith。
The Ideal and Faith are one and the same。 Return; O wanderer;
return! Feel what beauty and holiness dwell in the Customary and
the Old。 Back to thy gateway glide; thou Horror! and calm; on
the childlike heart; smile again; O azure Heaven; with thy night
and thy morning star but as one; though under its double name of
Memory and Hope!〃
As he thus spoke; Zanoni laid his hand gently on the burning
temples of his excited and wondering listener; and presently a
sort of trance came over him: he imagined that he was returned
to the home of his infancy; that he was in the small chamber
where; over his early slumbers; his mother had watched and
prayed。 There it was;visible; palpable; solitary; unaltered。
In the recess; the homely bed; on the walls; the shelves filled
with holy books; the very easel on which he had first sought to
call the ideal to the canvas; dust…covered; broken; in the
corner。 Below the window lay the old churchyard: he saw it
green in the distance; the sun glancing through the yew…trees; he
saw the tomb where father and mother lay united; and the spire
pointing up to heaven; the symbol of the hopes of those who
consigned the ashes to the dust; in his ear rang the bells;
pealing; as on a Sabbath day。 Far fled all the visions of
anxiety and awe that had haunted and convulsed; youth; boyhood;
childhood came back to him with innocent desires and hopes; he
thought he fell upon his knees to pray。 He woke;he woke in
delicious tears; he felt that the Phantom was fled forever。 He
looked round;Zanoni was gone。 On the table lay these lines;
the ink yet wet:
〃I will find ways and means for thy escape。 At nightfall; as the
clock strikes nine; a boat shall wait thee on the river before
this house; the boatman will guide thee to a retreat where thou
mayst rest in safety till the Reign of Terror; which nears its
close; be past。 Think no more of the sensual love that lured;
and wellnigh lost thee。 It betrayed; and would have destroyed。
Thou wilt regain thy land in safety;long years yet spared to
thee to muse over the past; and to redeem it。 For thy future; be
thy dream thy guide; and thy tears thy baptism。〃
The Englishman obeyed the injunctions of the letter; and found
their truth。
CHAPTER 7。X。
Quid mirare meas tot in uno corpore formas?
Propert。
(Why wonder that I have so many forms in a single body?)
Zanoni to Mejnour。
。。。
〃She is in one of their prisons;their inexorable prisons。 It
is Robespierre's order;I have tracked the cause to Glyndon。
This; then; made that terrible connection between their fates
which I could not unravel; but which (till severed as it now is)
wrapped Glyndon himself in the same cloud that concealed her。 In
prison;in prison!it is the gate of the grave! Her trial; and
the inevitable execution that follows such trial; is the third
day from this。 The tyrant has fixed all his schemes of slaughter
for the 10th of Thermidor。 While the deaths of the unoffending
strike awe to the