第 62 节
作者:这就是结局      更新:2021-02-20 15:58      字数:9322
  that isle there are the bituminous springs which Herodotus has
  commemorated。  Often at night; the moon; at least; beheld him
  emerging from the myrtle and cystus that clothe the hillocks
  around the marsh that imbeds the pools containing the inflammable
  materia; all the medical uses of which; as applied to the nerves
  of organic life; modern science has not yet perhaps explored。
  Yet more often would he pass his hours in a cavern; by the
  loneliest part of the beach; where the stalactites seem almost
  arranged by the hand of art; and which the superstition of the
  peasants associates; in some ancient legends; with the numerous
  and almost incessant earthquakes to which the island is so
  singularly subjected。
  Whatever the pursuits that instigated these wanderings and
  favoured these haunts; either they were linked with; or else
  subordinate to; one main and master desire; which every fresh day
  passed in the sweet human company of Viola confirmed and
  strengthened。
  The scene that Glyndon had witnessed in his trance was faithful
  to truth。  And some little time after the date of that night;
  Viola was dimly aware that an influence; she knew not of what
  nature; was struggling to establish itself over her happy life。
  Visions indistinct and beautiful; such as those she had known in
  her earlier days; but more constant and impressive; began to
  haunt her night and day when Zanoni was absent; to fade in his
  presence; and seem less fair than THAT。  Zanoni questioned her
  eagerly and minutely of these visitations; but seemed
  dissatisfied; and at times perplexed; by her answers。
  〃Tell me not;〃 he said; one day; 〃of those unconnected images;
  those evolutions of starry shapes in a choral dance; or those
  delicious melodies that seem to thee of the music and the
  language of the distant spheres。  Has no ONE shape been to thee
  more distinct and more beautiful than the rest;no voice
  uttering; or seeming to utter; thine own tongue; and whispering
  to thee of strange secrets and solemn knowledge?〃
  〃No; all is confused in these dreams; whether of day or night;
  and when at the sound of thy footsteps I recover; my memory
  retains nothing but a vague impression of happiness。  How
  differenthow coldto the rapture of hanging on thy smile; and
  listening to thy voice; when it says; 'I love thee!'〃
  〃Yet; how is it that visions less fair than these once seemed to
  thee so alluring?  How is it that they then stirred thy fancies
  and filled thy heart?  Once thou didst desire a fairy…land; and
  now thou seemest so contented with common life。〃
  〃Have I not explained it to thee before?  Is it common life;
  then; to love; and to live with the one we love?  My true
  fairy…land is won!  Speak to me of no other。〃
  And so night surprised them by the lonely beach; and Zanoni;
  allured from his sublimer projects; and bending over that tender
  face; forgot that; in the Harmonious Infinite which spread
  around; there were other worlds than that one human heart。
  CHAPTER 4。IX。
  There is a principle of the soul; superior to all nature; through
  which we are capable of surpassing the order and systems of the
  world。  When the soul is elevated to natures better than itself;
  THEN it is entirely separated from subordinate natures; exchanges
  this for another life; and; deserting the order of things with
  which it was connected; links and mingles itself with another。
  Iamblichus。
  〃Adon…Ai!  Adon…Ai!appear; appear!〃
  And in the lonely cave; whence once had gone forth the oracles of
  a heathen god; there emerged from the shadows of fantastic rocks
  a luminous and gigantic column; glittering and shifting。  It
  resembled the shining but misty spray which; seen afar off; a
  fountain seems to send up on a starry night。  The radiance lit
  the stalactites; the crags; the arches of the cave; and shed a
  pale and tremulous splendour on the features of Zanoni。
  〃Son of Eternal Light;〃 said the invoker; 〃thou to whose
  knowledge; grade after grade; race after race; I attained at
  last; on the broad Chaldean plains; thou from whom I have drawn
  so largely of the unutterable knowledge that yet eternity alone
  can suffice to drain; thou who; congenial with myself; so far as
  our various beings will permit; hast been for centuries my
  familiar and my friend;answer me and counsel!〃
  From the column there emerged a shape of unimaginable glory。  Its
  face was that of a man in its first youth; but solemn; as with
  the consciousness of eternity and the tranquillity of wisdom;
  light; like starbeams; flowed through its transparent veins;
  light made its limbs themselves; and undulated; in restless
  sparkles; through the waves of its dazzling hair。  With its arms
  folded on its breast; it stood distant a few feet from Zanoni;
  and its low voice murmured gently; 〃My counsels were sweet to
  thee once; and once; night after night; thy soul could follow my
  wings through the untroubled splendours of the Infinite。  Now
  thou hast bound thyself back to the earth by its strongest
  chains; and the attraction to the clay is more potent than the
  sympathies that drew to thy charms the Dweller of the Starbeam
  and the Air。  When last thy soul hearkened to me; the senses
  already troubled thine intellect and obscured thy vision。  Once
  again I come to thee; but thy power even to summon me to thy side
  is fading from thy spirit; as sunshine fades from the wave when
  the winds drive the cloud between the ocean and the sky。〃
  〃Alas; Adon…Ai!〃 answered the seer; mournfully; 〃I know too well
  the conditions of the being which thy presence was wont to
  rejoice。  I know that our wisdom comes but from the indifference
  to the things of the world which the wisdom masters。  The mirror
  of the soul cannot reflect both earth and heaven; and the one
  vanishes from the surface as the other is glassed upon its deeps。
  But it is not to restore me to that sublime abstraction in which
  the intellect; free and disembodied; rises; region after region;
  to the spheres;that once again; and with the agony and travail
  of enfeebled power I have called thee to mine aid。  I love; and
  in love I begin to live in the sweet humanities of another。  If
  wise; yet in all which makes danger powerless against myself; or
  those on whom I can gaze from the calm height of indifferent
  science; I am blind as the merest mortal to the destinies of the
  creature that makes my heart beat with the passions which obscure
  my gaze。〃
  〃What matter!〃 answered Adon…Ai。  〃Thy love must be but a mockery
  of the name; thou canst not love as they do for whom there are
  death and the grave。  A short time;like a day in thy
  incalculable life;and the form thou dotest on is dust!  Others
  of the nether world go hand in hand; each with each; unto the
  tomb; hand in hand they ascend from the worm to new cycles of
  existence。  For thee; below are ages; for her; but hours。  And
  for her and theeO poor; but mighty one!will there be even a
  joint hereafter!  Through what grades and heavens of
  spiritualised being will her soul have passed when thou; the
  solitary loiterer; comest from the vapours of the earth to the
  gates of light!〃
  〃Son of the Starbeam; thinkest thou that this thought is not with
  me forever; and seest thou not that I have invoked thee to
  hearken and minister to my design?  Readest thou not my desire
  and dream to raise the conditions of her being to my own?  Thou;
  Adon…Ai; bathing the celestial joy that makes thy life in the
  oceans of eternal splendour;thou; save by the sympathies of
  knowledge; canst conjecture not what I; the offspring of mortals;
  feeldebarred yet from the objects of the tremendous and sublime
  ambition that first winged my desires above the claywhen I see
  myself compelled to stand in this low world alone。  I have sought
  amongst my tribe for comrades; and in vain。  At last I have found
  a mate。  The wild bird and the wild beast have theirs; and my
  mastery over the malignant tribes of terror can banish their
  larvae from the path that shall lead her upward; till the air of
  eternity fits the frame for the elixir that baffles death。〃
  〃And thou hast begun the initiation; and thou art foiled!  I know
  it。  Thou hast conjured to her sleep the fairest visions; thou
  hast invoked the loveliest children of the air to murmur their
  music to her trance; and her soul heeds them not; and; returning
  to the earth; escapes from their control。  Blind one; wherefore?
  canst thou not perceive?  Because in her soul all is love。  There
  is no intermediate passion with which the things thou wouldst
  charm to her have association and affinities。  Their attraction
  is but to the desires and cravings of the INTELLECT。  What have
  they with the PASSION that is of earth; and the HOPE that goes
  direct to heaven?〃
  〃But can there be no mediumno linkin which our souls; as our
  hearts; can be united; and so mine may have influence over her
  own?〃
  〃Ask me not;thou wilt not