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Seraphita-Part6_Honore de Balzac(1799-1850)_Translated Works(翻译文学)-第2页

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creation, and a sudden one, all creation demands time, and time



neither recedes nor advances at the word of command. So, in the world

without us, plastic nature obeys laws the order and exercise of which



cannot be interfered with by the hand of man. But after fulfilling, as

it were, the function of Matter, it would be unreasonable not to



recognize within us the existence of a gigantic power, the effects of

which are so incommensurable that the known generations of men have



never yet been able to classify them. I do not speak of man's faculty

of abstraction, of constraining Nature to confine itself within the



Word,--a gigantic act on which the common mind reflects as little as

it does on the nature of Motion, but which, nevertheless, has led the



Indian theosophists to explain creation by a word to which they give

an inverse power. The smallest atom of their subsistence, namely, the



grain of rice, from which a creation issues and in which alternately

creation again is held, presented to their minds so perfect an image



of the creative word, and of the abstractive word, that to them it was

easy to apply the same system to the creation of worlds. The majority



of men content themselves with the grain of rice sown in the first

chapter of all the Geneses. Saint John, when he said the Word was God



only complicated the difficulty. But the fructification, germination,

and efflorescence of our ideas is of little consequence if we compare



that property, shared by many men, with the wholly individual faculty

of communicating to that property, by some mysterious concentration,



forces that are more or less active, of carrying it up to a third, a

ninth, or a twenty-seventh power, of making it thus fasten upon the



masses and obtainmagical results by condensing the processes of

nature.



"What I mean by enchantments," continued Wilfrid after a moment's

pause, "are those stupendous actions taking place between two



membranes in the tissue of the brain. We find in the unexplorable

nature of the Spiritual World certain beings armed with these wondrous



faculties, comparable only to the terrible power of certain gases in

the physical world, beings who combine with other beings, penetrate



them as active agents, and produce upon them witchcrafts, charms,

against which these helpless slaves are wholly defenceless; they are,



in fact, enchanted, brought under subjection, reduced to a condition

of dreadful vassalage. Such mysterious beings overpower others with



the sceptre and the glory of a superior nature,--acting upon them at

times like the torpedo which electrifies or paralyzes the fisherman,



at other times like a dose of phosphorous which stimulates life and

accelerates its propulsion; or again, like opium, which puts to sleep



corporeal nature, disengages the spirit from every bond, enables it to

float above the world and shows this earth to the spiritual eye as



through a prism, extracting from it the food most needed; or, yet

again, like catalepsy, which deadens all faculties for the sake of one



only vision. Miracles, enchantments, incantations, witchcrafts,

spells, and charms, in short, all those acts improperly termed



supernatural, are only possible and can only be explained by the

despotism with which some spirit compels us to feel the effects of a



mysterious optic which increases, or diminishes, or exalts creation,

moves within us as it pleases, deforms or embellishes all things to



our eyes, tears us from heaven, or drags us to hell,--two terms by

which men agree to express the two extremes of joy and misery.



"These phenomena are within us, not without us," Wilfrid went on. "The

being whom we call Seraphita seems to me one of those rare and



terrible spirits to whom power is given to bind men, to crush nature,

to enter into participation of the occult power of God. The course of



her enchantments over me began on that first day, when silence as to

her was imposed upon me against my will. Each time that I have wished



to question you it seemed as though I were about to reveal a secret of

which I ought to be the incorruptible guardian. Whenever I have tried



to speak, a burning seal has been laid upon my lips, and I myself have




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