登陆注册
5363500000102

第102章

It is fit that we who endeavour to rise to an elevation so sublime, should study first to leave behind carnal affections, the frailty of the senses, the passions that belong to matter;secondly, to learn by what means we may ascend to the climax of pure intellect, united with the powers above, without which never can we gain the lore of secret things, nor the magic that effects true wonders.--Tritemius "On Secret Things and Secret Spirits."It wanted still many minutes of midnight, and Glyndon was once more in the apartment of the mystic.He had rigidly observed the fast ordained to him; and in the rapt and intense reveries into which his excited fancy had plunged him, he was not only insensible to the wants of the flesh,--he felt above them.

Mejnour, seated beside his disciple, thus addressed him:--"Man is arrogant in proportion to his ignorance.Man's natural tendency is to egotism.Man, in his infancy of knowledge, thinks that all creation was formed for him.For several ages he saw in the countless worlds that sparkle through space like the bubbles of a shoreless ocean only the petty candles, the household torches, that Providence had been pleased to light for no other purpose but to make the night more agreeable to man.Astronomy has corrected this delusion of human vanity; and man now reluctantly confesses that the stars are worlds larger and more glorious than his own,--that the earth on which he crawls is a scarce visible speck on the vast chart of creation.But in the small as in the vast, God is equally profuse of life.The traveller looks upon the tree, and fancies its boughs were formed for his shelter in the summer sun, or his fuel in the winter frosts.But in each leaf of these boughs the Creator has made a world; it swarms with innumerable races.Each drop of the water in yon moat is an orb more populous than a kingdom is of men.

Everywhere, then, in this immense design, science brings new life to light.Life is the one pervading principle, and even the thing that seems to die and putrify but engenders new life, and changes to fresh forms of matter.Reasoning, then, by evident analogy: if not a leaf, if not a drop of water, but is, no less than yonder star, a habitable and breathing world,--nay, if even man himself is a world to other lives, and millions and myriads dwell in the rivers of his blood, and inhabit man's frame as man inhabits earth, commonsense (if your schoolmen had it) would suffice to teach that the circumfluent infinite which you call space--the countless Impalpable which divides earth from the moon and stars--is filled also with its correspondent and appropriate life.Is it not a visible absurdity to suppose that being is crowded upon every leaf, and yet absent from the immensities of space? The law of the Great System forbids the waste even of an atom; it knows no spot where something of life does not breathe.

In the very charnel-house is the nursery of production and animation.Is that true? Well, then, can you conceive that space, which is the Infinite itself, is alone a waste, is alone lifeless, is less useful to the one design of universal being than the dead carcass of a dog, than the peopled leaf, than the swarming globule? The microscope shows you the creatures on the leaf; no mechanical tube is yet invented to discover the nobler and more gifted things that hover in the illimitable air.Yet between these last and man is a mysterious and terrible affinity.

And hence, by tales and legends, not wholly false nor wholly true, have arisen from time to time, beliefs in apparitions and spectres.If more common to the earlier and simpler tribes than to the men of your duller age, it is but that, with the first, the senses are more keen and quick.And as the savage can see or scent miles away the traces of a foe, invisible to the gross sense of the civilised animal, so the barrier itself between him and the creatures of the airy world is less thickened and obscured.Do you listen?""With my soul!"

同类推荐
  • 台阳笔记

    台阳笔记

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 四气摄生图

    四气摄生图

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 道德真经取善集

    道德真经取善集

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 内经评文

    内经评文

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 唐铙歌鼓吹曲十二篇

    唐铙歌鼓吹曲十二篇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
热门推荐
  • 灰姑娘的恋爱式青春

    灰姑娘的恋爱式青春

    有点毒舌有点坏的狼犬男孩夏泽,妖精一般的美丽少年吴忧,还有贴心小可爱夏临川,万星遥该如何选择?如题,这是一个灰姑娘的青春恋爱故事。学神女主因为家教误入高富帅的世界,从此过上了哭哭笑笑疯疯癫癫潇潇洒洒的高中生活......灰姑娘没太大的野心,能找到为她穿上水晶鞋,和她一起幸福跳舞的王子,青春足矣!
  • 人间(下)

    人间(下)

    “我若能说万人的方言,并天使的话语,却没有爱,我就成了鸣的锣、响的钹一般。我若有先知讲道之能,也明白各样的奧秘,各样的知识,而且有全备的信,叫我能够移山,却没有爱,我就算不得什么。我若将所有的周济穷人,又舍己叫人焚烧,却没有爱,仍然与我无益。爱是恒久忍耐,又有恩慈;爱是不嫉妒,爱是不自夸,不张狂,不做害羞的事,不求自己的益处,不轻易发怒,不计算人的恶,不喜欢不义,只喜欢真理;凡事包容,凡事相信,凡事盼望,凡事忍耐,爱是永不止息……”
  • 甜宠顽妻:淮少不高冷

    甜宠顽妻:淮少不高冷

    “砰”的一声脆响,在这安静的教室显得特别突兀。陆潭影咬牙切齿的低声道:“帝!言!淮!”帝言淮无辜的摊手,表示自己是不是故意的。陆潭影觉得肯定是她上辈子造了太多的孽,所以老天派帝言淮来对她造孽。帝言淮却在想此生他定会宠她、爱她、包容她、呵护她,与她一同成长
  • 邪王霸宠,幼妃太嚣张

    邪王霸宠,幼妃太嚣张

    初入异国,众人说她是废材。好!看爷怎么打败你们的女神!征服你们的男神!听闻西爀城城主很吓人?哦,那是我义父。听闻红狱国女皇不能惹?哦,昨天刚偷了她最心爱的镯子。听闻兽国不让人类入内?哦,其实那是我的地盘。
  • 道德经古本篇

    道德经古本篇

    本书为公版书,为不受著作权法限制的作家、艺术家及其它人士发布的作品,供广大读者阅读交流。汇聚授权电子版权。
  • 神武纪元

    神武纪元

    神武大陆,蛮荒四起地球武警纪昊辰在执行任务的时候意外穿越,成为一个部落的少主,虽然身份显赫却被人囚禁,失去自由之身。一次意外中,姜离偶然获得先祖传承,从此开启天脉,一路高歌猛进。“凡是挡我者,杀!”
  • 吸血鬼殿下娇妻往哪里跑

    吸血鬼殿下娇妻往哪里跑

    “你想跑哪去呀?嗯?”思诺看着躺在床上的吸血鬼,心想“我当初怎么惹了这个”
  • 网游之极品房东

    网游之极品房东

    风流倜傥的华丽哥,巧计抢到游戏头盔,进入游戏成为高攻高幸运的隐藏种族,意气风发的他却迎来九个风情各异的美女房客,一不小心进错浴室,华丽哥彻底拜服,成为美女们的贴身保镖。
  • 民国的农村2:农产考

    民国的农村2:农产考

    齐如山先生在本书中介绍了华北地区土地出产的农产品的情况。华北地区出产的弄产品可以说是甲于天下,地球上任何地区出产的谷类,远不及华北多,所以华北历来号称百谷。华北地区的出产农产品的类别已经很复杂了,而每类之中又有许多种,例如高粱之中就又分几十种,谷子也有几十种,本书对其每一种的来历、生长季节甚至销售情况都有记录,这是另一种“舌尖上的中国”。
  • 让孩子受益一生的中外智慧故事100篇

    让孩子受益一生的中外智慧故事100篇

    故事是这个世界上最让孩子喜爱乃至着迷的事物。《让孩子受益一生的中外智慧故事100篇》精心挑选了古今中外闪烁着智慧之光的各类故事,它们有着曲折生动的情节、栩栩如生的人物、幽默风趣的语言、耐人寻味的寓意。在我们的成长过程中,这些美好的故事将会一直陪伴在我们左右,影响我们的生活,让我们受益一生。