"The one," said he, "is the Dutch School, the other is the Greek.""Sir," said I, "the Dutch is the most in fashion.""Yes, in painting, perhaps," answered my host, "but in literature--""It was of literature I spoke.Our growing poets are all for simplicity and Betty Foy; and our critics hold it the highest praise of a work of imagination, to say that its characters are exact to common life, even in sculpture--""In sculpture! No, no! THERE the high ideal must at least be essential!""Pardon me; I fear you have not seen Souter Johnny and Tam O'Shanter.""Ah!" said the old gentleman, shaking his head, "I live very much out of the world, I see.I suppose Shakespeare has ceased to be admired?""On the contrary; people make the adoration of Shakespeare the excuse for attacking everybody else.But then our critics have discovered that Shakespeare is so REAL!""Real! The poet who has never once drawn a character to be met with in actual life,--who has never once descended to a passion that is false, or a personage who is real!"I was about to reply very severely to this paradox, when Iperceived that my companion was growing a little out of temper.
And he who wishes to catch a Rosicrucian, must take care not to disturb the waters.I thought it better, therefore, to turn the conversation.
"Revenons a nos moutons," said I; "you promised to enlighten my ignorance as to the Rosicrucians.""Well!" quoth he, rather sternly; "but for what purpose? Perhaps you desire only to enter the temple in order to ridicule the rites?""What do you take me for! Surely, were I so inclined, the fate of the Abbe de Villars is a sufficient warning to all men not to treat idly of the realms of the Salamander and the Sylph.
Everybody knows how mysteriously that ingenious personage was deprived of his life, in revenge for the witty mockeries of his 'Comte de Gabalis.'""Salamander and Sylph! I see that you fall into the vulgar error, and translate literally the allegorical language of the mystics."With that the old gentleman condescended to enter into a very interesting, and, as it seemed to me, a very erudite relation, of the tenets of the Rosicrucians, some of whom, he asserted, still existed, and still prosecuted, in august secrecy, their profound researches into natural science and occult philosophy.
"But this fraternity," said he, "however respectable and virtuous,--virtuous I say, for no monastic order is more severe in the practice of moral precepts, or more ardent in Christian faith,--this fraternity is but a branch of others yet more transcendent in the powers they have obtained, and yet more illustrious in their origin.Are you acquainted with the Platonists?""I have occasionally lost my way in their labyrinth," said I.
"Faith, they are rather difficult gentlemen to understand.""Yet their knottiest problems have never yet been published.
Their sublimest works are in manuscript, and constitute the initiatory learning, not only of the Rosicrucians, but of the nobler brotherhoods I have referred to.More solemn and sublime still is the knowledge to be gleaned from the elder Pythagoreans, and the immortal masterpieces of Apollonius.""Apollonius, the imposter of Tyanea! are his writings extant?""Imposter!" cried my host; "Apollonius an imposter!""I beg your pardon; I did not know he was a friend of yours; and if you vouch for his character, I will believe him to have been a very respectable man, who only spoke the truth when he boasted of his power to be in two places at the same time.""Is that so difficult?" said the old gentleman; "if so, you have never dreamed!"Here ended our conversation; but from that time an acquaintance was formed between us which lasted till my venerable friend departed this life.Peace to his ashes! He was a person of singular habits and eccentric opinions; but the chief part of his time was occupied in acts of quiet and unostentatious goodness.
He was an enthusiast in the duties of the Samaritan; and as his virtues were softened by the gentlest charity, so his hopes were based upon the devoutest belief.He never conversed upon his own origin and history, nor have I ever been able to penetrate the darkness in which they were concealed.He seemed to have seen much of the world, and to have been an eye-witness of the first French Revolution, a subject upon which he was equally eloquent and instructive.At the same time he did not regard the crimes of that stormy period with the philosophical leniency with which enlightened writers (their heads safe upon their shoulders) are, in the present day, inclined to treat the massacres of the past:
he spoke not as a student who had read and reasoned, but as a man who had seen and suffered.The old gentleman seemed alone in the world; nor did I know that he had one relation, till his executor, a distant cousin, residing abroad, informed me of the very handsome legacy which my poor friend had bequeathed me.
This consisted, first, of a sum about which I think it best to be guarded, foreseeing the possibility of a new tax upon real and funded property; and, secondly, of certain precious manuscripts, to which the following volumes owe their existence.
I imagine I trace this latter bequest to a visit I paid the Sage, if so I may be permitted to call him, a few weeks before his death.
