The Exiles by Honoré de Balzac
page 26 of 43 (60%)
page 26 of 43 (60%)
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added these words, from which I have eliminated the corrupt Latinity
of the Middle Ages:-- "Where, think you, may a man find these fruitful truths if not in the heart of God Himself?--What am I?--The humble interpreter of a single line left to us by the greatest of the Apostles--a single line out of thousands all equally full of light. Before us, Saint Paul said, '_In Deo vivimus movemur et sumus_.' In our day, less believing and more learned, or better instructed and more sceptical, we should ask the Apostle, 'To what end this perpetual motion? Whither leads this life divided into zones? Wherefore an intelligence that begins with the obscure perfection of marble and proceeds from sphere to sphere up to man, up to the angel, up to God? Where is the Fount, where is the ocean, if life, attaining to God across worlds and stars, through Matter and Spirit, has to come down again to some other goal?' "You desire to see both aspects of the universe at once. You would adore the Sovereign on condition of being suffered to sit for an instant on His throne. Mad fools that we are! We will not admit that the most intelligent animals are able to understand our ideas and the object of our actions; we are merciless to the creatures of the inferior spheres, and exile them from our own; we deny them the faculty of divining human thoughts, and yet we ourselves would fain master the highest of all ideas--the Idea of the Idea! "Well, go then, start! Fly by faith up from globe to globe, soar through space! Thought, love, and faith are its mystical keys. Traverse the circles, reach the throne! God is more merciful than you are; He opens His temple to all His creatures. Only, do not forget the pattern of Moses; put your shoes from off your feet, cast off all |
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