Les Intelligences Celestes se font voir, et see communiquent plus volontiers, dans le silence et dans la tranquillite de la solitude1. On aura donc une petite chambre ou un cabinet secret, etc.
“Les Clavicules de Rabbi Salomon,” chapter 3; traduites exactement du texte Hebreu par2 M. Pierre Morissoneau, Professeur des Langues Orientales, et Sectateur de la Philosophie des Sages3 Cabalistes. (Manuscript Translation.)
(The Celestial4 Intelligences exhibit and explain themselves most freely in silence and the tranquillity5 of solitude. One will have then a little chamber6, or a secret cabinet, etc.)
The palace retained by Zanoni was in one of the less frequented quarters of the city. It still stands, now ruined and dismantled7, a monument of the splendour of a chivalry8 long since vanished from Naples, with the lordly races of the Norman and the Spaniard.
As he entered the rooms reserved for his private hours, two Indians, in the dress of their country, received him at the threshold with the grave salutations of the East. They had accompanied him from the far lands in which, according to rumour9, he had for many years fixed10 his home. But they could communicate nothing to gratify curiosity or justify11 suspicion. They spoke12 no language but their own. With the exception of these two his princely retinue13 was composed of the native hirelings of the city, whom his lavish14 but imperious generosity15 made the implicit16 creatures of his will. In his house, and in his habits, so far as they were seen, there was nothing to account for the rumours17 which were circulated abroad. He was not, as we are told of Albertus Magnus or the great Leonardo da Vinci, served by airy forms; and no brazen18 image, the invention of magic mechanism19, communicated to him the influences of the stars. None of the apparatus20 of the alchemist — the crucible21 and the metals — gave solemnity to his chambers22, or accounted for his wealth; nor did he even seem to interest himself in those serener24 studies which might be supposed to colour his peculiar25 conversation with abstract notions, and often with recondite26 learning. No books spoke to him in his solitude; and if ever he had drawn27 from them his knowledge, it seemed now that the only page he read was the wide one of Nature, and that a capacious and startling memory supplied the rest. Yet was there one exception to what in all else seemed customary and commonplace, and which, according to the authority we have prefixed to this chapter, might indicate the follower28 of the occult sciences. Whether at Rome or Naples, or, in fact, wherever his abode29, he selected one room remote from the rest of the house, which was fastened by a lock scarcely larger than the seal of a ring, yet which sufficed to baffle the most cunning instruments of the locksmith: at least, one of his servants, prompted by irresistible30 curiosity, had made the attempt in vain; and though he had fancied it was tried in the most favourable31 time for secrecy,— not a soul near, in the dead of night, Zanoni himself absent from home,— yet his superstition32, or his conscience, told him the reason why the next day the Major Domo quietly dismissed him. He compensated33 himself for this misfortune by spreading his own story, with a thousand amusing exaggerations. He declared that, as he approached the door, invisible hands seemed to pluck him away; and that when he touched the lock, he was struck, as by a palsy, to the ground. One surgeon, who heard the tale, observed, to the distaste of the wonder-mongers, that possibly Zanoni made a dexterous34 use of electricity. Howbeit, this room, once so secured, was never entered save by Zanoni himself.
The solemn voice of Time, from the neighbouring church at last aroused the lord of the palace from the deep and motionless reverie, rather resembling a trance than thought, in which his mind was absorbed.
“It is one more sand out of the mighty35 hour-glass,” said he, murmuringly, “and yet time neither adds to, nor steals from, an atom in the Infinite! Soul of mine, the luminous36, the Augoeides (Augoeides,— a word favoured by the mystical Platonists, sphaira psuches augoeides, otan mete37 ekteinetai epi ti, mete eso suntreche mete sunizane, alla photi lampetai, o ten aletheian opa ten panton, kai ten en aute.— Marc. Ant., lib. 2.— The sense of which beautiful sentence of the old philosophy, which, as Bayle well observes, in his article on Cornelius Agrippa, the modern Quietists have (however impotently) sought to imitate, is to the effect that ‘the sphere of the soul is luminous when nothing external has contact with the soul itself; but when lit by its own light, it sees the truth of all things and the truth centred in itself.’), why descendest thou from thy sphere,— why from the eternal, starlike, and passionless Serene23, shrinkest thou back to the mists of the dark sarcophagus? How long, too austerely38 taught that companionship with the things that die brings with it but sorrow in its sweetness, hast thou dwelt contented39 with thy majestic40 solitude?”
As he thus murmured, one of the earliest birds that salute41 the dawn broke into sudden song from amidst the orange-trees in the garden below his casement42; and as suddenly, song answered song; the mate, awakened43 at the note, gave back its happy answer to the bird. He listened; and not the soul he had questioned, but the heart replied. He rose, and with restless strides paced the narrow floor. “Away from this world!” he exclaimed at length, with an impatient tone. “Can no time loosen its fatal ties? As the attraction that holds the earth in space, is the attraction that fixes the soul to earth. Away from the dark grey planet! Break, ye fetters44: arise, ye wings!”
He passed through the silent galleries, and up the lofty stairs, and entered the secret chamber....
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solitude
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| n. 孤独; 独居,荒僻之地,幽静的地方 | |
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par
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| n.标准，票面价值，平均数量；adj.票面的，平常的，标准的 | |
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sages
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| n.圣人( sage的名词复数 )；智者；哲人；鼠尾草（可用作调料） | |
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celestial
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| adj.天体的；天上的 | |
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tranquillity
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| n. 平静, 安静 | |
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chamber
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| n.房间，寝室；会议厅；议院；会所 | |
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dismantled
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| 拆开( dismantle的过去式和过去分词 )； 拆卸； 废除； 取消 | |
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chivalry
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| n.骑士气概，侠义；（男人）对女人彬彬有礼，献殷勤 | |
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rumour
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| n.谣言，谣传，传闻 | |
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fixed
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| adj.固定的，不变的，准备好的；(计算机)固定的 | |
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justify
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| vt.证明…正当(或有理)，为…辩护 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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retinue
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| n.侍从；随员 | |
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lavish
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| adj.无节制的；浪费的；vt.慷慨地给予，挥霍 | |
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generosity
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| n.大度，慷慨，慷慨的行为 | |
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implicit
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| a.暗示的，含蓄的，不明晰的，绝对的 | |
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rumours
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| n.传闻( rumour的名词复数 )；风闻；谣言；谣传 | |
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brazen
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| adj.厚脸皮的，无耻的，坚硬的 | |
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mechanism
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| n.机械装置；机构，结构 | |
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apparatus
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| n.装置，器械；器具，设备 | |
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crucible
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| n.坩锅，严酷的考验 | |
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chambers
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| n.房间( chamber的名词复数 )；（议会的）议院；卧室；会议厅 | |
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serene
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| adj. 安详的，宁静的，平静的 | |
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serener
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| serene（沉静的，宁静的，安宁的）的比较级形式 | |
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peculiar
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| adj.古怪的，异常的；特殊的，特有的 | |
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recondite
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| adj.深奥的，难解的 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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follower
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| n.跟随者；随员；门徒；信徒 | |
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abode
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| n.住处，住所 | |
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irresistible
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| adj.非常诱人的，无法拒绝的，无法抗拒的 | |
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favourable
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| adj.赞成的，称赞的，有利的，良好的，顺利的 | |
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superstition
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| n.迷信，迷信行为 | |
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33
compensated
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| 补偿，报酬( compensate的过去式和过去分词 )； 给（某人）赔偿（或赔款） | |
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dexterous
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| adj.灵敏的；灵巧的 | |
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mighty
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| adj.强有力的；巨大的 | |
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luminous
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| adj.发光的，发亮的；光明的；明白易懂的；有启发的 | |
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mete
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| v.分配；给予 | |
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austerely
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| adv.严格地，朴质地 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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majestic
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| adj.雄伟的，壮丽的，庄严的，威严的，崇高的 | |
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41
salute
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| vi.行礼，致意，问候，放礼炮；vt.向…致意，迎接，赞扬；n.招呼，敬礼，礼炮 | |
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42
casement
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| n.竖铰链窗；窗扉 | |
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43
awakened
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| v.（使）醒( awaken的过去式和过去分词 )；（使）觉醒；弄醒；（使）意识到 | |
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44
fetters
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| n.脚镣( fetter的名词复数 )；束缚v.给…上脚镣，束缚( fetter的第三人称单数 ) | |
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