CHAPTER XXI.THE MANUSCRIPTS.
I gotup betimes on the morrow, being awakened by Ambrose; and, after breakfast, set out with him for the Cloisters.
The Secretary was very gloomy, and brooded in his mind. Nothing worth remark fell out on the way, until we came to the second wood, when, pointing to the right, Ambrose said:
“I ought to have told you: you see that region of the wood? ’tis forbidden ground. The Doctor will have none go there; and woe to the man who disobeyeth him! I may tell you,” added he, “that a deadly swamp is there.”
I was silent for a moment; then I asked him:
“Is nothing there besides the swamp?”
“I do not know,” said he, looking at me strangely; and turned his head away.
We came to the trapdoor in the tall grasses; and, having descended and entered into the subterraneous hall, we set to work with the manuscripts. The script I had to make a fair copy of, was a treatise of philosophical ideas, being disposed in many several essays. The matter was profound, the style plain and perspicuous. I took these extracts following:—
(1)The body is the shadow of the soul. It is but the state, or medium, whereby immature souls know and are known of one another.They that judge after the appearance, do take the creatures of the material universe for the products and progeny thereof. Yet it, indeed, is the product and progeny of them—if a mere shadow (which only it is) may rightly be so called. For the material universe, the sum and crasis of bodies, is the shadow cast by the spiritual universe, the sum and crasis of souls. It’s a picture cast upon the curtain of the darkness, as when the sun, shining through a coloured casement, throws a picture upon a wall. And that which doth limn out this picture of the material universe, is (as it were) the coloured casement of minds and experiences; the light whereof proceedeth from the Deity, wherein all live and move and have their being. Wherein, rather, all sleep, or sleeping, dream; or dreaming, fitfully awake.Yet this aggregate of minds and experiences, that casts the shadow and maketh the picture, is not the reasoning nor the sensible nor the carnal part, but is that elemental region and those abysms of being plumbing deep as the souls of plants and stones and underlying in men and animals the conscious part. As to the other regions—the provinces of human reason and feeling and contemplation—these, too, do picture forth; sometimes, in gleams and glimpses, they portray images of heaven; sometimes, darkly and distorting, they conjure up visions of hell.(2)God is the only power, principle, and reality.All else is but emptiness and distortion and shadow. If He should withdraw himself, the universe would disappear, and leave not a rack behind.The universe, in sooth, may be likened to a prism, having many facets, revealing God. Love is the light thereof, and is gathered by affinities betwixt persons, and shineth in many coloured traits. He, therefore, that loveth man with understanding, also loveth God; and his love shall increase. But he that loveth dotingly, and without understanding, is an idolater; and his love is like to a candle set up in a deep cavern: presently there shall be darkness.
(1)The body is the shadow of the soul. It is but the state, or medium, whereby immature souls know and are known of one another.
They that judge after the appearance, do take the creatures of the material universe for the products and progeny thereof. Yet it, indeed, is the product and progeny of them—if a mere shadow (which only it is) may rightly be so called. For the material universe, the sum and crasis of bodies, is the shadow cast by the spiritual universe, the sum and crasis of souls. It’s a picture cast upon the curtain of the darkness, as when the sun, shining through a coloured casement, throws a picture upon a wall. And that which doth limn out this picture of the material universe, is (as it were) the coloured casement of minds and experiences; the light whereof proceedeth from the Deity, wherein all live and move and have their being. Wherein, rather, all sleep, or sleeping, dream; or dreaming, fitfully awake.
Yet this aggregate of minds and experiences, that casts the shadow and maketh the picture, is not the reasoning nor the sensible nor the carnal part, but is that elemental region and those abysms of being plumbing deep as the souls of plants and stones and underlying in men and animals the conscious part. As to the other regions—the provinces of human reason and feeling and contemplation—these, too, do picture forth; sometimes, in gleams and glimpses, they portray images of heaven; sometimes, darkly and distorting, they conjure up visions of hell.
(2)God is the only power, principle, and reality.All else is but emptiness and distortion and shadow. If He should withdraw himself, the universe would disappear, and leave not a rack behind.
The universe, in sooth, may be likened to a prism, having many facets, revealing God. Love is the light thereof, and is gathered by affinities betwixt persons, and shineth in many coloured traits. He, therefore, that loveth man with understanding, also loveth God; and his love shall increase. But he that loveth dotingly, and without understanding, is an idolater; and his love is like to a candle set up in a deep cavern: presently there shall be darkness.
Ambrose wrought at a manuscript of poesy, which he embellished in colour with strange and beautiful pictures. As he wrought, he became lost and out of himself; and, if I spoke to him, he was angry.
I took a copy of this poem following:—
Once I built a palaceFar from any land,Far from any ship-way:’Twas most grim and grand.Glass I had for sunlight,Coloured glass for blinds,Glass to garner sunshine’Gainst the wintry winds.’Twas most grim and quiet,’Twas most grand and free:Sky-blue glass, or star-blue;Glass and sky and sea.Gone! all gone for ever!Wander homeless man!Came that crooked serpent,Came Leviathan!Smote my pleasure-palace,Whirled in flashing foam,Split in stars of crystal,Floor and walls and dome!
Once I built a palaceFar from any land,Far from any ship-way:’Twas most grim and grand.Glass I had for sunlight,Coloured glass for blinds,Glass to garner sunshine’Gainst the wintry winds.’Twas most grim and quiet,’Twas most grand and free:Sky-blue glass, or star-blue;Glass and sky and sea.Gone! all gone for ever!Wander homeless man!Came that crooked serpent,Came Leviathan!Smote my pleasure-palace,Whirled in flashing foam,Split in stars of crystal,Floor and walls and dome!
Once I built a palaceFar from any land,Far from any ship-way:’Twas most grim and grand.
Once I built a palace
Far from any land,
Far from any ship-way:
’Twas most grim and grand.
Glass I had for sunlight,Coloured glass for blinds,Glass to garner sunshine’Gainst the wintry winds.
Glass I had for sunlight,
Coloured glass for blinds,
Glass to garner sunshine
’Gainst the wintry winds.
’Twas most grim and quiet,’Twas most grand and free:Sky-blue glass, or star-blue;Glass and sky and sea.
’Twas most grim and quiet,
’Twas most grand and free:
Sky-blue glass, or star-blue;
Glass and sky and sea.
Gone! all gone for ever!Wander homeless man!Came that crooked serpent,Came Leviathan!
Gone! all gone for ever!
Wander homeless man!
Came that crooked serpent,
Came Leviathan!
Smote my pleasure-palace,Whirled in flashing foam,Split in stars of crystal,Floor and walls and dome!
Smote my pleasure-palace,
Whirled in flashing foam,
Split in stars of crystal,
Floor and walls and dome!
Ambrose told me ’twas written by the Doctor in his youth.
Thus the morning passed; and, at midday, we left the Cloisters to return to the Cells.