Part 6 (2/2)
”Oh!”
”Yes, sir,” returned the other. ”The opinion you advance coincides with the very words of Jacob Boehme. In the forty-eighth proposition of _The Threefold Life of Man_ he says that 'if G.o.d hath brought all things to pa.s.s with a LET THERE BE, the FIAT is the secret matrix which comprehends and apprehends the nature which is formed by the spirit born of Mercury and of G.o.d.'”
”What do you say, sir?”
The German delivered his quotation afresh.
”We do not know it,” said the clerks.
”_Fiat_?...” said a clerk. ”_Fiat lux_!”
”You can verify the citation for yourselves,” said the German. ”You will find the pa.s.sage in the _Treatise of the Threefold Life of Man_, page 75; the edition was published by M. Migneret in 1809. It was translated into French by a philosopher who had a great admiration for the famous shoemaker.”
”Oh! he was a shoemaker, was he?” said the head clerk.
”In Prussia,” said the German.
”Did he work for the King of Prussia?” inquired a Boeotian of a second clerk.
”He must have vamped up his prose,” said a third.
”That man is colossal!” cried the fourth, pointing to the Teuton.
That gentleman, though a demonologist of the first rank, did not know the amount of devilry to be found in a notary's clerk. He went away without the least idea that they were making game of him, and fully under the impression that the young fellows regarded Boehme as a colossal genius.
”Education is making strides in France,” said he to himself.
PARIS, May 6, 1835.
ADDENDUM
The following personages appear in other stories of the Human Comedy.
Aquilina The Magic Skin
Claparon, Charles A Bachelor's Establishment Cesar Birotteau The Firm of Nucingen A Man of Business The Middle Cla.s.ses
Euphrasia The Magic Skin
Nucingen, Baronne Delphine de Father Goriot The Thirteen Eugenie Grandet Cesar Birotteau Lost Illusions A Distinguished Provincial at Paris The Commission in Lunacy Scenes from a Courtesan's Life Modeste Mignon The Firm of Nucingen Another Study of Woman A Daughter of Eve The Member for Arcis
Tillet, Ferdinand du Cesar Birotteau The Firm of Nucingen The Middle Cla.s.ses A Bachelor's Establishment Pierrette A Distinguished Provencial at Paris The Secrets of a Princess A Daughter of Eve The Member for Arcis Cousin Betty The Unconscious Humorists
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