Part 12 (2/2)

Think of all this as an absolute revelation, a real presence of Deity, and compare it with historical traditionary religion. There are two revelations--the material and the moral--and the former is not to be seen but by the latter. As St. Paul has so well observed: ”By worldly wisdom no man ever arrived at G.o.d;” but having seen Him by the moral sense, then we _understand_ the outward world. Even as with books, no book of itself teaches a language in the first instance; but having by sympathy of soul learnt it, we then understand the book--that is, the _Deus minor_ in His work.

The _hirschkafer_ (stag-beetle) in its worm state makes its bed-chamber, prior to its metamorphosis, half as long as itself. Why? There was a stiff horn turned under its belly, which in the fly state must project and harden, and this required exactly that length.

The sea-snail creeps out of its house, which, thus hollowed, lifts him aloft, and is his boat and cork jacket; the Nautilus, additionally, spreads a thin skin as a sail.

All creatures obey the great game-laws of Nature, and fish with nets of such meshes as permit many to escape, and preclude the taking of many.

So two races are saved, the one by taking part, and the other by part not being taken.

[Sidenote: ENTOMOLOGY VERSUS ONTOLOGY]

Wonderful, perplexing divisibility of life! It is related by D. Unzer, an authority wholly to be relied on, that an _ohrwurm_ (earwig) cut in half ate its own hinder part! Will it be the reverse with Great Britain and America? The head of the rattlesnake severed from the body bit it and squirted out its poison, as is related by Beverley in his History of Virginia. Lyonnet in his Insect. Theol. tells us that he tore a wasp in half and, three days after, the fore-half bit whatever was presented to it of its former food, and the hind-half darted out its sting at being touched. Stranger still, a turtle has been known to live six months with his head off, and to wander about, yea, six hours after its heart and intestines (all but the lungs) were taken out! How shall we think of this compatibly with the monad soul? If I say, what has spirit to do with s.p.a.ce?--what odd dreams it would suggest! or is every animal a republic _in se_? or is there one Breeze of Life, ”at once the soul of each, and G.o.d of all?” Is it not strictly a.n.a.logous to generation, and no more contrary to unity than it? But IT? Aye! there's the twist in the logic. Is not the reproduction of the lizard a complete generation? O it is easy to dream, and, surely, better of these things than of a 20,000 prize in the lottery, or of a place at Court. Dec. 13, 1804.

[Sidenote: FOR THE ”SOOTHER IN ABSENCE”]

To trace the if not absolute birth, yet the growth and endurancy of language, from the mother talking to the child at her breast. O what a subject for some happy moment of deep feeling and strong imagination!

Of the Quintetta in the Syracuse opera and the pleasure of the voices--one and not one, they leave, seek, pursue, oppose, fight with, strengthen, annihilate each other, awake, enliven, soothe, flatter and embrace each other again, till at length they die away in one tone.

There is no sweeter image of wayward yet fond lovers, of seeking and finding, of the love-quarrel, and the making-up, of the losing and the yearning regret, of the doubtful, the complete recognition, and of the total melting union. Words are not interpreters, but fellow-combatants.

t.i.tle for a Medical Romance:--The adventures, rivalry, warfare and final union and partners.h.i.+p of Dr. Hocus and Dr. Pocus.

Idly talk they who speak of poets as mere indulgers of fancy, imagination, superst.i.tion, etc. They are the bridlers by delight, the purifiers; they that combine all these with reason and order--the true protoplasts--G.o.ds of Love who tame the chaos.

To deduce instincts from obscure recollections of a pre-existing state--I have often thought of it. ”Ey!” I have said, when I have seen certain tempers and actions in Hartley, ”that is I in my future state.”

So I think, oftentimes, that my children are my soul--that mult.i.tude and division are not [O mystery!] necessarily subversive of unity. I am sure that two very different meanings, if not more, lurk in the word One.

The drollest explanation of instinct is that of Mylius, who attributes every act to pain, and all the wonderful webs and envelopes of spiders, caterpillars, etc., absolutely to fits of colic or paroxysms of dry belly-ache!

This Tarantula-dance of repet.i.tions and vertiginous argumentation _in circulo_, begun in imposture and self-consummated in madness!

While the whole planet (_quoad_ its Lord or, at least, Lord-Lieutenancy) is in stir and bustle, why should not I keep in time with the tune, and, like old Diogenes, roll my tub about?

I cannot too often remember that to be deeply interested and to be highly satisfied are not always commensurate. Apply this to the affecting and yet unnatural pa.s.sages of the _Stranger_ or of _John Bull_, and to the finest pa.s.sages in Shakspere, such as the death of Cleopatra or Hamlet.

[Sidenote: A SUNDOG Dec. 15, 1804]

Saw the limb of a rainbow footing itself on the sea at a small apparent distance from the sh.o.r.e, a thing of itself--no substrate cloud or even mist visible--but the distance glimmered through it as through a thin semi-transparent hoop.

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