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sartor resartus-第50章

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; which he calls Newspaper。  Therefrom he preaches what most momentous doctrine is in him; for man's salvation; and dost not thou listen; and believe?  Look well; thou seest everywhere a new Clergy of the Mendicant Orders; some barefooted; some almost bare…backed; fashion itself into shape; and teach and preach; zealously enough; for copper alms and the love of God。  These break in pieces the ancient idols; and; though themselves too often reprobate; as idol…breakers are wont to be; mark out the sites of new Churches; where the true God…ordained; that are to follow; may find audience; and minister。  Said I not; Before the old skin was shed; the new had formed itself beneath it?〃

Perhaps also in the following; wherewith we now hasten to knit up this ravelled sleeve:

〃But there is no Religion?〃 reiterates the Professor。  〃Fool!  I tell thee; there is。  Hast thou well considered all that lies in this immeasurable froth…ocean we name LITERATURE?  Fragments of a genuine Church…_Homiletic_ lie scattered there; which Time will assort:  nay fractions even of a _Liturgy_ could I point out。  And knowest thou no Prophet; even in the vesture; environment; and dialect of this age?  None to whom the Godlike had revealed itself; through all meanest and highest forms of the Common; and by him been again prophetically revealed:  in whose inspired melody; even in these rag…gathering and rag…burning days; Man's Life again begins; were it but afar off; to be divine?  Knowest thou none such?  I know him; and name himGoethe。

〃But thou as yet standest in no Temple; joinest in no Psalm…worship; feelest well that; where there is no ministering Priest; the people perish? Be of comfort!  Thou art not alone; if thou have Faith。  Spake we not of a Communion of Saints; unseen; yet not unreal; accompanying and brother…like embracing thee; so thou be worthy?  Their heroic Sufferings rise up melodiously together to Heaven; out of all lands; and out of all times; as a sacred _Miserere_; their heroic Actions also; as a boundless everlasting Psalm of Triumph。  Neither say that thou hast now no Symbol of the Godlike。 Is not God's Universe a Symbol of the Godlike; is not Immensity a Temple; is not Man's History; and Men's History; a perpetual Evangel?  Listen; and for organ…music thou wilt ever; as of old; hear the Morning Stars sing together。〃


CHAPTER VIII。 NATURAL SUPERNATURALISM。

It is in his stupendous Section; headed _Natural Supernaturalism_; that the Professor first becomes a Seer; and; after long effort; such as we have witnessed; finally subdues under his feet this refractory Clothes…Philosophy; and takes victorious possession thereof。  Phantasms enough he has had to struggle with; 〃Cloth…webs and Cob…webs;〃 of Imperial Mantles; Superannuated Symbols; and what not:  yet still did he courageously pierce through。  Nay; worst of all; two quite mysterious; world…embracing Phantasms; TIME and SPACE; have ever hovered round him; perplexing and bewildering:  but with these also he now resolutely grapples; these also he victoriously rends asunder。  In a word; he has looked fixedly on Existence; till; one after the other; its earthly hulls and garnitures have all melted away; and now; to his rapt vision; the interior celestial Holy…of…Holies lies disclosed。

Here; therefore; properly it is that the Philosophy of Clothes attains to Transcendentalism; this last leap; can we but clear it; takes us safe into the promised land; where _Palingenesia_; in all senses; may be considered as beginning。  〃Courage; then!〃 may our Diogenes exclaim; with better right than Diogenes the First once did。  This stupendous Section we; after long painful meditation; have found not to be unintelligible; but; on the contrary; to grow clear; nay radiant; and all…illuminating。  Let the reader; turning on it what utmost force of speculative intellect is in him; do his part; as we; by judicious selection and adjustment; shall study to do ours:

〃Deep has been; and is; the significance of Miracles;〃 thus quietly begins the Professor; 〃far deeper perhaps than we imagine。  Meanwhile; the question of questions were:  What specially is a Miracle?  To that Dutch King of Siam; an icicle had been a miracle; whoso had carried with him an air…pump; and vial of vitriolic ether; might have worked a miracle。  To my Horse; again; who unhappily is still more unscientific; do not I work a miracle; and magical '_Open sesame_!_'_ every time I please to pay twopence; and open for him an impassable _Schlagbaum_; or shut Turnpike?

〃'But is not a real Miracle simply a violation of the Laws of Nature?' ask several。  Whom I answer by this new question:  What are the Laws of Nature? To me perhaps the rising of one from the dead were no violation of these Laws; but a confirmation; were some far deeper Law; now first penetrated into; and by Spiritual Force; even as the rest have all been; brought to bear on us with its Material Force。

〃Here too may some inquire; not without astonishment:  On what ground shall one; that can make Iron swim; come and declare that therefore he can teach Religion?  To us; truly; of the Nineteenth Century; such declaration were inept enough; which nevertheless to our fathers; of the First Century; was full of meaning。

〃'But is it not the deepest Law of Nature that she be constant?' cries an illuminated class:  'Is not the Machine of the Universe fixed to move by unalterable rules?'  Probable enough; good friends:  nay I; too; must believe that the God; whom ancient inspired men assert to be 'without variableness or shadow of turning;' does indeed never change; that Nature; that the Universe; which no one whom it so pleases can be prevented from calling a Machine; does move by the most unalterable rules。  And now of you; too; I make the old inquiry:  What those same unalterable rules; forming the complete Statute…Book of Nature; may possibly be?

〃They stand written in our Works of Science; say you; in the accumulated records of Man's Experience?Was Man with his Experience present at the Creation; then; to see how it all went on?  Have any deepest scientific individuals yet dived down to the foundations of the Universe; and gauged everything there?  Did the Maker take them into His counsel; that they read His ground…plan of the incomprehensible All; and can say; This stands marked therein; and no more than this?  Alas; not in anywise!  These scientific individuals have been nowhere but where we also are; have seen some hand breadths deeper than we see into the Deep that is infinite; without bottom as without shore。

〃Laplace's Book on the Stars; wherein he exhibits that certain Planets; with their Satellites; gyrate round our worthy Sun; at a rate and in a course; which; by greatest good fortune; he and the like of him have succeeded in detecting;is to me as precious as to another。  But is this what thou namest 'Mechanism of the Heavens;' and 'System of the World;' this; wherein Sirius and the Pleiades; and all Herschel's Fifteen thousand Suns per minute; being left out; some paltry handful of Moons; and inert Balls; had beenlooked at; nick…named; and marked in the Zodiacal Way…bill; so that we can now prate of their Whereabout; their How; their Why; their What; being hid from us; as in the signless Inane?

〃System of Nature!  To the wisest man; wide as is his vision; Nature remains of quite _infinite_ depth; of quite infinite expansion; and all Experience thereof limits itself to some few computed centuries and measured square…miles。  The course of Nature's phases; on this our little fraction of a Planet; is partially known to us:  but who knows what deeper courses these depend on; what infinitely larger Cycle (of causes) our little Epicycle revolves on?  To the Minnow every cranny and pebble; and quality and accident; of its little native Creek may have become familiar: but does the Minnow understand the Ocean Tides and periodic Currents; the Trade…winds; and Monsoons; and Moon's Eclipses; by all which the condition of its little Creek is regulated; and may; from time to time (unmiraculously enough); be quite overset and reversed?  Such a minnow is Man; his Creek this Planet Earth; his Ocean the immeasurable All; his Monsoons and periodic Currents the mysterious 

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