Does not this comprehend all, in fact? and
what is there left to desire beyond it? A little garden in which to walk, and
immensity in which to dream. At one's feet that which can be cultivated and
plucked; over head that which one can study and meditate upon:
some flowers
on earth, and all the stars in the sky.
BOOK FIRST--A JUST MAN
CHAPTER XIV
WHAT HE
THOUGHT
One last
word.
Since this
sort of details might, particularly at the present moment, and to use an
expression now in fashion, give to the Bishop of D---- a certain
"pantheistical" physiognomy, and induce the belief, either to his
credit or discredit, that he entertained one of those personal philosophies
which are peculiar to our century, which sometimes spring up in solitary
spirits, and there take on a form and grow until they usurp the place of
religion, we insist upon it, that not one of those persons who knew Monseigneur
Welcome would have thought himself authorized to think anything of the sort.
That which enlightened this man was his heart.
His wisdom
was made of the light which comes from there.
No systems;
many works.
Abstruse
speculations contain vertigo; no, there is nothing to indicate that he risked
his mind in apocalypses. The apostle may be daring, but the bishop must be
timid.
He would
probably have felt a scruple at sounding too far in advance certain problems
which are, in a manner, reserved for terrible great minds. There is a sacred
horror beneath the porches of the enigma; those gloomy openings stand yawning
there, but something tells you, you, a passer-by in life, that you must not
enter. Woe to him who penetrates thither!
Geniuses in
the impenetrable depths of abstraction and pure speculation, situated, so to
speak, above all dogmas, propose their ideas to God.
Their prayer
audaciously offers discussion. Their adoration interrogates.
This is direct religion,
which is full of anxiety and responsibility for him who attempts its steep
cliffs.
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