THE POWER OF WORDS
OINOS. Pardon, Agathos, the weakness of a spirit new-fledged withimmortality!
AGATHOS. You have spoken nothing, my Oinos, for which pardon is to bedemanded. Not even here is knowledge thing of intuition. For wisdom, askof the angels freely, that it may be given!
OINOS. But in this existence, I dreamed that I should be at oncecognizant of all things, and thus at once be happy in being cognizant ofall.
AGATHOS. Ah, not in knowledge is happiness, but in the acquisition ofknowledge! In for ever knowing, we are for ever blessed; but to know allwere the curse of a fiend.
OINOS. But does not The Most High know all?
AGATHOS. That (since he is The Most Happy) must be still the one thingunknown even to Him.
OINOS. But, since we grow hourly in knowledge, must not at last allthings be known?
AGATHOS. Look down into the abysmal distances!--attempt to force thegaze down the multitudinous vistas of the stars, as we sweep slowlythrough them thus--and thus--and thus! Even the spiritual vision, isit not at all points arrested by the continuous golden walls of theuniverse?--the walls of the myriads of the shining bodies that merenumber has appeared to blend into unity?
OINOS. I clearly perceive that the infinity of matter is no dream.
AGATHOS. There are no dreams in Aidenn--but it is here whispered that,of this infinity of matter, the sole purpose is to afford infinitesprings, at which the soul may allay the thirst to know, which is forever unquenchable within it--since to quench it, would be to extinguishthe soul's self. Question me then, my Oinos, freely and without fear.Come! we will leave to the left the loud harmony of the Pleiades, andswoop outward from the throne into the starry meadows beyond Orion,where, for pansies and violets, and heart's--ease, are the beds of thetriplicate and triple--tinted suns.
OINOS. And now, Agathos, as we proceed, instruct me!--speak to me inthe earth's familiar tones. I understand not what you hinted to me, justnow, of the modes or of the method of what, during mortality, we wereaccustomed to call Creation. Do you mean to say that the Creator is notGod?
AGATHOS. I mean to say that the Deity does not create.
OINOS. Explain.
AGATHOS. In the beginning only, he created. The seeming creatures whichare now, throughout the universe, so perpetually springing into being,can only be considered as the mediate or indirect, not as the direct orimmediate results of the Divine creative power.
OINOS. Among men, my Agathos, this idea would be considered heretical inthe extreme.
AGATHOS. Among angels, my Oinos, it is seen to be simply true.
OINOS. I can comprehend you thus far--that certain operations of what weterm Nature, or the natural laws, will, under certain conditions, giverise to that which has all the appearance of creation. Shortly beforethe final overthrow of the earth, there were, I well remember, many verysuccessful experiments in what some philosophers were weak enough todenominate the creation of animalculae.
AGATHOS. The cases of which you speak were, in fact, instances of thesecondary creation--and of the only species of creation which has everbeen, since the first word spoke into existence the first law.
OINOS. Are not the starry worlds that, from the abyss of nonentity,burst hourly forth into the heavens--are not these stars, Agathos, theimmediate handiwork of the King?
AGATHOS. Let me endeavor, my Oinos, to lead you, step by step, to theconception I intend. You are well aware that, as no thought can perish,so no act is without infinite result. We moved our hands, for example,when we were dwellers on the earth, and, in so doing, gave vibrationto the atmosphere which engirdled it. This vibration was indefinitelyextended, till it gave impulse to every particle of the earth's air,which thenceforward, and for ever, was actuated by the one movement ofthe hand. This fact the mathematicians of our globe well knew. They madethe special effects, indeed, wrought in the fluid by special impulses,the subject of exact calculation--so that it became easy to determine inwhat precise period an impulse of given extent would engirdle the orb,and impress (for ever) every atom of the atmosphere circumambient.Retrograding, they found no difficulty, from a given effect, under givenconditions, in determining the value of the original impulse. Nowthe mathematicians who saw that the results of any given impulse wereabsolutely endless--and who saw that a portion of these results wereaccurately traceable through the agency of algebraic analysis--who saw,too, the facility of the retrogradation--these men saw, at the sametime, that this species of analysis itself, had within itself a capacityfor indefinite progress--that there were no bounds conceivable to itsadvancement and applicability, except within the intellect of him whoadvanced or applied it. But at this point our mathematicians paused.
OINOS. And why, Agathos, should they have proceeded?
AGATHOS. Because there were some considerations of deep interest beyond.It was deducible from what they knew, that to a being of infiniteunderstanding--one to whom the perfection of the algebraic analysis layunfolded--there could be no difficulty in tracing every impulse giventhe air--and the ether through the air--to the remotest consequences atany even infinitely remote epoch of time. It is indeed demonstrablethat every such impulse given the air, must, in the end, impress everyindividual thing that exists within the universe;--and the being ofinfinite understanding--the being whom we have imagined--might trace theremote undulations of the impulse--trace them upward and onward in theirinfluences upon all particles of an matter--upward and onward forever in their modifications of old forms--or, in other words, intheir creation of new--until he found them reflected--unimpressive atlast--back from the throne of the Godhead. And not only could sucha thing do this, but at any epoch, should a given result be affordedhim--should one of these numberless comets, for example, be presentedto his inspection--he could have no difficulty in determining, by theanalytic retrogradation, to what original impulse it was due. This powerof retrogradation in its absolute fulness and perfection--this facultyof referring at all epochs, all effects to all causes--is of course theprerogative of the Deity alone--but in every variety of degree, short ofthe absolute perfection, is the power itself exercised by the whole hostof the Angelic intelligences.
OINOS. But you speak merely of impulses upon the air.
AGATHOS. In speaking of the air, I referred only to the earth; but thegeneral proposition has reference to impulses upon the ether--which,since it pervades, and alone pervades all space, is thus the greatmedium of creation.
OINOS. Then all motion, of whatever nature, creates?
AGATHOS. It must: but a true philosophy has long taught that the sourceof all motion is thought--and the source of all thought is--
OINOS. God.
AGATHOS. I have spoken to you, Oinos, as to a child of the fair Earthwhich lately perished--of impulses upon the atmosphere of the Earth.
OINOS. You did.
AGATHOS. And while I thus spoke, did there not cross your mind somethought of the physical power of words? Is not every word an impulse onthe air?
OINOS. But why, Agathos, do you weep--and why, oh why do your wingsdroop as we hover above this fair star--which is the greenest and yetmost terrible of all we have encountered in our flight? Its brilliantflowers look like a fairy dream--but its fierce volcanoes like thepassions of a turbulent heart.
AGATHOS. They are!--they are! This wild star--it is now three centuriessince, with clasped hands, and with streaming eyes, at the feet of mybeloved--I spoke it--with a few passionate sentences--into birth. Itsbrilliant flowers are the dearest of all unfulfilled dreams, and itsraging volcanoes are the passions of the most turbulent and unhallowedof hearts.