It is a food too strong for ordinary men, and which, when it does not revivify, smothers.I will not, then, reveal to you this doctrine, which is the triumph of my life, and the consolation of my last days; because it might, perhaps, be for you only a cause of mourning and despair.....Of all the works which my long studies have produced, there is one alone which I have not given to the flames; for it alone is complete.In that you will find me entire, and there LIES THE TRUTH.And, as the sage has said you must not bury your treasures in a well, I will not confide mine to the brutal stupidity of these monks.But as this volume should only pass into hands worthy to touch it, and be laid open for eyes that are capable of comprehending its mysteries, I shall exact from the reader one condition, which, at the same time, shall be a proof: I shall carry it with me to the tomb, in order that he who one day shall read it, may have courage enough to brave the vain terrors of the grave, in searching for it amid the dust of my sepulchre.As soon as I am dead, therefore, place this writing on my breast.....Ah! when the time comes for reading it, I think my withered heart will spring up again, as the frozen grass at the return of the sun, and that, from the midst of its infinite transformations, my spirit will enter into immediate communication with thine!"Does not the reader long to be at this precious manuscript, which contains THE TRUTH; and ought he not to be very much obliged to Mrs.Sand, for being so good as to print it for him? We leave all the story aside: how Fulgentius had not the spirit to read the manuscript, but left the secret to Alexis; how Alexis, a stern old philosophical unbelieving monk as ever was, tried in vain to lift up the gravestone, but was taken with fever, and obliged to forego the discovery; and how, finally, Angel, his disciple, a youth amiable and innocent as his name, was the destined person who brought the long-buried treasure to light.Trembling and delighted, the pair read this tremendous MANUSCRIPT OF SPIRIDION.
Will it be believed, that of all the dull, vague, windy documents that mortal ever set eyes on, this is the dullest? If this be absolute truth, a quoi bon search for it, since we have long, long had the jewel in our possession, or since, at least, it has been held up as such by every sham philosopher who has had a mind to pass off his wares on the public? Hear Spiridion:--"How much have I wept, how much have I suffered, how much have Iprayed, how much have I labored, before I understood the cause and the aim of my passage on this earth! After many incertitudes, after much remorse, after many scruples, I HAVE COMPREHENDED THAT IWAS A MARTYR!--But why my martyrdom? said I; what crimne did Icommit before I was born, thus to be condemned to labor and groaning, from the hour when I first saw the day up to that when Iam about to enter into the night of the tomb?
"At last, by dint of imploring God--by dint of inquiry into the history of man, a ray of the truth has descended on my brow, and the shadows of the past have melted from before my eyes.I have lifted a corner of the curtain: I have seen enough to know that my life, like that of the rest of the human race, has been a series of necessary errors, yet, to speak more correctly, of incomplete truths, conducting, more or less slowly and directly, to absolute truth and ideal perfection.But when will they rise on the face of the earth--when will they issue from the bosom of the Divinity--those generations who shall salute the august countenance of Truth, and proclaim the reign of the ideal on earth? I see well how humanity marches, but I neither can see its cradle nor its apotheosis.Man seems to me a transitory race, between the beast and the angel; but I know not how many centuries have been required, that he might pass from the state of brute to the state of man, and I cannot tell how many ages are necessary that he may pass from the state of man to the state of angel!
"Yet I hope, and I feel within me, at the approach of death, that which warns me that great destinies await humanity.In this life all is over for me.Much have I striven, to advance but little: Ihave labored without ceasing, and have done almost nothing.Yet, after pains immeasurable, I die content, for I know that I have done all I could, and am sure that the little I have done will not be lost.
"What, then, have I done? this wilt thou demand of me, man of a future age, who will seek for truth in the testaments of the past.
Thou who wilt be no more Catholic--no more Christian, thou wilt ask of the poor monk, lying in the dust, an account of his life and death.Thou wouldst know wherefore were his vows, why his austerities, his labors, his retreat, his prayers?
"You who turn back to me, in order that I may guide you on your road, and that you may arrive more quickly at the goal which it has not been my lot to attain, pause, yet, for a moment, and look upon the past history of humanity.You will see that its fate has been ever to choose between the least of two evils, and ever to commit great faults in order to avoid others still greater.You will see....on one side, the heathen mythology, that debased the spirit, in its efforts to deify the flesh; on the other, the austere Christian principle, that debased the flesh too much, in order to raise the worship of the spirit.You will see, afterwards, how the religion of Christ embodies itself in a church, and raises itself a generous democratic power against the tyranny of princes.