第54章

Other professions were talked of,amongst which the law;but now an event occurred which had nearly stopped my career,and merged all minor points of solicitude in anxiety for my life.My strength and appetite suddenly deserted me,and I began to pine and droop.Some said that I had overgrown myself,and that these were the symptoms of a rapid decline;I grew worse and worse,and was soon stretched upon my bed,from which it seemed scarcely probable that I should ever more rise,the physicians themselves giving but slight hopes of my recovery:as for myself,I made up my mind to die,and felt quite resigned.I was sadly ignorant at that time,and,when I thought of death,it appeared to me little else than a pleasant sleep,and I wished for sleep,of which I got but little.It was well that I did not die that time,for I repeat that I was sadly ignorant of many important things.I did not die,for somebody coming gave me a strange,bitter draught;a decoction,I believe,of a bitter root which grows on commons and desolate places:and the person who gave it me was an ancient female,a kind of doctress,who had been my nurse in my infancy,and who,hearing of my state,had come to see me;so I drank the draught,and became a little better,and I continued taking draughts made from the bitter root till I manifested symptoms of convalescence.

But how much more quickly does strength desert the human frame than return to it!I had become convalescent,it is true,but my state of feebleness was truly pitiable.I believe it is in that state that the most remarkable feature of human physiology frequently exhibits itself.Oh,how dare I mention the dark feeling of mysterious dread which comes over the mind,and which the lamp of reason,though burning bright the while,is unable to dispel!Art thou,as leeches say,the concomitant of disease-the result of shattered nerves?Nay,rather the principle of woe itself,the fountain-head of all sorrow coexistent with man,whose influence he feels when yet unborn,and whose workings he testifies with his earliest cries,when,'drowned in tears,'he first beholds the light;for,as the sparks fly upward,so is man born to trouble,and woe doth he bring with him into the world,even thyself,dark one,terrible one,causeless,unbegotten,without a father.Oh,how unfrequently dost thou break down the barriers which divide thee from the poor soul of man,and overcast its sunshine with thy gloomy shadow.In the brightest days of prosperity-in the midst of health and wealth-how sentient is the poor human creature of thy neighbourhood!how instinctively aware that the flood-gates of horror may be cast open,and the dark stream engulf him for ever and ever!Then is it not lawful for man to exclaim,'Better that I had never been born!'Fool,for thyself thou wast not born,but to fulfil the inscrutable decrees of thy Creator;and how dost thou know that this dark principle is not,after all,thy best friend;that it is not that which tempers the whole mass of thy corruption?

It may be,for what thou knowest,the mother of wisdom,and of great works:it is the dread of the horror of the night that makes the pilgrim hasten on his way.When thou feelest it nigh,let thy safety word be 'Onward';if thou tarry,thou art overwhelmed.

Courage!build great works-'tis urging thee-it is ever nearest the favourites of God-the fool knows little of it.Thou wouldst be joyous,wouldst thou?then be a fool.What great work was ever the result of joy,the puny one?Who have been the wise ones,the mighty ones,the conquering ones of this earth?the joyous?I believe not.The fool is happy,or comparatively so-certainly the least sorrowful,but he is still a fool:and whose notes are sweetest,those of the nightingale,or of the silly lark?

'What ails you,my child?'said a mother to her son,as he lay on a couch under the influence of the dreadful one;'what ails you?you seem afraid!'

BOY.And so I am;a dreadful fear is upon me.

MOTHER.But of what?There is no one can harm you;of what are you apprehensive?

BOY.Of nothing that I can express;I know not what I am afraid of,but afraid I am.

MOTHER.Perhaps you see sights and visions;I knew a lady once who was continually thinking that she saw an armed man threaten her,but it was only an imagination,a phantom of the brain.

BOY.No armed man threatens me;and 'tis not a thing like that would cause me any fear.Did an armed man threaten me,I would get up and fight him;weak as I am,I would wish for nothing better,for then,perhaps,I should lose this fear;mine is a dread of Iknow not what,and there the horror lies.

MOTHER.Your forehead is cool,and your speech collected.Do you know where you are?

BOY.I know where I am,and I see things just as they are;you are beside me,and upon the table there is a book which was written by a Florentine;all this I see,and that there is no ground for being afraid.I am,moreover,quite cool,and feel no pain-but,but-And then there was a burst of 'gemiti,sospiri ed alti guai.'

Alas,alas,poor child of clay!as the sparks fly upward,so wast thou born to sorrow-Onward!