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remained stationary , for they have lost the principle of all process . And to show how deep religion pierces , how it is the well-spring of all that is great and heroic within us , these Chinese are utterly destitute of Art , because they are destitute of a religious faith to symbolize ! " .,,. „ . , , There is always force in a conviction ; and Frangipolo spoke with so much of this force that he silenced and perplexed even when he did not persuade Armand . . . , " I do not understand , " said Armand , one day , " how you can agree with me that human reason is too imperfect to comprehend the Infinite , and yet continue to believe and dogmatize . " " That is because I do not look upon reason as the sole and final arbiter . Reason is all very well in its own province ; but there are things which
transcend it , and thereon it must be silent . " But do you mean to say we are to set aside our reason ? Because my torch may give a feeble light , am I to blow it out ? " " Not at all ; but if your torch will not give light enough , you must desist the attempt to see with it , and procure some other light . Look here ! man ' s nature is three-fold : it is passionate , emotional , and rational . Each of these modes of activity is fundamental , and has its own laws . Passion has its instincts ; Emotion has its sentiment ; Reason has its logic . Do you admit
this ?" " Perfectly . " . " Now as each of these portions of our being has its own laws , none of them are amenable to the others . There is no reason to be given for our instincts , except that they are laws of our activity . You cannot explain why instinct is so unerring but you know it is so . Emotions again are excited in us by beautiful objects : can your reason explain why ? Can logic influence your sentiments at all ? It cannot ; it is as powerless with sentiment as with instinct . Th ° human intellect takes a wide sweep , but its horizon is discoverable by the naked eye , and logic , so powerful within that sphere , is powerless beyond it . You laucrh at the man who would introduce sentiment into a scientific question 7 why then do you introduce logic into a question of emotion ?" " Is religion then a question of emotion ? "
" Eminently . " " Then how can you expect men to believe ?" " I expect them to feel . " " Is feeling to be taken as a proof ?" " The best of proofs ! What , for instance , do you know ( logically ) of Life ? What do
Can you form an idea—a distinct idea—of Life ? You cannot . you know of Love ? Nothing ; yet is there no such thing as Life , is there no such truth as Love ? Admit this—( and you cannot escape it)—and then answer me . If you can believe in Life and Love , though they are both beyond the mere intellect , —if you have within you a faculty for their appreciation , —have you not also a faculty for the appreciation of the universal Life , the universal Love ? J .. " You must be right ! " exclaimed Armand . " And that is why , in spite of my reason , my feeling has always struggled against my arguments !" " Of course it is . Nothing but our false philosophy , which overlooks the
triple constitution of man and erects logic into the sole arbiter , could ever have dimmed so obvious a truth . The soul is larger than logic . " Gabrielle rejoiced in this victory . She was sinking rapidly , and the nearer her end approached , the more intense became her interest in Armand's
. Summer advanced , and as it advanced she waned . At last she grew so feeble as scarcely to join in the old conversations . She sat for hours at the open window , with Armand and Stavros on either side of her , looking out upon the landscape , and allowing her thoughts " to wander through eternity "; at times she would bend her head towards Armand , divine sadness in her eyes , and with a strange significance point to the fading sunset ; and then he would take her pale thin hand in his with gentle pressure , or else smooth his lips along it , and that was his answer to her mute appeal . Summer passed and Autumn deepened ; her life was ebbing fast . Stavros grew more sad and silent ; and a mournfulness was on the whole household deeper than it yet had been . Discussions had long ceased ; Gabrielle was
scarcely able to talk . Autumn deepened , and the tide ebbed faster and faster . Every day Gabrielle grew weaker ; every day they saw more certainly that she was going . At length she passed away . . Her death was as gentle as her life had been . Without any suffering , odily or mental , she passed into eternity—her little stream of life flowed gently back to its parent source , the infinite Ocean that washes round the universe !—Like a rose that droops on its stem , its leaves gently detached by the softest breeze that blows , till of all that sweetness and beauty nothing remainsso she drooped and gently died .
, Curious ! The first thought which flashed upon Armand when he heard the sad intelligence was this : " Now she has solved the problem of immortality ! " Grief came after that ; but it did come—fierce , moody , and bitter . His expression of grief contrasted strangely with that of her father , who was tearless , and only showed his sorrow by the intensity of his calmness , and the rigidity of the muscles of his face .
In the afternoon , while Armand was sitting by the bed on which the pale corpse was laid out , and gazing with swollen eyes upon that exquisitely placid face , so delicate in death , so awful in the stillness of its repose , sobs shaking him as fresh paroxysms of grief ploughed up his heart , he felt his hand pressed
silently ; looking up he beheld the Comte de , grave , pale , haggard , but calm , standing beside him . "Oh , this is horrible ! " exclaimed Armand , returning the pressure and pointing to the bed . " It is God ' s will ! " said the old man gravely , with a slight tremor in his voice , more pathetic than any sob ; " I have seen three of them pass away as that dear child has passed , and have suffered without repining . God in his infinite goodness has sustained me—he will continue to sustain me till I join her and them above ! God ' s will be done ! " This was more than Armand could bear . He rose brusquely and quitted the house . Chap . IV . — -Frangipolo ' s Christianity .
It would be difficult to describe the complex feelings which agitated Armand on quitting the house . He felt angry at Gabrielle ' s death—angry at her father ' s pious resignation . That one so young , so good , so beautiful , and so pure should die while hoary sinners were suffered to live in a world they corrupted and disgraced , was to his mind a flat contradiction of there being an Eternal Justice ; while the calmness displayed by the bereaved father seemed to him an outrage upon the best feelings of the heart , and a proof of how Religion trampled down humanity . Driven by these doubts he wandered to the seashore , where he rambled till fatigue forced him to lie down on the rocks . To the town-bred boy the
sea was an inexhaustible delight . Rambling on its sands , basking on its rocks , sailing through its waves , and watching the rolling tide , he had spent many pleasant hours . Now he gazed with a sort of sullen irritation at the tumbling waves sprawling their huge ridges of foam upon the shingle , and then withdrawing for a fiercer plunge . The sky was flushed with purple light , which also shimmered on the restless bosom of the sea . There is nothing more suggestive of solemn thoughts than sunset over a broad expanse of sea . Armand gradually felt his mind soothed and calmed from its irritation , as he gazed upon the vanishing tints of the far-off sky . The course of his thoughts was suddenly arrested by the sound of a half-stifled sob , which seemed to come from the other side of the rock on
which he reclined . He paused to listen attentively ; but there was no repetition of the sound , and he began to fancy he had deceived himself . To settle his doubts he climbed over to the other side , and there to his infinite amazement he saw Frangipolo with his elbows resting upon his knees , his head buried in his hands . " Dear Friend ! " he exclaimed , " what is the matter ? " Frangipolo raised a haggard face towards him , and , holding out his hand , pressed that of Armand with fierce energy . " Is it about ... about Her ... ? " Armand inquired .
A look was the answer . " Ah , yes , you loved her ! ... And I never thought of it before ! ... You loved her ... Who did not love her ? ... Oh ! we shall never see her more ! ... " Armand burst forth into fresh tears as he said this . Frangipolo once more buried his face in hi 3 hands . He uttered no groan , he shed no tear , but the quivering of his frame told too plainly the convulsion of his grief . They remained together for upwards of an hour , silent and yet consoling each other .
From that day there was a new feeling in Armand ' s soul for Frangipolo . A light had been thrown upon the past . All his quiet attentions to Gabrielle were explained . He had loved her in silence , and without hope . He now cherished her memory as that of a pure and sainted being . His sorrrow was not loud but deep . He bore it like a man , but like a man with profound capacities for feeling . " We must suffer , " he was wont to say , « because we are men ; but it depends on us to make the condition in which suffering leaves us godlike . Sorrowing experiences in men of noble natures are so many steps , broken steps in the crumbling ascent from life to the eternity of existence . We must press onwards , onwards ! There is still a higher lifea more imperishable love to be obtained ; but , like all things human , it can only be reached through self-sacrifice . "
Robbed of his Gabrielle , he turned with fresh devotion to Armand , whose conversion became the grand object of his life . He had from the first been greatly interested by Armand ; but now a community of sorrow drew them still closer to each other , and the progress he had already made in winning him from scepticism made him desirous of completing the work begun . Frangipolo had a Christianity of his own , which , in spite of its sincerity , would on several points have scandalized the orthodox , from its disregard of forms and subsidiary dogmas , but which made him all the fitter to effect a conversion . I am not sure that he was entirely free from the pretension , of late become so common , to found a new religion . Men—especially in
France—talk about establishing a new Christianity , as if that were an undertaking not less facile than the writing of a novel ; and give themselves airs of Prophets and Teachers upon the strength of a few vague formulas . Frangipolo was not open to ihe ridicule which justly follows such Reformers ; but his dissatisfaction at the Church made him prone to admit every new idea which could plausibly be shown to be a new development of Christian principles . And this tendency made him better able to cope with the objections made by Armand than if he had kept to the strict dogmas . Thus , when Armand one day pressed him hard respecting Inspiration , he said : —
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Lecoedic » Apbil e , 1850 . ] Cftg 3 ifatrcr > **_
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 6, 1850, page 43, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1839/page/19/
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