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1— La lumière est là ! s’est écriée Séraphîta en montrant les nuages où s’agitaient les archanges mais elle était fatiguée, le Désir lui avait brisé les nerfs, elle ne pouvait que crier : — « Ô mon Dieu ! » Combien d’Esprits Angéliques, en gravissant la montagne, et près d’atteindre au sommet, ont rencontré sous leurs pieds un gravier qui les a fait rouler et les a replongés dans l’abîme ! Tous ces Esprits déchus admiraient sa constance ; ils étaient là formant un Chœur immobile, et tous lui disaient en pleurant : — « Courage ! » Enfin elle a vaincu le Désir déchaîné sur elle sous toutes les Formes et dans toutes les Espèces. Elle est restée en prières, et quand elle a levé les yeux, elle a vu le pied des Anges revolant aux cieux.
2— Elle a vu le pied des Anges ? répéta Wilfrid. — Oui, dit le vieillard. — C’était un rêve qu’elle vous a raconté ? demanda Wilfrid. — Un rêve aussi sérieux que celui de votre vie, répondit David, j’y étais. Le calme du vieux serviteur frappa Wilfrid, qui s’en alla se demandant si ces visions étaient moins extraordinaires que celles dont les relations se trouvent dans Swedenborg, et qu’il avait lues la veille. — Si les Esprits existent, ils doivent agir, se disait-il en entrant au presbytère où il trouva monsieur Becker seul. — Cher pasteur, dit Wilfrid, Séraphîta ne tient à nous que par la forme, et sa forme est impénétrable. Ne me traitez ni de fou, ni d’amoureux : une conviction ne se discute point. Convertissez ma croyance en suppositions scientifiques, et cherchons à nous éclairer. Demain nous irons tous deux chez elle.
3— Eh ! bien ? dit monsieur Becker. — Si son œil ignore l’espace, reprit Wilfrid, si sa pensée est une vue intelligente qui lui permet d’embrasser les choses dans leur essence, et de les relier à l’évolution générale des mondes ; si, en un mot, elle sait et voit tout, asseyons la pythonisse sur son trépied, forçons cet aigle implacable à déployer ses ailes en le menaçant ! Aidez-moi ? je respire un feu qui me dévore, je veux l’éteindre ou me laisser consumer. Enfin j’ai découvert une proie, je la veux. — Ce serait, dit le ministre, une conquête assez difficile à faire, car cette pauvre fille est… — Est ?… reprit Wilfrid. — Folle, dit le ministre. — Je ne vous conteste pas sa folie, ne me contestez pas sa supériorité. Cher monsieur Becker, elle m’a souvent confondu par son érudition. A-t-elle voyagé ?
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1‘Life came up from the red waters and said, ‘I will not desert thee!’ Then, finding Seraphita speechless, she suddenly blazed like the sun, and exclaimed, ‘I am the Light!’ —‘The light is there!’ replied Seraphita, pointing to clouds where the archangels were astir. But she was worn out; Desire had broken ber on the rack; she could only cry aloud, ‘My God!’ ‘*How many Angelic Spirits who have climbed the hill, and are on the point of reaching the summit, have stumbled on a stone taat has made them fall and roll back into the depths!—AI! these fallen Spirits marvelled at her constancy; they stood there a motionless chorus, weeping, and saying, ‘Courage!’ At last she had triumphed over Desire, unchained to rend her in every Shape and Species. She remained praying; and when she raised her eyes, she saw the feet of the angels flying back to heaven.”’ ‘‘She saw the feet of the angels?” repeated Wilfrid. ‘‘Yes,’’ said the old man. ‘This was a dream that she told you?” asked Wilfrid. \ ' ¥ 102 BALZAC’S WORKS — ‘CA dream as real as that you are alive,’’ replied David. ‘“‘T was there.”’ The old servant’s calm conviction struck Wilfrid, who went away, wondering whether these visions were at all less extraordinary than those of which Swedenborg wrote, and of which he had read the evening before. “Tf spirits exist, they must surely act,’’ said he to himself as he went into the manse, where he found the pastor alone.
2‘‘My dear Pastor,’’ said he, ‘‘Seraphita is human only in form, and her form is unaccountable. Do not regard me as mad or in love: conviction cannot be argued away. Convert my belief into a scientific hypothesis, and let us try to understand all this. To-morrow we will go to see her together.”’ ‘‘And then ?’’ said the minister. ‘‘If her eye knows no limitation of space, if her thought is the sight of the intellect, allowing her to apprehend the essence of things and to connect them with the general evolution of the universe; if, in a word, she knows and sees everything, let us get the Pythoness on to her tripod, and compel the eagle to spread its wings, by threats. Help me! I breathe a consuming fire; I must extinguish it, or be devoured by it. In short, I see my prey; I will have it.” “It will be a conquest difficult of achievement,’’ said the minister, ‘‘for the poor girl is—’’ ‘*Tg— ?’’ said Wilfrid. ‘*Mad,’’ said the pastor. ‘‘T will not dispute her madness,’’ said Wilfrid, ‘‘so long as you do not dispute her superiority. Dear Pastor Becker, she has often put me to the blush by her learning. Has she travelled much ?”’ SERAPHITA 103 *‘From her house to the fiord.’’ ‘She has never been away!’’ cried Wilfrid. ‘Then she must have read a great deal ?’’ ‘Not a page, not a jot. I am the only person in Jarvis who has any books. Swedenborg’s writings, the only works in the hamlet, are here; she has never borrowed a single volume.”’
3‘‘Have you ever tried to converse with her?’’ “Of what use would it be?”’ = ‘‘No one has dwelt under her roof?” ‘She has no friends but you and Minna; no servant but old David.”’ ‘‘And she has never learned anything of Science or Ari?’ ‘‘From whom?’’ said the pastor. “Then, when she discusses such matters very pertinently, as she has often done with me, what would you infer ?”’ ‘That the girl may, perhaps, during all these years of silence, have acquired such faculties as were possessed by Apollonius of Tyana, and by certain so-called wizards, who were burned by the Inquisition, which rejected the idea of second-sight.”’ ‘*When she talks Arabic, what can you say?”’ ‘‘The history of medicine contains many accredited instances of women who spoke languages they did not understand.”’ . ‘‘What can I do?”’ said Wilfrid. ‘She knows things concerning my past life of which the secret lay in me.”’ ‘‘We will see if she can tell me any thoughts that I have never spoken to any one,’’ said Pastor Becker. Minna came into the room. 104 BALZAC’S WORKS “Well, my child, and how is your Spirit-friend?” ‘‘He is suffering, father,’’ said she, bowing to Wilfrid. ‘The passions of humanity, tricked out in their false splendor, tortured him in the night, and spread incredible pomp before his eyes.—But you treat all these things as mere fables.’’
Our translation, period-faithful. Citable as our translation, never as the source.
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