A material part of the duty of the aged consists in studying to be
useful to the race who are to succeed them. Here opens to them an
extensive field, in which they may so employ themselves as considerably
to advance the happiness of mankind. To them it belongs to impart to the
young the fruit of their long experience; to instruct them in the proper
conduct, and to warn them of the various dangers of life; by wise
counsel to temper their precipitate ardour, and both by precept and
example to form them to piety and virtue.
It never appears with greater dignity, than when tempered with mildness
and enlivened with good humour; it then acts as a guide and a patron of
youth.
Religion, displayed in such a character, strikes the beholders, as at
once amiable and venerable. They revere its power, when they see it
adding so much grace to the decays of nature, and shedding so pleasing a
lustre over the evening of life. The young wish to tread in the same
steps, and to arrive at the close of their days with equal honour.
* * * * *
* * * *
THE VICTIM OF MAGICAL DELUSION;
_OR, INTERESTING MEMOIRS OF MIGUEL, DUKE DE CA*I*A._
Unfolding Many Curious Unknown Historical Facts.
_Translated from the German of Tschink._
(Continued from page 259.)
“I stood on the deck a prey to speechless agony, when suddenly somebody
tapped me on the shoulder. Conceive my astonishment when, on turning
round, I saw Alumbrado standing behind me. I staggered back as if a
midnight spectre had taken hold of me with icy hands. Terror and
surprise deprived me of the power of utterance, and suspended every
motion of my limbs. He had made the voyage without my knowledge, and
found means to keep himself concealed from me; you may therefore
imagine, how violently I was affected by the sudden appearance of that
man, whom I fancied to be at Lis*on.
“Are you not sorry now, that you have slighted my advice?” Alumbrado
said, “it seems you will not see your friend in this world.” Some
minutes passed before I was able to reply. “Let us now enjoy in silence
the grandest spectacle that nature can afford!” So saying, he looked
with tranquillity at the foaming ocean, as if he had been standing on
the sheltering shore, far distant from the danger that surrounded us
from all sides. His eyes beheld with inconceivable serenity the wild
commotion of the waves, which now raised the vessel to the flaming
clouds, and now hurled it into the gaping abyss of the boiling sea. The
firm tranquillity which Alumbrado’s countenance bespoke, in spite of the
furious combat of the elements, the impending destruction of the ship,
and the doleful lamentations of the desponding crew, appeared to me to
denote more than human courage. I gazed with secret awe at a being that
seemed to be delighted with a spectacle, which made every hair of my
head rise like bristles.
‘At length the flashes of lightning grew fainter, the roaring of the
thunder less violent, and the fury of the winds seemed to be exhausted;
but the sea continued to be agitated in so dreadful a manner, that we
apprehended the cables would not be able to stand the motion of the ship
any longer. In vain did we implore human assistance by the discharge of
our guns, the towering waves threatening destruction to the boats that
attempted to come to our relief.
“In vain will human force endeavour to wage the unequal contest against
all-powerful nature!” I exclaimed when I beheld that desponding sight.
Alumbrado turned round. “I will tame the fury of these foaming waves, if
you will promise to return to Lis*on!” I gazed at him in speechless
astonishment. “I am in earnest,” he resumed, “will you return to
Lis*on?” “If I will?” I replied, “If I will? how can you ask me that
question? enable me to do it!” Alumbrado left me without returning an
answer.
‘A few minutes after he returned. “You will, presently, behold a
miracle,” he said, “but I must request you to tell nobody the author
of it.”
‘I promised it, and the miracle ensued. The rolling foaming sea grew
calm and smooth. We went on shore, and found ourselves not farther than
a day’s journey from Lis*on.
‘You see my friend, that a higher power, against which opposition would
have been useless, has put a stop to my voyage. I have related the
history of it without making any comments, and leave it to your own
judgment to form a just opinion of it. As for me, I am convinced that I
have at length found the man whom my boding soul has long been in
search of.’
This letter astonished me to the highest degree, and, at the same time,
augmented my apprehensions very much. In my answer I declared neither
for nor against Alumbrado’s supernatural power, because I neither chose
to confirm the Duke in his belief in it, nor to risk losing his
confidence; for how could I have expected to receive farther
intelligence of his connection with Alumbrado, if I had been deprived of
the latter? and yet it was of the utmost importance to me to learn every
transaction of that designing man.
Notwithstanding this precaution, near a month elapsed without my having
received an answer to my letter. I wrote a second time to him, but
before his answer could reach me, was ordered by the King to return
instantly, and to make an oral report of the issue of my commission.
I was, therefore, obliged to depart without being able to wait the
arrival of his letter.
I anticipated the pleasure of surprising him by my unexpected arrival,
and went to his palace as soon as I arrived at Lis*on. He rather seemed
surprised than pleased at the unexpected sight of me, asking with a kind
of anxiety, whether I had received his last letter. When I answered in
the negative he seemed to grow more easy, but adding, some time after,
that it would be sent after me without delay, his brow began again to be
overclouded. I was not much pleased with this behaviour, and begged him
to relate to me the sequel of Alumbrado’s history, but he desired me to
await the arrival of his letter, in which I should find a circumstantial
account of it. In vain did I conjure him by the ties of our friendship
to gratify my desire, and tried every art of persuasion in order to get
the wished for information. He always evaded my questions, and
frequently betrayed strong marks of uneasiness. Displeased with this
reserve and mysterious behaviour, I took leave with evident coolness.
The two following days elapsed without our seeing each other. I must not
forget to mention, that I received, the second day after my arrival,
a letter from an unknown hand. When I opened the cover, I found a second
sealed letter along with the following lines which were directed to me:
“Tomorrow you will receive a visit of an old acquaintance, to whom you
will have the kindness to deliver the inclosed letter. But if he should
not have made his appearance on the day after to-morrow, you may open
the letter, which will give you farther information.”
I could guess neither the writer of the note, nor who that old
acquaintance could be.
The day following I received the Duke’s letter, which had been sent
after me. I opened it with impatience, and read the following lines:
“It appears more and more probable to me, my friend, that Alumbrado has
raised the tempest that threatened to prove fatal to me, in order to
punish me for my disobedience to his advice. For should he, who can
subdue the billowing waves, not also be able to agitate them? You may
say whatever you choose, a supernatural power must have been concerned
in that event, and who is capable to fix its extention, its limits? My
father and myself venerate Alumbrado as a worker of miracles ever since
that event, although he strives to hide himself behind the pious cloak
of humility.
“O! why was Alumbrado not present when that tempest raged which deprived
me of my Amelia? He would have saved her, and all the gods of earth
would envy me for my felicity. The Irishman has cheated me of every
earthly blessing, by not fulfilling his promise.
“Concerning the Irishman, Alumbrado has given me a very extraordinary
hint. ‘The Marquis of F*’ said he, ‘is undoubtedly right when he
maintains, that God never intrusts an impostor with the power of working
miracles. He is however mistaken, if he thinks the speaking phantom,
which Hiermanfor made appear at the church-yard, had been nothing else
but a natural deception; no one will ever persuade me that it is
possible to effect any thing of that kind by natural means. Effected by
mere natural means, you will say, and yet no miracle? certainly not; for
cannot Hiermanfor have deluded you by the assistance of the father of
lies? I will not explain my opinion on that head more at large, yet I
think the Irishman is an hypocritical villain, who carries on a wicked
trade. One ought to congratulate you, that your good principles deterred
him from initiating you in his shocking mysteries. It was not without
reason that he accused you of want of self-subsistence and resolution,
for a dreadful degree of firmness of soul is required for joining in a
contract whereby mortal men bid defiance to the great eternal Ruler of
the world. However your better genius watched over you, and although you
have been entangled a long time in the bonds of wickedness, yet he has
delivered you from those snares before they were tied indissolubly. You
ought to be thankful to the mercy of the God of love, and to be on your
guard in future. If you should meet with men who perform supernatural
works, you may easily find out what sort of people they are; if they
deal in lies and imposition, they belong to the kingdom of darkness, but
if truth and justice is sacred to them, they are children of light. If
you had examined the Irishman after this standard, you would have fled
with terror from the apparition of the church-yard, and he would never
have succeeded in entangling you in an undertaking which has deprived
the King of Spa*n of his lawful crown. The doctrine and the principles
of the Irishman ought to have rendered him suspected to you. He
endeavoured to point out to you the reason as the only infallible
instructor and guide, at the expence of faith, and at the same time
strove to confound that very reason by artful and fallacious
conclusions, as the Marquis of F* has demonstrated in a masterly manner.
The Irishman was very careful not to make you reflect on the limits of
reason and the power of men, because a genius like you would easily have
concluded how much we are in want of divine illumination and grace; and
it was his chief aim to remove the light of religion, because his works
required being covered by delusive mists. You will never have seen him
frequent the church, nor perform religious rites, will never have heard
him pronounce certain sacred names. I know that sort of people, who are
so much the more dangerous, the more they are skilled in concealing
their real shape behind deceiving masks. The spreading libertinism, and
the furious rage of explaining every thing naturally, threatens indeed
to suspend the belief in the existence, nay even in the possibility of
miracles and sorcery, however they have not ceased notwithstanding that.
The opinions of men may alter, but things will remain as they are. The
same Omnipotence that in times of old has led the Israelites through the
red sea, manifests itself still in our days through signs and miracles,
although they are not acknowledged as such by the blind multitude. The
same reprobated spirit that spoke formerly through the oracle of
Delphos, and by whose assistance Simon the magician performed
extraordinary feats, is still active in our present times.
“Is it therefore, improbable that men who by their superior sanctity
rise above the generality, and connect themselves more intimately with
the Godhead, should resemble the Supreme Being in power, and enjoy an
immediate influence of the Ruler of the world? Is it so very
incomprehensible that the spirit of darkness should favour those who
resemble him in wickedness, and endow their inclination of perpetrating
wicked deeds with a physical power of executing their diabolical
designs? People of either description will, indeed, always rarely be met
with; superstition will mistake as such many who do not belong to that
class, yet who can prove that they do not exist at all? I am, certainly,
no enemy to reason, however I conceive it to be not less absurd
obstinately to reject whatever is miraculous, than to believe it
blindly. I esteem reason while it does not overstep the limits to which
it is confined, as the Marquis of F* has justly observed, nor attempts
to expel faith. There are supernatural things, sacred truths, which the
former never can comprehend, being reserved only for the latter. Faith
is hailed by noontide light, even where reason finds nothing but
midnight darkness. While the latter proceeds slowly, and with uncertain
steps, through a mazy labyrinth of conclusions and arguments, the former
enjoys a clear immediate sight of truth, and experiences all the
strength of its evidence.
(_To be continued._)
* * * * *
* * * *