"I will come to you," said Eugene, "for lessons in your philosophy; you shall give them to me in French. I will write them down, you will correct the phraseology, and thus I shall improve in two departments at once."
"I will teach you French, if you desire it, my young friend," said M. Bertolot, "and by conversation, or any other mode you may desire; but to enter on moral or mental philosophy is quite another affair, and might lead to results unexpected on your part. I am not quite prepared to promise formal instructions on these subjects at this early stage of our acquaintance; my views might shock your preconceived ideas."
"Fear not for that," said Eugene, "my preconceived ideas, if ever they were definite, are now confused; that mind acts upon mind, irrespectively of matter, seems the only clear thought I have on the subject. Further than this all is blank. The mesmeric agencies of which we hear so much, and the appearances of spirits, in some instances well attested, seem to prove mental rinses to be direct; but what more do they prove? I have sometimes fancied that the nursery tales may be true, and that it is possible that angels of light and demons of darkness do exist, and that we are operated upon at times by spiritual agencies not detected by our senses."
"Some of the wisest of the earth, even among the pagans, have held this opinion," replied M. Bertolot, "and, as I told you in our first interview, the traditions of the fallen angels were handed down to the Jews, and dealings with any one of them prohibited. Sorcery and witchcraft were considered 'sins' in the Mosaic law, although the generation of the present day scouts such ideas as beneath the dignity of the human intellect, and ascribes every discovery in knowledge to the progress of human intelligence alone."
"Yet," said Eugene, "history might teach all students that the best-laid schemes have often been overset by apparently inadequate exterior causes. The pagan doctrine of the 'Fates,' which evidently exercised a vast influence over men's minds, must have originated from their perception of the fact, that human wisdom cannot absolutely dispose events; preordination or the counteracting influence of invisible agencies, has formed more or less an ingredient in every rational belief, ancient as well as modern. But does it follow from this that supernatural agencies are at work? may it not be a delusion in principle as well as in form; for that the form was erroneous in heathenism at least, I suppose we must acknowledge, since heathenism is exploded now.
"I suspect," said M. Bertolot, "that instead of originating, as you have supposed, from human observation of facts, that the doctrine of the 'Fates' is but a corruption of the doctrine of divine providence handed down by primitive tradition. When paganism is considered at first sight, it seems strange to modern ideas, that we term it an invention, or a growth, or material embodiment of our abstract deduction from reasoning on observation. But what if it were none of these things? What if it were simply a perversion of the primitive traditions? A materializing, so to speak, of spiritual doctrine? It has often been asserted that beneath the veil of all myths, positive knowledge might be discovered by a thinking soul. If this be true, as, to a certain extent, facts seem to warrant our acknowledgement, then in the latent truths that are supposed to be hid beneath the mystic words, we may faintly trace the ancient pristine traditions, defaced first by the material shape they wear, but more, much more, by their fixing the attention of the world on animalism and materialism, as the true ends of existence."
"I do not quite understand you," said Eugene.
"I will explain by reference to Bible history," said M. Bertolot. "Man's first sin of disobedience appears to have disturbed the relationship of his soul previously held with superior intelligences, nay, to have disordered his own organization, and to in the sway to inferior appetites rather than to the superior part of the soul, which primarily subjected these inferior appetites to its control. The primal order united the soul to God, and necessarily then all his faculties were equipoised and his passions held in subjection. That union destroyed, the passions rose, fierce and uncontrollable; first man having become a rebel, begot the second, who was a murderer through envy of his brother's spiritual superiority. Since then tradition says that only through violence done to the disordered passions, by humility and patience and long toil, can the pristine order be restored and the primal supremacy of soul regained. This is the office of true spirituality. Paganism also treats of good lost—and of well-being to be acquired through prayer to the immortal gods; but the good it supposes lost, is that of bodily gratification, or of power, or grandeur, and its gods are propitious only when they avert the sufferings which should discipline the soul and prepare it for the reception of the regenerative truth."
"Something of this," said Eugene, "I have heard Euphrasie say; but she would not explain her words, and they came to us like enigmas which we could not solve."