"’For many years reports of strange sensations have come to us from all
countries and people; moreover, these reports all bear a great
resemblance to each other. Is it not well that we should investigate
the matter more fully than we have done hitherto?’
"But the greater number of those present was opposed to him, answering,
that already these so-called impressions had been tested from time to
time by scientific research, and that it had been proved beyond question
that they were all founded on delusion, as they could not by any
possibility have reached the brain through the sense of touch or sight
or smell; and that, therefore, necessarily they did not reach it at all.
"So the man returned to his own place; but some of the common people,
who read the report and had known similar impressions, were strengthened
in a belief, which was gaining ground year by year, namely, that the
wise men might perhaps not know everything, and that the learned of the
future might even laugh at the learned of to-day, as the latter now
mocked their predecessors.
"So the years went by, and the reports of wonders became more numerous
and more confusing. Some said that they had language conveyed to them,
which as yet they could hardly understand, and that this happened even
when their eyes were closed and no person was near to them. A few even
believed that they could partially understand this language, and these
were placed under restraint as madmen.
"During all this turmoil, a child was born, which grew up fair and
beautiful to look upon. None taught him, yet he became exceeding wise,
though his knowledge was not the knowledge of the savants. He was born
with the power of hearing developed, and soon learned the fairy
language; and the bright spirits taught him more wisdom than was to be
found in all the books of his world. But when he tried to convey to
those around the glory of sound, the sweetness of the fairies’ songs,
the whispering melody of the leaves when the wind played with them, or
the ceaseless music of the waves, he found that there were no words in
the language capable of expressing his meaning, and had to try by
parables to give even a faint idea of the inexpressible.
"Moreover, most of his companions mocked him, but a few listened, even
those who had some foretaste of his gift, and these believed that he was
a god.
"As his fame spread abroad, men came from the ends of the earth to
learn, if possible, the language that needed no signs, that passed
mysteriously and invisibly from brain to brain. He found it possible to
awaken in a few of these the dormant sense which all possessed, and such
were able to work miracles among their fellows.
"And the savants stormed, and then when they found it impossible any
longer to ignore the new power, they themselves began to give names to
the mysteries; and having done this they were consoled, considering that
they had thereby exorcised the supernatural.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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