The Wonderful Story of RavaletteRandolph, Paschal Beverly
Science
The Wonderful Story of Ravalette
Randolph, Paschal Beverly
Rosicrucians -- Fiction; Spiritualism -- Fiction
“‘Nothing supernatural, ha? Remember that idiots, bigots, and fools only
dispute the existence of that which others do, but they do not
understand. True, many pin their faith in a hereafter upon the curious
phenomena attributed to disembodied souls, but they err in so doing. The
demonstration can never be afforded through any process of either
phenomena or intellection. Of that, be assured. Immortality can never be
thought; it must be felt. Your philosopher cannot possibly grasp the
idea, because it is not an idea at all. It is a reality, and comes to
man never through the intellect, but ever and always through other
channels of the spirit--comes over roads that begin on earth and
terminate directly at the foot of God’s throne. Thus, when storms fall
on the philosophic soul it shrinks and plays the coward. Not so the
truly intuitional man. He feels, and, feeling, sees God through the
gloom; and that, to him, is an insurance against loss or annihilation.
He rides triumphant over circumstances that bar themselves effectually
against all philosophers. Even when the shadow rests heaviest on the sky
of life, such a soul beholds God enthroned in auroral splendor
everywhere; he catches the sound of his voice from every echoing hill
and dell, and it speaks to him of life everlasting, and its tones carry
a thrilling demonstration of an hereafter that all the spiritualism of
the earth could never impart.’
“Now while I looked upon the mirror I silently marvelled whether it were
possible, through that glass, to solve the grand secret of the ages, and
the old man’s speech could not possibly have been more apropos than it
was. But in a moment afterward I felt indignant at having beheld such a
figure, when he had promised I should see my soul, and told him so. ‘Let
not that offend you,’ he replied, ‘that figure is not spectral, it is
correspondential. What is the type of enduring fidelity, perfect trust
and confidence, unbounded love and faith, if its symbol be not a dog?
Such is the quality of your soul, nor is it very bad.’
“There now came a broad clean space on the glass, and the whole of it
became clear and pellucid as the finest crystal; and in its very centre
appeared a tiny, but very brilliant speck of white light, and its lustre
increased till it became painful to gaze upon it. Gradually this
expanded, and there came a space in its middle clearer than the
brightest noon-day, into which I gazed with rapture, for the intense
light faded away into a sort of hazy-vapor surrounding this spot.
“‘Into such, and through such do I wish you to look for me. But not now.
The time is not propitious. That which you behold is the lense of a
mystical telescope, wherewith you may scan and sweep the fields where
revolve a myriad worlds like this, and of other millions whereof man is
yet profoundly ignorant. Through it you can and may witness not only
the worlds of which I speak, but also their tenants and all that they
are doing.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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