374 THE PROSCRIBED. 



divers portion of the science, since one alone, mystical theology, is 

 the subject of the present study. MYSTICAL THEOLOGY, then, 

 embraced the whole of the divine revelations and the explanations 

 of the mysteries. This branch of the ancient theology has remained 

 secretly in honour until the present time. Jacob Boehm, Sweden- 

 borg, Martinez, Pasqualis, Saint-Martin, Molina?, Mesdames 

 Guyon, Bourginon, and Krudener, the great sect of the Ecstatics, 

 and that of the Illuminati, have, at various periods, worthily sup- 

 ported the doctrines of this science, whose end has something in it 

 fearful and gigantic. Now, as in the time of the doctor Sigier, man 

 seems to want but wings in order to penetrate daringly into the 

 sanctuary, where the Almighty conceals himself from our eyes. 

 This digression was necessary to render intelligible the scene at 

 which the old man and the youth who so lately left the banks of 

 Notre Dame, came to be present at ; and will thus defend from all 

 reproach, a study strictly historical, but which rash and confident 

 judges might perhaps suspect of falsehood, or tax with hyperbole. 



The doctor Sigier was a great man, celebrated during his life- 

 time, and in the pride of his age. His countenance, preserved from 

 oblivion in the chronicles or records of the University, presents 

 striking analogies to that of Mirabeau. It was stamped with the 

 seal of eloquence, but of an eloquence animated, impetuous, terrible. 

 The doctor bore upon his brow the signs of religious belief and 

 ardent faith which were wanting in the other case ; and his voice 

 possessed, moreover, a persuasive softness, and a tone calculated at 

 once to awaken and to soothe. At this hour, the daylight which the 

 windows, composed of very small panes of glass, garnished with lead, 

 shed around but parsimoniously, coloured the assemblage with a 

 thousand capricious tints, creating here and there the most vigorous 

 contrasts, by the mixture of light and darkness. Here eyes spark- 

 ling in obscure corners ; there black shining locks, upon which the 

 sunbeams shone as if with pleasure, rose luminously above faces 

 buried in the shade ; there several time-shorn heads, preserved only 

 from absolute baldness by a scanty circle of white hair, appeared 

 above the crowd, like a crenated parapet silvered by the moon. 

 All these heads, turned towards the doctor, remained in mute 

 impatience. The monotonous voices of the other professors, whose 

 schools were adjacent, resounded through the silent street like the 

 murmuring of a heavy tide. The steps of the two strangers, who 

 arrived at this moment, excited general attention. The doctor 

 Sigier, ready to begin, saw the majestic old man standing, and cast 

 his eyes around in search of a place, but not finding one, the crowd 

 being so great, he descended, approached him respectfully, and 

 arranged him a seat on the stairs of the pulpit, lending him his stool. 

 The assemblage greeted this attention by a long murmur of 

 applause, as they recognised in the aged stranger the hero of an 

 admirable thesis recently pronounced at the Sorbonne. When the 

 unknown was placed, and cast upon the auditory beneath him that 

 profound glance in which seemed to be conveyed a poem entire of 

 misfortune and melancholy, of suffering and sorrow, more than one 

 heart thrilled with indefinable emotion. The youth shared the fate 



