THE PROSCRIBED. 375 



of his venerable friend, and seated himself upon one of the steps, in 

 an enchanting attitude of grace and sadness, his body resting against 

 the pulpit. Then the silence became profound, and the threshold of 

 the door, even the street itself, was in a few instants obstructed by a 

 crowd of scholars who deserted the other classes. 



The doctor Sigier was about to sum up, in a closing discourse, 

 the theories that he had advanced upon the resurrection, and upon 

 Heaven and Hell, in his preceding lectures. His curious doctrine 

 was responsive to the sympathies of the age, and satisfied those im- 

 mediate longings after the marvellous which have tormented man 

 from the creation of the world.* 



The doctor commenced by recapitulating simply, in a calm tone, 

 and without employing emphasis, the principal points already laid 

 down. " No intellect was to be found corresponding in all points 

 with another. Had man a right to demand of his Creator an amount 

 of the inequality of the moral powers which he had bestowed upon 

 such individual? Wilhout desiring to penetrate all at once into 

 the designs of God, were we not compelled, in point of fact, to ac- 

 knowledge, that, in consequence of their general dissimilarity, the 

 various degrees of intellectual power must be divided into grand 

 spheres or orders? From the sphere in which shone the least intelli- 

 gence unto the most translucid in which the soul perceives the road 

 that leads to God and immortality, did there not exist a real grada- 

 tion of spirituality? Did not the minds belonging to the same sphere 

 comprehend each other fraternally in soul and body, in thoughts and 

 feelings?" And here the doctor unfolded some marvellous theories 

 relative to the sympathies. He explained in Biblical language all 

 the phenomena of love, the instinctive repulsions, the lively attrac- 

 tions which forget or set at defiance the laws of space ; the sudden 

 cohesion of minds which seem at once to recognise each other as 

 kindred spirits. Then, as to the various degrees of force of which 

 our affections were susceptible, he resolved them by the place, more 

 or less remote, that each being occupied in his respective circle. 

 After which he revealed sophistically the grand idea of the Supreme 

 Being in the co-ordination of the different terrestrial spheres. By 

 means of man he said, these spheres created an intermediate world 

 between the intelligence of the brute and between the intelligence 

 of the angels. The word divine nourished, according to him, the 

 word spiritual ; the word spiritual nourished the word animated; the 

 word animated nourished the word animal; the word animal nourished 

 the word vegetable, and the word vegetable expressed the life of the 

 word [sterile. The successive transformations of chrysales that God 

 thus laid upon our souls, and this species of infused animation which, 

 from one zone to another, goes on communicating its vital influence 

 always more lively, more spiritual, more clearly-seeing ; developed 

 confusedly, but perhaps wonderfully enough for his inexperienced 



* This extravagant attempt of man to clasp an infinity which always eludes 

 or escapes from his debile grasp, this last contest of mind with itself, was an 

 undertaking worthy of an assembly, brilliant with all the great lights of the 

 age, and where, perhaps, sparkled, for the moment, the most comprehensive 

 of human imaginations. 



