Short Fiction, Edgar Allan Poe [best autobiographies to read TXT] 📗

epub:type="z3998:persona">Oinos Explain! Agathos In the beginning only, he created. The seeming creatures which are now, throughout the universe, so perpetually springing into being, can only be considered as the mediate or indirect, not as the direct or immediate results of the Divine creative power. Oinos Among men, my Agathos, this idea would be considered heretical in the extreme. Agathos Among angels, my Oinos, it is seen to be simply true. Oinos I can comprehend you thus far⁠—that certain operations of what we term Nature, or the natural laws, will, under certain conditions, give rise to that which has all the appearance of creation. Shortly before the final overthrow of the earth, there were, I well remember, many very successful experiments in what some philosophers were weak enough to denominate the creation of animalculae. Agathos The cases of which you speak were, in fact, instances of the secondary creation⁠—and of the only species of creation which has ever been, since the first word spoke into existence the first law. Oinos Are not the starry worlds that, from the abyss of nonentity, burst hourly forth into the heavens⁠—are not these stars, Agathos, the immediate handiwork of the King? Agathos Let me endeavor, my Oinos, to lead you, step by step, to the conception I intend. You are well aware that, as no thought can perish, so no act is without infinite result. We moved our hands, for example, when we were dwellers on the earth, and, in so doing, gave vibration to the atmosphere which engirdled it. This vibration was indefinitely extended, till it gave impulse to every particle of the earth’s air, which thenceforward, and forever, was actuated by the one movement of the hand. This fact the mathematicians of our globe well knew. They made the special effects, indeed, wrought in the fluid by special impulses, the subject of exact calculation⁠—so that it became easy to determine in what precise period an impulse of given extent would engirdle the orb, and impress (forever) every atom of the atmosphere circumambient. Retrograding, they found no difficulty, from a given effect, under given conditions, in determining the value of the original impulse. Now the mathematicians who saw that the results of any given impulse were absolutely endless⁠—and who saw that a portion of these results were accurately traceable through the agency of algebraic analysis⁠—who saw, too, the facility of the retrogradation⁠—these men saw, at the same time, that this species of analysis itself, had within itself a capacity for indefinite progress⁠—that there were no bounds conceivable to its advancement and applicability, except within the intellect of him who advanced or applied it. But at this point our mathematicians paused. Oinos And why, Agathos, should they have proceeded? Agathos Because there were some considerations of deep interest beyond. It was deducible from what they knew, that to a being of infinite understanding⁠—one to whom the perfection of the algebraic analysis lay unfolded⁠—there could be no difficulty in tracing every impulse given the air⁠—and the ether through the air⁠—to the remotest consequences at any even infinitely remote epoch of time. It is indeed demonstrable that every such impulse given the air, must, in the end, impress every individual thing that exists within the universe;⁠—and the being of infinite understanding⁠—the being whom we have imagined⁠—might trace the remote undulations of the impulse⁠—trace them upward and onward in their influences upon all particles of an matter⁠—upward and onward forever in their modifications of old forms⁠—or, in other words, in their creation of new⁠—until he found them reflected⁠—unimpressive at last⁠—back from the throne of the Godhead. And not only could such a thing do this, but at any epoch, should a given result be afforded him⁠—should one of these numberless comets, for example, be presented to his inspection⁠—he could have no difficulty in determining, by the analytic retrogradation, to what original impulse it was due. This power of retrogradation in its absolute fullness and perfection⁠—this faculty of referring at all epochs, all effects to all causes⁠—is of course the prerogative of the Deity alone⁠—but in every variety of degree, short of the absolute perfection, is the power itself exercised by the whole host of the Angelic intelligences. Oinos But you speak merely of impulses upon the air. Agathos In speaking of the air, I referred only to the earth; but the general proposition has reference to impulses upon the ether⁠—which, since it pervades, and alone pervades all space, is thus the great medium of creation. Oinos Then all motion, of whatever nature, creates? Agathos It must: but a true philosophy has long taught that the source of all motion is thought⁠—and the source of all thought is⁠— Oinos God. Agathos I have spoken to you, Oinos, as to a child of the fair Earth which lately perished⁠—of impulses upon the atmosphere of the Earth. Oinos You did. Agathos And while I thus spoke, did there not cross your mind some thought of the physical power of words? Is not every word an impulse on the air? Oinos But why, Agathos, do you weep⁠—and why, oh why do your wings droop as we hover above this fair star⁠—which is the greenest and yet most terrible of all we have encountered in our flight? Its brilliant flowers look like a fairy dream⁠—but its fierce volcanoes like the passions of a turbulent heart. Agathos They are!⁠—they are! This wild star⁠—it is now three centuries since, with clasped hands, and with streaming eyes, at the feet of my beloved⁠—I spoke it⁠—with a few passionate sentences⁠—into birth. Its brilliant flowers are the dearest of all unfulfilled dreams, and its raging volcanoes are the passions of the most turbulent and unhallowed of hearts. The Imp of the Perverse

In the consideration of the faculties and impulses⁠—of the prima mobilia of the human soul, the phrenologists have failed to make room for a propensity which, although obviously existing as a radical, primitive, irreducible sentiment, has been equally overlooked by all the moralists who have preceded them. In the pure arrogance of the reason, we have all overlooked it. We have