V
The three months succeeding Simon's catastrophe I devoted night and dayto my diamond lens. I had constructed a vast galvanic battery, composedof nearly two thousand pairs of plates: a higher power I dared not use,lest the diamond should be calcined. By means of this enormous engineI was enabled to send a powerful current of electricity continuallythrough my great diamond, which it seemed to me gained in lustre everyday. At the expiration of a month I commenced the grinding and polishingof the lens, a work of intense toil and exquisite delicacy. The greatdensity of the stone, and the care required to be taken with thecurvatures of the surfaces of the lens, rendered the labor the severestand most harassing that I had yet undergone.
At last the eventful moment came; the lens was completed. I stoodtrembling on the threshold of new worlds. I had the realization ofAlexander's famous wish before me. The lens lay on the table, ready tobe placed upon its platform. My hand fairly shook as I enveloped a dropof water with a thin coating of oil of turpentine, preparatory toits examination, a process necessary in order to prevent the rapidevaporation of the water. I now placed the drop on a thin slip of glassunder the lens, and throwing upon it, by the combined aid of a prism anda mirror, a powerful stream of light, I approached my eye to the minutehole drilled through the axis of the lens. For an instant I saw nothingsave what seemed to be an illuminated chaos, a vast, luminous abyss. Apure white light, cloudless and serene, and seemingly limitless as spaceitself, was my first impression. Gently, and with the greatest care, Idepressed the lens a few hairbreadths. The wondrous illuminationstill continued, but as the lens approached the object a scene ofindescribable beauty was unfolded to my view.
I seemed to gaze upon a vast space, the limits of which extended farbeyond my vision. An atmosphere of magical luminousness permeated theentire field of view. I was amazed to see no trace of animalculouslife. Not a living thing, apparently, inhabited that dazzling expanse.I comprehended instantly that, by the wondrous power of my lens, I hadpenetrated beyond the grosser particles of aqueous matter, beyond therealms of infusoria and protozoa, down to the original gaseous globule,into whose luminous interior I was gazing as into an almost boundlessdome filled with a supernatural radiance.
It was, however, no brilliant void into which I looked. On every side Ibeheld beautiful inorganic forms, of unknown texture, and colored withthe most enchanting hues. These forms presented the appearance of whatmight be called, for want of a more specific definition, foliated cloudsof the highest rarity--that is, they undulated and broke into vegetableformations, and were tinged with splendors compared with which thegilding of our autumn woodlands is as dross compared with gold. Far awayinto the illimitable distance stretched long avenues of these gaseousforests, dimly transparent, and painted with prismatic hues ofunimaginable brilliancy. The pendent branches waved along the fluidglades until every vista seemed to break through half-lucent ranks ofmany-colored drooping silken pennons. What seemed to be either fruits orflowers, pied with a thousand hues, lustrous and ever-varying, bubbledfrom the crowns of this fairy foliage. No hills, no lakes, no rivers,no forms animate or inanimate, were to be seen, save those vast auroralcopses that floated serenely in the luminous stillness, with leaves andfruits and flowers gleaming with unknown fires, unrealizable by mereimagination.
How strange, I thought, that this sphere should be thus condemned tosolitude! I had hoped, at least, to discover some new form of animallife, perhaps of a lower class than any with which we are at presentacquainted, but still some living organism. I found my newly discoveredworld, if I may so speak, a beautiful chromatic desert.
While I was speculating on the singular arrangements of the internaleconomy of Nature, with which she so frequently splinters into atoms ourmost compact theories, I thought I beheld a form moving slowly throughthe glades of one of the prismatic forests. I looked more attentively,and found that I was not mistaken. Words can not depict the anxiety withwhich I awaited the nearer approach of this mysterious object. Was itmerely some inanimate substance, held in suspense in the attenuatedatmosphere of the globule, or was it an animal endowed with vitalityand motion? It approached, flitting behind the gauzy, colored veils ofcloud-foliage, for seconds dimly revealed, then vanishing. At last theviolet pennons that trailed nearest to me vibrated; they were gentlypushed aside, and the form floated out into the broad light.
It was a female human shape. When I say human, I mean it possessed theoutlines of humanity; but there the analogy ends. Its adorable beautylifted it illimitable heights beyond the loveliest daughter of Adam.
I can not, I dare not, attempt to inventory the charms of this divinerevelation of perfect beauty. Those eyes of mystic violet, dewy andserene, evade my words. Her long, lustrous hair following her glorioushead in a golden wake, like the track sown in heaven by a falling star,seems to quench my most burning phrases with its splendors. If all thebees of Hybla nestled upon my lips, they would still sing but hoarselythe wondrous harmonies of outline that inclosed her form.
She swept out from between the rainbow-curtains of the cloud-trees intothe broad sea of light that lay beyond. Her motions were those of somegraceful naiad, cleaving, by a mere effort of her will, the clear,unruffled waters that fill the chambers of the sea. She floated forthwith the serene grace of a frail bubble ascending through the stillatmosphere of a June day. The perfect roundness of her limbs formedsuave and enchanting curves. It was like listening to the most spiritualsymphony of Beethoven the divine, to watch the harmonious flow of lines.This, indeed was a pleasure cheaply purchased at any price. What caredI if I had waded to the portal of this wonder through another's blood.I would have given my own to enjoy one such moment of intoxication anddelight.
Breathless with gazing on this lovely wonder, and forgetful for aninstant of everything save her presence, I withdrew my eye from themicroscope eagerly. Alas! as my gaze fell on the thin slide that laybeneath my instrument, the bright light from mirror and from prismsparkled on a colorless drop of water! There, in that tiny bead of dew,this beautiful being was forever imprisoned. The planet Neptune was notmore distant from me than she. I hastened once more to apply my eye tothe microscope.
Animula (let me now call her by that dear name which I subsequentlybestowed on her) had changed her position. She had again approached thewondrous forest, and was gazing earnestly upward. Presently one of thetrees--as I must call them--unfolded a long ciliary process, with whichit seized one of the gleaming fruits that glittered on its summit, and,sweeping slowly down, held it within reach of Animula. The sylph tookit in her delicate hand and began to eat. My attention was so entirelyabsorbed by her that I could not apply myself to the task of determiningwhether this singular plant was or was not instinct with volition.
I watched her, as she made her repast, with the most profound attention.The suppleness of her motions sent a thrill of delight through my frame;my heart beat madly as she turned her beautiful eyes in the direction ofthe spot in which I stood. What would I not have given to have had thepower to precipitate myself into that luminous ocean and float with herthrough those grooves of purple and gold! While I was thus breathlesslyfollowing her every movement, she suddenly started, seemed to listenfor a moment, and then cleaving the brilliant ether in which she wasfloating, like a flash of light, pierced through the opaline forest anddisappeared.
Instantly a series of the most singular sensations attacked me. Itseemed as if I had suddenly gone blind. The luminous sphere was stillbefore me, but my daylight had vanished. What caused this suddendisappearance? Had she a lover or a husband? Yes, that was the solution!Some signal from a happy fellow-being had vibrated through the avenuesof the forest, and she had obeyed the summons.
The agony of my sensations, as I arrived at this conclusion, startledme. I tried to reject the conviction that my reason forced upon me. Ibattled against the fatal conclusion--but in vain. It was so. I had noescape from it. I loved an animalcule.
It is true that, thanks to the marvelous power of my microscope, sheappea
red of human proportions. Instead of presenting the revoltingaspect of the coarser creatures, that live and struggle and die, inthe more easily resolvable portions of the water-drop, she was fair anddelicate and of surpassing beauty. But of what account was all that?Every time that my eye was withdrawn from the instrument it fell on amiserable drop of water, within which, I must be content to know, dweltall that could make my life lovely.
Could she but see me once! Could I for one moment pierce the mysticalwalls that so inexorably rose to separate us, and whisper all thatfilled my soul, I might consent to be satisfied for the rest of my lifewith the knowledge of her remote sympathy.
It would be something to have established even the faintest personallink to bind us together--to know that at times, when roaming throughthese enchanted glades, she might think of the wonderful stranger whohad broken the monotony of her life with his presence and left a gentlememory in her heart!
But it could not be. No invention of which human intellect was capablecould break down the barriers that nature had erected. I might feast mysoul upon her wondrous beauty, yet she must always remain ignorantof the adoring eyes that day and night gazed upon her, and, even whenclosed, beheld her in dreams. With a bitter cry of anguish I fled fromthe room, and flinging myself on my bed, sobbed myself to sleep like achild.
VI
I arose the next morning almost at daybreak, and rushed to mymicroscope, I trembled as I sought the luminous world in miniature thatcontained my all. Animula was there. I had left the gas-lamp, surroundedby its moderators, burning when I went to bed the night before. I foundthe sylph bathing, as it were, with an expression of pleasure animatingher features, in the brilliant light which surrounded her. She tossedher lustrous golden hair over her shoulders with innocent coquetry. Shelay at full length in the transparent medium, in which she supportedherself with ease, and gamboled with the enchanting grace that the nymphSalmacis might have exhibited when she sought to conquer the modestHermaphroditus. I tried an experiment to satisfy myself if her powers ofreflection were developed. I lessened the lamplight considerably. By thedim light that remained, I could see an expression of pain flit acrossher face. She looked upward suddenly, and her brows contracted. Iflooded the stage of the microscope again with a full stream of light,and her whole expression changed. She sprang forward like some somesubstance deprived of all weight. Her eyes sparkled and her lips moved.Ah! if science had only the means of conducting and reduplicatingsounds, as it does rays of light, what carols of happiness would thenhave entranced my ears! what jubilant hymns to Adonais would havethrilled the illumined air!
I now comprehended how it was that the Count de Cabalis peopled hismystic world with sylphs-beautiful beings whose breath of life waslambent fire, and who sported forever in regions of purest ether andpurest light. The Rosicrucian had anticipated the wonder that I hadpractically realized.
How long this worship of my strange divinity went on thus I scarcelyknow. I lost all note of time. All day from early dawn, and far into thenight, I was to be found peering through that wonderful lens. I sawno one, went nowhere, and scarce allowed myself sufficient time for mymeals. My whole life was absorbed in contemplation as rapt as that ofany of the Romish saints. Every hour that I gazed upon the divine formstrengthened my passion--a passion that was always overshadowed by themaddening conviction that, although I could gaze on her at will, shenever, never could behold me!
At length I grew so pale and emaciated, from want of rest and continualbrooding over my insane love and its cruel conditions, that I determinedto make some effort to wean myself from it. "Come," I said, "this isat best but a fantasy. Your imagination has bestowed on Animula charmswhich in reality she does not possess. Seclusion from female society hasproduced this morbid condition of mind. Compare her with the beautifulwomen of your own world, and this false enchantment will vanish."
I looked over the newspapers by chance. There I beheld the advertisementof a celebrated _danseuse_ who appeared nightly at Niblo's. TheSignorina Caradolce had the reputation of being the most beautiful aswell as the most graceful woman in the world. I instantly dressed andwent to the theatre.
The curtain drew up. The usual semicircle of fairies in white muslinwere standing on the right toe around the enameled flower-bank of greencanvas, on which the belated prince was sleeping. Suddenly a flute isheard. The fairies start. The trees open, the fairies all stand onthe left toe, and the queen enters. It was the Signorina. She boundedforward amid thunders of applause, and, lighting on one foot, remainedpoised in the air. Heavens! was this the great enchantress that haddrawn monarchs at her chariot-wheels? Those heavy, muscular limbs,those thick ankles, those cavernous eyes, that stereotyped smile, thosecrudely painted cheeks! Where were the vermeil blooms, the liquid,expressive eyes, the harmonious limbs of Animula?
The Signorina danced. What gross, discordant movements! The play ofher limbs was all false and artificial. Her bounds were painful athleticefforts; her poses were angular and distressed the eye. I could bear itno longer; with an exclamation of disgust that drew every eye upon me,I rose from my seat in the very middle of the Signorina's_pas-de-fascination_ and abruptly quitted the house.
I hastened home to feast my eyes once more on the lovely form ofmy sylph. I felt that henceforth to combat this passion would beimpossible. I applied my eyes to the lens. Animula was there--but whatcould have happened? Some terrible change seemed to have taken placeduring my absence. Some secret grief seemed to cloud the lovely featuresof her I gazed upon. Her face had grown thin and haggard; her limbstrailed heavily; the wondrous lustre of her golden hair had faded. Shewas ill--ill, and I could not assist her! I believe at that moment Iwould have forfeited all claims to my human birthright if I could onlyhave been dwarfed to the size of an animalcule, and permitted to consoleher from whom fate had forever divided me.
I racked my brain for the solution of this mystery. What was it thatafflicted the sylph? She seemed to suffer intense pain. Her featurescontracted, and she even writhed, as if with some internal agony. Thewondrous forests appeared also to have lost half their beauty. Theirhues were dim and in some places faded away altogether. I watchedAnimula for hours with a breaking heart, and she seemed absolutely towither away under my very eye. Suddenly I remembered that I had notlooked at the water-drop for several days. In fact, I hated to see it;for it reminded me of the natural barrier between Animula and myself.I hurriedly looked down on the stage of the microscope. The slide wasstill there--but, great heavens, the water drop had vanished! The awfultruth burst upon me; it had evaporated, until it had become so minuteas to be invisible to the naked eye; I had been gazing on its last atom,the one that contained Animula--and she was dying!
I rushed again to the front of the lens and looked through. Alas! thelast agony had seized her. The rainbow-hued forests had all melted away,and Animula lay struggling feebly in what seemed to be a spot of dimlight. Ah! the sight was horrible: the limbs once so round and lovelyshriveling up into nothings; the eyes--those eyes that shone likeheaven--being quenched into black dust; the lustrous golden hair nowlank and discolored. The last throe came. I beheld that final struggleof the blackening form--and I fainted.
When I awoke out of a trance of many hours, I found myself lying amidthe wreck of my instrument, myself as shattered in mind and body as it.I crawled feebly to my bed, from which I did not rise for many months.
They say now that I am mad; but they are mistaken. I am poor, for I haveneither the heart nor the will to work; all my money is spent, and Ilive on charity. Young men's associations that love a joke invite me tolecture on optics before them, for which they pay me, and laugh at mewhile I lecture. "Linley, the mad microscopist," is the name I go by. Isuppose that I talk incoherently while I lecture. Who could talk sensewhen his brain is haunted by such ghastly memories, while ever and anonamong the shapes of death I behold the radiant form of my lost Animula!
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