ZANONI:--Contemplation of the Ideal,--IDEALISM.Always necessarily sympathetic: lives by enjoyment; and is therefore typified by eternal youth.("I do not understand the making Idealism less undying (on this scene of existence) than Science."--Commentator.Because, granting the above premises, Idealism is more subjected than Science to the Affections, or to Instinct, because the Affections, sooner or later, force Idealism into the Actual, and in the Actual its immortality departs.The only absolutely Actual portion of the work is found in the concluding scenes that depict the Reign of Terror.The introduction of this part was objected to by some as out of keeping with the fanciful portions that preceded it.But if the writer of the solution has rightly shown or suggested the intention of the author, the most strongly and rudely actual scene of the age in which the story is cast was the necessary and harmonious completion of the whole.The excesses and crimes of Humanity are the grave of the Ideal.-- Author.) Idealism is the potent Interpreter and Prophet of the Real; but its powers are impaired in proportion to their exposure to human passion.
VIOLA:--Human INSTINCT.(Hardly worthy to be called LOVE, as Love would not forsake its object at the bidding of Superstition.) Resorts, first in its aspiration after the Ideal, to tinsel shows; then relinquishes these for a higher love; but is still, from the conditions of its nature, inadequate to this, and liable to suspicion and mistrust.Its greatest force (Maternal Instinct) has power to penetrate some secrets, to trace some movements of the Ideal, but, too feeble to command them, yields to Superstition, sees sin where there is none, while committing sin, under a false guidance; weakly seeking refuge amidst the very tumults of the warring passions of the Actual, while deserting the serene Ideal,--pining, nevertheless, in the absence of the Ideal, and expiring (not perishing, but becoming transmuted) in the aspiration after having the laws of the two natures reconciled.
(It might best suit popular apprehension to call these three the Understanding, the Imagination, and the Heart.)CHILD:--NEW-BORN INSTINCT, while trained and informed by Idealism, promises a preter-human result by its early, incommunicable vigilance and intelligence, but is compelled, by inevitable orphanhood, and the one-half of the laws of its existence, to lapse into ordinary conditions.
AIDON-AI:--FAITH, which manifests its splendour, and delivers its oracles, and imparts its marvels, only to the higher moods of the soul, and whose directed antagonism is with Fear; so that those who employ the resources of Fear must dispense with those of Faith.Yet aspiration holds open a way of restoration, and may summon Faith, even when the cry issues from beneath the yoke of fear.
