登陆注册
15365000000009

第9章 THE OLD CHURCH

I followed him deep into the pine-forest.Neither of us said much while yet the sacred gloom of it closed us round.We came to larger and yet larger trees--older,and more individual,some of them grotesque with age.Then the forest grew thinner.

"You see that hawthorn?"said my guide at length,pointing with his beak.

I looked where the wood melted away on the edge of an open heath.

"I see a gnarled old man,with a great white head,"I answered.

"Look again,"he rejoined:"it is a hawthorn.""It seems indeed an ancient hawthorn;but this is not the season for the hawthorn to blossom!"I objected.

"The season for the hawthorn to blossom,"he replied,"is when the hawthorn blossoms.That tree is in the ruins of the church on your home-farm.You were going to give some directions to the bailiff about its churchyard,were you not,the morning of the thunder?""I was going to tell him I wanted it turned into a wilderness of rose-trees,and that the plough must never come within three yards of it.""Listen!"said the raven,seeming to hold his breath.

I listened,and heard--was it the sighing of a far-off musical wind--or the ghost of a music that had once been glad?Or did Iindeed hear anything?

"They go there still,"said the raven.

"Who goes there?and where do they go?"I asked.

"Some of the people who used to pray there,go to the ruins still,"he replied."But they will not go much longer,I think.""What makes them go now?"

"They need help from each other to get their thinking done,and their feelings hatched,so they talk and sing together;and then,they say,the big thought floats out of their hearts like a great ship out of the river at high water.""Do they pray as well as sing?"

"No;they have found that each can best pray in his own silent heart.--Some people are always at their prayers.--Look!look!There goes one!"He pointed right up into the air.A snow-white pigeon was mounting,with quick and yet quicker wing-flap,the unseen spiral of an ethereal stair.The sunshine flashed quivering from its wings.

"I see a pigeon!"I said.

"Of course you see a pigeon,"rejoined the raven,"for there is the pigeon!I see a prayer on its way.--I wonder now what heart is that dove's mother!Some one may have come awake in my cemetery!""How can a pigeon be a prayer?"I said."I understand,of course,how it should be a fit symbol or likeness for one;but a live pigeon to come out of a heart!""It MUST puzzle you!It cannot fail to do so!""A prayer is a thought,a thing spiritual!"I pursued.

"Very true!But if you understood any world besides your own,you would understand your own much better.--When a heart is really alive,then it is able to think live things.There is one heart all whose thoughts are strong,happy creatures,and whose very dreams are lives.When some pray,they lift heavy thoughts from the ground,only to drop them on it again;others send up their prayers in living shapes,this or that,the nearest likeness to each.All live things were thoughts to begin with,and are fit therefore to be used by those that think.When one says to the great Thinker:--"Here is one of thy thoughts:I am thinking it now!"that is a prayer--a word to the big heart from one of its own little hearts.--Look,there is another!"

This time the raven pointed his beak downward--to something at the foot of a block of granite.I looked,and saw a little flower.Ihad never seen one like it before,and cannot utter the feeling it woke in me by its gracious,trusting form,its colour,and its odour as of a new world that was yet the old.I can only say that it suggested an anemone,was of a pale rose-hue,and had a golden heart.

"That is a prayer-flower,"said the raven.

"I never saw such a flower before!"I rejoined.

"There is no other such.Not one prayer-flower is ever quite like another,"he returned.

"How do you know it a prayer-flower?"I asked.

"By the expression of it,"he answered."More than that I cannot tell you.If you know it,you know it;if you do not,you do not.""Could you not teach me to know a prayer-flower when I see it?"Isaid.

"I could not.But if I could,what better would you be?you would not know it of YOURSELF and ITself!Why know the name of a thing when the thing itself you do not know?Whose work is it but your own to open your eyes?But indeed the business of the universe is to make such a fool of you that you will know yourself for one,and so begin to be wise!"But I did see that the flower was different from any flower I had ever seen before;therefore I knew that I must be seeing a shadow of the prayer in it;and a great awe came over me to think of the heart listening to the flower.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • QQ书城月刊第4辑
  • 自然惩戒者

    自然惩戒者

    当精灵族的天才、圣灵王朝的公主、嫉妒成仇的弟弟、邪恶的魔族十二护法、万恶的魔王碰撞在一起时,会发生怎样的事情呢?请大家看下去吧。
  • 天价怪医

    天价怪医

    天价医生白恩,一个无所不能的医生,一个异常奇怪的医生。没有行医执照,却在业界享有盛名。收取高昂费用,背负各种骂名,却身怀绝世医术。三教九流,黑白两道。国际名人,政坛领导。他的病人,甚至可能有外星人。在他眼里,没有特定的价值标准。癌症,可能免费,也可能是天价,全凭心情而定,他只会按照自己的医学理念行事。他的这种行为遭受到了业界的排斥,但是依然我行我素,潇洒自在。
  • 飞虹

    飞虹

    这是一个天道没落的世界,飞升成仙已成空谈。最近的传言,是一代天骄薛涛擎飞虹仙剑,演天道破虚空,终成为数千年来第一个飞升之人。而他所用的飞虹仙剑,却被留了下来,使得天下修界暗流涌动。平静与混乱相互交织,一宗迷案悄然发生,当落霞映着鲜血,一个婴儿就在这一片死寂中携玉出生。
  • 圣魔中元

    圣魔中元

    神王之子陨落,神界女帝陨落。神子与女帝一齐降生中元界。神子化为魔帝之子,于中元界历练,战天骄,灭邪魔,结识女帝,与之相知、相熟、相爱。回到神界后,女帝记忆复苏,神子得知自己乃魔帝之子。神魔两界乃大敌,两人逃不脱命运的捉弄!神子堕落,回魔界争得太子之位,女帝重掌神界。邪族来袭,神魔齐心,遁入归墟之界,悟虚之道,成虚之境!
  • 师陀散文选集

    师陀散文选集

    本书收入作者不同时期的散文作品43篇,表现了小说手法的散文风采。
  • 唐末枪魁

    唐末枪魁

    彷徨无助,困扰迷惑的时候,唤起心中的那位英雄吧。一起快意恩仇,扫清寰宇,还心灵一块净土,还百姓一个朗朗乾坤。左手亮银枪,腰系无尘剑,跨下白龙马,一身玄盔亮甲,旷古未有的骁骑骑兵银枪队,绝世神兵,兵法阵战,大战唐朝大军、沙陀骑兵……。这是一个渺小伴着伟大,英雄伴着美女,邪恶伴着正义,野兽伴着驯兽人的时代。在这乱世当中,且看我们的英雄如何作为。斟杯美酒,带上笑声,一起看唐末枪魁舞河山。……世道混乱,被人逼得活不下去了,怎么办?反!第一猛将李存孝追着我打,怎么办?战!有外国人欺负咱们,怎么办?干!有美女真心真意喜欢我,怎么办?娶!有人封我大官怎么办?做!年纪大了,跑不动了,怎么办?我的个乖乖,还不赶快回家,在这丢人现眼啊……。
  • 婆罗岸全传

    婆罗岸全传

    《婆罗岸全传》,未署撰人。前有叙,叙末署“ 嘉庆九年清和月谷旦,圆觉道人题”。全书共二十回,书叙白花蛇修炼成精,奸污妇女,遭雷神击。转生为犬,复转生为妓,以应果报。旨在劝惩警悟。
  • 坠羽司命书

    坠羽司命书

    他,为爱创下旷世奇书《坠羽司命》,又为了一对姐妹背离羽族。当他被封印时,失传已久的《坠羽司命》再次出现,变为了他的眼睛:看她身世凄苦,远嫁敌方、备受欺凌,最终如何成为女祭司;看她如何因司命人一言而被囚禁在千年岛,一次次向命运抗争……
  • 倾心之恋1

    倾心之恋1

    倾心之曲谁与飘摇,静止听澜,为你而生一曲清歌慧影如当醉,只求百思能相识,可恨时光弄影巧,只留恨相别