The Complete Poetical Works of Edgar Allan Poe Part 34

But, since we grow hourly in knowledge, must not _at last_ all things be known?

'Agathos.'

Look down into the abysmal distances!--attempt to force the gaze down the mult.i.tudinous vistas of the stars, as we sweep slowly through them thus--and thus--and thus! Even the spiritual vision, is it not at all points arrested by the continuous golden walls of the universe?--the walls of the myriads of the shining bodies that mere number has appeared to blend into unity?

'Oinos'.

I clearly perceive that the infinity of matter is no dream.

'Agathos'.

There are no dreams in Aidenn--but it is here whispered that, of this infinity of matter, the _sole_ purpose is to afford infinite springs at which the soul may allay the thirst _to know_ which is forever unquenchable within it--since to quench it would be to extinguish the soul's self. Question me then, my Oinos, freely and without fear.

Come! we will leave to the left the loud harmony of the Pleiades, and swoop outward from the throne into the starry meadows beyond Orion, where, for pansies and violets, and heart's-ease, are the beds of the triplicate and triple-tinted suns.

'Oinos'.

And now, Agathos, as we proceed, instruct me!--speak to me in the earth's familiar tones! I understand not what you hinted to me just now of the modes or of the methods of what during mortality, we were accustomed to call Creation. Do you mean to say that the Creator is not G.o.d?

'Agathos'.

I mean to say that the Deity does not create.

'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 the 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 nonent.i.ty, 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 we 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 circ.u.mambient. 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 a.n.a.lysis--who saw, too, the facility of the retrogradation--these men saw, at the same time, that this species of a.n.a.lysis 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 a.n.a.lysis 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 all 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 G.o.dhead. And not only could such a being 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 a.n.a.lytic retrogradation, to what original impulse it was due. This power of retrogradation in its absolute fulness 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 s.p.a.ce, 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--