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Updated: June 17, 2025
"If Spirits exist, they must act," he was saying to himself as he entered the parsonage, where he found Monsieur Becker alone. "Dear pastor," he said, "Seraphita is connected with us in form only, and even that form is inexplicable. Do not think me a madman or a lover; a profound conviction cannot be argued with. Convert my belief into scientific theories, and let us try to enlighten each other.
This idea is apparently further substantiated by the fact that Seraphita was loved by Minna, a beautiful young girl to whom Seraphita was always Seraphitus, an ideal lover; and by Wilfrid, to whom Seraphita represented his ideal of feminine loveliness, both in mind and body; a young girl possessing marvelous, almost miraculous, wisdom, but yet a woman with human passions and human virtues his ideal of wifehood and motherhood.
To him, Seraphita was the motionless marble, light nevertheless as a vapor, which Minna had seen that day poised above the precipices of the Falberg. Could she thus stand on the edge of all gulfs without danger, without a tremor of the arching eyebrows, or a quiver of the light of the eye? If his love was to be without hope, it was not without curiosity.
And, strange to say, it was Gautier that introduced me to Balzac; for mention is made in the wonderful preface to "Les Fleurs du Mal" of Seraphita: Seraphita, Seraphitus; which is it? woman or man? Should Wilfred or Mona be the possessor?
The instincts of genius are unfathomable? but he who has known the white northern women with their pure spiritual eyes, will aver that instinct led him aright. I have known one, one whom I used to call Seraphita; Coppée knew her too, and that exquisite volume, "L'Exilé," so Seraphita-like in the keen blonde passion of its verse, was written to her, and each poem was sent to her as it was written.
But my daughter, for whom during the last two years Seraphita has shown much affection, has never heard this music, and has never perceived the heavenly perfumes which, they say, make the air fragrant about her when she moves.
Fergus, who leads the flocks to the saeters, says that in rainy weather a circle of clear sky can be seen over the Swedish castle; and that the heavens are always blue above Seraphita's head when she is on the mountain. Many women hear the tones of a mighty organ when Seraphita enters the church, and ask their neighbors earnestly if they too do not hear them.
Yes, I should grieve to see you marry Minna but when I am here no longer, then promise me to marry her; heaven destined you for each other." "I listen to you with fascination, Seraphita. Your words are incomprehensible, but they charm me. What is it you mean to say?" "You are right; I forget to be foolish, to be the poor creature whose weaknesses gratify you. I torment you, Wilfrid.
Though in the same case as Buloz, and failing altogether to comprehend the subject or its treatment, he took over Seraphita in 1835 and published it. Next to politics, as a means of gaining name and fame more quickly, Balzac esteemed play-writing. The esteem was purely commercial.
"He who is there," replied Minna, motioning towards the chateau. "Are you speaking of Seraphita?" he said. The young girl bent her head, and looked at him with an expression of gentle mischief. "You too!" exclaimed Wilfrid, "you take pleasure in confounding me. Who and what is she? What do you think of her?" "What I feel is inexplicable," said Minna, blushing.
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