Are you, as some declare, a
sorcerer, or only a--"

"Hush!" interrupted Zanoni, gently, and with a smile of singular
but melancholy sweetness; "have you earned the right to ask me these
questions? Though Italy still boast an Inquisition, its power is
rivelled as a leaf which the first wind shall scatter. The days of
torture and persecution are over; and a man may live as he pleases, and
talk as it suits him, without fear of the stake and the rack. Since I
can defy persecution, pardon me if I do not yield to curiosity."

Glyndon blushed, and rose. In spite of his love for Viola, and his
natural terror of such a rival, he felt himself irresistibly drawn
towards the very man he had most cause to suspect and dread. He held
out his hand to Zanoni, saying, "Well, then, if we are to be rivals, our
swords must settle our rights; till then I would fain be friends."

"Friends! You know not what you ask."

"Enigmas again!"

"Enigmas!" cried Zanoni, passionately; "ay! can you dare to solve them?
Not till then could I give you my right hand, and call you friend."

"I could dare everything and all things for the attainment of superhuman
wisdom," said Glyndon, and his countenance was lighted up with wild and
intense enthusiasm.

Zanoni observed him in thoughtful silence.

"The seeds of the ancestor live in the son," he muttered; "he
may--yet--" He broke off abruptly; then, speaking aloud, "Go, Glyndon,"
said he; "we shall meet again, but I will not ask your answer till the
hour presses for decision."

CHAPTER 2.VI.

'Tis certain that this man has an estate of fifty thousand
livres, and seems to be a person of very great accomplishments.
But, then, if he's a wizard, are wizards so devoutly given as
this man seems to be? In short, I could make neither head nor
tail on't

--The Count de Gabalis, Translation affixed to the
second edition of the "Rape of the Lock."

Of all the weaknesses which little men rail against, there is none that
they are more apt to ridicule than the tendency to believe. And of
all the signs of a corrupt heart and a feeble head, the tendency of
incredulity is the surest.

Real philosophy seeks rather to solve than to deny. While we hear, every
day, the small pretenders to science talk of the absurdities of alchemy
and the dream of the Philosopher's Stone, a more erudite knowledge is
aware that by alchemists the greatest discoveries in science have been
made,