Seraphita

"The being whom we call Seraphita seems to me one of those rare and terrible spirits to whom power is given to bind men, to crush nature, to enter into participation of the occult power of God.

Seraphita Honor�� de Balzac 1824

"Seraphita," the other book about which he had cherished a peculiarly lofty ideal.

Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings

"Seraphita" or of "Louis Lambert" would have said the power by transmutation of thought and sympathy -- of interesting him in the highest degree.

Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings

Balzac disappeared altogether; and when he returned in November, he proposed to begin "Le Pere Goriot" in the _Revue_, and promised after this had come to an end to return to "Seraphita"; but it was not till the middle of August, 1835, that he at last produced another number.

Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings

After this there were again delays, and, according to Buloz, the whole of "Seraphita" was never offered to the _Revue de Paris_.

Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings

The truth, however, appears to have been that Buloz at last completely lost his temper at Balzac's continual failures to fulfil his engagements, and declared that "Seraphita" was unintelligible, and was losing subscribers to the Review.

Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings

In "Seraphita" Balzac expressed what may be termed spiritual love and that spiritual union with the Beloved, which the Sufis believed to be the result of a perfect and complete "mating," between the sexes, on the spiritual plane, regardless of physical proximity or recognition, but which is also elsewhere described as the soul's glimpse of its union with the Absolute or

Cosmic Consciousness

There was a side issue on the subject of "Seraphita," about which the

Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings

Anthoine de Saint-Joseph, Bonnaire, and Achille Brindeau, tried to satisfy their readers by recalling Balzac; and "Seraphita" began to appear in the pages of the _Revue_.

Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings

Nevertheless, we are again puzzled, when we attempt to realise the personality of a man whose imagination could soar to the mystical and philosophical conception of "Seraphita," which is full of religious poetry, and who yet had the power in "Cesar Birotteau" to invest prosaic and even sordid details with absolute verisimilitude, or in the "Contes Drolatiques" would write, in Old French, stories of

Honore de Balzac, His Life and Writings