Read Ebook: Feudal tyrants; or The Counts of Carlsheim and Sargans volume 2 (of 4) by Naubert Benedikte Lewis M G Matthew Gregory Translator

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That which I look upon as the first of our dear Adelaide's misfortunes, was her being the daughter of Lucretia Malaspina. Lucretia was not lovely enough to bind Count Ethelbert's heart in lasting fetters; nor did she possess that generous and almost Saint-like forbearance, with which Urania supported the misfortunes necessarily entailed upon the wife of such an husband. The discovery of an artifice, which her short-sighted policy had induced her to practice upon him, contributed to alienate Ethelbert's affections, and to convert what already was indifference into the most positive aversion.

Lucretia's wealth was a chief inducement with the Count of Carlsheim, when he offered her his hand. The birth of a son gave occasion to a discovery, that the estates believed to be her own absolute property were only held in trust for her eldest son, to whom they descended with the first breath of air that inflated his lungs. Within a year after Lucretia had been brought to bed for the first time, to Ethelbert's infinite surprize he was summoned to surrender his wife's estates to the guardians, appointed by her uncle's will to take charge of them, till the new-born infant should arrive at years of discretion. Ethelbert's rage was extreme; he was compelled to surrender the property, and in revenge was barbarous enough to tear the child from its mother's arms, commit it to the care of strangers without informing her to whom, and then to abandon her with every expression of hatred and contempt. Lucretia bore this parting with the more fortitude, from her secret consciousness that she nourished in her bosom another innocent creature, and from her fears that if Ethelbert were present at the time of her delivery, the new-born babe would be separated from her in the same manner, that she had been deprived of its brother. The same apprehension, on being brought to bed of twins, induced her to conceal the birth of one of them, in order that she might at least have the pleasure of seeing it grow up under her own eye, should Ethelbert's vengeance induce him to deprive her of the other. Accident directed her choice, which fell upon Adelaide.

The event, however, proved her fears to have been for this time unfounded. At a distance from her, and totally engrossed by his own ade one by love from the Lord .

Heaven as a whole is divided into two kingdoms, a celestial kingdom and a spiritual kingdom . The angels of the celestial kingdom receive the Divine of the lord in their voluntary part, thus more interiorly than the spiritual angels, who receive it in their intellectual part .

The heavens that constitute the celestial kingdom are called higher while those that constitute the spiritual kingdom are called lower .

Interior things are portrayed by higher things, and higher things signify interior things .

The good of the celestial kingdom is good of love to the Lord, and the good of the spiritual kingdom is good of charity towards the neighbor .

I will put my law in their mind, and will write it in their heart. They shall teach no more everyone his friend and everyone his brother, saying, Know ye Jehovah. They shall know Me, from the least of them even to the greatest of them .

And they are called in Isaiah:

Taught of Jehovah .

That the "taught of Jehovah" are those who are taught by the Lord He Himself teaches in John .

The celestial angels immeasurably surpass in wisdom the spiritual angels . The nature of the distinction between celestial angels and spiritual angels .

The celestial angels do not reason about truths of faith, because they perceive them in themselves; but the spiritual angels reason about them whether they are true or not .

The Lord's influx is into good and through good into truth, and not the reverse; thus into the will and through that into the understanding, and not the reverse .

The will of man is the very being of his life, and the receptacle of the good of love, while his understanding is the outgo of his life therefrom, and the receptacle of the truth and good of faith . Thus the will's life is the chief life of man, and the life of the understanding goes forth therefrom . Whatever is received by the will comes to be the life, and is appropriated to man . Man is a man from his will and his understanding therefrom . Moreover, everyone who wills and understands rightly is loved and valued by others, while he that understands rightly and does not will rightly is rejected and despised . Also, after death man remains such as his will and his understanding therefrom have been, while the things that pertain to the understanding and not also to the will then vanish, because they are not in the man .

Between the two kingdoms there is communication and conjunction by mean's of angelic societies which are called celestial-spiritual . The influx of the Lord through the celestial kingdom into the spiritual .

There are three heavens, entirely distinct from each other, an inmost or third, a middle or second, and an outmost or first. These have a like order and relation to each other as the highest part of man, or his head, the middle part, or body, and the lowest, or feet; or as the upper, the middle, and the lower stories of a house. In the same order is the Divine that goes forth and descends from the Lord; consequently heaven, from the necessity of order, is threefold.

All things of Divine order are brought together in man, and by creation man is Divine order in form . In man the internal man was formed after the image of heaven, and the external after the image of the world, and this is why man was called by the ancients a microcosm . Thus man is respect to his interiors is by creation a heaven in least form after the image of the greatest; and such also man becomes when he has been created anew or regenerated by the Lord .

There are three heavens, inmost, middle, and outmost, or third, second, and first . Goods therein also follow in triple order . The good of the inmost or third heaven is called celestial, the good of the middle or second is called spiritual, and the good of the outmost or first, spiritual-natural .

The kingdom of God cometh not with observation, neither shall they say, Lo here, or Lo there; for behold the kingdom of God ye have within you .

There are as many degrees of life in man as there are heavens, and these are opened after death in accordance with his life . Heaven is in man . Therefore he that has received heaven into himself in the world, comes into heaven after death .

Interiors are more perfect because nearer to the Divine . In the internal there are thousands and thousands of things that appear in the external as one general thing . As far as man is raised from externals towards interiors, so far he comes into light and thus into intelligence and the elevation is like rising out of a cloud into clearness .

Influx from the Lord is direct from Himself and also mediate through on heaven into another, and in like manner into man's interiors . Direct influx of the Divine from the Lord . Mediate influx through the spiritual world into the natural world .

All things spring from things prior to themselves, thus from a First, and in like inner subsist, because subsistence is unceasing springing forth; therefore nothing unconnected is possible .

Things interior and things exterior are not continuous but distinct and discrete according to degrees, and each degree has its bounds . One thing is formed from another, and the things so formed are not continuously purer and grosser . Until the difference between what is interior and what is exterior according to such degrees is perceived, neither the internal and external man nor the interior and exterior heavens can be clearly understood .

The angels of each heaven are not together in one place, but are divided into larger and smaller societies in accordance with the differences of good of love and of faith in which they are, those who are in like good forming a single society. Goods in the heavens are in infinite variety, and each angel is as it were his own good.

There is infinite variety, and never any thing the same with any other . So in the heavens there is infinite variety . Varieties in the heavens, which are infinite, are varieties of good . These varieties exist through truths, which are manifold from which is each one's good . It is because of this that all the societies in the heavens, and all angels in a society, are distinct from each other . Nevertheless they all make one through love from the Lord .

All the societies of heaven have a constant position in accordance with the differences of their state of life, thus in accordance with the differences of love and faith . Wonderful things in the other life, that is, in the spiritual world, respecting distance, situation, place space and time .

All freedom pertains to love and affection, since what a man loves, that he does freely . Because freedom pertains to love everyone's life and delight is therefrom . Nothing appears as one's own, except what is from his freedom . The veriest freedom is to be led by the Lord, because one is thus led by the love of good and truth .

All nearness, relationship, connections, and as it were ties of blood, in heaven are from good and in accordance with its agreements and differences .

A spiritual sphere, which is the sphere of life flows out from every man, spirit, and angel, and encompasses them . It flows forth from the life of their affection and thought . These spheres extend themselves far into angelic societies in accordance with the quality and quantity of their good .

In the heavens a sharing of all goods is possible because heavenly love shares with another everything that is its own .

Each society is a heaven in a smaller form, and each angel in the smallest form, because it is the good of love and of faith that makes heaven, and this good is in each society of heaven and in each angel of a society. It does not matter that this good everywhere differs and varies, it is still the good of heaven; and there is no difference except that heaven has one quality here and another there. So when any one is raised up into any society of heaven he is said to come into heaven; and those who are there are said to be in heaven, and each one in his own. This is known to all in the other life; consequently those standing outside of or beneath heaven, when they see at a distance companies of angels, say that heaven is in this or that place. It is comparatively like civil and military officers and attendants in a royal palace or castle, who, although dwelling apart in their own quarters or chambers above and below, are yet in the same palace or castle, each in his own position in the royal service. This makes evident the meaning of the Lord's words, that:

In His Father's house are many abiding places ;

also what is meant by the dwelling-places of heaven, and the heavens of heavens, in the prophets.

In the Word the Lord is called an angel . A whole angelic society is called an angel, and Michael and Raphael are angelic societies, so called from their functions . The societies of heaven and the angels have no names, but are distinguished by the quality of their good, and by the idea of it .

Heaven is not granted from mercy apart from means, but in accordance with the life; yet everything of the life by which man is led to heaven by the Lord belongs to mercy; this is what is meant by mercy . If heaven were granted from mercy apart from means it would be granted to all . About some evil spirits cast down from heaven who believed that heaven was granted to everyone from mercy apart from means .

Heaven is in man .

Every whole is from the harmony and concert of many parts. Otherwise it has no quality . From this the entire heaven is a whole . And for the reason that all there have regard to one end, which is the Lord .

If good were the characteristic and essential of the church, and not truth apart from good, the church would be one . From good all churches make one church before the Lord .

The church is in man, and not outside of him, and the church in general is made up of men that have the church in them .

A man who is a church is a heaven in the smallest form after the image of the greatest, because his interiors, which belong to his mind, are arranged after the form of heaven, and consequently for reception of all things of heaven .

Man has an internal and an external; hid internal is formed by creation after the image of heaven, and his external after the image of the world; and for this reason man was called by the ancients a microcosm . Therefore man was created to have the world in him serve heaven, and this takes place with the good; but it is the reverse with the evil, in whom heaven serves the world .

The Lord is order, since the Divine good and truth that go forth from the Lord make order . Divine truths are laws of order . So far as a man lives according to order, that is, so far as he lives in good in accordance with Divine truths, he is a man, and the church and heaven are in him .

Yet bitter was the parting between these married lovers. Both were tormented by forebodings of misfortune; both felt the pangs of an affection, which made them wish never to be separated; and yet each was still compelled to acknowledge, that to separate was necessary!

In the mean while, Adelaide in the solitude of Ravenstein led the kind of life best adapted to her melancholy situation. The present posture of affairs rendered her heart doubly accessible to every sort of inquietude: she had left her dear but unsteady husband entangled in a chain of circumstances, which authorized her to see the future in the most gloomy light; nor was it long before she discovered, that in fixing her abode at the fortress of Ravenstein, she had by no means selected a residence the best fitted for dissipating the melancholy ideas, which perpetually obtruded themselves upon her imagination.

In the spring of her life this Castle had been long her prison; there had she narrowly escaped perishing by famine and by the flames; there too was the grave of her unfortunate mother. It was impossible, that these sad recollections should not have considerable effect upon a mind, which already was tortured by a thousand causes for anxiety. It is true, the lords of Eschenbach had almost entirely rebuilt the ruined fortress at considerable expence, and had made it so different from its former self, that it was scarcely to be recognized; but Adelaide's enthusiastic imagination saw less what was before her eyes, than what sorrow had engraved on her remembrance indelibly.

The time of her delivery was at hand; and the presence of some sympathising friends enabled Adelaide to look forward to the moment of danger with less fear. Indeed, the laws of our order did not permit either you or myself to leave our convents, and hasten to the assistance of our beloved Adelaide. The Countess Mellusina was no more; and even had she been still in existence, her presence would have been but little wished or expected by her sister-in-law. I doubt much too, whether with all our good intentions we should have been able to afford so much real help and comfort, as she received from the female inhabitants of the vale of Frutiger: during the time which she past with Count Donat at Ravenstein, Adelaide by her exertions to moderate the fury of her incensed brother had won their hearts completely; and no sooner did the grateful women hear, that their benevolent protectress stood in need of it, than they hastened to afford her their friendly assistance. Walter Forest's mother, and the wife of Henric Melthal, were among the first to proffer their services; nor did Gertrude Bernsdorf neglect the daughter of her former lord. It was from these good matrons, that I received the account of the following transactions; alas! I was not permitted to hear them from the lips of the dear Adelaide herself!

The Lady of the Beacon-Tower was safely delivered of a son; and the sight of this little smiling innocent was sufficient to relieve his anxious mother from more than half the weight of her melancholy.

Her wish was granted, sooner than she could have expected. Alas! it brought not with it the joy, which would accompany her husband's arrival.

One evening, Adelaide was sitting with her child at her bosom near a window, which commanded the spacious court-yard. On a sudden a single warrior rushed into the court on horseback. Adelaide sprang from her seat with a cry of joy, and flew towards the portal.

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