CHAPTER 3.VII.
Il ne faut appeler aucun ordre si ce n'est en tems clair et serein.
"Les Clavicules du Rabbi Salomon." (No order of spirits must be invoked unless the weather be clear and serene.) Letter from Zanoni to Mejnour.
My art is already dim and troubled.

I have lost the tranquillity which is power.

I cannot influence the decisions of those whom I would most guide to the shore; I see them wander farther and deeper into the infinite ocean where our barks sail evermore to the horizon that flies before us! Amazed and awed to find that I can only warn where I would control, I have looked into my own soul.

It is true that the desires of earth chain me to the present, and shut me from the solemn secrets which Intellect, purified from all the dross of the clay, alone can examine and survey.

The stern condition on which we hold our nobler and diviner gifts darkens our vision towards the future of those for whom we know the human infirmities of jealousy or hate or love.