Letter to Beaumont, Letters Written from the Mountain, and Related Writings

THE VISION OF PIERRE OF THE MOUNTAIN, CALLED THE SEER

THE VISION OF PIERRE OF THE MOUNTAIN, CALLED THE SEER Here are written the three Chapters of the vision of Pierre of the mountain called the Seer, concerning the disobedience and damnable rebellion of Pierre of the Valley called Pierrot of the Ladies. Chapter I 1. And I was in my meadow mowing my second crop, and it was hot, and I was weary, and a plum tree with green plums to me was nigh. 2. And lying down under the plum tree, I slumbered. 3. And during my sleep I had a vision, and I heard a voice sharp and ringing like the sound of a posthorn. 4. And that voice was sometimes weak and sometimes strong, sometimes booming and sometimes clear, passing alternately and rapidly from the deepest to the sharpest sounds, like the mewing of a cat on a gutter, or like the declamation of Reverend Imer, Deacon of Val de Travers.1 5. And the voice addressing itself to me spoke to me thus: Pierre the Seer, my son, listen to my words; and I kept quiet while slumbering, and the voice continued. 6. Listen to the word that I address to thee on behalf of the Spirit, and hold it in thine heart. Broadcast it throughout the earth and throughout Val-de-Travers, so that it might edify all the faithful; 7. And so that, taught about the punishment of the rebel Pierre of the Valley called Pierrot of the Ladies, they learn no longer to despise the nocturnal inspirations of the voice. 8. For I had chosen him in the abjectness of his mind and in the stupidity of his heart to be my interpreter. 9. I had made him the honorable successor of my Servant la Batizarde ,* so that, like her, he might carry the light of my inspirations to all the Church. 10. I had charged him with being, like her, the organ of my word so 309 * An old gossip, from the dregs of the People, who formerly prided herself for having visions. that my glory might be manifested, and so that it might be seen that when I please I can draw gold from mud, and pearls from manure. 11. I had said to him: go speak to thine errant brother Jean-Jacques who is going astray, and lead him back to the good path. 12. For at bottom thy brother Jean-Jacques is a good man who does wrong to no one, who fears God and who loves the truth. 13. But in order to lead him back from an aberration this people falls into one itself, and for wishing to bring him back to the faith, this people renounces the Law. 14. For the law forbids avenging the oVenses one has received and they ceaselessly revile a man who has not oVended them at all. 15. The law commands returning good for evil, and they return him evil for good. 16. The Law commands loving those who hate us, and they hate the one who loves them. 17. The Law commands employing mercy, and they do not even employ justice. 18. The Law forbids lying, and there is no sort of lie that they do not invent against him. 19. The Law forbids slander, and they ceaselessly calumniate him. 20. They accuse him of having said that women did not have any soul, and he says on the contrary that all lovable women have at least two of them.2 21. They accuse him of not believing in God, and no one has so strongly proven the existence of God. 22. They say that he is the Antichrist, and no one has honored Christ in such a worthy manner. 23. They say that he wishes to unsettle their consciences, and never has he spoken to them about Religion. 24. If they read Books written for his defense in other countries, is it His fault and has he entreated them to read them? But on the contrary, it is because they have not read them that they believe that there are bad things in these Books that are not there, and they do not believe that the good things that are in them are in fact in them. 25. For those who have read them think completely otherwise about them, and say so if they are of good faith. 26. Yet this People is naturally good, but...