Be this as it may, when
the flash has passed, we behave very much as the animals do: we
promptly lapse into the indifferent sleep which suffices also for
our miserable ways. We ask no more of it, we do not follow the
luminous trail that summons us to an unknown world, we go on
turning in our dismal circle, like contented sleep-walkers, while
Isis' sistrum rattles without respite to rouse the faithful.
25
I repeat, the great miracle of Elberfeld is that of having been
able to prolong and reproduce at will those isolated "psychic
flashes." The horses, in comparison with the other animals, are
here in the state of a man whose subliminal consciousness had
gained the upper hand. That man would lead a higher existence, in
an almost immaterial atmosphere, of which the phenomena of
metaphysics, sparks falling from a region which we shall perhaps
one day reach, sometimes give us an uncertain and fleeting
glimpse. Our intelligence, which is really lethargy and which
keeps us imprisoned in a little hollow of space and time, would
there be replaced by intuition, or rather by a sort of imminent
knowledge which would forthwith make us sharers in all that is
known to a universe which perhaps knows all things.
Unfortunately, we have not, or at least, unlike the horses, we
are not acquainted with a superior being who interests himself in
us and helps us to throw off our torpor.
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