How we cite our quotes: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
But when Ambrosius talked about it, I know I had seen more than was in the painting. I had seen the soldiers' god, the Word, the Light, the Good Shepherd, the mediator between the one God and man. I had seen Mithras, who had come out of Asia a thousand years ago. (II.6.21)
It's interesting that Merlin doubts his own understanding of his mystical vision. He needs his own father to explain things to him before he accepts that something truly weird and special has happened. Though we can see his awe in the naming of Mithras, Merlin kind of takes these brushes with the supernatural in stride. He makes no effort to become a formal devotee of the god; he just waits for the next encounter.
Quote #5
"When you're seeing things, your eyes go queer; I've noticed it before. The black spreads and goes kind of blurred, dreaming-like. […] And you talk as if you were just a voice and not a person. [...] Or as if you'd gone somewhere else and left your body for something else to speak through. Like a horn being blown through to make the sound carry." (II.11.70)
Cadal describes for Merlin what he looks like when he is having a vision: basically, Merlin becomes a kind of shell person, empty of personality or identity. He's truly channeling some divine figure. Merlin confesses that the whole experience is downright disturbing—he really doesn't like it. But somehow, Merlin knows that these scary experiences are part of his destiny, and he'll just have to suck it up.
Quote #6
I would certainly be able to tell them why their foundations would not stand. It was an engineer's answer, not a magician's. But, I thought, meeting the oyster eyes of Maugan as he dry-washed those long dirty hands before him, if it was a magician's answer they wanted, they should have it. (III.8.20)
Merlin would really like to approach the problem of Vortigern's falling tower with the eye of a scientist, but he knows that Vortigern and company are a superstitious bunch. They'll never accept a rational explanation. More than that, these guys are desperate: they already know that rational thought and action aren't going to save them. They need a miracle, and they're hoping that demon-boy Merlin can deliver it.