Each act is the precipitation of a
number of mixed influences, more or less unconsciously felt; the
qualities of good and evil are so blended therein that they defy
the keenest moral analysis; and how shall we, then, pretend to
judge of any one? Perhaps the surest indication of evil (I further
reflected) is that it always tries to conceal itself, and the
strongest incitement to good is that evil cannot be concealed. The
crime, or the vice, or even the self-acknowledged weakness, becomes
a part of the individual consciousness; it cannot be forgotten or
outgrown. It follows a life through all experiences and to the
uttermost ends of the earth, pressing towards the light with a
terrible, demoniac power. There are noteless lives, of course--
lives that accept obscurity, mechanically run their narrow round of
circumstance, and are lost; but when a life endeavors to lose
itself,--to hide some conscious guilt or failure,--can it succeed?
Is it not thereby lifted above the level of common experience,
compelling attention to itself by the very endeavor to escape it?
I turned these questions over in my mind, without approaching, or
indeed expecting, any solution,--since I knew, from habit, the
labyrinths into which they would certainly lead me,--when a visitor
was announced.
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