Let each man enjoy himself according to his temperament and
capabilities. Do not impose bounds upon him--give him his liberty.
Let him alone. Do not try to bamboozle him with the idea that there
is a God looking after him. So will he be spared much disappointment
and useless blasphemy. If he makes his own affairs unpleasant in
this world', he will not be able to lift up his hands to the
innocent skies, which are only composed of pure ether, and blame an
impossible Large Person sitting up there who can have no part in
circumstances which are entirely unknown outside the earth's
ridiculously small orbit."
He smiled kindly as he spoke, and looked paternally at "the
Sovrani," who flushed with a sudden warmth that sent a wave of pale
rose over her face, and made her cheeks the colour of the flower she
wore.
"How cruel you are!" she said,--"How cold--how didactic! You would
give each man his freedom according to habit and temperament,--no
matter whether such habit and temperament led to crime or
otherwise,--you would impose upon him no creed,--no belief in
anything higher than himself,--and yet--you remain in the Church!"
The Abbe laughed softly.
"Chere Sovrani! You are angry--deliciously angry! Impulsively,
enthusiastically, beautifully vexed with me! I like to see you so,--
you are a woman of remarkable genius, and yet you are quite a little
child in heart,--a positive child, with beliefs and hopes! I should
not wonder if you even believed that love itself is eternal!--that
most passing of phantoms!--yes--and you exclaim against me because I
venture to think for myself? It is appalling that I should think for
myself and yet remain in the Church? My dear lady, you might just as
well, after unravelling the dirty entanglement of the Dreyfus case,
have turned upon our late friend Faure ancl exclaimed 'And yet you
remained President!'"
Angela's violet eyes glowed.
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