It is then that our natural repulsion for evil asserts
itself; it is then that the consequences of what we are about to
do rise clearly before us as in a mirror; it is then that our
courage is suddenly strengthened to do the right, or deserts us
and leaves us mere instruments for the accomplishment of the
wrong. If humanity had not an element of good in it, there would
be no hesitation in the perpetration of crime, any more than a
wild beast pauses before destroying a weaker creature. Perhaps
there is no clearer proof of the existence of a divine soul in
man, than his intuitive reluctance to do what in the lower animals
would be most natural. Circumstances, education, the accidents of
life, all tend to make this psychologic moment habitually shorter
or longer. The suspense created in the conscience, during which
the intelligence is uncertain how to act, may last a week or a
second, a year or a quarter of an hour; but it is a stage through
which all must pass, both the professional criminal and the just
man who is perhaps tempted to commit a crime but once during his
life.
Old Lotario Montevarchi had never been guilty of any misdeed
subject to the provisions of the penal code; but he had done most
things in his love of money which were not criminal only because
the law had not foreseen the tortuous peculiarities of his mind.
Pages:
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379