But now that you are
calm--yes, you were beside yourself with excitement--I must tell
you that you have done a very rash thing indeed. If I had not
chanced to be a friend of yours, what would have become of you? I
cannot help liking your courage and devotion--you have shown it in
sterner matters, and in the face of the enemy--but you might have
destroyed yourself. That would have been a great sin."
"Is there no case in which a man may destroy himself
deliberately?"
"You speak of suicide? It was almost that you contemplated. No.
The church teaches that a man who takes his own life goes straight
to hell. So does Mohammed, for that matter."
"In any case?"
"In any case. It is a mortal sin."
"But," objected Gouache, "let us suppose me a very bad man,
exercising a destroying influence on many other people. Suppose,
in short, for the sake of argument, that my life caused others to
lose their own souls, and that by killing myself I knew that they
would all become good again. Suppose then, that I suddenly
repented and that there was no way of saving these people but by
my own suicide. Would it not be more honourable in me to say,
'Very well, I will submit to damnation rather than send all those
others to eternal flames?' Should I not be justified in blowing
out my brains?"
The cardinal did not know whether to smile or to look grave.
Pages:
538
539
540
541
542
543
544
545
546
547
548
549
550
551
552
553
554
555
556
557
558
559
560
561
562