We try to call down the stars, and when, now and then, our conjuring
succeeds, we find that our stars are only blasting meteors. One moral
mishap lames character for ever. A false start robs us of our natural
strength, and a misplaced or unrighteous love deadens the soul and
shipwrecks just conceptions of life.
A man may be forgiven for a sin, but the effect remains; it has found its
place in his constitution, and it cannot be displaced by mere penitence,
nor yet forgiveness. A man errs, and he must suffer; his father erred,
and he must endure; or some one sinned against the man, and he hid the
sin--But here a hand touched my shoulder! I was startled, for my thoughts
had been far away. Roscoe's voice spoke in my ear: "It is as she said;
the actors come together for 'the curtain.'"
Then his eyes met those of Ruth Devlin turned to him earnestly and
inquiringly. And I felt for a moment hard against Roscoe, that he should
even indirectly and involuntarily, bring suffering into her life. In
youth, in early manhood, we do wrong. At the time we seem to be injuring
no one but ourselves; but, as we live on, we find that we were wronging
whomsoever should come into our lives in the future.
Pages:
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260