Once a sinner, (thus he pleasantly
reasoned,) and a fellow may as well be ten times a sinner: a bad job
anyhow. If in his moments of reflection--these being not yet wholly
crowded out from his life--there comes a shadowy hope of better things,
of some moral poise that should be in keeping with the tenderer
recollections of his boyhood,--all this can never come, (he bethinks
himself, in view of his old teaching,) except on the heel of some
terrible conviction of sin; and the conviction will hardly come without
some deeper and more damning weight of it than he feels as yet. A heavy
cumulation of the weight may some day serve him a good turn. Thus the
Devil twists his vague yearning for a condition of spiritual repose into
a pleasantly smacking lash with which to scourge his grosser appetites;
so that, upon the whole, Reuben drives a fine, showy team along the
high-road of indulgence.
Yet the minister's son had no love for gross vices; there were human
instincts in him (if it maybe said) that rebelled against his more
deliberate sinnings. Nay, he affected with his boon companions an
enjoyment of wanton excesses that he only half felt.
Pages:
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253