But what if I demanded of you that against which not only
your flesh, but all the motive of your life, rebelled? It were not
too much; yet dare you promise to achieve it?'
Basil looked up fearfully, and answered with tremulous lips:
'Not in my own strength; but perchance with the help of God.'
A grave smile passed over Benedict's countenance.
'It is well, my son; again, it is well. Come now, and let us reason
of this your sin. You avow to me that God and His commands have ever
been little in your mind, whereas you have thought much of this
world and its governance. I might ask you how it is possible to
reflect on the weal and woe of human kind without taking count of
Him who made the world and rules it; but let me approach you with a
narrower inquiry. You tell me that you love your country, and desire
its peace. How comes it, then, that you are numbered with the
violent, the lawless, with those who renounce their citizenship and
dishonour the State? Could not all your worldly meditations preserve
you from so gross an incoherence of thought and action?'
'Indeed, it should have done.
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