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KTDD'S OWN JOURNAL. 



heart. — St. Luke vi. 45. For out of the heart 

 proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, forni- 

 cations, thefts, false witness, blasphemies. — Matt. 

 xv. 19. They are full of all unrighteousness, forni- 

 cation, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness ; 

 full of envy, murder, disputes, deceit, malignity ; 

 whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, deceitful, 

 proud boasters, inventors of evil things, disobe- 

 dient to parents ; without understanding, cove- 

 nant breakers, without natural affection, impla- 

 cable, unmerciful. — Epistle to Eom. i. 29 — 31. 

 Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which 

 are these : adultery, fornication, uncleanness, 

 lasciviousness : idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, 

 variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, 

 heresies, envyings, murders, drunkenness, re- 

 vellings, and such like. — Galatians v. 19 — 

 21. In this world we are born with our 

 temptations, and the flesh sometimes leads us to do 

 good works, and sometimes excites us to do bad 

 ones. [S. Gregory, Horn, ii.] As it is written, 

 there is none righteous, no not one. — Rom. iii. 

 10. For the good that I would, I do not : but the 

 evil that I would not, that 1 do. Now if I do that 

 I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin 

 that dwelleth in me. I find then, a law, that 

 when I yfould do good evil is present with me. 

 Rom. vii. 19-21. But every man is tempted, 

 when he is drawn away of his own lust and en- 

 ticed. Nulla mens est, nulla anima, quce non re- 

 cipiat etiam malarum motus agrestes cogita- 

 tionum. — S. Ambros. lib. cle Noe. &c. No man 

 can say that he perceives in his thoughts, in his 

 propensities, nothing but what is innocent and 

 virtuous. Let him who, with his hand on his 

 heart, will contradict this, take the first stone 

 and cast it at me. 



Thus it is in vain for you to be humbled for 

 your weakness and your imperfection , you must 

 acknowledge the moral as well as the physical 

 evil, and submit yourself for both to the incom- 

 prehensible decrees of the Creator. Both exist, 

 not as some say, because the Creator permits it ; 

 for such a state of things would suppose on the 

 one hand a mere accident, and on the other, the 

 impotence of the Creator ; but they exist because 

 they enter into the plan of eternal Providence. 

 As temporal advantages are distributed unequally 

 and without any respect of persons, so physical 

 evils frequently happen without the fault of him 

 who is the subject of them. Is there not a con- 

 tinual opposition in all nature ? Do not the 

 air, the earth, and the water, offer a perpetual 

 scene of destruction and production, of suf- 

 fering and pleasure? What have animals 

 done, that man, to whom they render the 

 most useful services, should feed them ill, and 

 maltreat them in every way ? If parents beget 

 children in the excesses of debauch, why must 

 the children themselves expiate the fault ? When 

 the storm carries away the house of the idle rich 

 man, does it spare the poor and industrious vine- 

 dresser? " There is a just man that perisheth in 

 his righteousness, and there is a wicked man that 

 prolongeth his life in his wickedness." — Eccles. 

 vii. 16 " All things come alike to all : there is 

 one event to the righteous and to the wicked ; to 

 the good, and to the clean, and to the unclean ; to 

 him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth 

 not ; as is the good, so is the sinner ; and he that 



sweareth, as he that feareth an oath. This is an 

 evil among all things that are done under the 

 sun, that there is one event to all ; yea, also, the 

 heart of the sous of men is full of evil, and mad- 

 ness is in their heart while they live, and after that 

 they go to the dead." — Ibid, ix. 2, 3. " I returned, 

 and saw under the sun that the race is not to the 

 swift, nor the battle to the strong, neither yet 

 bread to the wise, nor yet riches to men of under- 

 standing, nor yet favor to men of skill ; but time 

 and chance happeneth to them all. For man 

 also knoweth not his time ; as the fishes that are 

 taken in an evil net, and as the birds that are 

 caught in a snare, so are the sons of men snared 

 in an evil time, when it falleth suddenly upon 

 them."— lb. ix. 11, 12. 



I have said that evil dispositions and perverse 

 inclinations, enter into the plan of eternal Pro- 

 vidence. In fact, what would those say, who 

 affect to act as the apologists for the happiness 

 and the virtue that is to come, if it was proved 

 to them that, without propensity to evil, there 

 would be neither virtue, nor reward, nor punish- 

 ment ? For, as we have already said, what can 

 be called liberty, if we do not mean by this ex- 

 pression the power of choosing between good and 

 evil ? If men had no propensity except for good, 

 where would be the possibility of doing evil? 

 And without this possibility, on what could we 

 found the idea of vice and virtue, the merit and 

 demerit of actions ? He who does not do evil, be- 

 cause nothing tempts him to do so, is certainly 

 to be envied ; but he cannot pretend to virtue, nor 

 to the merit of actions. What would be the 

 merit, the chastity, of those of whom Jesus 

 says that they came eunuchs from their mothers' 

 womb ? Why boast so much the denial of one's 

 self, if it supposes no injurious propensities which 

 one has succeeded in subduing? All philoso- 

 phers, ancient and modern — Plato, Aristotle, 

 Cicero, Seneca, Pascal, Kant, as well as the 

 fathers of the Church, have founded the notion of 

 virtue on the victory which we obtain over our 

 vicious propensities. Can the old man who has 

 passed his youth in dissoluteness be called conti- 

 nent, and moderate, because his desires have 

 abandoned him ? It is precisely those evil pro- 

 pensities, which many persons consider incom- 

 patible with the glory of God, with the dignity 

 of man, and the welfare of society, which give to 

 man the possibility of being virtuous and vicious : 

 it is only by means of these, that actions can 

 have merit or demerit ; and whoever should ex- 

 tinguish in man the belief in perverse inclinations, 

 would also extinguish in him the fear of punish- 

 ment, and the hope of future reward. 



A SIGN OF WISDOM. 



It is a sign of wisdom never to be cast down by 

 silly trifles. If a spider should break his thread 

 twenty times, just twenty times will he not mend 

 it again ? Make up your mind to do a thing in 

 compass, and you will assuredly accomplish it. 

 Fear not, if trouble come upon you. Ktoep up your 

 spirits, though the day be a dark one. Uniformity 

 of temperament is a great blessing: — 

 " Troubles never stop for ever, 

 The darkest day will pass away." 



