Know then, that this marvellous principle is our
grand method of directing the intention- the importance of which, in
our moral system, is such that I might almost venture to compare it
with the doctrine of probability. You have had some glimpses of it
in passing, from certain maxims which I mentioned to you. For example,
when I was showing you how servants might execute certain
troublesome jobs with a safe conscience, did you not remark that it
was simply by diverting their intention from the evil to which they
were accessary to the profit which they might reap from the
transaction? Now that is what we call directing the intention. You
saw, too, that, were it not for a similar divergence of the mind,
those who give money for benefices might be downright simoniacs. But I
will now show you this grand method in all its glory, as it applies to
the subject of homicide- a crime which it justifies in a thousand
instances; in order that, from this startling result, you may form
an idea of all that it is calculated to effect."
"I foresee already," said I, "that, according to this mode,
everything will be permitted; it win stick at nothing."
"You always fly from the one extreme to the other," replied the
monk: "prithee avoid that habit. For, just to show you that we are far
from permitting everything, let me tell you that we never suffer
such a thing as a formal intention to sin, with the sole design of
sinning; and if any person whatever should persist in having no
other end but evil in the evil that he does, we break with him at
once: such conduct is diabolical.
Pages:
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112