San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1892-06-21

Nv had"SctuasIy- c-DokenI Spokenl But
how? He had told his hearers that h,
was altogether vile, viler companion
of the vilest, the worst of sinners, al
abomination. athing of unimaginahle in
EQUITY; and the only wonder was thai
they did not see his wFetehed body
shriveled up before their eyes by the
burning wrath CT the Almighty Could
there be palmer speech than this
Would not the people start up in theil
seats, by simultaneous impulse, and
tear him down eut of the pulpit which
he defiled? Not so, indeed! They heard
it all, and did but reverence him the
more. They little guessed what deadly
purport lurked in those self condemning
words. The godly YOUTH said they
among themselves. "The saint on
earth! Alas. if he discern such sinful
ness in his own white soul, what horrid
spectacle would he behold in thine or
miner
The minister well knew-subtle, but
remOrseful hypocrite that he was-the
light in which his vague confession
would be viewed. He had striven to
put a,cheat upon himself by making the
avowal of q guilty Consciencs, but had
gained only one other sin and self &C
knowledged shame without the momen
tary rekef of being self deceived. He
had spoken the very truth and trans
formed it into the veriest falsehood.
And yet, by the constitution of his ma
ture, he loved the truth and loathed
the lie as few men ever did Therefore
above all things else he loathed his mis-
cradle self!
His inward trouble drove him to prac-
tees more in accordance with the old
corrupted faith of Rome than with tn.
better light of the church in which hi
had been born and bred. In NJ. Dim
mesdale's secret closet, under lock and
key, there was bloody scourge. Often.
times this Protestant and Puritan divine
had piled 1t on his own shoulders, laugh
ing bitterly at himself the while, and
shifting so much the more pitilessly be-
cause of that bitter laugh. 1t was his
custom, too, as it has been that of many
other pious Puritans, to fast--not, how
ever, like them, in order to purify the
body and render it the filter medium of
celestial illumination, but vigorously,
and until his knees trembled beneath
him, as an act of penance. He kept
vigils likewise night after night, some
times in utter darkness, sometimes with
a glimmering lamp, and sometimes,
viewing his own face in looking glass
by the most powerful light which he
could throw upon it. He thus typified
the constant introspection wherewith he
tortured, but could not purify, himself.
In these heightened vigils his brain Of
ten reeled, and visions seemed to fit be-
fore him; perhaps seen doubtfully, and
by faint light of their own, in the re-
mote dimness of the chamber, or more
wildly and close beside him, within the
looking glass Now it was herd of di-
abolic shapes that grinned and Knocked
at the pale minister and beckoned him
away with them; now a group of shin
ing angels, who few upward heavily, as
sorrow laden, but grew more ethereal as
they rose. Now came the dead friends
of his youth, and his white bearded ia
Their, with saintlike frown, and his
mother, turning her face away as she
passed by. Ghost of mother-thin-
nest fantasy of mother-methinks she
might yet have thrown plying glance
toward her son! And now, through the
chamber which these spectral thoughts
had made so CHASTITY, glided Hester
Prynne, leading along little Pearl, in
her scarlet garb, and pointing her fore
finger first at the scarlet letter on her
bosom and then at the clergymans own
breast,
On one of those ugly nights, which we
have family limited at, but forborne to
picture forth, the minister started from
his chair. A new thought had struck
him. There might be moments peace
in it. Attiring himself with as much
care as if it had been for public worship,
and precisely in the same manner, he
stole softly down the staircase, undid
the door and issued forth.
CHAPTER Y