The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1907-10-19

denylng everything. L WOulQ rdIu6T DOSWC1, o0'A~
johnson to his bographer, "be damned-lt am te
be damned-I would rather be damned for belie7
ing too much than believing too little" And now
to our extracts The DR.. Rameau, who is the star
character in Ohnet's novel, from which quote
began by "Clearing away the rubbish to get at
great things" and see where he landed We trans
late this striking interview between the doctors
wife and the doctors friend for the benefit Of the
Congregational pastor and his admirers. The friend
of the family has been, by accident the unwilling
spectator of improper familiarities between the
doctors wife and an acquaintance. He enters and
reproaches her, and after dwelling at some length
on the moral aspects of the case he reminds her of
the danger her folly has incurred and observes;
'What an imprudence to expose yourself to the
observation of any chance visitor perhaps of a SER
want! Think that for a blessed chance your hus-
band might have come with me! What if it had
been he who caught you? Do you know that he is
man to have killed both of you?"
II know it," she said in low voice
He turned to her and continued more gently
"Let us consider, my child. Hear me with your
heart and your reason, too. You cannot possibly
be as greatly in fault as you seem to be. You must
have yielded to a momentary fascination. You shall
recover yourself and be again what you ought to be-
Think of yourself, think of your husband"
''NIy husbandl" she Cried "he is the cause of it
all 1t is he who has mised mel He himself is re-
sponsibe for my fall"
"What! your husband? What you say is mon
strous."
"But it is true, nevertheless. If he, instead Of
you, were before me, should say the same and he
could okn How cbo1d bn
crime to yield to a monetary fascination of the
senses-he who believes in nothing but matter?
According to him, human beings are controlled sim
ply by animal instincts. He puts them on the
same plane with the brutes. What, then, should
have stopped me? A sentiment of duty? But that
means conscience, and conscience means a soul,
and he believes in no such thing. My ears are still
full of the laughter he showered on me when [
tried-poor superstitious thing, as he called me
to defend my faith. You yourself have been wit
ness of those Senses you took my part and all you
made by it was to be baffed and Knocked along with
me by his naughty philosophy.
"He has made pleasure of breaking down every
barrier that might have restrained me. The COM
mandments of my God required of me fidelity and
duty; but he insisted there is no Cod heaven is
empty space. Ny mother told me from childhood
to be good and virtuous in this world and I should
reap reward hereafter; but my husband proved that
nothing in about remains after we die.
And with what did he undertake to replace the
consoing faith and salutary fear of which he
robbed me? Why, with some vague principals of
variable in their nature since they are
the products of winds that change and easily brok
en- since they merely human. [ repeat it, what
ever crime there may be in what I have done, he is
the true criminal. 1 consider him all the more
execrable when [ think that [ might have been
loving, faithful and devoted to him, and that he
has done his utmost to prevent it, and to bring up
on an immense dispair" lie Docteur Rameau
Georges Ohnet)
In the light of recent deplorable events in Og-
den, this logic on the whole, suggests some preg-
nant reflections. If men and women even with the
saving truths taught by our Divine Lord, ringing
in their ears, will sometimes go down into misery
and foulness, what is likely to be the end of those
oeset with the same temptations, with no hell to
brighten Them no heaven to allure them and no God
20 help them?