Augustine.—“You, doubtless, are amongst those spiritually enlightened, though I suspect that you regard me as still in darkness. I should like to know how far, with faith your infallible guide, you have penetrated into such a mystery, for instance, as that of the origin of sin.”
Pride.—“Nail him with that difficulty; wrest his one weapon out of his hand, and see how he comes off in the contest when your intellect fairly grapples with his!”
Aumerle.—“I find it more profitable, my brother, to trace the effects of sin in my own heart, than to dive into such a mystery. The existence of sin within us concerns us more nearly than its origin.”
Augustine.—“Now own to me frankly, Lawrence, whether there be not something conventional and strained in this perpetual talk—I had almost said cant—about sin, which we hear from the best people in the world? I look upon it as the affectation of humility, because without that crowning virtue the most saintly character is not considered to be absolutely perfect.”
Aumerle.—“Can you doubt the all-pervading influence of sin? The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags. There is none that doeth good, no not one; this is the scriptural estimate of human nature.”
Augustine.—“Lay aside the Scriptures for a moment, and come to actual facts as we see them around us. Look now at such a character as that of Ida—pure, unworldly, self-denying, devoted; such a description of evil cannot for a moment be applied to her.”
Aumerle.—“You see her, God be praised, as she is by grace, and not by nature.”
Augustine.—“But she continues to regard herself as a sinner,—for aught that I know as the chief of sinners, she is ever repenting of errors which no one but herself can perceive.”
Aumerle.—“With faculties as limited as ours, our not perceiving errors is no proof of their non-existence. What to the naked eye is so pure as a crystal stream, or so glorious as the orb of day? yet the microscope reveals to us impurities in the water, and the telescope—blots in the sun.”
Augustine (smiling).—“Leave to me the unassisted vision. I do not wish to think ill of human nature. I believe that a man may walk serenely through life, and find himself in heaven at the end of it, without this incessant judging and condemning either himself or his fellow-creatures.”