The human spirit, fixed in a lie, adhering to a lie, giving itself perpetually the lie.
All begins with A.
Adultress. Alpha. Abel, Adam. A. America.
The Scarlet Letter.
"Had there been a Papist among the crowd of Puritans, he might have seen in this beautiful woman, so picturesque in her attire and mien, and with the infant at her bosom, an object to remind him of the image of Divine Maternity, which so many illustrious painters have vied with one another to represent; something which should remind him, indeed, but only by contrast, of that sacred image of sinless Motherhood, whose infant was to redeem the world."
Whose infant was to redeem the world indeed! It will be a startling redemption the world will get from the American infant.
"Here was a taint of deepest sin in the most sacred quality of human life, working such effect that the world was only the darker for this woman's beauty, and more lost for the infant she had borne."
Just listen to the darling. Isn't he a master of apology?
Of symbols, too.
His pious blame is a chuckle of praise all the while.