"That," replied Mr. Porteous, "depends on circumstances. Let us, therefore, look at the whole aspects of the case. There is to be considered, for example, your original delinquency, mistake, or call it by what name you please; then there is to be taken into account my full explanation, given ministerially in your own house, of the principles which guided my conduct and ought to guide yours; then there is also the matter of the Kirk Session--the fact that they have taken it up, which adds to its difficulty--a difficulty, however, let me say, Mr. Mercer, which has not been occasioned by me. Now, review all these--especially that with which you have personally most to do--the origo mali, so to speak--the fact that a bird endeared to you by very touching associations was, let me admit it, accidentally, and unintentionally,--let this also be granted for the sake of argument,--made by you the occasion of scandal. We are agreed on this point at least?"
"It was on that point," interrupted the Sergeant, "I thought you doubted my honour."
"No!" said Mr. Porteous; "I only declared that 'honour' was a worldly, not a Christian phrase, and unfit therefore for a Church court."
The Sergeant was nonplussed. Thinking his ignorance sinful, he bowed, and said no more.
"I am glad you acquiesce so far," continued Mr. Porteous. "But further:--carefully observe," and he leant forward, with finger and thumb describing an argumentative enclosure out of which Adam could not escape--"observe that the visible, because notorious, fact of scandal demands some reparation by a fact equally visible and notorious; you see? What kind of reparation I demanded, I have already told you. I smile at its amount, in spite of all you have said, and said so well, in explaining your difficulties in not at once making it; nay I sympathise with your kindly, though, permit me to say, your weak feeling, Adam. But, is feeling principle?" Here Mr. Porteous paused with a complacent smile to witness the telling effect of his suggestive question. "Were our Covenanting forefathers," he went on to say, "guided by feeling in giving their testimony for truth by the sacrifice of their very lives? Were the martyrs of the early Church guided by feeling? But I will not insult an elder of mine by any such arguments, as if he were either ignorant of them, or insensible to their importance. Let me just add," concluded the minister, in a low, emphatic, and solemn voice, laying one hand on Adam's knee, "what would your dear boy now think--supposing him to be saved--if he knew that his father was willing to lose, or even to weaken his influence for good in the parish--to run the risk of being suspended, as you now do, from the honourable position of an elder--and all for what?" asked the minister, throwing himself back in his chair, and spreading out his hands--"all for what! a toy, a plaything, a bird! and because of your feeling--think of it, Adam--your feeling! All must yield but you: neighbours must yield, Session must yield, and I must yield!--no sacrifice or satisfaction will you make, not even of this bird; and all because your feelings, forsooth, would suffer! That's your position, Adam. I say it advisedly. And finally, as I also hinted to you, what would the Dissenters say if we were less pure in our discipline than themselves? Tell it not in Gath, proclaim it not in the streets of Askelon--the Philistines would rejoice! Take any view of the case you please, it is bad--very bad." And the minister struck his thigh, turned round in his chair, and looked at the roof of the room.
Adam at that moment felt as if he was the worst man in the parish, and given over to the power of evil.
"I dinna understand," he said, bending down his head, and scratching his whisker.
"I thought you did not, Adam--I thought you did not," said Mr. Porteous, turning towards him again; "but I am glad if you are beginning to see it at last. Once you get a hold of a principle, all becomes clear."
"It's a sharp principle, minister; it's no' easy seen. It has a fine edge, but cuts deep--desperate deep," remarked Adam, in an undertone.
"That is the case with most principles, Adam," replied Mr. Porteous. "They have a fine edge, but one which, nevertheless, separates between a lie and truth, light and darkness. But if you have it--hold it fast."