A: The Ring and the Book—The Pope, 1916-1927.
If the heart proved to Caponsacchi a guide to all that is good and glorious, "the Abate, second in the suite," puts in the testimony of another experience: "His heart answered to another tune."
"I have my taste too, and tread no such step!
You choose the glorious life, and may for me!
I like the lowest of life's appetites,—
So you judge—but the very truth of joy
To my own apprehension which decides."B
B: Ibid., 1932-1936.
Mere emotion is thus an insecure guide to conduct, for its authority can be equally cited in support of every course of life. No one can say to his neighbour, "Thou art wrong." Every impulse is right to the individual who has it, and so long as he has it. De gustibus non disputandum. Without a universal criterion there is no praise or blame.
"Call me knave and you get yourself called fool!