"Mademoiselle de Meglior does not worship images that I am aware of," said Eugene, somewhat startled at this burst, "though to keep her mind concentrated on one idea, she may possibly make use of them."
"And what is that but idolatry?" said his sister; "how many of the pagans, think you, would mistake a statue of Minerva for Minerva herself? Their statues were but types to recall ideas."
"Yes, but the ideas themselves were false; Paganism was the worship of physical power, the deification of materialism. True religion is the direct converse of this. It is the elevation of the soul to spirituality, the recognition of a spiritual God, who created man for his own glory, endowed him with spiritual life, for the express purpose of keeping him strictly united to himself. The centre of the one system is self or concupiscence. The worship rendered is the worship of fear, or for the promotion of self-gratification. The centre of the other system is God, by whom all things are made, in whom they still exist, and for whom they should exist in will, as well as in act. One is paganism, the other is Christianity."
"And what may you mean by concupiscence, most learned Theban?" asked the duchess.
"Concupiscence is such a love of self as prevents us from making God the first object of our love," responded Eugene.
"And you, in sober earnest, profess to think it possible to love God more than yourself?"
"I think men have done so," said Eugene, "though they have been but few, when compared to the world's masses."
"Men have loved their whims and fancies to an astonishing degree, I know," said the duchess; "fanaticism has abounded on the earth, but fanaticism is, after all, only a species of madness; I know not whether it be curable or not."
"Do you, then, think it a sort of madness to endeavor to find the true and living God, and having found, to worship him? That, surely, is not your grace's meaning?" There was a slight contempt in Eugene's tone as he said this; his sister was nettled and answered coldly: