"It is not good for man to be alone; let us make him a help like unto himself." Genesis ii. 18.
[continued from yesterday]
...And if so much is good and glorious, then why not more? If such is her influence, why should it not be greater?....
Let her go further and conquer for herself - she may even whisper that she conquers for God - all that will, nay must be for the best. So she plunges in, laughingly, daringly, declaring that she sees no harm, silencing every warning, accustoming herself to every further step, defying conscience until at last it ceases to speak, making more and more merry on the outside and telling herself that this is life, allowing herself no time or thought to see how it is within, refusing to believe what she very well knows, or knew before she made the plunge, that at the end of this road lies the death of her best self and a heart-wound for the remainder of her life.
"She sang as she danced along the path,I know I am speaking to deaf ears; that is the agony of the priest....
An' the words came down to me:
'What matter a thought of the future years,
When love and youth are free?'
Singing she passed along the path
With myriad flowers entwined:
Fairer her face than the days of spring,
But her eyes - oh! her eyes were blind!
[Continued tomorrow]
___________
From The School of Love and Other Essays
by The Most Reverend Alban Goodier, S.J.
Burns, Oates, & Washburn, Ltd. 1918
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