She believed in no supreme power who cares that right should be
done in his worlds. Here, it may be, some of my unbelieving
acquaintances, foreseeing a lurid something on the horizon of my
story, will be indignant that the capacity for crime should be
thus associated with the denial of a Live Good. But it remains a
mere fact that it is easier for a man to commit a crime when he
does not fear a willed retribution. Tell me there is no merit in
being prevented by fear; I answer, the talk is not of merit. As
the world is, that is, as the race of men at present is, it is
just as well that the man who has no merit, and never dreamed of
any, should yet be a little hindered from cutting his neighbor's
throat at his evil pleasure.--No; I do not mean hindered by a
lie--I mean hindered by the poorest apprehension of the grandest
truth.
Of those who do not believe, some have never had a noble picture
of God presented to them; but whether their phantasm is of a mean
God because they refuse him, or they refuse him because their
phantasm of him is mean, who can tell? Anyhow, mean notions must
come of meanness, and, uncharitable as it may appear, I can not
but think there is a moral root to all chosen unbelief. But let
God himself judge his own.
With Sepia, what was _best_ meant what was best for her, and
_best for her_ meant _most after her liking_.
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