Industrious and sober as they were, originally, they grow quickly intemperate and idle; and Hebronius, who does not appear among his flock until he has freed himself of the Catholic religion, as he has of the Jewish and the Protestant, sees, with dismay, the evil condition of his disciples, and regrets, too late, the precipitancy by which he renounced, then and for ever, Christianity."But, as he had no new religion to adopt in its place, and as, grown more prudent and calm, he did not wish to accuse himself unnecessarily, once more, of inconstancy and apostasy, he still maintained all the exterior forms of the worship which inwardly he had abjured.But it was not enough for him to have quitted error, it was necessary to discover truth.But Hebronius had well looked round to discover it; he could not find anything that resembled it.Then commenced for him a series of sufferings, unknown and terrible.Placed face to face with doubt, this sincere and religious spirit was frightened at its own solitude; and as it had no other desire nor aim on earth than truth, and nothing else here below interested it, he lived absorbed in his own sad contemplations, looked ceaselessly into the vague that surrounded him like an ocean without bounds, and seeing the horizon retreat and retreat as ever he wished to near it.Lost in this immense uncertainty, he felt as if attacked by vertigo, and his thoughts whirled within his brain.Then, fatigued with his vain toils and hopeless endeavors, he would sink down depressed, unmanned, life-wearied, only living in the sensation of that silent grief which he felt and could not comprehend."It is a pity that this hapless Spiridion, so eager in his passage from one creed to another, and so loud in his profession of the truth, wherever he fancied that he had found it, had not waited a little, before he avowed himself either Catholic or Protestant, and implicated others in errors and follies which might, at least, have been confined to his own bosom, and there have lain comparatively harmless.In what a pretty state, for instance, will Messrs.Dr--d and P--l have left their Newman Street congregation, who are still plunged in their old superstitions, from which their spiritual pastors and masters have been set free! In what a state, too, do Mrs.Sand and her brother and sister philosophers, Templars, Saint Simonians, Fourierites, Lerouxites, or whatever the sect may be, leave the unfortunate people who have listened to their doctrines, and who have not the opportunity, or the fiery versatility of belief, which carries their teachers from one creed to another, leaving only exploded lies and useless recantations behind them! Iwish the state would make a law that one individual should not be allowed to preach more than one doctrine in his life, or, at any rate, should be soundly corrected for every change of creed.How many charlatans would have been silenced,--how much conceit would have been kept within bounds,--how many fools, who are dazzled by fine sentences, and made drunk by declamation, would have remained, quiet and sober, in that quiet and sober way of faith which their fathers held before them.However, the reader will be glad to learn that, after all his doubts and sorrows, Spiridion does discover the truth (THE truth, what a wise Spiridion!) and some discretion with it; for, having found among his monks, who are dissolute, superstitious--and all hate him--one only being, Fulgentius, who is loving, candid, and pious, he says to him, "If you were like myself, if the first want of your nature were, like mine, to know, I would, without hesitation, lay bare to you my entire thoughts.I would make you drink the cup of truth, which Imyself have filled with so many tears, at the risk of intoxicating you with the draught.But it is not so, alas! you are made to love rather than to know, and your heart is stronger than your intellect.You are attached to Catholicism,--I believe so, at least,--by bonds of sentiment which you could not break without pain, and which, if you were to break, the truth which I could lay bare to you in return would not repay you for what you had sacrificed.Instead of exalting, it would crush you, very likely.
同类推荐
热门推荐
天才召唤师:王爷请躺好
【本书文风轻松搞笑】凰瑜妃拥有玄幻小说女主的所有配置!穿越前拉着师妹同归于尽、穿越后变身寡妇、但便宜夫君留下了许多财产、还有金手指召唤器、外加一手神偷技能!嗯,唯一不同的是:别人家男主都是狂霸拽的存在,凰瑜妃的男主直接被包养在她的丹田里!这都不是关键!关键是她已经逆袭,脱离废材之名,属于她的传说就要开始了!可是为毛?大陆被入侵者占领了!所以她这个女主刚逆袭,那边儿就有人抢她镜头了……麻了个鸡!对于这些人,就是一个字:干干干干干!王爷汗颜:懒妃太乖可不行
一生都在走好运的盗侠女竟然会因为一次脚滑而从高楼摔出去了,本以为再死难逃,结果却穿越成为了花国七公主,什么皇什么涟的王妃。第一次见面,皇什么涟的叫她滚,她真的就滚起来了。别以为她会像穿越小说女主角那样跟王爷来一场你死我死大家死的爱情故事。不好意思啊,她没空。叫她来个咸鱼大翻身?哈哈,开什么玩笑啊,等她有空再说吧。从二十一世纪穿越过来的懒女人和冷酷暴戾的王爷最后谁会你死我死大家死呢?妖孽王爷:霸道五小姐
她本是一国特工,却遭人残忍猎杀,穿越异世,成为人人唾弃敬而远之的废物。他,则是帝国王爷,腹黑高冷,却因一次邂逅便无可救药的爱上了她。她性格并不冷淡,只是情势所迫。原本活泼的她会和王爷擦出什么爱情的火花呢!