hat evil is a "chain" for us, holding us down
beneath the earth as in a tomb, and that sentiments hostile to love
are so many obstacles which impede our expansion and our free contact
with the divine essence which is within us. The slightest alloy, the
most minute infiltration, suffices to impair our brilliance and to
cause our ejection from the casket of the elect: a single glance which
judges our brother instead of absolving him, a feeling which hardens
our heart against him, or, finally, the envy which generates devouring
hatred and fury.

"The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: ... hatred,
variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envyings,
witchcraft, murders." To approach the altar with a heart suffering, be
it ever so slightly, from some seductive stimulus against charity is
vain; it is as if a wounded hare should rush to her form, bearing the
arrow that has pierced her through and through; she goes, not to save
herself, but to die in her form. "Likewise thou, if thou bring thy
gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy brother hath aught
against thee ... go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and
then come and offer thy gift."

He who forgives an offense does not perform a logical act of justice,
nor does he benefit the person he forgives; hence it is waste of time
to consider whether the offense deserves pardon or not, and whether
the person who committed it needs absolution from us or not. We must
pardon, not from a sense of justice nor for the benefit of the
offender, but for our own sakes; he who forgives has divested himself
of envy and resentment, of all that oppressed and fettered the spirit,
making it powerless to rise. This is why we must forgive: that so we
may burst the bonds which impede our free movement, our ascent. When
we cut the cable of a balloon, we do not consider whether this is just
towards the earth, and whether the cable deserves it; we do it because
it is necessary, to enable the balloon to rise. He who ascends,
moreover, enjoys the marvels of a spectacle which cannot be enjoyed
on earth. Who would strike a balance between this gain and the
sacrifice of the cable?

Forgive, and you will feel universal absolution rising to you from the
whole world, in token of your ascent _Haec est vera fraternitas, quae
vicit mundi crimina_.

* * * * *

=The religious sentiment in children=.--But few researches have been
made into the