now that some serpents have the power of
what is called "fascinating." Their eye has the power of subduing--nay,
in a strange way, of alluring--their victim, who is reduced to utter
helplessness, cannot flee away, nay, rather is obliged to approach, and
(as it were) deliver himself up to them; till in their own time they
seize and devour him. What a dreadful figure this is of the power of sin
and the devil over our hearts! At first our conscience tells us, in a
plain straightforward way, what is right and what is wrong; but when we
trifle with this warning, our reason becomes perverted, and comes in aid
of our wishes, and deceives us to our ruin. Then we begin to find, that
there are arguments available in behalf of bad deeds, and we listen to
these till we come to think them true; and then, if perchance better
thoughts return, and we make some feeble effort to get at the truth
really and sincerely, we find our minds by that time so bewildered that
we do not know right from wrong.

Thus, for instance, every one is shocked at cursing and swearing when he
first hears it; and at first he cannot help even showing that he is
shocked; that is, he looks grave and downcast, and feels uncomfortable.
But when he has once got accustomed to such profane talking, and been
laughed out of his strictness, and has begun to think it manly, and has
been persuaded to join in it, then he soon learns to defend it. He says
he means no harm by it; that it does no one any harm; that it is only so
many words, and that every body uses them. Here is an instance in which
disobedience to what we know to be right makes us blind.

Again, this same confusion frequently happens in the case of temptations
from the world. We fear worldly loss or discredit; or we hope some
advantage; and we feel tempted to act so as to secure, at any rate, the
worldly good, or to avoid the evil. Now in all such cases of conduct
there is no end of arguing about right or wrong, if we once begin; there
are numberless ways of acting, each of which may be speciously defended
by argument, but plain, pure-hearted common sense, generally speaking, at
the very first sight decides the question for us without argument; but if
we do not listen promptly to this secret monitor, its light goes out at
once, and we are left to the mercy of mere conjecture, and grope about
with but second-best guides. Then seeming arguments in favour of deceit
and evil compliance with the world's w