century of loneliness--now the night
shall swallow her."

"Nay, nay," I cried, "it would be a wicked crime; and from a crime
naught comes but what is evil. For thine own sake, do not this deed."

"Is it, then, a crime, oh foolish man, to put away that which stands
between us and our ends? Then is our life one long crime, my Holly,
since day by day we destroy that we may live, since in this world none
save the strongest can endure. Those who are weak must perish; the earth
is to the strong, and the fruits thereof. For every tree that grows a
score shall wither, that the strong one may take their share. We run to
place and power over the dead bodies of those who fail and fall; ay, we
win the food we eat from out of the mouths of starving babes. It is
the scheme of things. Thou sayest, too, that a crime breeds evil, but
therein thou dost lack experience; for out of crimes come many good
things, and out of good grows much evil. The cruel rage of the tyrant
may prove a blessing to the thousands who come after him, and the
sweetheartedness of a holy man may make a nation slaves. Man doeth this,
and doeth that from the good or evil of his heart; but he knoweth not
to what end his moral sense doth prompt him; for when he striketh he is
blind to where the blow shall fall, nor can he count the airy threads
that weave the web of circumstance. Good and evil, love and hate, night
and day, sweet and bitter, man and woman, heaven above and the earth
beneath--all these things are necessary, one to the other, and who knows
the end of each? I tell thee that there is a hand of fate that twines
them up to bear the burden of its purpose, and all things are gathered
in that great rope to which all things are needful. Therefore doth it
not become us to say this thing is evil and this good, or the dark is
hateful and the light lovely; for to other eyes than ours the evil may
be the good and the darkness more beautiful than the day, or all alike
be fair. Hearest thou, my Holly?"

I felt it was hopeless to argue against casuistry of this nature, which,
if it were carried to its logical conclusion, would absolutely destroy
all morality, as we understand it. But her talk gave me a fresh thrill
of fear; for what may not be possible to a being who, unconstrained by
human law, is also absolutely unshackled by a moral sense of right and
wrong, which, however partial and conventional it may be, is yet
based, as our conscience tells us, upon the great