Letter VII

Paris, April 25, 1656

SIR,
Having succeeded in pacifying the good father, who had been rather
disconcerted by the story of John d'Alba, he resumed the conversation,
on my assuring him that I would avoid all such interruptions in
future, and spoke of the maxims of his casuists with regard to
gentlemen, nearly in the following terms:

"You know," he said, "that the ruling passion of persons in that
rank of life is 'the point of honor,' which is perpetually driving
them into acts of violence apparently quite at variance with Christian
piety; so that, in fact, they would be almost all of them excluded
from our confessionals, had not our fathers relaxed a little from
the strictness of religion, to accommodate themselves to the
weakness of humanity. Anxious to keep on good terms both with the
Gospel, by doing their duty to God, and with the men of the world,
by showing charity to their neighbour, they needed all the wisdom they
possessed to devise expedients for so nicely adjusting matters as to
permit these gentlemen to adopt the methods usually resorted to for
vindicating their honour, without wounding their consciences, and thus
reconcile two things apparently so opposite to each other as piety and
the point of honour. But, sir, in proportion to the utility of the
design, was the difficulty of the execution. You cannot fail, I should
think, to realize the magnitude and arduousness of such an
enterprise?"

"It astonishes me, certainly," said I, rather coldly.

"It astonishes you, forsooth!" cried the monk. "I can well believe
that; many besides you might be astonished at it. Why, don't you
know that, on the one hand, the Gospel commands us 'not to render evil
for evil, but to leave vengeance to God'; and that, on the other hand,
the laws of the world forbid our enduring an affront without demanding
satisfaction from the offender, and that often at the expense of his
life? You have never, I am sure, met with anything to all appearance
more diametrically opposed than these two codes of morals; and yet,
when told that our fathers have reconciled them, you have nothing more
to say than simply that this astonishes you!"

"I did not sufficiently explain myself, father. I should certainly
have considered the thing perfectly impracticable, if I had not known,
from what I have seen of your fathers, that they are capable of
doing with ease what is impossible to other men. This led me to
anticipate that they must have discovered some method for meeting
the difficulty- a method which I admire even before knowing it, and
which I pray you to explain to me."

"Since that is your view of the matter," replied the monk, "I
cannot refuse you. Know then, that this marvellous principle is our
grand method of directing the intention- the importance of which, in
our moral system, is such that I might almost venture to compare it
with the doctrine of probability. You have had some glimpses of it
in passing, from certain maxims which I mentioned to you. For example,
when I was showing you how servants might execute certain
troublesome jobs with a safe conscience, did you not remark that it
was simply by diverting their intention from the evil to which they
were accessary to the profit which they might reap from the
transaction? Now that is what we call directing the intention. You
saw, too, that, were it not for a similar divergence of the mind,
those who give money for benefices might be downright simoniacs. But I
will now show you this grand method in all its glory, as it applies to
the subject of homicide- a crime which it justifies in a thousand
instances; in order that, from this startling result, you may form
an idea of all that it is calculated to effect."

"I foresee already," said I, "that, according to this mode,
everything will be permitted; it win stick at nothing."

"You always fly from the one extreme to the other," replied the
monk: "prithee avoid that habit. For, just to show you that we are far
from permitting everything, let me tell you that we never suffer
such a thing as a formal intention to sin, with the sole design of
sinning; and if any person whatever should persist in having no
other end but evil in the evil that he does, we break with him at
once: such conduct is diabolical. This holds true, without exception
of age, sex, or rank. But when the person is not of such a wretched
disposition as this, we try to put in practice our method of directing
the intention, which simply consists in his proposing to himself, as
the end of his actions, some allowable object. Not that we do not
endeavour, as far as we can, to dissuade men from doing things
forbidden; but when we cannot prevent the action, we at least purify
the motive, and thus correct the viciousness of the means by the
goodness of the end. Such is the way in which our fathers have
contrived to permit those acts of violence to which men usually resort
in vindication of their honour. They have no more to do than to turn
off their intention from the desire of vengeance, which is criminal,
and direct it to a desire to defend their honour, which, according
to us, is quite warrantable. And in this way our doctors discharge all
their duty towards God and towards man. By permitting the action, they
gratify the world; and by purifying the intention, they give
satisfaction to the Gospel. This is a secret, sir, which was
entirely unknown to the ancients; the world is indebted for the
discovery entirely to our doctors. You understand it now, I hope?"

"Perfectly well," was my reply. "To men you grant the outward
material effect of the action; and to God you give the inward and
spiritual movement of the intention; and by this equitable
partition, you form an alliance between the laws of God and the laws
of men. But, my dear sir, to be frank with you, I can hardly trust
your premisses, and I suspect that your authors will tell another
tale."

"You do me injustice, rejoined the monk; "I advance nothing but
what I am ready to prove, and that by such a rich array of passages
that altogether their number, their authority, and their reasonings,
will fill you with admiration. To show you, for example, the
alliance which our fathers have formed between the maxims of the
Gospel and those of the world, by thus regulating the intention, let
me refer you to Reginald: 'Private persons are forbidden to avenge
themselves; for St. Paul says to the Romans (12), "Recompense to no
man evil for evil"; and Ecclesiasticus says (28), "He that taketh
vengeance shall draw on himself the vengeance of God, and his sins
will not be forgotten." Besides all that is said in the Gospel about
forgiving offences, as in chapters 6 and 18 of St. Matthew.'"

"Well, father, if after that he says anything contrary to the
Scripture, it will not be from lack of scriptural knowledge, at any
rate. Pray, how does he conclude?"

"You shall hear," he said. "From all this it appears that a
military man may demand satisfaction on the spot from the person who
has injured him- not, indeed, with the intention of rendering evil for
evil, but with that of preserving his honour- 'non ut malum pro malo
reddat, sed ut conservet honorem.' See you how carefully they guard
against the intention of rendering evil for evil, because the
Scripture condemns it? This is what they will tolerate on no
account. Thus Lessius observes, that 'if a man has received a blow
on the face, he must on no account have an intention to avenge
himself; but he may lawfully have an intention to avert infamy, and
may, with that view, repel the insult immediately, even at the point
of the sword- etiam cum gladio!' So far are we from permitting any one
to cherish the design of taking vengeance on his enemies that our
fathers will not allow any even to wish their death- by a movement
of hatred. 'If your enemy is disposed to injure you,' says Escobar,
'you have no right to wish his death, by a movement of hatred;
though you may, with a view to save yourself from harm.' So
legitimate, indeed, is this wish, with such an intention, that our
great Hurtado de Mendoza says that 'we may pray God to visit with
speedy death those who are bent on persecuting us, if there is no
other way of escaping from it.'"

"May it please your reverence," said I, "the Church has
forgotten to insert a petition to that effect among her prayers."

"They have not put in everything into the prayers that one may
lawfully ask of God," answered the monk. "Besides, in the present
case, the thing was impossible, for this same opinion is of more
recent standing than the Breviary. You are not a good chronologist,
friend. But, not to wander from the point, let me request vour
attention to the following passage, cited by Diana from Gaspar
Hurtado, one of Escobar's four-and-twenty fathers: 'An incumbent
may, without any mortal sin, desire the decease of a life-renter on
his benefice, and a son that of his father, and rejoice when it
happens; provided always it is for the sake of the profit that is to
accrue from the event, and not from personal aversion.'"

"Good!" cried I. "That is certainly a very happy hit; and I can
easily see that the doctrine admits of a wide application. But yet
there are certain cases, the solution of which, though of great
importance for gentlemen, might present still greater difficulties."

"Propose them, if you please, that we may see," said the monk.

"Show me, with all your directing of the intention," returned I,

"that it is allowable to fight a duel."

"Our great Hurtado de Mendoza," said the father, "will satisfy you
on that point in a twinkling. 'If a gentleman,' says he, in a
passage cited by Diana, 'who is challenged to fight a duel, is well
known to have no religion, and if the vices to which he is openly
and unscrupulously addicted are such as would lead people to conclude,
in the event of his refusing to fight, that he is actuated, not by the
fear of God, but by cowardice, and induce them to say of him that he
was a hen, and not a man, gallina, et non vir; in that case he may, to
save his honour, appear at the appointed spot- not, indeed, with the
express intention of fighting a duel, but merely with that of
defending himself, should the person who challenged him come there
unjustly to attack him. His action in this case, viewed by itself,
will be perfectly indifferent; for what moral evil is there in one
stepping into a field, taking a stroll in expectation of meeting a
person, and defending one's self in the event of being attacked? And
thus the gentleman is guilty of no sin whatever; for in fact it cannot
be called accepting a challenge at all, his intention being directed
to other circumstances, and the acceptance of a challenge consisting
in an express intention to fight, which we are supposing the gentleman
never had.'"

"You have not kept your word with me, sir," said I. "This is
not, properly speaking, to permit duelling; on the contrary, the
casuist is so persuaded that this practice is forbidden that, in
licensing the action in question, he carefully avoids calling it a
duel."

"Ah!" cried the monk, "you begin to get knowing on my hand, I am
glad to see. I might reply that the author I have quoted grants all
that duellists are disposed to ask. But since you must have a
categorical answer, I shall allow our Father Layman to give it for me.
He permits duelling in so many words, provided that, in accepting
the challenge, the person directs his intention solely to the
preservation of his honour or his property: 'If a soldier or a
courtier is in such a predicament that he must lose either his
honour or his fortune unless he accepts a challenge, I see nothing
to hinder him from doing so in self-defence.' The same thing is said
by Peter Hurtado, as quoted by our famous Escobar; his words are: 'One
may fight a duel even to defend one's property, should that be
necessary; because every man has a right to defend his property,
though at the expense of his enemy's life!'"

I was struck, on hearing these passages, with the reflection that,
while the piety of the king appears in his exerting all his power to
prohibit and abolish the practice of duelling in the State, the
piety of the Jesuits is shown in their employing all their ingenuity
to tolerate and sanction it in the Church. But the good father was
in such an excellent key for talking that it would have been cruel
to have interrupted him; so he went on with his discourse.

"In short," said he, "Sanchez (mark, now, what great names I am
quoting to you!) Sanchez, sir, goes a step further; for he shows
how, simply by managing the intention rightly, a person may not only
receive a challenge, but give one. And our Escobar follows him."

"Prove that, father," said I, "and I shall give up the point:
but I will not believe that he has written it, unless I see it in
print."

"Read it yourself, then," he replied: and, to be sure, I read
the following extract from the Moral Theology of Sanchez: "It is
perfectly reasonable to hold that a man may fight a duel to save his
life, his honour, or any considerable portion of his property, when it
is apparent that there is a design to deprive him of these unjustly,
by law-suits and chicanery, and when there is no other way of
preserving them. Navarre justly observes that, in such cases, it is
lawful either to accept or to send a challenge- licet acceptare et
offerre duellum. The same author adds that there is nothing to prevent
one from despatching one's adversary in a private way. Indeed, in
the circumstances referred to, it is advisable to avoid employing
the method of the duel, if it is possible to settle the affair by
privately killing our enemy; for, by this means, we escape at once
from exposing our life in the combat, and from participating in the
sin which our opponent would have committed by fighting the duel!"

"A most pious assassination!" said I. "Still, however, pious
though it be, it is assassination, if a man is permitted to kill his
enemy in a treacherous manner."

"Did I say that he might kill him treacherously?" cried the
monk. "God forbid! I said he might kill him privately, and you
conclude that he may kill him treacherously, as if that were the
same thing! Attend, sir, to Escobar's definition before allowing
yourself to speak again on this subject: 'We call it killing in
treachery when the person who is slain had no reason to suspect such a
fate. He, therefore, that slays his enemy cannot be said to kill him
in treachery, even although the blow should be given insidiously and
behind his back- licet per insidias aut a tergo percutiat.' And again:
'He that kills his enemy, with whom he was reconciled under a
promise of never again attempting his life, cannot be absolutely
said to kill in treachery, unless there was between them all the
stricter friendship- arctior amicitia.' You see now you do not even
understand what the terms signify, and yet you pretend to talk like
a doctor."

"I grant you this is something quite new to me," I replied; "and I
should gather from that definition that few, if any, were ever
killed in treachery; for people seldom take it into their heads to
assassinate any but their enemies. Be this as it may, however, it
seems that, according to Sanchez, a man may freely slay (I do not
say treacherously, but only insidiously and behind his back) a
calumniator, for example, who prosecutes us at law?"

"Certainly he may," returned the monk, "always, however, in the
way of giving a right direction to the intention: you constantly
forget the main point. Molina supports the same doctrine; and what
is more, our learned brother Reginald maintains that we may despatch
the false witnesses whom he summons against us. And, to crown the
whole, according to our great and famous fathers Tanner and Emanuel
Sa, it is lawful to kill both the false witnesses and the judge
himself, if he has had any collusion with them. Here are Tanner's very
words: 'Sotus and Lessius think that it is not lawful to kill the
false witnesses and the magistrate who conspire together to put an
innocent person to death; but Emanuel Sa and other authors with good
reason impugn that sentiment, at least so far as the conscience is
concerned.' And he goes on to show that it is quite lawful to kill
both the witnesses and the judge."

"Well, father," said I, "I think I now understand pretty well your
principle regarding the direction of the intention: but I should
like to know something of its consequences, and all the cases in which
this method of yours arms a man with the power of life and death.
Let us go over them again, for fear of mistake, for equivocation
here might be attended with dangerous results. Killing is a matter
which requires to be well-timed, and to be backed with a good probable
opinion. You have assured me, then, that by giving a proper turn to
the intention, it is lawful, according to your fathers, for the
preservation of one's honour, or even property, to accept a
challenge to a duel, to give one sometimes, to kill in a private way a
false accuser, and his witnesses along with him, and even the judge
who has been bribed to favour them; and you have also told me that
he who has got a blow may, without avenging himself, retaliate with
the sword. But you have not told me, father, to what length he may
go."

"He can hardly mistake there," replied the father, "for he may
go all the length of killing his man. This is satisfactorily proved by
the learned Henriquez, and others of our fathers quoted by Escobar, as
follows: 'It is perfectly right to kill a person who has given us a
box on the ear, although he should run away, provided it is not done
through hatred or revenge, and there is no danger of giving occasion
thereby to murders of a gross kind and hurtful to society. And the
reason is that it is as lawful to pursue the thief that has stolen our
honour, as him that has run away with our property. For, although your
honour cannot be said to be in the hands of your enemy in the same
sense as your goods and chattels are in the hands of the thief,
still it may be recovered in the same way- by showing proofs of
greatness and authority, and thus acquiring the esteem of men. And, in
point of fact, is it not certain that the man who has received a
buffet on the ear is held to be under disgrace, until he has wiped off
the insult with the blood of his enemy?'"

I was so shocked on hearing this that it was with great difficulty
I could contain myself; but, in my anxiety to hear the rest, I allowed
him to proceed.

"Nay," he continued, "it is allowable to prevent a buffet, by
killing him that meant to give it, if there be no other way to
escape the insult. This opinion is quite common with our fathers.
For example, Azor, one of the four-and-twenty elders, proposing the
question, 'Is it lawful for a man of honour to kill another who
threatens to give him a slap on the face, or strike him with a stick?'
replies, 'Some say he may not; alleging that the life of our neighbour
is more precious than our honour, and that it would be an act of
cruelty to kill a man merely to avoid a blow. Others, however, think
that it is allowable; and I certainly consider it probable, when there
is no other way of warding off the insult; for, otherwise, the
honour of the innocent would be constantly exposed to the malice of
the insolent.' The same opinion is given by our great Filiutius; by
Father Hereau, in his Treatise on Homicide, by Hurtado de Mendoza,
in his Disputations, by Becan, in his Summary; by our Fathers
Flahaut and Lecourt, in those writings which the University, in
their third petition, quoted at length, in order to bring them into
disgrace (though in this they failed); and by Escobar. In short,
this opinion is so general that Lessius lays it down as a point
which no casuist has contested; he quotes a great many that uphold,
and none that deny it; and particularly Peter Navarre, who, speaking
of affronts in general (and there is none more provoking than a box on
the ear), declares that 'by the universal consent of the casuists,
it is lawful to kill the calumniator, if there be no other way of
averting the affront- ex sententia omnium, licet contumeliosum
occidere, si aliter ea injuria arceri nequit.' Do you wish any more
authorities?" asked the monk.

I declared I was much obliged to him; I had heard rather more than
enough of them already. But, just to see how far this damnable
doctrine would go, I said, "But, father, may not one be allowed to
kill for something still less? Might not a person so direct his
intention as lawfully to kill another for telling a lie, for example?"

"He may," returned the monk; "and according to Father Baldelle,
quoted by Escobar, 'you may lawfully take the life of another for
saying, "You have told a lie"; if there is no other way of shutting
his mouth.' The same thing may be done in the case of slanders. Our
Fathers Lessius and Hereau agree in the following sentiments: 'If
you attempt to ruin my character by telling stories against me in
the presence of men of honour, and I have no other way of preventing
this than by putting you to death, may I be permitted to do so?
According to the modern authors, I may, and that even though I have
been really guilty of the crime which you divulge, provided it is a
secret one, which you could not establish by legal evidence. And I
prove it thus: If you mean to rob me of my honour by giving me a box
on the ear, I may prevent it by force of arms; and the same mode of
defence is lawful when you would do me the same injury with the
tongue. Besides, we may lawfully obviate affronts and, therefore,
slanders. In fine, honour is dearer than life; and as it is lawful
to kill in defence of life, it must be so to kill in defence of
honour.' There, you see, are arguments in due form; this is
demonstration, sir- not mere discussion. And, to conclude, this
great man Lessius shows, in the same place, that it is lawful to
kill even for a simple gesture, or a sign of contempt. 'A man's
honour,' he remarks, 'may be attacked or filched away in various ways-
in all of which vindication appears very reasonable; as, for instance,
when one offers to strike us with a stick, or give us a slap on the
face, or affront us either by words or signs- sive per signa.'"

"Well, father," said I, "it must be owned that you have made every
possible provision to secure the safety of reputation; but it
strikes me that human life is greatly in danger, if any one may be
conscientiously put to death simply for a defamatory speech or a saucy
gesture."

"That is true," he replied; "but, as our fathers are very
circumspect, they have thought it proper to forbid putting this
doctrine into practice on such trifling occasions. They say, at least,
'that it ought hardly to be reduced to practice- practice vix
probari potest.' And they have a good reason for that, as you shall
see."

"Oh, I know what it will be," interrupted I; "because the law of
God forbids us to kill, of course."

"They do not exactly take that ground," said the father; "as a
matter of conscience, and viewing the thing abstractly, they hold it
allowable."

"And why then, do they forbid it?"

"I shall tell you that, sir. It is because, were we to kill all
the defamers among us, we should very shortly depopulate the
country. 'Although,' says Reginald, 'the opinion that we may kill a
man for calumny is not without its probability in theory, the contrary
one ought to be followed in practice; for, in our mode of defending
ourselves, we should always avoid doing injury to the commonwealth;
and it is evident that by killing people in this way there would be
too many murders. 'We should be on our guard,' says Lessius, 'lest the
practice of this maxim prove hurtful to the State; for in this case it
ought not to be permitted- tunc enim non est permittendus.'"

"What, father! is it forbidden only as a point of policy, and
not of religion? Few people, I am afraid, will pay any regard to
such a prohibition, particularly when in a passion. Very probably they
might think they were doing no harm to the State, by ridding it of
an unworthy member."

"And accordingly," replied the monk, "our Filiutius has
fortified that argument with another, which is of no slender
importance, namely, 'that for killing people after this manner, one
might be punished in a court of justice.'"

"There now, father; I told you before, that you will never be able
to do anything worth the while, unless you get the magistrates to go
along with you."

"The magistrates," said the father, "as they do not penetrate into
the conscience, judge merely of the outside of the action, while we
look principally to the intention; and hence it occasionally happens
that our maxims are a little different from theirs."

"Be that as it may, father; from yours, at least, one thing may be
fairly inferred- that, by taking care not to injure the
commonwealth, we may kill defamers with a safe conscience, provided we
can do it with a sound skin. But, sir, after having seen so well to
the protection of honour, have you done nothing for property? I am
aware it is of inferior importance, but that does not signify; I
should think one might direct one's intention to kill for its
preservation also."

"Yes," replied the monk; "and I gave you a hint to that effect
already, which may have suggested the idea to you. All our casuists
agree in that opinion; and they even extend the permission to those
cases 'where no further violence is apprehended from those that
steal our property; as, for example, where the thief runs away.' Azor,
one of our Society, proves that point."

"But, sir, how much must the article be worth, to justify our
proceeding to that extremity?"

"According to Reginald and Tanner, 'the article must be of great
value in the estimation of a judicious man.' And so think Layman and
Filiutius."

"But, father, that is saying nothing to the purpose; where am I to
find 'a judicious man' (a rare person to meet with at any time), in
order to make this estimation? Why do they not settle upon an exact
sum at once?"

"Ay, indeed!" retorted the monk; "and was it so easy, think you,
to adjust the comparative value between the life of a man, and a
Christian man, too, and money? It is here I would have you feel the
need of our casuists. Show me any of your ancient fathers who will
tell for how much money we may be allowed to kill a man. What will
they say, but 'Non occides- Thou shalt not kill?'"

"And who, then, has ventured to fix that sum?" I inquired.

"Our great and incomparable Molina," he replied- "the glory of our
Society- who has, in his inimitable wisdom, estimated the life of a
man 'at six or seven ducats; for which sum he assures us it is
warrantable to kill a thief, even though he should run off'; and he
adds, 'that he would not venture to condemn that man as guilty of
any sin who should kill another for taking away an article worth a
crown, or even less- unius aurei, vel minoris adhuc valoris'; which
has led Escobar to lay it down, as a general rule, 'that a man may
be killed quite regularly, according to Molina, for the value of a
crown-piece.'"

"O father," cried I; "where can Molina have got all this wisdom to
enable him to determine a matter of such importance, without any aid
from Scripture, the councils, or the fathers? It is quite evident that
he has obtained an illumination peculiar to himself, and is far beyond
St. Augustine in the matter of homicide, as well as of grace. Well,
now, I suppose I may consider myself master of this chapter of morals;
and I see perfectly that, with the exception of ecclesiastics,
nobody need refrain from killing those who injure them in their
property or reputation."

"What say you?" exclaimed the monk. "Do you, then, suppose that it
would be reasonable that those, who ought of all men to be most
respected, should alone be exposed to the insolence of the wicked? Our
fathers have provided against that disorder; for Tanner declares
that 'Churchmen, and even monks, are permitted to kill, for the
purpose of defending not only their lives, but their property, and
that of their community.' Molina, Escobar, Becan, Reginald, Layman,
Lessius, and others, hold the same language. Nay, according to our
celebrated Father Lamy, priests and monks may lawfully prevent those
who would injure them by calumnies from carrying their ill designs
into effect, by putting them to death. Care, however, must always be
taken to direct the intention properly. His words are: 'An
ecclesiastic or a monk may warrantably kill a defamer who threatens to
publish the scandalous crimes of his community, or his own crimes,
when there is no other way of stopping him; if, for instance, he is
prepared to circulate his defamations unless promptly despatched. For,
in these circumstances, as the monk would be allowed to kill one who
threatened to take his life, he is also warranted to kill him who
would deprive him of his reputation or his property, in the same way
as the men of the world.'"

"I was not aware of that," said I; "in fact, I have been
accustomed simply enough to believe the very reverse, without
reflecting on the matter, in consequence of having heard that the
Church had such an abhorrence of bloodshed as not even to permit
ecclesiastical judges to attend in criminal cases."

"Never mind that," he replied; "our Father Lamy has completely
proved the doctrine I have laid down, although, with a humility
which sits uncommonly well on so great a man, he submits it to the
judgement of his judicious readers. Caramuel, too, our famous
champion, quoting it in his Fundamental Theology, p. 543. thinks it so
certain, that he declares the contrary opinion to be destitute of
probability, and draws some admirable conclusions from it, such as the
following, which he calls 'the conclusion of conclusions- conclusionum
conclusio': 'That a priest not only may kill a slanderer, but there
are certain circumstances in which it may be his duty to do so-
etiam aliquando debet occidere.' He examines a great many new
questions on this principle, such as the following, for instance: 'May
the Jesuits kill the Jansenists?'"

"A curious point of divinity that, father! " cried I. "I hold
the Jansenists to be as good as dead men, according to Father Lamy's
doctrine."

"There, now, you are in the wrong," said the monk: "Caramuel
infers the very reverse from the same principles."

"And how so, father?"

"Because," he replied, "it is not in the power of the Jansenists
to injure our reputation. 'The Jansenists,' says he, 'call the Jesuits
Pelagians, may they not be killed for that? No; inasmuch as the
Jansenists can no more obscure the glory of the Society than an owl
can eclipse that of the sun; on the contrary, they have, though
against their intention, enhanced it- occidi non possunt, quia
nocere non potuerunt.'"

"Ha, father! do the lives of the Jansenists, then, depend on the
contingency of their injuring your reputation? If so, I reckon them
far from being in a safe position; for supposing it should be
thought in the slightest degree probable that they might do you some
mischief, why, they are killable at once! You have only to draw up a
syllogism in due form, and, with a direction of the intention, you may
despatch your man at once with a safe conscience. Thrice happy must
those hot spirits be who cannot bear with injuries, to be instructed
in this doctrine! But woe to the poor people who have offended them!
Indeed, father, it would be better to have to do with persons who have
no religion at all than with those who have been taught on this
system. For, after all, the intention of the wounder conveys no
comfort to the wounded. The poor man sees nothing of that secret
direction of which you speak; he is only sensible of the direction
of the blow that is dealt him. And I am by no means sure but a
person would feel much less sorry to see himself brutally killed by an
infuriated villain than to find himself conscientiously stilettoed
by a devotee. To be plain with you, father, I am somewhat staggered at
all this; and these questions of Father Lamy and Caramuel do not
please me at all."

"How so?" cried the monk. "Are you a Jansenist?"

"I have another reason for it," I replied. "You must know I am
in the habit of writing from time to time, to a friend of mine in
the country, all that I can learn of the maxims of your doctors.
Now, although I do no more than simply report and faithfully quote
their own words, yet I am apprehensive lest my letter should fall into
the hands of some stray genius who may take into his head that I
have done you injury, and may draw some mischievous conclusion from
your premisses."

"Away!" cried the monk; "no fear of danger from that quarter, I'll
give you my word for it. Know that what our fathers have themselves
printed, with the approbation of our superiors, it cannot be wrong
to read nor dangerous to publish."

I write you, therefore, on the faith of this worthy father's
word of honour. But, in the meantime, I must stop for want of paper-
not of passages; for I have got as many more in reserve, and good ones
too, as would require volumes to contain them. I am, &c.