The
righteous is treated as the sinner and the perjurer as him who
speaks the truth.
There is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, and
there is one event to all. Therefore the hearts of the children of
men are full of evil and madness while they live, and after that
they go to the dead.
When I read these words I was astounded; I did not know that there was
such a sentiment in the Bible. "And thou, too, as all others, thou book
of hope!"
What do the astronomers think when they predict at a given hour and place
the passage of a comet, that most eccentric of celestial travelers? What
do the naturalists think when they reveal the myriad forms of life
concealed in a drop of water? Do they think they have invented what they
see and that their microscopes and lenses make the law of nature? What
did the first lawgiver think when, seeking for the corner-stone in the
social edifice, angered doubtless by some idle importunity, he struck the
tables of brass and felt in his bowels the yearning for a law of
retaliation? Did he then invent justice? And the first who plucked the
fruit planted by his neighbor and who fled cowering under his mantle, did
he invent shame? And he who, having overtaken that same thief who had
robbed him of the product of his toil, forgave him his sin, and instead
of raising his hand to smite him, said, "Sit thou down and eat thy fill";
when after having thus returned good for evil he raised his eyes toward
Heaven and felt his heart quivering, tears welling from his eyes, and his
knees bending to the earth, did he invent virtue? Oh! Heaven! here is a
woman who speaks of love and who deceives me, here is a man who speaks of
friendship, and who counsels me to seek consolation in debauchery; here
is another woman who weeps and would console me with the flesh; here is a
Bible that speaks of God and says: "Perhaps; there is one event to the
righteous and to the wicked.
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