|
The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from Manon Lescaut by Abbe Prevost: intention in my present situation; that is to say, fatally
enslaved as I was by a passion which I could not subdue, and
visited by compunction and remorse which I ought not to stifle.
But will any man charge me with injustice or impiety if I
complain of the rigour of Heaven in defeating a design that I
could only have formed with the view of conciliating its favour
and complying with its decrees? Alas I do I say defeated? nay
punished as a new crime. I was patiently permitted to go blindly
along the high road of vice; and the cruellest chastisements were
reserved for the period when I was returning to the paths of
virtue. I now fear that I shall have hardly fortitude enough
|
