have convinced the dull brains, of fierce, ignorant, and unreasoning
men.

Ferocity, lawlessness, rapine, cruelty, and--when they were glutted
and debauched by the spoils of the Roman empire--sensuality, were the
evils which were making Europe uninhabitable for decent folk, and
history--as Milton called it--a mere battle of kites and crows. What
less than the example of the hermit--especially when that hermit was
a delicate and high-born woman--could have taught men the absolute
superiority of soul to body, of spiritual to physical force, of
spiritual to physical pleasure, and have said to them, not in vain
words, but solid acts--'All that you follow is not the way of life.
The very opposite to it is the way of life. The wages of sin are
death; and you will find them so,--in this life the victims of your
own passions, and of the foes whom your crimes arouse, and in life to
come of hell for ever. But I tell you I have no mind to go to hell.
I have a mind to go to heaven; and I know my mind right well. If the
world is to be such as this, and the rulers thereof such as you, I
will flee from you. I will not enter into the congregation of
sinners, neither will I cast in my lot with the bloodthirsty. I will
be alone with God and His universe. I will go to the mountain cave
or to the ocean cliff, and there, while the salt wind whistles
through my hair, I will be stronger than you, safer than you, richer
than you, happier than you. Richer than you, for I shall have for my
companion the beatific vision of God, and of all things and beings
God-like, fair, noble, just, and merciful. Stronger than you,
because virtue will give me a power over the hearts of men such as
your force cannot give you; and you will have to come to my lonely
cell, and ask me to advise you, and teach you, and help you against
the consequences of your own sins. Safer than you, because God in