I open the door. I do but act by old custom, and am going to trim
your fire, like a lime-burner, as I was once."

He stirred the vast coals, thrust in more wood, and bent forward
to gaze into the hollow prison-house of the fire, regardless of
the fierce glow that reddened upon his face. The lime-burner sat
watching him, and half suspected this strange guest of a purpose,
if not to evoke a fiend, at least to plunge into the flames, and
thus vanish from the sight of man. Ethan Brand, however, drew
quietly back, and closed the door of the kiln.

"I have looked," said he, "into many a human heart that was seven
times hotter with sinful passions than yonder furnace is with
fire. But I found not there what I sought. No, not the
Unpardonable Sin!"

"What is the Unpardonable Sin?" asked the lime-burner; and then
he shrank farther from his companion, trembling lest his question
should be answered.

"It is a sin that grew within my own breast," replied Ethan
Brand, standing erect with a pride that distinguishes all
enthusiasts of his stamp. "A sin that grew nowhere else! The sin
of an intellect that triumphed over the sense of brotherhood with
man and reverence for God, and sacrificed everything to its own
mighty claims! The only sin that deserves a recompense of
immortal agony! Freely, were it to do again, would I incur the
guilt. Unshrinkingly I accept the retribution!"

"The man's head is turned," muttered the lime-burner to himself.