child is about to do? Rather than give herself up to me, who have ever
desired to save her, and who can even yet save her, albeit her pile is now
being raised, she will take away her own life and that of her wretched
father, for I scarcely think that you, poor man, will outlive this sorrow.
Wherefore do you, for God his sake, persuade her to think better of it
while I am yet able to save her. For know that about ten miles from hence
I have a small house in the midst of the forest, where no human being ever
goes; thither will I send her this very night, and you may dwell there
with her all the days of your life, if so it please you. You shall live as
well as you can possibly desire, and to-morrow morning I will spread a
report betimes that the witch and her father have run away together during
the night, and that nobody knows whither they are gone." Thus spake the
serpent to me, as whilom to our mother Eve; and, wretched sinner that I
am, the tree of death which he showed me seemed to me also to be a tree of
life, so pleasant was it to the eye. Nevertheless I answered, "My child
will never save her miserable life by doing aught to peril the salvation
of her soul." But now, too, the serpent was more cunning than all the
beasts of the field (especially such an old fool as I), and spake thus:
"Why, who would have her peril the salvation of her soul? Reverend
Abraham, must I teach you Scripture? Did not our Lord Christ pardon Mary
Magdalene, who lived in open whoredom? and did he not speak forgiveness to
the poor adulteress who had committed a still greater _crimen?_ nay, more,
doth not St. Paul expressly say that the harlot Rahab was saved, Hebrews
xi.? _item_, St. James ii. says the same. But where have ye read that any
one was saved who had wantonly taken her own life and that of her father?
Wherefore, for the love of God, persuade your child not to give herself
up, body and soul, to the devil, by her stubbornness, but to suffer
herself to be saved while it is yet time. You can abide with her, and pray
away all the sins she may commit, and likewise aid me with your prayers,
who freely own that I am a miserable sinner, and have done you much evil,