What did such a result as this imply?
Thoughts came to her, as she asked herself that question, which have
startled and saddened us all.
Does there exist in every human being, beneath that outward and visible
character which is shaped into form by the social influences surrounding
us, an inward, invisible disposition, which is part of ourselves, which
education may indirectly modify, but can never hope to change? Is
the philosophy which denies this and asserts that we are born with
dispositions like blank sheets of paper a philosophy which has failed
to remark that we are not born with blank faces--a philosophy which has
never compared together two infants of a few days old, and has never
observed that those infants are not born with blank tempers for mothers
and nurses to fill up at will? Are there, infinitely varying with each
individual, inbred forces of Good and Evil in all of us, deep down below
the reach of mortal encouragement and mortal repression--hidden Good and
hidden Evil, both alike at the mercy of the liberating opportunity
and the sufficient temptation? Within these earthly limits, is earthly
Circumstance ever the key; and can no human vigilance warn us beforehand
of the forces imprisoned in ourselves which that key _may_ unlock?
For the first time, thoughts such as these rose darkly--as shadowy and
terrible possibilities--in Miss Garth's mind.
Pages:
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245