Prev | Current Page 353 | Next

London, Jack

"The Sea-Wolf"

He had had no headaches for weeks, his eyes were as clear blue as the sky, his bronze skin was beautiful with perfect health; life swelled through his veins in full and magnificent flood. While waiting for me he had engaged Maud in animated discussion. Temptation was the topic they had hit upon, and from the few words I heard I made out that he was contending that temptation was temptation only when a man was seduced by it and fell.


? ? ? ? 'For look you,' he was saying, 'as I see it, a man does things because of desire. He has many desires. He may desire to escape pain, or to enjoy pleasure. But whatever he does, he does because he desires to do it.'


? ? ? ? 'But suppose he desires to do two opposite things, neither of which will permit him to do the other?' Maud interrupted.


? ? ? ? 'The very thing I was coming to,' he said.


? ? ? ? 'And between these two desires is just where the soul of the man is manifest,' she went on. 'If it is a good soul it will desire and do the good action, and the contrary if it is a bad soul.


Pages:
341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365