Page:Dealings with the dead.djvu/82

quit their gambols in space, their festive sport amongst the star-beams, and re-arrange themselves into the original flesh, and blood, and nerve, and cartilage, and lymph, and muscle, wherewith these bones were clothed once upon a time in the dead years of an infinite Past!' 'But,' I cried, as the sweat of agony seemed to ooze even out of my spectral cheeks, 'there must be some mistake. The crime imputed was never committed by me. I never slew you, nor any one else. True, I remember you, but I only'—'Wished and willed to do it!' shrieked my tormentor, from the gibbet; 'and whatever the soul strongly wills is done, so far as human responsibility is concerned. You wished and willed me to be here; and here I am, by virtue of a great and mighty law. Hast thou not heard the law laid down, by the sufferer of Calvary, "Whoso looketh on a woman to lust after her, hath already committed adultery in his heart," and must pay the penalty therefor? And thinkest thou that this is the only application of the great law of justice and compensation? Fool! know that thy crime is just as great as if thou hadst, with thine own fingers, put the cord of murder about my neck—about my neck! The crime-thought is as great as the crime-act. So it is with thee, thou murderer! Man is judged from the desires and motives of his heart, whether these be for good or ill, and never from or for his act alone; for the reason that actions are often the result of an instantaneous impulse, external pressure and circumstance; but motives are the creatures of will, the perfect offspring of desire!' I groaned in agony, an agony so great that it burst the bonds of sleep, and I awoke from that which was not