How admirable and beautiful is the simplicity of the Evangelists! They never speak injuriously of the enemies of Jesus Christ, of His judges, nor of His executioners. They report the facts without a single reflection. They comment neither on their Master's mildness when He was smitten, nor on His constancy in the hour of His ignominious death, which they thus describe: "And they crucified Jesus.

This innocence begins to weigh me down.

Some smaller crimes always precede the great crimes.

If I could believe that this was said sincerely, I could put up with anything.

The joys of the evil flow away like a torrent.

Vice, like virtue, Grows in small steps, and no true innocence Can ever fall at once to deepest guilt.

My only hope lies in my despair.