I had been reading, as is my wont from time to time, one of the many volumes of "The
New Pitaval," that singular record of human crime and human cunning, and also of the
inevitable fatality which, in every case, leaves a gate open for detection. Were it not for
the latter fact, indeed, one would turn with loathing from such endless chronicles of
wickedness. Yet these may be safely contemplated, when one has discovered the
incredible fatuity of crime, the certain weak mesh in a network of devilish texture; or is it
rather the agency of a power outside of man, a subtile protecting principle, which allows
the operation of the evil element only that the latter may finally betray itself? Whatever
explanation we may choose, the fact is there, like a tonic medicine distilled from
poisonous plants, to brace our faith in the ascendancy of Good in the government of the
world.
Laying aside the book, I fell into a speculation concerning the mixture of the two
elements in man's nature. The life of an individual is usually, it seemed to me, a series of
RESULTS, the processes leading to which are not often visible, or observed when they
are so. Each act is the precipitation of a number of mixed influences, more or less
unconsciously felt; the qualities of good and evil are so blended therein that they defy the
keenest moral analysis; and how shall we, then, pretend to judge of any one? Perhaps the
surest indication of evil (I further reflected) is that it always tries to conceal itself, and the
strongest incitement to good is that evil cannot be concealed. The crime, or the vice, or
even the self-acknowledged weakness, becomes a part of the individual consciousness; it
cannot be forgotten or outgrown. It follows a life through all experiences and to the
uttermost ends of the earth, pressing towards the light with a terrible, demoniac power.
There are noteless lives, of course-- lives that accept obscurity, mechanically run their
narrow round of circumstance, and are lost; but when a life endeavors to lose itself,--to
hide some conscious guilt or failure,--can it succeed? Is it not thereby lifted above the
level of common experience, compelling attention to itself by the very endeavor to escape
it?
I turned these questions over in my mind, without approaching, or indeed expecting, any
solution,--since I knew, from habit, the labyrinths into which they would certainly lead
me,--when a visitor was announced. It was one of the directors of our county almshouse,
who came on an errand to which he attached no great importance. I owed the visit,
apparently, to the circumstance that my home lay in his way, and he could at once relieve
his conscience of a very trifling pressure and his pocket of a small package, by calling
upon me. His story was told in a few words; the package was placed upon my table, and I
was again left to my meditations.
Two or three days before, a man who had the appearance of a "tramp" had been observed
by the people of a small village in the neighborhood. He stopped and looked at the houses
in a vacant way, walked back and forth once or twice as if uncertain which of the cross-
roads to take, and presently went on without begging or even speaking to any one.
Towards sunset a farmer, on his way to the village store, found him sitting at the
