"How? I don't understand."

"It is not violence that best overcomes hate--nor vengeance that

most certainly heals injury."

"What then?"

"Read the New Testament, and observe what Christ says, and how He

acts; make His word your rule, and His conduct your example."

"What does He say?"

"Love your enemies; bless them that curse you; do good to them that

hate you and despitefully use you."

"Then I should love Mrs. Reed, which I cannot do; I should bless her

son John, which is impossible."

In her turn, Helen Burns asked me to explain, and I proceeded

forthwith to pour out, in my own way, the tale of my sufferings and

resentments. Bitter and truculent when excited, I spoke as I felt,

without reserve or softening.

Helen heard me patiently to the end: I expected she would then make

a remark, but she said nothing.

"Well," I asked impatiently, "is not Mrs. Reed a hard-hearted, bad

woman?"

"She has been unkind to you, no doubt; because you see, she dislikes

your cast of character, as Miss Scatcherd does mine; but how

minutely you remember all she has done and said to you! What a

singularly deep impression her injustice seems to have made on your

heart! No ill-usage so brands its record on my feelings. Would you

not be happier if you tried to forget her severity, together with

the passionate emotions it excited? Life appears to me too short to

be spent in nursing animosity or registering wrongs. We are, and

must be, one and all, burdened with faults in this world: but the

time will soon come when, I trust, we shall put them off in putting

off our corruptible bodies; when debasement and sin will fall from

us with this cumbrous frame of flesh, and only the spark of the

spirit will remain,--the impalpable principle of light and thought,

pure as when it left the Creator to inspire the creature: whence it

came it will return; perhaps again to be communicated to some being

higher than man--perhaps to pass through gradations of glory, from

the pale human soul to brighten to the seraph! Surely it will

never, on the contrary, be suffered to degenerate from man to fiend?

No; I cannot believe that: I hold another creed: which no one ever

taught me, and which I seldom mention; but in which I delight, and

to which I cling: for it extends hope to all: it makes Eternity a

rest--a mighty home, not a terror and an abyss. Besides, with this

creed, I can so clearly distinguish between the criminal and his

crime; I can so sincerely forgive the first while I abhor the last:

with this creed revenge never worries my heart, degradation never

too deeply disgusts me, injustice never crushes me too low: I live

in calm, looking to the end."




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