RINE OF INTENTION_

Sir,--I must now let you know what the good Jesuit father told me about
the maxims of their casuists, with regard to the "point of honour" among
gentlemen. "You know," said he, "that this point of honour is the
dominating passion of men in that rank of life, and is constantly
leading them into acts of violence which appear quite contrary to
Christian piety. Indeed, we should have to exclude all of them from our
confessionals, if our fathers had not in some degree relaxed the
severity of religion and accommodated it to the weakness of men. But
since they wished to remain attached to the Gospel by their duty towards
God, and to men of the world by their charity towards their neighbour,
they had to seek expedients by which they might make it possible for a
man to maintain his honour in the ordinary way of the world without
wounding his conscience. They had to preserve, at the same time, two
things which are apparently so opposed to one another as piety and
honour. But, however valuable their purpose might be, its execution was
exceedingly difficult."

"I am surprised," I said, "that you find it difficult."

"Are you?" he replied. "Do you not know that on the one hand the law of
the Gospel commands us never to render evil for evil, and to leave
vengeance to God; and that on the other hand the laws of the world
forbid that we should suffer injury without executing justice, even by
the death of our enemies? Is it possible that two precepts should be
more contrary to one another?"

"What I meant to say was, that after what I have seen of your fathers, I
know that they can easily do things which are impossible to other men. I
am quite ready to believe that they have discovered some means of
reconciling these two precepts, and I beg of you to inform me what it
is."

"You must know, then," he replied, "that this wonderful principle is our
grand method of _directing the intention,_ a principle of great
importance in our moral system. You have already seen certain examples
of it. Thus, when I explained to you how servants could carry with a
clear conscience certain harmful messages, you must have seen that it
was by diverting their intention from the evil of which they are the
bearers and by turning it to the gain which they receive for their
service. This is what we call 'directing the intention.' In the same way
you have seen that those who give money in return for benefices would be
guilty of simony u