st
spoke clearly His mind in regard to scandal, and the emphasis He lays
on His anathemas leaves no room to doubt of His judgment on the
subject. Scandal, in fact, is murder; not corporal murder, which is a
vengeance-crying abomination, but spiritual murder, heinous over the
other in the same measure as the soul's value transcends that of the
body. Kill the body, and the soul may live and be saved; kill the soul
and it is lost eternally.

Properly speaking, scandal is any word or deed, evil or even with an
appearance of evil, of a nature to furnish an occasion of spiritual
downfall, to lead another info sin. It does not even matter whether the
results be intended or merely suffered to occur; it does not even
matter if no results follow at all. It is sufficient that the
stumbling-block of scandal be placed in the way of another to his
spiritual peril, and designed by nature to make him fall; on him who
placed it, is the guilt of scandal.

The act of scandal consists in making sin easier to commit--as though
it were not already easy enough to sin--for another. Natural grace, of
which we are not totally bereft, raises certain barriers to protect and
defend the weak and feeble. Conspicuous among these are ignorance and
shame; evil sometimes offers difficulties, the ones physical, the
others spiritual, such as innate delicacy, sense of dignity, timidity,
instinctive repugnance for filth, human respect, dread of consequences,
etc. These stand on guard before the soul to repel the first advances
of the tempter which are the most dangerous; the Devil seldom unmasks
his heavy batteries until the advance-posts of the soul are taken. It
is the business of scandal to break down these barriers, and for
scandal this work is as easy as it is nefarious. For curiosity is a
hungering appetite, virtue is often protected with a very thin veil,
and vice can be made to lose its hideousness and assume charms, to
untried virtue, irresistible. There is nothing doing for His Satanic
Majesty while scandal is in the field; he looks on and smiles.

There may be some truth in the Darwinian theory after all, if we judge
from the imitative propensities of the species, probably an inherited
trait of our common ancestor, the monkey. At any rate, we are often
more easily led by example than by conviction; example leads us against
our convictions. Asked why we did this or that, knowing we should not
have done it, we answer with simian honesty, "because