This possible multiplication of sin where a single act is apparent
emphasizes the fact that evil and good proceed from the will. It is by
the will primarily and essentially that we serve or offend God, and,
absolutely speaking, no exterior deed is necessary for the
accomplishment of this end.

The exterior deed of sin always supposes a natural preparation of sin--
thought, desires, resolution,--which precede or accompany the deed, and
without which there would be no sin. It is sinful only inasmuch as it
is related to the will, and is the fruit thereof. The interior act
constitutes the sin in its being; the exterior act constitutes it in
its completeness.

All of which leads up to the conclusion, of a nature perhaps to
surprise some, that to resolve to sin and to commit the sin in deed are
not two different sins, but one complete sin, in all the fulness of its
malice. True, the exterior act may give rise to scandal, and from it
may devolve upon us obligations of justice, the reparation of injury
done; true, with the exterior complement the sin may be more grievous.
But there cannot be several sins if there be one single uninterrupted
act of the will.

An evil thing is proposed to your mind; you enjoy the thought of doing
it, knowing it to be wrong; you desire to do it and resolve to do it;
you take the natural means of doing it; you succeed and consummate the
evil--a long drawn out and well prepared deed, 'tis true, but only one
sin. The injustices, the scandal, the sins you might commit
incidentally, which do not pertain naturally to the deed, all these are
another matter, and are other kinds of sins; but the act itself stands
alone, complete and one.

But these interior acts of sin, whether or not they have reference to
external completion, must be sinful. The first stage is the suggestion
of the imagination or simple seeing of the evil in the mind, which is
not sinful; the next is the moving of the sensibility or the purely
animal pleasure experienced, in which there is no evil, either; for we
have no sure mastery over these faculties. From the imagination and
sensibility the temptation passes before the will for consent. If
consent is denied, there is no deadly malice or guilt, no matter how
long the previous effects may have been endured. No thought is a sin
unless it be fully consented to.

CHAPTER VIII.
CAPITAL SINS.

YOU can never cure a disease till you get at the seat or root of the
evil. It wi