shuddering upon the edge of a precipice, thus meditates a plunge. To indulge, for a moment, in any attempt at thought , is to be inevitably lost; for reflection but urges us to forbear, and therefore it is, I say, that we cannot . If there be no friendly arm to check us, or if we fail in a sudden effort to prostrate ourselves backward from the abyss, we plunge, and are destroyed.
Examine these similar actions as we will, we shall find them resulting solely from the spirit of the Perverse . We perpetrate them because we feel that we should not . Beyond or behind this there is no intelligible principle; and we might, indeed, deem this perverseness a direct instigation of the Archfiend, were it not occasionally known to operate in furtherance of good.
I have said thus much, that in some measure I may answer your question—that I may explain to you why I am here—that I may assign to you something that shall have at least the faint aspect of a cause for my wearing these fetters, and for my tenanting this cell of the condemned. Had I