Painted by an artist of wondrous power and terrible acquaintance with the secret soul , they embodied the ghosts of all the never-perpetrated sins that had glided through the lifetime of Mr. Smith . And could such beings of cloudy fantasy , so near akin to nothingness , give valid evidence against him at the day of judgment ? Be that the case or not , there is reason to believe that one truly penitential tear would have washed away each hateful picture and left the canvas white as snow . But Mr. Smith , at a prick of Conscience too keen to be endured , bellowed aloud with impatient agony , and suddenly discovered that his three guests were gone . There he sat alone , a silver-haired and highly-venerated old man , in the rich gloom of the crimsoned-curtained room , with no box of pictures on the table , but only a decanter of most excellent Madeira . Yet his heart still seemed to fester with the venom of the dagger . Nevertheless , the unfortunate old gentleman might have argued the matter with Conscience and alleged many reasons wherefore she should not smite him so pitilessly . Were we to take up his cause , it should be somewhat in the following fashion . A scheme of guilt , till it be put in execution , greatly resembles a train of incidents in a projected tale . The latter , in order to produce a sense of reality in the reader 's mind , must be conceived with such proportionate strength by the author as to seem in the glow of fancy more like truth , past , present or to come , than purely fiction . The prospective sinner , on the other hand , weaves his plot of crime , but seldom or never feels a perfect certainty that it will be executed . There is a dreaminess diffused about his thoughts ; in a dream , as it were , he strikes the death-blow into his victim 's heart and starts to find an indelible blood-stain on his hand . Thus a novel-writer or a dramatist , in creating a villain of romance and fitting him with evil deeds , and the villain of actual life in projecting crimes that will be perpetrated , may almost meet each other halfway between reality and fancy . It is not until the crime is accomplished that Guilt clenches its gripe upon the guilty heart and claims it for his own . Then , and not before , sin is actually felt and acknowledged , and , if unaccompanied by repentance , grows a thousandfold more virulent by its self-consciousness . Be it considered , also , that men often overestimate their capacity for evil . At a distance , while its attendant circumstances do not press upon their notice and its results are dimly seen , they can bear to contemplate it . They may take the steps which lead to crime , impelled by the same sort of mental action as in working out a mathematical problem , yet be powerless with compunction at the final moment . They knew not what deed it was that they deemed themselves resolved to do . In truth , there is no such thing in man 's nature as a settled and full resolve , either for good or evil , except at the very moment of execution .
Let us hope , therefore , XXXXX all the dreadful consequences of sin will not be incurred unless the act have set its seal upon the thought .
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