The Equinox (Volume I, Number IX)

THE EQUINOX Q. What are the consequences of each ? A. Moral life and moral death. Q. Has then hell, with all its horrors, its justification in religious dogma? A. Yes; it is a rigorous consequence of a principle. Q. What is this principle? A. Liberty. Q. What is liberty? A. The right to do one’s duty, with the possibility of not doing it. Q. What is failing in one’s duty? A. It involves the loss of one’s right. Now, right being eternal, to lose it is to suffer an eternal loss. Q. Can one repair a fault? a. Yes; by expiation. Q. What is expiation ? A. Working overtime. Thus, because I was lazy yester- day, I had to do a double task to-day. Q. What are we to think of those who impose on them- selves voluntary sufferings? A. If they do so in order to overcome the brutal fascination of pleasure, they are wise; if to suffer instead of others, they are generous; but if they do it without discretion and without measure, they are imprudent. Q. Thus, in the eyes of true philosophy, religion is wise in all that it ordains? A. You see that it is so. Q. But if, after all, we were deceived in our eternal hopes? A. Faith does not admit that doubt. But philosophy her- self should reply that all the pleasures of the earth are not 104