Charles Wagner, in “The Gospel of Life,” remarks thus on the double
nature of men:
Duplicity, rending apart, partition of the will and of the
heart, lamentable division--that is our life! It is not a
continuous chain; it is only links broken and dispersed. We are
peace-loving, just, truthful, sober, chaste, disinterested; but
we are also malicious, unjust, cunning, intemperate, impure.
We are like those ships that carry to the colonies, along with
the Bibles and religious tracts, cannon, alcohol, and opium; or
those poets full of contrary talents, who play turn by turn on
the sacred lyre and on the strident conch-shell.
(815)