_Extract from Adam’s Diary._--Then there was a Consensus about it. It
was the very first one. It sat six days and nights. It was then
delivered of the verdict that a world could not be made out of nothing;
that such small things as sun and moon and stars might, maybe, but it
would take years and years, if there was considerable many of them. Then
the Consensus got up and looked out of the window, and there was the
whole outfit spinning and sparkling in space! You never saw such a
disappointed lot.
his
ADAM--i--
mark
THE DERVISH AND THE OFFENSIVE
STRANGER
_The Dervish_: I will say again, and yet again, and still again,
that a good deed----
_The Offensive Stranger_: Peace, and, O man of narrow vision! There
is no such thing as a good _deed_----
_The Dervish_: O shameless blasphe----
_The Offensive Stranger_: And no such thing as an evil deed. There
are good _impulses_, there are evil impulses, and that is all. Half
of the results of a good intention are evil; half the results of an
evil intention are good. No man can command the results, nor allot
them.
_The Dervish_: And so----
_The Offensive Stranger_: And so you shall praise men for their good
intentions, and not blame them for the evils resulting; you shall
blame men for their evil intentions, and not praise them for the
good resulting.
_The Dervish_: O maniac! will you say----
_The Offensive Stranger_: Listen to the law: From _every_ impulse,
whether good or evil, flow two streams; the one carries health, the
other carries poison. From the beginning of time this law has not
changed, to the end of time it will not change.
_The Dervish_: If I should strike thee dead in anger----
_The Offensive Stranger_: Or kill me with a drug which you hoped
would give me new life and strength----
_The Dervish_: Very well. Go on.
_The Offensive Stranger_: In either case the results would be the
same. Age-long misery of mind for you--an evil result; peace,
repose, the end of sorrow for me--a good result. Three hearts that
hold me dear would break; three pauper cousins of the third removed
would get my riches and rejoice; you would go to prison and your
friends would grieve, but your humble apprentice-priest would step
into your shoes and your fat sleek life and be happy. And are these
all the goods and all the evils that would flow from the
well-intended or ill-intended act that cut short my life, O
thoughtless one, O purblind creature? The good and evil results that
flow from _any_ act, even the smallest, breed on and on, century
after century, forever and ever and ever, creeping by inches around
the globe, affecting all its coming and going populations until the
end of time, until the final cataclysm!
_The Dervish_: Then, there being no such thing as a good deed----
_The Offensive Stranger_: Don’t I tell you there are good
_intentions_, and evil ones, and there an end? The _results_ are not
foreseeable. They are of both kinds, in all cases. It is the law.
Listen: this is far-Western history: