Page:Arthur Machen, A Novelist of Ecstasy and Sin.djvu/20

14 But something of what we are getting at is explained in his own pages, in this opening paragraph from his story, "The White People," in "The House of Souls": Sorcery and sanctity,' said Ambrose, 'these are the only realities. Each is an ecstasy, a withdrawal from the common life. And, a little later, in this: There is something profoundly unnatural about sin the essence of which really is in the taking of heaven by storm.

One gathers from a general vagueness on the subject that sin is not popular in these times. There are, of course, new sins and advanced sins and higher sins, all of which are intensely interesting. The chief puzzle to the lay mind is why they should bear these names, since they are usually neither new, advanced and high, nor particularly sinful. I am speaking of sin as an offense against the nature of things, and of evil in the soul, which has very little to do with the sins of the statute book. Sin, according to the same Ambrose I have quoted, is conceivable in the talking of animals. If a chair should walk across a room, that would be sinful, or if a tree sat down with us to afternoon tea. The savage