Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/161

VIII] "We will assume it!" the rest of the audiencethe majority, I may say, looking at it from Arthur's point of viewimperiously proclaimed. The orator proceeded.

"The causes, acting from without, are his surroundingswhat Mr. Herbert Spencer calls his 'environment.' Now the point I want to make clear is this, that a man is responsible for his acts of choosing, but not responsible for his environment. Hence, if these two men make, on some given occasion, when they are exposed to equal temptation, equal efforts to resist and to choose the right, their condition, in the sight of God, must be the same. If He is pleased in the one case, so will He be in the other; if displeased in the one case, so also in the other."

"That is so, no doubt: I see it quite clearly," Lady Muriel put in.

"And yet, owing to their different environments, the one may win a great victory over the temptation, while the other falls into some black abyss of crime."

"But surely you would not say those men were equally guilty in the sight of God?"