The picture I
can best recall with demons in it is one of Raphael's--a St. Michael
slaying the dragon--from the Purgatorio, I think, but I am not sure; not
one of the demons in that picture is half so ugly as your
dog-fish.--What if it be necessary that we should have lessons in
ugliness?"
"But why?" said Hester. "Is not the ugly better let alone? You have
always taught that ugliness is the natural embodiment of evil!"
"Because we have chosen what is bad, and do not know how ugly it
is--that is why," answered her father.
"Isn't that rather hard on the fish, though?" said Vavasor. "How can
innocent creatures be an embodiment of evil?"
"But what do you mean by _innocent_?" returned Mr. Raymount. "The
nature of an animal may be low and even hateful, and its looks
correspondent, while no conscience accuses it of evil. I have known half
a dozen cows, in a shed large enough for a score, and abundantly
provisioned, unite to keep the rest of the herd out of it. Many a man is
a far lower and worse creature in his nature that his conscience tells
him. It is the conscience educated by strife and failure and success
that is severe upon the man, demanding of him the all but unattainable.
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