Autumnal Tales by Comtois Pierre V

Author:Comtois, Pierre V.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-05-28T00:00:00+00:00

The Wild Hunt

Could simple temptation lead to unutterable terror and fear? I have arrived at the inescapable conclusion that if one can know the price there is to pay in yielding to it, there can be no rest for a guilty soul.

What is temptation? Is it what Ulysses encountered on the island of the temptresses when the shameless sirens called to him in their irresistible voices tinged in doom and oblivion? Is its meaning buried deep in man’s secret heart, the hidden place where he keeps his strangest vices and his most uncontrollable lusts? Or is the search for definition itself ultimately a futile task? Certainly history and folklore are replete with significant examples: what was it that prompted David to stoop from the rarefied heights of a chosen of God to indulge in murder and fornication? That allowed Samson to succumb to the seductions of a scheming Delilah? That brought the lovers Lancelot and Guenivere to their doomed love affair? Can any of these temptations, both lofty and base, be avoided?

What of the intrinsic value of temptation itself? For instance, could it exist without sin? What is temptation but a negative proposition? Could the problem of temptation be solved by simply abolishing sin? Perhaps the argument would be clearer if the word “sin” were to be replaced by “evil.” Now, does evil exist? Or is it merely a question of perspective or even semantics? It seems the problem of temptation for me has given rise to more questions than answers. Regardless, the problem has plagued me for some time now and despite the practical difficulties of definition, I feel the whole question to be more than an academic exercise. For myself, as events have turned out, it will be the difference between salvation or condemnation.

The subject of the origin and nature of temptation did not always occupy my thoughts with such pervasive obstinacy. How I came to these straits of indecision you may well ask. It all began some years ago when, as an antiquarian bookdealer in America, I was finally able to leave the confines of my own country in search of interesting stock. Having learned some time before of a quaint village in the English countryside that hosted the largest concentration of used and antiquarian book shops in Great Britain, I decided that it would be the target of my first overseas business trip. Being an avid bibliophile and collector myself, I was eager to find a few treasures for my own personal enjoyment as well. So it was with great anticipation that I boarded a plane and, after an uneventful flight, arrived at London’s bustling Heathrow airport. Customs was cleared even in these perilous times with a minimum of trouble and in no time I was cruising along the beltway that ringed the old capital in a rented automobile, reminding myself from time to time to keep to the left. It being my first visit to Europe and England, I was mildly surprised at the emptiness

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