The Misfortunes of Virtue and Other Early Tales by Marquis de Sade

Author:Marquis de Sade [Sade, Marquis de]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Tags: Anthologies, Philosophy, Classics, French Literature
ISBN: 9780199540426
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 1992-06-17T23:00:00+00:00

† Monsieur Servant* [Author’s note].

Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man

PRIEST. Now that the fatal hour is upon you wherein the veil of illusion is torn aside only to confront every deluded man with the cruel tally of his errors and vices, do you, my son, earnestly repent of the many sins to which you were led by weakness and human frailty?

DYING MAN. Yes, I do so repent.

PRIEST. Then in the short space you have left, profit from such timely remorse to ask that you be given general absolution of your sins, believing that only by considering the reverence of the most comfortable and holy sacrament of penitence may you hope for forgiveness at the hand of Almighty God our Eternal Father.

DYING MAN. I understand you no better than you have understood me.

PRIEST. What’s that?

DYING MAN. I said I repented.

PRIEST. I heard you.

DYING MAN. Yes, but you did not understand what I meant.

PRIEST. But what other interpretation … ?

DYING MAN. The one I shall now give. I was created by Nature with the keenest appetites and the strongest of passions and was put on this earth with the sole purpose of placating both by surrendering to them. They are components of my created self and are no more than mechanical parts necessary to the functioning of Nature’s basic purposes. Or if you prefer, they are incidental effects essential to her designs for me and conform entirely to her laws. I repent only that I never sufficiently acknowledged the omnipotence of Nature and my remorse is directed solely against the modest use I made of those faculties, criminal in your eyes but perfectly straightforward in mine, which she gave me to use in her service. I did at times resist her, and am heartily sorry for it. I was blinded by the absurdity of your doctrines to which I resorted to fight the violence of desires planted in me by a power more divinely inspired by far, and I now repent of having done so. I picked only flowers when I could have gathered in a much greater harvest of ripe fruits. Such is the proper cause of my regret; respect me enough to impute no other to me.

PRIEST. To what a pass have you been brought by your errors! How misled you have been by such sophisms! You attribute to the created world all the power of the Creator! Do you not see that the lamentable tendencies which have misdirected your steps are themselves no more than effects of that same corrupt Nature to which you attribute omnipotence?

DYING MAN. It seems to me that your reasoning is as empty as your head. I wish that you would argue more rationally or else just let me alone to die in peace. What do you mean by ‘Creator’? What do you understand by ‘corrupt Nature’?

PRIEST. The Creator is the Master of the Universe. All that was created was created by Him, everything was made by His hand, and His creation is maintained as a simple effect of His omnipotence.

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