Danger in the Dark - ZseZse

DANGER IN 'l'HE DARK. 61
"While in reality, she is coerced into measures,
she is made believe that it's all voluntary on her own
part."
" Yes; the clergy sternly deny any compulsion
being used in such cases-yet wherein does it differ
from compulsion ~ The deluded victims are pointed
to a burning hell, and told that implicit obedience to
the commands of the priesthood alone, can save the
soul from its quenchless and torturing flames. Had
Dupin employed physical f~e in dragging Maria to
the convent, to suffer penance and endure the miseries
to which she is there subjected, it would have been an
outrage of no greater magnitude, than what he has
committed, in terrifying her, by threats of perdition,
into a compliance with his nefarious wishes."
"Actions are not always voluntary when they
seem to be: we sometimes feel that we are acting
freely, when at the same time it is by sheer constraint."
"I'm unable to conceive anything more iniquitous
and unpardonable, than the leading of young girls,
by operating on their superstitious fears, to bury
themselves in a convent, where they are to pass their
days in gloomy seclusion and wretchedness-torturing
and attenuating their bodies to fit their souls for
heaven! We talk of the cruelties of the Inquisition
in the dark ages of the world I while, in reality, there
is being practiced a species of cruelty, in the convents
f· hi I
otIS country, though more refined in its charficter,
yet no less enormous l A.!ld it onl;1 adds