Have you ever watched the deteriorating effects of sin even upon the personal appearance? Take a youth of extreme beauty, and let him, little by little, be led into wicked practices; in proportion as he is so led, will the register of his descent be written upon his face, and upon his whole attitude and manners.
Quite unperceptibly, I admit, but with awful exactness and depth. The eyes, once so clear and steady in look, will be marked by suspicion, uncertainty, or timidity of movement; their glances will not be like sun rays darting through thick foliage, but rather like a dark lantern turned on skillfully to see what is happening here and there, but throwing no light on the man who holds it.
And strange lines will be woven around the mouth; and the lips, so well cut, so guileless and generous, will be tortured into ugliness and sensual enlargement; and the voice, once so sweet, so ringing, the very music of a character unstained and fearless, will contract some mocking tones, and give itself up to a rude laughter, partly deceitful and partly defiant.
All this will not happen in one day. Herein is the subtlety of evil. If you do not see the youth for years you may be shocked when you miss the fine simplicity and noble bearing which you associated with the name. It is the spot of leprosy on a “forehead once so open and unwrinkled, and it will grow and spread and deepen until there will be no place fit for him but the silent and unhospitable wilderness.—PARKER.
