16
PARTISAN REVIEW
- Charles - she replied - we should be aware of our motivations. You
would not have been so intent on acquiring fame as a scientist, if not for
your successive failures. I know you do not like to be reminded of that, but
had you succeeded in becoming a physician, as you desired, you would have
gotten enough satisfaction by curing people instead of trying to satisfY your
ambition at any price. And had those years when you studied theology at
Cambridge allowed you to become a minister of the Church, your work
in a human community would have protected you from adventurism.
- You know very well where you borrowed your theory. You found
it in Malthus. A bad man, Charles, cruel and indifferent to the fate of the
poor. I don't believe your theory, for your observations were not made
with good intent.
Yes, Charles Darwin had occasion, later, to think of those words of
hers, though he was at the same time quite certain that his theory of evo–
lution was correct. So much the worse for me and for humans. The
theology that can be drawn from it is nothing else than that of the devil's
chaplain. What good Creator would contrive such a world, an arena on
which, like gladiators, individuals and whole species struggle for survival?
If he watches all that like some Roman emperor si tting in his special box,
I will not pay him tribute. Happy are those who, like Emma, preserved the
image of God as our Father and friend .
Transmission
1"
Acquired Traits
It is not customary to write about the psychological problems of cler–
gymen, as they seem to be a separate species, the servants of the ri tual. Also
that priest, let us call him Stanislaw, was of the opinion that he had no
right to talk about himself, as people expected from him something else.
Nevertheless, he was well aware that he simultaneously lived in two zones,
one protected by silence, another which used, exclusively, words and
notions authorized by the Catholic dogmatics.
What he carried inside could be briefly defined as dread. He even used
to think that his parents transmitted to him, born after the war, their
moments of terror encoded in blood, which would mean that we inheri t
not only a combination of genes but also all the tremors of organism,
induced by joy and despair. A country with an exceptionally cruel history
exposed everybody to dramatic si tuations, and the memory of atrocious
events smoldered under the surface of everyday routine. Stanislaw consid–
ered that his dread of the world was the real cause of his decision to
become a priest. He meditated much on the generation of his parents,
coming to the conclusion that it was crippled or even sick, and,what was
