Hawthorne found that here was a partial solution of the
problem, and he enlarged upon it, toward the end of his life, in "The
Marble Faun." But it was a second and deeper thought that furnished him
the chief compensation. In one of the "Twice-Told Tales," "Fancy's
Show-Box," he deals with the question, how far the mere thought of sin,
the incipient desire to commit it, may injure the soul. After first
strongly picturing the reality of certain sinful impulses in a man's
mind, which had never been carried out,--"A scheme of guilt," he argues,
taking up the other side, "till it be put in execution, greatly
resembles a train of incidents in a projected tale.... Thus a
novel-writer, or a dramatist, in creating the villain of romance, and
fitting him with evil deeds, and the villain of actual life in
projecting crimes that will be perpetrated, may almost meet each other
half-way between reality and fancy. It is not until the crime is
accomplished that guilt clinches its gripe upon the heart, and claims it
for its own. Then, and not before, sin is actually felt and
acknowledged, and, if unaccompanied by repentance, grows a thousand-fold
more virulent by its self-consciousness. Be it considered, also, that
men often overestimate their capacity for evil. At a distance, while its
attendant circumstances do not press upon their notice, its results are
dimly seen, they can bear to contemplate it.... In truth, there is no
such thing in man's nature as a settled and full resolve, either for
good or evil, except at the very moment of execution.
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