A SMIDGEN OF RELIGION
We are a half-spiritual, half-animal creature, with our chests serving as a divider between our two natures.
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“It is by this middle element that man is man: for by his intellect he is mere spirit and by his appetite mere animal” (704).
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Sin might look tempting, but upon further investigation, it’s not as good a deal as it appears.
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“It is like the famous Irishman who found that a certain kind of stove reduced his fuel bill by half and thence he concluded that two stoves of the same kind would enable him to warm his house with no fuel at all. It is the magician’s bargain: give up our soul, get power in return. But once our souls, that is, ourselves, have been given up, the power thus conferred will not belong to us. We shall in fact be the slaves and puppets of that to which we have given our souls” (726).