Faith in a Fortune Teller? Sketch.

"But the woman, the cards, her dry, reassuring words, and her goodbye--"Go, go, ragazzo innamorato," and finally, that farewell barcarolle, so lively and gracious,--such were the new elements which, together with the old, formed within him a new and abiding faith." (Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis, The Fortune Teller)

Bam! There it is, the
                                    true
                                        downfall
                                                           of
                                                               Camillo.

The silly man had apparently never read Alma's explanation of faith!

"And now as I said concerning faith--faith is not to have a perfect knowledge of things; therefore if ye have faith ye hope for things which are not seen, which are true." (The Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ, 289)

Camillo, like so many people before and after him, wanted something to reassure him and let him know that everything was going to be alright. Human experience, right? Everyone wants to know it's gonna be ok. You want it, I want it. Unfortunately, human experience also teaches us that when you place your faith in sources that are not true, you lose in the end, as Camillo found out.

It just doesn't work out so well if we place our faith in things other than Christ. We'll just be disappointed in the end. It reminds me...

Once upon a time there was once a man named Symonds Ryder who apostatized from the Church because of a misspelling of his name by the Prophet Joseph. (That wasn't the entire reason he apostatized, but that was his excuse.) Like Camillo, he placed his faith in a person and was disappointed. Point is, no one's perfect. And imperfect beings will disappoint every once in a while.

The only perfect source for our faith is Christ. It's just a shame, really, that Camillo picked such an imperfect person to put his faith in, haha.