two paragraphs on virtue

 

This snippet on virtue is a stylistic experiment, threading and combining a series of aphorisms and proverbs I've made up around the theme of virtue. The goal in the style of my allays is to integrate a diverse range of thoughts in such a way that the integrative process aids the essence or undersense of them all into the structure of the passage. It is a process that sometimes stretches me far beyond my capability.

 

daniel

 

Virtue

 

                Be virtuously immoral. Morality speaks to the people, but virtue speaks to the man. And as humility is popular in crowds, pride is the crown of virtues, having that self-assurance that seeks no second-hand testimony, and yet being measured and self-honest, unlike the puffed and arrogant fools. A fool never loses an argument. For the mirror always winks. And fools gain more popularity than wise man, just as flies prefer vinegar to honey. The motto of the crowd is that the leaf must die for the tree to live; they say a duty dodged is a reward lost; but they still think that a duty is something defined outside your own soul. No, but your goal is what you believe possible. Duty is the securing of love. The future is never lost. And persistence is triumph.

                A true pride is willing to serve when serving advances it purpose, will work demeaning work when the cause is noble. A little and satisfied is better than a lot and not. Yet unlike vanity and humility and arrogance, pride is a quiet friend. Certainty never insists. Yet even in friendship, adversity brews. What grace it takes not to envy the friend ascending. Yes, even heaven has its weeds, so teach anxiety to relax, ignore the creative gossip, remember that despair is often mistaken, and be virtuously immoral, using morality as a means, not an end, as  a way of living in the world, not for the world, but bettering the world to better yourself. Let only the swimmers dare the depths, and let the shallow people stick to shallow waters. If the first generation of organisms only cooperated, mankind would never have emerged; but if today we only compete, we shall never rest in the pride of deserved rest. War is the father of all things, and peace the mother. Cultivate your virtues as powers for your own. Your values of truth and love are secured by your powerful virtues.

 

 

 

\ ~@M@~ /

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