Virtue

Service brings reward,
And Vice is a good slave-master,
For it always recompenses;
So does Virtue.

But Vice is a vain-master
For at dusk the hand is empty,
And all gathering,
Good when at hand;
But to the end, a venomous sting.

Pleasure is a murderer;
Pain, a saviour:
For, Pleasure sticks to the Present,
While Pain looks to the Future.

The Present is time;
The Future, eternal.
Time kills Contentment;
Eternity, Boredom.

Time is surface;
Eternity, depth.
Time is a shadow;
Eternity, the real.

Time’s encaged by Boredom;
Which Pleasure strikes, to kill,
But makes it stronger again;
And the harder does Pleasure strike
With ever decreasing strength,
The stronger does Vice get,
Killing Contentment.

True Pleasure is Eternal
Bringing eternal contentment.
The eternal is beyond this time-bound-body.
Therefore, true pleasure is non-physical.
The physical is transitory.

Pleasure kills Pain.
Pleasure kills Work (Strain).
Pleasure kills Thought
And revels in Imagination.

This body is death;
So is Pleasure, death.

Virtue strengthens the spirit;
Vice, destroys it.
Virtue lives by the Spirit;
Bringing Pain to the Flesh –
Then, welling up to life eternal.

Ecclesiastes; 1 & 2 Corinthians..

13 June 2007