OF THE VIRTUOUS , I2Q
they are drawn by their devils. But the deeper they sink the more ardently gleameth their eye and the desire for their God.
Alas, their crying also hath reached your ears, ye virtuous : ' What I am not, that, that is for me God and virtue ! '
And there are others who walk about heavily and creaking like waggons carrying stones downhill. They talk much of dignity and virtue, their skid they call virtue !
And there are others who are wound up like every- day watches ; they go on ticking and wish that ticking to be called virtue.
Verily, these are mine entertainment. Wherever I find such watches I shall wind them up with my mock- ing; and they shall even click at that.
And others are proud of their handful of justice, and for its sake commit outrages on all things, so that the world is drowned with their unjustice.
Alas ! How badly the word ' virtue ' cometh from their mouth ! And when they say : ' I am just,' it soundeth almost like: 'I am just revenged!'
With their virtue they try to scratch out the eyes of their enemies ; they only extol themselves in order to debase others.
And again there are others who sit in their mud-bath and thus speak out of the bulrushes : ' Virtue that meaneth to sit still in the mud-bath.
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