Prosperity And Adversity
The good things which belong to prosperity are to be wished, but the good things that belong to adversity are to be admired.
—Seneca.
Conscience
Ever present and operant is that which never becomes a party to one’s guilt, conceives never an evil thought, consents never to an unrighteous deed, never sins; but holds itself stainless, immutable, personally holy—the Conscience—counsellor, comforter, judge and executor of the spirit’s decrees. None can flee from the spirit’s presence, nor hide from himself. The reserved powers are the mighty ones. Side by side sleep the Whispering Sisters and the Eumenides. Nor is Conscience appeased till the sentence is pronounced. There is an oracle in the breast, an unsleeping police; and ever the court sits, dealing doom or deliverance. Our sole inheritance is our deeds. While remorse stirs the sinner, there remains hope of his redemption. Only he to whom all is one, who draweth all things to one, may enjoy true peace and rest of spirit. None can escape the Presence. The Ought is everywhere and imperative. Alike guilt in the soul and anguish in the flesh affirm his ubiquity. Matter —in particle and planet, mind and microcosm—is quick with spirit.
—A. B. Alcott.
The Nemesis Within
When conscience wakens who can with her strive?
Terrors and troubles from a sick soul drive?
Naught so unpitying as the ire of sin,
The inappeasable Nemesis within.
—Abraham Coles.
Alternate Reading: John 12: 20-28.