21. When this form of love is seen it appears ineffably beautiful, and affects with delight the inmost life of the soul.

22. So every spirit, as it is most pure,

And hath in it the more of heavenly light,
So it the fairer body doth procure
23. To habit in, and it more fairly dight
With cheerful grace and amiable sight;
For of the soul the body form doth take.

CLEANSE FIRST THAT WHICH IS WITHIN

THE CUP

1. Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.

LIKE THOUGHT

LIKE DEED

2. Out of the heart of men proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. things come from within, and defile the man.

All these

3. One wandering thought pollutes the day. 4. Unto them that are defiled is nothing pure, but even their mind and conscience is defiled.

5. He that has light within his own clear breast
May sit in the centre and enjoy bright day;
But he that hides a dark soul, and foul thoughts,
Benighted walks under the mid-day sun;

Himself is his own dungeon.

6. We need not hope that our work will be majestic, if there is no majesty in ourselves.

7.

If thou thinkest evil, be thou sure
Thy acts will bear the shadow of the stain;
And if thy thought be perfect, then thy deed
Will be as of the perfect, true, and pure.

8. A malicious thought and a malicious deed are from the same spring, and have the same nature only the deed is the riper serpent, THOUGHTS and can sting another;

CONTROL

OF THE

9. While the thought is as the younger serpent, that hath only the venomous nature in itself. The thought is but the same sin in its minority, tending to maturity.

10. Be not insensible, therefore, of how dangerous a signification a course of evil thoughts is to thy soul.

11. As thou wouldst be ashamed to let thy tongue run all day, and say: "I cannot stop it," so shouldst thou be ashamed to let thy thoughts run at random, or on hurtful things, and say: "I cannot help it."

12. Why should thy thoughts be left masterless to fancy, and passion, and objects, to carry them which way they please?

13. Diseased, melancholy, and crazed persons have almost no power over their own thoughts. They cannot command them to what they would have them exercised about, nor call them off from anything that they run out upon.

14. But they are like an unruly horse that hath a weak rider; or like a dog that will not go or come at command.

15. If thou wilt keep a guard upon thy thoughts, thou must in the first place keep a guard upon

GUARD

THE SENSES

thine eyes, and ears, and taste, and touch.

16. Let not that come into these outer parts, which thou desirest should go no further. Open not the door to them if thou wouldst not let them in.

17. In the second place, there is no true cure for sinful, vain, unprofitable fancies, but by finding the thoughts more profitable employment.

BUSY THE

MIND

18. If thou seest thy duty, and wilt not resolutely call up thy thoughts and command them to their work, thou wilt be like a sluggard that lets all his servants lie in bed, as well as he, because he will not speak to call them.

19. Souls that know not any higher end than the service of the flesh, cannot possibly exercise any holy government over their thoughts.

20. Nor is there any possibility of curing their vicious thoughts, but by causing them to change their designs and ends.

21. But if thou wilt guard the senses, and steadfastly keep a high purpose before thee, it will become easy for thee to follow the injunction of the Apostle:

22. Whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report, if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.

CHAPTER XXV

ENVY AND JEALOUSY ARE A TERRIBLE

MADNESS

1. Surrender not thyself, like another Prometheus, to

THEY DESTROY

have thy heart rended by the twin vultures, Jealousy and Envy. For with thine own life-blood thou preparest and renewest the banquet, at which they are never satisfied.

THE SOUL

2. Dangerous conceits are, in their natures, poisons,
Which, at the first, are scarce found to distaste;
But, with a little action on the blood,
Burn like the mines of sulphur.

3. Envy is the hatred of another's felicity: in respect of superiors, because we are not equal to them; in respect of inferiors, lest we should be equal to them; in respect of equals, because we are equal to them.

WHAT ENVY
IS AND
DOES

4. The last stage of human corruption is when sympathy corrupts itself into envy; and the indestructible interest we take in men's doings has become a joy over their faults and misfortunes; lower than this we cannot go.

5. Envy is the rottenness of the bones.

6. Examine thy heart searchingly when thou findest