Material good has its tax, and if it came without desert or sweat, has no root in me, and the next wind will blow it away. There is no tax on the good of virtue for that is the incoming of God himself, or absolute existence, without any comparative. Our instinct uses "more" and "less" in application to man, of the presence of the soul, and not of its absence the brave man is greater than the coward the true, the benevolent, the wise, is more a man, and not less, than the fool and knave. His life is a progress, and not a station. The soul refuses limits, and always affirms an Optimism, never a Pessimism. There can be no excess to love none to knowledge none to beauty, when these attributes are considered in the purest sense. In a virtuous action, I properly am in a virtuous act, I add to the world I plant into deserts conquered from Chaos and Nothing, and see the darkness receding on the limits of the horizon. There is no penalty to virtue no penalty to wisdom they are proper additions of being. Neither can it be said, on the other hand, that the gain of rectitude must be bought by any loss. In some manner there will be a demonstration of the wrong to the understanding also but should we not see it, this deadly deduction makes square the eternal account. Has he therefore outwitted the law? Inasmuch as he carries the malignity and the lie with him, he so far deceases from nature. There is no stunning confutation of his nonsense before men and angels.
1840s, Essays: First Series (1841), CompensationĬontext: We feel defrauded of the retribution due to evil acts, because the criminal adheres to his vice and contumacy, and does not come to a crisis or judgment anywhere in visible nature.
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