Testimony of sense
I am wholly dishonest, and no man knoweth it. I can
cheat, lie, commit adultery, rob, murder, and I elude
detection by smooth-tongued villainy. Ani-
mal in propensity, deceitful in sentiment,
fraudulent in purpose, I mean to make my short span
of life one gala day. What a nice thing is sin! How
sin succeeds, where the good purpose waits! The world
is my kingdom. I am enthroned in the gorgeousness
of matter. But a touch, an accident, the law of God,
may at any moment annihilate my peace, for all my
fancied joys are fatal. Like bursting lava, I expand but
to my own despair, and shine with the resplendency of
consuming fire.
