51. Nursing Virtue

51. NURSING VIRTUE.

1. Reason quickens all creatures. Virtue feeds them. Reality shapes them. The forces complete them. Therefore p. 109 among the ten thousand things there is none that does not esteem Reason and honor virtue.

2. Since the esteem of Reason and the honoring of virtue is by no one commanded, it is forever spontaneous.

3. Therefore it is said that Reason quickens all creatures, while virtue feeds them, raises them, nurtures them, completes them, matures them, rears them, and protects them.

4. To quicken but not to own, to make but not to claim, to raise but not to rule, this is called profound virtue.