PASSION VERSUS REASON
Wherefore is man to sensual thoughts a slave.
And beauty but a bait to tempt to lust?
Tell me why reason such small power should have.
That can but say "You ought" to Passion's "must"?
We strive to root the seeds of evil out,
And steer our course by virtue's steady light,
Make resolutions of resistance stout
To all the assailing powers of appetite:
Then, when we rest of victory most assured,
A gust of fierce desire assails the soul,
O'erturns the guards with which it seemed secured,
And gone is all our boasted self-control!
Hard fate of man, thus wrecked on Passion's shelf,
That ne'er may be the master of himself.
And beauty but a bait to tempt to lust?
Tell me why reason such small power should have.
That can but say "You ought" to Passion's "must"?
We strive to root the seeds of evil out,
And steer our course by virtue's steady light,
Make resolutions of resistance stout
To all the assailing powers of appetite:
Then, when we rest of victory most assured,
A gust of fierce desire assails the soul,
O'erturns the guards with which it seemed secured,
And gone is all our boasted self-control!
Hard fate of man, thus wrecked on Passion's shelf,
That ne'er may be the master of himself.