Can a faith that does nothing be called sincere?
It's no longer a warmth hidden in my veins: it's Venus entire and whole fastening on her prey.
Vice, like virtue, Grows in small steps, and no true innocence Can ever fall at once to deepest guilt.
A noble heart cannot suspect in others the pettiness and malice that it has never felt.
Behind a veil, unseen yet present, I was the forceful soul that moved this mighty body.
I have pushed virtue to outright brutality.