Then did William give utterance to the words of the preacher, not
indeed in his sermon at St. Mary's, but after dinner.
"'Lust seizeth us in youth, ambition in midlife, avarice in old age;
but vanity and pride are the besetting sins that drive the angels
from our cradle, pamper us with luscious and most unwholesome food,
ride our first stick with us, mount our first horse with us, wake
with us in the morning, dream with us in the night, and never at any
time abandon us. In this world, beginning with pride and vanity, we
are delivered over from tormentor to tormentor, until the worst
tormentor of all taketh absolute possession of us for ever, seizing
us at the mouth of the grave, enchaining us in his own dark dungeon,
standing at the door, and laughing at our cries. But the Lord, out
of his infinite mercy, hath placed in the hand of every man the helm
to steer his course by, pointing it out with his finger, and giving
him strength as well as knowledge to pursue it.
"'William! William! there is in the moral straits a current from
right to wrong, but no re-flux from wrong to right; for which
destination we must hoist our sails aloft and ply our oars
incessantly, or night and the tempest will overtake us, and we shall
shriek out in vain from the billows, and irrecoverably sink.
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