12: ON VIRTUE
It is thus that we acquire virtue with facility and certainty; for as God is the fountain and principle of all virtue, in proportion as we approach to the possession of Him; in like proportion do we rise into the most eminent virtues. Indeed, he that hath God, hath all things; and he that hath Him not, hath nothing. All virtue is but as a mask, an outside appearance, mutable as our garments, if it does not spring up from this divine source; and then, indeed, it is genuine, essential, and permanent. “The King’s daughter,” saith David, “is all glorious within.”(67)
67) Psalm 45:13