This, as the Ethics teach,
Is habit of right choice
That holds the means between extremes,
So spake that noble voice.
Nobility by right
No other sense has had
Than to import its subject's good,
As vileness makes him bad.
Such virtue shows its good
To others' intellect,
For when two things agree in one,
Producing one effect.
One must from other come,
Or each one from a third,
If each be as each, and more, then one
From the other is inferred.
Where Virtue is, there is
A Nobleman, although
Not where there is a Nobleman
Must Virtue be also.
So likewise that is Heaven
Wherein a star is hung,
But Heaven may be starless; so
In women and the young
A modesty is seen,
Not virtue, noble yet;
Comes virtue from what's noble, as
From black comes violet;
Or from the parent root
It springs, as said before,
And so let no one vaunt that him.
A noble mother bore.
They are as Gods whom Grace
Has placed beyond all sin:
God only gives it to the Soul
That He finds pure within.
That seed of Happiness
Falls in the hearts of few,
Planted by God within the Souls
Spread to receive His dew.