Because thy honour’s sacrificed mere bread to scranch.
If thy brute nature will not practise abstinence,
Administer the remedy. Bring it to sense.160
If thou wouldst cleanse thy garments—free them from all soil,—
Despise not thou the bleacher, nor his useful toil.
If greed of food have fractured abstinence in thee;
Lay hold on Him who fractures heals. From self get free.
No sooner shall the fracture be by Him fast bound,
New union will take place,—the broken part grow sound.
If thou hadst made the fracture, it would thee invite