Virtue Over Vice   "This is the triumph that virtue hath over vice, that wheresoever she is most hated, there she is often wished for. Though they have set their heart as an adamant stone, and made their face like flint, yet grace pierceth throughout their concupiscence and they say sometime, `The way of virtue is better.' There was never so impure and dissolute an adulterer but he hath said sometime, `The chaste body is best.' There never was so blasphemous nor vile a swearer, but sometime he hath trembled at God's majesty. There was never man so proud and ambitious but sometime he remembereth he is but earth and ashes. There was never such a usurer nor covetous wretch, but sometime he thinketh his gold and silver shall canker and the rust of it shall be a witness against him... There was never so high-minded nor vainglorious a king but he hath sometime thought his crown would fall from his head, and the crown of righteousness was better."   -- Edward Dering (c. 1650) -------------------------