But keep your eye on desire and follow her every time you dare. “Lay for” desire and make haste to follow her every time you can. Keep in mind that desire is God. Keep watching and she will prove it. When you just must follow Duty, do it; but tell yourself it is desire you are following—not Duty. You are doing your duty, not because you must, but because you DESIRE to. Always remember this. Never humor Duty to the extent of letting her think she is making you do things for her sake.
Let me whisper something to you: Duty is a sham. She is a hollow mockery. She wears a dignified demeanor to cover her real nature. Duty is DESIRE in a goggle-eyed domino which scares you stiff. Just you follow desire and never, never give Duty the satisfaction of thinking you’d follow her, and by and by she will get tired of masquerading. She will take off her mask and you will smile to see that she really was desire all the time, and you knew her not.
You see, you and other folks had such a habit of cuffing desire into the corner every time she tried to lead you, that she had to go and cover herself up in order to get you to follow her at all. So all along on those horrid dead-levels where you thought Duty was leading you such a stupid and righteous chase, you were really following desire all the time.
Now if you will keep telling Duty to her face that you know she is only desire—that you are following desire and not Duty; if you will keep resolutely sticking to it Duty will soon give it up and take off her mask, and you will really see the smiling face of desire where you thought there was only stern-eyed Duty.
I write Duty with a capital D because that is the way we have always thought of her. But desire has always been just plain desire to us—something naturally and loveably wicked and familiar; so familiar that we bred contempt for her. But our eyes are opening.
Do you remember that when you say “must” to the children they straightway are “willful.” Children are true to God, to desire—”of such is the kingdom of heaven.” When you dress desire up as a goggly-eyed scarecrow Duty, the child will none
59 |
