In which Piers examines his moral formation

But if thou think, trial unsought may find
Us both securer than thus warned thou seemest,
Go; for thy stay, not free, absents thee more;
Go in thy native innocence, relie
On what thou hast of virtue, summon all,
For God towards thee hath done his part, do thine.

I cannot praise a fugitive and cloistered virtue, unexercised and unbreathed, that never sallies out and sees her adversary, but slinks out of the race where that immortal garland is to be run for, not without dust and heat.

Assuredly we bring not innocence into the world, we bring impurity much rather: that which purifies us is trial, and trial is by what is contrary.

I wonder what it says about me that a good portion of my moral reasoning is filtered through the words of John Milton.