If.........................................

If we have become a people incapable
of thought, then the brute-thought
of mere power and mere greed
with think for us.

If we have become incapable
of denying ourselves anything,
then all we have will be taken from us.

If we have no compassion,
we will suffer alone, we will suffer
alone the destruction of ourselves.

These are merely the laws of the world
as known to Shakespeare, as known to Milton:

When we cease from human thought,
a low and effective cunning
stirs in the most inhuman minds.

-Wendell Berry,  This Day
Sabbaths:  2005  XII