We now live in an era in which Pride is Sovereign, and his two concubines Vanity and Lust are his apostles amongst men of weak will.
He is the inevitable successor to the rule of his brother Greed and his two accomplices, Sloth and Gluttony.
Pride's rule will come to an end, eventually. But it will not be by succession. There is but one Sovereign of vice remaining, and he has no patience for seduction.
When the rule of Wrath comes, we will beg for the return of the others, who at least offered the temporary mercies of worldly pleasure.
We will beg for their return, because we have not the courage to beg for forgiveness from him who alone is granted the power to redeem.
I have often wondered why cowardice is not among the capital sins - indeed, chief among them. For with courage, none of the other vices could have any purchase in the human soul; but without it, we are forever tossed on a stormy sea of vicious iniquity.
