Chapter 27: Penance

261.
To bear due penitential pains, while no offence
He causes others, is the type of ' penitence.'

262.
To ' penitents ' sincere avails their ' penitence ';
Where that is not, 'tis but a vain pretence.

263.
Have other men forgotten ' penitence,' who strive
To earn for penitents the things by which they live?

264.
Destruction to his foes, to friends increase of joy,
The ' penitent ' can cause, if this his thoughts employ.

265.
That what they wish may, as they wish, be won,
By men on earth are works of painful ' penance ' done.

266.
Who works of ' penance ' do, their end attain,
Others, in passion's net ensnared, toil but in vain.

267.
The hotter glows the fining fire, the gold the brighter shines;
The pain of penitence, like fire, the soul of man refines.

268.
Who gains himself in utter self-control,
Him worships every other living soul.

269.
E'en over death the victory he may gain,
If power by penance won his soul obtain.

270.
The many all things lack! The cause is plain;
The 'penitents' are few. The many shun such pain.