Villanelle 4 [Reality & Perfection]

V: come my darling, let us discuss the essence of pain and pleasure
Me: tell me your riddle, and be canid in your speech!
V: your man, Thomas Aquinas wrote a commentary on my man Aristotle in “de anima” many moons ago
Me: yes, I am familiar
V: and your man Dante, in Canto 6 of Inferno explained it better
Me: perhaps not better, as you say, but more poetically for posterity
V: herein is the riddle, indeed
Me: I said, SPEAK PLAINLY, your speech is harder on the mind than on the ear
V: very well, my darling, then let us begin.
V: those who live are by-and-by as those who lived and died. and all are thus entwined to wait; as those who loved and those who hate

Me: you speak as if you agree with Aristotle, yet you also agree with Aquinas. Certainly this cannot be?
V: and yet it is, for isn’t much of your faith is built on the empires of great minds?
Me: to be sure it is
V: and those minds, many of which were pagan in origin, have been baptized by the church?
Me: yes, that appears to be the case
V: and these pagan minds, with pagan beliefs, who formulated their thoughts on pagan reasoning are doomed to spend eternity in suffering?
Me: I cannot say for certain
V: how can they! Your man says that the builder is of more worth than the building itself, and if the foundation is good how does one condemn the builder?

Me: it is for the judge to decide, each according to his own work
V: and the judge is just?
Me: to be sure
V: yet, the builders who formed the foundation are condemned to punishment because they were born too early, or born in various parts of the earth where the Truth was not preached
Me: certainly not
V: but the judge is just and perfect in his justice, unlike the judges of earth who are prone to error?
Me: yes, he must be
V: yet in error the judge wrongly condemns the builder of a good foundation on the singular basis that he was a pagan

Me: what a man worships in ignorance the great God reveals through his works, pagan or otherwise
V: yet the truth says “ignorantia juris non excusat”
Me: yes, that is the case
V: then ignorance is no excuse for lawbreaking, and these are condemned for their heresy, rather than their ignorance
Me: certainly it seems so
V: then we have arrived, as a dog returning to its vomit, at the same place as before we started.

Me: then what is the meaning of your riddle?
V: my dear boy, the muddy mystery is the secret of perfection; that as a man draws closer and closer to perfection the more he understand true pain, or true pleasure
Me: but how can that be?
V: let us examine the claim by your man Aquinas. Would you agree that pain and pleasure exist in our reality?
Me: certainly they do
V: and various kinds of pains and pleasures beset a man throughout his life?
Me: to be sure
V: and these pains and pleasures are fleeting ventures that appear for a little time and then vanish away?
Me: that seems to be the case, yes
V: then when we speak of the eternal judge, him who grants eternal pleasure to some and eternal pain to some, are we to assume that these are greater or less than the pains and pleasures that visit us for brief moments in this life?
Me: they must be greater, for they span in endless ages
V: then those who suffer now are doomed to suffer and even greater pain?
Me: that is the case (see Rev. 21)
V: and those who experience pleasure now are destined for an even greater pleasure?
Me: yes, they must
V: and if they must, must the foundation-layer also suffer the same fate as those who were ignorant pagans?
Me: the assumption, mi’lady, is the foundation is an eternal foundation, unlike those built in this life
V: yet we have already agreed that the foundation Aristotle laid is the same foundation of Aquinas, Dante and the church in Rome

Me: you fail to see that the perfection of an idea can be ameliorated by those who know the Truth more perfectly
V: how so?
Me: consider the argument; you say that as the person draws closer to perfection that he experiences greater pain or pleasure
V: that is what i am saying
Me: and as Aristotle was an ignorant pagan, he did not have the whole Truth?
V: yes, that is the case
Me: then as Aquinas drew closer to the perfect Truth and as Dante drew even closer, we left the world of the lie for the world of the truth
V: I see your point

Me: then the answer to your riddle is this—he who lives, as he who dies, are nearer than the pagan’s lies. To all is such a promise made: that Truth perfects foundations laid. Those in pain their suffering lasts, those in bliss no pleasures passed