PART FOUR

CONTRARY TYPES OF VIRTUE AND VICE

1. The distinction between virtue and vice is really between soma and psyche, matter and mind, the not-self and the self, since that which is virtuous corresponds to the positivity of psyche, be it metachemical, chemical, physical, or metaphysical, whereas that which is vicious can only correspond to the negativity of soma, whatever the element.

2. Since we have distinguished, in the previous three parts, between the somatic absolutism of most particles/least wavicles and the somatic relativity of more (relative to most) particles/less (relative to least) wavicles on the objective, or female, side of life, and contrasted this to the psychic relativity of more (relative to most) wavicles/less (relative to least) particles and the psychic absolutism of most wavicles/least particles on its subjective, or male, side, the side not of metachemistry and chemistry, fire and water, but of physics and metaphysics, vegetation (earth) and air, we may now distinguish what I shall call primary vice from secondary vice in connection with those contexts where soma predominates and those where, on the basis of what is strictly male, it doesn't, while likewise distinguishing what shall be called primary virtue from secondary virtue in connection with those contexts where psyche predominates and those where, on the basis of what is strictly female, it doesn't, so that we shall have an overall distinction between primary vice and secondary virtue in relation to metachemistry and chemistry, but primary virtue and secondary vice in relation to physics and metaphysics.

3. The objective elements of metachemistry and chemistry, fire and water, will therefore be those to which we can ascribe a primary order of vice and a secondary order of virtue, since they will correspond to crime and punishment, evil and good, whereas the subjective elements of physics and metaphysics, vegetation and air, will be those to which a primary order of virtue and a secondary order of vice can be ascribed in view of their correspondence to grace and sin, wisdom and folly.

4. But if vice corresponds to soma, to matter, and virtue to psyche, to mind, then to what are we alluding when we draw such a distinction? - Quite simply to power and glory on the one hand, that of soma, and to form and contentment on the other hand, that of psyche. In other words, vice will always be associated, no matter what the element, with power and glory, the will and the spirit, whereas virtue can only be associated, in whatever element, with form and contentment, the ego and the soul.

5. Therefore because the objective elements of metachemistry and chemistry are that in which soma predominates over psyche, the not-self over the self, in terms of most particles/least wavicles in the one case and more (relative to most) particles/less (relative to least) wavicles in the other, they are the contexts in which vice is hegemonic over virtue, negativity over positivity, in absolute or relative ratios corresponding to the above particle/wavicle dichotomies, so that we have a right to speak of the primary nature of vice and the secondary nature of virtue in relation to those contexts, as between the crime of somatic negativity and the punishment of psychic positivity, the former corresponding to evil and the latter to good.

6. Because the subjective elements of physics and metaphysics are that, by contrast, in which psyche predominates over soma, the self over the not-self, in terms of more (relative to most) wavicles/less (relative to least) particles in the one case and most wavicles/least particles in the other, they are the contexts in which virtue is hegemonic over vice, positivity over negativity, in relative and absolute ratios corresponding to the above wavicle/particle dichotomies, so that we have a right to speak of the primary nature of virtue and the secondary nature of vice in relation to these contexts, as between the grace of psychic positivity and the sin of somatic negativity, the former corresponding to wisdom and the latter to folly.

7. Consequently whereas the female side of life, being objective in its vacuous origins, provides us with evidence of the precedence of virtue by vice, as of psyche by soma, the male side of life, being subjective in its plenumous origins, provides us with evidence to the contrary, namely the precedence of vice by virtue, as of soma by psyche, so that we have a distinction, in effect, between the primary viciousness and secondary virtuousness, crime and punishment, of the one, and the primary virtuousness and secondary viciousness, grace and sin, of the other, a distinction which corresponds to what in PART THREE I have called the free state and the bound church on the one hand, and to the free church and the bound state on the other - the hand not of an objective, or female, disposition but of a subjective, or male, one.

8. Societies and peoples in which virtue predominates over vice will be those for whom the Church takes precedence over the State, pretty much as psyche over soma, and in which positivity will accordingly prevail over negativity in ratios of either 2½:1½ or 3:1, viz. more (relative to most) wavicles/less (relative to least) particles or most wavicles/least particles, depending whether they can be characterized as offering allegiance, in subjective lower-class vein, primarily to humanism/naturalism or, in subjective upper-class vein, primarily to transcendentalism/idealism, physics or metaphysics.

9. Societies and peoples in which vice predominates over virtue, on the other hand, will be those for whom the State takes precedence over the Church, pretty much as soma over psyche, and in which negativity will accordingly prevail over positivity in ratios of either 3:1 or 2½:1½, viz. most particles/least wavicles or more (relative to most) particles/less (relative to least) wavicles, depending whether they can be characterized as offering allegiance, in objective upper-class vein, primarily to materialism/fundamentalism or, in objective lower-class vein, primarily to realism/nonconformism, metachemistry or chemistry.

10. It could be said that those societies upholding the primacy of virtue will testify to a primary order of morality and a secondary order of immorality, since with them the Church takes precedence over the State and, hence, grace over sin. For grace corresponds to free psyche and sin to the bound, or determined, soma which issues from psychic precedence, bearing ample testimony to the natural and subnatural informing of will and spirit by the consciousness of ego and the subconsciousness of soul.

11. Those societies which uphold the primacy of vice, on the other hand, will attest to a primary order of immorality and a secondary order of morality, since with them the State takes precedence over the Church and, hence, crime over punishment. For crime corresponds to free soma and punishment to the bound, or determined, psyche which issues from somatic precedence, bearing ample testimony to the unconscious and superconscious informing of soul and ego by the unnaturalness of will and the supernaturalness of spirit.

12. With objective societies morality is secondary to immorality, and consequently virtue will play second fiddle to vice, as punishment to crime, whereas with subjective societies, by contrast, immorality can only be secondary to morality, and consequently vice will play second fiddle to virtue, as sin to grace. The former types of society will be characterized by somatic freedom in heathenistic fashion, the latter types of society by psychic freedom in Christian fashion. The former will be female and objective, the latter male and subjective. The former ones in which evil dominates good, the latter ones in which wisdom dominates or, rather, liberates from folly. These are the gender antipodes of life, whether on the noumenal terms of time/space or, lower down, on the phenomenal terms of volume/mass.

13. Societies that are primarily characterized by immorality will be those in which the negativity of soma takes precedence over the positivity of psyche, and precisely because soma is free and psyche bound, the former the factual precondition of a fictional extrapolation, whether in the metachemical absolutism of materialism/fundamentalism or in the chemical relativity of realism/nonconformism.

14. Societies, on the other hand, whose primary characteristic is morality will be those in which the positivity of psyche takes precedence over the negativity of soma, and precisely because psyche is free and soma bound, the former the truthful precondition of an illusory extrapolation, whether in the physical relativity of humanism/naturalism or in the metaphysical absolutism of transcendentalism/idealism.

15. In societies primarily characterized, in heathenistic fashion, by crime and punishment, somatic freedom and psychic determinism, such grace and sin as continues to exist in relation to psychic freedom and somatic determinism will normally be undermined by the prevailing ethic, even to an extent whereby both humanism and transcendentalism are lost sight of in a greater concern with naturalism and/or idealism in mirror-like reflection of the predominance of materialism and/or realism over fundamentalism and/or nonconformism.

16. In societies primarily characterized, in Christian vein, by grace and sin, psychic freedom and somatic determinism, such crime and punishment as continues to exist in relation to somatic freedom and psychic determinism will normally be undermined by the prevailing ethic, even to an extent whereby both materialism and realism are lost sight of in a greater concern with fundamentalism and/or nonconformism in mirror-like reflection of the predominance of humanism and/or transcendentalism over naturalism and/or idealism.

17. The somatic freedoms of secular societies are only possible in relation to a sensual bias, in which female criteria are hegemonic, in metachemistry and/or chemistry, over their male counterparts, whereas the psychic freedoms of religious societies are only possible in relation to a sensible bias, in which male criteria are hegemonic, in physics and/or metaphysics, over their female counterparts. The former societies devolve, in outer sense (sensuality), from crime to punishment, evil to good, the Devil to woman. The latter societies evolve, in inner sense (sensibility), from sin to grace, folly to wisdom, man to God. The former societies are primarily vicious, the latter ones primarily virtuous.