THE SENSUAL BASIS OF SENSIBILITY

1. The last aphorism in the above cycle concludes, it could be said, with a sting in its tail. We may officially uphold sensibility, and therefore the twin moralities of culture and civilization, nurture and civility, male and female binding, but nonetheless sensuality would seem to predominate in most people most of the time.

2. The distinction between sensuality and sensibility is akin to the one between elements and elementinos, or large particles and small particles of whatever Element, be it metachemical, chemical, physical, or metaphysical, and therefore subatomically identifiable with photons/photinos, electrons/electrinos, neutrons/neutrinos, or protons/protinos, or something to that effect.

3. We pay for sensibility with sensuality, the foundation upon which sensibility is built or, at any rate, the basis of profound sense (inner) in superficial sense (outer), and there is a sense (no pun intended!) in which sensibility is something of a luxury compared to the sensual bread-and-butter of life.

4. Thus widespread or prevalent sensuality is less an anomaly than a basic fact of life, even if and when morality enjoins us to prefer sensibility and do our best to cultivate it in the interests of culture and civilization.

5. Frankly, those who are truly or genuinely cultured and/or civilized are more the exception than the rule, and it would seem that this is always and everywhere the case on account of the fact that sensuality corresponds to the greater particle, or percentage of society, and sensibility to the smaller particle - the elementino in whatever Element as opposed to the element.

6. Put differently, one could say that sensibility merely corresponds to the video tape and/or player, whereas sensuality corresponds to the television itself, which is the more prevalent medium of audio-visual expression. Other examples of a similar order could be given.

7. Thus it has to be conceded with reason that man is at bottom sinful and only intermittently or occasionally graceful, since sin is sensual and grace sensible. But I should return, at this point, to gender-conditioned distinctions; for 'man' is rather like 'mankind' in its unitary pretensions, and hardly does justice to the nature of woman, much less females (including upper-class women, or 'devils') in general!

8. No, we must be careful to distinguish the basic sinfulness of man or, rather, males from the basic criminality of females, always allowing, in each case, for a further distinction between relative and absolute, or phenomenal and noumenal, manifestations of the same.

9. For males are no less divisible, according to class, between men and 'gods' than females ... between women and 'devils', the latter in each case being the noumenal, or absolute, counterpart to the former.

10. Now if males are generally more sinful than graceful, because more sensual than sensible, then females are generally more criminal than punishing, and for similar reasons. Whether they are relatively or absolutely so will, however, depend on their class.

11. To overlook gender and reduce or define everything in terms of 'man' or 'mankind' leads to such simplistic and ultimately delusory notions as the sinfulness of humanity in general, a reductionist credo which is then compounded by equally false equations of sin with evil and grace with good(ness).

12. To be sure, evil and good have a place in life, but not in association with sin and grace! Evil is a way of describing crime and goodness a way of describing punishment, so that they are complementary to crime and punishment as female terms of reference.

13. Complementary to sin and grace as male terms of reference are folly and wisdom, for folly is no less descriptive of sin than wisdom of grace.

14. Therefore just as sin is a mark of folly and grace a mark of wisdom, so, across the gender divide to the female side of life, crime is a mark of evil and punishment (of crime) a mark of good.

15. Consequently it would be no less misguided to speak, in reductionist fashion, of the criminality of mankind than to speak of the sinfulness of mankind. Mankind is both criminal and sinful, as well (if to a lesser extent overall) as punishing and graceful, but it is the female portion of mankind, to persist with this unitary term, which is primarily criminal and/or punishing and its male portion, or side of life, which is primarily sinful and/or graceful, whatever people may think.

16. Both portions of mankind alike, however, are predominantly sensual and therefore criminal or sinful, because sensuality prevails over sensibility as the element over the elementino, making for a situation in which the majority of people - what may be called average humanity - are more criminal than punishing on the female side of the gender divide and more sinful than graceful on its male side, irrespective of whether they are 'true' to their gender or 'bent'.