[7]Whether one in order or confusion lives, or whether one of the sweets of this life eats, which in the next the bitter must become, [8]Or those who on the bitter live which in the next the sweet becomes; the LAW OF COMPENSATION surely straightens out. The WINE of LIFE is KNOWLEDGE GAINED, on which no claims can Justice lay. The LEAVES of LIFE are USELESS WORKS for which Justice decrees that RIGHTEOUS ONES MUST BE PERFORMED TO BALANCE LIFE'S ACCOUNT. [7] The sweets of this life refers to the worldly pleasure, the sensuous enjoyments, which retard our spiritual progress here and for which we suffer in the next if we become a slave to them in this life. [8] The bitter here refers to the virtuous, strenuous life, the life of denying, renouncing the so-called pleasures, the seeking to conquer our animal qualities. 9 Each month a thousand new thoughts bring but of the thoughts of yesterday which brought the [9]Summer Bearing Rose to view, On which the King of Splendor sits and rules, all reverence be. OH, THOU OF PRISTINE PURITY, MASTER AND DREAD JUDGE OF ALL THAT BREATHES, WHO ART THE LIGHT WITHIN THE LIGHT, AND WHO OF NO DISTINCTIONS KNOWS. [9] The Rose is here used as an interrogation point, meaning to ask the question, where springs forth the spirit of regeneration wherewith a man from evil is reclaimed? 10 Rest well content; what matters it to you, whether the dead do live? The quick do surely die. Let argument and praise thunder as they may, and though the loud voice of orthodoxy bid you to the FEAST of DREAD, FEAR and ARROGANCE, take thou no heed. All life and death are but transcending states, all is LIFE and all is DEATH to those who know where DEATH IS DEAD. [10]Thus learn of sleep its opposite awake, from sorrow learn of joy, for between these PARALLELS doth that STREAM most surely flow, Which is bereft of NAME, of FORM, of LIFE, of DEATH! It is THAT which we know as THE INFINITE, from whence come all, and whither all again do go. [10] Death is not found in the state of Infinitude, thus death ceases to be when the Infinite is reached. 11 Thus between the lines of love and hate, of pure, and impure, the modest, and unchaste, lust of days and lust of fame, The RIVER of CONTENTMENT smoothly flows. The name of slave and monarch cease to be, PEACE IS THE NAMES OF ALL IN THE INFINITE UNITY. 12 The BOOK of LIFE beneath the [11]TREE, a [12]jug of wine, a loaf of bread, and thou, oh Memory, well stored with SACRED LORE, What wilderness of life doth not then a paradise become? [11] The Tree of Knowledge. [12] The jug of wine here denotes the life of opportunities, the loaf of bread experience, with which we wisdom learn and thus memory perfect. 13