Get out the microscope, because we’re going through this poem line-by-line.
- All right, let's talk about virtue according to the TTC.
- People who are truly virtuous just are; they don't force it.
- People who are truly generous and kind don't go around announcing how generous and kind they are.
- They don't do generous things just so people will think they're generous.
- People who hide behind etiquette and rules to show that they're good are posers when it comes right down to it.
- True virtue runs deeper than that.
- Truly great people don't "dwell on the flower" (38.28).
- Given what the rest of this chapter is saying, we figure a flower isn't necessarily a good thing in this context.
- Maybe it's a symbol of surface-level beauty.
- If we want to truly be beautiful and virtuous, then our beauty comes from within.