diary / by Edward Mullany

Which isn’t to say that the principle of order, among and between people, has no place in civilization, or that obedience, as a habit of mind, is to be abhorred. For, given the right context, these things are the means by which a soul will flourish, and come to maturity, and without which it will stagnate, and find no landmarks by which to orient itself, so that any direction such a soul would move would have nothing to vouch for it save the caprices or fancies that the person might associate with that direction, through natural affinity or subconscious allure, or, even worse, self-defeating spite.