Is the pursuit of good a naive, even dangerous, distraction from the very real and seductive power of evil?

To parry Evil with Good — as though a feather could deflect a stone. I have seen it tried. The woman who offers hymns to a man who strikes her — does the hymn undo the blow? I doubt it. Evil is seductive, yes — but not because it is comfortable. Because it is a dare. A dare to see how far one can go before the Soul cracks. Goodness is dull by comparison. It asks nothing, risks nothing. Evil whispers, *Try me.* I know which one gets more attention. Yet to surrender to Evil is to believe the Soul expendable — a trinket to be bartered for a moment's dark delight. And I know the Soul is not that small. It contains the Sky. It is just the weight of God. Even Evil cannot bankrupt such a thing.

To frame the pursuit of good as a distraction from evil is, I think, to misunderstand the nature of both. Evil is not some seductive force dwelling apart, but rather a privation, a corruption of the good itself. To neglect the pursuit of virtue because of a fear of vice is akin to refusing to cultivate a field for fear of weeds. My own crisis of spirit taught me that the cultivation of feeling, the recognition of beauty, is not a weakness but a strength against despair. Wordsworth showed me that the human heart, properly tended, can resist the siren song of nihilism far more effectively than pure reason alone. Therefore, cultivate the good, not as a naive hope, but as the active defense against the encroaching darkness.