clearly established the right of certain of our protected minoritiesrnto go well beyond simple coveting and to take whateverrnthey think they want without any shame or any serious consequences.rnAll the conventional manifestations of coveting—greed,rnenvy, lust, rage, gluttony, sloth, and pride—are so familiar as tornbe (in secular terms) neither vices nor virtues, but merely descriptionsrnof the chief characteristics, the “reality” of humankind.rnIt would be too funny for words if it were not also sornunbearably sad. “The American Dream” has ceased to be a visionrnof liberty and become, instead, a program for social mobility.rnWhen the New Law, with its two essential injunctions, replaced,rnfor Christians at least, the snarled legalistic complexitiesrnof the Judaic Old Law, the commandments were not, inrntruth, diminished, but boldly enlarged to include the covertrnmotions of the soul as well as its overt offices. The New Lawrntests motivation, the secrets of the heart, as well as actions.rnThe distinctions between caritas and cupiditas are to be appliedrnabsolutely. By those standards we are one and all sinners.rnWe one and all, of course, covet what we have not and arernnot and that which we ought not to, even (Lord have mercy)rnour blessed saints who are able to discard all desires savingrnthe last one for the crown (thorns or gold, no matter, no difference)rnof sainthood.rnThe Catechism of the service of Confirmation in The Bookrnof Common Prayer (1559) offered a blending of the Old andrnthe New in reply to the question: “What is thy duty to thyrnneighbor?” A little part of the answer pictures a world thatrnanyone, except perhaps a bureaucrat or politician, would findrnas sensible as it is admirable: “To hurt nobody by word orrndeed. To be true and just in all my dealing. To bear no malicernor hatred in my heart. To keep my hands from picking andrnstealing, and my tongue from evil speaking, lying, and slandering.rnTo keep my body in temperance, soberness, and chastity.rnNot to covet nor desire other men’s goods. But learn andrnlabor truly to get mine own living, and to do my duty in thatrnstate of life, unto which it shall please God to call me.” Thernman or child who could say those things today might well berntaken for an alien creature from outer space, though thosernwords and ideals were shared by a cloud of ancestors for closernto two thousand years.rnThe New Law has been a great boon to literature in allrnforms, not only insisting on a deeper, more dimensional accountingrnof character and motivation, in both hero and antihero,rnbut also in preserving the great texts of our past, thernpre-Christian classics, as being as true and useful now as thenrnand ever shall be. This treasury of our past is, to be sure, nowrnmuch threatened, in danger from colossal ignorance and fromrna generation without any law, old or new, or any order abovernand beyond the satisfaction of all appetite at any cost to othersrnand themselves.rnOne of the eadiest and latest stories we choose to tell ourselvesrnis of the character who covets something (anything)rndesperately and how it comes to pass that the desired thing isrnacquired only to prove to be something other than the troubledrnheart imagined and hungered for. For centuries this was thernline of comedy, dark and light; for to be covetous was to bernfoolish. Lately, in our secular literature at least, it is takenrnmore seriously and sometimes aims for tragedy. Well, eitherrnway, there will be no end of it, just as (has the century provedrnanything else so eloquently?) there are no imaginable limits tornhuman wickedness, cruelty, and folly. crnGeorge Garrett is Henry Hoyns Professor of English at thernUniversity of Virginia. His latest book is My Silk Purse andrnYours: The Publishing Scene and American Literary Artrn(University of Missouri Press).rnJohn’s Planrnby Gloria G. BramernJohn, as you lie in your stormy bed tonight,rnwishing you could keep your memories intactrnand that, before new light, triumphs you have dreamedrncome true and that you rule every delight,rnevery one with whom you’ve made contact, think:rnwc love the unknown and crave what we should fear.rnYou created your own life ten thousand times,rnreformed its shape to a chain of paradigmsrnand held fast to the flesh from which, once secured,rnyou grew disenfranchised. You wrote your own godrnand dispatched appeals on immaculate sheets.rnPrayers ring true only when they say what one feels.rnThe most terrible fraud is the illusionrnthat passion is conversion, that one losesrnby being more himself. The blooming treernholds its leaves unthinkingly, finds its own plan,rnyet fits the complex moral hierarchy,rnhidcpendcnt forces confound gravity.rnJohn, beyond the next street and the next are woddsrnclamorous with eccentric soliloquies.rnAt every corner, communion goes awry.rnThe cities of our souls teem with enterprise.rnIf you are awake, you cannot compromise,rnnor crave the unknown and fear what you should love.rnDECEMBER 1992/23rnrnrn