Thou, Nature, art my goddess; to thy law
My services are bound. Wherefore should I 4
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me,
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother? Why bastard? wherefore base? 8
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true,
As honest madam’s issue? Why brand they us
With base? with baseness? bastardy? base, base? 12
Who in the lusty stealth of nature take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed,
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops, 16
Got ’tween asleep and wake? Well then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land:
Our father’s love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate. Fine word, ‘legitimate!’ 20
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed,
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate:—I grow, I prosper;
Now, gods, stand up for bastards!
-Edmund, King Lear
:-)
While I adore Shakespeare, I think a simpler and more profound example can be found in the story of Abraham, when he got ahead of God's plan and took Sarah's servant, Hagar, and produced a child with her....with Sarah's blessing. Because of His promise to Abraham, God did make a great nation of Ishmael, but Isaac was the promised son and the one through whom salvation would come to man. The world is still suffering the impact of that one "bastard" child, and the "greatness" of his descendants has continued to increase and now threatens to destroy us.