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17. Do thou also then not be greatly proud of thy food and dress, or of any external things, but be proud of thine integrity and good deeds.

18. How few are there who have hearts so weaned from the world, as in all things to prefer the smallest point of equity to the greatest temptation of gain;

THE 1

SPIRITUAL

LIFE

19. Who in their affairs and all that concerns them are universally careful to deal with an even hand and even heart.

20.

They who await

No gifts from chance, have conquered fate.

21. Be thou a lamp unto thyself; be a refuge to thyself. Betake thyself to no external refuge. Hold fast to the truth as a lamp. Look not for refuge to anyone besides thyself.

22. A spiritual life may be fitly called a wilderness, by reason of the many sweet flowers which spring up and flourish where they are not trodden under foot by

man.

23. In this wilderness are found the lilies of chastity, and the white roses of innocence; and therein are found too the red roses of sacrifice, and the violets of humility.

CHAPTER XLIII

MERE WORLDLY PLEASURE IS VANITY

1. There is a gain that turneth to loss. There is a gift that shall not profit thee. There is an exquisite subtlety, and the same is unjust. There is a wisdom which multiplieth bitter

THE BITTERNESS OF WORLDLY SWEETS

ness.

2. Why with such earnest pains dost thou provoke The years to bring the inevitable yoke,

Thus blindly with thy blessedness at strife?

3. Full soon thy soul shall have her earthly freight, And custom lie upon thee with a weight,

Heavy as frost, and deep almost as life.

4. The huntsman that with much labour and hazard takes a wild beast runs as great a risk afterwards in the keeping of him; for it often happens that he tears out the throat of his master; and 'tis the same thing with inordinate pleasures.

5. Dost thou think that the men of this world suffer nothing, or but a little? Ask even of those who enjoy the greatest delicacies, and thou shalt find it otherwise.

6. But thou wilt say they have many delights, and follow their own wills, and, therefore, they do not much weigh their own afflictions.

7. Be it so, that they do whatsoever they will, but how

long dost thou think it will last? They do not rest in their pleasures without bitterness, weariness, and fear.

8. For from the self-same thing in which they imagine their delight to be, oftentimes they receive the penalty of sorrow.

9. Nor is it anything but just, that having inordinately sought and followed after pleasures, they should enjoy them not without shame and bitterness.

10. Behold, the wealthy of this world shall consume away like smoke, and there shall be no memory of their past joys.

11. The worldly hope men set their hearts upon,
Turns ashes or it prospers; and anon,

Like snow upon the desert's dusty face,
Lighting a little hour or two, is gone.

12. The lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, do draw us to the love of the world, but the pains and miseries that do justly follow them cause a hatred of the world, and a loathsomeness thereof.

13. But, alas, the fondness for vicious pleasures overcometh the mind of him who is addicted to the world, and he esteemeth it a delight to be under thorns, because he hath neither seen nor tasted the inward pleasantness of virtue.

14. Behold, the world is withered in itself, yet flourisheth in our hearts, everywhere death, DUST AND everywhere grief, everywhere desolation.

ASHES

15. On every side we are smitten, on every side filled with bitterness, and yet with the blind mind of carnal desire we love her bitterness.

16. Although we should possess all external good, yet could we not be happy thereby nor blessed.

17. But the mere possession of externals is no evil. All apothecaries have poison ready for special uses, but they are not consequently poisoned, because the poison is only in their shop, not in themselves:

18. And so thou mayest possess riches without being poisoned by them, so long as they are in thy house or purse only, and not in thy heart.

19. The more thy will is dead to all the vain longings and unholy pleasures of the world, the more thou wilt be alive to that innocent childlike happiness, which is far beyond the most gorgeous scenes devised by the great ones of this world for their satisfaction.

20. All things soon pass away and become a more tale, and complete oblivion soon buries them.

21. What then is that about which we ought to employ our serious pains? This one thing:-Just thoughts, and social acts, and words which never lie, and a disposition which gladly accepts all that happens.

THE INTEGRITY OF THE UPRIGHT SHALL
GUIDE THEM.

1. It is true that by transgression the eyes are opened; the knowledge of good and evil has come. The soul knows its own nakedness, and thereby knows also the nakedness of all other souls which have sinned after the similitude of its own sin.

FALSE KNOWLEDGE AND TRUE

2. Intimations of evil are perceived and noted, when to other eyes all seems pure.

3. The dropping of an eye, the shunning of a subject, the tremulousness of a tone, the peculiarity of a subterfuge, will tell the tale: "These are tendencies like mine, and here is a spirit conscious as my own is conscious."

4. But purity can detect the presence of the evil which it does not understand; just as the dove, which has never seen a hawk, trembles at its presence.

5. And just as a horse rears uneasily when the wild beast unknown and new to it is near, so innocence understands the unholy look, the guilty tone, the sinful manner.

6. Innocence apprehends the approach of evil by the instinctive tact of contrast.

7. Wisdom is of the heart rather than the intellect; the harvest of moral thoughtfulness, patiently reaped in through years.

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