be justification then the sorcerer also had one who found his
progenitors to be wizards." And I thought of the man who ate indecently
and when he was rebuked for it he excused himself by saying that his
ancestors used to feed in the same gross way. Since, therefore, it was
impossible for me to keep to the religion of my forbears and since I
could find no justification for it, I desired once more earnestly to
bestir myself and most carefully to examine the various religions and to
consider minutely what they had to offer us. But then suddenly the idea
struck me that the end was near and that the world would presently come
to a close for me. Thereupon I pondered as follows:--

[Sidenote: Meditation of despair.]

Perhaps the hour of my departure has already arrived before I could
wring my hands. My deeds were once still such that I could hope they
were meritorious. Now perhaps the prolonged hesitation over my search
and investigation would turn me away from the good deeds which I
practised formerly, so that my end would not be such as I strove for,
and owing to my wavering and vacillation the fate of the man in the
following anecdote would overtake me.

[Sidenote: An anecdote: fatal hesitation.]

A certain man had a love affair with a married woman. She had made for
him a subterraneous passage opening into the street and its entrance was
constructed close by a water jar. This she did for fear lest her husband
or some one else should surprise her. Now one day when her paramour was
with her word was brought that the husband was standing at the door. The
lover hastened to get behind the jar but it had been removed by some one
so he came to the woman and said, "I went to the passage but the jar of