troublesome world treateth mankind, shifting men hither and
thither, from wealth to poverty, and from poverty to honour,
carrying some out of life and bringing others in, rejecting some
that are wise and understanding, making the honourable and
illustrious dishonoured and despised, but seating others who are
unwise and of no understanding upon a throne of honour, and
making the dishonoured and obscure to be honoured of all.

"One may see how the race of mankind may never abide before the
face of the cruel tyranny of the world. But, as when a dove
fleeing from an eagle or a hawk flitteth from place to place, now
beating against this tree, now against that bush, and then anon
against the clefts of the rocks and all manner of bramble-thorns,
and, nowhere finding any safe place of refuge, is wearied with
continual tossing and crossing to and fro, so are they which are
flustered by the present world. They labour painfully under
unreasoning impulse, on no sure or firm bases: they know not to
what goal they are driving, nor whither this vain life leadeth
them this vain life, whereto they have in miserable folly
subjected themselves, choosing evil instead of good, and pursuing
vice instead of goodness; and they know not who shall inherit the
cold fruits of their many heavy labours, whether it be a kinsman
or a stranger, and, as oft times it haps, not even a friend or
acquaintance at all, but an enemy and foeman.

"On all these things, and others akin to them, I held judgement
in the tribunal of my soul, and I came to hate my whole life that
had been wasted in these vanities, while I still lived engrossed
in earthly things. But when I had put off from my soul the lust
thereof, and cast it from me, then was there revealed unto me the