e asleep; as if
mendacity were fruitful and veracity was left in the cold; as if those
in power held before them the duty to act according to their own
inclinations and to violate law, as if the oppressed were in dejection
and made way for the tyrant; as if greediness on all sides had opened
its jaws and swallowed all that was far and near; as if there was no
trace left of contentment; as if the wicked had exalted themselves to
Heaven and had made the good sink into the ground; as if nobility of
mind were thrown from the loftiest pinnacle to most abysmal depths, as
if turpitude were in honour and authority and as if sovereignty had been
transferred from the exalted to the mean--in fact as if the world in the
fullness of its joy were crying, "I have concealed the good and brought
the evil to light." When, however, I reflected on the world and its
condition and on the fact that man, although he is the noblest and
foremost of creatures in it, is still in spite of his eminent position,
subject to one misery after another and that this is his notorious
peculiarity so that whoever has even a tittle of reason must be
convinced that a human being is unable to help himself and to exert for
his salvation,--this greatly astonished me, as further consideration
told me that he is debarred from salvation only because of the small
miserable enjoyments of smell, taste, sight, hearing and feeling of
which he may receive a fraction or enjoy a particle but which is
insignificant being so transient. He is, however, so much taken up with
it that on its account he does not trouble himself for the salvation of
his soul.

Then I looked for a similitude for this behaviour of human beings and
found the following:

A certain person was fleeing from a danger into a well and suspended
himself by clinging to two branches which grew on its edge, his feet
striking against something which supported them. When he looked round
there were four serpents which were projecting their heads from their
holes. As he looked into the bottom of the well he noticed a dragon with
its jaws open expecting him to fall his prey. And as he turned his head
up to the branches he observed at their roots a black and a white mouse
which were ceaselessly gnawing at both. While he was contemplating the
situation and casting about for a means of escape he descried near him a
hollow with bees that had made some honey. This he tasted and he was so
much absorbed in its deliciousne