16.ii
Among the human race, to attain perfection requires the application of great and constant effort. We must apply to various evils the remedies that are their antidotes. We not only must overcome the influence of those worldly people who burn in the jaws of envy, but also we must, as the temples teach, overcome the spirits of wickedness in high places.
For there are some people who are successful in this world and rich in material things but who still, out of some hidden malice, constantly envy and tear away at others as much as they can, all the while pretending to be of good will.
So does the wise council warn Hidden evil is decorated with sweet words. It begins in men’s hearts at the instigation of fiends and wild gods. We find it written, the tabernacles of robbers abound, and they provoke the heavens boldly. What is to the advantage of one is to the ruin of another, so the texts say also, Anger kills the young man, and envy slays the little one.
May you never act in this way, my son. No one would be envious if he were not small in spirit in the first place, for he who is small is he who lacks great things. Why is it that a man so yearns for high rank that, driven by the spurs of envy, he loses himself in body and in spirit?
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
The same plague, befalling people each day, still tears many of them to pieces. That twisting, many-shaped fiends never cease to penetrate the homes and to overturn the works of those that try to stand firmly.
According to the verses of a certain learned author, the throng of fiends never ceases by day or night to take away from men. For the poet says:
Always grinding his teeth, chained in his dark caverns,
He is out of his mind, driven by savage rage,
He plunges himself and his maddened company in the black waves.
The meaning of this is clear to men of learning, the fiends are everywhere. This man and those men, if they are more than one, and I warn you, beware, flee, avoid them. Strive to distance yourself from their company. Put them behind your back, I urge you, and be quick to oppose them.
- On Moral Life from Lady Dhouda’s Liber Manualis