Page:The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart.pdf/105

Rh bread. It is true that I saw others who lived more easily and more advantageously; but the less labour there was, the more was there of vice and fraud.

Secondly, I saw that all the work of man is for his mouth; for whatever a man acquired that he stuffed into his own mouth, or into those of the members of his family; I must except the few who placed in their wallets that of which they deprived their mouth; but these wallets, I again saw, were full of holes; what was heaped into them streamed out again, and others gathered it up; sometimes one approached and tore the wallet away; or one stumbling against another plucked or tore away the wallet, or he lost it through some other mishap; thus did I see clearly that all these worldly employments are but as the pouring out of overflowing water; money is won and then again lost, with but this difference that it flees more easily than it approaches, whether it is absorbed by the mouth or by the money-chest. Therefore did I see more poor men than rich.

Thirdly, did I see that each of these labours required the entire strength of a man; if one did but look backward or somewhat tarry, he immediately remained behind; immediately everything