iserable you are, wherever you be, or whither you turn, unless you turn to God. Why are your troubled when things succeed not as you desire? Who is he who has all things according to his mind?† Neither I nor you, nor any man on this earth. There is none in this world, even thought he be king or pope, without some tribulation or perplexity. Who is he who has the better lot? Assuredly he who is able to suffer something for God.
Many weak and unstable persons say, “Behold, what a happy life that man leads,† how wealthy, how great he is, how powerful and exalted!” But look to the riches of Heaven, and you will see that these temporal things are nothing, but are very uncertain, and rather burdensome than otherwise, because they are never possessed without anxiety and fear. Man's happiness consists not in having abundance of temporal goods,† but a moderate portion is sufficient for him.
Truly it is misery to live upon the earth.† The more spiritual a man desires to be, the more bitter does this present life become to him because he perceives better and sees more clearly the defects of human corruption. For to eat and to drink, to sleep and to wake, to labor and to rest, and to be subject to the other necessities of nature, is truly a great misery and
