[De contemptu mundi]

a spider, it meditates. In it are seventy years, or if in strength, eighty, and more labor and sorrow. But the greater part never reaches the limit of this age. And indeed, if we were to consider to how many miseries we are subjected, we would never give place to laughter, but would rather end our days in mourning. For Solomon says: Laughter will be mingled with mourning. And again: The end of joy is occupied by mourning. And blessed is that man, and we rightly call him blessed, who has studied to abandon the vanities of this world and to withstand its enticements, to despise its joys which are momentary, and to pant after eternal happiness, not to abhor death, but always to prepare himself for it, desiring to be dissolved and to be with Christ, with whom, and in whom, resides the eternal abundance of all good things, which is rest. For what indeed would it profit a man to have lived from the beginning of the world in infinite joys and happiness until this day, and now for his soul, snatched from the body, to be delivered to the prisons of the underworld? We, indeed (believe us), living in this valley of miseries until this very day, have lived more days of mourning and sadness than hours of joy and hilarity, and let no one doubt or be uncertain that we have had infinite companions, and have them to this day. There are so many