me it
maketh him their hate and abomination. To-day it gladdeneth him: but
to-morrow it weareth him to a shadow with lamentations and wailings.
What is the end thereof, thou shalt hear. Ruthlessly it bringeth its
former lovers to dwell in hell. Such is ever its mind, such its
purposes. It lamenteth not its departed, nor pitieth the survivor.
For after that it hath cruelly duped and entangled in its meshes the
one party, it immediately transferreth the resources of its ingenuity
against the other, not willing that any should escape its cruel snares,

"These men that have foolishly alienated themselves from a good and
kind master, to seek the service of so harsh and savage a lord, that
are all agog for present joys and are glued thereto, that take never a
thought for the future, that always grasp after bodily enjoyments, but
suffer their souls to waste with hunger, and to be worn with myriad
ills, these I consider to be like a man flying before the face of a
rampant unicorn, who, unable to endure the sound of the beast's cry,
and its terrible bellowing, to avoid being devoured, ran away at full
speed. But while he ran hastily, he fell into a great pit; and as he
fell, he stretched forth his hands, and laid hold on a tree, to which
he held tightly. There he established some sort of foot-hold and
thought himself from that moment in peace and safety. But he looked
and descried two mice, the one white, the other black, that never
ceased to gnaw the root of the tree whereon he hung, and were all but
on the point of severing it. Then he looked down to the bottom of the
pit and espied below a dragon, breathing fire, fearful for eye to see,
exceeding fierce and grim, with terrible wide jaws, all agape to
swallow him. Again looking closely at the ledge whereon his feet
rested, he discerned four heads of asps projecting from the wall
whereon he was perched. Then he lift up his eyes and saw that from the
branches of the tree there dropped a little honey. And thereat he
ceased to think of the troubles whereby he was surrounded; how,
outside, the unicorn was madly raging to devour him: how, below, the
fierce dragon was yawning to swallow him: how the tree, which he had
clutched, was all but severed; and how his feet rested on slippery,
treacherous ground. Yea, he forgat, without care, all those sights of
awe and terror, and his whole mind hung on the sweetness of that tiny
drop of honey.

"This is the likeness of those wh