evil which can befall the artist is that his work should
appear good in his own eyes.

To speak well of a bad man is the same as speaking ill of a good man.

Truth ordains that lying tongues shall be punished by the lie.

He who does not value life does not deserve it.

The beautiful works of mortals pass and do not endure.

Labour flies with fame almost hidden in its arm.

The gold in ingots is refined in the fire.

{44}

The shuttle says: I will continue to move until the cloth is woven.

Everything that is crooked is straightened.

Great ruin proceeds from a slight cause.

Fine gold is recognized when it is tested.

The image will correspond to the die.

The wall will fall on him who scrapes it.

Ivy lives long.

To the traitor, death is life, because if he makes use of others he is
no longer believed.

When fortune comes seize her in front firmly, because behind she is
bald.

Constancy means, not he who begins, but he who perseveres.

I do not yield to obstacles.

Every obstacle is overcome by resolve.

He who is chained to a star does not change.

[Sidenote: Truth]

112.

Fire destroys falsehood,--that is to say, sophistry,--and rehabilitates
truth, scattering the darkness.

Fire must be represented as the consumer of all sophistry and the
revealer of truth, because it is light and scatters darkness which
conceals all essences.

Fire destroys all sophistry,--that is to say, deceit,--and preserves
truth alone, which is gold. {45} Truth cannot be concealed in the end,
dissimulation is of no avail. Dissimulation is frustrated before so
great a judge. Falsehood puts on a mask.

There is nothing hidden under the sun. Fire must represent truth
because it destroys all sophistry and lies, and the mask is for
sophistry and lies, which conceal truth.

113.

Rather privation of limbs than weariness of doing good. The power of
using my limbs shall fail me before the power of being useful. Rather
death than weariness. I cannot be satiated with serving. I do not
weary of giving help. No amount of work is sufficient to weary me.
This is a carnival motto: "Sine lassitudine." Hands in which ducats
and precious stones abound like snow never grow weary of serving, but
such a service is for its utility only and not for our profit. Nature
has formed me thus.

[Sidenote: Ingratitude]

114.

This shall be placed in the hand of ingratitude: The wood nourishes the
fire that consu