123.

This represents pleasure together with pain because one is never
separated from the other; they are depicted back to back because they
are opposed to each other; they are represented in one body because
they have the same basis, because the source of pleasure is labour
mingled with pain, and the pain issues from the various evil pleasures.
And it is therefore represented with a reed in its right hand which is
ineffectual and devoid of strength, and the wounds inflicted by it are
poisonous. In Tuscany such reeds are placed to support beds, to
signify that this is the place of idle dreams, that here a great part
of life is consumed, here much useful time is wasted, that is, the
morning hours when the mind is sober and rested and the body disposed
to start on fresh labours; there, again, many vain pleasures are
enjoyed by the mind, which pictures to itself impossible things, and by
the body, which indulges in those pleasures that are so often the cause
of the {52} failing of life; and for this reason the reed is used as
their support.

[Sidenote: Brain and Soul]

124.

The spirit returns to the brain whence it had departed, with a loud
voice and uttering these words:

O blissful and fortunate spirit, whence comest thou? I have known this
man well, against my will. He is a receptacle of villainy, he is a
very heap of the highest ingratitude combined with all the other vices.
But why should I tire myself with vain words? Nothing is to be found
in him save the accumulation of all sins, and if there is to be found
among them any that possess good, they will not be treated differently
than I have been by other men; in short I have come to the conclusion
that they are bad if they are enemies, and worse if they are friends.

[Sidenote: Of the Eye]

125.

The eye, which reflects the beauty of the universe to those who see, is
so excellent a thing that he who consents to its loss deprives himself
of the spectacle of the works of nature; and it is owing to this
spectacle, effected by means of the eye, which enables the soul to
behold the various objects of nature, that the soul is content to
remain in the prison of the body; but he who loses his eyesight leaves
the soul in a dark prison, where {53} all hope of once more beholding
the sun, the light of the whole world, is lost.... And how many are
they who feel great hatred for the darkness of night, although it is
brief. Oh! what would they do were the