en, as it is so difficult.
79. Finally, summing up all the above, the inference will be that
all the actions of these wretched beings are such as are dictated
by nature through the animal, intent solely on its preservation
and convenience, without any corrective being applied by reason,
respect, and esteem for reputation. Consequently, he who first said
of a certain people that if they saw the whole world hanging on one
nail and needed that nail in order to hang up their hat, they would
fling the world down in order to make room for the hat, would have
said it of the Indians had he known them. For they think only of
what is agreeable to them, or of what the appetite dictates to them;
and this they will put in action, if fear, which also dwells in them,
do not dissuade them. [265] Hence they will be seen dressed in the
shirts and clothes of their masters, for the sole reason [266] that
because they no sooner enter any house than they become the owners
of everything in it. And the worst thing is that, although they are
not good and faithful servants, intrant in gaudium domini sui. [267]
80. They also have other qualities worthy of envy, non quoad causam sed
quoad efectum. [268] Such is their contentment with their lot, for they
believe that there is no people in the whole world better than they,
and that if they possess a bamboo hut, a little rice for a few days,
a few small fish, and a couple of leaves of tobacco, they do not envy
the tables of Xerxes or Eliogabalus, [269] and can sing with Lucan:
O tuta potestas Augusti parvique laris.
Prohl munera nondum intellecta Deum quibus hoc
Contingere templis, vel posuit muris nullo
Trepidare tumulto, Caesarea pulsata manu. [270]
81. They are also worthy of envy for the calmness and conformity
with which they die, with so wonderful peace, as if they were
making a journey from one village to another--the Lord working in
these creatures as the Lord that He is, [271] for in that transit
His mercy shines forth more; and thus said David (Psalm, XLVII, 21)
Domini, Domini, exitus mortis; [272] whence that reduplication which
the Hebrew grammar calls ohatsere, [273] signifies the superlative
in name and action. The same is the declaration of divine wisdom
(Proverbs, XX): In viis justitiae ambulo, in medio semitarum judicii,
ut ditem diligentes me. [274] The Father celestial summons them for
the relief of their burdens, and of the troubles which they have had
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