The Fruits of Covetousness

Accompanying him to the tombs, walking healthily.

If he mounts the horse in a hurry, he is filled with pride; if he obtains more abundant food, he grumbles; if he wakes the servants early for their services, he is vexed by their waking and by the strength of the old man. But if he is given something of his treasures or if a servant is released from service, then and only then does he become a source of idle talk and wandering, exceeding the bounds of life and the things of others, a sword of the stranger, and he is provoked by hearing all blasphemy, asking why he did not die quickly.

Yours is this, O filthy greed, the fruit; from you the child becomes an enemy to the one who begot him, taking the stings. You fill the earth with robbers and murderers, submerge the sea, the cities with uproar, the courts with false witnesses, informers, traitors, accomplices, and judges who rule there wherever you drag them down.

Greed, the mother of inequality, pitiless, misanthropic, most wretched. Because of this, the life of man is full of irregularity; some, from the abundance of their possessions, sail upon the surplus as if it were an insatiable food, while others are pressed by hunger and want.

Some lie down under golden roofs and inhabit houses like small cities, adorned with baths, varied houses, and porticoes serving for a very long time and with every kind of luxury; others do not seem to have a roof, but when they cannot live in the open air, they flee to the furnaces of the baths or encounter bad innkeepers, and like pigs they root in the dung, devising for themselves the necessary warmth.

And the human being, the animal that is alike, has such a difference in diet compared to the kind that is alike; no one else has this disorder and this irregularity being introduced by greed. One is unseemly with his meals being meager, and another, to have his walls clothed in countless purple slabs, dresses them. The poor man lacks bread upon a wooden table, and the one enjoying luxury is entertained by the luster of the material, having spread a silver table wide. And how much more just was it for one to be satisfied with eating by another luxury, while the value of the table is the luxury of the destitute?

Another, old and unable to walk or limping due to some infirmity, does not possess a donkey, a necessary vehicle for his need; and another, because of a multitude of herds, does not know his horses. One is in want of oil to light a lamp; and another is rich with single lamps. One is thrown upon the ground, and the one who is wretchedly rich is surrounded by the world of the bed, having a silver sphere and chains instead of sheets.

These are the results of insatiable greed. For if it had not introduced inequality into life, these extremes and commonnesses would not have been, nor would the various misfortunes make our life unpleasantly tearful.