約伯倫理 第 136 章

Verse 17. — But while he was yet speaking, there came another, and said: The Chaldeans made three bands, and fell upon the camels, and carried them away, and slew the servants also with the sword; and I alone have escaped to tell thee. 75. To how many perils the management of earthly affairs is exposed. — By the camels, which have something clean, in that they chew the cud, and something unclean, in that they in no way divide the hoof, we have already said above that the good administration of temporal things is to be understood; and in these, the more anxiously the care is stretched out, the more manifoldly does the enemy lay snares for us. For everyone who presides over the management of earthly things lies more widely open to the darts of the hidden foe.

For he strives to act with foresight in many things, and often, while cautiously and subtly foreseeing the future, he incautiously fails to see present losses; often, while he keeps watch over present matters, he sleeps as to foreseeing what is at hand; often, while he sluggishly does certain things, he neglects those that ought to be done watchfully; often, while he shows himself more vigilant in action than is right, by the very restlessness of his action he does worse harm to the affairs subject to him. Sometimes, moreover, he strives to set a limit to his tongue, but, the burden of his stewardship demanding it, he is prevented from keeping silence. Sometimes, while he restrains himself by excessive strictness, he is silent even about those things he ought to have spoken. Sometimes, while he relaxes himself too widely in order to convey what is necessary, he says even those things he ought not to have spoken.

But for the most part he is entangled in such vast rolls of thoughts that he can scarcely bear those which he prudently turns over within himself; and though he does nothing in outward work, yet under the great weight of his heart he sweats vehemently. For because the things he inwardly suffers within himself are hard, being at rest and unoccupied outwardly, he is wearied. For often the mind gazes upon things as though they were coming, and sets its whole intention against them; and a great ardor of contention thrusts itself in, sleep flees, night is turned into day; and though the couch holds the limbs quiet outwardly, within there is litigation with great outcries in the court of the heart. And it happens for the most part that none of the things foreseen come to pass, and all that thought, which for a long time had prepared itself with full intention, suddenly rests empty.

But the mind ceases from necessary things by as much the further, as it thinks more widely on empty ones. Since, therefore, the malignant spirits smite the cares of stewardship now with sluggish or headlong action, now confound them with slack or immoderate speech, and almost always press them down with excessive masses of thoughts, the Chaldeans seize the camels with three bands. For to make, as it were, three bands against the camels is to lay waste the pursuits of earthly stewardship now by unlawful work, now by superfluous speech, now by disordered thought; so that while the mind strives to extend itself effectively to administering outward things, it is separated from the consideration of itself; and it is ignorant of the losses it suffers concerning itself by the very measure in which it labors over the affairs of others with a stronger zeal than is fitting.

But the upright mind, when it undertakes the cares of stewardship, attends to what it owes to itself and what to its neighbors; and neither through the immoderation of solicitude for others does it neglect its own pursuits, nor through vigilance for its own advantage does it postpone those of others. Yet nevertheless, for the most part, while the mind watches skillfully over both, while it gives itself to great circumspection concerning itself and the things committed to it, being suddenly disturbed by the crisis of some emergent cause, it is so snatched into headlong ruin that all at once every circumspection of it is overwhelmed. Whence also the Chaldeans smite the servants who guard the camels with the sword. Yet nevertheless one returns;

for in the midst of these things the reasoning of discernment runs to meet the eyes of our mind, and the soul, solicitous for itself, understands what it inwardly loses by the sudden onset of temptation. There follows.