LXVII. De amore saeculi.

LXVII. De amore saeculi.

Therefore, the first image signifies the love of the world, because the ancient seducer first instills the love of worldly things in people, leading them also to other vices. This form has the appearance of a human and the darkness of an Ethiopian, because it is completely entangled in worldly desires, desiring neither brilliance nor clarity. Standing bare with her arms and legs, she wraps herself around a tree beneath its branches; because having no garments of blessedness, she grasps at the strength of vain glory in her works and in her ways, covered by certain vices, like branches that proceed from her, in which all kinds of flowers grow: for in vain glory and in the vices that arise from it, all the vanities of all vanities pertaining to this world are found. From this, he gathers those flowers with his hands, because in his works he brings together all the vanities of this present age along with uncertain desires; for when a person thinks about the vanities of the world in love for it, he seeks them by desiring them, and when he finds them, he composes them for himself according to his own will, as the same vice demonstrates in his previous words. But the tree that is mentioned withers at its roots and falls into the darkness described, so that the same image falls with it. This means that vain glory, which is completely deficient, goes into the shadows of infidelity, where the Devil is; so that all who love the world and despise eternal life fall with it, since they cannot hold onto what is falling. But even if she falls, she doesn't think she's falling, because she's so attached to worldly things that she doesn't think about heavenly matters at all, as if she hears the voice of heavenly love responding to her.