LXVIII. De petula)itia.

LXVIII. De petula)itia.

The second signifies petulance, which leads people beyond the bounds of moderation and accompanies the love of the world; because when people love the world and cling to it, they often show their gestures according to the same will. And this is like a dog that is used to hunting, because a man who is petulant follows the will and desire of each person, through which he deceives many by reproaching them, just as a dog catches many things; and so he stands on his hind legs, while he puts his front legs on a staff raised upright, because his footprints are set back toward the Devil, flying toward the taste of the earth, thinking nothing of heavenly things; however, he directs himself toward the higher spiritual precepts, as if he were meditating on good heavenly paths, while he sometimes speaks vainly about spiritual matters with an unstable mind; but he does not keep those things, since in his own inconstancy he has no stability, but counts everything as vain, and according to the air to which he raises himself, he presents to himself sometimes beautiful, sometimes turbulent. From this, its tail also plays with it, because it tends to the desires of men, moving here and there, as it carelessly expresses its whims, so that it shows in its earlier words. Therefore, it is rebuked by the voice of true discipline, as has been shown above.