LXXXV. Petulanlia vanitas vaniiatum est

LXXXV. Petulanlia vanitas vaniiatum est

For vanity has no stability; it fixes its mind on whatever it wants, and it doesn't hold God in honor among joys; rather, whatever it chooses for itself, in that it delights. That's why vanity is called vanity of vanities, and nothing else will come from all the labor of the world, because when one vanity passes away, another takes its place; but those that follow it will stand forever. When a person fulfills a carnal desire, what they willingly engage in is called vanity; for in their early childhood, they love games, and later in their youth, they embrace lust, but then they come to know more fully what is good and what is bad; and then they will grow weary of the works of their childhood and youth, as if they had never truly lived in them. When he reaches old age, he will wither away in it, and then he will sigh and mourn, recalling the earlier stages of his life, which he will not be able to possess. All these things are vanity, both in man and with man. For the trees are green and wither, flowers bloom and fall, grass grows and is cut down. So what more is there? What a person sees now, they won't see again; what they have now, they won't have again; when they laugh now, they will weep soon; and for this reason, everything is vain, because all things are fleeting, especially in dying and failing. They die so that they do not live in this world. They also fall from nobility into ignobility, and from wealth into poverty.