XXVI. De injustitia

XXVI. De injustitia

This is like the head of a wild animal, because the minds of unjust people are caught in the leaps of wickedness, surpassing all understanding and knowledge of good, and rushing headlong, while their conscience, which they always chew over within themselves, desires to appear useful. But just as a bear has a tail, so too do all the arts of wickedness end in instability and the murmur of malice, as they try to resist and oppose everything; where, indeed, they are defeated by just judgment and brought to nothing, they are cast down. But the remaining body is likened to a pig, because those who pursue injustice are entangled in the mud of the same vice and lie in its filth. Since their actions are twisted by the roar of injustice and the wrongdoing of many is wicked, they foresee no straightness of wisdom, nor do they draw any counsel of justice to themselves; rather, they want everything to happen through themselves and to be determined according to their own desires, and they strive to be superior to others, just as the same vice shows in their speech, as has been stated. Justice, however, responds to them and warns that people should not imitate it. xxvn. About lethargy. But the second image reveals laziness; it follows injustice here, because it abandons justice, and because it is not vigilant in faith, but has a blindness of the mind, so that it does not truly look to God. It has a childish face and white hair, because people who are diligent in their sloth seek the causes of utility in wisdom and discretion, yet they pursue no discipline through their intention; for they are foolish and unstable in their actions, and they show that they possess a kind of lightness in their minds, where they love not any integrity, but rather a slippery laziness. And a pale-colored cloak is put on, under which it withdraws its arms and hands, and through which it covers its feet and other limbs in such a way that you can't discern any other form in it, because it surrounds idle men with the dark and sluggish shadows of negligence; in them, they also hide the strength they should have in their works, as they neglect to perform good and strong deeds, and through them, they also withdraw their footprints, where they should have walked in the way of righteousness, and they subtract other connections and extensions of their works through such negligence and laziness, so that no form of the blessed virtues can be seen in them. They are in boredom, and they live in boredom, not caring for the salvation of their souls or working for their bodies; instead, they claim to want to live in leisure, while being sluggish and inactive, and this same fault is demonstrated in their words above. What strength rebukes us, and prevents people from sinking into lethargy, but encourages both others and themselves to act vigorously in soul and body, and to direct their hands toward works of usefulness, persuading them according to what is also written in this way: