fire, but the sting of fire. It brings about all
ill, and yet finds no rest; the more it pushes on,
the more frantic it is. It is a famished poison.
It needs no being, and yet rages in being. It
makes man more than mad, so that he desires
to storm and rave against God. It is the essence
of hell and of wrath, and makes of love the greatest
enmity. It grudges any one anything, and yet is
itself a starved nothing.
17. Envy is the deviFs will-spirit; and the man
who takes it as a lodging, receives the devil and
God's wrath; for it brings hellish torture and
pain. It is the eternal hostile torment and unrest,
and destroys the noble image of God; for it is the
enemy of God and of all creatures.
18. The fourth virtue, in the four elements in
the kingdom of falsehood of the devil, is anger,
rage. This is the right hell-fire; for anger is
generated between covetousness and envy. It is
the fire and life of envy. What envy cannot do,
that anger accomplishes. Anger takes body and
soul together, and runs like a raging devil. It
would destroy and shatter everything; it runs
against walls and strongholds. And though it
burst itself, still it is furious, like a mad dog that
bites and kills all; and is so venomous in its wrath,
that, what it cannot overpower, it nevertheless
poisons. This is the true podagra of the world.
When pride in its hypocritical coat cannot get the
mastery by guile and falsehood, it must then give
effect to the fourth virtue, which strikes with the
fist and brings about war. Oh/';'howj merry is Ih