Akbar, The Emperor Of India

the light gives joy, in the darkness gives sorrow-
fulness.
13. And yet it is not to be thought that the life
of darkness therefore sinks down into misery, that
it would forget itself as if it were sorrowful. There
is no sorrowing; but what with us on earth is
sorrowing according to this property, is in the
darkness power and joy according to the property
of the darkness. For sorrowfulness is a thing that
is swallowed up in death. But death and dying
is the life of the darkness, just as anguish is the
life of the poison. The greater the anguish becomes
in the poison, the stronger becomes the poison-
life, as is to be seen in the external poison.
14. We cannot, then, say of the devil that he
sits in dejection, as if he were faint-hearted. There
is no faint-heartedness in him, but a constant will
to kindle the poison-source more, that his fierce-
ness may become greater. For this fierceness is
his strength, wherein he draws his will to mount
above the thrones and inflame them. He would
be a mighty lord in the poison-source, for it is the
strong and great life. But the light is his misery
and dread; that checks his bravery. He is terri-
fied at the light; for it is his true poison, which
torments him. Because he abandoned it, it now
resists him. Of which he is ashamed, that he is
thus a deformed angel in a strange image. He
would be content with the source of wrath, if only
the light were not so near him. Shame is therefore
so great in him that he grows furious, and kindles
his poisonous source more and more, so that his