Akbar, The Emperor Of India

through it, and is so near it; and that its life is
but a foolishness of wisdom, by means of which
life wisdom manifests itself, that it may be known
what wisdom is. Its will is gone from God into
selfhood, and boasts itself of its own power, and
sees not how its power has beginning and end,
that it is but a play, by which mirror (play) wisdom
beholds itself for a time in the folly of the wise;
and, finally, through such pain of the godless, folly
in the case of the wise breaks to pieces, in that
they begin to hate the frail, foolish life, and to die
with Reason, and to give up the will to God.
38. This, earthly Reason regards as a folly,
especially when it sees that God also in the wise
abandons their earthly folly, and lets the body
of such folly, wherein the folly beheld itself, go
down without help to the grave. Therefore it
supposes this man has received no deliverance
from God : Seeing he trusted in Him, his faith
must certainly have been false, else He had surely
delivered him in his lifetime.
39. Moreover, because it feels not its punishment
immediately, it supposes there is no longer possible
any serious earnest here; and knows not that the
longer the more it comprehends itself in folly, and
becomes in itself a strong source of eternal pain.
So that, when for it the light of outer Nature
perishes, wherein for a time it has strutted in
selfhood, it then stands by itself in darkness and
pain, so that its false, own desire is a mere rough,
stinging, hard sharpness and contrary will.
40. It hopes during this time in an external