Introduction to the Kabbalah

you should attribute it to a fault in him, who was able to discourse with you elegantly, at length, and to your own amazement, on any such matter proposed from the academic disciplines; rather, you should from this more wisely understand the inconstancy of the human condition, or at least confirm your own wise understanding of that fact. I indeed—when I find myself fallen from that notable hope of the brilliant works of learning he was preparing, down into these small booklets like the one I now give to you—feel as if I have awakened from a sweet dream. In that dream, I saw myself being carried most pleasantly toward a certain present fortune of exceptional happiness and obtaining treasures of great price; but now, awakened to the hardships of this world, I find my situation changed. I see that I, in some way, understand more accurately than before maxims of this kind: All human things hang by a slender thread, and by a sudden chance, those things that were strong collapse. original: "Omnia sunt hominum tenui pendentia filo, Et subito casu, quæ valuere ruunt." A quote from the Roman poet Ovid, Epistulae ex Ponto 4.3.35. For just as someone who had never felt the power of fire or other burning things would not so much understand discussions regarding the sharp force of a burn, but would instead measure them by some unequal shadow of lighter troubles; so to me, whose breast the fiery arrow of fortune had not previously pierced, now for the first time the proper weight of such sayings has fallen upon my soul and settled deeply within. And while it binds and oppresses my preoccupied mind, it urges me more often to recall that saying of Cicero: Marcus Tullius Cicero, the Roman orator and philosopher. O deceptive hope of men, and fragile fortune, and our empty struggles, which often break and collapse mid-way, and are overwhelmed in the very race before they could sight the harbor. original: "O fallacem hominum spem, fragilemque fortunam, & inanes nostras contentiones, quæ in medio spatio sæpè franguntur & corruunt, & ante in ipso cursu obruuntur, quàm portum conspicere potuerunt." From Cicero's De Oratore 3.2.7. And I know not whether the experience of this grief, acting as a most powerful teacher, has illuminated my reason for understanding more than usual, or whether instead it has so inclined my mind toward embracing errors by its violence, that the most famous saying of that clearly divine man referring to the poet Virgil does not seem entirely true to me: But to extend fame by deeds... original: "Sed famam extendere factis..." From Virgil's Aeneid 10.468. The full thought is that while life is short, virtue can extend one's reputation through great deeds.