Speculum amatorum mundi

had subjected themselves to various desires." Alas, what are all those earthly things now to them, which like a shadow passed away swiftly? What a short delight draws such a long rope of eternal misery after itself! O foolish and faint-hearted, what do all those sweet things now profit you, which you enjoyed so happily, if indeed now, on the contrary, it behooves you to weep eternally, and while weeping, to exclaim and say: "Woe, woe to us, even now and into eternity! Woe, because we were born and we cannot die anymore! Woe, because we are miserably tormented and we will never be freed from our torments!" O who is there who reflects upon these punishments and puts these our torments to heart? For these are such that whatever horrible thing could be imagined in the world, it could not be compared to them in cruelty. O how happy the undefiled who did not go after the joys of this world, who did not look back at vanities and insanities. "We have wandered from the true way, namely, of truth and justice; the light has not shone for us, and the sun of intelligence has not risen for us. What has pride profited us, or what has the boasting of riches brought us? All those things have passed away like a shadow." What was temporal has passed, but alas, now has remained that which will abide into eternity. O eternal punishment of death, which will never have an end. O end without an end, a death more grievous than any death, to die always and yet not be able to die. O tears, flow incessantly; eyes, weep; and all my vitals, howl over this unhappy separation, which is from the Highest Good, from that glorious and pleasant face, and from that angelic fellowship, and also from that most happy number of the elect, and to be placed into that miserable and cursed and cruel crowd of the damned, to be tortured without end. O the inward groans of many hearts. O the gnashing of teeth and the immense agitation of spirits. O the many wailings and howlings. O the cry