How then shall I accept genesis according to fate, when I behold such managers of it? I do not wish to reign, I do not desire to be rich, I have declined military command, I have hated fornication, I do not practice seafaring on account of insatiable greed, I do not contend to win crowns, I am freed from madness for glory, I despise death, I rise superior to every kind of disease, grief does not consume my soul. If I am a slave, I endure servitude; and if I am free, I do not pride myself on noble birth. I see the sun the same for all, and one death over all alike, whether through pleasure or through deprivation. The rich man sows, and the poor partakes of the same sowing; the very richest die, and those who beg have the same bounds of life. The rich have need of more, and become so through the credit attached to their reputation; but the poor man and the most moderate, desiring only what is within his reach, more easily gets along. Why do you, according to fate, lie awake out of avarice? And why, according to fate, often grasping, do you often die? Die to the world, renouncing the madness in it; live to God, by apprehension of him renouncing your old genesis. We were not made for dying, but we die through ourselves. Free will destroyed us; we who were free have become slaves; on account of sin we were sold. Nothing evil has been made by God; we ourselves have brought forth wickedness; but those who brought it forth are able again to renounce it.