And over his head hovered worries as a vulture hovers over a carcass, until he reached a beautiful lake surrounded by magnificent marble statuary. He sat there pondering the water which poured from the mouths of the statues like thoughts flowing freely from a lover's imagination, and contemplating heavily his palace which stood upon a knoll like a birth-mark upon the cheek of a maiden. His fance revealed to him the pages of his life's drama which he read with falling tears that veiled his eyes and prevented him from viewing man's feeble additions to Nature. He looked back with piercing regret to the images of his early life, woven into pattern by the gods, until he could no longer control his anguish. Today I am a prisoner of greed.
Gold leads into gold, then into restlessness and finally into crushing misery.
Yesterday I was like a singing bird, soaring freely here and there in the fields. Today I am a slave to fickle wealth, society's rules, and city's customs, and purchased friends, pleasing the people by conforming to the strange and narrow laws of man. I was born to be free and enjoy the bounty of life, but I find myself like a beast of burden so heavily laden with gold that his back is breaking. Today I am among women with shallow beauty who sell themselves for gold and diamonds. Today I find myself among the people like a frightened lamb among the wolves.