CHAPTER SEVEN
O soul: Until when, and for how long? I am driving you toward the path of benefit and salvation for both me and you, yet you do not follow me; while you are driving toward the path of destruction and harm for both me and you, yet I do not follow you. Since this discord between me and you has become inevitable, there is nothing left here, O soul, but separation. Let us part then, O soul, and let each of us proceed toward what they desire and intend.
O soul: You are neither fair, nor just, nor rational. Your father approaches you with his discipline and helpful reproach, whose consequences are beneficial and whose fruits are delicious; yet you turn away from him and incline toward your wife—toward her deception, her mockery 1 , and her subtle flattery 2 which only yields for you sorrows, anxieties, fear, and poverty.
O soul: If the opportunity to act in health passes you by during the season of labor, then the sweetness of harvesting and the reward for righteous deeds will likewise elude you. For he who does not plant the tree during the season of planting shall not delight in the fruit when the time of ripening arrives. Be certain of this word of mine, O soul.