14. This world is as volatile as the air and water flying in the air, and hardly to be tangible or held fast in the hand; and as precipitous as the water-fall in its course (hurling down and sweeping away everything before it).
15. It appears as a flowery garden, but never comes to any good use at all; so the billowy sea in the mirage, presents the form of water, without allaying our thirst.
16. Sometimes it seems to be straight, and at others a curve; now it is long and now short, and now it is moving and quiet again; and everything in it, though originally for our good, conspires to our evil only.
17. Though hollow in the inside, the world appears to be full with its apparent contents; and though all the worlds are continually in motion, yet they seem to be standing still.
18. Whether they be dull matter or intelligences, their existence depends upon their motion; and these without stopping any where for a moment, present the sight of their being quite at rest.
19. Though they are as bright as light to sight, they are as opaque as the dark coal in their bowels; and though they are moved by a superior power, they appear to be moving of themselves.
20. They fade away before the brighter light of the sun, but brighten in the darkness of the night; their light is like that of the mirage, by reflection of sunbeams.
21. Human avarice is as a sable serpent, crooked and venomous, thin and soft in its form; but rough and dangerous in its nature, and ever unsteady as a woman.
22. Our love of the world, ceases soon without the objects of our affection; as the lamp is extinguished without its oil, and as the vermilion mark, which is soon effaced. (Here is a pun upon the world sneha meaning a fluid substance as well as affection; and that the world is a dreary waste, without the objects dear to us).
23. Our false hopes are as transient, as the evanescent flash of lightnings; they glare and flare for a moment, but they disappear in the air as these transitory flashes of light.