9
For though no terrible thing did fear them, yet, being scared with beasts that passed by and hissing of serpents,
10
they died from fear, denying that they saw the air, which could from no side be avoided.
11
For wickedness, condemned by her own witness, is very timorous, and, being pressed by conscience, always forecasteth grievous things.
12
For fear is nothing else but a betraying of the succors which reason offereth.
13
And the expectation from within, being less, counteth the ignorance more than the cause which bringeth the torment.
14
But they, sleeping the same sleep that night which was indeed intolerable and which came upon them out of the bottoms of inevitable hell,
15
were partly vexed by monstrous apparitions and partly fainted, their heart failing them; for a sudden fear, and not looked for, came upon them.
16
So then whosoever there fell down was securely kept, shut up in a prison without iron bars.
17
For whether he were husbandman or shepherd or a laborer in the field, he was overtaken and endured that necessity, which could not be avoided; for they were all bound with one chain of darkness.
18
Whether it were a whistling wind, or a melodious noise of birds among the spreading branches, or a pleasing fall of water running violently,
19
or a terrible sound of stones cast down, or a running that could not be seen of skipping beasts, or a roaring voice of most savage wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the hollow mountains, these things made them swoon from fear.