539. There was a certain spirit who during his lifetime had thought nothing of committing adultery. Even he, because he desired it, gained admission to the threshold of heaven. On reaching it he began to suffer and to be aware of his own corpse-like stench until he could put up with it no longer. It seemed to him that if he went any further he would perish. Consequently he was cast down from there into the lower earth, furious that when on only the threshold of heaven he should experience such excruciating pains because he had entered a sphere that was the contrary of adultery. He is among those who are unhappy.
