lest, perhaps, having laid a foundation, and not being able to finish it, all who behold begin to mock him,

he is like a man building a house, who dug and went deep, and laid a foundation on the rock; and, a flood coming, the stream broke against that house, and could not shake it; because it was well built.

But he who heard and did not, is like a man who built a house upon the earth without a foundation; against which the stream broke, and straightway it collapsed; and the ruin of that house was great."