The point of the satire is the ingenuity with which the slothful man devises the most improbable alarms. He hears that “there is a lion without,” t…

The slothful man saith, There is a lion without ... —No excuses are too absurd for him; he fears to meet a lion in the op…

The slothful [man] says, [there is] a lion without
or, "in the street".

This he says within himself; or to th…

The slothful man talks of a lion outside, but does not consider his real danger from the devil, that roaring lion within, and from his own slothful…