and then the shy death struck , a plague firalda was convinced , like thousands of feeres , was the work of the spirits , the price that the sphere of toil must pay for the wickedness of its dwellers their lewdness and profanity , their incurable avarice and unrestrained adultery : all that the disaster ought to have taught them to refrain from , and that theyd persisted in doing , as if oblivious to the spirits all-seeing , all-knowing , all-powerful presence .