Page:History of the German people at the close of the Middle Ages vol1.djvu/296

 284 HISTORY OF THE GERMAN PEOTLE guise of fiction proclaims the truth ; which praises virtue and condemns vice ; which will teach you to labour and to pray.' They urged men to labour, and we find this the theme of much of the writings of the day ; as, for instance, Eosenpliit in his ' Miracle of the Drop of Sweat.' ' Work,' he says, * is the divinest law on earth. Work is serving God, and the industrious man has a great advantage over the idle and voluptuous ones, whose lives are full of care and anxiety. Idleness and extravagance are the sources of much evil; regret follows a life of idleness and luxury.' In the year 1461 the preacher Ulrich Boner wrote in his book, ' Precious Stones,' ' He who passes his youth in idleness will probably in age have his eyes swollen with tears of regret.' A work after the Italian style, written by Hans von Yintler in the year 1486, and entitled ' The Book of Virtues,' belonged to the didactic school so much in vogue. It was directed against the licentious lives of the young aristocrats, who ' knew better how manure enriched the soil than in what true nobility consisted.' Moreover he animadverted severely on the pride and extravagance of high position. ' Let anyone seeking to behold the wonders beyond the sea come to me, and I will show him plenty of curiosities in the way of bracelets and bonnets and hair gear ! Our fops wear the toggery of buffoons ; the women sweep up the mud with trains two yards long, and wear lappels to their caps three times this length — they wish to make themselves as con- spicuous as men. As a friend I blame them for that which dishonours them, for those who are pious deserve to be warned. But there are needy women of noble birth who desire to be decked like princesses with pearls