Page:The Earliest Lives of Dante (Smith 1901).djvu/77

Rh In such matters, then, as are told of above, this illustrious man consumed what time he could steal from amorous sighs, piteous tears, private and public cares, and from the various fluctuations of hostile fortune—works much more acceptable to God and man than the deceits, frauds, falsehoods, robberies, and treacheries which the majority of men practise to-day, seeking as they do by different ways one and the same goal, namely to become rich, as if on that rested all good, all honor, all felicity.

O foolish minds! A brief portion of an hour, when the spirit is separated from the perishable body, will reduce all these shameful toils to naught. And time, wherein all things are consumed, will either straightway efface all memory of the rich man, or will preserve it for a certain period to his great shame. This certainly will not befall our poet, but rather, even as instruments of war become brighter through use, so will it be with his name; the more it is furbished by time, the more brilliant it will ever be. Therefore let him labor in his vanities who will, and let that suffice him, without desiring to blame the virtuous action of another with censure that he himself does not understand.