Page:The Mediaeval Mind Vol 1.djvu/410

388 hurt when contempt is shown thee; and so with the rest. Think also thus regarding bodily forms.

"Unless thou hast despised whatever men can do to thwart or aid thee, thou wilt not be able to contemn their disposition toward thee, their hate and love, their opinions, good or bad.

"Why dost thou wish to be loved by men?

"Who rejoices in praise, loses praise.

"Who is pained or angered by the loss of any temporal thing, shows himself worth what he has lost.

"No thing ought to wish to be loved as good, unless it blesses its lover in the very matter for which it is loved. But no thing does this if it needs its lover, or is helped by loving or being loved by another. Most cruel, then, is the thing which wishes another to place affection and hope on it when it cannot benefit that other. The devils do this, who wish men to be engrossed in their service instead of God's. So cry to thy lovers, Cease, ye wretched, to admire or respect or honour me; for I, miserable wretch, can neither aid myself nor you, but rather need your aid.

"So far as in thee is, thou hast destroyed all men, for thou hast put thyself between them and God, so that gazing on thee and ignoring God, they might admire and praise thee alone. This is utterly profitless to thee and them, not to say destructive.

"Whatever form thou dost enjoy is as the male to thy mind. For thy mind yields and lies down to it. Thou dost not assimilate it, but it thee. Its image endures, like an idol in its temple, to which thou dost sacrifice neither ox nor goat, but thy rational soul and thy body, to wit, thy whole self, when thou enjoyest it.

"See how, as in a wine-shop, thou dost prostitute thine as a venal love, and to the measure of pay weighest thyself out to men. In this wine-shop he receives nothing who gives nothing. And yet thou wouldst not have that which thou dost sell, unless freely from above it had been given to thee who gave nothing. Therefore thou hast received thy pay.

"To be empty and removed from God is to make ready for lust.

"Who wishes to enjoy thee in thyself, deserves from thee the thanks of flies and fleas who suck thy blood.

"This is the very sum of human depravity to forsake the better, which is God, and to regard the lesser and cleave to them by delighting in them—these temporalities!

"The beetle as it flies sees everything, and then selects nothing that is beautiful or wholesome or durable, but settles down upon dung. So thy soul in mental flight (intuit pervolans) surveying heaven and earth and whatever is great and precious therein, cleaves to none of these, but embraces the cheap and dirty things occurring to its thought. Blush for this.