[Sidenote: How weak an error is it to believe that anything foreign to your nature can be an ornament to it.]
but how brode sheweþ þe erro{ ur} { and} þe folie of [gh]ow men þat wenen þat ony þing may ben apparailled wiþ straunge apparaillement[gh] ¶ but 1300 for-soþe þat may nat be don.
[Sidenote: If a thing appear beautiful on account of its external embellishments, we admire and praise those embellishments alone.]
for yif a wy[gh]t shyneþ wiþ þi{ n}ges þat ben put to hym. as þus. yif þilke þinges shynen wiþ whiche a man is apparailled. ¶ Certis þilke þinges ben commendid { and} p{ re}ised wiþ whiche 1304 he is apparailled.
[Sidenote: The thing covered still continues in its natural impurity.]
¶ But naþeles þe þing þat is couered { and} wrapped vndir þat dwelleþ in his filþe.
[Sidenote: I deny that to be a good which is hurtful to its owner.]
and I denye þat þilke þing be good þat anoyeþ hym þat haþ it.
[Sidenote: Am I deceived in this? You will say no; for riches have often hurt their possessors.]
¶ Gabbe I of þis. þou wolt seye nay. 1308 ¶ Certys rycchesse han anoyed ful ofte hem þat han þe rycchesse.
[Sidenote: Every wicked man desires another's wealth, and esteems him alone happy who is in possession of riches.]
¶ Syn þat euery wicked shrew { and} for hys wickednesse þe more gredy aftir oþer folkes rycchesse wher so euer it be in any place. be it golde or 1312 p{ re}cious stones. [[pg 50]]
{ and} weniþ hym *only most worþi þat haþ hem
[Sidenote: You, therefore, who now so much dread the instruments of assassination, if you had been born a poor wayfaring man, might, with an empty purse, have sung in the face of robbers.]
¶ þou þan þat so besy dredest now þe swerde { and} þe spere. yif þou haddest entred in þe paþe of þis lijf a voide wayfaryng man. þan woldest þou syng[e] 1316 by-fore þe þeef. ¶ As who seiþ a poure man þat bereþ no rycchesse on hym by þe weye. may boldly syng[e] byforne þeues. for he haþ nat wher-of to ben robbed.
[Sidenote: O the transcendant felicity of riches! No sooner have you obtained them, than you cease to be secure.]
¶ O preciouse { and} ry[gh]t clere is þe blysfulnesse of 1320 mortal rycchesse. þat wha{ n} þou hast geten it. þan hast þou lorn þi syke[r]nesse.