§1#3Quod si concha illa aliquid intrinsecus pustulat, vitium magis eius debet esse quam gloria.
if that shell breaks out into a kind of pustule inwardly, it ought to be considered its defect rather than its glory.
Et licet margaritum vocetur, tamen aliud intellegendum quam conchae illius aliqua dura et rotunda verruca.
And even if it be called a pearl, yet nothing else is to be understood than some hard and round wart of that shell.
Aiunt et de frontibus draconum gemmas erui, sicut et in piscium cerebris lapidositas quaedam est.
They say also that gems are dug out of the foreheads of dragons, just as there is also a certain stoniness in the brains of fishes.
Hoc quoque deerat Christianae, ut de serpente cultior fiat.
This too was lacking to the Christian woman, that she might become more adorned by means of the serpent!
Sic calcabit diaboli caput, dum de capite eius cervicibus suis aut ipsi capiti ornamenta struit?
Haec omnia de raritate et peregrinitate sola gratiam possident.
Will she thus tread upon the devil's head, while she builds up ornaments for her own neck or for her very head from his head? All these things possess grace from rarity and foreignness alone.
Denique intra terminos suos patrios non tanti habentur.
In short, within their own native limits they are not held in such high esteem.
Semper abundantia contumeliosa in semetipsam est.
Abundance is always insulting to itself.
Apud barbaros quosdam, quia vernaculum est aurum et copiosum, auro vinctos in ergastulis habent, et divitiis malos onerant, tanto locupletiores, quanto nocentiores.
Among certain barbarians, because gold is indigenous and copious, they keep people bound with gold in workhouses, and load the wicked with riches, being the wealthier the more guilty they are.
Aliquando revera inventum est, quomodo et aurum non ametur.
At last indeed a way has been found how even gold may not be loved.
Gemmarum quoque nobilitatem vidimus Romae de fastidio Parthorum et Medorum ceterorumque gentilium suorum coram matronis erubescentem, nisi quod nec ad ostentationem fere habentur.
We have also seen at Rome the nobility of gems blushing before matrons on account of the disdain of the Parthians and Medes and the rest of their fellow gentiles, except that they are scarcely held even for ostentation.
Latent in cingulis smaragdi, et cylindros vaginae suae solus gladius sub sinu novit, et in peronibus uniones emergere de luto cupiunt.
Emeralds lie hidden in belts, and the sword alone under the fold of the garment knows the cylinders of its scabbard, and pearls on rough shoes desire to emerge from the mud.
Nihil denique tam gemmatum habent, quam quod gemmatum esse non debet, si non comparet, aut ideo comparet, ut neglectum quoque ostendatur.
In short, they have nothing so gemmed as that which ought not to be gemmed, if it does not appear, or appears for this reason, that it may also be shown to be neglected.
Perinde et vestium de coloribus honorem servi etiam eorum terunt.
In like manner, even their servants wear down the honor of garments on account of their colors.
Sed et parietes Tyriis et hyacinthinis et illis regiis velis, quae vos operose resoluta transfiguratis, pro pictura abutuntur.
But they also abuse Tyrian and hyacinthine fabrics and those royal veils—which you with laborious effort unweave and transform—for their walls in place of paintings.
Vilior est apud illos purpura quam rubrica.
Purple is cheaper among them than red ochre.
Quis enim est vestium honor iustus de adulterio colorum iniustorum? Non placet deo quod non ipse produxit.
For what is the just honor of garments derived from the adultery of unnatural colors? What God Himself did not produce is not pleasing to Him.
Nisi si non potuit purpureas et a(??)rinas oves nasci iubere.
Unless, indeed, He was unable to command purple and sky-blue sheep to be born.
Si potuit, ergo iam noluit; quod deus noluit, utique non licet fingi.
If He was able, then He did not wish it; and what God did not wish, certainly is not permitted to be fashioned.
Non ergo natura optima sunt ista quae a deo non sunt, auctore naturae.
Therefore, those things are not best by nature which are not from God, the author of nature.
Sic a diabolo esse intelleguntur, ab interpolatore naturae.
Thus they are understood to be from the devil, the interpolator of nature.
Alterius enim esse non possunt, si dei non sunt, quia aemuli sint necesse est, quae dei non sunt.
For they cannot belong to another, if they are not God's, because those things which are not God's must be His rival's.
Alius autem praeter diabolum et angelos eius aemulus dei non est.
And there is no rival of God except the devil and his angels.
Ceterum si materiae ex deo sunt, non statim et huiusmodi fructus illarum in hominibus.
But if the materials are from God, it does not immediately follow that such fruits of them among men are also from Him.
Quaeritur et unde sint conchae, et qua dispositione decorent, et ubi speciem suam collocent.
It is asked also whence shells are, and by what arrangement they adorn, and where they place their beauty.
Nam et omnes istae profanae spectaculorum saecularium voluptates, sicut de illis suum volumen edidimus, ipsa etiam idololatria ex rebus dei constat.
For even all those profane pleasures of worldly spectacles, as we have published our own volume about them, and idolatry itself, consist of things belonging to God.
Non tamen ideo circi furoribus aut arenae atrocitatibus aut scenae turpitudinibus Christianum affici oportet, et quod et equum et pantheram et vocem homini deus dedit, sicut nec ideo idololatrian impune faciat Christianus, quia dei conditio est et tus et merum et ignis qui vescitur, et animalia quae victimae fiunt, cum et ipsa materia quae adoratur dei sit.
Yet it is not on that account fitting for a Christian to be affected by the madness of the circus, or the atrocities of the arena, or the filthiness of the stage, because God gave both the horse and the panther and the voice to man, just as a Christian may not commit idolatry with impunity on the ground that the frankincense, the wine, the fire which consumes, and the animals which become victims are of God's creation, since even the very material which is adored belongs to God.
Sic ergo et circa actum materiarum census a deo descendens propterea excusat, ut deo extraneum, ut reum scilicet gloriae saecularis?
Nam ut quaedam rerum per singulas quasque terras et unamquamque regionem maris a deo distributa sunt invicem sibi peregrina, apud exteros mutuo rara, apud suos iure, si utique, vel negleguntur vel appetuntur, quia non tantus est in illis gloriae fervor, inter domesticos frigidae.
Does, then, the origin of materials descending from God excuse their use in respect of their actual employment, as something foreign to God, as guilty indeed of worldly glory? For just as certain things have been distributed by God through each land and every region of the sea as mutually foreign to one another, being mutually rare among foreigners, and among their own people—if at all—rightly either neglected or sought after because there is not so great a fervor of glory in them, being cold among compatriots.
Sed enim ex possessionum distributione, quam deus ut voluit ordinavit, raritas et peregrinitas apud extraneos semper gratiam inveniens de simplici causa non habendi quae deus alibi collocavit concupiscentiam concitat habendi.
But indeed, from the distribution of possessions, which God ordained as He wished, rarity and foreignness, always finding grace among strangers, excite a concupiscence of having from the simple cause of not having what God has placed elsewhere.
Ex hac vitium aliud extenditur, immoderate habendi.
From this another vice is extended, that of having immoderately.
Quod etsi forte habendum sit, modus tamen debetur.
Which, although perhaps it is to be had, yet a limit is due.
Haec erit ambitio, unde et nomen eius interpretandum est, quod concupiscentia apud animum ambiente nascatur ad gloriae votum, grande scilicet votum, quod, ut diximus, non natura, nec veritas, sed vitiosa animi passio concupiscentia commendavit.
This will be ambition, from which also its name is to be interpreted, because the desire "encompassing" (ambiens) around the mind is born to the vow of glory—a grand vow indeed, which, as we have said, not nature, nor truth, but a vicious passion of the mind, concupiscence, has recommended.
Et alia vitia ambitionis et gloriae.
And there are other vices of ambition and glory.
Sic et pretia rebus inflammavit, ut se quoque accenderet.
Thus it also inflamed the prices of things, so that it might also kindle itself.
Nam tanto maior fit concupiscentia, quanto magno fecit quod concupivit.
For concupiscence becomes so much greater, the more highly it values what it has desired.
De brevissimis loculis patrimonium grande profertur.
From the smallest purses a grand patrimony is produced.
Uno lino decies sestertium inseritur.
Ten hundred thousand sesterces is inserted into a single thread.
Saltus et insulas tenera cervix circumfert.
A tender neck carries about forests and islands.
Graciles aurium cutes kalendarium expendunt, et sinistra per singulos digitos de saccis singulis ludit.
The thin skins of the ears expend a ledger of debts, and the left hand plays on each finger with wealth from individual bags.
Hae sunt vires ambitionis, tantarum substantiarum usuram uno et muliebri corpusculo baiulare.
These are the forces of ambition: to carry the usufruct of such great substances on a single and feminine little body.