muchel flesshes fondunge...
Iren ðet lið stille gedereð
sone rust."

Ye, my beloved sisters,
shall have no beast
but one cat... Ye shall
be cropped four times
in the year for to lighten your
head... Of idleness ariseth
much temptation of the flesh...
Iron that lieth still soon gathereth
rust.

The keynote of the work is the renunciation of self. Few productions
of modern literature contain finer pictures of the divine love and
sympathy. The following simile affords an instance of this quality in
the work:--

"De sixte kunfort is ðet
ure Louerd, hwon he iðolð
ðet we beoð itented, he plaieð mid
us, ase ðe moder mid hire ßunge
deorlinge; vlihð from him, and
hut hire, and let hit sitten one,
and loken ßeorne abuten, and cleopien
Dame! dame! and weopen
one hwule; and ðeonne mid ispredde
ermes leapeð lauhwinde
vorð, and cluppeð and cusseð and