CHAPTER 38
1 Honour thou a leech, for need; for why the Highest hath made [or formed] him.
2 For why all medicine is of God [or Of God forsooth is all leeching]; and he shall take of the king a gift.
3 The knowing of a leech shall enhance his head; and he shall be praised in the sight of great men.
4 The Highest hath made [or formed] of the earth medicine; and a prudent man shall not loathe it.
5 Whether bitter water was not made sweet of a tree? The virtue of those things came by experience to the knowing of men;
6 and the Highest gave knowing to men, for to be honoured in his marvels.
7 A man healing [or curing] in these things, shall assuage sorrow,
8 and an ointment-maker shall make pigments of sweetness, and shall make anointings of health; and his works shall not be ended. For why the peace of God is on the face of earth.
9 My son, despise not thyself in thy sickness [or infirmity]; but pray thou the Lord, and he shall heal [or cure] thee.
10 Turn thou away from sin, and dress thine hands, and cleanse thine heart from all sin.
11 Give thou sweetness, and the mind of clean [or tried] flour of wheat, and make thou fat [the] offer-ing;
12 and give thou place to a leech. For the Lord made him, and depart he not [or go he not away] from thee; for his works be needful to thee.
13 For why time is, when thou shalt fall [or run] into the hands of them.
14 Forsooth they shall beseech the Lord, that he dress [or right rule] the work of them, and health for their living.
15 He that trespasseth in the sight of him, that made him, shall fall into the hands of the leech.
16 Son, bring thou forth tears on a dead man, and thou as suffering hard things begin to weep; and by [or after] doom, cover thou the body of him, and despise thou not his bury-ing.
17 But for backbiting, bear thou bitterly the mourning of him for one day; and be thou comforted for sorrow [or take comfort for heaviness]. And make thou mourning after his merit [or deserving]for one day, either twain [or two], for backbiting.
18 For why death hasteth of sorrow, and covereth virtue; and the sorrow of heart boweth the head.
19 Sorrow dwelleth in leading away; and the chattel [or substance] of a needy man is after his heart.
20 Give thou not thine heart in sorrow, but put it away from thee; and have thou mind on the last things,
21 and do not thou forget. For why no returning is from death to this present life, and thou shalt nothing profit to this dead man; and thou shalt harm or treat worst thyself.
22 Be thou mindful of my doom; for also thine shall be thus, to me yester-day, and to thee today.
23 In the rest of a dead man, make thou his mind to have rest; and comfort thou him, in the going out of his spirit.
24 Write thou wisdom in the time of voidness; and he that is made less in deeds, shall perceive wisdom; for he shall be filled of [or with] wisdom.
25 He that holdeth the plow, and he that hath glory in a goad, driveth oxes [or oxen] with a prick, and he liveth in the works of those [or them]; and his telling is in the sons of bulls.
26 He shall give his heart to turn furrows; and his waking shall be about the fatness of kine.
27 So each carpenter, and principal workman, that passeth the night as the day; that engraveth images [or brooches] engraved, and the busyness of him diverseth [or varieth] the painture; he shall give his heart [in] to the likeness of painture, and by his waking he performeth the work.
28 So a smith sitting beside the anfelt [or stithy], and beholding the work of iron, the heat of fire burneth his fleshes [or flesh]; and he striveth in the heat of the furnace. The voice of a hammer maketh new his ear; and his eye is against the likeness of a vessel. He shall give his heart into the performing of works; and by his waking he shall adorn unperfection, that is, matter which he bringeth to perfection of form.
29 So a potter sitting at his work, turning a wheel with his feet, which is put ever[more] in busyness for his work; and all his working is un-numberable [or without number].
30 In his arm he shall form clay; and before his feet he shall bow his virtue. He shall give his heart to end perfectly something; and by his waking he shall cleanse the furnace.
31 All these men hoped in their hands; and each man is wise in his craft.
32 A city is not builded [or built] without all these men. And they shall not dwell [in], neither go [in];
33 and they shall not skip over [or over-leap] into the church. They shall not sit on the seat of a judge; and they shall not understand the testament of doom, neither they shall make open teaching and doom; and they shall not be found in parables.
34 But they shall confirm the creature of the world, and their prayer is the working of craft;