On the shores of this lake grow trees bearing fair fruits, which, when broken or bitten, taste like ashes. All these are tokens of wickedness and vengeance. God loves the pure in heart. Strive to be clean. Jean de Meun tells how a lady is to be loved. By doing what pleases her best. Love thy Lord! Conform to Christ, who is polished as a pearl. By how comely a contrivance did he enter the womb of the virgin! In what purity did he part from her! No abode was better than his. The sorrow of childbirth was turned to joy. Angels solaced the virgin with organs and pipes. The child Christ was so clean that ox and ass worshipped him. He hated wickedness, and would never touch ought that was vile. Yet there came to him lazars and lepers, lame and blind. Dry and dropsical folk. He healed all with kind speech. His handling was so good, that he needed no knife to cut or carve with. The bread he broke more perfectly than could all the tools of Toulouse. How can we approach his court except we be clean? God is merciful. Through penance we may shine as a pearl. Why is the pearl so prized? She becomes none the worse for wear. If she should become dim, wash her in wine. She then becomes clearer than before. So may the sinner polish him by penance. Beware of returning to sin. For then God is more displeased than ever. The reconciled soul God holds as His own. Ill deeds rob Him of it. God forbids us to defile any vessels used in His service. In Belshazzar’s time, the defiling of God’s vessels brought wrath upon the king.