“There lacketh nothing to thine outward eyen That thou art blind; for thing that we see all That it is stone, that men may well espyen, That ilkë 4588 stone a god thou wilt it call. I rede 4589 thee let thine hand upon it fall, And taste 4590 it well, and stone thou shalt it find; Since that thou see’st not with thine eyen blind.

“It is a shamë that the people shall So scornë thee, and laugh at thy follý; For commonly men wot it well over all, 4591 That mighty God is in his heaven high; And these imáges, well may’st thou espy, To thee nor to themselves may not profíte, For in effect they be not worth a mite.”