Folio 42v - the ostrich, continued.
have in themselves no capacity for feeling; they are nevertheless transformed, when kept warm, into living birds. Thus it is undoubtedly a fact that children and young people will remain cold and indifferent unless they are warmed by the careful encouragement of their teacher.
Lest they grow inactive and insensitive through neglect, therefore, they must be cherished by the diligent instruction of teachers, until they are able to live by their own capacity for understanding and take flight on the wings of contemplation.
Even though hypocrites are forever doing wrong, they never cease to utter pious speeches and by their eloquence produce offspring in the faith or as they go about among men; yet they cannot bring them up properly, by example. It is therefore rightly said of the ostrich that it 'abandons its eggs in the ground'.
The hypocrite neglects to take care of his offspring, when he substitutes for intimate love a preoccupation with external things; the more he is absorbed in these, the less he suffers from the absence of his offspring. To abandon eggs in the ground is the same as failing to keep the young, born through association with men, away from earthly things in a protective nest of spiritual encouragement. To abandon eggs in the ground is the same as failing to furnish the young with the example of heavenly life.
Because hypocrites are not fired deep down with love, they are untroubled by the inactivity of their offspring, in the same way as the ostrich is untroubled by the coldness of its eggs. The more willingly hypocrites involve themselves in earthly affairs, the more negligent they are in allowing their offspring to lead an earthbound life.
But God's care does not desert the neglected offspring of the hypocrites; he warms some of them, foreknown and secretly chosen, with his bountiful grace. It is, therefore, rightly added in the text: 'Can you perhaps warm them in the dust?' (BSV and see NEB, Job, 39:14). As if God were to say: 'As I warm them in the dust, because I kindle with the fire of my love the souls of the young set amidst sinners.' The Lord warms the neglected eggs in the dust, therefore, in the sense that he kindles with the fire of his love the souls of the very young, who have been deprived of the care of his preachers and are, in addition, surrounded by sinners.
From this we see that there are many living among the masses who do not share their sluggish way of life. From this we see that there are many