Speech, Deed, And Vanity

Vana locuti sunt unusquisque ad proximum summ. Locutio non incongrue intelligi potest, non solum in voce, sed etiam in operatione, quia indicium cordis non solum vox est, sed etiam exhibitio operis. Scimus autem quod vanum est omne quod transit. Ille vanitatem in corde habet qui transitoria diligit. Vanitatem loquitur, qui pro hac vita tranistoria immoderate laborans ipso suo studio, et opere eam se diligere ostendit. Vanitatem autem ad proximum suum loquitur qui exemplo suo eum ad petenda transitora cohortatur. Hugo De Sancte Victore, Miscellanea, Liber II, Caput X, Quod locutio sit in voce et opere, et quis vanitatem in corde habeat, quis loquatur; et quis loquatur eam ad proximum. Source: Migne PL 177.593c

Each one has spoken vanities to his neighbour. 1 It is not wrong to understand that speech is not only given by the voice but even through acts, because the proof of a heart is not only through the voice but even by the exhibition of the act. We know that everything which is vain passes away. He has vanity in his heart who loves transitory things. He speaks vainly who with excessive zeal labours for the transitory things of this life, and with that work shows what he loves. And he speaks vanity to his neighbour who by his example exhorts him to seek transitory things. Hugh Of Saint Victor, Miscellanea, Book 2, Chapter 10, That Speech May Be By the Voice or the Deed, and that he who has vanity in his heart who speaks, and who speaks to his neighbour 1 Ps 11.3