Meter 17

All earth-dwellers one origin had,
All men of the land, one like beginning ;
From one pair only all proceeded,
From a man and woman, within the world ;
And to this day even all men alike,
The base and the high ones, are born in the world.
Nor is that a marvel, for all men know
That there is one God of all world-creatures,
Lord of mankind, Father and Maker.
He the sun lendeth, light out of heaven,

To moon and stars ; on earth He made men,
And brought to the body in the beginning
The soul in union; under the sky
Folk He created all fully equal.
Why are ye therefore yourselves o’er others
Placing ever, proud without reason,
When none ye are able to meet not noble ?
Why are ye boasting now of your birth?
In the mind only of every man lieth
The real nobility whereof I reason,
Not in the flesh of the folk of earth.
But every mortal that is utterly,
Merely subject to his sinful ways,
Soonest leaveth life’s Creator ;

Nor doth he heed his own high nature,
No, nor the Father that first him fashioned.
For this the Almighty removeth his honour,
So that henceforth here in the world
He goeth dishonoured, nor cometh to glory.