55. Despising true goods, the carnal lean upon fleeting ones, with which they perish. — For in the estimation of the wicked we are reduced to nothing, when we do not hold those temporal goods which they themselves love as though they were the highest. For, despising the promises on high, they desire earthly things; and if ever something of the appetite for eternity arises in their mind, it is very quickly dissipated by the arising delight of things transitory. Whence it is straightway subjoined: For the faithful people declares that it suffers, because it grieves that those whom it loves suffer. The wind, therefore, carries off desire, when any transitory thing destroys the appetite for eternity. Whence there is still fittingly further added: For a cloud stands out on high, but the blast of wind drives it to its course.
So indeed, so are the temporal goods of the wicked. They seem, as it were, to abide on high through the loftiness of honour; but they are driven daily to the course of their life, as by certain blasts of their own mortality. Well-being, therefore, passes like a cloud, because the glory of the perverse, however high it is, is not fixed. But when the desires and deeds of the weak are ended, the discourse is turned to the voice of the elect, when there is straightway further subjoined: