Reed-like Men

Arundo etiam videtur exterius solida, sed intus est vacua: sicut sunt quidam homines, qui habent arundineas gratias, utpote corporis pulchritudinem, membrorum sanam fortitudinem, linguae facundiam, et hujus seculi sapientiam, et caetera hujusmodi, quibus raro merentur, sed saepius demerentur.

A reed, however seems outwardly solid but it is hollow on the inside: just like some men, who have reed-like graces: such as physical beauty, robust strength of limb, eloquence in speech, and the wisdom of this world, and other qualities such as these, which are rarely found, but easily lost.

Albertus Magnus, Sermones: de tempore, de eucharistia, de sanctis, ed. by Hippolytus a Cruce (Toulouse: Édouard Privat, 1883), p. 12 [In Dominica III Adventus. Sermo III.]. My translation.