Hrabanus Maurus' DE UNIVERSO is based on Isidore of Seville's ETYMOLOGIES, with added allegorical explanation: "What do we take as 'gold',except the genius of a bright intellect? What is 'fine gold',except a mind,heated with the fire of love? It always preserves the brightness of beauty, with ardor renewed daily. It does not know how to grow old through listlessness, and always endeavors to start new work. Holy people do not 'count their strength as gold' since, as much as they shine with genius, they think they are nothing by their own power. While they are vigorously able to understand all things, they first desire to understand themselves (just as the light of genius, like that of the sun, shines first on the place where it rises, and later, proceeding, spreads to other places). They desire self-understanding, lest in straining to recognize others, they do not know themselves, and it grows dark where the sunÕs ray arises."