Fool and foolish seeker

Meaning

The fools of this passage are seekers who pursue the art merely for temporal honour, wealth and pleasure, despite exhausting money, labour and their own minds. The insult judges an end of seeking, not an absence of mechanical cleverness. The following explanation carefully denies that wealth is evil in itself: the problem is shameful misuse and obstruction of the true good. The English clarifies the awkward opening construction as desire for worldly benefits alone. That contextual reading should not be expanded into a ban on all livelihood or all material assistance, which the work elsewhere allows and praises.