NICHIL IGITUR DUBIUM. — Prosa 8
"Now is it no doute thanne that thise weyes ne ben a maner
mysledynges to blisfulnesse, ne that they ne mowen nat leden folk
thider as thei byheeten to leden hem. But with how grete harmes
thise forseide weyes ben enlaced, I schal schewe the shortly.
Forwhy yif thou enforcest the to assemble moneye, thow must
byreven hym his moneye that hath it; and yif thow wolt schynen
with dignytees, thow must bysechen and supplyen hem that yyven
tho dignytees; and yif thow coveytest be honour to gon byfore
othere folk, thow schalt defoule thiself thurw humblesse of
axynge. Yif thou desirest power, thow schalt, be awaytes of thy
subgetis, anoyously ben cast undir by manye periles. Axestow
glorye? Thow schalt so bien distract by aspere thynges that thow
schalt forgon sykernesse. And yif thow wolt leden thi lif in
delyces, every wyght schal despysen the and forleeten the, as
thow that art thral to thyng that is right foul and brutyl (that
is to seyn, servaunt to thi body). Now is it thanne wel yseyn how
litil and how brotel possessioun thei coveyten that putten the
goodes of the body aboven hir owene resoun. For maystow
surmounten thise olifauntes in gretnesse or weighte of body? Or
maistow ben strengere than the bole? Maystow ben swyftere than
the tigre? Byhoold the spaces and the stablenesse and the swyft
cours of the hevene, and stynt somtyme to wondren on foule
thynges. The whiche hevene certes nys nat rathere for thise
thynges to ben wondryd upon, than for the resoun by whiche it
is governed. But the schynynge of thi forme (that
is to seyn, the beute of thi body), how swyftly passynge is
it, and how transitorie!
"Certes it es more flyttynge than the mutabilite of
floures of the somer sesoun. For so as Aristotle telleth, that
if that men hadden eyghen of a beeste that highte lynx, so that
the lokynge of folk myghte percen thurw the thynges that
withstonden it, whoso lokide thanne in the entrayles of the body
of Alcibiades, that was ful fair in the superfice withoute, it
schulde seme ryght foul. And forthi yif thow semest fair, thy
nature ne maketh nat that, but the deceyvaunce or the feblesse
of the eighen that loken. But preise the goodes of the body as
mochil as evere the lyst, so that thow knowe algatis that, whatso
it be (that is to seyn, of the godes of the
body) whiche that thou wondrist uppon, mai ben destroied or
dissolvid by the heete of a fevere of thre dayes. Of alle whiche
forseide thynges Y mai reducen this schortly in a somme: that
thise worldly goodes, whiche that ne mowen nat yeven that they
byheeten, ne ben nat parfite by the congregacioun of alle goodis,
that they ne ben nat weyes ne pathes that bryngen men to blisfulnesse,
ne maken men to ben blisful.
