University of Virginia Library

QUISQUIS PROFUNDA. — Metrum 11

"Whoso that seketh sooth by a deep thought, and coveyteth not to ben disseyvid by no mysweyes, lat hym rollen and trenden withynne hymself the lyght of his ynwarde sighte; and let hym gaderyn ayein, enclynynge into a compas, the longe moevynges of his thoughtes; and let hym techyn his corage that he hath enclosid


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and hid in his tresors al that he compasseth or secheth fro withoute. And thanne thilke thing that the blake cloude of errour whilom hadde ycovered schal lighte more clerly than Phebus hymself ne schyneth. (Glosa. Whoso wol seke the depe ground of soth in his thought, and wil nat ben disseyvid by false proposiciouns that goon amys fro the trouthe, lat hym wel examine and rolle withynne hymself the nature and the propretes of the thing; and let hym yet eftsones examinen and rollen his thoughtes by good deliberacioun or that he deme, and lat hym techyn his soule that it hath, by naturel principles kyndeliche yhud withynne itself, al the trouthe the whiche he ymagineth to ben in thinges withoute. And thanne al the derknesse of his mysknowynge shall [schewen] more evydently to the sighte of his undirstondynge then the sonne ne semeth to the sighte withoute+forth.) For certes the body, bryngynge the weighte of foryetynge, ne hath nat chased out of your thought al the cleernesse of your knowyng; for certeynli the seed of soth haldeth and clyveth within yowr corage, and it is awaked and excited by the wynde and by the blastes of doctrine. For wherfore elles demen ye of your owene wil the ryghtes, whan ye ben axid, but if so were that the norysschynges of resoun ne lyvede yplounged in the depe of your herte? (This to seyn, how schulde men deme the sothe of any thing that were axid, yif ther nere a rote of sothfastnesse that were yploungid and hyd in the naturel principles, the whiche sothfastnesse lyvede within the depnesse of the thought?) And if so be that the Muse and the doctrine of Plato syngeth soth, al that every wyght leerneth, he ne doth no thing elles thanne but recordeth, as men recorden thinges that ben foryeten."