QUONDAM PORTICUS ATTULIT. — Metrum 4
"The porche (that is to seyn, a gate of the toun of
Athenis there as philosophris hadden hir congregacioun to
desputen) — thilke porche broughte somtyme olde men, ful
dirke in
hir sentences (that is to seyn,
philosophris that
hyghten Stoycienis), that wenden that ymages and
sensibilities (that is to seyn, sensible
ymaginaciouns or ellis ymaginaciouns of sensible thingis)
weren enprientid into soules fro bodyes withoute-forth
(as who seith that thilke Stoycienis
wenden that the
sowle had ben nakid of itself as a mirour or a clene parchemyn,
so that alle figures most first comen fro thinges fro withoute
into soules, and ben emprientid into soules);
(Textus) ryght as we ben wont
somtyme by a swift
poyntel to fycchen lettres emprientid in the smothnesse or in the
pleynesse of the table of wex or in parchemyn that ne hath no
figure ne note in it. (Glose. But now
argueth Boece
ayens that opynioun and seith thus:) But yif the thryvynge
soule ne unpliteth nothing (that is to seyn, ne doth nothing) by
his propre moevynges, but suffrith and lith subgit to the figures
and to the notes of bodies withoute-forth, and yeldith ymages
ydel and vein in the manere of a mirour, whennes thryveth thanne
or whennes comith thilke knowynge in our soule, that discernith
and byholdith alle thinges? And whennes is thilke strengthe that
byholdeth the singuler thinges? Or whennes is the strengthe that
devydeth thinges iknowe; and thilke strengthe that gadreth
togidre the thingis devyded; and the strengthe that chesith his
entrechaunged wey? For somtyme it hevyth up the heved
(that is to seyn, that it hevyth up the
entencioun)
to ryght heye thinges, and somtyme it descendith into ryght lowe
thinges; and whan it retorneth into hymself it reproveth and
destroyeth the false thingis by the trewe thinges. Certes this
strengthe is cause more efficient, and mochel more myghty to seen
and to knowe thinges, than thilke cause that suffrith and
resceyveth the notes and the figures empressid in manere of
matere. Algatis the passion (that is to seyn, the suffraunce or
the wit) in the quyke body goth byforn, excitynge and moevynge
the strengthes of the thought, ryght so as whan that cleernesse
smyteth the eyen and moeveth hem to seen, or ryght so as voys or
soun hurteleth to the eres and commoeveth hem to herkne; than is
the strengthe of the thought imoevid and excited, and clepith
forth to semblable moevyngis the
speces that it halt
withynne itself, and addith tho speces to the notes and to the
thinges withoute-forth, and medleth the ymagis of thinges
withoute-forth to the foormes ihidd withynne hymself.
