How the crowe shulde be beleued, it is seide that the goode speryte shulde vse sych counsell. As Seynt Grigorie seith in his Omelies, þat strenght vailet not when counsel is not, ffor streynght is sone ouerthrowyn, iffe it be not rested opon the gyfte of counsell, and the soule þe whych hath lost in hym the seege of counsell outewarde he is dysparbuled[[334]] in diuerse desires. Therefor the wyse man seyth, [“Si intraverit sapientia cor tuum, consilium custodiet te et prudentia servabit te”].[[335]]
LIII.
Iff thou enforce the with[[336]] any wyght
Strenger than thou to make playes of myghte,
Withdrawe the fayre þat hurte thou ne be;
Off Ganymedes vmbethynk the.
Ganymedes[[337]] was a yong ientilman of the Troyens ligne; and a fable seith þat Phebus and he strof togedir in castyng of a barre of yron, and, as Ganymedes myth not withstond the strenght of Phebus, he was slayne wyth þe reboundyng of þe barre Phebus hade lawnchyd so hye that he had lost þe syght þerof. And þerfor it is seyde that þe stryffe is not goode with a strenger and a myghtier than a man is hym selfe, ffor ther may not cumme thereof but grete inconuenyencie. Where a wyse man seith, “To be besy with men þat vse vngracious games, it is a syngne of pride, and communly the ende is angry.”
Fore to sey that a man shuld not enforce hym ayens a streynger þan he is hym selfe, it is to vndirstond that the goode sperite shulde not take on hym to stronge pennawnce withowte counsell. Seynt Grigori in his Moralles spekyth hereof and seyth þat penawnce profytteth not, yf it be not discrete, ne the vertue of abstynens is not worthe, yf it be sette in sych wyse that it be scharper than the body may suffre. And þerfor it is to conclude þat no poore person shulde take it on hym withowte counsel off more discrete than hym selfe. Where the wyse man seyth in his Prouerbes, [“Ubi multa consilia, ibi est salus”].[[338]]
LIV.
Resemble not to Jasone, that man |f. 38.|