Here follow two of unknown authorship, belonging apparently to the same period.
THAT EACH THING IS HURT OF ITSELF.
Why fearest thou the outward foe,
When thou thyself thy harm dost feed?
Of grief or hurt, of pain or woe,
Within each thing is sown the seed.
So fine was never yet the cloth,
No smith so hard his iron did beat,
But th' one consuméd was with moth,
Th' other with canker all to-freate. fretted away.
The knotty oak and wainscot old
Within doth eat the silly worm;[53]
Even so a mind in envy rolled
Always within it self doth burn.
Thus every thing that nature wrought,
Within itself his hurt doth bear!
No outward harm need to be sought,
Where enemies be within so near.
Lest this poem should appear to any one hardly religious enough for the purpose of this book, I would remark that it reminds me of what our Lord says about the true source of defilement: it is what is bred in the man that denies him. Our Lord himself taught a divine morality, which is as it were the body of love, and is as different from mere morality as«the living body is from the dead.
TOTUS MUNDUS IN MALIGNO POSITUS.
The whole world lieth in the Evil One.
Complain we may; much is amiss;
Hope is nigh gone to have redress;
These days are ill, nothing sure is;
Kind heart is wrapt in heaviness.
The stern is broke, the sail is rent, helm or rudder—the
The ship is given to wind and wave; [thing to steer with.
All help is gone, the rock present,
That will be lost, what man can save? that which will be lost.
When power lacks care and forceth not, careth.
When care is feeble and may not, is not able.
When might is slothful and will not,
Weeds may grow where good herbs cannot.
Wily is witty, brainsick is wise; wiliness is counted
Truth is folly, and might is right; [prudence.
Words are reason, and reason is lies;
The bad is good, darkness is light.