Introductory material (continued 3)

[200]The whole passage included in square brackets is omitted in Pepwell, but is identical in the two MSS.

[201]So Harl. MS. 2373; Harl. MS. 674 reads: "medeful."

[202]The trunk.

[203]Pepwell inserts: "it is but churl's meat, for."

[204]Not in Pepwell.

[205]Pepwell reads: "and for nothing else."

[206]Had never received it from Him.

[207]Pure Love, or Charity, which "attains to God Himself, that it may abide in Him, not that any advantage may accrue to us from Him" (St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 23, A. 6). For the whole doctrine of "Pure Love or Disinterested Religion," cf. F. von Hugel, The Mystical Element of Religion, ii. pp. 152-181.

[208]So both MSS.; Pepwell reads: "blessedness."

[209]Hindering or marring.

[210]Cf. St. Thomas Aquinas, Summa Theologica, II.-ii. Q. 27, A. 3; and F. von Hugel, op. cit., ii. p. 167.

[211]In the Divine Essence.

[212]So Harl. MS. 674, I take "it" as the beatitude of man which is God Himself.

[213]Cf. Dante, Par. xxxiii, 143-145:—

"Ma gia volgeva il mio disiro e il velle, Si come rota ch' egualmente e mossa, L'Amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle."

"But already my desire and will, even as a wheel that is equally moved, were being turned by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars."

[214]1 Cor. vi. 17.

[215]Pepwell adds: "or sundry."

[216]So Pepwell and Harl. MS. 2373; Harl. MS, 674 reads: "they ben one spirit."

[217]Cant. ii. 16.

[218]Harl. MS. 674 reads: "glose." Pepwell adds: "or flatter."

[219]Heed.

[220]Pepwell adds: "or betokeneth." Cf. Langland, Piers the Plowman, A. i. 1: "What this mountein bemeneth."

[221]Cf. above, p. 28 note.

[222]Pepwell adds: "or counsel."

[223]Of thyself thou hast nought but sin.

[224]So the MSS.: Pepwell has: "to God."

[225]Pepwell changes to "divers."

[226]Cf. Dante, De Monarchia, iii. 16: "Man alone of beings holds a mid-place between corruptible and incorruptible; wherefore he is rightly likened by the philosophers to the horizon which is between two hemispheres. For man, if considered after either essential part, to wit soul and body is corruptible if considered only after the one, to wit the body, but if after the other, to wit the soul, he is incorruptible. . . . If man then, is a kind of mean between corruptible and incorruptible things, since every mean savours of the nature of the extremes, it is necessary that man should savour of either nature. And since every nature is ordained to a certain end, it follows that there must be a twofold end of man, so that like as he alone amongst all beings partakes of corruptibility and incorruptibilty, so he alone amongst all beings should be ordained for two final goals of which the one should be his goal as a corruptible being, and the other as an incorruptible" (P. H. Wicksteed's translation).

[227]Pepwell modernises this throughout to "dwelling alone."

[228]Pepwell substitutes "doubt." Cf. Chaucer, Legend of Good Women, 2686: "Thryes doun she fil in swiche a were."

[229]Pepwell adds: "in keeping of silence."

[230]Harl. MS. 674 reads: "more holiness than thou art worthy."

[231]Nature.

[232]Solitude.

[233]Pepwell has: "company."

[234]Pepwell reads: "better."

[235]Causes.

[236]1 Cor. ii. 11.

[237]Simple.

[238]Jas. i. 12.

[239]The MSS. usually read "cleped" for "called."

[240]Pepwell modernizes to "trouble."

[241]Jas. i. 12.

[242]To give place to.

[243]Such impulses to exceptional practices.

[244]Humble itself.

[245]Pleasant.

[246]Pepwell reads: "wits."

[247]Lest.

[248]Pepwell reads: "strait."

[249]Jer. ix. 21: "Quia ascendit mors per fenestras nostras" (Vulgate). Pepwell reads: "as saint Jerome saith"! Cf. Walter Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, I. pt. iii. cap 9: "Lift up thy lanthorn, and thou shalt see in this image five windows, by which sin cometh into thy soul, as the Prophet saith: Death cometh in by our windows. These are the five senses by which thy soul goeth out of herself, and fetcheth her delight and seeketh her feeding in earthly things, contrary to the nobility of her own nature. As by the eye to see curious and fair things and so of the other senses. By the unskilful using of these senses willingly to vanities, thy soul is much letted from the sweetness of the spiritual senses within; and therefore it behoveth thee to stop these windows, and shut them, but only when need requireth to open them" (ed. Dalgairns, p. 115).

[250]Ignorant.

[251]Where natural and acquired knowledge alike fall shorts.

[252]Fully.

[253]Nature.

[254]Pepwell has: "when thou dost feel."

[255]Pepwell inserts: "I mean except the solemn vows of holy religion."

[256]2 Cor. iii. 17.

[257]Cf. St. Catherine of Siena, Letter 308 (ed. Gigli): "Love harmonises the three powers of our soul, and binds them together. The will moves the understanding to see, when it wishes to love; when the understanding perceives that the will would fain love, if it is a rational will, it places before it as object the ineffable love of the eternal Father, who has given us the Word, His own son, and the obedience and humility of the son, who endured torments, inuries, mockeries, and insults with meekness and with such great love. And thus the will, with ineffable love, follows what the eye of the understanding has beheld; and with its strong hand, it stores up in the memory the treasure that it draws from this love."

[258]Losing.

[259]Cant. iv. 9.

[260]To exercise love.

[261]Divers.

[262]1 Cor. i. 26, vii. 20; Eph. iv. 1.

[263]Luke x. 42.

[264]Pepwell inserts "Him list thee to see, and."

[265]Pepwell reads: "Let be good and all that is good, and better with all that is better."

[266]Luke x. 42.

[267]To know how to speak, etc.

[268]Banishing from thy soul's vision.

[269]Be able to.

[270]Pepwell reads: "privily." Cf. Wyclif (Select English Works, ed. cit., i. p. 149): "And after seith Crist to his apostles, that thes thingis he seide bifore to hem in proverbis and mystily."

[271]Pepwell reads: "rest."

[272]Pepwell modernises "conne" to "learn to" throughout this passage.

[273]Harl. MS. 674 reads: "stirring"; the other MS, as Pepwell.

[274]Harl. MS. 674 reads: "have."

[275]Pepwell reads: "else."

[276]Manifestly, i.e. unless they clearly show that they do not know how to act as they should. Pepwell has: "in a part."

[277]i.e. take their advice, but do not simply imitate them. I follow the MSS. in preference to Pepwell, who reads: "Work after no men's counsel, but sith that know well their own disposition; for such men should," etc.

[278]1 John iv. 1-6.

[279]Ps. lxxxv. 8 (Vulgate lxxxiv. 9).

[280]Zech. i. 9-19.

[281]Col. ii. 18.

[282]1 Thess. i. 2-9.

[283]Pepwell adds: "or ambition." Cf. Chaucer, The Persones Tale, ed. Skeat, SS 18: "and coveitise of hynesse by pryde of herte."

[284]Burns.

[285]So Harl. MS. 674; Pepwell has: "war."

[286]Crafty device.

[287]Cf. above, p. 17 note.

[288]Pepwell has: "gladly."

[289]Pepwell reads "ever ready."

[290]Withstand, resist.

[291]Cf. Mother Juliana, Revelations of Divine Love, i. cap. 9: "In general I am, I hope, in onehead of charity with all my even Christian, for in this onehead standeth the life of all mankind that shall be saved."

[292]If it is still guilty of the other two.

[293]Pepwell adds: "and voluptuous."

[294]Ps. cxxxii. (Vulgate cxxxi. ) 13.

[295]Cf. Walter Hilton, The Ladder of Perfection, II. pt. ii. cap. 3: "Jerusalem is, as much as to say, a sight of peace, and betokeneth contemplation in perfect love of God; for contemplation is nothing else but a sight of God, which is very peace."

[296]Probably Isa. lvii. 15.

[297]Pepwell reads: "most folly."

[298]Pepwell adds: "or harm." Cf. The Chronicle of Robert of Brunne, 8905-6: "Now may ye lyghtly bere the stones to schip wythouten dere."

[299]Advisedly.

[300]Partisans, abettors.

[301]The MSS. read: "doles."

[302]Pepwell reads: "But it is more sorrow to feel of our own spirit's deceits. For sometime our own spirit."

[303]The MSS. read: "Bot what thar reche"; what need to care.

[304]Pepwell reads: "didst feel in there."

[305]Cf. above, p. 95, note.

[306]Pepwell adds: "and judgment."

[307]Unless because of carelessness in resisting them when they first come.

[308]To regard thyself as responsible.

[309]Madness.

[310]Not in Harl. MS. 674.

[311]Pepwell reads: "a full damnable and a full cursed fiend in his living."

[312]Pepwell adds: "and desire much."

[313]Pepwell reads: "suggestion."

[314]On the other hand.