No More Learning

(_The Monkes Tale_, vol. iii. p. 217. )

Ne no tere ne wette his face, but he was so hard-herted ? at he
my? te ben domesman or iuge of hire dede beaute.

(_Chaucer's Boethius_, p. 55. )

Ora non tinxit lacrymis, sed esse
Censor extincti potuit decoris.

(_Boethius_, lib. ii. met. 6. )


VIII.
PREDESTINATION AND FREE-WILL.

In 'Troylus and Cryseyde' we find the following long passage taken from
Boethius, book v. prose 2, 3.

Book iv. st. 134, vol. iv. p. 339.

(1) Syn God seth every thynge, out of doutaunce,
And hem disponeth, thorugh his ordinaunce,
In hire merites sothely for to be,
As they shul comen by predesteyne

136

(2) For som men seyn if God seth al byforne,
Ne God may not deseyved ben parde!
Than moot it fallen, theigh men hadde it sworne,
That purveyaunce hath seyn befor to be,
Wherfor I seye, that, from eterne, if he
Hathe wiste byforn our thought ek as oure dede,
We have no fre choys, as thise clerkes rede.

137

(3) For other thoughte, nor other dede also,
Myghte nevere ben, but swich as purveyaunce,
Which may nat ben deceyved nevere moo,
Hath feled byforne, withouten ignoraunce;
For if ther myghte ben a variaunce,
To wrythen out fro Goddes purveyinge,
Ther nere no prescience of thynge comynge;

138

(4) But it were rather an opinyon
Uncertein, and no stedfast forseynge;
And certes that were an abusyon
That God shold han no parfit clere wetynge,
More than we men, that han douteous wenynge,
But swich an erroure upon God to gesse
Were fals, and foule, and wikked corsednesse.

139

(5) They seyn right thus, that thynge is nat to come,
For that the prescience hath seyne byfore
That it shal come; but they seyn that therfore
That it shal come, therfor the purveyaunce
Woot it bifore, withouten ignorance.

140

(6) And in this manere this necessite
Retourneth in his part contrarye agayn;
For nedfully byhoveth it not to be,
That thilke thynges fallen in certeyn
That ben purveyed; but nedly, as they seyne,
Bihoveth it that thynges, which that falle,
That thei in certein ben purveied alle.

141

(7) I mene as though I labourede me in this,
To enqueren which thynge cause of whiche thynge be;

(8) As, whether that the prescience of God is
The certein cause of the necessite
Of thynges that to comen ben, parde!
Or, if necessite of thynge comynge
Be cause certein of the purveyinge.