Mesure mesuring mesurably taketh;
Mesure mesuring mesuratly dooth all;
Mesure mesuring mesuratly maketh;
Mesure mesuring mesuratly guyde shall;
Mesure mesuring mesuratly doth call;
Mesure mesuryng to right hye preemynence,
For alway mesure is grounde of excellence.
Mesure mesureth mesure in effecte;
Mesure mesureth every quantyte;
Mesure mesureth all waye the aspecte;
Mesure mesureth all in certayne;
Mesure mesureth in the stabilitie;
Mesure mesuryth in every doutful case;
And mesure is the lodesterre of all grace.
Affycte of mesure is long continuaunce,
Quantite without mesure is nought;
Aspect of mesure devoydeth repentaunce;
Certayne wold weye all thinges thought;
Stabilitie upon a perfite grounde is wrought;
Cace doubtfull may yet a whyle abyde;
Grace may in space a remedy provyde.
Countenaunce causeth the promocyon;
Nought avayleth service without attendaunce, Repentaunce is after all abusion;
Thought afore wolde have had perseveraunce; Wrought how should be bydede the mischaunce; Abyde nothing tyll thou do the dede;
Provyde in mynde how thou mayst have mede.
Promocion groweth after good governaunce;
Attendaunce doth attayne good favour;
Abusyon is causer of all variaunce;
Perceyveraunce causeth great honour;
Mischaunce alway is roote of dolour;
Dede done can not be called agayne;
Mede well rewarded both with joye and payne.
Than I toke my leve, and went from Geometry
Toward Astronomy as fast as I myght:
For all my mynde was set right inwardly
Upon my lady that was fayre and bryght.
My herte with her was bothe day and night:
She had it locked with a locke so sure,
It was her owne, she had therof the cure.
THAN forth I wente into a medow grene,
With Flora paynted in many a sundry colour,
Lyke a gay goddesse of all floures the quene,
She encenced out her aromatyke odour.
The brethe of Zepherus encreased the floure.
Amiddes the medow fayre replendishaunt,
Was a pavilyon right hye and quadraunt,
Of grene sarcenet bordered with golde,
Wherein dede hange a fayre astrology.
Which oft Astronomy did full well beholde;
Unto whome than I came full shortly,
And kneled adowne before her mekely,
Beseching her of her great gentylnes
Of her scyence to shew the perfitenes.
My scyence, sayd she, it is ryght resonable,
And is the last of the sciences seven;
Unto man it is also ryght profitable,
Shewing the course above of the heaven;
Right merveylous for any man to neven.
Who knew astronomy at every maner ceason,
Might set in ordre every thing by reason.
Also the other vi. sciences liberall
By astronomy principally were found;
And one were lost they were vanished all,
Eche upon other had so sure a ground.
In all the world, that is so wide and round,
Is none so wise that can then multiply,
Nor know them all right well and surely.
The hye astronomier, that is God omnipotent,
That the first day devided all the lyght
Frome the derkenes with his wyll prepotent;
And the second day, with his excellent might,
The waters above he did devide aryght,
From the erthely waters which are inferiall;
The third daye herbes and fruytes in speciall
In erthe he planted for to have their life
By divers vertues and sundry growing,
So to continue and be vegitative;
And the third day he sette in werking
The bodies above to have their moving,
In the xii. signes them selfe to domify,
Some rethrogarde, and some dyrectly.
The fyfth day he dyd fysshes make;
In the see the great stormy flode,
To and fro theyr courses for to take
And in the water for to have theyr fode,
Lyke to the same colde alway theyr blode;
The vi. day, bestes, wyth foules sensatyve,
And man also, with soule intellectyve.
The sevent day he restes of hys werke,
Nothynge constrayned as of werynes,
As wryteth many a ryght famous clerke;
But that he had accomplysshe doutles
Her purpensed purpose by infynite prowes,
As to us doth moost playnely discure
The perfyte grounde of holy Scrypture.
Thus God hym selfe is chyef astronomyer,
That made all thyng according to his wyll;
The sunne, the mone, and every lytle sterre,
To a good entent and for no maner of yll.
Wythouten vayne he dyd all thyng fulfyll,
As astronomy doth make apparaunce,
By reason he weyed all thynges in balauns.
OF THE DIRECT OPERATION OF NATURE.
AND forasmuche that he made nature
Fyrst of all to have domynacyon,
The power of her I shall anone dyscure,
How that she taketh her operacyon,
And whereupon is her fundacyon,
In symple and rude, opprest wyth neclygence,
Shall discryve the myght of her preemynence.
For though that aungell be invysyble,
Inpalpable, and also celestiall,
Wythouten substaunce as incencyble,
Yet have they nature whych is angelycall;
For nature naturynge nature made all,
Heven and earth and the bodyes above,
By cours of nature for to werke and move.
On man or beest, wythouten ony mys,
She werketh directly after the aspecte
Of the mater, be it more or lesse, ywys,
And doth therof the hole fourme dyrecte,
After the qualyte it doth take effecte;
Yf there be more than may one suffyse,
A bye membre she wyll than more devyse.
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