NATURE

The hie mighty most excellent of all The fou ̄ tayn of goodness verteu & continued ̄ nyng which is eterne of power most potencyall The ꝑfeccyon and First cause of every thing I mean that only hie nam tu e naturynge Lo he by his goodness hath ordained and create Me here his minister called nature naturate ¶wherefore I am the verey naturate nature The inmedyate minister for the preservation Of every thing in his kind to endure And cause of generation and corruption Of that thing that is brought to destruction A neither thing Still I bring forth a gain Thus wonders y I work and never in vain ¶The great wor worser be hold oh deuydyd woe ̄ dersly In to two regions whereof on I call The etherial region with the heavens hie Containing the planettys sterris & speris all The lower region called the elemental Containing these .iiij. elementis be loo The fire the air the water and earth also ¶But yet the elementis and other bodies all Beneath / take their effectys and operations Of the bodies in the region ethereal By their influens and constellations They cause here corruptions and generations For if the moving a above should onys cease Beneath should be neither in r see nor decrease ¶These elementis of them self so single be Unto dyuers formys can not be deuydyd yet they continued ̄ myx to gether daily you S e whereof dyuers kinds of thyngꝭ be engendered which thyngꝭ eftsonys when they be corrupted yche element I reduce to his urst estate So that nothing can be utterly and y helate ¶For though the form and fashion of any thing That is a corporal body be destroyed yet every matter remaynyth in his being whereof it was First made and formed For corruption of a body continued ̄ mixed is but the resolution by time and space Of every element to his own place ¶For who that will take any body corporal And do what he can it to destroy To break it or grynde it into ouder small To wash to drown to bren it or to dry yet the air and fire thereof aturally To their own ꝓper places will ascend The water to the water the earth to y e earth tend ¶For if hete or moisture of any thing certain By fire or e water e cons ed yet earth or ashes on earth will remain So the elementis can never be destroyed For essencyaliy there is now at this tied As much fire air water earth as was Ever before this time neither more nor las ¶wherefore thou man now I speak to the Remember that thou art compound and create Of these elementis as other creaturis be yet they have not all like noble estate For plantis and herbs grow and be insensate Brutus bestis have memory and their wyttꝭ five But thou hast all those and soul intellectyue ¶So by reason of thine understanding Thou hast dominion of other bestis all And naturally thou sholdyst desire continued ̄ nynge To know strange effectꝭ and causys natural Foe he that studieth for the life bestial As voluptuous pleasure and bodily rest I account him never better than a best ¶Than sith thou art so humble and benevolent That thing that is meet for thy capasyte And good for thy knowledge I shall Instruct the ¶First of all thou must consider and see These elementis which do yche other penetrate And by continual alteration they be Of them self daily corrupted and generate The earth as a point or centre is sytuate In the myddꝭ of the world / with y e water Joined with the air & fire round & hold inuyronyd ¶That earth of it self is ponderous and heavy Cold and dry of his own nature ꝓper Some part lies dry continually And part thereof covered over with water Some with the salt see some with Fresh river which earth and the water to gether with all So Joined make a round figure sperycall ¶So the water which is cold & moist is fou ̄ de In and upon the y rth filling the hol nes In dyuers partis liynge with y e earth round yet that hyllys and mount yns of y e earth excess Take nothing of hit a way the roundness In comparison because they be so small No more than the prikkꝭ do that be on a gall ¶The air which is hight and moist also And the fire which is ever hight and dry A bout that earth and water Jointly they go And compass them every where orbycularly As the White a bout the yolk of and egg does lie But the air in the lower part most remaynyth The fire naturally to the higher tendyth ¶The eth rial region which conteynyth The sterrys and planettys and very spear A bout the elementis daily mouyth And coueryth them round a bout every where Every star and spear in strange manner Upon his own poles mouy h-dyuersly which now to declare were to long to tarry ¶The fire and the air of their naturys be light Therefore they move by natural providence The water because it is ponderous in weight Mouyth not naturally but by violence Of the st rris and plan ttꝭ by whose influence The see is compelled to ebb and flow daily And Fresh waters to Spring continually ¶And though y to the water be grose and heavy to nothing so grose as the earth I wys Therefore by hete it is vapoured up lightly And in the air maketh cloudys and mystꝭ But as soon as ever that it grossly is Gether worser to gether / it descendyth a gain And causyth upon y e earth hail snow & rain ¶The earth because of his ponderosyte A voydyth equally the mouyngꝭ great Of all extremytes and sperys that be And endyth to the place that is most quiet So in the myddys of all the sperys is set Foe mast aby to from all manner moving where naturally he resteth & mouyth nothing ¶Mark well now how I have the showed & told Of every element the very sytuacyon And quality wherefore this figure b hold For a more manifest demonstration And by cause thou sholdyst not put to oblyu on My doctrine / this man called studious desire with the shall have con ynuall habytacyon The Still to exhort more scyens to adquire ¶For y e more y to thou desirest to know any thing Therein thou semyst that more a man to be For that man that desir that no manner continued ̄ nynge All that wile no better than a b st is he why been the ey S made but only to see The leggys to bear the body of a creature's So very thing is made to do his nature ¶So like wise reason wit and understanding is gyu n to the man for that thou sholdyst I ̄ deed Know thy maker & cause of thine own being And what y e world is & whereof thou dost ꝓcede wherefore it be houyth the of verey need The cause of thyngꝭ urst for to learn And than to know & laud the hie God eterne ¶well Humanity now I see plainly That thou hast used much folly The while I have been absent ¶Though it be for the full necessary For thy continued ̄ fort sometime to satysfy Thy sensual appetite yet it is not convenient for the To put therein thy felicity And all thy hold dely e ¶For if thou Wilt learn no sciens Neither by study nor experiens I shall the never advance But in the world thou shalt dure than Despised of every wise man Like this rude best ygnoraunce ¶well than for a seas n I will depart Leuynge you to gether here both twain what I have showed man print well in thine Heart And mark well this figure y to here shall r main whereby thou mayest perceive many things more plain ncernynge y e matter I spoke of before and when that I shall resort here a gain Of hie poyntꝭ of continued ̄ nynge I shall show y e more