Chaucer's Translation of Boethius's "De Consolatione Philosophiae" · Boethius
QUONDAM PORTICUS ATTULIT.
_Glosa._ But now arguiþ boece aȝeins þat 4841 oppiniou{n} {and} seiþ þus. but yif þe þriuyng soule ne vnplitiþ no þing. þat is to sein ne doþ no þing by hys p{ro}pre moeuynges. but suffriþ {and} lieþ subgit to þe 4844 figures {and} to þe notes of bodyes wiþ oute forþe. {and} ȝeldeþ ymages ydel {and} veyne in þe manere of a mirour. whennes þriueþ þan or whennes comeþ þan þilke knowyng in oure soule. þat discerniþ {and} byholdeþ 4848 alle þinges. [Sidenote: Whence its force to conceive individual existences, to separate those things when known, to unite divided things, and to choose and change its path, soaring to the highest and descending to the lowest things--and returning to itself, to confute false things by the true?] and whennes is þilke strengþe þat byholdeþ þe syngulere þinges. or whennes is þe strengþe þat dyuydeþ þinges yknowe. {and} þilke stre{n}gþe þat gadereþ to-gidre þe þinges deuided. {and} þe strengþe þat 4852 cheseþ hys entrechau{n}ged wey for som tyme it heueþ vp þe heued. þat is to sein þat it heueþ vp þe ente{n}c{i}ou{n} to ryȝt heye þinges. {and} som tyme it discendiþ in to ryȝt lowe þinges. {and} whan it retourniþ in to hym 4856 self. it rep{re}uiþ {and} destroieþ þe false þinges by þe trewe þinges. [Sidenote: This cause is more efficacious and powerful to see and to know things, than that cause which receives the characters impressed like servile matter.]
Text from Project Gutenberg, public domain in the United States.