[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.