Page:King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius.djvu/249

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You shall too forsake the evil fear

Of worldly afflictions, nor wax ever for them

Utterly hopeless; no, nor have yourself

Weakened with wealth, lest with it you be

Brought to sorrow through the sin of pride,

And too puffed up by prosperous fortune,

By joys of the world. Nor again too feebly

Lose all your faith in future good,

When in this world the weight of afflictions

Bears on you sorely, and you are beset

With utter terror; for ever it tides

That a man's breast is bound most firmly

With dire confusion if either of these dangers

Here may trouble him, torture his spirit.

For both these hardships hand in hand,

A mist misleading draw over the mind,

So that the sun eternal its light may not send forth

For the black mists until these be blown away.

VI

Then Wisdom again unlocked her word-hoard.

Her tale of sooth sang in these words:

'While the bright sun most clear is beaming,

Gleaming in heaven, gloom enwraps

Over the world all other bodies;

For their light is nought, nothing at all,

When set against the sun's great brightness.

When softly blows from south and west