THE CANTERBURY TALES
what he did. For with that fair chain of love he bound the fire and air, the earth and water, within certain limits that they may not escape. That same Prince and Mover of all things," quoth he, "hath established certain days and durations down in this wretched world for all that is engendered here, beyond which days they may not pass, though indeed they may shorten them. There needeth allege none authority, save that I would declare my belief that it is so, for it is proved by experience. Then may men well see by this order of things that this great Mover is stable and eternal; unless it be a fool, a man may well know that every part is derived from its whole. For nature hath not taken her origin from any corner or part of a thing but from a thing that is stable and perfect, and descendeth so therefrom till she became corruptible. And therefore, of his wise providence, God hath so well set his decree that all kinds and series of things shall endure only by succession and verily shall not be eternal. This ye may understand and see by the eye. So the oak, that hath so long a youth from the time when it first beginneth to spring, and hath so long a life, yet at the last it wasteth. Consider eke how the hard stone under our feet, on which we tread, yet wasteth as it lieth by the wayside. Sometime the broad river waxeth dry. Great towns we see wane and pass away. Then ye may see that all things come to an end.
"Of man and woman we see well also that, young or old, they must die, the king as shall a page ; one in his bed, one in the deep sea, one in the broad field, as ye may behold. Naught helpeth, all goeth that same road. Thus I may say that all must die. Who doth this but Jupiter, who is prince and cause of all things and turneth all things back unto their proper source from
which they were derived? And against this it availeth no living
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