A Select Collection of Old English Plays, vol 1 | Page 7

will take any body corporal, And do what he can it to destroy, To break it or grind it into powder small, To wash, to drown, to bren it, or to dry, Yet the air and fire thereof naturally To their own proper places will ascend, The water to the water, the earth to the earth tend; For if heat or moisture of anything certain By fire or by water be consumed, Yet earth or ashes on earth will remain, So the elements can never be destroyed. For essentially there is now at this tide As much fire, air, water, earth, as was Ever before this time, neither more nor less; Wherefore thou, man--now I speak to thee-- Remember that thou art compound and create Of these elements, as other creatures be, Yet they have not all like noble estate, For plants and herbs grow and be insensate. Brute beasts have memory and their wits five, But thou hast all those and soul intellective; So by reason of thine understanding, Thou hast dominion of other beasts all, And naturally thou shouldst desire cunning To know strange effects and causes natural; For he that studieth for the life bestial,[12] As voluptuous pleasure and bodily rest, I account him never better than a beast.
HUMANITY.
O excellent prince, and great lord Nature, I am thine own child and formed instrument! I beseech thy grace, take me to thy cure, And teach me such science thou thinkest expedient.
NATURE.
Then sith thou art so humble and benevolent, That thing that is meet for thy capacity And good for thy knowledge I shall instruct thee. First of all, thou must consider and see These elements, which do each other penetrate, And by continual alteration they be Of themselves daily corrupted and generate. The earth as a point or centre is situate In the midst of the world, with the water joined, With the air and fire round, and whole environed. The earth of itself is ponderous and heavy, Cold and dry of his own nature proper; Some part lieth dry continually, And part thereof covered over with water, Some with the salt sea, some with fresh river, Which earth and the water together withal So joined make a round figure spherical; So the water which is cold and moist is found In and upon the earth filling the hollowness, In divers parts, lying with the earth round, Yet the hills and mountains of the earth excess Take nothing of it away the roundness, In comparison because they be so small, No more than the pricks do that be on a gall. The air which is hot and moist also, And the fire which is ever hot and dry, About the earth and water jointly they go, And compass them everywhere orbicularly, As the white about the yoke of an egg doth lie. But the air in the lower part most remaineth; The fire naturally to the higher tendeth. The ethereal region which containeth The stars and planets, and every sphere, About the elements daily moveth, And covereth them round about everywhere. Every star and sphere in strange manner Upon his own poles moveth diversely, Which now to declare were too long to tarry. The fire and the air of their natures be light, Therefore they move by natural providence; The water, because it is ponderous in weight, Moveth not naturally, but by violence Of the stars and planets, by whose influence The sea is compelled to ebb and flow daily, And fresh waters to spring continually. And though that the water be gross and heavy, Yet nothing so gross as the earth, I wiss; Therefore by heat it is vapoured up lightly, And in the air maketh clouds and mists; But as soon as ever that it grossly is Gathered together, it descendeth again, And causeth upon the earth hail, snow, and rain. The earth, because of his ponderosity, Avoideth equally the movings great Of all extremities and spheres that be, And tendeth to the place that is most quiet; So in the midst of all the spheres is set Foremost object from all manner moving, Where naturally he resteth and moveth nothing. Mark well now, how I have thee showed and told Of every element the very situation And quality, wherefore this figure behold For a more manifest demonstration. And because thou shouldst not put to oblivion My doctrine, this man, called Studious Desire, With thee shall have continual habitation, Thee still to exhort more science to acquire. For the more that thou desirest to know anything, Therein thou seemest the more a man to be; For that man that desireth no manner cunning, All that while no better than a beast is he. Why been the eyes made, but only to see, The legs, to bear