Page:Aelfric's Lives of Saints Vol 1.djvu/33

 when it sinned; yet immortality it cannot lose, because it shall never end. The beauty of the soul is to have power, so that it may eschew evil; and it will be deformed through vices if it be subject unto them. The soul's powers are these four foremost and best ones ; Prudentia, that is Prudence, whereby it must understand its Creator and love Him, and discern good from evil. The second virtue is Justitia, that is, righteousness (Justice), whereby it must worship God and live uprightly. The third virtue is Temperantia, that is moderation [Temperance], whereby the soul must measure all things, that it sin not by excess or by defect, because it is written, Omnia nimia nocent : ‘All excesses [lit. things overdone] are hurtful. Verily moderation is the Mother of all virtues. The fourth virtue is Fortitudo [Fortitude], that is, strength or constancy, whereby the soul should, with steadfast mind, endure hardness for God's love, and never yield to the Devil to its own destruction. These four virtues have one crown, that is, the true love of God and Man, because the soul is blessed that loveth the God who created it and its fellow-pilgrims, and [desireth] to do good to them to its utmost power. The soul is a rational spirit, which liveth for ever, and is capable of following either a good or an evil desire according to its own choice. The benevolent Creator letteth it have the command over its own choice; then became it corrupt by its own free-will, through the Devil's teaching ; but it shall again be delivered through the grace of God, if it obey Him. It is invisible and incorporeal, without weight and without colour, clothed upon with the body, and dwelling in all the limbs. It cannot depart out of the body by its own power, nor return thither again except He who made it and sent it into the body should so will. It is called by various names in books, according to its offices. Its name is Anima, that is, Soul, and the name befitteth its life; and Spiritus, that is Spirit, which appertaineth to its contemplation. It is Sensus, that is, perception or sensation, when it perceiveth. It is Animus, that is, intellect, when it knoweth. It is Mens, that is, mind, when it understandeth. It is Memoria, that is, Memory, when it remembereth : It is Ratio, that is, Reason, when it reasoneth. It is Voluntas, that is