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



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