Page:King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care (2).djvu/257

248 GREGORY'S PASTORAL. Cotton MSS. hliehhan ðæs, ðonne ge to lore worðað, & habban me ðæt to gamene, ðonne eow ðæt yfel on becym ðæt ge eow ær ondredon? Ond eac cwið se Wisdom eft: Đonne hie to me clipiað, ðonne nylle ic hie gehieran. On uhton hie arisað, and me seceað, ac hie me ne findað. Ac ðonne se mon his lichoman hælo forsihð, ðonne ðonne he wel trum bið to wyrceanne ðæt ðæt he ðonne wile, ðonne ðonne him eft sio hæl losað, ðonne gefret he ærest hwelc hio to habbanne wæs ða hwile þe he hie hæfde, & wilnað hiere ðonne to late and on untiman, ðonne he ær nolde hie gehealdan, ða ða he hie hæfde. Forðæm eft swiðe ryhtlice Salomon cwæð: Ne læt ðu to elðiodegum ðinne weorðscipe, ne on ðæs wælhreowan hand ðin gear, ðylæs fremde men weorðen gefylled of ðinum geswince, & ðin mægen sie on oðres monnes gewealdum, & ðu ðonne sargige forðæm on last, ðonne ðin lichoma bio to lore gedon, & ðin flæsc gebrosnod. Hwa is ðonne from us fremde buton ða awiergedan gastas, ða þe from ðæs heofoncundan Fæder eðle adrifene sindon? Oððe hwæt is ure weorðscipe on ðisum eorðlicum lichoman buton ðæt we sint gesceapene æfter ðære bisene ures Scippendes? & hwæt is elles se wælreowa buton þa aworpnan englas, þe hie selfe mid hiora ofermettum on deaðes wite gebrohton? & on ðone ilcan deað hie wilniað eall moncynn to forspananne & to forlædonne. Hwæt tacnað ðonne ðæt word elles ðæt mon ne selle his weorðscipe fremdum menn buton ðætte se þe to Godes bisene gesceapen is, ðonne he ða tid his lifes on gewill ðara awiergedena gasta gehwirfeð ; & his gear geseleð wælreowum, se se þe in yfelra & wiðerweardra anwald forlæt þa hwile his lifes? Ond eac cwæð Salomon

reproofs. What then can I do but laugh at your ruin, and mock, when the evil ye formerly dreaded comes on you ?" Again, Wisdom spoke: “When they call to me I will not listen to them. They shall arise at dawn and seek me, but they shall not find me." But when a man despises his bodily health, when he is strong enough to do what he wishes, when he afterwards loses his health, then he first experiences what it was to have it while he had it, and desires it too late and unseasonably, since he would not preserve it before when he had it. Therefore, again, Solomon spoke very rightly : “ Give not thine honour to strangers nor thy years into the hand of the cruel one, lest strangers be filled with thy toil, and thy resources be in the power of another, and thou mourn therefore at last, when thy body is brought