Page:King Alfred's West-Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral Care (2).djvu/285

276 gecope tiid aredigen, & ðonne sio stefn gesceadwislice ðone mud ontyne, & eac ða tiid gesceadwislice aredigen be sio swigge hiene betynan scyle. Ongean ðæt sint to læronne ða ofersprecan ðæt hio wacorlice ongieten from hu micelre ryhtwisnesse hie bioð gewietene, ðonne hie on monigfaldum wordum slidriað. Ac ðæt mennisce mod hæfð wætres ðeaw. Đæt wæter, ðonne hit bið gepynd, hit miclað & appað & fundað wið ðæs þe hit ær from com, ðonne hit flowan ne mot ðider hit wolde. Ac gif sio pynding wierð onpennad, oððe sio wering wierð tobrocon, ðonne toflewð hit eall, & ne wierð to nanre nytte, buton to fenne. Swæ deð ðæs monnes mod, ðonne hit gesceadwislice ne can his swiggean gehealdan, ac hit abricð ut on idle oferspræce, & wierð swæ monigfealdlice on ðæm todæled, swelce bið eall lytlum riðum torinne, & ut of him selfum aflowe, ðæt hit [eft added] ne mæge inn to his agnum ondgiete & to his ingeðonce gecierran. Đæt ðonne bið forðæmþe hit bið todæled on to monigfalda sproca, swelce he self hiene selfne ute betyne from ðære smeaunga his agenes inngeðonces, & swæ nacodne hiene selfne eowige to wundianne his feondum, forðæmþe he ne bið belocen mid nanum gehieldum nanes fæstennes. Swæ hit awriten is on Salomonnes cwidum ðætte se mon se þe ne mæg his tungan gehealdan sie gelicost openre byrg, ðære þe mid nane wealle ne bið ymbworht. Forðæm sio burg ðæs modes, þe mid nanre swiggean ne bið betyned sceal swiðe oft gefredan hiere feonda speru, forðæm hio ætieweð hie selfe swiðe opene hiere fiondum, ðonne hio hie selfe toweorpeð ut of hiere selfre mid unnyttum wordum, & hio bið micle to [þe] ieðre to oferfeohtanne þe hio self fiht wið hie selfe

sometimes open, sometimes shut. Thereby we must learn to arrango very cautiously a proper time, and when the voice is to open the mouth prudently, and also to arrange sagaciously the time when silence is to close it. On the contrary, the loquacious are to be taught to note carefully from how great virtue they have departed, when they slip about among many words. The human mind has the properties of water. When water is dammed up, it increases and rises and strives after its original place, when it cannot flow whither it would. But if the dam is thrown open or the weir bursts, it runs off, and is wasted, and becomes mud. So does the mind of man, when it cannot preserve a rational silence, but bursts out into idle loquacity, and so is diverted various ways, as if it were all dispersed in little rivulets, and bad