To these words answered Melibee unto his wife Prudence, “All your words are true, and therefore profitable. But, truly, mine heart is troubled with this sorrow so grievously that I know not what to do.” “Summon all your true friends,” said Prudence, “and your kinsmen who are wise. Tell them your case and hearken unto what they say in counseling, and govern yourself according to their advice. Solomon says, ‘Do nothing without counsel, and you shall never repent of it.
I will tell you, as it was taught to me, the four spirits and the seven bodies, by order, as I oft heard my Master name them. The first spirit is called quicksilver, the second is arsenic, the third is sal ammoniac, and the fourth is brimstone. The seven bodies, lo, are here anon: the Sun is gold, the Moon is silver, Mars is iron, Mercury is quicksilver, Saturn is lead, Jupiter is tin, and Venus is copper.
For the common proverb says thus, ‘He who judges in haste shall soon repent.
For Solomon says, “When you have no audience, do not try to speak.” Whereupon did this wise man say, “I see well that the common proverb is true, that ‘Good counsel is most wanting when it is most needed.
Ah! Nay! Let it be. The Philosopher’s Stone is what we seek, everyone. For, if we had it, we could then transmute lead into gold, and then would we be safe enough. But, unto God in Heaven, I do avow, in spite of all our craft, and all our efforts, and all our magic, the Stone will not come to us.
Another whispered low to his fellow, and said, “He is mistaken, for it is rather like an illusion created by some Sorcerer, as conjurers do at those great feasts.” Of sundry doubts did they thus chatter and debate, as ignorant people are wont to do about things that are crafted more cunningly than they can comprehend in their ignorance, and they usually expect the worst.
He who is accustomed to this Sin of Gluttony may no Sin withstand. He must be in bondage to all vices, for it is in the Devil’s hoard where he hides himself and takes his rest.
And, furthermore, wherever they go, men may know these Alchemists by the smell of brimstone. For all the world, they stink as does a goat. Their reek is so pungent and so rancid that, though a man be a mile from them, the foul stench will infect him, trust me.
Twelve years he reigned, as says the Book of Maccabees. He was the son of Philip of Macedonia, who was the first King of the country of Greece. O worthy, noble Alexander, alas, that ever such a fall should come to pass! Poisoned by your own people were you. Fortune did roll the dice to your disfavor, and for you she never wept a tear.
For every mortal man’s power is but like a bladder full of wind, for certain. When it is blown up, the simple prick of a needle point can deflate the pompous pride of it.
The youngest of the three, who went to the town, turned over full oft in his mind the beauty of those gold coins, new and bright. “O Lord,” said he, “if only it were so that I might have to myself all this treasure alone, there is no man who lives under the Throne of God who would be as merry as I!” And, at last, the Devil, our enemy, put into his thoughts that he should buy poison, with which he might slay his fellows two.
Just so, lo, thus does it fare with us. For he who seems the wisest, by Jesus, is the greatest fool, when it comes to the proof. And he who seems the most honest is a thief. That shall you come to know, ere that I leave you, when I have made an end of my tale.
And, therefore, I pray God both day and night that, to a wrathful man, He send but little might. It is a great harm and, for certain, a great misfortune to place an angry man in high position.
For Solomon says, ‘He who loves peril shall be vanquished by peril.
Lo, what said King Solomon, who can teach us so well? ‘Do not befriend an angry man, and walk not along the way with a madman, lest you repent.’ I will no further say.
Now, my friends, keep you from the white and from the red, and especially from the white wine of Spain that is for sale in the streets of London. This wine of Spain creeps subtly into other wines, which are grown nearby, from which there rise such fumes to the head that, when a man has drunk three draughts and thinks he is at home in London, he is in Spain, right at the town of Lepe – not in La Rochelle, nor at Bordeaux town – and then will he drunkenly say, “Samson, Samson!
A great fool is any counselor, serving a Lord of high honor, who dares presume, or even think, that his counsel should surpass his Lord’s wit.
Now let us touch on the vice of Flattery, which comes not gladly from the heart, but from fear or greed. Flattery is generally insincere praise. Flatterers be the Devil’s nurses, who nourish his children with the milk of adulation.
But you worshipful religious Canons, do not deem that I slander your order, although my tale may be of a Canon. In every order there is some miscreant, pardon me, and God forbid that all a company should rue a single man’s folly.
He who covets is a poor wretch, because he longs for what he can not have. But he who has naught, and covets naught, is rich, although you may think him but a lowly knave.