therefore, right as a travelling man, standing in the haven, beholdeth busily a ship that swiftly saileth toward far countries that he should go to, lest that it should overpass him he standeth still and removeth not thence till it come to him ; right so stand thou stably in virtues, and more for love and for dread, so that thy life and all thy working be dressed and set to that intent : ever principally to love and please thy Lord God, turning to His mercy so that thou have a blessed obit.[1] By the which thou mayst at the last come to thy place of immortality and everlasting felicity. Amen.
NOTE ON THE OROLOGIUM SAPIENTAE
This chapter is a transcription from the Douce MS. 322 (fol. 20) and is also found in MS. Harl. 1706 (fol. 20); — these two manuscripts being in many respects very similar, although the Harleian MS. contains much that is not in the Douce MS. Another translation of this chapter — which I have not seen noted elsewhere — is in MS. Bod. 789 (fol. 123) under the heading: "The most profitable sentence to deadly men in the which they may learn to know to die." It begins : "To kunne deie is to have the herte and the soule," etc. This manuscript dates from the beginning of the fourteenth century and is therefore earlier than the Douce MS. Another more complete version of the
- ↑ i.e. death.
