piness." "O my scholar, I think thee happy by having this opinion, if
thou addest this also." "What?" quoth I. "Dost thou imagine that there
is any mortal or frail thing which can cause this happy estate?" "I do
not," quoth I, "and that hath been so proved by thee, that more cannot
be desired." "Wherefore these things seem to afford men the images of
the true good, or certain unperfect goods, but they cannot give them the
true and perfect good itself." "I am of the same mind," quoth I. "Now
then, since thou knowest wherein true happiness consisteth, and what
have only a false show of it, it remaineth that thou shouldst learn
where thou mayest seek for this which is true." "This is that," quoth I,
"which I have long earnestly expected." "But since, as Plato teacheth
(in Timaeus),[132] we must implore God's assistance even in our least
affairs, what, thinkest thou, must we do now, that we may deserve to
find the seat of that sovereign good?" "We must," quoth I, "invocate the
Father of all things, without whose remembrance no beginning hath a good
foundation." "Thou sayest rightly," quoth she, and withal sung in this
sort.

[132] Cf. _Tim._ 27.

IX.

"O qui perpetua mundum ratione gubernas
Terrarum caelique sator qui tempus ab aeuo
Ire iubes stabilisque manens das cuncta moueri.
Quem non externae pepulerunt fingere causae
Materiae fluitantis opus, uerum insita summi 5
Forma boni liuore carens, tu cuncta superno
Ducis ab exemplo, pulchrum pulcherrimus ipse
Mundum mente gerens similique in imagine formans
Perfectasque iubens perfectum absoluere partes.
Tu numeris elementa ligas ut frigora flammis 10
Arida conueniant liquidis, ne purior ignis
Euolet aut mersas deducant pondera terras.
Tu triplicis mediam naturae cuncta mouentem
Conectens animam per consona membra resoluis.
Quae cum secta duos motum glomerauit in orbes, 15
In semet reditura meat mentemque profundam
Circuit et simili conuertit imagine caelum.
Tu causis animas paribus uitasque minores
Prouehis et leuibus sublimes curribus aptans
In caelum terramque seris quas lege benigna 20
Ad te conuersas reduci facis igne reuerti.
Da pater augustam menti conscendere sedem,
Da fontem lustrare boni, da luce reperta
In te conspicuos animi defigere uisus.
Dissice terrenae nebulas et pondera molis