(8) "Man has for himself a spacious domain. His mind may roam to heaven. If there is no room in the house, the wife and her mother-in-law run against one another. If the mind cannot roam to heaven, the faculties will be in a state of antagonism. Those who would benefit mankind from deep forests or lofty mountains are simply unequal to the strain upon their higher natures. "Ill-regulated virtue ends in reputation. Ill-regulated reputation ends in notoriety. Scheming leads to confusion. Knowledge begets contentions. Obstinacy produces stupidity. Organised government is for the general good of all. "Spring rains come in due season, and plants and shrubs burst up from the earth. Weeding and tending do not begin until such plants and shrubs have reached more than half their growth, and without being conscious of the fact.

(26) And thirdly, you find in all Things a glorious Power and Virtue, which is the Life, Growing and Springing of every Thing, and you find that therein lies its Beauty and pleasant Welfare, from whence it stirs. Now look upon an Herb or Plant, and consider it, what is its Life which makes it grow? And you shall find in the Original, Harshness, Bitterness, Fire, and Water, and if you should separate these four Things one from another, and put them together again, yet you shall neither see nor find any Growing; but if it were severed from its own Mother that generated it at the Beginning, then it remains dead; much less can you bring the pleasant Smell, or Colours into it.

(22) Seeing then the Mystery presents itself to us, therefore we will open the Blossom of the Sprout: Yet we would not have our Labour given to the Wolves, Dogs, or Swine, which root in our Garden of Delight, like [wild] Boars, but to those that seek, that the sick Adam may be comforted.

(47) This herb, which I mean here, from whose fragrancy my spirit taketh its refreshing, every country ploughman does not know it, nor every doctor, the one is as ignorant of it as the other; it grows indeed in every garden, but in many it is quite spoiled and bad: for the quality of the soil or ground is in fault. And therefore men do not know it, nay the children of this Mystery do hardly know it; although this knowledge has been very rare, dear and precious, from the beginning of the world to this time.

(358) The fields are damaged by weeds, mankind is damaged by vanity: therefore a gift bestowed on those who are free from vanity brings great reward.

(25) But to the Mockery be it spoken, he is a Weed, and shall be thrown to the Beasts. And now though other Seed be found among the Wheat (when it is fanned and sifted) that he cannot get out, shall he therefore not use his Wheat for Food? Every Kind of Grain has its Virtue; one strengthens the Heart, the other the Stomach, another the other Members of the Body; for one Essence alone makes no Tincture, but all the Essences together make the Senses, [Thoughts,] and Understanding.

(68) But if thorns grow among them, and the mower cometh to reap his crop, he cutteth them down together, but he casteth out the thorns, and they are to be burnt in the fire; but the various flowers and good crop he gathereth, and causes it to be brought into his barn.

(359) The fields are damaged by weeds, mankind is damaged by lust: therefore a gift bestowed on those who are free from lust brings great reward.

(15) I will not, however, build upon their ground, but as a laborious, careful servant I will dig away the earth from the root, that thereby men may see the whole tree, with its root, stock, branches, twigs and fruits; and they may also see that my writing is no new thing, but that their philosophy and my philosophy are one body, one tree, bearing one and the same sort of fruit.

(5) That the disturbance which below is made By exhalations of the land and water, (Which far as may be follow after heat,) Might not upon mankind wage any war, This mount ascended tow'rds the heaven so high, And is exempt, from there where it is locked. Now since the universal atmosphere Turns in a circuit with the primal motion Unless the circle is broken on some side, Upon this height, that all is disengaged In living ether, doth this motion strike And make the forest sound, for it is dense; And so much power the stricken plant possesses That with its virtue it impregns the air, And this, revolving, scatters it around; And yonder earth, according as 'tis worthy In self or in its clime, conceives and bears Of divers qualities the divers trees; It should not seem a marvel then on earth, This being heard, whenever any plant Without seed manifest there taketh root. And thou must know, this holy table-land In which thou art is full of every seed, And fruit has in it never gathered there.

(52) But if the noble Grain of Mustard-seed be sown, then the noble Virgin of God preserves it, and makes the poor Soul continually careful to endeavour for Abstinence, and to enter into Fight with the Devil. O what a wonderful Way is it the Children of God go in this miserable House of Flesh; which the Reason of the Hypocrites neither comprehends, nor can believe, only they that tried it, know it.

(24) Behold, I give you a fit Similitude in a Sower; a Sower tills his Ground the best he can, and sows good Wheat, but now there is other Seed among the Wheat, and though that was indeed wholly pure, yet the Earth puts forth Weeds among the Wheat, even Thorns and Thistles. And now what shall the Sower do? Shall he therefore reject the whole Crop, or burn it, for the Thistles and Darnels Sake? No, but he threshes it, and fans it, he separates the Weeds and Dross from it, and uses the good Seed for his Food, and gives the Chaff to his Cattle or Beasts, and with the Straw he makes Compost for his Ground, and so makes good Use of his whole Crop.

(7) Therefore it is that whenever there is great confusion, love of knowledge is ever at the bottom of it. For all men strive to grasp what they do not know, while none strive to grasp what they already know; and all strive to discredit what they do not excel in, while none strive to discredit what they do excel in. The result is overwhelming confusion. Thus, above, the splendour of the heavenly bodies is dimmed; below, the energy of land and water is disturbed; while midway the influence of the four seasons is destroyed. There is not one tiny creature which moves on earth or flies in air but becomes other than by nature it should be. So overwhelming is the confusion which desire for knowledge has brought upon the world ever since the time of the Three Dynasties downwards! The simple and the guileless have been set aside; the specious and the false have been exalted. Tranquil inaction has given place to a love of disputation; and by disputation has confusion come upon the world.

(357) The fields are damaged by weeds, mankind is damaged by hatred: therefore a gift bestowed on those who do not hate brings great reward.

(11) For although many thousand several Herbs stand one by another in one and the same Meadow, and one of them is fairer and has more Virtue than another, yet one of them does not grudge at the Form of another, but there is a pleasant Refreshment in one Mother: So also there is a distinct Variety in Paradise, where every Creature has its greatest Joy in the Virtue and Beauty of another; and the eternal Virtue and Wisdom of God is without Number and End; as you found before in the third Chapter concerning the Opening of the Centers of the eternal Life. You shall find no Book wherein the divine Wisdom may be more searched into, and found, than when you walk in a flowery fresh springing Meadow, there you shall see, smell, and taste the wonderful Power and Virtue of God; though this be but material; and God has manifested himself in a Similitude. But [this Similitude] is a loving Schoolmaster to him that seeks, he shall there find many of them.

(24) But the wonderful proportion or variety of harmony, which appeareth in the growths or vegetations and figures and forms in this garden, ariseth from the qualification or operation, and from the loving, wrestling or struggling of the other spirits.

(356) The fields are damaged by weeds, mankind is damaged by passion: therefore a gift bestowed on the passionless brings great reward.

(5) Now hast thou power to judge of such as those Whom I accused above, and of their crimes, Which are the cause of all your miseries. To the public standard one the yellow lilies Opposes, the other claims it for a party, So that 'tis hard to see which sins the most. Let, let the Ghibellines ply their handicraft Beneath some other standard; for this ever Ill follows he who it and justice parts. And let not this new Charles e'er strike it down, He and his Guelfs, but let him fear the talons That from a nobler lion stripped the fell. Already oftentimes the sons have wept The father's crime; and let him not believe That God will change His scutcheon for the lilies. This little planet doth adorn itself With the good spirits that have active been, That fame and honour might come after them; And whensoever the desires mount thither, Thus deviating, must perforce the rays Of the true love less vividly mount upward. But in commensuration of our wages With our desert is portion of our joy, Because we see them neither less nor greater.

(82) Here, O man, consider thyself well, and mind what manner of seed thou sowest into the earth, the very same will spring up, and bear blossoms and fruit for ever, either in the love or in the wrath.

(25) For every quality bears its own fruit: as in the corrupted murderous den or dark valley and dungeon of the earth there spring up all manner of earthly trees, plants, flowers and fruits.