[Sidenote: _P._ If you will reflect upon the concessions you have already made, you will soon call to mind that truth, of which you lately confessed your ignorance.]
¶ And þan sayde she þus. ¶ If þou look[e] q{ uo}d she firste þe þinges þat þou hast graunted it ne shal nat 2880 ben ry[gh]t feer þat þou ne shalt remembren þilke þing þat [[pg 102]] þou seidest þat þou nistest nat.
[Sidenote: _P._ It was, by what power the world is governed.]
¶ by whiche gouerme{ n}t q{ uo}d she þat þis worlde is gouerned.
[Sidenote: _B._ With regard to that, I own I confessed my ignorance, but though I now remotely see what you infer, yet I wish for further explanation from you.]
Me remembriþ it wel q{ uo}d I. { and} I confesse 2884 wel þat I ne wist[e] it nat ¶ But al be it so þat I se now fro{ m} afer what þou p{ ur}posest ¶ Algates I desire [gh]it to herkene it of þe more pleynely.
[Sidenote: _P._ You acknowledged a little while ago that this world was governed by God?]
¶ þou ne wendest nat q{ uo}d she a litel here byforne þat men 2888 sholden doute þat þis worlde is gouerned by god.
[Sidenote: _B._ I still cling to this opinion, and will give you my reasons for this belief.]
¶ Certys q{ uo}d I ne [gh]itte doute I it nau[gh]t. ne I nil neuer wene þat it were to doute. as who seiþ. but I wot wel þat god gouerneþ þis worlde. ¶ And I shal 2892 shortly answere þe by what resou{ n}s I am brou[gh]t to þis.
[Sidenote: The discordant elements of this world would never have assumed their present form unless there had been a wise Intelligence to unite them; and even after such a union, the joining of such opposites would have disunited and ruined the fabric made up of them, had not the same conjoining hand kept them together.]
¶ þis worlde q{ uod} I of so many dyuerse { and} co{ n}trarious p{ ar}ties ne my[gh]ten neuer han ben assembled in o forme. but yif þere ne were oon þat conioigned so many[e 2896 diu{ er}se] þinges. ¶ And þe same diuersite of hire natures þat so discordeden þat oon fro þat oþer most[e] dep{ ar}ten { and} vnioigne{ n} þe þi{ n}ges þat ben co{ n}ioigned. yif þere ne were oon þat contened[e] þat he haþ co{ n}ioigned 2900 { and} ybounde.
[Sidenote: The order that reigns throughout nature could not proceed so regularly and uniformly if there were not a Being, unchangeable and stedfast, to order and dispose so great a diversity of changes.]