'Thou hast wel herd,' quod she, 'the fables of the poetes, how the giaunts assaileden the hevene _with the goddes_; but forsothe, the debonair force _of god_ deposede hem, as it was worthy; _that is to seyn, destroyede the giaunts, as it was worthy_. But wilt 100 thou that we ioignen to-gider thilke same resouns? For per-aventure, of swich coniuncioun may sterten up som fair sparkle of sooth.'
'Wenest thou,' quod she, 'that god ne be almighty? No man 105 is in doute of it.'
'Certes,' quod I, 'no wight ne douteth it, yif he be in his minde.'
'But he,' quod she, 'that is almighty, ther nis nothing that he ne may?' 110
'Thanne is yvel nothing,' quod she, 'sin that he ne may nat don yvel that may don alle thinges.' 115
'Scornest thou me?' quod I; '_or elles pleyest thou or deceivest thou me_, that hast so woven me with thy resouns the hous of Dedalus, so entrelaced that it is unable to be unlaced; thou that other-whyle entrest ther thou issest, and other-whyle issest ther thou entrest, ne foldest thou nat to-gider, _by replicacioun of 120 wordes_, a maner wonderful cercle or environinge of the simplicitee devyne? For certes, a litel her-biforn, whan thou bigunne at blisfulnesse, thou seydest that it is soverein good; and seydest that it is set in soverein god; and seydest that god him-self is soverein good; and that god is the fulle blisfulnesse; for which 125 thou yave me as a covenable yift, _that is to seyn_, that no wight nis blisful but-yif he be god also ther-with. And seidest eek, that the forme of good is the substaunce of god and of blisfulnesse; and seidest, that thilke same oon is thilke same good, that is requered and desired of alle the kinde of thinges. And thou 130 proevedest, in disputinge, that god governeth all the thinges of the world by the governements of bountee, _and seydest_, that alle thinges wolen obeyen to him; and _seydest_, that the nature of yvel nis no-thing. And thise thinges ne shewedest thou nat with none resouns y-taken fro with-oute, but by proeves _in cercles and_ hoomlich 135 knowen; the whiche proeves drawen to hem-self hir feith and hir acord, everich of hem of other.'
Thanne seyde she thus: 'I ne scorne thee nat, _ne pleye, ne deceive thee_; but I have shewed thee the thing that is grettest over alle thinges by the yift of god, that we whylom preyeden. 140 For this is the forme of the devyne substaunce, that is swich that it ne slydeth nat in-to outterest foreine thinges, ne ne receiveth no straunge thinges in him; but right as Parmenides seyde _in Greek_ of thilke devyne substaunce; he seyde thus: that "thilke devyne substaunce torneth the world and the moevable cercle of 145 thinges, whyl thilke devyne substaunce kepeth it-self with-oute moevinge;" _that is to seyn, that it ne moeveth never-mo, and yit it moeveth alle othre thinges_. But natheles, yif I have stired resouns that ne ben nat taken fro with-oute the compas of thing of which we treten, but resouns that ben bistowed with-in that compas, 150 ther nis nat why that thou sholdest merveilen; sin thou hast lerned by the sentence of Plato, that "nedes the wordes moten be cosines to the thinges of which they speken."