But what shal I seye of dignitees and of powers, the whiche ye men, that neither knowen verray dignitee ne verray power, areysen hem as heye as the hevene? The whiche dignitees and powers, yif they comen to any wikked man, they don as grete damages and destrucciouns as doth the flaumbe of the mountaigne 5 Ethna, whan the flaumbe walweth up; ne no deluge ne doth so cruel harmes. Certes, thee remembreth wel, as I trowe, that thilke dignitee that men clepen the imperie of consulers, the whiche that whylom was biginninge of fredom, youre eldres coveiteden to han don away that dignitee, for the pryde of the 10 consulers. And right for the same pryde your eldres, biforn that tyme, hadden don awey, out of the citee of Rome, the kinges name; _that is to seyn, they nolde han no lenger no king_. But now, yif so be that dignitees and powers be yeven to goode men, the whiche thing is ful selde, what agreable thing is ther in tho 15 dignitees or powers but only the goodnesse of folkes that usen hem? And therfor it is thus, that honour ne comth nat to vertu for cause of dignitee, but ayeinward honour comth to dignitee for cause of vertu. But whiche is thilke youre dereworthe power, that is so cleer and so requerable? O ye ertheliche bestes, 20 considere ye nat over which thinge that it semeth that ye han power? Now yif thou saye a mous amonges other mys, that chalaunged to him-self-ward right and power over alle other mys, how greet scorn woldest thou han of it! GLOSA. _So fareth it by men; the body hath power over the body._ For yif thou loke wel 25 up-on the body of a wight, what thing shall thou finde more freele than is mankinde; the whiche men wel ofte ben slayn with bytinge of smale flyes, or elles with the entringe of crepinge wormes in-to the privetees of mannes body? But wher shal man finden any man that may exercen or haunten any right up-on 30 another man, but only up-on his body, or elles up-on thinges that ben lowere than the body, the whiche I clepe fortunous possessiouns? Mayst thou ever have any comaundement over a free corage? Mayst thou remuen fro the estat of his propre reste a thought that is clyvinge to-gidere in him-self by stedefast 35 resoun? As whylom a tyraunt wende to confounde a free man of corage, and wende to constreyne him by torment, to maken him discoveren and acusen folk that wisten of a coniuracioun, _which I clepe a confederacie_, that was cast ayeins this tyraunt; but this free man boot of his owne tonge and caste it in the 40 visage of thilke wode tyraunt; so that the torments that this tyraunt wende to han maked matere of crueltee, this wyse man maked it matere of vertu.