[Sidenote: What room is there for folly and disorder where all things are restrained by order, through the ordinance of God?]
for what place my[gh]t[e] ben left or dwellynge to folie { and} to disordinau{ n}ce. syn þat 4324 god lediþ { and} streyniþ alle þinges by ordre.
[Sidenote: For it is a great truth that nothing can spring out of nothing.]
¶ For þis sentence is verray { and} soþe þat no þinge ne haþ his beynge of nou[gh]t. to [the] whiche sentence none of þise olde folk ne wiþseide neuere al be it so þat þei ne 4328 vndirstoden ne moeueden it nau[gh]t by god p{ r}ince { and} gynner of wirkyng. but þei casten as a manere foundement of subgit material. þat is to seyn of [the] nature of alle resou{ n}.
[Sidenote: Now, if anything arises without the operation of a cause, it proceeds from nothing.]
{ and} [gh]if þat ony þinge is woxen or comen 4332 of no causes. þan shal it seme þat þilke þinge is comen or woxen of nou[gh]t.
[Sidenote: But if this is impossible, then there can be no such a thing as Chance, as we have defined it.]
but yif þis ne may nat ben don. þan is it nat possible þat þere haþ ben any swiche þing as I haue diffinissid a litel here byforne.
[Sidenote: _B._ Is there nothing, then, that may be called Chance or Fortune?]
¶ How shal 4336 it þan ben q{ uo}d I. nis þer þan no þing þat by ry[gh]t may be cleped eyþer hap{ pe} or ellis auenture of fortune.
[Sidenote: Is there nothing (hid from the vulgar) to which these words may be applied?]
or is þer ou[gh]t al *be it so þat it is hidd fro þe poeple to whiche þise wordes ben couenable.
[Sidenote: _P._ Aristotle defines this matter with much precision and probability.]
Myn aristotul q{ uo}d 4340 she. in þe book of his phisik diffinisseþ þis þing by short resou{ n} and ney[gh]e to þe soþe.
[Sidenote: _P._ So often as a man does anything for the sake of any other thing, and another thing than what he intended to do is produced by other causes, that thing so produced is called _Chance_.]
¶ As ofte q{ uo}d she as men don any þing for grace of any oþer þing. { and} an oþer þinge þan þilke 4344 þing þat men ententen to doon bytideþ by som[e] causes it is ycleped hap{ pe}.
[Sidenote: As if a man trench the ground for tillage and find gold, then this is believed to happen by chance, although it is not so.]