Contributor
Alain de Lille
From The Complaint of Nature. The poet taught theology in medieval Paris. He preferred the revelations of mystics to the dogma of the Scholastics.
c.
1170 | Cîteaux
Mirror of Nature
Alain de Lille on the seasons of humankind.
For just as in the universe the boon of the sun’s heat heals things which are sick, so in man a heat which proceeds from the depths of the heart enlivens and freshens the members of the human body.
And just as the moon in the workings of the universe is the mother of many humors, so in man the liver imparts a humor to his members. And just as the moon, when deprived of the light of the sun, pales, so the strength of the liver becomes inactive when widowed from the enlivening comfort of the heart. And just as in the absence of the sun the air is clothed in darkness, so without the aid of the heart the vital power pants in vain. In addition to these, see how the universe changes its appearance with the various successions of seasons—how now it rejoices in the boyhood of spring, now advances in the youth of summer, now matures in the manhood of autumn, now whitens in the old age of winter. Like change of season, and the same variety, alter the age of man. For when the dawn of age arises in human nature, there begins man’s early spring. When the chariot of life has gained the farther turning-posts, man basks in the summer of youth. But when longer existence shall have completed the ninth hour of age, so to speak, he passes beyond into the autumn of manhood. And when the day of his age sinks toward the west, as decay now announces the evening of life, the wintry frost of old age makes him grow white with its rime.
