THE KING'S MIRROR 



87 



I cannot comprehend them unless I shall hear them ex- 

 plained; and I know of no other wise master with so 

 kind a will to teach me these matters as yourself. There- 

 fore, with your permission, I will ask you to continue 

 this discussion, so that I may become somewhat better 

 informed on these subjects: how the lights of the sky and 

 the course of the heavenly bodies wax and wane; how 

 the time of the day is told and the hours are grouped; 

 but especially how the ocean moves and what causes its 

 restlessness. For sometimes the ocean appears so blithe 

 and cheerful that one would like to sport with it through 

 an entire season; but soon it displays such fierce wrath 

 and ill-nature that the life and property of those who 

 have anything to do with it are endangered. Now I have 

 thought that, althoughfthe sun completes its course ac- 7 

 cording to an established lawjthat fact cannot produce 5 

 the unquiet of the sea. If you are disposed to explain 

 these things further, I shall listen gladly and attentively. 

 Father, fl can indeed give such an explanation, just as 

 I have heard it from the lips of well-informed men, and 

 as seems most reasonable according to the insight that 

 God has given me. The sun has received divers offices: 

 for it brings light and warmth to all the earth, and the 

 various parts of the world rejoice in its approaching; but 

 its course is planned in such a way that it sometimes 

 withdraws from those regions that it approaches at other 

 times. When it first comes to visit the east with warmth 

 and bright beams, the day begins to lift up silvery brows 

 and a pleasant face to the east wind. Soon the east wind 

 is crowned with a golden glory and robed in all his rai- 

 ments of joy. He eases griefs and regretful sighs and 





