[Sidenote: Nota de mari quod magnum Occeanum dicitur.] The water eke hath sondri bounde, After the lond wher it is founde, And takth his name of thilke londes Wher that it renneth on the strondes: 590 Bot thilke See which hath no wane Is cleped the gret Occeane, Out of the which arise and come The hyhe flodes alle and some; Is non so litel welle spring, Which ther ne takth his beginnyng, And lich a man that haleth breth[985] Be weie of kinde, so it geth Out of the See and in ayein, The water, as the bokes sein. 600 [Sidenote: Nota hic secundum philosophum de quinto Elemento, quod omnia sub celo creata infra suum ambitum continet, cui nomen Orbis specialiter appropriatum est.] Of Elementz the propretes Hou that they stonden be degres, As I have told, nou myht thou hiere, Mi goode Sone, al the matiere Of Erthe, of water, Air and fyr. And for thou saist that thi desir [Sidenote: =P. iii. 105=] Is forto witen overmore The forme of Aristotles lore, He seith in his entendement, That yit ther is an Element 610 Above the foure, and is the fifte, Set of the hihe goddes yifte, The which that Orbis cleped is. And therupon he telleth this, That as the schelle hol and sound Encloseth al aboute round What thing withinne an Ey belongeth, Riht so this Orbis underfongeth These elementz alle everychon, Which I have spoke of on and on.[986] 620 Bot overthis nou tak good hiede,[987] Mi Sone, for I wol procede To speke upon Mathematique, Which grounded is on Theorique. The science of Astronomie I thinke forto specefie, Withoute which, to telle plein, Alle othre science is in vein[988] Toward the scole of erthli thinges: For as an Egle with his winges 630 Fleth above alle that men finde, So doth this science in his kinde.