We, who have always been favoured by fortune, are now brought low; this land, which was once reputed so wealthy, is now poor both in virtue and in possessions; my country, which was so strong, is made feeble by unjust judgements; she who was so fertile, is now sown with salt; she who had Fame for her sister, is now infamous, all her praise is taken away and her glory is departed. Her lords are sunk in sloth, her clergy is dissolute, her cities full of discord, her laws oppressive and without justice, her people discontented. O land barren of virtue, where is thy past fortune? omens appear which presage thy fate, and all point to thee as an example. It is not by fortune or by chance that this comes about, but by our sins; and the grace of God even now may be found by repentance. I pray that God may show us his mercy and accept our tears. We know that thou, O God, art alone to be worshipped, that thou art the ruler of all things, and not fortune. Show pity therefore, O God! CAP. XXV. Such were the verses which came to me by inspiration in my sleep. It is not I who speak them, but the common voice of all. Let him who feels himself in fault amend his ways, and he who feels himself free from fault may pass untouched. I accuse no man; let each examine his own conscience. The world is neither evil nor good: each man may make of it what he will by his own life. [71]But this I say, that sin committed and not purged by repentance receives at length its due reward. The conclusion of the _Vox Clamantis_, as altered from the first version, is doubtless intended as a fitting form of introduction for the _Cronica Tripertita_, which comes in as an appendix added in later years. It will be noted as regards the prose which forms a transition to this, that Gower has in the end brought himself to think that the misfortunes of the earlier part of Richard’s reign were intended as a special warning to the youthful king, whom he formerly relieved from responsibility on account of his tender age, and that the tyranny of his later time sprang naturally out of his disregard of this preliminary chastisement. This change of view is also to be traced in the successive forms assumed by the paragraph relating to the _Vox Clamantis_ in the author’s account of his books (‘Quia vnusquisque,’ &c.).