Athalenta was on of the fayre[442] and lyche to a gentilvoman of grete beaute, but hire destonye was diuerse; ffor because of hire mony lost ther lyves. This gentilvoman for hire grete beaute was covetyde of mony oon to be hadde to maryage, but ther was made sich a conuenawnt that non shulde haue hire but he ouerranne hir, and yf she ouerranne hym, he shuld dye. Athalenta was mervelious swyft, so that non myght streche to hir in rennyng and that cawsed many on for to die. This rennyng may be vnderstondyn in many maneres. It may be as some thyng that is gretly covetyid of many persones, but yit it may notte be hadde withowte grete traueyle; the rennyng that she made is the defence or the resistence of the same thynges. And allso the fabill may be noted anamly for tho that makyth grete stryve and nedith not. Also the auctorite seyth that a hard man and a coragius ought not to myche to stryve for onprofytabyll thynges, the whiche he shulde not set by, stondyng that thei [t]owche[443] not to his worchyppe for many grete [h]urtes folwyth off sich stryues. And Thessille[444] [se]ith, “Thou shuldest doo that the which is moste [pro]fetable to the body and most behouely to the soule and fle the contrarye.” That we shulde notte stryve wyth Athalenta may be vnderstondyn that the goode speryte shulde not be letted with non thyng [Sidenote: f. 54.] that the worlde dothe, of what gouernans it be. And to the same Seynt Austyn seyth in a pistil that the worlde is more perlious to creaturis when it is eesy than whan it is sharpe, for the softer he seeth it the les it shulde lete hym and lees he shulde drawe it to his love then whenne it yeffyth hym cause to dispite it. To this purpose Seynt John the Euaungelist seyth in his fryst Pistill, [“Si quis diligit mundum, non est charitas Patris in eo”].[445] LXXIII. As that Paris iugede iuge thou noght, For many men hau ben full hard brought Be grauntyng of evil sentence And had þerfor ryght greuous recompence.