The Consolation of Philosophy | Page 2

It is his peculiar distinction to have handed on to the
Middle Ages the tradition of Greek philosophy by his Latin translations
of the works of Aristotle. Called early to a public career, the highest
honours of the State came to him unsought. He was sole Consul in 510
A.D., and was ultimately raised by Theodoric to the dignity of Magister
Officiorum, or head of the whole civil administration. He was no less
happy in his domestic life, in the virtues of his wife, Rusticiana, and the
fair promise of his two sons, Symmachus and Boethius; happy also in
the society of a refined circle of friends. Noble, wealthy, accomplished,
universally esteemed for his virtues, high in the favour of the Gothic
King, he appeared to all men a signal example of the union of merit and
good fortune. His felicity seemed to culminate in the year 522 A.D.,
when, by special and extraordinary favour, his two sons, young as they
were for so exalted an honour, were created joint Consuls and rode to
the senate-house attended by a throng of senators, and the acclamations
of the multitude. Boethius himself, amid the general applause,
delivered the public speech in the King's honour usual on such
occasions. Within a year he was a solitary prisoner at Pavia, stripped of
honours, wealth, and friends, with death hanging over him, and a terror
worse than death, in the fear lest those dearest to him should be
involved in the worst results of his downfall. It is in this situation that
the opening of the 'Consolation of Philosophy' brings Boethius before
us. He represents himself as seated in his prison distraught with grief,
indignant at the injustice of his misfortunes, and seeking relief for his
melancholy in writing verses descriptive of his condition. Suddenly
there appears to him the Divine figure of Philosophy, in the guise of a
woman of superhuman dignity and beauty, who by a succession of
discourses convinces him of the vanity of regret for the lost gifts of
fortune, raises his mind once more to the contemplation of the true
good, and makes clear to him the mystery of the world's moral
government.
INDEX

OF
VERSE INTERLUDES.
BOOK I.
THE SORROWS OF BOETHIUS.
SONG PAGE
I. BOETHIUS' COMPLAINT 3
II. HIS DESPONDENCY 9
III. THE MISTS DISPELLED 12
IV. NOTHING CAN SUBDUE VIRTUE 16
V. BOETHIUS' PRAYER 27
VI. ALL THINGS HAVE THEIR NEEDFUL ORDER 33
VII. THE PERTURBATIONS OF PASSION 38
BOOK II.
THE VANITY OF FORTUNE'S GIFTS.
I. FORTUNE'S MALICE 47
II. MAN'S COVETOUSNESS 51
III. ALL PASSES 55
IV. THE GOLDEN MEAN 62
V. THE FORMER AGE