Book: The Consolation of Philosophy

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SONG IV.

THE UNREASONABLENESS OF HATRED.


Why all this furious strife? Oh, why
With rash and wilful hand provoke death's destined day?
If death ye seek--lo! Death is nigh,
Not of their master's will those coursers swift delay!

The wild beasts vent on man their rage,
Yet 'gainst their brothers' lives men point the murderous steel;
Unjust and cruel wars they wage,
And haste with flying darts the death to meet or deal.

No right nor reason can they show;
'Tis but because their lands and laws are not the same.
Wouldst _thou_ give each his due; then know
Thy love the good must have, the bad thy pity claim.



V.


On this I said: 'I see how there is a happiness and misery founded on
the actual deserts of the righteous and the wicked. Nevertheless, I
wonder in myself whether there is not some good and evil in fortune as
the vulgar understand it. Surely, no sensible man would rather be
exiled, poor and disgraced, than dwell prosperously in his own country,
powerful, wealthy, and high in honour. Indeed, the work of wisdom is
more clear and manifest in its operation when the happiness of rulers is
somehow passed on to the people around them, especially considering that
the prison, the law, and the other pains of legal punishment are
properly due only to mischievous citizens on whose account they were
originally instituted. Accordingly, I do exceedingly marvel why all this
is completely reversed--why the good are harassed with the penalties due
to crime, and the bad carry off the rewards of virtue; and I long to
hear from thee what reason may be found for so unjust a state of
disorder. For assuredly I should wonder less if I could believe that all
things are the confused result of chance. But now my belief in God's
governance doth add amazement to amazement. For, seeing that He
sometimes assigns fair fortune to the good and harsh fortune to the bad,
and then again deals harshly with the good, and grants to the bad their
hearts' desire, how does this differ from chance, unless some reason is
discovered for it all?'

'Nay; it is not wonderful,' said she, 'if all should be thought random
and confused when the principle of order is not known. And though thou
knowest not the causes on which this great system depends, yet forasmuch
as a good ruler governs the world, doubt not for thy part that all is
rightly done.'



SONG V.

WONDER AND IGNORANCE.


Who knoweth not how near the pole
Bootes' course doth go,
Must marvel by what heavenly law
He moves his Wain so slow;
Why late he plunges 'neath the main,
And swiftly lights his beams again.

When the full-orbed moon grows pale
In the mid course of night,
And suddenly the stars shine forth
That languished in her light,
Th' astonied nations stand at gaze,
And beat the air in wild amaze.[M]

None marvels why upon the shore
The storm-lashed breakers beat,
Nor why the frost-bound glaciers melt
At summer's fervent heat;
For here the cause seems plain and clear,
Only what's dark and hid we fear.

Weak-minded folly magnifies
All that is rare and strange,
And the dull herd's o'erwhelmed with awe
At unexpected change.
But wonder leaves enlightened minds,
When ignorance no longer blinds.

FOOTNOTES:

[M] To frighten away the monster swallowing the moon. The superstition
was once common. See Tylor's 'Primitive Culture,' pp. 296-302.



VI.


'True,' said I; 'but, since it is thy office to unfold the hidden cause
of things, and explain principles veiled in darkness, inform me, I pray
thee, of thine own conclusions in this matter, since the marvel of it is
what more than aught else disturbs my mind.'

A smile played one moment upon her lips as she replied: 'Thou callest me
to the greatest of all subjects of inquiry, a task for which the most
exhaustive treatment barely suffices. Such is its nature that, as fast
as one doubt is cut away, innumerable others spring up like Hydra's
heads, nor could we set any limit to their renewal did we not apply the
mind's living fire to suppress them. For there come within its scope the
questions of the essential simplicity of providence, of the order of
fate, of unforeseen chance, of the Divine knowledge and predestination,
and of the freedom of the will. How heavy is the weight of all this
thou canst judge for thyself. But, inasmuch as to know these things also
is part of the treatment of thy malady, we will try to give them some
consideration, despite the restrictions of the narrow limits of our
time. Moreover, thou must for a time dispense with the pleasures of
music and song, if so be that thou findest any delight therein, whilst I
weave together the connected train of reasons in proper order.'

'As thou wilt,' said I.

Then, as if making a new beginning, she thus discoursed: 'The coming
into being of all things, the whole course of development in things that
change, every sort of thing that moves in any wise, receives its due
cause, order, and form from the steadfastness of the Divine mind. This
mind, calm in the citadel of its own essential simplicity, has decreed
that the method of its rule shall be manifold. Viewed in the very purity
of the Divine intelligence, this method is called _providence_; but
viewed in regard to those things which it moves and disposes, it is
what the ancients called _fate_. That these two are different will
easily be clear to anyone who passes in review their respective
efficacies. Providence is the Divine reason itself, seated in the
Supreme Being, which disposes all things; fate is the disposition
inherent in all things which move, through which providence joins all
things in their proper order. Providence embraces all things, however
different, however infinite; fate sets in motion separately individual
things, and assigns to them severally their position, form, and time.

'So the unfolding of this temporal order unified into the foreview of
the Divine mind is providence, while the same unity broken up and
unfolded in time is fate. And although these are different, yet is there
a dependence between them; for the order of destiny issues from the
essential simplicity of providence. For as the artificer, forming in his
mind beforehand the idea of the thing to be made, carries out his
design, and develops from moment to moment what he had before seen in a
single instant as a whole, so God in His providence ordains all things
as parts of a single unchanging whole, but carries out these very
ordinances by fate in a time of manifold unity. So whether fate is
accomplished by Divine spirits as the ministers of providence, or by a
soul, or by the service of all nature--whether by the celestial motion
of the stars, by the efficacy of angels, or by the many-sided cunning of
demons--whether by all or by some of these the destined series is woven,
this, at least, is manifest: that providence is the fixed and simple
form of destined events, fate their shifting series in order of time, as
by the disposal of the Divine simplicity they are to take place. Whereby
it is that all things which are under fate are subjected also to
providence, on which fate itself is dependent; whereas certain things
which are set under providence are above the chain of fate--viz., those
things which by their nearness to the primal Divinity are steadfastly
fixed, and lie outside the order of fate's movements. For as the
innermost of several circles revolving round the same centre approaches
the simplicity of the midmost point, and is, as it were, a pivot round
which the exterior circles turn, while the outermost, whirled in ampler
orbit, takes in a wider and wider sweep of space in proportion to its
departure from the indivisible unity of the centre--while, further,
whatever joins and allies itself to the centre is narrowed to a like
simplicity, and no longer expands vaguely into space--even so whatsoever
departs widely from primal mind is involved more deeply in the meshes of
fate, and things are free from fate in proportion as they seek to come
nearer to that central pivot; while if aught cleaves close to supreme
mind in its absolute fixity, this, too, being free from movement, rises
above fate's necessity. Therefore, as is reasoning to pure intelligence,
as that which is generated to that which is, time to eternity, a circle
to its centre, so is the shifting series of fate to the steadfastness
and simplicity of providence.

'It is this causal series which moves heaven and the stars, attempers
the elements to mutual accord, and again in turn transforms them into
new combinations; _this_ which renews the series of all things that are
born and die through like successions of germ and birth; it is _its_
operation which binds the destinies of men by an indissoluble nexus of
causality, and, since it issues in the beginning from unalterable
providence, these destinies also must of necessity be immutable.
Accordingly, the world is ruled for the best if this unity abiding in
the Divine mind puts forth an inflexible order of causes. And this
order, by its intrinsic immutability, restricts things mutable which
otherwise would ebb and flow at random. And so it happens that, although
to you, who are not altogether capable of understanding this order, all
things seem confused and disordered, nevertheless there is everywhere an
appointed limit which guides all things to good. Verily, nothing can be
done for the sake of evil even by the wicked themselves; for, as we
abundantly proved, they seek good, but are drawn out of the way by
perverse error; far less can this order which sets out from the supreme
centre of good turn aside anywhither from the way in which it began.

'"Yet what confusion," thou wilt say, "can be more unrighteous than that
prosperity and adversity should indifferently befall the good, what
they like and what they loathe come alternately to the bad!" Yes; but
have men in real life such soundness of mind that their judgments of
righteousness and wickedness must necessarily correspond with facts?
Why, on this very point their verdicts conflict, and those whom some
deem worthy of reward, others deem worthy of punishment. Yet granted
there were one who could rightly distinguish the good and bad, yet would
he be able to look into the soul's inmost constitution, as it were, if
we may borrow an expression used of the body? The marvel here is not
unlike that which astonishes one who does not know why in health sweet
things suit some constitutions, and bitter others, or why some sick men
are best alleviated by mild remedies, others by severe. But the
physician who distinguishes the precise conditions and characteristics
of health and sickness does not marvel. Now, the health of the soul is
nothing but righteousness, and vice is its sickness. God, the guide and
physician of the mind, it is who preserves the good and banishes the
bad. And He looks forth from the lofty watch-tower of His providence,
perceives what is suited to each, and assigns what He knows to be
suitable.

'This, then, is what that extraordinary mystery of the order of destiny
comes to--that something is done by one who knows, whereat the ignorant
are astonished. But let us consider a few instances whereby appears what
is the competency of human reason to fathom the Divine unsearchableness.
Here is one whom thou deemest the perfection of justice and scrupulous
integrity; to all-knowing Providence it seems far otherwise. We all know
our Lucan's admonition that it was the winning cause that found favour
with the gods, the beaten cause with Cato. So, shouldst thou see
anything in this world happening differently from thy expectation, doubt
not but events are rightly ordered; it is in thy judgment that there is
perverse confusion.

'Grant, however, there be somewhere found one of so happy a character
that God and man alike agree in their judgments about him; yet is he
somewhat infirm in strength of mind. It may be, if he fall into
adversity, he will cease to practise that innocency which has failed to
secure his fortune. Therefore, God's wise dispensation spares him whom
adversity might make worse, will not let him suffer who is ill fitted
for endurance. Another there is perfect in all virtue, so holy and nigh
to God that providence judges it unlawful that aught untoward should
befall him; nay, doth not even permit him to be afflicted with bodily
disease. As one more excellent than I[N] hath said:

'"The very body of the holy saint
Is built of purest ether."

Often it happens that the governance is given to the good that a
restraint may be put upon superfluity of wickedness. To others
providence assigns some mixed lot suited to their spiritual nature; some
it will plague lest they grow rank through long prosperity; others it
will suffer to be vexed with sore afflictions to confirm their virtues
by the exercise and practice of patience. Some fear overmuch what they
have strength to bear; others despise overmuch that to which their
strength is unequal. All these it brings to the test of their true self
through misfortune. Some also have bought a name revered to future ages
at the price of a glorious death; some by invincible constancy under
their sufferings have afforded an example to others that virtue cannot
be overcome by calamity--all which things, without doubt, come to pass
rightly and in due order, and to the benefit of those to whom they are
seen to happen.

'As to the other side of the marvel, that the bad now meet with
affliction, now get their hearts' desire, this, too, springs from the
same causes. As to the afflictions, of course no one marvels, because
all hold the wicked to be ill deserving. The truth is, their punishments
both frighten others from crime, and amend those on whom they are
inflicted; while their prosperity is a powerful sermon to the good, what
judgments they ought to pass on good fortune of this kind, which often
attends the wicked so assiduously.

'There is another object which may, I believe, be attained in such
cases: there is one, perhaps, whose nature is so reckless and violent
that poverty would drive him more desperately into crime. _His_ disorder
providence relieves by allowing him to amass money. Such a one, in the
uneasiness of a conscience stained with guilt, while he contrasts his
character with his fortune, perchance grows alarmed lest he should come
to mourn the loss of that whose possession is so pleasant to him. He
will, then, reform his ways, and through the fear of losing his fortune
he forsakes his iniquity. Some, through a prosperity unworthily borne,
have been hurled headlong to ruin; to some the power of the sword has
been committed, to the end that the good may be tried by discipline, and
the bad punished. For while there can be no peace between the righteous
and the wicked, neither can the wicked agree among themselves. How
should they, when each is at variance with himself, because his vices
rend his conscience, and ofttimes they do things which, when they are
done, they judge ought not to have been done. Hence it is that this
supreme providence brings to pass this notable marvel--that the bad make
the bad good. For some, when they see the injustice which they
themselves suffer at the hands of evil-doers, are inflamed with
detestation of the offenders, and, in the endeavour to be unlike those
whom they hate, return to the ways of virtue. It is the Divine power
alone to which things evil are also good, in that, by putting them to
suitable use, it bringeth them in the end to some good issue. For order
in some way or other embraceth all things, so that even that which has
departed from the appointed laws of the order, nevertheless falleth
within _an_ order, though _another_ order, that nothing in the realm of
providence may be left to haphazard. But

'"Hard were the task, as a god, to recount all, nothing omitting."

Nor, truly, is it lawful for man to compass in thought all the mechanism
of the Divine work, or set it forth in speech. Let us be content to
have apprehended this only--that God, the creator of universal nature,
likewise disposeth all things, and guides them to good; and while He
studies to preserve in likeness to Himself all that He has created, He
banishes all evil from the borders of His commonweal through the links
of fatal necessity. Whereby it comes to pass that, if thou look to
disposing providence, thou wilt nowhere find the evils which are
believed so to abound on earth.

'But I see thou hast long been burdened with the weight of the subject,
and fatigued with the prolixity of the argument, and now lookest for
some refreshment of sweet poesy. Listen, then, and may the draught so
restore thee that thou wilt bend thy mind more resolutely to what
remains.'

FOOTNOTES:

[N] Parmenides. Boethius seems to forget for the moment that Philosophy
is speaking.



SONG VI.

THE UNIVERSAL AIM.


Wouldst thou with unclouded mind
View the laws by God designed,
Lift thy steadfast gaze on high
To the starry canopy;
See in rightful league of love
All the constellations move.
Fiery Sol, in full career,
Ne'er obstructs cold Phoebe's sphere;
When the Bear, at heaven's height,
Wheels his coursers' rapid flight,
Though he sees the starry train
Sinking in the western main,
He repines not, nor desires
In the flood to quench his fires.

In true sequence, as decreed,
Daily morn and eve succeed;
Vesper brings the shades of night,
Lucifer the morning light.
Love, in alternation due,
Still the cycle doth renew,
And discordant strife is driven
From the starry realm of heaven.
Thus, in wondrous amity,
Warring elements agree;
Hot and cold, and moist and dry,
Lay their ancient quarrel by;
High the flickering flame ascends,
Downward earth for ever tends.

So the year in spring's mild hours
Loads the air with scent of flowers;
Summer paints the golden grain;
Then, when autumn comes again,
Bright with fruit the orchards glow;
Winter brings the rain and snow.
Thus the seasons' fixed progression,
Tempered in a due succession,
Nourishes and brings to birth
All that lives and breathes on earth.
Then, soon run life's little day,
All it brought it takes away.

But One sits and guides the reins,
He who made and all sustains;
King and Lord and Fountain-head,
Judge most holy, Law most dread;
Now impels and now keeps back,
Holds each waverer in the track.
Else, were once the power withheld
That the circling spheres compelled
In their orbits to revolve,
This world's order would dissolve,
And th' harmonious whole would all
In one hideous ruin fall.

But through this connected frame
Runs one universal aim;
Towards the Good do all things tend,
Many paths, but one the end.
For naught lasts, unless it turns
Backward in its course, and yearns
To that Source to flow again
Whence its being first was ta'en.



VII.


'Dost thou, then, see the consequence of all that we have said?'

'Nay; what consequence?'

'That absolutely every fortune is good fortune.'

'And how can that be?' said I.

'Attend,' said she. 'Since every fortune, welcome and unwelcome alike,
has for its object the reward or trial of the good, and the punishing or
amending of the bad, every fortune must be good, since it is either just
or useful.'

'The reasoning is exceeding true,' said I, 'the conclusion, so long as I
reflect upon the providence and fate of which thou hast taught me, based
on a strong foundation. Yet, with thy leave, we will count it among
those which just now thou didst set down as paradoxical.'

'And why so?' said she.

'Because ordinary speech is apt to assert, and that frequently, that
some men's fortune is bad.'

'Shall we, then, for awhile approach more nearly to the language of the
vulgar, that we may not seem to have departed too far from the usages of
men?'

'At thy good pleasure,' said I.

'That which advantageth thou callest good, dost thou not?'

'Certainly.'

'And that which either tries or amends advantageth?'

'Granted.'

'Is good, then?'

'Of course.'

'Well, this is _their_ case who have attained virtue and wage war with
adversity, or turn from vice and lay hold on the path of virtue.'

'I cannot deny it.'

'What of the good fortune which is given as reward of the good--do the
vulgar adjudge it bad?'

'Anything but that; they deem it to be the best, as indeed it is.'

'What, then, of that which remains, which, though it is harsh, puts the
restraint of just punishment on the bad--does popular opinion deem it
good?'

'Nay; of all that can be imagined, it is accounted the most miserable.'

'Observe, then, if, in following popular opinion, we have not ended in a
conclusion quite paradoxical.'

'How so?' said I.

'Why, it results from our admissions that of all who have attained, or
are advancing in, or are aiming at virtue, the fortune is in every case
good, while for those who remain in their wickedness fortune is always
utterly bad.'

'It is true,' said I; 'yet no one dare acknowledge it.'

'Wherefore,' said she, 'the wise man ought not to take it ill, if ever
he is involved in one of fortune's conflicts, any more than it becomes a
brave soldier to be offended when at any time the trumpet sounds for
battle. The time of trial is the express opportunity for the one to win
glory, for the other to perfect his wisdom. Hence, indeed, virtue gets
its name, because, relying on its own efficacy, it yieldeth not to
adversity. And ye who have taken your stand on virtue's steep ascent,
it is not for you to be dissolved in delights or enfeebled by pleasure;
ye close in conflict--yea, in conflict most sharp--with all fortune's
vicissitudes, lest ye suffer foul fortune to overwhelm or fair fortune
to corrupt you. Hold the mean with all your strength. Whatever falls
short of this, or goes beyond, is fraught with scorn of happiness, and
misses the reward of toil. It rests with you to make your fortune what
you will. Verily, every harsh-seeming fortune, unless it either
disciplines or amends, is punishment.'



SONG VII.

THE HERO'S PATH.


Ten years a tedious warfare raged,
Ere Ilium's smoking ruins paid
For wedlock stained and faith betrayed,
And great Atrides' wrath assuaged.

But when heaven's anger asked a life,
And baffling winds his course withstood,
The king put off his fatherhood,
And slew his child with priestly knife.

When by the cavern's glimmering light
His comrades dear Odysseus saw
In the huge Cyclops' hideous maw
Engulfed, he wept the piteous sight.

But blinded soon, and wild with pain--
In bitter tears and sore annoy--
For that foul feast's unholy joy
Grim Polyphemus paid again.

His labours for Alcides win
A name of glory far and wide;
He tamed the Centaur's haughty pride,
And from the lion reft his skin.

The foul birds with sure darts he slew;
The golden fruit he stole--in vain
The dragon's watch; with triple chain
From hell's depths Cerberus he drew.

With their fierce lord's own flesh he fed
The wild steeds; Hydra overcame
With fire. 'Neath his own waves in shame
Maimed Achelous hid his head.

Huge Cacus for his crimes was slain;
On Libya's sands Antaeus hurled;
The shoulders that upheld the world
The great boar's dribbled spume did stain.

Last toil of all--his might sustained
The ball of heaven, nor did he bend
Beneath; this toil, his labour's end,
The prize of heaven's high glory gained.

Brave hearts, press on! Lo, heavenward lead
These bright examples! From the fight
Turn not your backs in coward flight;
Earth's conflict won, the stars your meed!




BOOK V.

FREE WILL AND GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE.


SUMMARY.

CH. I. Boethius asks if there is really any such thing as chance.
Philosophy answers, in conformity with Aristotle's definition
(Phys., II. iv.), that chance is merely relative to human purpose,
and that what seems fortuitous really depends on a more subtle form
of causation.--CH. II. Has man, then, any freedom, if the reign of
law is thus absolute? Freedom of choice, replies Philosophy, is a
necessary attribute of reason. Man has a measure of freedom, though
a less perfect freedom than divine natures.--CH. III. But how can
man's freedom be reconciled with God's absolute foreknowledge? If
God's foreknowledge be certain, it seems to exclude the possibility
of man's free will. But if man has no freedom of choice, it
follows that rewards and punishments are unjust as well as useless;
that merit and demerit are mere names; that God is the cause of
men's wickednesses; that prayer is meaningless.--CH. IV. The
explanation is that man's reasoning faculties are not adequate to
the apprehension of the ways of God's foreknowledge. If we could
know, as He knows, all that is most perplexing in this problem
would be made plain. For knowledge depends not on the nature of the
thing known, but on the faculty of the knower.--CH. V. Now, where
our senses conflict with our reason, we defer the judgment of the
lower faculty to the judgment of the higher. Our present perplexity
arises from our viewing God's foreknowledge from the standpoint of
human reason. We must try and rise to the higher standpoint of
God's immediate intuition.--CH. VI. To understand this higher form
of cognition, we must consider God's nature. God is eternal.
Eternity is more than mere everlasting duration. Accordingly, His
knowledge surveys past and future in the timelessness of an eternal
present. His foreseeing is seeing. Yet this foreseeing does not in
itself impose necessity, any more than our seeing things happen
makes their happening necessary. We may, however, if we please,
distinguish two necessities--one absolute, the other conditional on
knowledge. In this conditional sense alone do the things which God
foresees necessarily come to pass. But this kind of necessity
affects not the nature of things. It leaves the reality of free
will unimpaired, and the evils feared do not ensue. Our
responsibility is great, since all that we do is done in the sight
of all-seeing Providence.

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