Page:King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius.djvu/228

 shall be right glad if thou wilt lead me whither I ask thee.

P. I will teach thee by parables, as I have all along done;  and yet I will say this, that there is nothing in that which men say, to wit, that a thing happens by chance. For each thing comes from some thing, and so does not happen by chance; whereas if it came from nothing it would happen by chance.

M. But whence came the name in the first place?

P. My favourite Aristotle treated of it in the book called Fisica (Physicia).

M. How did he treat of it?

P. Men used formerly to say, when anything unlooked for took place, that it happened by chance;  just as if a man were to dig in the earth, and find a gold-hoard there, and then said it happened by chance. Why, I know that if the delver had not dug the earth, and no man had hid the gold beforehand, he would not have found it. Therefore it was not found by chance; but the divine predestination instructed him that it wished to hide the gold, and afterwards him that it wished to find it.

Then said I, 'I perceive that it is as thou sayest; but I would ask thee whether we have any freedom or any power as to what we shall do, or what we shall not do;  or does the divine foreordaining or Fate compel us to will?'

P. We have great power, and there is no reasoning creature but has freedom. He that has reason can judge and discern what he is to desire and what he