Page:King Alfred's Version of the Consolations of Boethius.djvu/61



First comes the Historical Introduction (chap. i). Boethius is lying in the dungeon lamenting his hard lot and vanished happiness, there appears to him divine, the spirit of , who raises him up and bids him look on her. He then recognizes in her his old teacher whom he had known in his happier days. She proceeds to show him that his misfortune arises from his neglect of her precepts, and his trust in the promises of fickle Fortune; and she undertakes to cure him of his melancholy.

Philosophy tells Boethius that what he once accounted happiness was not really such; that he is not the first to suffer a reverse of fortune ; that worldly joys are deceitful. Fortune changes, and men must also change with her. Boethius owes his misfortune to his desire for worldly happiness. In reply, Boethius confesses his wrong and is in despair. Philosophy then points out that he is not really unhappy, for his sorrows will pass away as his riches have done. He has many blessings left - his noble father-in-law Symmachus, his wife, and his two sons. Let him seek happiness within himself, not outside; for he does wrong to set his heart on inferior creatures, over which he has no right of possession. God wishes man to rule all other creatures, but man makes himself their slave. Riches bring enemies; and power, often coming to very bad men, is not in its nature good