The Consolation of Philosophy

by Boethius

he that only desireth power, consumeth wealth, despiseth pleasures, and setteth light by honour o...

that is true and perfect happiness which maketh a man sufficient, potent, respected, famous, joyful. And that thou mayest know that I understood thee aright, that which can truly perform any one of these because they are all one, I acknowledge to be full and perfect happiness.”

“Wherefore these things seem to afford men the images of the true good, or certain unperfect goods, but they cannot give them the true and perfect good itself.”

“We must,” quoth I, “invocate the Father of all things, without whose remembrance no beginning hath a good foundation.”

Thy goodness moving Thee to give each thing his grace, Thou dost all creatures’ forms from highest patterns take, From Thy fair mind the world fair like Thyself doth make.

Thus Thou perfect the whole perfect each part dost frame. Thou temp’rest elements, making cold mixed with flame And dry things join with moist, lest fire away should fly, Or earth, opprest with weight, buried too low should lie.

Thou in consenting parts fitly disposed hast Th’all-moving soul in midst of threefold nature placed, Which, cut in several parts that run a different race, Into itself returns, and circling doth embrace Th...

Thou with like cause dost make the souls and lesser lives, Fix them in chariots swift, and widely scatterest O’er heaven and earth; then at Thy fatherly behest They stream...

Dear Father, let my mind Thy hallowed seat ascend, Let me behold the spring of grace and find Thy light, That I on Thee ma...

To pious men whose end is to behold Thy ray, Who their beginning art, their guide, their bound, and way.{45}

it cannot be denied that there is some such thing extant which is as it were the fountain of all goodness. For all that is said to be imperfect is so termed for the want it hath of perfection. Whence it followeth that if in any kind we find something imperfect, there must needs be something perfect also in the same kind.

the nature of things began not from that which is defective and not complete, but, proceeding from entire and absolute, falleth into that which is extreme and enfeebled.

God to be good that it convinceth Him to be perfectly good. For unless He were so, He could not be the chief of all things. For there would be something better than He, having perfect goodness, which could seem to be of greater antiquity and eminence than He. For it is already manifest that perfect things were before the imperfect.

perfect goodness is true happiness, wherefore true blessedness must necessarily be placed in the most high God.”

the nature of nothing can be better than the beginning of it.

that which is the beginning of all things to be also in His own substance the chiefest good.”

the chiefest good is ble...

blessedness itself is God.”

there cannot be two chief goods,

neither of them can be perfect, wanting the other.

that which is not perfect, is not the chiefest, wherefore the chief goods cannot be diverse.

we have proved that both blessedness and God are the chiefest good, wherefore that must needs be the highest blessedne...

since that men are made blessed by the obtaining of blessedness, and blessedness is nothing else but divinity, it is manifest that men are made blessed by the obtaining of divinity.

as men are made just by the obtaining of justice, and wise by the obtaining of wisdom, so they who obtain divinity must needs in like manner become gods. Wherefore everyone that is blessed is a god, but by nature there is only one God; but there may be many by participation.”

blessedness is accounted the chiefest sufficiency, the chiefest power, respect, fame, and pleasure.

Are all these— sufficiency, power, and the rest—the good, in the sense that they are members of it, or rather are they referred to good as to the head?”

If all these were members of blessedness, they should differ one from another. For this is the nature of parts, that being divers they compose one body. But we have proved that all these are one and the same thing. Wherefore they are no members, otherwise blessedness should be compacted of one member, which cannot be.”

“It is manifest that the rest are to be referred to goodness; for sufficiency is desired, because it is esteemed good, and likewise power, because that likewise is thought to be good. And we may conjecture the same of respect, fame, and pleasure. Wherefore goodness is the sum and cause of all that is desired.

And contrariwise those things which are not good of their own nature, yet, if they seem such, are desired as if they were truly good. So that the sum, origin, and cause of all that is sought after is rightly thought to be goodness. And that on account of which a thing is sought, seemeth to be the chief object of desire.

since all things are desired in respect of goodness, they are not so much wished for as goodness itself.

the substance of God consisteth in nothing else but in goodness.

those things which are desired of many, are not true and perfect goods, because they differ one from another and, being separated, cannot cause complete and absolute goodness, which is only found when they are united as it were into one form and causality, that the same may be sufficiency, power, respect, fame, and pleasure? And except they be all one and the same thing, that they have nothing worth the desiring?”

“Those things, then, which, when they differ, are not good and when they are one, become good, are they not made good by obtaining unity?”

all that is good is good by partaking goodness?”

unity and goodness are the same. For those things have the same substance, which naturally...

everything that is doth so long remain and subsist as it is one, and perisheth and is dissolved so soon as it ceaseth to be one?”

“so long as the body and soul remain united, the living creature remaineth. But when this unity is dissolved by their separation, it is manifest that it perisheth, and is no longer a living creature.

everything continueth so long as it is one, and perisheth when it loseth unity.”

that which is agreeable to everything conserveth it, as that which is opposite causeth corruption.

even in living creatures the love of life proceedeth not from the will of the soul, but from the principles of nature. For the will many times embraceth death upon urgent occasions, which nature abhorreth;

the act of generation, by which alone the continuance of mortal things is maintained, is sometimes bridled by the will, though nature doth always desire it.

all things which are desire naturally stability of remaining, and eschew corruption.”

“Now that,” quoth she, “which desireth to continue and remain seeketh to have unity. For if this be taken away, being itself cannot remain.”

“All things then desire goodness, which thou mayest define thus: Goodness is that which is desired of all things.”

if there be anything to which all things hasten, that must be the chiefest of all goods.”

goodness is the end of all things.

This world could never have been compacted of so many divers and contrary parts, unless there were One that doth unite these so different things; and this disagreeing diversity of natures being united would separate and divide this concord, unless there were One that holdeth together that which He united.

Neither would the course of nature continue so certain, nor would the different parts hold so well- ordered motions in due places, times, causality, spaces and qualities, unless there were One who, Himself remaining quiet, disposeth and ordereth this variety of motions. This, whatsoever it be, by which things created continue and are moved, I call God, a name which all men use.”{51}

“He will need no outward helps to govern the world, otherwise, if He needed anything, He had not full sufficiency.”

“Since that God is deservedly thought to govern all things with the helm of goodness, and all these things likewise, as I have showed, hasten to goodness with their natural contention, can there be any doubt made but that they are governed willingly, and that they frame themselves of their own accord to their disposer’s beck, as agreeable and conformable to their ruler?”