“Not even the blowing winds are random,” says Boethius rhapsodically. In other words, Boethius closed his eyes, looked at the earth in his mind’s eye, watched its seasons springing up and falling away, and perceived the heavens rotating, all in ordered rhythms. This is what Boethius, in his lesser-known work De musica, called “the music of the cosmos.” For Boethius, as for Cicero, there is a rational order that keeps the world in balance, keeping it from spinning out of control. It ensures that elements of different kinds bond properly to one another; it regulates how the seasons cycle in an
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