rfidiam perhorrescis, sperne atque abice perniciosa ludentem. Nam quae
nunc tibi est tanti causa maeroris, haec eadem tranquillitatis esse
debuisset, Reliquit enim te quam non relicturam nemo umquam poterit esse
securus. An uero tu pretiosam aestimas abituram felicitatem? Et cara tibi
est fortuna praesens nec manendi fida et cum discesserit adlatura maerorem.
Quod si nec ex arbitrio retineri potest et calamitosos fugiens facit, quid
est aliud fugax quam futurae quoddam calamitatis indicium? Neque enim quod
ante oculos situm est, suffecerit intueri; rerum exitus prudentia metitur
eademque in alterutro mutabilitas nec formidandas fortunae minas nec
exoptandas facit esse blanditias. Postremo aequo animo toleres oportet
quidquid intra fortunae aream geritur, cum semel iugo eius colla
submiseris. Quod si manendi abeundique scribere legem uelis ei quam tu tibi
dominam sponte legisti, nonne iniurius fueris et inpatientia sortem
exacerbes quam permutare non possis? Si uentis uela committeres, non quo
uoluntas peteret sed quo flatus impellerent, promoueres; si aruis semina
crederes, feraces inter se annos sterilesque pensares. Fortunae te regendum
dedisti; dominae moribus oportet obtemperes. Tu uero uoluentis rotae
impetum retinere conaris? At, omnium mortalium stolidissime, si manere
incipit, fors esse desistit.

THE SECOND BOOK OF BOETHIUS

I.

After this she remained silent for a while; and, having by that her
modesty made me attentive, began in this wise: "If I be rightly informed
of the causes and condition of thy disease, thou languishest with the
affection of thy former fortune, and the change of that alone, as thou
imaginest, hath overthrown so much of thy mind. I know the manifold
illusions of that monster, exercising most alluring familiarity with
them whom she meaneth to deceive, to the end she may confound them with
intolerable grief, by forsaking them upon the sudden, whose nature,
customs, and desert, if thou rememberest, thou shalt know that thou
neither didst possess nor hast lost anything of estimation in it; and,
as I hope, I shall not need to labour much to bring these things to thy
remembrance, for thou wert wont, when she was present, and flattered
thee most, to assail her with manful words, and pursue her with
sentences taken forth of our most hidden knowledge. But every sudden
change of things happeneth not without a certain wavering and
disquietness of