dei nemo satis potest nec admirari nec
conqueri."

Tum illa: "Et esset," inquit, "infiniti stuporis omnibusque horribilius
monstris, si, uti tu aestimas, in tanti uelut patrisfamilias dispositissima
domo uilia uasa colerentur, pretiosa sordescerent. Sed non ita est. Nam si
ea quae paulo ante conclusa sunt inconuulsa seruantur, ipso de cuius nunc
regno loquimur auctore cognosces semper quidem potentes esse bonos, malos
uero abiectos semper atque inbecillos nec sine poena umquam esse uitia nec
sine praemio uirtutes, bonis felicia, malis semper infortunata contingere
multaque id genus quae sopitis querelis firma te soliditate corroborent. Et
quoniam uerae formam beatitudinis me dudum monstrante uidisti, quo etiam
sita sit agnouisti, decursis omnibus quae praemittere necessarium puto,
uiam tibi quae te domum reuehat ostendam. Pennas etiam tuae menti quibus se
in altum tollere possit adfigam, ut perturbatione depulsa sospes in patriam
meo ductu, mea semita, meis etiam uehiculis reuertaris.

THE FOURTH BOOK OF BOETHIUS

I.

When Philosophy had sung these verses with a soft and sweet voice,
observing due dignity and gravity in her countenance and gesture, I, not
having altogether forgotten my inward grief, interrupted her speech
which she was about to continue, and said: "O thou who bringest us to
see true light, those things which hitherto thou hast treated of have
manifestly appeared both to be divine when contemplated apart, and
invincible when supported by thy reasons, and what thou hast uttered,
though the force of grief had made me forget it of late, yet heretofore
I was not altogether ignorant of it. But this is the chiefest cause of
my sorrow, that since the governor of all things is so good, there can
either be any evil at all, or that it pass unpunished. Which alone I
beseech thee consider, how much admiration it deserveth. But there is
another greater than this; for wickedness bearing rule and sway, virtue
is not only without reward, but lieth also trodden under the wicked's
feet, and is punished instead of vice. That which things should be done
in the kingdom of God, who knoweth all things, can do all things, but
will do only that which is good, no man can sufficiently admire nor
complain."

To which she answered: "It were indeed infinitely strange, and
surpassing all monsters, if, as thou conceivest, in the best-ordered
house of so great an househ