rom eternity, foreseeth, and by predestination
disposeth of everything by their merits.

II.

[Greek: Pant' ephoran kai pant' epakouein][168]
Puro clarum lumine Phoebum
Melliflui canit oris Homerus:
Qui tamen intima uiscera terrae
Non ualet aut pelagi radiorum 5
Infirma perrumpere luce.
Haud sic magni conditor orbis;
Huic ex alto cuncta tuenti
Nulla terrae mole resistunt,
Non nox atris nubibus obstat. 10
Quae sint, quae fuerint ueniantque
Vno mentis cernit in ictu;
Quem, quia respicit omnia solus,
Verum possis dicere solem."

[168] disponit [Greek: Pant' ephoron kai pant' epakogon] _sic Peiper et
similiter editores priores. Versum in rectum locum Engelbrecht restituit,
quam quidem emendationem noster interpres uidetur praesensisse._

II.

Sweet Homer[169] sings the praise
Of Phoebus clear and bright,
And yet his strongest rays
Cannot with feeble light
Cast through the secret ways
Of earth and seas his sight,
Though 'all lies open to his eyes.'[170]
But He who did this world devise--

The earth's vast depths unseen
From his sight are not free,
No clouds can stand between,
He at one time doth see
What are, and what have been,
And what shall after be.
Whom, since he only vieweth all,
You rightly the true Sun may call."

[169] Cf. _Il._ iv. 277, _Od._ xii. 323.

[170] This line renders the Greek with which Boethius begins the poem,
adapting Homer's phrase "all surveying, all o'erhearing." See the
critical note on p. 372.

III.

Tum ego: "En," inquam, "difficiliore rursus ambiguitate confundor."
"Quaenam," inquit, "ista est? Iam enim quibus perturbere coniecto."
"Nimium," inquam, "aduersari ac repugnare uidetur praenoscere uniuersa deum
et esse ullum libertatis arbitrium. Nam si cuncta prospicit deus neque
falli ullo modo potest, euenire necesse est quod prouidentia futurum esse
praeuiderit. Quare si ab aeterno non facta hominum modo sed etiam consilia
uoluntatesque praenoscit, nulla erit arbitrii libertas; neque enim uel
factum aliud ullum uel quaelibet exsistere poterit uoluntas nisi quam
nescia falli prouidentia diuina praesenserit. Nam si aliorsum quam prouisae
sunt detorqueri ualent, non iam erit futuri firma praescientia, sed opinio
potius incerta, quod de deo credere nefas iudico. Neque enim illam probo
rationem qua se