The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Consolation of Philosophy, by Boethius

This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

Title: The Consolation of Philosophy

Author: Boethius

Release Date: December 11, 2004 [EBook #14328]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY ***

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Karina Aleksandrova and the PG Online
Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Greek:
homos de kai en toutois dialampei to kalon,
epeidan phere tis eukolos pollas kai megalas
atychias, me di analgesian, alla gennadas
on kai megalopsychos.]

Aristotle's 'Ethics,' I., xi. 12.

[Illustration: Diptych representing Narius Manlius Boethius, father of
Anicius Manlius Severinus Boethius. The inscription in full would run
thus:--

NARIVS MANLIVS BOETHIVS VIR CLARISSIMVS ET INLVSTRIS
EXPRAEFECTVS PRAETORIO PRAEFECTVS VRBIS ET
COMES CONSVL ORDINARIVS ET PARTICIVS

(_For description vid. Preface, p. vi_)]

THE CONSOLATION OF PHILOSOPHY OF BOETHIUS.

Translated into English Prose and Verse

by

H.R. JAMES, M.A., CH. CH. OXFORD.

Quantumlibet igitur saeviant mali, sapienti tamen corona non
decidet, non arescet.

Melioribus animum conformaveris, nihil opus est judice praemium
deferente, tu te ipse excellentioribus addidisti; studium ad pejora
deflexeris, extra ne quaesieris ultorem, tu te ipse in deteriora
trusisti.

LONDON:
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1897.

PREFACE.

The book called 'The Consolation of Philosophy' was throughout the
Middle Ages, and down to the beginnings of the modern epoch in the
sixteenth century, the scholar's familiar companion. Few books have
exercised a wider influence in their time. It has been translated into
every European tongue, and into English nearly a dozen times, from King
Alfred's paraphrase to the translations of Lord Preston, Causton,
Ridpath, and Duncan, in the eighteenth century. The belief that what
once pleased so widely must still have some charm is my excuse for
attempting the present translation. The great work of Boethius, with its
alternate prose and verse, skilfully fitted together like dialogue and
chorus in a