The Consolation of Philosophy

I

While I was thus silently pondering within myself and recording my sorrowful complaints with my pen, it seemed to me that there appeared above my head a woman of a countenance exceeding venerable. Her eyes were bright as fire and of a more than human keenness; /her complexion was lively, her vigor showed no trace of enfeeblement; and yet her years were quite full, and she plainly seemed not of our age and time. Her stature was difficult to judge. At one moment it exceeded not the common height, at another her forehead seemed to strike the sky; and whenever she raised her head higher, she began to pierce within the very heavens and to baffle the eyes of those who looked upon her. Her garments were of an imperishable fabric, wrought with the finest threads and of the most delicate workmanship; and these, as her own lips afterwards assured me, she had herself woven with her own hands. The beauty of this vesture had been somewhat tarnished by age and neglect, and wore that dingy look which marble contracts from exposure. On the lowermost edge was inwoven the Greek letter Π (Pi), on the topmost the letter Θ (Theta)Π stands for the political life, the life of action; Θ stands for the theoretical life, the life of thought., and between the two were to be seen steps, like a staircase, from the lower to the upper letter.