The Consolation of Philosophy

Behold the heights of the highest heaven.
There, by a just covenant of things,
The stars keep their ancient peace.
The Sun, moved by his glowing fire,
Does not impede the cold chariot of the Moon:
Nor does the Bear, which on the highest peak of the world
Turns its rapid movements,
Never washed in the western deep,
Seeing other stars submerged,
Desire to dip its flames in the Ocean.
Always with fair alternations of time
Vesper announces the late shadows,
And Lucifer leads back the nourishing day.
Thus, reciprocal love restores the eternal
Courses: thus, in the starry...

...vertices of the sublime heaven. Here the stars retain the ancient harmony of things, by a certain covenant. The sun, moved by splendid flame, does not hinder the cold chariot of the Moon: nor does the Bear, which turns around the highest pole of the world, although it has never been washed by the western ocean on this side, while it sees other stars washed on the other, strive to wash its own fires in this same sea. Always by alternate but just succession of time, the evening star indicates the nocturnal shadows, and the same morning star brings back the fertile light. Thus, reciprocal love repairs the perpetual motions: thus, discordant war has been ejected from the regions...

NOTES

[...] we see observed first in the stars; then in the elements; afterwards in the seasons of the year themselves; finally in all living bodies: about which Philosophy will speak separately.
1 The stars keep their ancient peace] 1. The aforementioned laws of Providence are observed in the stars, namely in the Sun, the Moon, the Bear, Lucifer, and the other stars. For although the Sun is such a luminous body that it can be held to be fire, according to that of Ecclesiasticus 43: ‘The sun burning the mountains, exhaling fiery rays;’ the Moon, however, is such an opaque body that, unless it shone with borrowed light, it ought to be held cold rather than hot, yet the Sun is moved in such a way that it does not impede the orbit of the Moon. Similarly, the ‘Bear,’ near to the pole to which it gave its name, is moved around that same pole in such a way that, while other stars set, it most constantly alternates its own turns. So true is it that the stars observe the prescribed laws of Providence. But about ‘Lucifer’ (Metre 5, Book 1), about the ‘Bear’ (Metre 5, Book IV), and about the stars which, when they set, are said by poets to be submerged in the ocean, it has been said elsewhere.