The Consolation of Philosophy

Because they cannot endure in any other way,⁶
Unless, with love turned back again,
They flow back to the Cause that gave them being.

All things strive to be held by the end of good: since those things which God has founded cannot persevere in any other way unless, with love turned back again, a certain circuit of causes is made.

NOTES

are, God does not impel these bodies except toward Himself: whence the same bodies, inasmuch as they strive to be 'held by the end of good' in this way, tend equally toward God. And thus a circuit of causes is made, namely, of the first cause and the final end; insofar as all things that arise from God

as from a first cause, return to God himself as to a final end: so that without that circuit of both love and causes, those things which God 'gave to be' could not endure in any other way.

PROSE VII.

Do you now therefore see, what follows from all these things we have said? What is it? I said. That all fortune is entirely good, she replied.²⁰ And how, I said, can that be? Pay attention, she said: Since every fortune, whether pleasant or harsh, is brought about for the sake of either rewarding or exercising the good, or punishing and correcting the wicked, it is clear that all fortune is good, as it is established to be either just or useful. A very true line of reasoning, I said: and if I consider the Providence or Fate you taught a little while ago, this opinion is braced with firm strengths. But if you please, let us count it among those things you called inopinabiles incredulous/paradoxical a little while ago. Why?

²⁰ Both fortunes, namely prosperous and adverse, are good. ˣ How. ʸ Incredible. ᶻ Why.

7 Mss. corrigendive.—8 Deferatur; omnis bona est. Delph. Hack.—9 Qui

NOTES

ˣ Inopinabiles Incredible] Incredible, and, as Cicero says, 'paradoxical.' Clearly the common people, judging by precipitation and prejudice, think it incredible,