The Consolation of Philosophy

NOTES

Expose your backs] By a similitude taken from soldiers, for whom it is shameful—when great rewards are proposed and noble leaders are going before—to turn their backs in battle, it is signified that it is equally shameful for the human mind, when eternal life is proposed and many holy men show the example, to be averted from God

and converted to other things. Hence it is added: "The conquered earth grants the stars," as if to say: whatever mind unconquered has defeated the body, this will eternally adhere to God. Matt. 11: "The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force."