Nor yet does it appear to those men that they at all err, who are desirous to obtain this, that they need labour after nothing more. But they think that they are able to collect together all these goods, so that none may be excluded from the number. They therefore know no other good than the collecting of all the most precious things into their power, that they may have need of nothing besides them. But there is no one that has not need of some addition, except God alone. He has of his own enough, nor has he need of anything but that which he has in himself. Dost thou think, however, that they foolishly imagine that that thing is best deserving of all estimation, which they may consider most desirable? No, no. I know that it is not to be despised. How can that be evil, which the mind of every man considers to be good, and strives after, and desires to obtain? No, it is not evil: it is the highest good. Why is not power to be reckoned one of the highest goods of this present life? Is that to be esteemed vain and useless, which is the most useful of all these worldly things, that is, power? Is good fame and renown to be accounted nothing? No, no. It is not fit that any one account it nothing; for every man thinks that best which he most loves. Do we not know that no anxiety, or difficulties, or trouble, or pain, or sorrow, is happiness? What more, then, need we say about these felicities? Does not every man know what they are, and also know that they are the highest good? And yet almost every man seeks in very little things the best felicities; because he thinks that he may have them all, if he have that which he then chiefly wishes to obtain. This is, then, what they chiefly wish to obtain, wealth, and dignity, and authority, and this world's glory, and ostentation, and worldly lust. Of all this they are desirous, because they think that, through these things, they may obtain that there be not to them a deficiency of anything wished; neither of dignity, nor of power, nor of renown, nor of bliss. They wish for all this, and they do well that they desire it, though they seek it variously. By these things we may clearly perceive that every man is desirous of this, that may obtain the highest good, if they were able to discover it, or knew how to seek it rightly. But they do not seek it in the most right way. It is not of this world. he CAPUT XXV.t Đà se idom þa ðís spell aƒæð hefde. þa ongan he eft singan jðus cpæp. Ic pille nu mid ziddum zecýþan hu punSoplice Drihten pelt eallɲa gercearta mid dam bɲiðlum his anpealdes. J mid hfilceɲe endebyrdnesse he gestaþolap J zemetzað ealle gesceafta. J hu he hi hæfð zeheaþopade & gehæfte mid his unanbindendlicum pacentum. Þælc zesceaft bip heald on locen pip hiɲe zecynde. pære gecynde de heo to zesceapen pæƑ. buʊon monnum. J ɲumum englum. ða peoppap hpilum of hiopa zecýnde. Þpæt seo leo. ðeah hio pel tam se. J fæste ɲacentan hæbbe. I hire magister spiðe lufize. and eac ondræde. gif hit æfɲe zebýɲeð þ heo bloder onbijugð. heo forzit sona hiɲe nipan taman. J gemonð þær pildan gepunan hipe eldrana. onzinð þonne ɲýn í hiɲe ɲacentan brecan. J abit ærest hire ladteop. and siððan æzhpæt ðæs þe heo gefon mæz. ze monna. ze neata. Spa dop eac pudu fuglas. deah hi beon pel atemede. gif hi on dam puda peoppap. hi fopɲeoð heopa lapeofas puniaþ on heopa zecýnde. peah heopa laɲeopar him donne biodan pa ilcan mettas de hi æp tame mid gepenedon. ponne ne peccap hi para metta, zif hi þæs puda benuzon. Ac pinch him pуnrumpe him re peals on cpepe. and hi zehipan opeppa fuzela szemné. Spa bið eac þam treopum de him gecynde bip up heah to standanne. þeah ðu teo hpelcne boh of bune to pæne eoppan. гpelce pu bezan mæze. гpa þu hine alært. spа sprincp he up. 7 ppigao pip hir gecynder. Spa deð eac seo sunne. þeah heo ofer midne dæg onsize & lute to þære eoppan. eft heo recp hiɲe zecynde. I stigh on pa dæzlan pezar pip hipe upɲýnæг. J гpa hie ufoɲJurop. odde hio cýmp гpa up гpa hine уremert zecýnde bid. Spa dep ale zerceart. prizap pip his zecýndes. I zefazen bip gif hit æfpe to cuman mæz. Nij nan gesceaft gesceapen papa pe ne pilnize † hit piden cuman mæze ponan þe hit æn com. is to paste i to opsongnesse. Seo pært is mid Lode. J þær is Lods. Ac ale zerceaft hpeaprað on hiɲe selfɲe spа spа hрeol. J to pam heo rpa hpeaprap pheo eft cume pæn heo æn pær. J beo pilce pheo æn pær. donecan pe heo utan behpepfed rie. hio æp pær. 7 so heo æp byde:. t Boet. lib. iii. metrum 2.—Quantas rerum flectat habenas, &c. CHAPTER XXV. WHEN Wisdom had made this speech, then began he again. to sing, and thus said: I will now with songs declare how wonderfully the Lord governs all creatures with the bridles of his power, and with what order he establishes and regulates all creatures, and how he has restrained and bound them with his indissoluble chains, so that every creature is kept within bounds with its kind, the kind that it was fashioned to, except men and some angels, who sometimes depart from their kind. Thus the lion, though she be very tame, and have fast chains, and greatly love, and also fear her master; if it ever happen that she tastes blood, she immediately forgets her new tamer, and remembers the wild manner of her parents. She then begins roaring, and to break her chains, and bites first her leader, and afterwards whatsoever she may seize, both of men and of cattle. So do also wood-fowls. Though they be well tamed, if they return to the woods, they despise their teachers, and remain with their kind. Though their teachers then offer them the same meals with which they before allured them to become tame: they then care not for those meals, so that they may enjoy the wood. But it seems to them pleasanter, that the weald resound to them, and they hear the voice of other fowls. So is it also with trees, whose nature it is to stand up high. Though thou pull any bough down to the earth, such as thou mayest bend; as soon as thou lettest it go, so soon springs it up, and moves towards its kind. So doth also the sun. Though she after mid-day sink and incline to the earth, again she seeks her kind, and departs by unknown ways to her rising, and so hastens higher and higher, until she comes so far up as her highest nature is. So doth every creature. It tends towards its kind, and is joyful if it ever may come thereto. There is no creature formed which desires not that it may come thither whence it before came, that is, to rest and to tranquillity. The rest is with God, and it is God. But every creature turns on itself like a wheel: and so it thus turns that it may again come where it was before, and be the same that it was before, as often as it is turned round may be what it before was, and may do what it before did. CAPUT XXVI." 2 § I. DA re Virbom pe dir leop arungen1 hærde. Da ongan he er rpellian pur cpæp. Eala hpæt ze eopplican men. peah ge eop relpe nu son neatum gelice fop eopre dÿsize. hpæt ze peah mazon hpæt hpezo3 ongitan spelce eop mate be eoppum frumsceafte. is God. pone ropan Ƒɲuman and þone sopan ende ælcne zesælpæ ze ongitaþ deah ze hie fullice ne gecnapan.47 гpa þeah so zecýnd eop tihð to þam angite. ac eop tihþ3 spiþe manizfeald gedpola of þam andzite. Lepencað nu hpæþen men mæzen cuman to þam sopum zesælþum ðuɲh þao andpeaɲdan zesælþa. Forþam de fullneah ealle men cpeþað þ se seo se ze sælgosta. se þe pas eopplican zerelpa ealles hærp. hpepep nu micel feoh. oððe peoppscipe. odde eall þes andpeaɲda pela. mæge ænigne mon don ƒða gefæline † he nanes þinzes mapan ne þuɲfe.9 nese nese. ic pat þþ hi ne mazon. Ppi nis hit þonne on þý spipe speotol þ ðas andpeardan zodio ne sint na pa ropan god.10 Foppam de hi ne mazon ɲellan þ hi zehatap. Ac licettap hi gelæstan ne mazon. ponne hi gehatap pam pe hi lufian pillap pa sopan zesælpa. J aleogap him peah ma ponne hi him zelærtan. Foppam pe hi heoɲa nabbap ma ponne hi heopa habban. Lepenc du nu be de relfum. la Boetiur hpæðen du æffe auht unpot pære ða þa þu zesælzost pære."1 oððe hpæðer de ære æniger pillan pana pære ða ðu mæstne pelan hærdest. oððe hpæþer ðin poɲuld þa eall pære æfter ðinum pillan. Đa andrponode Boetius and cpæd. Nere la nere. Nær ic nærre zit nane hpile spa emnes modes. þær þe ic zemunan mæge. þæt ic eallunga pæpe opsong. †ic spa opropy pære pic nane gedrefednesse næfde. ne me næfre zit ne licode eall pic pisste.12 ne me nære nær ealler spa ic polde. peah ic hir mipe. Da andгроробе ге убот у срӕр. Ррі пæpe pu ponne zenoz eapm. J zenoz unhipy.13 peah pe puhte p du pelig pæne. donne pu open tpeza. oððe hæfdest † þu noldest. oððe næfdest þ pu poldest. Да апераробе Вoeriur 1 cpæp. Call me pœr гра гра pu ræbejt. Boet. lib. iii. prosa 3.-Vos quoque, O terrena, &c. 1 Cott. aruncgen. 4 Cott. oncnapen. 3 Cott. hpugu. 7 Cott. rie. 8 Cott. ealla. 9 Cott. bypre. 10 Cott. good. 11 þa þa þu gerælgost pæpe, deest in MS. Bod. 12 Cott. pirre. 13 Cott. unhydig. CHAPTER XXVI. § I. When Wisdom had sung this lay, then began he again to speak, and thus said: O ye earthly men, though ye now make yourselves like cattle by your folly, ye nevertheless can in some measure understand, as in a dream, concerning your origin, that is God. Ye perceive the true beginning, and the true end of all happiness, though ye do not fully know it. And nevertheless nature draws you to that knowledge, but very manifold error draws you from that knowledge. Consider now whether men can arrive at the true goods through these present goods; since almost all men say that he is happiest who possesses all these earthly goods. Can, then, much money, or dignity, or all this present wealth, make any man so happy that he may need nothing more? No, no. I know this, that they cannot. Why, is it not then from this very clear, that these present goods are not the true goods, because they cannot give what they promise? But they pretend to do what they are not able to fulfil, when they promise to those who are willing to love them, the true felicities, and tell lies to them more than they perform to them; for they are deficient in more of these felicities than they possess of them. Consider now concerning thyself, O Boethius, whether thou wert ever aught uneasy, when thou wert most prosperous? or whether there were ever to thee a want of anything desired, when thou hadst most wealth? or whether thy life were then all according to thy wish? Then answered Boethius, and said: No, O no! I was never yet at any time of so even mind, as far as I can remember, that I was altogether without care that I was so without care that I had no trouble: nor did all that I experienced ever yet please me, nor was it ever with me entirely as I wished, though I concealed it. Then answered Wisdom, and said: Wast thou not, then, poor enough, and unhappy enough, though it seemed to thee that thou wert rich; when thou either hadst that which thou wouldest not, or hadst not that which thou Wouldest? Then answered Boethius, and said: All was to |