'While Fortune then favoured you, it seems you flaunted her, though she cherished you as her own darling.You carried off a bounty which she had never granted to any citizen before.Will you then balance accounts with Fortune? This is the first time that she has looked upon you with a grudging eye.If you think of your happy and unhappy circumstances both in number and in kind, you will not be able to say that you have not been fortunate until now.And if you think that you were not fortunate because these things have passed away which then seemed to bring happiness, these things too are passing away, which you now hold to be miserable, wherefore you cannot think that you are wretched now.Is this your first entrance upon the stage of life? Are you come here unprepared and a stranger to the scene? Think you that there is any certainty in the affairs of mankind, when you know that often one swift hour can utterly destroy a man? For though the chances of life may seldom be depended upon, yet the last day of a lifetime seems to be the end of Fortune's power, though it perhaps would stay.What, think you, should we therefore say; that you desert her by dying, or that she deserts you by leaving you? ' Page 34'When o'er the heaven Phoebus from his rose-red car begins to shed his light abroad, his flames oppress the paling stars and blunt their whitened rays.When the grove grows bright in spring with roses 'neath the west wind's warming breath, let but the cloudy gale once wildly blow, and their beauty is gone, the thorns alone remain.Often the sea is calmly glistening bright with all untroubled waves, but as often does the north wind stir them up, making the troubling tempest boil.If then the earth's own covering so seldom constant stays, if its changes are so great, shalt thou trust the brittle fortunes of mankind, have faith in fleeting good?
For this is sure, and this is fixed by everlasting law, that naught which is brought to birth shall constant here abide.'
Then I answered her,' Cherisher of all the virtues, you tell me but the truth: I cannot deny my rapid successes and my prosperity.
But it is such remembrances that torment me more than others.For of all suffering from Fortune, the unhappiest misfortune is to have known a happy fortune.'
'But,' said Philosophy,' you are paying the him penalty for your mistaken expectations, and with this you cannot justly charge your life's circumstances.If you are affected by this empty name of Fortune's gift of happiness, you must listen while I recall how many and how great are your sources of happiness: and thus, if you have possessed that which is the most Page 35precious among all Fortune's gifts, and if that is still safe and unharmed in your possession, you will never, while you keep these better gifts, be able to justly charge Fortune with unkindness.Firstly, your wife's father, Symmachus, is still living and hale; and what more precious glory has the human race than him? And he, because your worth is undiminished and your life still so valuable, is mourning for the injustice you suffer, this man who is wholly made up of wisdom and virtue.Again, your wife lives, a woman whose character is full of virtue, whose modesty excels its kind;a woman who (to put in a word the gifts she brought you) is like her father.
She lives, and, hating this life, for your sake alone she clings to it.
Herein only will I yield to allow you unhappiness; she pines with tears and grief through her longing for you.Need I speak of your sons who have both been consuls, and whose lives, as when they were boys, are yet bright with the character of their grandfather and their father? Wherefore, since mortals desire exceedingly to keep a hold on life, how happy you should be, knew you but your blessings, since you have still what none doubts to be dearer than life itself? Wherefore now dry your tears.For-tune's hatred has not yet been so great as to destroy all your holds upon happiness:
the tempest that is fallen upon you is not too great for you: your anchors hold yet firm, and they should keep ever nigh to you confidence in the present and hope for future time.Page 36'And may they continue to hold fast,' said I,' that is my prayer: while they are firm, we will reach the end of our voyage, however things may be.But you see how much my glory has departed.'
And she answered,' We have made some progress, if you are not now weary entirely of your present lot.But I cannot bear this dallying so softly, so long as you complain that your happiness lacks aught, so long as you are full of sorrow and care.Whose happiness is so firmly established that he has no quarrel from any side with his estate of life? For the condition of our welfare is a matter fraught with care: either its completeness never appears, or it never remains.One man's wealth is abundant, but his birth and breeding put him to shame.Another is famous for his noble birth, but would rather be unknown because he is hampered by his narrow means.A third is blessed with wealth and breeding, but bewails his life because he has no wife.Another is happy in his marriage, but has no children, and saves his wealth only for an heir that is no son of his.Another is blessed with children, but weeps tears of sorrow for the misdeeds of son or daughter.
So none is readily at peace with the lot his fortune sends him.For in each case there is that which is unknown to him who has not experienced it, and which brings horror to him who has experienced it.Consider further, that the feelings of the most fortunate men are the most easily affected, wherefore, unless all Page 37their desires are supplied, such men, being unused to all adversity, are cast down by every little care: so small are the troubles which can rob them of complete happiness.
