H.R. JAMES, M.A., CH. CH. OXFORD.


Quantumlibet igitur sæviant mali, sapienti tamen corona non
decidet, non arescet.

Melioribus animum conformaveris, nihil opus est judice præmium
deferente, tu te ipse excellentioribus addidisti; studium ad pejora
deflexeris, extra ne quæsieris ultorem, tu te ipse in deteriora
trusisti.

LONDON:
ELLIOT STOCK, 62, PATERNOSTER ROW.

1897.




PREFACE.

The book called 'The Consolation of Philosophy' was throughout the
Middle Ages, and down to the beginnings of the modern epoch in the
sixteenth century, the scholar's familiar companion. Few books have
exercised a wider influence in their time. It has been translated into
every European tongue, and into English nearly a dozen times, from King
Alfred's paraphrase to the translations of Lord Preston, Causton,
Ridpath, and Duncan, in the eighteenth century. The belief that what
once pleased so widely must still have some charm is my excuse for
attempting the present translation. The great work of Boethius, with its