BOETHIUS 23
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mile, and said to me: Thou urgest me to the greatest argu-ment, and the most difficult to explain. This explanationall philosophers have sought, and very diligently laboredabout, and scarcely any one has come to the end of the dis-cussion. For it is the nature of the discussion and of theinquiry, that always when there is one doubt removed, thenis there an innumerable multitude raised. So men in oldtales say, that there was a serpent which had nine heads,and whenever any one of them was cut off, then grew thereseven from that one head. Then happened it that the cele-brated Hercules came there, who was the son of Jove. Thencould not he imagine how he by any art might overcomethem, until he surroxmded them with wood, and then burnedthem with fire. So is this argument which thou askestabout: with difficulty comes any man out of it, if he enterinto it He never comes to a clear end, unless he have anunderstanding as sharp as the fire. For he who will inquireconcerning this ought first to know what the simple provi-dence of God is, and what fate is, and what happens bychance, and what the divine knowledge is, and the divinepredestination, and what the freedom of men is. Now thoumayest perceive how weighty and difficult all this is toexplain.
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