BOETHIUS 9
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ording to his deserts, nor indeed remains always to any-one. Consider first concerning birth : if any one boast of it,how vain and how useless is the boast ; for every one knowsthat all men come from one father and from one mother.Or again, concerning the people's esteem, and concerningtheir applause. I know not why we rejoice at it. Thoughthey be illustrious whom the vulgar applaud, yet are theymore illustrious and more rightly to be applauded who aredignified by virtues. For no man is really the greater orthe more praiseworthy for the excellence of another, or forhis virtues, if he himself has it not. Art thou ever the fairerfor another man's fairness? A man is full little the betterthough he have a good father, if he himself is incapable ofanjrthing. Therefore I advise that thou rejoice in othermen's good and their nobility, so far only, that thou ascribeit not to thyself as thine own. Because every man's good,and his nobility, is more in the mind than in the flesh. Thisonly, indeed, I know of good in nobility; that it shamesmany a man, if he be worse than his ancestors were ; andtherefore he strives with all his power to reach the mannersof some one of the best, and his virtues. When Wisdom had finished this speech, then began heagain to sing about the same, and said: Truly all men hada like beginning, for they all came from one father and fromone mother: they are all, moreover, born alike. That is nowonder, because one God is father of all creatures; for hemade them all, and governs them all. He gives light to thesun, and to the moon, and places all the stars. He hascreated men on the earth, joined together the soul and thebody by his power, and made all men equally noble in theiroriginal nature. Why do ye then lift up yourselves aboveother men, on accotmt of your birth, without cause, sinceye can find nOne unnoble, but all are equally noble, if ye arewilling to remember the creation, and the Creator, andmoreover the birth of every one of you? But true nobilityis in the mind, not in the flesh, as we have before said. Butevery man, who is altogether subject to vices, forsakes hisMaker, and his first origin, and his nobility, and thence be-come degraded till he is unnoble. He began to sing again, and said: Happy is the man who i lo KING ALFRED'S can behold the clear fountain of the highest good, and canput away from himself the darkness of his mind ! We willnow from old fables relate to thee a story. It happenedformerly that there was a harper in the country called Thrace,which was in Greece. The harper was inconceivably good.His name was Orpheus. He had a very excellent wife, whowas called Eurydice. Then began men to say concerningthe harper, that he could harp so that the wood moved, andthe stones stirred themselves at the sound, and wild beastswould run thereto, and stand as if they were tame ; so still,that though men or hounds pursued them, they shunnedthem not. Then said they, that the harper's wife shoulddie, and her soul should be led to hell. Then should theharper become so sorrowful that he could not remain amongother men, but frequented the wood, and sat on the moun-tains, both day and night, weeping and harping, so that thewoods shook, and the rivers stood still, and no hart shunnedany lion nor hare any hound ; nor did cattle know any hatred,or any fear of others, for the pleasure of the sound. Then itseemed to the harper that nothing in this world pleased him.Then thought he that he would seek the gods of hell,and endeavor to allure them with his harp, and pray thatthey would give him back his wife. When he came thither,then should there come toward him the dog of hell, whosename was Cerberus : he should have three heads, and beganto wag his tail, and play with him for his harping. Thenwas there also a very horrible gatekeeper, whose nameshould be Charon. He had also three heads, and he wasvery old. Then began the harper to beseech him that hewould protect him while he was there, and bring him thenceagain safe. Then did he promise that to him, because hewas desirous of the unaccustomed sound. Then went hefarther, until he met the fierce goddesses, whom the com-mon people called Parcae, of whom they say, that they knowno respect for any man, but punish every man according tohis deeds ; and of whom they say, that they control everyman's fortune. Then began he to implore their mercy.Then began they to weep with him. Then went he farther,and all the inhabitants of hell ran toward him, and led himto their king ; and all began to speak with him, and to pray
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