Boethius and The Consolation of Philosophy
Boethius was a Roman senator and scholar in the service of Theodoric, the Ostrogothic king of Italy. Around 524, Theodoric had him imprisoned on a charge of treason and later put to death. While he waited for his sentence, Boethius wrote The Consolation of Philosophy.
In the book, Lady Philosophy visits him in his cell. She shows him that Fortune’s wheel gives and takes away, that wealth, power and fame are fragments of the true Good, and that God’s foreknowledge does not take away human freedom.
The song follows her argument from the rim of Fortune’s wheel to its still center.
Lyrics
Boethius lyrics
You count the iron, sentence, stone, and chain, And call them proof that justice speaks in vain. But Fortune turns because she cannot stay; What she can give, she also takes away.
The robe, the rank, the praise around your name Were borrowed sparks from Fortune’s restless flame.
Let her wheel go turning as it may; Everything she gives can pass away. Wealth and honor cannot make you whole; Seek the Good no prison bars can hold.
Boethius...
Every heart pursues what seems the good, Even when desire has misunderstood. Riches promise plenty; power, command; Fame offers borrowed praise from every land.
Lesser goods are fragments of the whole; Only the Highest Good can fill the soul.
Come from the rim and journey to the center; Change grows still the nearer that you enter. Fate moves outward through the course of time; Providence beholds the whole design.
You ask if knowledge makes your choosing vain; But knowing is not forcing like a chain. God sees freely what you freely do; His timeless sight does not compel what’s true.
What power has the man who wins a throne, Yet cannot rule the passions of his own? The deepest prison is not lock or chain; Vice makes reason servant to its reign.
Let her wheel go turning as it may; Everything she gives can pass away. Wealth and honor cannot make you whole; Seek the Good no prison bars can hold.
She may take the world from out your hands; She cannot move the center where Truth stands.
Boethius...