Consolation of Philosophy, The

<h3><SPAN name="Page_231" id="Page_231" />II.</h3> <p>'I am following needfully,' said I, 'and I agree that it is as thou sayest. But in this series of linked causes is there any freedom left to our will, or does the chain of fate bind also the very motions of our souls?'</p> <p>'There is freedom,' said she; 'nor, indeed, can any creature be rational, unless he be endowed with free will. For that which hath the natural use of reason has the faculty of discriminative judgment, and of itself distinguishes what is to be shunned or desired. Now, everyone seeks what he judges desirable, and avoids what he thinks should be shunned. Wherefore, beings endowed with reason possess also the faculty of free choice and refusal. But I suppose this faculty not equal alike in all. The higher Divine essences possess a clear-sighted judgment, an uncorrupt will, and an effective power of accomplish<SPAN name="Page_232" id="Page_232" />ing their wishes. Human souls must needs be comparatively free while they abide in the contemplation of the Divine mind, less free when they pass into bodily form, and still less, again, when they are enwrapped in earthly members. But when they are given over to vices, and fall from the possession of their proper reason, then indeed their condition is utter slavery. For when they let their gaze fall from the light of highest truth to the lower world where darkness reigns, soon ignorance blinds their vision; they are disturbed by baneful affections, by yielding and assenting to which they help to promote the slavery in which they are involved, and are in a manner led captive by reason of their very liberty. Yet He who seeth all things from eternity beholdeth these things with the eyes of His providence, and assigneth to each what is predestined for it by its merits:</p> <div class="blockquot"><p>'&quot;All things surveying, all things overhearing.&quot;' </p> </div> <h3><SPAN name="Page_233" id="Page_233" />SONG II.<br/>The True Sun.</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span>Homer with mellifluous tongue<br/></span> <span>Ph&#339;bus' glorious light hath sung,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Hymning high his praise;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Yet <em>his</em> feeble rays<br/></span> <span>Ocean's hollows may not brighten,<br/></span> <span>Nor earth's central gloom enlighten.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>But the might of Him, who skilled<br/></span> <span>This great universe to build,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Is not thus confined;<br/></span> <span class="i2">Not earth's solid rind,<br/></span> <span>Nor night's blackest canopy,<br/></span> <span>Baffle His all-seeing eye.<br/></span></div> <div class="stanza"> <span>All that is, hath been, shall be,<br/></span> <span>In one glance's compass, He<br/></span> <span class="i2">Limitless descries;<br/></span> <span class="i2">And, save His, no eyes<br/></span> <span>All the world survey&mdash;no, none!<br/></span> <span><em>Him</em>, then, truly name the Sun.<br/></span></div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />