it."* His friend, the fenator Albinus, had already been accused and convicted of the crime of hoping for the freedom of his country. fended him, and had boldly faid,

Boëthius had de

"If Albinus be

The

criminal, the Senate and myself are all guilty of the fame crime. If we are innocent, Albinus is equally entitled to the protection of the laws." defender of Albinus was foon in the fame pofition as his client, and he alfo was denied the protection of the laws. He was not allowed to face his accufers, and was deprived of all means of defence. While a prifoner in the town of Pavia, the diftrict Senate pronounced judgment on the philofopher, condemning him to death and confifcating his property. It was during his imprisonment at Pavia that he wrote the "Confolatio;" and thus nobly employed, he calmly awaited the execution of his fentence. death was cruel in the extreme. The executioners faftened a strong cord round his head, and tightened it until his eyes were almost forced from their fockets; they then beat him with clubs until he died.

His

Thus fhamefully perished the last of the great Roman authors. In death as in life, the philofopher was worthy of himself; and his renown was nobly

*Refpondiffem Canii verbo: qui cum a Cæfare Germanici filio confcius contra fe factæ conjurationis fuiffe diceretur; Si ego, inquit, fciffem, tu nefciffes.-L. 1. pros. iv.

won and richly deferved. Few books have had a "fitter audience" than the prison-book of Boëthius. The curious in fuch matters will find in the Delphin edition of the "De Consolatione Philosophiæ” a long lift of eulogies from illuftrious pens; but to Englishmen it will be enough to mention that Alfred the Great thought it worthy of a tranflation into Saxon, and executed it himself; and that this book was the chief companion and folace of Elizabeth in her time of confinement and trouble. Two nobler readers and lovers no author ever yet obtained.

When we confider that Boëthius was a Chriftian, and that, befides his book on the Trinity, he had compofed other religious works, we may be furprifed that his prifon hours were not employed in writing a Confolatio Religionis rather than a Confolatio Philofophie. The influence of his Christianity is doubtlefs to be traced in his work, and it poffeffes a deeply religious character; but it might almost have been written by a pious Greek who had never heard of the Saviour. There is no allufion to Christ throughout the book. All the quotations are from pagan authors. He difcourfes upon the vanity of all temporal things, difcuffes queftions of Good and Evil, Fate and Providence, Neceffity and Free-will, in the Platonic fpirit, and the virtue of that greatest of the Greeks, and not the faith of the Chriftian, is his higheft fource of happiness

nay, is happiness itself. It is the purest example we have of an author adhering rigidly to his thefis. There are no indications that Boëthius knew of or felt a deeper or a purer fource of confolation than philofophy. His placing Providence above Fate is Chriftian in its thought, but its treatment is fimply philofophic. Socrates and his fublime death, and not Chrift and His ftill fublimer life, fuffering, and facrifice, is his example. The martyrdom of the Apostles and the early Christians are paffed over, and the Christian philofopher finds his peace in, and gathers his confolation and encouragement from, the heroes of pagan antiquity. This is a curious -perhaps an unexampled-inftance of a man who has known the highest, seeking in the hour of his deepest suffering and forrow, and finding joy and peace and confolation in, a lower element of thought and inquiry. A man, who has known the bleffedness of Christianity, voluntarily turns from that pure and holy and never-failing fource, and in the hourof adverfity and death feeks his peace and places his hopes in the cold region of abstract and abstruse philofophy. The cafe is unique in the history of letters.

Paffing over this peculiarity, the "Confolatio" is a noble book. It is worthy of being the clofing work of the claffic mind. In its pages are enshrined the pureft and the nobleft thoughts of old philo

fophy. A finer eulogy of virtue and its benign and univerfal bleffings was never penned. To the lone man in exile and suffering appears the divine vision of Philofophy, and holds high difcourfe with the favoured prifoner on life, and death, and virtue, and happiness; on good and evil, on "fate, free-will, foreknowledge absolute,” and all the moot questions of philofophy and metaphyfics, in a high and noble tone, which recalls to mind the nobleft of the Platonic Dialogues. The work is divided into five books; and in short chapters of alternate profe and verfe, fomewhat in the manner of ftrophe and antiftrophe, the various fubjects are difcuffed. The verfe portions are moral deductions from, or illustrations of, the prose discourse; some of them of much beauty, and poffeffing a pure vein of poetry. The mind thus thrown entirely upon itself, cut off from the outer world and all its fnares and attractions, finds that wealth, and station, and fame, and the things which are usually the prizes for which men struggle, are after all but vanity of vanities. It echoes the cry of Solomon; and exclaims to all these things, "vanitas vanitatum." But, unlike the sceptic of Ecclefiaftes, the Roman does not reft here. He feeks for confolation and peace in the great Author of all things, and finds that, although the golden apples of the world are but ashes in the mouth, God and virtue are realities, and in them

happiness is to be found. Earth is not to him a wild weltering chaos, but a divinely-ordered place in which men are to be tried and tefted; and thus profperity and adverfity are but minifters in the hands of the All-wife to lead men to Him the one and only good. Hear how eloquently Boëthius discourses on adverfity: "For I deem that adverfity is better than profperity. The one always deceives, even when under the appearance of felicity it feems flattery; the other is always true, even when by changing it proves its mutability. The one deceives, the other instructs. The one, by the lying pretence of good things, fetters the minds of those who enjoy it; the other fets them free by the knowledge of their fragile happiness. Thus thou feest the one fluctuating, careless, and always ignorant of itself; the other fober, active, and prudent, by the exercise of adverfity itself. Laftly, profperity, by its blandishments, draws men away from the true good; while adverfity, for the most part, reclaims them, bringing them back to the true good. Doft thou think that it is to be judged the least of its benefits, that this fharp and has detected the minds of thy

rigorous fortune

faithful, that she doubtful faces of

showed thee the fteady and the your companions, and departing took away her own and left thee thine? At how great a price wouldft thou have purchased this privilege, when thou

V