Book 1, Chapter 5 | The Consolation of Philosophy

Chapter Summary

Boethius laments God’s seeming absence from governing human affairs, to which Philosophy responds with a rebuke: His deepest exile is not physical but spiritual. He is not yet ready for a complete cure, and so for now she will only gently prepare him for that.

About The Consolation of Philosophy

Written in the 6th-century from a prison cell as the author awaits execution for a crime he did not commit, The Consolation of Philosophy is a dialogue between Boethius and a mysterious woman—Lady Philosophy—who helps him rediscover wisdom and virtue.

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