The Love of Wisdom Has A Face ~~ Ezra Kennedy
Upon my first reading I did not understand but continued to read. The depiction of Philosophy interested me. Philosophy as depicted is a powerful woman fluctuating in height, but solid in her stature. A woman of unrivalled beauty and a holy look of “savage fire” in her eyes (a look of extreme youth but wosdom that outlived a single lifetime) towers over Boethius clothed in the finest thread — a dress woven skilfully by Philosophy herself. The woman holds Books and one hand and a sceptre in the other. The way Philosophy is pictured reminds me of Lady Liberty, she who’s size differed depending on where one stands, she who champions freedom, Justice and Truth.
Book 1, pp. 6
“She had a holy look, and her eyes showed fire and pierced with a more-than-human penetration. One could hardly guess her age; her face was vital and glowing, yet she seemed too full of years to belong to this generation. Her height was hard to tell; at one moment it was that if any ordinary human but at another she seemed to strike the clouds with the crown of her head.”
Philosophy in Book one, begins to treat Boethius of an illness that has plagued him, because illness he has cannot be tended to with conventional medicines. He misses who he used to be, he’s finds himself in a state of dissatisfaction and complains of the consequences of fortunes game. He’s complaining and griping about the outcome of a game he voluntarily agreed to play, knowing we’ll who fortune is.
When philosophy began scolding Boethius in the tone of Fortune, she basically tells him thay man will never be completely satisfied with his life, he will never find perfect happiness as long as he searches externally for what is already placed in him. Somehow as humans ( I guess our of extrinsic habit or observational habit) we tend to look to outside objects, people or ideas to give us what only God can. In the expense of wealth we seek political power only to have to fight tooth and nail to keep something that corrupts us. We’d do anything for wealth, power, fame and inheritance only to have our Joy turn to ashes in our mouths.
Metrum 2 — Book 2
Book 1, pp. 6
“She had a holy look, and her eyes showed fire and pierced with a more-than-human penetration. One could hardly guess her age; her face was vital and glowing, yet she seemed too full of years to belong to this generation. Her height was hard to tell; at one moment it was that if any ordinary human but at another she seemed to strike the clouds with the crown of her head.”
Philosophy in Book one, begins to treat Boethius of an illness that has plagued him, because illness he has cannot be tended to with conventional medicines. He misses who he used to be, he’s finds himself in a state of dissatisfaction and complains of the consequences of fortunes game. He’s complaining and griping about the outcome of a game he voluntarily agreed to play, knowing we’ll who fortune is.
When philosophy began scolding Boethius in the tone of Fortune, she basically tells him thay man will never be completely satisfied with his life, he will never find perfect happiness as long as he searches externally for what is already placed in him. Somehow as humans ( I guess our of extrinsic habit or observational habit) we tend to look to outside objects, people or ideas to give us what only God can. In the expense of wealth we seek political power only to have to fight tooth and nail to keep something that corrupts us. We’d do anything for wealth, power, fame and inheritance only to have our Joy turn to ashes in our mouths.
Metrum 2 — Book 2
If Plenty should pour from her full horn
wealth abundant as sea-stirred sand,
or countless as stars in the shining night sky,
nothing stopping her hand—
Even if God answered prayers with gold,
still this gain would seem nothing.
PS- I commented on Nate’s and Joshua’s posts.
PS- I commented on Nate’s and Joshua’s posts.
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