Page:The Classical Heritage of the Middle Ages.djvu/73

IV] THE TRANSMISSION OF LETTERS 66 in ill : so it might be an encouragement to all unfor- tunates. In easy, attractive modes of statement, the Conso- lation of Philosophy sets forth ordinary, universally valid thoughts upon the uncertainty of fortune and the emptiness of its favors. Any man can think in its words. Moreover, there was in it much that Christians could interpret in a Christian way. For example, the amor of which the author speaks is not in reality Christian love, but the great concordant energy of the universe inspired by the Creator, making for harmony and perfection. This coelo imperitans amor, this bond of all nature's concords, is the physico-philosophic conception coming down from Empedocles : — O felix hominum genus Si vestros animos amor, Quo coelum regitur, regat ! ^ Its proper yet transformed self reappears in Dante's L'amor che move 11 sole e Taltre stelle. Christian conceptions could be read into it. In the beautiful metre nine of Liber III, which was in fact an adaptation of a passage from Plato's TtmaeuSf the Christian heart could find echo: — te cernere finis, Principium, vector, dux, semita, terminus idem. Here the Christian might see the "I am the way, the truth, and the life." Again, with what responsive feelings might Christians read of the happy region where the domintis regum holds the sceptre, from ^ Con. Pha.t Lib. n, metre 8.