Chapter VIII: Book IV: Good and ILL Fortune

SUMMARY.

CH. I. The mystery of the seeming moral confusion. Philosophy
engages to make this plain, and to fulfil her former promise to the
full.--CH. II. Accordingly, (a) she first expounds the paradox that
the good alone have power, the bad are altogether powerless.--CH.
III. (b) The righteous never lack their reward, nor the wicked
their punishment.--CH. IV. (c) The wicked are more unhappy when
they accomplish their desires than when they fail to attain them.
(d) Evil-doers are more fortunate when they expiate their crimes by
suffering punishment than when they escape unpunished. (e) The
wrong-doer is more wretched than he who suffers injury.--CH. V.
Boethius still cannot understand why the distribution of happiness
and misery to the righteous and the wicked seems the result of
chance. Philosophy replies that this only seems so because we do
not understand the principles of God's moral governance.--CH. VI.
The distinction of Fate and Providence. The apparent moral
confusion is due to our ignorance of the secret counsels of God's
providence. If we possessed the key, we should see how all things
are guided to good.--CH. VII. Thus all fortune is good fortune; for
it either rewards, disciplines, amends, or punishes, and so is
either useful or just.