When Philosophy had sung these verses with a soft and sweet voice,
observing due dignity and gravity in her countenance and gesture, I, not
having altogether forgotten my inward grief, interrupted her speech
which she was about to continue, and said: "O thou who bringest us to
see true light, those things which hitherto thou hast treated of have
manifestly appeared both to be divine when contemplated apart, and
invincible when supported by thy reasons, and what thou hast uttered,
though the force of grief had made me forget it of late, yet heretofore
I was not altogether ignorant of it. But this is the chiefest cause of
my sorrow, that since the governor of all things is so good, there can
either be any evil at all, or that it pass unpunished. Which alone I
beseech thee consider, how much admiration it deserveth. But there is
another greater than this; for wickedness bearing rule and sway, virtue
is not only without reward, but lieth also trodden under the wicked's
feet, and is punished instead of vice. That which things should be done
in the kingdom of God, who knoweth all things, can do all things, but
will do only that which is good, no man can sufficiently admire nor
complain."
To which she answered: "It were indeed infinitely strange, and
surpassing all monsters, if, as thou conceivest, in the best-ordered
house of so great an householder the vilest vessels were made account of
and the precious neglected; but it is not so. For if those things which
were a little before concluded be kept unviolated, thou shalt by His
help, of whose kingdom we speak, know that the good are always powerful,
and the evil always abject and weak, and that vices are never without
punishment, nor virtue without reward, and that the good are always
prosperous, and the evil unfortunate, and many things of that sort,
which will take away all cause of complaint, and give thee firm and
solid strength. And since by my means thou hast already seen the form of
true blessedness, and known where it is placed, running over all those
things which I think necessary to rehearse, I will show thee the way
which will carry thee home. And I will also fasten wings upon thy mind,
with which she may rouse herself, that, all perturbation being driven
away, thou mayest return safely into thy country by my direction, by my
path, and with my wings.