Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy 4.19

“Most people would not even allow another point, which rests no less firmly upon strong reasons, namely, that those who do an injury are more unhappy than those who suffer one.”

“I would hear those strong reasons,” I said.

“You do not deny that every wicked man deserves punishment?”

“No.”

“It is plain for many reasons that the wicked are unhappy?”

“Yes.”

“Then you doubt not that those who are worthy of punishment are miserable?”

“No, I agree.”

“If then you were sitting as a judge, upon which would you consider punishment should fall—the man who did the injury, or the man who suffered it?”

“I have no hesitation in saying that I would make amends to the sufferer at the expense of the doer of the injustice.”

“Then the doer of the injustice would seem to you more miserable than the sufferer?”

“That follows.”

—from Book 4, Prose 4

It isn’t just that virtue is its own reward, and that vice is its own punishment.

It isn’t just that a punishment avoided is worse than a punishment received for the vicious man.

It isn’t just that we should be grateful for the opportunity to make the wrong things right.

It will take us so far, that we will also see how the offender is always in a worse place than his victim could ever be.

I have a very fond memory of a fine young lady in one my classes on Boethius, who had lightheartedly promised that she would make a note every time a fellow student rolled his eyes, or sighed, or smirked, or snorted at a certain passage.

We came to precisely this section, and there was predictably much rolling of eyes, sighing, smirking, and snorting. “What’s our count now?”

“Oh, sorry, I lost track somewhere during Book Three. Everyone just kept being angry and feeling insulted.”

I was hardly surprised. I think I felt much the same way when I first read the Consolation, and I assumed that Boethius was deliberately trying to question everything that I held dear.

Well yes, he most certainly was doing that. I somehow felt wronged that the bad guys actually had the worst lives, and the good guys actually had the best lives, instead of it being a perverted reverse. It suddenly sounds quite foolish to see the world working in the exact opposite way that Nature intends, doesn’t it?

It all depends on where we start with our estimation of human nature. Who we are in our essence will, in turn, determine what hurts us and what helps us. Start with the right apprehension, and you will then come to the right conclusions.

Measure a man by what he possesses through fortune, and his life will indeed be a mess. Measure a man by what he possesses through his own nature, and everything is in its rightful place.

What does the vicious man gain by his actions? He gains his property, and his reputation, and his influence, and his immediate pleasures. What does the vicious man lose by his actions? He loses his ability to love, his integrity, his respect, and his very character. He trades the internal for the external.

What does the virtuous man gain by his actions? He gains the merit of knowing who he is, and of living with justice and compassion. What does the virtuous man lose by his actions? He leaves behind his concern for fame, and power, and gratification. He trades the external for the internal.

Ask yourself which path of life you prefer, and you have already determined everything about where you will be going.

Nature remains constant, while Fortune is fickle. Change your priorities, and your whole life will now be flipped, no longer up side down, but right side up.

In the simplest of terms, if I choose an evil, I have freely abandoned myself. If I suffer an evil, I still retain the power to be myself. The vicious man fails to even be a man, while the virtuous man is only given more chances to be a man. The sins of another will take away my circumstances, while the sins of another will destroy his very own soul.

Am I so sure, having thought of it in this way, that I still want to be a liar, or a thief, or an abuser? Will I still, having thought of it in this way, be so hurt when they lie to me, steal from me, or dispose of me like so much garbage?

Who is the real garbage? Who deserves the greater mercy?

Dismiss me, and shrug me off, and tell me that I don’t matter. Who has suffered more, the offender or the victim? The offender, as it turns out, is his own worst victim.

Written in 11/2015