Consolation of Philosophy, The

<h3><SPAN name="Page_117" id="Page_117" />VII.</h3> <p>'Then, what shall I say of the pleasures of the body? The lust thereof is full of uneasiness; the sating, of repentance. What sicknesses, what intolerable pains, are they wont to bring on the bodies of those who enjoy them&mdash;the fruits of iniquity, as it were! Now, what sweetness the stimulus of pleasure may have I do not know. But that the issues of pleasure are painful everyone may understand who chooses to recall the memory of his own fleshly lusts. Nay, if these can make happiness, there is no reason why the beasts also should not be happy, since all their efforts are eagerly set upon satisfying the bodily wants. I know, indeed, that the sweetness of wife and children should be right comely, yet only too true to nature is what was said of one&mdash;that he found in his sons his tormentors. And how galling such a contingency would be, I must needs <SPAN name="Page_118" id="Page_118" />put thee in mind, since thou hast never in any wise suffered such experiences, nor art thou now under any uneasiness. In such a case, I agree with my servant Euripides, who said that a man without children was fortunate in his misfortune.'<SPAN name="FNanchor_H_8" id="FNanchor_H_8" /><SPAN href="#Footnote_H_8" class="fnanchor">[H]</SPAN></p> <div class="footnotes"><p class="center">FOOTNOTES:</p> <div class="footnote"><p><SPAN name="Footnote_H_8" id="Footnote_H_8" /><SPAN href="#FNanchor_H_8"><span class="label">[H]</span></SPAN> Paley translates the lines in Euripides' 'Andromache': 'They [the childless] are indeed spared from much pain and sorrow, but their supposed happiness is after all but wretchedness.' Euripides' meaning is therefore really just the reverse of that which Boethius makes it. See Euripides, 'Andromache,' Il. 418-420.</p> </div> </div> <h3>SONG VII.<br/>Pleasure's Sting.</h3> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i4">This is the way of Pleasure:<br/></span> <span>She stings them that despoil her;<br/></span> <span>And, like the wing&eacute;d toiler<br/></span> <span class="i4">Who's lost her honeyed treasure,<br/></span> <span class="i2">She flies, but leaves her smart<br/></span> <span class="i2">Deep-rankling in the heart.<br/></span></div> </div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />