wonders of art, a sun-dial, a water-clock, or a sphere which
represented the motions of the planets. From these abstruse
speculations, Boethius stooped, or, to speak more truly, he rose
to the social duties of public and private life: the indigent
were relieved by his liberality; and his eloquence, which
flattery might compare to the voice of Demosthenes or Cicero, was
uniformly exerted in the cause of innocence and humanity. Such
conspicuous merit was felt and rewarded by a discerning prince:
the dignity of Boethius was adorned with the titles of consul and
patrician, and his talents were usefully employed in the
important station of master of the offices. Notwithstanding the
equal claims of the East and West, his two sons were created, in
their tender youth, the consuls of the same year. ^93 On the
memorable day of their inauguration, they proceeded in solemn
pomp from their palace to the forum amidst the applause of the
senate and people; and their joyful father, the true consul of
Rome, after pronouncing an oration in the praise of his royal
benefactor, distributed a triumphal largess in the games of the
circus. Prosperous in his fame and fortunes, in his public honors
and private alliances, in the cultivation of science and the
consciousness of virtue, Boethius might have been styled happy,
if that precarious epithet could be safely applied before the
last term of the life of man.

[Footnote 89: Le Clerc has composed a critical and philosophical
life of Anicius Manlius Severinus Boetius, (Bibliot. Choisie,
tom. xvi. p. 168 - 275;) and both Tiraboschi (tom. iii.) and
Fabricius (Bibliot Latin.) may be usefully consulted. The date
of his birth may be placed about the year 470, and his death in
524, in a premature old age, (Consol. Phil. Metrica. i. p. 5.)]