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which Mr. Henry Rosher James translate in 24 that imitate
the swing of the original very well, but miss the point. By a
geographical fiction Boëthius represents that the Tigris and
the Euphrates flow from a common lake. Now suppose
a boat to be wrecked in that lake and one part of it is carried down
the Tigris the other part down the Euphrates and where
these rivers, after being separate for hundred of miles
flow together again, these two parts of the
boats are dashed against one another. There is a fortuitous
event if there ever was one; and yet says Boethius the
currents forced them to move just as they did so that there
was no chance about it. True the existential events were
governed by law. But when we speak of chance it is a question
of cause. Now it is the ineluctable blunder of a nominalist, as
Boëthius was, to talk of the cause of an event. But it is not an
existential event that has a cause. It is the fact, which is the