Review: How to Cope
Come on, you’d grab it too, right?
Like a curious toddler, I grabbed a small hardback from the “new books” shelf at the library on a brisk walk to the “holds” area, my original destination. I liked its small size (7” x 5”), and cover—light green with a centered image of Fortuna, the Roman goddess of luck. Its full title is How to Cope: An Ancient Guide to Enduring Hardship, Boethius: Selections from The Consulation of Philosophy (Princeton University Press, 2025, selected, translated and introduced by Philip Freeman).
Leading with How to Cope was a wise choice for a modern translation title given how much we love self-help these days, and everything written about it refers to it as an “accessible” translation of Boethius original text in latin written in 523 CE. The quotes below come from this volume with one exception.
As he writes, the previously successful-in-life Boethius, who I refer to as “the narrator” below, is in prison on trumped up treason charges and faces torture and certain death. The text was whisked away from his cell after his execution, and has been translated into many languages and studied for centuries. I am not a scholar of classics and maybe if I were I would have encountered a previous translation of this text by now, but this “accessible” version delights me: It doesn’t take long to read, is a testament to enduring truths expressed 1500 years ago, and the heroic protagonist is portrayed as a strong and wise (although ancient) woman. The latin text accompanies the English on the opposite page which makes it easy to check if you agree with the translation or not. Book 1 is called “A Visitor in Prison”.
“While I was silently thinking these things to myself and writing down my tearful lament with the help of my pen, there seemed to stand above my head a woman, awe-inspiring in her appearance. Her eyes burned with fire and penetrated far beyond what is common for mortals. She had a vivid color and inexhaustable strength, yet she seemed so ancient I could scarcely believe she belonged to our age. ”
Our heroine, Philosophy, proceeds to listen, comfort and advise the narrator. But she is salty:
“‘Do you understand what I am saying to you?’ She asked. ‘Have my words made their way into your head?’ Or are you like a donkey hearing the lyre? Why are you crying? Why are your cheeks covered with tears? As Homer says, ‘Speak up, don’t hide what’s on your mind.’ If you want a doctor to treat you, you must first uncover the wound.’”
The narrator goes on to complain for many pages, and Philosophy hears the narrator’s complaints. She then states her assessment:
“‘If I have properly understood the causes and nature of your sickness, you are wasting away from a desire and longing for your previously happy condition. The changes caused by Fortune are the source of your deeply troubled mind—or at least that’s how it seems to you. But I understand the many tricks of that monster Fortune and the charming friendliness she shows to those she wishes to deceive, at least until she abandons them unexpectedly and leaves them confused and in unbearable pain. If you will just remember her nature, her ways, and her true worth, you will recognize that in her you never possessed nor lost anything that was beautiful. ‘
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In Book 2: “Fortune is Never Constant',” Philosophy illuminates the fact that although good luck comes, and it also goes, it generally comes back again. This might not be comforting to a man who facing torture and execution, but it is useful to those of us who are not. At least not in the near future. We hope.
I think my favorite part about Book 2 is when Philosophy helps the narrator get out of his own misery to consider his luck up until now:
“‘In the meantime, will you please stop thinking of yourself as a miserable wretch! Have you forgotten how much happiness and the sorts of kindness you’ve enjoyed in your life? ...Who didn’t call you the happiest of men because of the splendor of your in-laws, the modesty of your wife, and the blessings of your sons after you?’
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Philosophy reminds the narrator for as many pages as he complained about his wonderful family, friends, and success and it’s so easy to hear coming from this no-nonsense apparition. The quote above just scratches the surface of her lecture, and I hope it inspires my reader to find a copy of the book and read it for him or herself.
In Book 3: True Happiness, the narrator is able to accept and appreciate the wisdom Philosophy offers:
“After a little while I spoke: ‘You are truly the greatest consolation of weary spirits. You have brought warmth back to my heart by the power of your arguments...Even now I feel I am a match for the blows of Fortune that may yet come....’
Then she replied, ‘I thought so. While you were silent and attentive, grabbing hold of my every word, I was waiting for this change of heart—or to be more precise, this change I have brought about. ‘”
In Book 4: How Can Evil Go Unpunished?, the narrator acknowledges that he feels better, but is troubled by this remaining question:
“‘Here, however, is the greatest cause of my grief: Although the ruler of the universe is good, how can evil still exist and go unpunished?’
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Philosophy then provides a thorough, well-argued response to this question. Because it goes on for pages, I will summarize it here. Good people possess power and bad people do not. Since the effort of human will, as Philosophy argues in Book 3, is true happiness, and that true happiness is goodness itself, and that good people and bad people are both seeking happiness, and bad people do not obtain it in the end because they do not achieve goodness. Give this argument some time to sink in because it is mind bending (at least for me), and much better explained in the text.
The reviews I found of How to Cope are universally complimentary. The “selections” leave out poetry in the original text—most likely for the purposes of accessibility. I particularly like what Kirkus Reviews says about that:
“Readers wishing for greater consolation will miss the powerful poems of the original—where the changing of the seasons, the workings of the heavens, and the stories of mythic heroes all give voice to the harmony of creation itself.
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