Boethius wrote in one of his own books that his goal was to translate and make commentaries on all of Plato and Aristotle to show their essential agreement, but due to his early death only some of the Aristotle was he able to pass on to the Western world which for seven centuries had very little other knowledge than his work on logic.

The Consolation of Philosophy from a Christian which shows by philosophical reasoning and divine intelligence the highest good to which all things move in spite of and beyond the trials and tribulations of temporal fortune. While barbarians were gradually civilizing western Europe and many Christians were retreating into monasteries, the spirit of the times produced the Consolation of Philosophy so that they could understand that fortune was a changeable illusion and that they could go within to find the highest good and realize that they were moving in that divine direction.

Boethius' Consolation was destined to become one of the most popular books of the Medieval period. In the twentieth century Schepss and Engelbrecht recorded that there is close to four hundred manuscripts.

The translations through the ages are numerous and often accompanied by commentaries and occasionally charts and diagrams.4 English translations were done personally by such notable people as King Alfred, Chaucer, and Queen Elizabeth I. Dante called Boethius, "The blessed soul who exposes the deceptive world to anyone who gives ear to him.

In looking at the Consolation of Philosophy from the viewpoints of history and education, two important questions arise. Why was Boethius' work read so much for so long, and what did it have to teach these people? And secondly, why has the work been so ignored in recent times? To answer these we must examine the message of the book.