Summary Of Lady Philosophy's 'Gift Of Fortune'

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Gifts of Fortune One "Gift of Fortune" that Lady Philosophy presents is the power of wealth. She says that wealth only have value when it is being exchanged, which makes it have no value in itself. Lady Philosophy said, "Riches, then, are miserable and troublesome: they cannot be fully possessed by many people, and they cannot be acquired by some without loss to others." By this she means that when you acquire wealth you are only taking it away from another, meaning that the power of wealth is not something that you own, and therefore cannot make you happy as it cannot necessarily be controlled by you. Another of the "Gifts of Fortune" that Lady Philosophy presents is gifts of honors and power. In Prose 6 of book 2, Lady Philosophy starts off by saying how true honor and power can be given to wicked men, and that this could cause more damage than floods or volcano eruptions. After explaining a bit about why power and honor given to wicked men is not good, …show more content…

As long as what this man desires and is working towards is good, he will be truly happy. The reason what he desires must be good is that bad things cannot make one happy, thus he would not be truly happy if he was pursuing something that is bad, or pursuing something with bad intentions. If a man desires something, and works towards completing what he desires, even if he is misfortunate in the Gifts of Nature, meaning that he does not necessarily obtain honor or power, or even any sort of wealth, he can still be happy, because these gifts are not necessary to be truly happy. They are given to those not strong enough to live with