291. To Palladius
The one-half of my desire has God fulfilled in the interview Hegranted me with our fair sister, your wife. The other half He is ableto accomplish; and so with the sight of your excellency I shallrender my full thanks to God.
And I am the more desirous of seeing you, now that I hear you havebeen adorned with that great ornament, the clothing of immortality,which clokes our mortality, and puts out of sight the death of theflesh; by virtue of which the corruptible is swallowed up inincorruption.
Thus God of His goodness has nowalienated you from sin, united you to Himself, has opened the doorsof Heaven, and pointed out the paths that lead to heavenly bliss. Ientreat you therefore by that wisdom wherein you excel all other men,that you receive the divine favour circumspectly, proving a faithfulguardian of this treasure, as the repository of this royal gift,keeping watch over it with all carefulness. Preserve this seal ofrighteousness unsullied, that so you may stand before God, shining inthe brightness of the Saints. Let no spot or wrinkle defile the purerobe of immortality; but keep holiness in all your members, as havingput on Christ. For, it is said, as many of you as have been baptizedinto Christ, have put on Christ. Galatians 3:27 Wherefore letall your members be holy as becomes their investment in a raiment ofholiness and light.
292. To Julianus
How fare you this long while? Have you altogether recovered theuse of your hand? And how do other things prosper? According to yourwishes and my prayers? In accordance with your purposes?
Where men are readily disposed to change, it is only natural thattheir lives are not well ordered: but where their minds are fixed,steadfast and unalterable, it follows that their lives should beconformable to their purposes.
True, it is not in the helmsman's power to make a calm when hewishes; but with us, it is quite easy to render our lives tranquil bystilling the storms of passion that surge within, by rising superiorto those that assail us from without. The upright man is touched byneither loss, nor sickness, nor the other ills of life; for he walksin heart with God, keeps his gaze fixed upon the future, and easilyand lightly weathers the storms that rise from earth.
Be not troubled with the cares of earth. Such men are like fatbirds, in vain endowed with flight, that creep like beasts upon theground. But you – for I have witnessed you in difficulties – arelike swimmers racing out at sea.
A single claw reveals the whole lion: so from a slightacquaintance I think I know you fully. And I count it a great thing,that you set some store by me, that I am not absent from yourthoughts, but constantly in your recollection.
Now writing is a proof of recollection; and the oftener you write,the better pleased I am.
293. To Festus and Magnus
It is doubtless a father's duty to make provision for hischildren; a husbandman's to tend his plants and crops; a teacher's tobestow care upon his pupils, especially when, innate goodness showssigns of promise for them.
The husbandman finds toil a pleasure when he sees the ears ripenor the plants increase; the teacher is gladdened at his pupils'growth in knowledge, the father at his son's in stature. But greateris the care I feel for you; higher the hopes I entertain; inproportion as piety is more excellent than all the arts, than all theanimals and fruits together.
And piety I planted in your heart while still pure and tender, andI matured it in the hopes of seeing it reach maturity and bearingfruits in due season. My prayers meanwhile were furthered by yourlove of learning. And you know well that you have my good wishes, andthat God's favour rests upon your endeavours; for when rightlydirected, called or uncalled, God is at hand to further them.
Now every man that loves God is prone to teaching; nay, wherethere is the power to teach things profitable, their eagerness iswell near uncontrollable; but first their hearers' minds must becleared of all resistance.
Not that separation in the body is a hindrance to instruction. TheCreator, in the fullness of His love and wisdom, did not confine ourminds within our bodies, nor the power of speaking to our tongues.Ability to profit derives some advantage even from lapse of time;thus we are able to transmit instruction, not only to those who aredwelling far away, but even to those who are hereafter to be born.And experience proves my words: those who lived many years beforeteach posterity by instruction preserved in their writings; and we,though so far separated in the body, are always near in thought, andconverse together with ease.
Instruction is bounded neither by sea nor land, if only we have acare for our souls' profit.
294. To monks
I do not think that I need further commend you to God's grace,after the words that I addressed to you in person. I then bade youadopt the life in common, after the manner of living of the Apostles.This you accepted as wholesome instruction, and gave God thanks forit.
Thus your conduct was due, not so much to the words I spoke, as tomy instructions to put them into practice, conducive at once to youradvantage who accepted, to my comfort who gave you the advice, and tothe glory and praise of Christ, by Whose name we are called.
For this reason I have sent to you our well-beloved brother, thathe may learn of your zeal, may quicken your sloth, may report to meof opposition. For great is my desire to see you all united in onebody, and to hear that you are not content to live a life withoutwitness; but have undertaken to be both watchful of each other'sdiligence, and witnesses of each other's success.
Thus will each of you receive a reward in full, not only on hisown behalf, but also for his brother's progress. And, as is fitting,you will be a source of mutual profit, both by your words and deeds,as a result of constant intercourse and exhortation. But above all Iexhort you to be mindful of the faith of the Fathers, and not to beshaken by those who in your retirement would try to wrest you fromit. For you know that unless illumined by faith in God, strictness oflife avails nothing; nor will a right confession of faith, if void ofgood works, be able to present you before the Lord.
Faith and works must be joined: so shall the man of God beperfect, and his life not halt through any imperfection.
For the faith which saves us, as says the Apostle, is that whichworks by love.
295. To a Censitor
I was aware, before you told me, that you do not like youremployment in public affairs. It is an old saying that those who areanxious to lead a pious life do not throw themselves with pleasureinto office. The case of magistrates seems to me like that ofphysicians. They see awful sights; they meet with bad smells; theyget trouble for themselves out of other people's calamities. This isat least the case with those who are real magistrates. All men whoare engaged in business, look also to make a profit, and are excitedabout this kind of glory, count it the greatest possible advantage toacquire some power and influence by which they may be able to benefittheir friends, punish their enemies, and get what they want forthemselves. You are not a man of this kind. How should you be? Youhave voluntarily withdrawn from even high office in the State. Youmight have ruled the city like one single house, but you havepreferred a life free from care and anxiety. You have placed a highervalue on having no troubles yourself and not troubling other people,than other people do on making themselves disagreeable. But it hasseemed good to the Lord that the district of Ibora should not beunder the power of hucksters, nor be turned into a mere slave market.It is His will that every individual in it should be enrolled, as isright. Do you therefore accept this responsibility? It is vexatious,I know, but it is one which may bring you the approbation of God.Neither fawn upon the great and powerful, nor despise the poor andneedy. Show to all under your rule an impartiality of mind, balancedmore exactly than any scales. Thus in the sight of those who haveentrusted you with these responsibilities your zeal for justice willbe made evident, and they will view you with exceptional admiration.And even though you go unnoticed by them, you will not be unnoticedby our God. The prizes which He has put before us for good works aregreat.
296. To the Comes Privatarum
You have, I think, been led to impose a contribution of mares onthese people by false information on the part of the inhabitants.What is going on is quite unfair. It cannot but be displeasing toyour excellency, and is distressing to me on account of my intimateconnection with the victims of the wrong. I have therefore lost notime in begging your Lordship not to allow these promoters ofiniquity to succeed in their malevolence.
297. To the Governor of Sebasteia
I am aware that your excellency is favourably receiving myletters, and I understand why. You love all that is good; you areready in doing kindnesses. So whenever I give you the opportunity ofshowing your magnanimity, you are eager for my letters, because youknow that they furnish an occasion for good deeds. Now, once more,behold an occasion for your showing all the signs of rectitude, andat the same time for the public exhibition of your virtues! Certainpersons have come from Alexandria for the discharge of a necessaryduty which is due from all men to the dead. They ask your excellencyto give orders that it may be permitted them to have conveyed away,under official sanction, the corpse of a relative who departed thislife at Sebasteia, while the troops were quartered there. Theyfurther beg that, as far as possible, aid may be given them fortravelling at the public expense, so that, of your bounty, they mayfind some help and solace in their long journey. The tidings of thiswill travel as far as to great Alexandria, and will convey there thereport of your excellency's astonishing kindness. This you wellunderstand without my mentioning it. I shall add gratitude for thisone more favour to that which I feel for all which you have done me.
298. To a writer
Write straight, and make the lines straight. Do not let your handgo too high or too low. Avoid forcing the pen to travel slantwise,like Æsop's crab. Advance straight on, as if following the line ofthe carpenter's rule, which always preserves exactitude and preventsany irregularity. The oblique is ungraceful. It is the straight whichpleases the eye, and does not allow the reader's eyes to go noddingup and down like a swing-beam. This has been my fate in reading yourwriting. As the lines lie ladderwise, I was obliged, when I had to gofrom one to another, to mount up to the end of the last: then, whenno connection was to be found, I had to go back, and seek for theright order again, retreating and following the furrow, like Theseusin the story following Ariadne's thread. Write straight, and do notconfuse our mind by your slanting and irregular writing.
299. Basil to Libanius
I am really ashamed of sending you the Cappadocians one by one. Ishould prefer to induce all our youths to devote themselves toletters and learning, and to avail themselves of your instruction intheir training. But it is impracticable to get hold of them all atonce, while they choose what suits themselves. I therefore send youthose who from time to time are won over; and this I do with theassurance that I am conferring on them a boon as great as that whichis given by those who bring thirsty men to the fountain. The lad,whom I am now sending, will be highly valued for his own sake when hehas been in your society. He is already well known on account of hisfather, who has won a name among us both for rectitude of life andfor authority in our community. He is, moreover, a close friend of myown. To requite him for his friendship to me, I am conferring on hisson the benefit of an introduction to you – a boon well worthy ofbeing earnestly prayed for by all who are competent to judge of aman's high character.
300. Libanius to Basilius
1. After some little time a young Cappadocian has reached me. Onegain to me is that he is a Cappadocian. But this Cappadocian is oneof the first rank. This is another gain. Further, he brings me aletter from the admirable Basil. This is the greatest gain of all.You think that I have forgotten you. I had great respect for you inyour youth. I saw you vying with old men in self-restraint, and thisin a city teeming with pleasures. I saw you already in possession ofconsiderable learning. Then you thought that you ought also to seeAthens, and you persuaded Celsus to accompany you. Happy Celsus, tobe dear to you! Then you returned, and lived at home, and I said tomyself, What, I wonder, is Basil about now? To what occupation has hebetaken himself? Is he following the ancient orators, and practisingin the courts? Or is he turning the sons of fortunate fathers intoorators? Then there came those who reported to me that you wereadopting a course of life better than any of these, and were, rather,bethinking you how you might win the friendship of God than heaps ofgold, I blessed both you and the Cappadocians; you, for making thisyour aim; them, for being able to point to so noble afellow-countryman.
2. I am aware that the Firmus, whom you mention, has continuallywon everywhere; hence his great power as a speaker. But with all theeulogies that have been bestowed on him, I am not aware that he hasever received such praise as I have heard of in your letter. For whata credit it is to him, that it should be you who declare that hisreputation is inferior to none!
Apparently, you have dispatched this young man to me before seeingFirminus; had you done so, your letters would not have failed tomention him. What is Firminus now doing or intending to do? Is hestill anxious to be married? Or is all that over now? Are the claimsof the senate heavy on him? Is he obliged to stay where he is? Isthere any hope of his taking to study again? Let him send me ananswer, and I trust it may be satisfactory. If it be a distressingone, at least it will relieve him from seeing me at his door. And ifFirminus had been now at Athens, what would your senators have done?Would they have sent the Salaminia after him? You see that it is onlyby your fellow-countrymen that I am wronged. Yet I shall never ceaseto love and praise the Cappadocians. I should like them to be betterdisposed to me, but, if they continue to act as they do, I shall bearit. Firminus was four months with me, and was not a day idle. Youwill know how much he has acquired, and perhaps will not complain. Asto his being able to come here again, what ally can I call in? Ifyour senators are right-minded, as men of education ought to be, theywill honour me in the second case, since they grieved me in thefirst.
301. Basil to Libanius
Lo and behold, yet another Cappadocian has come to you; a son ofmy own! Yet my present position makes all men my sons. On this groundhe may be regarded as a brother of the former one, and worthy of thesame attention alike from me his father, and from you his instructor– if really it is possible for these young men, who come from me,to obtain any further favours. I do not mean that it is not possiblefor your excellency to give anything more to your old comrades, butbecause your services are so lavishly bestowed upon all. It will besufficient for the lad before he gets experience if he be numberedamong those who are intimately known to you. I trust you may send himback to me worthy of my prayers and of your great reputation inlearning and eloquence. He is accompanied by a young man of his ownage, and of like zeal for instruction; a youth of good family, andclosely associated with myself. I am sure he will be in every way aswell treated, though his means are smaller than is the case with therest.
302. Libanius to Basil
I know you will often write, Here is another Cappadocian for you!I expect that you will send me many. I am sure that you areeverywhere putting pressure on both fathers and sons by all yourcomplimentary expressions about me. But it would not be kind on mypart not to mention what happened about your good letter. There weresitting with me not a few of our people of distinction, and amongthem the very excellent Alypius, Hierocles' cousin. The messengersgave in the letter. I read it right through without a word; then witha smile, and evidently gratified, I exclaimed, I am vanquished! How?When? Where? they asked. How is it that you are not distressed atbeing vanquished? I am beaten, I replied, in beautiful letterwriting. Basil has won. But I love him; and so I am delighted. Onhearing this, they all wanted to hear of the victory from the letteritself. It was read by Alypius, while all listened. It was voted thatwhat I had said was quite true. Then the reader went out, with theletter still in his hand, to show it, I suppose, to others. I hadsome difficulty in getting it back. Go on writing others like it; goon winning. This is for me to win. You are quite right in thinkingthat my services are not measured by money. Enough for him who hasnothing to give, that he is as wishful to receive. If I perceive anyone who is poor to be a lover of learning, he takes precedence of therich. True, I never found such instructors; but nothing shall standin the way of my being, at least in that respect, an improvement onmine. Let no one, then, hesitate to come hither because he is poor,if only he possesses the one qualification of knowing how to work.
303. Basil to Libanius
What could not a sophist say? And such a sophist! One whosepeculiar art is, whenever he likes, to make great things small, andto give greatness to small things! This is what you have shown in mycase. That dirty little letter of mine, as, perhaps, you who live inall luxury of eloquence would call it, a letter in no way moretolerable than the one you hold in your hands now, you have soextolled as, forsooth, to be eaten by it, and to be yielding me theprize for composition! You are acting much as fathers do, when theyjoin in their boys' games, and let the little fellows be proud of thevictories which they have let them win without any loss tothemselves, and with much gain to the children's emulation. Reallyand truly the delight your speech must have given, when you werejoking about me, must have been indescribable! It is as though somePolydamas or Milo were to decline the pancratium or a wrestling boutwith me! After carefully examining, I have found no sign of weakness.So those who look for exaggeration are the more astonished at yourbeing able to descend in sport to my level, than if you had led thebarbarian in full sail over Athos. I, however, my dear sir, am nowspending my time with Moses and Elias, and saints like them, who tellme their stories in a barbarous tongue, and I utter what I learnedfrom them, true, indeed, in sense, though rude in phrase, as what Iam writing testifies. If ever I learned anything from you, I haveforgotten it in the course of time. But do you continue to write tome, and so suggest other topics for correspondence. Your letter willexhibit you, and will not convict me. I have already introduced toyou the son of Anysius, as a son of my own. If he is my son, he isthe child of his father, poor, and a poor man's son. What I am sayingis well known to one who is wise as well as a sophist.
304. Libanius to Basil
Had you been for a long time considering how best you could replyto my letter about yours, you could not in my judgment have acquittedyourself better than by writing as you have written now. You call mea sophist, and you allege that it is a sophist's business to makesmall things great and great things small. And you maintain that theobject of my letter was to prove yours a good one, when it was not agood one, and that it was no better than the one which you have sentlast, and, in a word that you have no power of expression, the bookswhich you have now in hand producing no such effect, and theeloquence which you once possessed having all disappeared. Now, inthe endeavour to prove this, you have made this epistle too, whichyou are reviling, so admirable, that my visitors could not refrainfrom leaping with admiration as it was being read. I was astonishedthat after your trying to run down the former one by this, by sayingthat the former one was like it, you have really complimented theformer by it. To carry out your object, you ought to have made thisone worse, that you might slander the former. But it is not like you,I think, to do despite to the truth. It would have been done despiteto, if you had purposely written badly, and not put out the powersyou have. It would be characteristic of you not to find fault withwhat is worthy of praise, lest in your attempt to make great thingsinsignificant, your proceedings reduce you to the rank of thesophists. Keep to the books which you say are inferior in style,though better in sense. No one hinders you. But of the principleswhich are ever mine, and once were yours, the roots both remain andwill remain, as long as you exist. Though you water them ever solittle, no length of time will ever completely destroy them.
305. Libanius to Basil
You have not yet ceased to be offended with me, and so I trembleas I write. If you have cared, why, my dear sir, do you not write? Ifyou are still offended, a thing alien from any reasonable soul andfrom your own, why, while you are preaching to others, that they mustnot keep their anger till sundown, have you kept yours during manysuns? Peradventure you have meant to punish me by depriving me of thesound of your sweet voice? Nay; excellent sir, be gentle, and let meenjoy your golden tongue.
306. Basil to Libanius
All who are attached to the rose, as might be expected in the caseof lovers of the beautiful, are not displeased even at the thornsfrom out of which the flower blows. I have even heard it said aboutroses by some one, perhaps in jest, or, it may be, even in earnest,that nature has furnished the bloom with those delicate thorns, likestings of love to lovers, to excite those who pluck them to intenserlonging by these ingeniously adapted pricks. But what do I mean bythis introduction of the rose into my letter? You do not needtelling, when you remember your own letter. It had indeed the bloomof the rose, and, by its fair speech, opened out all spring to me;but it was bethorned with certain fault findings and charges againstme. But even the thorn of your words is delightful to me, for itenkindles in me a greater longing for your friendship.
307. Libanius to Basil
IF these are the words of an untrained tongue, what would you beif you would polish them? On your lips live fountains of words betterthan the flowing of springs. I, on the contrary, if I am not dailywatered, am silent.
308. Basil to Libanius
I am dissuaded from writing often to you, learned as you are, bymy timidity and my ignorance. But your persistent silence isdifferent. What excuse can be offered for it? If any one takes intoaccount that you are slow to write to me, living as you do in themidst of letters, he will condemn you for forgetfulness of me. He whois ready at speaking is not unprepared to write. And if a man soendowed is silent, it is plain that he acts either from forgetfulnessor from contempt. I will, however, requite your silence with agreeting. Farewell, most honoured sir. Write if you like. If youprefer it, do not write.
309. Libanius to Basil
It is, I think, more needful for me to defend myself for nothaving begun to write to you long ago, than to offer any excuse forbeginning now. I am that same man who always used to run up wheneveryou put in an appearance, and who listened with the greatest delightto the stream of your eloquence; rejoicing to hear you; withdifficulty tearing myself away; saying to my friends, This man isthus far superior to the daughters of Achelous, in that, like them,he soothes, but he does not hurt as they do. Truly it is no greatthing not to hurt; but this man's songs are a positive gain to thehearer. That I should be in this state of mind, should think that Iam regarded with affection, and should seem able to speak, and yetshould not venture to write, is the mark of a man guilty of extremeidleness, and, at the same time, inflicting punishment on himself.For it is clear that you will requite my poor little letter with afine large one, and will take care not to wrong me again. At thisword, I fancy, many will cry out, and will crowd round with theshout, What! Has Basil done any wrong – even a small wrong? Then sohave Œacus, and Minos and his brother. In other points I admit thatyou have won. Who ever saw you that does not envy you? But in onething you have sinned against me; and, if I remind you of it, inducethose who are indignant thereat not to make a public outcry. No onehas ever come to you and asked a favour which it was easy to give,and gone away unsuccessful. But I am one of those who have craved aboon without receiving it. What then did I ask? Often when I was withyou in camp, I was desirous of entering, with the aid of your wisdom,into the depth of Homer's frenzy. If the whole is impossible, I said,do you bring me to a portion of what I want. I was anxious for apart, wherein, when things have gone ill with the Greeks, Agamemnoncourts with gifts the man whom he has insulted. When I so spoke, youlaughed, because you could not deny that you could if you liked, butwere unwilling to give. Do I really seem to be wronged to you and toyour friends, who were indignant at my saying that you were doing awrong?
310. Libanius to Basil
You yourself will judge whether I have added anything in the wayof learning to the young men whom you have sent. I hope that thisaddition, however little it be, will get the credit of being great,for the sake of your friendship towards me. But inasmuch as you giveless praise to learning than to temperance and to a refusal toabandon our souls to dishonourable pleasures, they have devoted theirmain attention to this, and have lived, as indeed they ought, withdue recollection of the friend who sent them hither.
So welcome what is your own, and give praise to men who by theirmode of life have done credit both to you and to me. But to ask youto be serviceable to them is like asking a father to be serviceableto his children.
311. Libanius to Basil
Every bishop is a thing out of which it is very hard to getanything. The further you have advanced beyond other people inlearning, the more you make me afraid that you will refuse what Iask. I want some rafters. Any other sophist would have called themstakes, or poles, not because he wanted stakes or poles, but ratherfor showing off his wordlets than out of any real need. If you do notsupply them, I shall have to winter in the open air.
312. Basil to Libanius
If γριπίζειν is the same thing as to gain, and this isthe meaning of the phrase which your sophistic ingenuity has got fromthe depths of Plato, consider, my dear sir, who is the more hard tobe got from, I who am thus impaled by your epistolary skill, or thetribe of Sophists, whose craft is to make money out of their words.What bishop ever imposed tribute by his words? What bishop ever madehis disciples pay taxes? It is you who make your words marketable, asconfectioners make honey-cakes. See how you have made the old manleap and bound! However, to you who make such a fuss about yourdeclamations, I have ordered as many rafters to be supplied as therewere fighters at Thermopylæ, all of goodly length, and, as Homer hasit, long-shadowing, which the sacred Alphæus has promised torestore.
313. Libanius to Basil
Will you not give over, Basil, packing this sacred haunt of theMuses with Cappadocians, and these redolent of the frost and snow andall Cappadocia's good things? They have almost made me a Cappadociantoo, always chanting their I salute you.
I must endure, since it is Basil who commands. Know, however, thatI am making a careful study of the manners and customs of thecountry, and that I mean to metamorphose the men into the nobilityand the harmony of my Calliope, that they may seem to you to beturned from pigeons into doves.
314. Basil to Libanius
Your annoyance is over. Let this be the beginning of my letter. Goon mocking and abusing me and mine, whether laughing or in earnest.Why say anything about frost or snow, when you might be luxuriatingin mockery? For my part, Libanius, that I may rouse you to a heartylaugh, I have written my letter enveloped in a snow-white veil. Whenyou take the letter in your hand, you will feel how cold it is, andhow it symbolizes the condition of the sender – kept at home andnot able to put head out of doors. For my house is a grave tillspring comes and brings us back from death to life, and once moregives to us, as to plants, the boon of existence.
315. Basil to Libanius
Many, who have come to me from where you are, have admired youroratorical power. They were remarking that there has been a verybrilliant specimen of this, and a very great contest, as theyalleged, with the result that all crowded together, and no oneappeared in the whole city but Libanius alone in the lists, andeverybody, young and old, listening. For no one was willing to beabsent – not a man of rank – not a distinguished soldier – notan artisan. Even women hurried to be present at the struggle. Andwhat was it? What was the speech which brought together this vastassembly? I have been told that it contained a description of a manof peevish temper. Pray lose no time in sending me this much admiredspeech, in order that I too may join in praising your eloquence. If Iam a praiser of Libanius without his works, what am I likely tobecome after receiving the grounds on which to praise him?
316. Libanius to Basil
Behold! I have sent you my speech, all streaming with sweat as Iam! How should I be otherwise, when sending my speech to one who byhis skill in oratory is able to show that the wisdom of Plato and theability of Demosthenes were belauded in vain? I feel like a gnatcompared with an elephant. How I shiver and shake, as I reckon up theday when you will inspect my performance I am almost out of my wits!
317. Basil to Libanius
I have read your speech, and have immensely admired it. O muses; Olearning; O Athens; what do you not give to those who love you! Whatfruits do not they gather who spend even a short time with you! Ohfor your copiously flowing fountain! What men all who drink of it areshown to be! I seemed to see the man himself in your speech, in thecompany of his chattering little woman. A living story has beenwritten on the ground by Libanius, who alone has bestowed the gift oflife upon his words.
318. Libanius to Basil
Now I recognise men's description of me! Basil has praised me, andI am hailed victor over all! Now that I have received your vote, I amentitled to walk with the proud gait of a man who haughtily looksdown on all the world. You have composed an oration againstdrunkenness. I should like to read it. But I am unwilling to try tosay anything clever. When I have seen your speech it will teach methe art of expressing myself.
319. Libanius to Basil
Are you living at Athens, Basil? Have you forgotten yourself? Thesons of the Cæsareans could not endure to hear these things. Mytongue was not accustomed to them. Just as though I were treadingsome dangerous ground, and were struck at the novelty of the sounds,it said to me its father, My father, you never taught this! This manis Homer, or Plato, or Aristotle, or Susarion. He knows everything.So far my tongue. I only wish, Basil, that you could praise me in thesame manner!
320. Basil to Libanius
I am delighted at receiving what you write, but when you ask me toreply, I am in a difficulty. What could I say in answer to so Attic atongue, except that I confess, and confess with joy, that I am apupil of fishermen?
321. Libanius to Basil
What has made Basil object to the letter, the proof of philosophy?I have learned to make fun from you, but nevertheless your fun isvenerable and, so to say, hoary with age. But, by our veryfriendship, by our common pastimes, do away, I charge you, with thedistress caused by your letter...in nothing differing.
322. Libanius to Basil
Oh, for the old days in which we were all in all to one another!Now we are sadly separated! You have one another, I have no one likeyou to replace you. I hear that Alcimus in his old age is venturingon a young man's exploits, and is hurrying to Rome, after imposing onyou the labour of remaining with the lads. You, who are always sokind, will not take this ill. You were not even angry with me forhaving to write first.
323. Basil to Libanius
You, who have included all the art of the ancients in your ownmind, are so silent, that you do not even let me get any gain in aletter. I, if the art of Dædalus had only been safe, would have mademe Icarus' wings and come to you. But wax cannot be entrusted to thesun, and so, instead of Icarus' wings, I send you words to prove myaffection. It is the nature of words to indicate the love of theheart. So far, words. You do with them what you will, and, possessingall the power you do, are silent. But pray transfer to me thefountains of words that spring from your mouth.
324. Of the Holy Trinity, the Incarnation, the invocation of Saints, and their Images.
According to the blameless faith of the Christians which we haveobtained from God, I confess and agree that I believe in one God theFather Almighty; God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Ghost; Iadore and worship one God, the Three. I confess to the œconomy ofthe Son in the flesh, and that the holy Mary, who gave birth to Himaccording to the flesh, was Mother of God. I acknowledge also theholy apostles, prophets, and martyrs; and I invoke them tosupplication to God, that through them, that is, through theirmediation, the merciful God may be propitious to me, and that aransom may be made and given me for my sins. Wherefore also I honourand kiss the features of their images, inasmuch as they have beenhanded down from the holy apostles, and are not forbidden, but are inall our churches.
325. Basil to Urbicius the monk, concerning continency
You do well in making exact definitions for us, so that we mayrecognise not only continency, but its fruit. Now its fruit is thecompanionship of God. For not to be corrupted, is to have part withGod; just as to be corrupted is the companionship of the world.Continency is denial of the body, and confession to God. It withdrawsfrom anything mortal, like a body which has the Spirit of God. It iswithout rivalry and envy, and causes us to be united to God. He wholoves a body envies another. He who has not admitted the disease ofcorruption into his heart, is for the future strong enough to endureany labour, and though he have died in the body, he lives inincorruption. Verily, if I rightly apprehend the matter, God seems tome to be continency, because He desires nothing, but has all thingsin Himself. He reaches after nothing, nor has any sense in eyes orears; wanting nothing, He is in all respects complete and full.Concupiscence is a disease of the soul; but continency is its health.And continency must not be regarded only in one species, as, forinstance, in matters of sensual love. It must be regarded ineverything which the soul lusts after in an evil manner, not beingcontent with what is needful for it. Envy is caused for the sake ofgold, and innumerable wrongs for the sake of other lusts. Not to bedrunken is continency. Not to overeat one's self is continency. Tosubdue the body is continency, and to keep evil thoughts insubjection, whenever the soul is disturbed by any fancy false andbad, and the heart is distracted by vain cares. Continency makes menfree, being at once a medicine and a power, for it does not teachtemperance; it gives it. Continency is a grace of God. Jesus seemedto be continency, when He was made light to land and sea; for He wascarried neither by earth nor ocean, and just as He walked on the sea,so He did not weigh down the earth. For if death comes of corruption,and not dying comes of not having corruption, then Jesus wrought notmortality but divinity. He ate and drank in a peculiar manner,without rendering his food., So mighty a power in Him was continency,that His food was not corrupted in Him, since He had no corruption.If only there be a little continency in us, we are higher than all.We have been told that angels were ejected from heaven because ofconcupiscence and became incontinent. They were vanquished; they didnot come down. What could that plague have effected there, if an eyesuch as I am thinking of had been there? Wherefore I said, If we havea little patience, and do not love the world, but the life above, weshall be found there where we direct our mind. For it is the mind,apparently, which is the eye that sees unseen things. For we say «themind sees;» «the mind hears.» I have written atlength, though it may seem little to you. But there is meaning in allthat I have said, and, when you have read it, you will see it.