Letters 1 part 7/7

Why, then, do we still lament, when we have safely sent our dearest ones ahead out of the tempest of life, before they had come to know by experience the evils of this world? And why do we wish the divine to conform to what seems good to us, when we ought rather to judge that good which seems good to it? Such indeed was the man who had emulated the famous Pythagoras — who, when someone said to him by way of a prayer, 'May God grant you whatever you happen to wish,' replied, 'Hush! Rather, may I wish for what He gives.'

For often, having prayed many times that certain things should come to pass, and then failing to obtain them, we have learned from the outcome that it was rightly so that they did not come to pass; and I myself, having obtained many things apparently according to my desire, blamed Fortune a little later for their having come to pass at all.

So it is, then, that men, fixing their gaze upon small things, lack a nature sufficient for true judgment, and remain ignorant of whatever is destined to profit them once and for all.

Therefore we must needs yield to the Better, who wisely governs our affairs, even though His decrees remain unknown to us.

He arrived safe and sound, bringing your entire letter; and even had he brought me the talents of Croesus, I could not have looked upon him with eyes so kindly as I did then.

For different men glory in different things: the Lydian in his gold, the Spartan in his spear, Arion in his lyre-strings and music; but for me, my glory is the sight of you, and your writings, and everything of yours that it is granted me to enjoy.

So that we owe the young man a reward, in all justice — one which, were we not to render it, we should rightly be ashamed.

But the reward, by Zeus, is neither gold nor any Indian gems — for of these I possess no wealth, nor has the young man come in quest of them; nor yet beauty of speech — for I am no favoured ward of the Muses, nor do I pride myself on what comes from Attica, for these are the good fortune that has fallen to the children of the prosperous; but if you wish to consider what my gift truly is, it is goodwill and eagerness.

For of these I am master, as Demosthenes says, while of the rest, Fortune and the Muses dispense the gift as seems good to them.

Megethius to Procopius. When first you brought forth the funeral oration in our midst, I took such delight in your Attic bees that I even believed the Leader of the Muses himself, together with the Graces, had laboured with you in composing the speech.

At every single word, then, both I and as many of the hearers as there were filled the theatre with applause, each crying out with a Stentorian shout.

But when we had come into the city, from that time the wonder at you grew even greater, and your golden offspring were on the lips of all, as they compared them one with another — since none resembled any other — and were at a loss which of them, above the rest, they ought to crown for its beauty.

For the Graces bestowed themselves equally upon each.

Since, then, it befell that those who through want of leisure had not heard the speech besought me to let them taste, through my agency, your Attic bee, send the speech, well assured that we will crown it once more with countless praises and swiftly send it back.