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You know well, in what circumstances it is more glorious to receive than to be pure of gain; for permit me to say with boldness, that you do not despise all gains, but those which none of the predecessors has been able to touch, you alone have seized with both hands; for instead of some garment or money or slaves, you have taken the very souls of men and hold them, having stored them up in the treasury of love. 70

Let speech-writers and sophists recount these things, for whom it is an ornament to write such things well, but let our aged discourse bestir itself only so much as to proceed step by step with the problem set before us by your wisdom, what one ought to think concerning those snatched away before their time, in whose case birth is all but joined to death; which things the wise Plato among the outsiders, after philosophizing much from the person of one who had returned to life about the tribunals there, left unutterable, as being clearly too great to come under human reasoning. If, therefore, there is anything of this sort in what has been examined, so as to resolve the doubts of the problem, you will certainly accept the argument that has been found, but if not, you will surely forgive my old age, accepting only our eagerness to provide you with something pleasing. For the story says that even Xerxes, that man who made almost the whole world under the sun into one army and moved the entire inhabited world for himself when he campaigned against the Greeks, received with pleasure the gift of a certain poor man. And the gift was water, and this not carried in an earthen vessel, but held in the hollow of the palms of his hands. Thus, therefore, you too, according to your inherent genius, will surely imitate him for whom the intention became the gift, if indeed our gift should be found to be small and watery. 71

Just as in the case of the wonders of the heavens, he who looks up at the sky sees equally the apparent beauties, whether he happens to be an educated man or an unlearned one, but he who starts from philosophy and he who entrusts the phenomenon to his senses alone do not think about them in the same way (for the latter either delights in the rays of the sun or judges the beauty of the stars worthy of wonder or has observed the number of the moon's course in a month, but he who is discerning in soul and has been purified through education for the understanding of heavenly things, leaving behind those things by which the sense of the less rational is gladdened, looks to the harmony of the universe and from the circular motion observes the fine harmony arising from opposites; how with the revolution of the fixed stars the inner circles revolve in the opposite direction, how the phenomena of the stars within them are formed in many ways, in their approaches and recessions and their passages underneath and their eclipses and their sideways courses, always working out that uninterrupted harmony in the same ways and alike; for whom not even the position of the smallest of stars is overlooked as unobserved, but all things provide equal concern to those who through wisdom have moved their mind to things above); in the same way you also, O my honored head, seeing the economy of God in existing things, leaving aside those things about which the mind of the many is occupied (I mean wealth and pride and desire for empty glory, which are accustomed to astound the less rational, flashing all around like rays), you do not leave even the things that seem 72 smaller among the phenomena in existence unexamined, searching out and considering the inequality of human life, not only that which is seen in terms of wealth and poverty or the differences in dignities and lineage (for you know that these things are as nothing, for which being does not exist by their own substance, but in the vain supposition of those who gape at non-existent things as if they existed; if, at any rate, one were to take away from him who is resplendent with glory the opinion of those who look at him, nothing will be left for the one who is high-minded over an empty puff of wind, even if all the matter of wealth happens to be buried away with him), but it is a matter of concern to you

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καλῶς ἐπίστασαι, ἐν τίσιν ἐστὶ τὸ λαβεῖν τοῦ καθαρεῦσαι λήμματος ἐνδοξότερον· δὸς γάρ μοι μετὰ παρρησίας εἰπεῖν, ὅτι οὐ πάντων ὑπερορᾷς τῶν λημμάτων, ἀλλ' ὧν οὔπω τις ἅψασθαι τῶν προλαβόντων δεδύνηται, μόνος περιεδράξω διπλῇ τῇ χειρί· ἀντὶ γὰρ ἐσθῆτός τινος ἢ χρημάτων ἢ ἀνδραπόδων αὐτὰς τῶν ἀνθρώπων τὰς ψυχὰς λαβὼν ἔχεις τῷ θησαυρῷ τῆς ἀγάπης ἐναποθέμενος. 70

Ταῦτα λογογράφοι καὶ σοφισταὶ διεξίτωσαν, οἷς κόσμος καλῶς τὰ τοιαῦτα γράφειν, ὁ δὲ γηραιὸς ἡμῶν λόγος τοσοῦτον ἑαυτὸν ὑποκινείτω, ὅσον βάδην ἐπεξελθεῖν τῷ προ τεθέντι ἡμῖν παρὰ τῆς σῆς σοφίας προβλήματι, τί χρὴ γινώσκειν περὶ τῶν πρὸ ὥρας ἀναρπαζομένων, ἐφ' ὧν μικροῦ δεῖν ἡ γένεσις τῷ θανάτῳ συνάπτεται· ἃ καὶ ὁ σοφὸς ἐν τοῖς ἔξω Πλάτων πολλὰ ἐκ προσώπου τοῦ ἀναβεβιωκότος περὶ τῶν ἐκεῖθεν δικαστηρίων φιλοσοφήσας ἀφῆκεν ἀπόρρητα, ὡς κρείττονα ὄντα δηλαδὴ ἢ ὥστε ὑπὸ λογισμὸν ἀνθρώπων ἐλθεῖν. εἰ μὲν οὖν τι τοιοῦτον ἐν τοῖς ἐξητασμένοις ἐστίν, ὡς λύειν τὰς τοῦ προβλήματος ἀμφιβολίας, δέξῃ δηλαδὴ τὸν εὑρεθέντα λόγον, εἰ δὲ μή, συγγνώσῃ πάντως τῷ γήρᾳ, μόνην τὴν προθυμίαν ἡμῶν εἰς τὸ παρασχεῖν τί σοι τῶν κεχαρισμένων ἀποδεξάμενος. καὶ γὰρ τὸν Ξέρξην, ἐκεῖνον τὸν πᾶσαν τὴν ὑφ' ἡλίῳ μικροῦ δεῖν ἓν στρατόπεδον ποιησάμενον καὶ πᾶσαν ἑαυτῷ συγκινοῦντα τὴν οἰκουμένην, ὅτε κατὰ τῶν Ἑλλήνων ἐστράτευσε, μεθ' ἡδονῆς δέξασθαί φησιν ὁ λόγος πένητός τινος δῶρον. ὕδωρ δὲ τὸ ξένιον ἦν καὶ τοῦτο οὐκ ἐν κεράμῳ φερόμενον, ἀλλ' ἐν τῷ κοίλῳ τῆς τῶν χειρῶν παλάμης περιεχόμενον. οὕτως οὖν καὶ σὺ κατὰ τὴν προσοῦσάν σοι μεγαλοφυΐαν μιμήσῃ πάντως ἐκεῖνον, ᾧ δῶρον ἐγένετο ἡ προαίρεσις, εἴπερ ἡμῶν βραχύ τε καὶ ὑδατῶδες εὑρεθείη τὸ δῶρον. 71

Ὥσπερ ἐπὶ τῶν οὐρανίων θαυμάτων ὁρᾷ μὲν ἐπ' ἴσης τὰ φαινόμενα κάλλη κἂν πεπαιδευμένος κἂν ἰδιώτης τύχῃ τις ὢν ὁ πρὸς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἀναβλέπων, διανοεῖται δὲ τὰ περὶ αὐτῶν οὐχ ὁμοίως ὅ τε ἀπὸ φιλοσοφίας ὁρμώμενος καὶ ὁ μόναις ταῖς αἰσθήσεσι τὸ φαινόμενον ἐπιτρέπων (οὗτος μὲν γὰρ ἢ ταῖς ἀκτῖσιν ἥδεται τοῦ ἡλίου ἢ τὸ κάλλος τῶν ἄστρων θαύμα τος ἄξιον κρίνει ἢ τὸν ἀριθμὸν τοῦ σεληναίου δρόμου ἐπὶ τοῦ μηνὸς παρετήρησεν, ὁ δὲ διορατικὸς τὴν ψυχὴν καὶ διὰ παιδεύσεως πρὸς τὴν κατανόησιν τῶν οὐρανίων κεκαθαρμένος, καταλιπὼν ταῦτα δι' ὧν εὐφραίνεται τῶν ἀλογωτέρων ἡ αἴσθησις, πρὸς τὴν τοῦ παντὸς ἁρμονίαν βλέπει καὶ ἐκ τῆς ἐγκυκλίου κινήσεως τὴν ἐκ τῶν ἐναντίων εὐαρμοστίαν ἐπισκοπεῖ· πῶς τῇ ἀπλανεῖ περιφορᾷ οἱ ἐντὸς κύκλοι πρὸς τὸ ἔμπαλιν ἀνελίσσονται, πῶς τὰ ἐν αὐτοῖς θεωρούμενα τῶν ἄστρων πολυειδῶς σχηματίζεται, ἐν προσεγγισμοῖς τε καὶ ἀποστάσεσι καὶ ὑποδρομαῖς τε καὶ ἐκλείψεσι καὶ ταῖς ἐπὶ τὰ πλάγια παραδρομαῖς τὴν ἀδιάλειπτον ἐκείνην ἁρμονίαν ἀεὶ κατὰ τὰ αὐτὰ καὶ ὡσαύτως ἐξεργαζόμενα· οἷς οὐδὲ τοῦ βραχυτάτου τῶν ἄστρων ἡ θέσις ἀθεώρητος περιορᾶται, ἀλλὰ πάντα τὴν ἴσην παρέχει φροντίδα τοῖς διὰ τῆς σοφίας ἐπὶ τὰ ἄνω τὸν νοῦν μετοικίσασι)· τὸν αὐτὸν τρόπον καὶ σύ, ὦ τιμία μοι κεφαλή, τὴν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι τοῦ θεοῦ οἰκονομίαν βλέπων, ἀφεὶς ἐκεῖνα περὶ ἃ τῶν πολλῶν ἄσχολός ἐστιν ἡ διάνοια (πλοῦτον λέγω καὶ τῦφον καὶ δόξης ἐπιθυμίαν κενῆς, ἅπερ ἄντικρυς ἀκτίνων δίκην περιαστράπτοντα τοὺς ἀλογωτέρους ἐκπλήττειν εἴωθεν), οὐδὲ τὰ δοκοῦντα 72 μικρότερα τῶν ἐν τοῖς οὖσι θεωρουμένων ἀνεξέταστα καταλείπεις ἀνερευνῶν τε καὶ διασκοπούμενος τὴν ἀνωμαλίαν τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης ζωῆς, οὐ μόνον τὴν κατὰ πλοῦτον καὶ πενίαν θεωρουμένην ἢ τὰς κατὰ τὰ ἀξιώματα καὶ τὰ γένη διαφοράς (οἶδας γὰρ ἀντ' οὐδενὸς εἶναι ταῦτα οἷς τὸ εἶναι οὐ καθ' ὑπόστασιν οἰκείαν ἐστίν, ἀλλ' ἐν τῇ ματαίᾳ ὑπολήψει τῶν τοῖς μὴ οὖσιν ὡς ὑφεστῶσι προσκεχηνότων· εἰ γοῦν τις ἀφέλοιτο τοῦ λαμπρυνομένου τῇ δόξῃ τῶν εἰς αὐτὸν βλεπόντων τὴν οἴησιν, οὐδὲν ὑπολειφθήσεται τῷ μεγαλοφρονοῦντι ἐπὶ τῷ διακένῳ φυσήματι, κἂν πᾶσα τῶν χρημάτων ἡ ὕλη παρ' αὐτῷ κατορωρυγμένη τύχῃ), ἀλλά σοι διὰ φροντίδος ἐστὶ