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nature; it makes those who bear it meekly and nobly superior to terrible things, higher than the devil's arrows it teaches them to despise plots. For indeed, trees that are nourished in the shade become softer and more useless for bearing fruit, but those that associate with the irregularity of the air and receive the blasts of winds and the heat of the sunbeam, they themselves are made stronger and are luxuriant with leaves and heavy with fruit, thus it is accustomed to happen also on the sea; for those who first board a ship, even if they happen to be very noble, are disturbed by inexperience, are thrown into confusion, are seized by dizzying spells of vertigo; but those who have crossed many seas and endured many storms and submerged rocks and reefs and ledges and the attacks of beasts and the plots of pirates and wreckers and having endured continuous storms, sit more courageously on the ship than those who walk on land, not inside by the keel, but even sitting on the very sides of the ship and standing fearlessly on the prow and on the stern; and those who before this lay face down with trembling and fear, after much experience of the storm, both pull the rope and raise the sails and take hold of the oars and run about everywhere on the ship with ease. Let nothing, therefore, of the things that befall you disturb you. For our enemies have unwillingly brought us to this point of not being able to suffer evil, having emptied all their arrows, and having accomplished nothing more from this than to be put to shame and be laughed at and to appear everywhere as common enemies of the world. These are the rewards for the plotters, this is the end of the wars. Oh, how great a thing is virtue and the contempt for present affairs; through plots it gains, through those who plot it is crowned, through those who do evil it shines more brightly, through those who attempt to drag it down it makes its followers stronger, loftier, unconquerable, indestructible, needing no weapons, no spears, no walls, no trenches, no towers, no money, no armies, but only a firm will and an unswerving soul, and it exposes every human plot. 11.2 These things therefore, my most God-beloved lady, chanting both to yourself and to those with you who are fighting this good fight, raise up their spirits, marshaling all your battle line, so that the crown of virtue may become for you twofold and threefold and many times over, both through what you yourself suffer, and through what you lead others into, and persuading them to bear everything meekly and to look down on shadows and to despise the deceit of dreams and to trample on the clay and to take no account of the smoke and to not think that spiders disturb you, and to run past the decaying grass. For all these things are the vanity of human prosperity, and even more worthless than these. And one could not easily find an image that accurately represents its vanity. For along with this nothingness, it brings no small harm to those who gape at it, not only in the age to come, but also in the present life and in these very days in which they seem to revel in them. For just as virtue, even at the very time when it is warred against, leaps up and thrives and is shown to be more radiant, so also vice, even at the very time when it is served and flattered, shows its weakness and great ridiculousness and unspeakable comedy. For what, tell me, was more pitiable than Cain, even at the very time when he seemed to overpower his brother and to have prevailed and to have been filled with that unjust and abominable temper and wrath? And what was more unclean than that right hand that seemed to have conquered, the right hand which inflicted the blow and committed the murder,

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φύσις· τοὺς πρᾴως αὐτὴν καὶ γενναίως φέροντας ἀνωτέρους ποιεῖ τῶν δεινῶν, ὑψηλοτέρους τῶν τοῦ διαβόλου βελῶν παιδεύει καταφρονεῖν τῶν ἐπιβουλῶν. Ἐπεὶ καὶ τὰ δένδρα τὰ μὲν σκιατροφούμενα μαλακώτερα γίνεται καὶ πρὸς καρπῶν γένεσιν ἀχρηστότερα, τὰ δὲ ἀέρων ἀνωμαλίᾳ ὁμιλοῦντα καὶ πνευμάτων δεχόμενα ἐμβολὰς καὶ θέρμην ἀκτῖνος, αὐτά τε ἰσχυρότερα καθίσταται καὶ τοῖς φύλλοις κομᾷ καὶ τῷ κάρπῳ βρίθεται, οὕτω καὶ ἐπὶ τῆς θαλάσσης συμβαίνειν εἴωθεν· οἳ μὲν γὰρ πρῶτον ἐπιβάντες νηός, κἂν σφόδρα γενναῖοί τινες τυγχάνωσιν ὄντες, ὑπὸ τῆς ἀπειρίας ταράττονται, θορυβοῦνται, σκοτοδίνοις ἰλίγγοις κατέχονται· οἱ δὲ πολλὰ διαβάντες πελάγη καὶ πολλοὺς ὑπομείναντες χειμῶνας καὶ ὑφάλους καὶ σκοπέλους καὶ σπιλάδας καὶ θηρίων ἐφόδους καὶ πειρατῶν ἐπιβουλὰς καὶ καταποντιστῶν καὶ συνεχῶν ἀνασχόμενοι χειμώνων, τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς λοιπὸν βαδιζόντων θαρραλεώτεροι ἐπὶ τῆς νηὸς κάθηνται, οὐκ ἔνδον παρὰ τὴν τρόπιν, ἀλλὰ καὶ αὐτοῖς ἐνιζάνοντες τοῖς τοίχοις τῆς νηὸς καὶ ἐπὶ πρώρας καὶ ἐπὶ πρύμνης ἀδεῶς ἱστάμενοι· καὶ οἱ πρὸ τούτου ἐπ' ὄψιν μετὰ τρόμου καὶ φόβου κείμενοι, μετὰ τὴν πολλὴν τοῦ χειμῶνος πεῖραν καὶ σχοῖνον ἕλκουσι καὶ ἱστία ἀνάγουσι καὶ κωπῶν ἅπτονται καὶ πανταχοῦ τῆς νηὸς μετὰ εὐκολίας περιτρέχουσι. Μηδὲν τοίνυν ὑμᾶς θορυβείτω τῶν συμπιπτόντων. Εἰς τοῦτο γὰρ ἡμᾶς κατέστησαν οἱ ἐχθροὶ ἄκοντες εἰς τὸ μὴ δύνασθαι κακῶς παθεῖν πάντα μὲν αὐτῶν κενώσαντες τὰ βέλη, οὐδὲν δὲ πλέον ἐντεῦθεν ἀνύσαντες ἢ τὸ καταισχύνεσθαι καὶ γελᾶσθαι καὶ ὥσπερ κοινοὺς τῆς οἰκουμένης ἐχθρούς, οὕτω πανταχοῦ φαίνεσθαι. Ταῦτα τῶν ἐπιβούλων τὰ ἐπίχειρα, τοῦτο τῶν πολέμων τὸ τέλος. Βαβαί, πηλίκον ἐστὶν ἡ ἀρετὴ καὶ τῶν παρόντων ὑπεροψία πραγμάτων· δι' ἐπιβουλῶν κερδαίνει, διὰ τῶν ἐπιβουλευόντων στεφανοῦται, διὰ τῶν κακῶς ποιούντων διαλάμπει μειζόνως, διὰ τῶν ἐπισύρειν ἐπιχειρούντων ἰσχυροτέρους ποιεῖ τοὺς μετιόντας αὐτήν, ὑψηλοτέρους, ἀχειρώτους, ἀναλώτους, οὐχ ὅπλων, οὐ δοράτων δεομένους, οὐ τειχῶν, οὐ τάφρων, οὐ πύργων, οὐ χρημάτων, οὐ στρατοπέδων, ἀλλὰ γνώμης στερρᾶς μόνον καὶ ἀπεριτρέπτου ψυχῆς, καὶ πᾶσαν ἀνθρωπίνην ἐπιβουλὴν ἐλέγχει. 11.2 Ταῦτα οὖν, δέσποινά μου θεοφιλεστάτη, καὶ σαυτῇ καὶ ταῖς μετὰ σοῦ τὸν καλὸν τοῦτον ἀγῶνα ἀγωνιζομέναις ἐπᾴδουσα ἀνίστη τὰ φρονήματα πασῶν συγκροτοῦσά σου τὴν παράταξιν, ὥστε διπλοῦν καὶ τριπλοῦν καὶ πολλαπλασίονα γενέσθαι σοι τὸν στέφανον τῆς ἀρετῆς, δι' ὧν τε αὐτὴ πάσχεις, δι' ὧν τε ἑτέρας εἰς ταῦτα ἐνάγεις, καὶ πείθουσα πάντα πρᾴως φέρειν καὶ ὑπερορᾶν τῶν σκιῶν καὶ καταφρονεῖν τῆς τῶν ὀνειράτων ἀπάτης καὶ καταπατεῖν τὸν πηλὸν καὶ τοῦ καπνοῦ μηδένα ποιεῖσθαι λόγον καὶ τὰς ἀράχνας μὴ νομίζειν ὑμῖν διενοχλεῖν, καὶ παρατρέχειν τὸν σηπόμενον χόρτον. Ταῦτα γὰρ ἅπαντα τῆς ἀνθρωπίνης εὐημερίας ἡ ματαιότης καὶ τούτων δὲ εὐτελέστερα. Καὶ οὐκ ἄν τις ῥᾳδίως εἰκόνα εὕροι ἀκριβῶς αὐτῆς τὴν ματαιότητα παριστῶσαν. Μετὰ γὰρ τῆς οὐδενείας ταύτης οὐ μικρὰν φέρει καὶ βλάβην τοῖς πρὸς αὐτὴν κεχηνόσιν, οὐκ ἐν τῷ μέλλοντι μόνον αἰῶνι, ἀλλὰ καὶ ἐν τῷ παρόντι βίῳ καὶ κατὰ ταύτας τὰς ἡμέρας ἐν αἷς δοκοῦσιν αὐταῖς ἐντρυφᾶν. Καθάπερ γὰρ ἡ ἀρετή, καὶ κατ' αὐτὸν τὸν καιρὸν καθ' ὃν πολεμεῖται, σκιρτᾷ καὶ θάλλει καὶ φαιδροτέρα δείκνυται, οὕτω καὶ ἡ κακία, καὶ κατ' αὐτὸν τὸν καιρὸν καθ' ὃν θεραπεύεται καὶ κολακεύεται, δείκνυσιν αὐτῆς τὴν ἀσθένειαν καὶ τὸν πολὺν γέλωτα καὶ τὴν ἄφατον κωμῳδίαν. Τί γάρ, εἰπέ μοι, τοῦ Κάϊν ἐλεεινότερον γέγονε, καὶ κατ' αὐτὸν τὸν καιρὸν καθ' ὃν ἐδόκει κρατεῖν τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ καὶ περιγεγενῆσθαι καὶ τοῦ θυμοῦ καὶ τῆς ὀργῆς ἐμπεφορῆσθαι ἐκείνης τῆς ἀδίκου καὶ μυσαρᾶς; Τί δὲ τῆς δεξιᾶς ἐκείνης ἀκαθαρτότερον τῆς δοκούσης νενικηκέναι, τῆς δεξιᾶς ἣ τὴν πληγὴν ἐπήγαγεν καὶ τὸν φόνον εἰργάσατο,