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of comfort, but also to have become healthier by this. And neither hardship of climate, nor desolation of place, nor scarcity of provisions, nor lack of attendants, nor ignorance of physicians, nor want of baths, nor being confined altogether in a single dwelling as in a prison, nor not being able to move about for which I always continually prayed, nor being continually in company with smoke and fire, nor fear of robbers, nor a continuous siege, nor anything else of such things has overcome us; but we are in better health than we were there, although using much care. Therefore, considering all these things, drive away the despondency which now possesses you on account of these things, and do not exact from yourself unnecessary and harsh penalties. I sent to you what I wrote before, that "No one will be able to harm one who does not wrong himself," and this was the contest that the treatise contended for, which I have now sent to your honor. Therefore, go over it continually; and if you should be well, carry it also on your tongue. For it will be a sufficient medicine for you, if you are willing. But if you should be contentious with us and neither treat yourself, nor, though enjoying countless exhortations and consolations, be willing to recover from the mire of despondency, neither shall we readily consent to send you frequent and long letters, if you are to gain nothing from them towards cheerfulness. How then shall we know this? Not if you say so, but if you show it by your deeds, since even now you said that nothing else, but despondency had caused this sickness for you. Since, therefore, you yourself have confessed this, if you are not delivered from your illness, we shall not be persuaded that you have also been delivered from despondency. For if this is what causes the sickness, as you yourself have also written, it is clear that when it is dissolved that also will be destroyed with it, and when the root has been pulled up, its branches also perish with it. So if they remain flourishing and vigorous and bearing their unseemly fruit, we cannot be persuaded that you have been set free from the root. Do not, therefore, show me words but deeds, and if you are healthy, you will see letters again sent to you, exceeding the measure of words. And do not consider it a small consolation for you that we are alive, that we are well, that though we are in so many difficult circumstances we have been delivered from sickness and infirmity, a thing which, as I have learned, greatly grieves and pains our enemies. It is fitting, therefore, that you too should consider this the greatest consolation and the chief source of comfort. Do not call your company desolate, which is now more greatly enrolled in heaven through the sufferings which it endures. I was greatly grieved for Pelagius the monk. Consider, therefore, of how many crowns are worthy those who have stood nobly, when men who have lived in so great asceticism and endurance are seen to be thus dragged down.

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παραμυθίας, ἀλλὰ καὶ ὑγιεινότεροι ταύτῃ γενέσθαι. Καὶ οὔτε ἀέρων δυσκολία, οὐ τόπων ἐρημία, οὐκ ὠνίων στενοχωρία, οὐ τῶν θεραπευσόντων ἐρημία, οὐκ ἰατρῶν ἀμαθία, οὐ βαλανείων ἀπορία, οὐ τὸ διόλου, καθάπερ ἐν δεσμωτηρίῳ, ἐν ἑνὶ οἰκήματι καθεῖρχθαι, οὐ τὸ μὴ κινεῖσθαι οὗπερ ἀεὶ συνεχῶς ἐδεόμην, οὐ τὸ καπνῷ καὶ πυρὶ διηνεκῶς ὁμιλεῖν, οὐ λῃστῶν φόβος, οὐ πολιορκία διηνεκής, οὐκ ἄλλο τῶν τοιούτων οὐδὲν ἡμῶν περιγέγονεν· ἀλλ' ὑγιεινότερον διακείμεθα ἢ αὐτόθι ἦμεν πολλῇ μέντοι κεχρημένοι τῇ ἐπιμελείᾳ. Ταῦτα οὖν ἅπαντα λογιζομένη διακρούου τὴν κατέχουσάν σε νῦν ὑπὲρ τούτων ἀθυμίαν καὶ μὴ σαυτὴν ἀπαίτει δίκας περιττὰς καὶ χαλεπάς. Ἔπεμψά σοι ἅπερ ἔγραψα πρώην ὅτι «Τὸν ἑαυτὸν οὐκ ἀδικοῦντα οὐδεὶς ἕτερος παραβλάψαι δυνήσεται», καὶ τοῦτον ἠγωνίσατο τὸν ἀγῶνα ὁ λόγος ὃν ἀπέσταλκά σου τῇ τιμιότητι νῦν. Συνεχῶς δὴ οὖν αὐτὸν ἐπέρχου· εἰ δὲ ὑγιαίνοις, καὶ ἐπὶ γλώσσης φέρε. Ἱκανὸν γὰρ ἔσται σοι φάρμακον, ἐὰν θέλῃς. Εἰ δὲ φιλονεικοίης ἡμῖν καὶ μήτε θεραπεύοις σαυτήν, μήτε μυρίας ἀπολαύουσα παραινέσεώς τε καὶ παρακλήσεως βουληθείης ἀνενεγκεῖν ἐκ τῶν τελμάτων τῆς ἀθυμίας, οὐ ῥᾳδίως οὐδὲ ἡμεῖς ὑπακουσόμεθα πρὸς τὸ πυκνάς σοι καὶ μακρὰς πέμπειν ἐπιστολάς, εἰ μηδὲν μέλλοις ἐντεῦθεν κερδαίνειν εἰς εὐθυμίαν. Πῶς οὖν τοῦτο εἰσόμεθα; Οὐκ ἐὰν λέγῃς, ἀλλ' ἐὰν διὰ τῶν πραγμάτων δεικνύῃς, ἐπεὶ καὶ νῦν ἔφης μηδὲν τῶν ἄλλων, ἀλλὰ τὴν ἀθυμίαν σοι τὴν νόσον εἰργάσθαι ταύτην. Ἐπεὶ οὖν αὐτὴ τοῦτο ὡμολόγησας, ἂν μὴ τῆς ἀρρωστίας ἀπαλλαγῇς, οὐ πεισόμεθα ὅτι καὶ τῆς ἀθυμίας ἀπήλλαξαι. Εἰ γὰρ αὕτη ἐστὶν ἡ τὴν νόσον ποιοῦσα, καθὼς καὶ αὐτὴ ἐπέσταλκας, εὔδηλον ὅτι λυθείσης αὐτῆς κἀκείνη συναναιρεθήσεται, καὶ τῆς ῥίζης ἀνασπασθείσης καὶ οἱ ταύτης συναπόλλυνται κλάδοι. Ὡς ἐὰν μένωσιν ἀνθοῦντες καὶ ἀκμάζοντες καὶ καρπὸν φέροντες τὸν οὐ πρέποντα, οὐ δυνάμεθα πεισθῆναι ὅτι τῆς ῥίζης ἠλευθέρωσαι. Μὴ τοίνυν μοι ῥήματα ἀλλὰ πράγματα δεῖξον, κἂν ὑγιαίνῃς, ὄψει πάλιν ἐπιστολὰς πεμπομένας σοι λόγων ὑπερβαινούσας μέτρον. Μὴ δὲ μικρὰν νόμιζέ σοι παράκλησιν εἶναι ὅτι ζῶμεν, ὅτι ὑγιαίνομεν, ὅτι ἐν τοσαύταις πραγμάτων ὄντες περιστάσεσιν νόσου καὶ ἀρρωστίας ἀπηλλάγμεθα, ὃ τοὺς ἐχθροὺς ἡμῶν, ὡς ἔγνων, σφόδρα λυπεῖ καὶ ὀδυνᾷ. Ἀκόλουθον οὖν καὶ ὑμᾶς μεγίστην ταύτην ἡγεῖσθαι παράκλησιν καὶ κεφάλαιον παραμυθίας. Μὴ κάλει τὴν συνοδίαν σου ἔρημον τὴν νῦν μειζόνως ἐν οὐρανοῖς ἐγγεγραμμένην διὰ τῶν παθημάτων ὧν ὑπομένει. Σφόδρα ἤλγησα ὑπὲρ Πελαγίου τοῦ μονάζοντος. Ἐννόησον τοίνυν ὅσων ἄξιοι στεφάνων εἰσὶν οἱ γενναίως στάντες, ὅταν ἄνδρες ἐν τοσαύτῃ ἀσκήσει διαγαγόντες καὶ καρτερίᾳ οὕτω φανῶσιν ὑποσυρόμενοι.