Letter CLI.763    Placed in 373.

To Eustathius the Physician.764    cf. Letter clxxxix.  On those who had renounced communion with Eustathius the bishop.

If my letters are of any good, lose no time in writing to me and in rousing me to write.  We are unquestionably made more cheerful when we read the letters of wise men who love the Lord.  It is for you to say, who read it, whether you find anything worth attention in what I write.  Were it not for the multitude of my engagements, I should not debar myself from the pleasure of writing frequently.  Pray do you, whose cares are fewer, soothe me by your letters.  Wells, it is said, are the better for being used.  The exhortations which you derive from your profession are apparently beside the point, for it is not I who am applying the knife; it is men whose day is done, who are falling upon themselves.765    i.e. Eustathius, the bishop, is rushing upon the knife.  The phrase of the Stoics runs, “since things do not happen as we like, we like what happens;” but I cannot make my mind fall in with what is happening.  That some men should do what they do not like because they cannot help it, I have no objection.  You doctors do not cauterise a sick man, or make him suffer pain in some other way, because you like it; but you often adopt this treatment in obedience to the necessity of the case.  Mariners do not willingly throw their cargo overboard; but in order to escape shipwreck they put up with the loss, preferring a life of penury to death.  Be sure that I look with sorrow and with many groans upon the separation of those who are holding themselves aloof.  But yet I endure it.  To lovers of the truth nothing can be put before God and hope in Him.766    The view of the Ben. Ed. is that the bales thrown overboard represent the loss of unity incurred by the Sebastenes by leaving the communion of Eustathius for his own.  cf. Letter ccxxxvii.

ΕΥΣΤΑΘΙῼ ΑΡΧΙΑΤΡῼ

[1] Εἴ τι ὄφελος ἡμετέρων γραμμάτων, μηδένα χρόνον διαλείπῃς ἐπιστέλλων ἡμῖν καὶ διεγείρων ἡμᾶς πρὸς τὸ γράφειν. Αὐτοὶ μὲν γὰρ προδήλως ἡδίους γινόμεθα ἐντυγχάνοντες ἐπιστολαῖς συνετῶν ἀνδρῶν ἀγαπώντων τὸν Κύριον. Εἰ δὲ καὶ αὐτοί τι ἄξιον σπουδῆς εὑρίσκετε παρ' ἡμῖν, ὑμέτερον εἰδέναι τῶν ἐντυγχανόντων. Εἰ μὲν οὖν μὴ ὑπὸ τοῦ πλήθους τῶν ἀσχολιῶν ἀπηγόμεθα, οὐκ ἂν τῆς ἐκ τοῦ γράφειν συνεχῶς εὐφροσύνης ἀπειχόμεθα. Ὑμεῖς δέ, οἷς ἐλάττους αἱ φροντίδες, ὁσάκις ἂν οἷόν τε ᾖ, κινεῖτε ἡμᾶς τοῖς γράμμασι. Καὶ γὰρ τὰ φρέατά φασιν ἀντλούμενα βελτίω γίνεσθαι. Ἐοίκασι δέ σου αἱ ἐξ ἰατρικῆς παραινέσεις εἰς πάρεργον χωρεῖν, οὐχ ἡμῶν ἐναγόντων τὸν σίδηρον, ἀλλ' ἑαυτοῖς ἐκπιπτόντων τῶν ἀπαχρειουμένων. Ὁ μὲν οὖν τοῦ Στωϊκοῦ λόγος: «Ἐπειδή, φησί, μὴ γίνεται τὰ πράγματα ὡς βουλόμεθα, ὡς ἂν γίνηται βουλώμεθα.» Ἐγὼ δὲ τοῖς μὲν πράγμασι τὴν γνώμην συμμετατίθεσθαι οὐ καταδέχομαι, τὸ δὲ ἀβουλήτως τινὰ ποιεῖν τῶν ἀναγκαίων οὐκ ἀποδοκιμάζω. Οὔτε γὰρ ὑμῖν τοῖς ἰατροῖς τὸ κάειν τὸν ἄρρωστον ἢ ἄλλως ποιεῖν ἀλγεῖν βουλητόν, ἀλλ' οὖν καταδέχεσθε πολλάκις τῇ δυσχερείᾳ τοῦ πάθους ἑπόμενοι. Οὔτε οἱ πλέοντες ἑκουσίως ἐκβάλλουσι τὰ ἀγώγιμα, ἀλλ', ὥστε διαφυγεῖν τὰ ναυάγια, ὑφίστανται τὴν ἐκβολὴν τὸν ἐν πενίᾳ βίον τοῦ ἀποθανεῖν προτιμῶντες. Ὥστε καὶ ἡμᾶς οἴου ἀλγεινῶς μὲν καὶ μετὰ μυρίων ὀδυρμῶν φέρειν τὸν χωρισμὸν τῶν ἀφισταμένων, φέρειν δ' οὖν ὅμως, ἐπειδὴ τοῦ Θεοῦ καὶ τῆς ἐπ' αὐτὸν ἐλπίδος οὐδὲν τοῖς ἀληθείας ἐρασταῖς προτιμότερον.