Letter CXCIV.945    Placed in 375.

To Zoilus.

What are you about, most excellent sir, in anticipating me in humility?  Educated as you are, and able to write such a letter as you have sent, you nevertheless ask for forgiveness at my hands, as though you were engaged in some undertaking rash and beyond your position.  But a truce to mockery.  Continue to write to me on every occasion.  Am I not wholly illiterate?  It is delightful to read the letters of an eloquent writer.  Have I learned from Scripture how good a thing is love?  I count intercourse with a loving friend invaluable.  And I do hope that you may tell me of all the good gifts which I pray for you; the best of health, and the prosperity of all your house.  Now as to my own affairs, my condition is not more endurable than usual.  It is enough to tell you this and you will understand the bad state of my health.  It has indeed reached such extreme suffering as to be as difficult to describe as to experience, if indeed your own experience has fallen short of mine.  But it is the work of the good God to give me power to bear in patience whatever trials are inflicted on me for my own good at the hands of our merciful Lord.

ΖΩΙΛῼ

[1] Οἷα ποιεῖς, ὦ θαυμάσιε, προλαμβάνων ἡμᾶς εἰς τὸ τῆς ταπεινώσεως μέτρον; Ὅς γε τοιοῦτος ὢν τὴν παίδευσιν καὶ οὕτως εἰδὼς ἐπιστέλλειν, ὡς δηλοῖ τὰ γράμματα, ὅμως ἀξιοῖς, ὡς ἐπὶ τολμηροτέρᾳ τινὶ ἐγχειρήσει καὶ ὑπερβαινούσῃ σου τὴν ἀξίαν, συγγνώμης παρ' ἡμῶν τυγχάνειν. Ἀλλὰ τῆς εἰρωνείας ταύτης ἀφέμενος ἐπίστελλε ἡμῖν διὰ πάσης προφάσεως. Εἴτε γὰρ ἡμῖν λόγων μέτεστιν, ἥδιστα λογίου ἀνδρὸς γράμμασιν ἐντευξόμεθα: εἴτε καὶ τὸ τῆς ἀγάπης καλὸν ὅσον ἐστὶ παρὰ τῆς Γραφῆς πεπαιδεύμεθα, τοῦ παντὸς ἀξίαν τιθέμεθα ἀνδρὸς ἀγαπῶντος ἡμᾶς ὁμιλίαν. Εἴη δέ σε γράφειν ἃ εὐχόμεθά σοι ἀγαθά, ὑγείαν σώματος καὶ εὐθηνίαν οἴκου παντός. Τὰ δὲ ἡμέτερα μηδὲν ἀνεκτότερα γίνωσκε τῆς συνηθείας εἶναι. Ἀρκεῖ δὲ τοσοῦτον εἰπεῖν καὶ ἐνδείξασθαί σοι τοῦ σώματος ἡμῶν τὴν ἀσθένειαν. Τὴν γὰρ νῦν κατέχουσαν ἡμᾶς εἰς τὸ ἀρρωστεῖν ὑπερβολὴν οὔτε λόγῳ ἐνδείξασθαι ῥᾴδιον οὔτε ἔργῳ πεισθῆναι, εἴπερ ἐκείνων ὧν αὐτὸς ᾔδεις εὑρέθη τι πλεῖον παρ' ἡμῶν εἰς ἀρρωστίαν. Θεοῦ δὲ τοῦ ἀγαθοῦ ἔργον δοῦναι ἡμῖν δύναμιν πρὸς τὸ ἐν ὑπομονῇ φέρειν τὰς ἐπὶ συμφέροντι ἡμῖν ἐπαγομένας εἰς τὸ σῶμα πληγὰς παρὰ τοῦ εὐεργετοῦντος ἡμᾶς Κυρίου.