Letter 438: If I desired only a small thing from your letters, I would have tried once, and failing, stopped immediately.

To Eusebius. If I had been longing for some small matter from your letters, then, having made the attempt and not obtained it, I would at once have given up; but as it is, the later ones are always sown abroad by report as better than the earlier, and this rouses our longing. Let this too, then, be counted among your noble qualities: not to begrudge your letters. For indeed it is absurd to be of help by deed, yet to shrink from giving pleasure by word.

Εὐσεβίῳ. Εἰ μὲν μικροῦ του ἐπεθύμουν σῶν γραμμάτων, ἐγχειρή- σας ἄν, εἶτα οὐ τυχὼν εὐθὺς ἐπεπαύμην· νῦν δὲ ἀεὶ τὰ δεύ- τερα τῶν προτέρων ἀμείνω διὰ τῆς φήμης σπείρεται καὶ τὸν πόθον ἡμῖν τοῦτο ἐγείρει. ἔστω οὖν καὶ τοῦτο τῶν σῶν καλῶν τὸ μὴ φθονεῖν γραμμάτων. καὶ γὰρ ἄτοπον ἔργῳ μὲν ὠφελεῖν, λόγῳ δὲ εὐφραίνειν ὀκνεῖν.