Letter 796: I was pleased that you urge me to do the very thing I urge you to do.

To Modestus. (363) I was pleased that you summon me to the very things to which I summon you; for it is plain that I have persuaded you to help, if, taking over my role, you urge me to help Hyperechius. I, then, will neither pass over any of the things that are possible, nor will I attempt the things that are impossible. For even if it is futile, still it befits one who loves; and indeed something would already have been accomplished concerning the young man, had not his coming late hindered the matter. Yet it has not destroyed our hopes; rather, they are bright. And I spit into my bosom, obeying the proverb. It seems that some divinity, wishing the affair to be well managed, has arranged for him to obtain both kinds of things—those which you have the authority to give and those of the master of all things—since, had he obtained the latter first, he would have been deprived of the former. But as it is, you will educate him and make him an orator and great in all other respects—in marriage and in reputation and in the things transacted in the council—and the second gifts will come to one able to receive what is given. But, by the gods, whom you long admired and now have acknowledged, surpass, surpass the goodwill of Hyperechius's father, and imitate mine; and by doing this you will outdo the father's.

Μοδέστῳ. (363) Ἥσθην ὅτι με παρακαλεῖς ἐφ’ ἅπερ ἐγὼ σέ· δῆλον γὰρ ὅτι σὲ πέπεικα βοηθεῖν, εἰ τὴν ἐμὴν τάξιν λαβὼν ἐμὲ προ- τρέπεις Ὑπερεχίῳ βοηθεῖν. ἐγὼ μὲν οὖν οὔτε τῶν δυνα- τῶν τι παρήσω τοῖς τ’ ἀδυνάτοις ἐπιχειρήσω. καὶ γὰρ εἰ μά- ταιον, ἀλλὰ τῷ φιλοῦντι πρέπον, καὶ ἤδη γ’ ἂν ἐπέπρακτό τι περὶ τὸν νεανίσκον, εἰ μὴ τὸ βραδέως ἐλθεῖν ἐκώλυσε τὸ ἔργον. οὐ μὴν τάς γε ἐλπίδας ἀνεῖλεν, ἀλλ’ εἰσὶ καὶ λαμπραί. πτύω δὲ εἰς κόλπον τῇ παροιμίᾳ πειθόμενος. ἔοικε δέ τις δαίμων τὸ πρᾶγμα καλῶς διῳκηκέναι βουλόμενος αὐτὸν ἀμφοτέρων τυχεῖν, ὧν τε σὺ δοῦναι κύριος ὧν τε ὁ πάντων, ὡς ἐκείνων γε προτέρων τυχών, τῶν δ’ ἂν ἐστέρητο. νῦν δὲ σὺ μὲν αὐτὸν παιδεύσεις καὶ ποιήσεις ῥήτορά τε καὶ τἄλλα μέγαν γάμῳ τε καὶ δόξη καὶ τοῖς ἐν τῷ συνεδρίῳ δρω- μένοις, ἥξει δὲ τὰ δεύτερα διδόμενα δέξασθαι δυναμένῳ. ἀλλά, πρὸς τῶν θεῶν, οὓς πάλαι θαυμάζων νῦν ὡμολόγη- σας, πάρελθε πάρελθε μὲν τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς Ὑπερέχιον εὔνοιαν, μησαι δὲ τὴν ἐμήν· ὃ ποιήσας τὴν τοῦ πατρὸς νικήσεις.