Letter 199

To Melissus the Candidatus [a candidatus was a member of the elite imperial palace guard]. A man who has grown weak and whose constitution has been altered by disease is judged the more useless for work and for what is better, yet he still desires the good. So too the soul, when it has been changed for the worse, is enfeebled for the labor of what is better, but reaches out after things that bring destruction.

Ἄνθρωπος ἐξασθενήσας, καὶ ἐξαλλαγεὶς ὑπὸ τῆς νόσου τὴν ἕξιν, ἀχρειότερος μὲν πρὸς ἔργον καὶ πρὸς κρείττονι κρίνεται, ἐπιθυμεῖ δὲ τοῦ καλοῦ, καὶ ἐπὶ τὸ χεῖρον ἀλλουθεῖσα, ἐκνευρίζεται μὲν πρὸς ἐργασίαν τοῦ κρείττονος, ὀρέγεται δὲ τῶν ὀλεθρίων.