Nilus of Ancyra→Julian|c. 415 AD|nilus ancyra|From Ancyra|AI-assisted
To the same person.
Since, filled with unspeakable vainglory, you find no occasion to gaze upon the depth of your own soul and to discern the serpent lurking within through your conceit, I will say a few brief things to you, if indeed you still have the power to hear and have not been deprived of the hearing of the understanding, just as once the bodily servant of the high priest in Jerusalem had his ear cut off [an allusion to Malchus, John 18:10]. For you too have set yourself up as an unprofitable servant of the spiritual high priest, not as a son, and as a mere youth, because you slip and stumble into rashness and into babbling nonsense. Know, then, that there are certain demons hidden somewhere down below in the darkness, since they are kindred to the darkness and friends of it; and by divine permission, out of such wickedness and out of this idle-mischievous phalanx, one deceitful and many-wiled spirit is sent forth, in the manner of a forerunner or a barbarian scout, and it ascends to the soul through the thoughts, like some terrible thief, or like a venom-spitting beast coiled about some tree. And this we must reckon to be wrath, according to what is written, even the wrath of God, let loose upon them. For if it does not find the man ever looking toward God, nor resisting the deceitful and erring train of thought, but rather dissolved and wandering, or taking pleasure in vain self-conceit and in exaltation, and shaken about, it then creeps further, onto the tongue also and onto the lips of the man who has fallen into vainglory; and it does not need, nor does it weary itself, to do harm to the man who soars in his judgment like the vultures over men. For the avenging and murderous spirit, turning back to the other demons, takes others along as well, and so, banded together, they make their campaign against the wretched laborer of vainglory, and they render his soul naked and desolate, blowing it away through his boasting and scattering all his fruits, which over a long time, with toil and hardship, he had gathered together. So that even vigils, and fasting, and almsgiving, and sleeping on the ground, and the other good things are destroyed through the foulness of babbling and of arrogance; which is precisely what that Pharisee once suffered, the one who thought himself alone to be righteous and exalted himself against the Tax-Collector [Publican], who through his humility was justified above him by the divine verdict [Luke 18:9-14]. The man, therefore, who like you is hunted down through vainglory can no longer be at peace either with himself or with his neighbors; for at once he falls into despondencies, fits of temper, angers, frenzies, agitations, griefs, and dishonors. And I pass over the rest in silence, so that I may not now turn the whole thing into a tragedy.
Since, filled with unspeakable vainglory, you find no occasion to gaze upon the depth of your own soul and to discern the serpent lurking within through your conceit, I will say a few brief things to you, if indeed you still have the power to hear and have not been deprived of the hearing of the understanding, just as once the bodily servant of the high priest in Jerusalem had his ear cut off [an allusion to Malchus, John 18:10]. For you too have set yourself up as an unprofitable servant of the spiritual high priest, not as a son, and as a mere youth, because you slip and stumble into rashness and into babbling nonsense. Know, then, that there are certain demons hidden somewhere down below in the darkness, since they are kindred to the darkness and friends of it; and by divine permission, out of such wickedness and out of this idle-mischievous phalanx, one deceitful and many-wiled spirit is sent forth, in the manner of a forerunner or a barbarian scout, and it ascends to the soul through the thoughts, like some terrible thief, or like a venom-spitting beast coiled about some tree. And this we must reckon to be wrath, according to what is written, even the wrath of God, let loose upon them. For if it does not find the man ever looking toward God, nor resisting the deceitful and erring train of thought, but rather dissolved and wandering, or taking pleasure in vain self-conceit and in exaltation, and shaken about, it then creeps further, onto the tongue also and onto the lips of the man who has fallen into vainglory; and it does not need, nor does it weary itself, to do harm to the man who soars in his judgment like the vultures over men. For the avenging and murderous spirit, turning back to the other demons, takes others along as well, and so, banded together, they make their campaign against the wretched laborer of vainglory, and they render his soul naked and desolate, blowing it away through his boasting and scattering all his fruits, which over a long time, with toil and hardship, he had gathered together. So that even vigils, and fasting, and almsgiving, and sleeping on the ground, and the other good things are destroyed through the foulness of babbling and of arrogance; which is precisely what that Pharisee once suffered, the one who thought himself alone to be righteous and exalted himself against the Tax-Collector [Publican], who through his humility was justified above him by the divine verdict [Luke 18:9-14]. The man, therefore, who like you is hunted down through vainglory can no longer be at peace either with himself or with his neighbors; for at once he falls into despondencies, fits of temper, angers, frenzies, agitations, griefs, and dishonors. And I pass over the rest in silence, so that I may not now turn the whole thing into a tragedy.
AI-assisted translation - This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.