Letter 131: Sabinus should leave courtly display, money dreams, and bodily appetites for the goddess Poverty.

You bring poverty against me as a reproach, as though money seemed to you a most destructive beast, and, worst of all, I am Irus in your eyes and perhaps lacking daily necessities. What would you not say, having fallen away from virtue and philosophy, pitying what you ought to admire and thinking that a man is deprived of great things when he is lofty, light, and not dragged downward by the weight of matter? Measuring happiness by the stomach and clinging to human opinions, you hire out your tongue for things not lawful, stir up the courts, and make executioners an afterthought of your deception. You pound on rich men's doors; if someone knows how to feast well, he has been worn out by your admiration. Your festival is bright clothing, a proud walk, a glance poured here and there, and ears everywhere like Midas, in case some little woman says something, struck by your show. How long, bound by long sleep like some Endymion, will you not rise toward virtue? Stop gaping at the little body and feeding the prison against yourself. Stop dreaming of gold, always imagining heaps of silver, and wandering in your mind through many offices. What is within you is like none of your friends. Defect to me, if you think fit, and worship the common goddess Poverty; recognize that she loves you. She tends you more than me, and has promised to love you still.

Σαβίνωι Σὺ μὲν ὡς ἐπ' ὀνείδει πενίαν προφέρεις ἐμοί, καὶ θηρίον ἐξωλέστατον εἶναί σοι τὸ χρῆμα δοκεῖ, καί, τὸ δὴ μέγιστον, Ἶρος ἐγὼ παρὰ σοὶ καὶ τῶν καθ' ἡμέραν ἴσως ἐπιδεής· καὶ τί γὰρ οὐκ ἂν εἴποις ἀρετῆς ὁμοῦ καὶ φιλοσοφίας ἐκπεπτωκώς, ἐλεῶν μὲν ἅ γε θαυμάζειν ἐχρῆν, μεγάλων δέ τινων ἐστερῆσθαι νομίζων τὸν ὑψηλόν τε καὶ κοῦφον καὶ μὴ τῷ βάρει τῆς ὕλης πρὸς τὰ κάτω φερόμενον; τῇ γαστρὶ γὰρ τὴν εὐδαιμονίαν μετρῶν καὶ δόξαις ἀνθρώπων προσκείμενος ἐκμισθοῖς μὲν εἰς ἃ μὴ θέμις τὴν γλῶτταν, κυκᾷς δὲ τὰ δικαστήρια, πάρεργον δέ σου τῆς ἀπάτης οἱ δήμιοι. πλουσίων δὲ θύρας ἀράττεις, κἄν τις ἑστιᾶν οἶδε καλῶς, ἀπεῖπεν ὑπὸ σοῦ θαυμαζόμενος. ἑορτὴ δέ σου λαμπρὰ ἐσθὴς ποικίλη καὶ βάδισμα σοβαρὸν καὶ βλέμμα τῇδε κἀκεῖσε χεόμε νον, καὶ πανταχοῦ σοι τὰ ὦτα, καθάπερ ὁ Μίδας, εἴ πού τι φθέγξαιτο γύναιον τὴν σὴν σκηνὴν ἐκπληττόμενον. ἀλλὰ μέχρι δὴ τίνος ὕπνῳ μακρῷ πεδη θεὶς οἷά τις Ἐνδυμίων πρὸς ἀρετὴν οὐκ ἀνίστασαι; παῦσαι λοιπὸν πρὸς τὸ σωμάτιον κεχηνὼς καὶ κατὰ σαυτοῦ τρέφων τὸ δεσμωτήριον. παῦσαι χρυσίον ὀνειροπολῶν καὶ ἀργύρου πλῆθος ἀεὶ φανταζόμενος καὶ πολλὰς ἀρχὰς τῇ διανοίᾳ περινοστῶν. τὰ ἔνδον οἷα μηδενὶ τῶν φίλων. ἀλλ' αὐτομόλησον πρὸς ἡμᾶς εἰ δοκεῖ, καὶ τὴν κοινὴν θεὸν τὴν Πενίαν προσκύνει καὶ φιλοῦσαν ἐπίγνωθι. καὶ γὰρ σὲ περιέπει μᾶλλον ἤπερ ἡμᾶς, καὶ φιλήσειν ἔτι κατεπήγγελται.