Letter 164: Human life is crowded with evils so that we may not cling to earthly things.

Until now, my excellent friend, some Socratic divine sign has appeared as an obstacle to my impulse to write, surrounding me with one illness after another, as happens to those of us who share this present life. Somehow a crowd of countless evils has been allotted to human life: poverty troubles one person, passions stretch out another's soul, someone else's body is in a bad state, one man mourns because he has no child, another laments the children he has. Why speak of the loss of wives and children, which experience has taught you by experience, not as it should have? It would take long for the argument to travel around everything life displays and shows us in action. I think God directs our affairs in this way so that, falling among a multitude of unwanted things, we may not cling to earthly things that have nothing fixed and unmoving, but, leaving the place of misfortunes behind, hurry toward another life, flying up in thought to heaven itself, even if the body still forces us to remain; and so that we may not mourn the one who has departed from the bonds here and has at last appeared free. I praise whoever first fathered the saying that "not to be born from the beginning is best for those on earth, and, once born, to pass through the gates of Hades as quickly as possible." The stage, borrowing the thought, says that when we go to a gathering we should "mourn the one born for all the evils he comes into." Why then do we still mourn those dearest to us when we have sent them safely out of life's storm before they experienced the evils here? Why do we want the divine to be what seems good to us, when we should judge good whatever seems good to it? Such indeed was the man who imitated the great Pythagoras: when someone said as a prayer, "May God give you whatever you happen to want," he replied, "Speak reverently; rather, may I want whatever he gives." Often we have wished for many things, then failed to receive them, and learned from events that it was right they did not happen; many times I have obtained what seemed to match my wishes and a little later blamed Fortune because it happened. Human beings, looking only at small things, do not have a nature sufficient for the whole, and we are ignorant of what will be useful once and for all. Therefore we must yield to the better power that wisely directs our affairs, even if its judgments are unknown to us.

Γεσσίωι Τῆς μέχρι νῦν, ὦ λῷστε, πρὸς τὸ γράφειν ὁρμῆς Σωκρατικῶς εἰπεῖν δαι μόνιόν τι πέφηνεν ἐναντίωμα, νοσήμασιν ἡμᾶς ἐξ ἄλλων ἄλλοις περιβάλλον, οἷα δὴ συμβαίνει τῆς παρούσης ἡμᾶς ἀπολαύειν ζωῆς. μυρίων γὰρ ὄχλος κακῶν τὸν τῶν ἀνθρώπων οὐκ οἶδ' ὅπως ἐκληρώσατο βίον· καὶ τὸν μὲν πενία παρενοχλεῖ, τὸν δὲ πάθη παρατείνει ψυχῆς, ἄλλῳ διάκειται τὸ σῶμα κακῶς, ἕτερος παιδίον οὐκ ἔχων θρηνεῖ, ὁ δὲ τοὺς ὄντας ὀδύρεται. καὶ τί δεῖ λέγειν γυναικῶν καὶ παίδων ἀποβολήν, ἅπερ ὑμῖν οὐχ ὡς ἔδει γνῶναι τῇ πείρᾳ παρέσχεν ἡ πεῖρα; καὶ μακρὸν ἂν εἴη τῷ λόγῳ περινοστεῖν ἃ πρόκει ται τῇ θέᾳ καὶ δείκνυσιν ἡμῖν ἐπὶ τῶν ἔργων ὁ βίος, οὕτως ἄγοντος τοῦ θεοῦ τὰ ἡμέτερα, ἐμοὶ δοκεῖν, ὅπως ἀβουλήτων πλήθει περιπεσόντες τῶν ἐπὶ γῆς μηδαμῶς ἀντεχώμεθα μηδὲν ἐχόντων ἑστηκὸς καὶ ἀκίνητον, ἀλλὰ καταλιπόντες τῶν συμφορῶν τὸ χωρίον πρὸς ἑτέραν ζωὴν ἐπειγώμεθα, ἐπ' αὐτὸν ἀναπτάντες τῇ διανοίᾳ τὸν οὐρανόν, εἰ καὶ μένειν ἔτι τὸ σῶμα βιάζεται, μηδὲ θρηνῶμεν τὸν ἀπελθόντα τῶν ἐντεῦθεν δεσμῶν φανέντα μόγις ἐλεύθερον. ἐπαινῶ γὰρ τὸν εἰπόντα, ὅστις ποτὲ ἦν ὁ τοῦ λόγου τούτου πατήρ, ὡς "ἀρχῆθεν μὴ φῦναι τοῖς ἐπὶ γῆς ἄριστον, φύντα δ' ὅτι τάχιστα πύλας Ἀΐδαο περῆσαι". ὅπερ ἡ σκηνὴ παρασπάσασα δεῖν ἡμᾶς φησὶν ἐπὶ σύλ λογον ἰόντας "τὸν φύντα θρηνεῖν εἰς ὅσ' ἔρχεται κακά". τί οὖν ἔτι θρηνοῦμεν ἐκ τῆς τοῦ βίου ζάλης ἀσφαλῶς τοὺς φιλτάτους προπέμψαντες, πρὶν ἐν πείρᾳ γενέσθαι τῶν ἐντεῦθεν κακῶν, τί δὲ πρὸς τὸ δοκοῦν ἡμῖν τὸ θεῖον εἶναι βουλόμεθα, δέον τοῦτο κρίνειν καλόν, ὅπερ ἂν ἐκείνῳ δοκῇ; τοιοῦτος ἦν ὄντως ὁ τὸν πολὺν ἐκεῖνον Πυθαγόραν ἐζηλωκώς, ὅστις γε δὴ πρὸς τὸν ἐν εὐχῆς εἰπόντα μέρει "δῴη σοι ὁ θεὸς ἅπερ ἂν τύχῃς βουλόμενος", "εὐφήμει" φησίν, "ἀλλὰ βουλοίμην ἅ γε δίδωσι". πολλὰ γὰρ ἡμῖν γενέσθαι πολλάκις εὐξάμενοι, εἶτα μὴ τυχόντες, ἔγνωμεν ἐκ τῶν ἔργων ὡς δεόντως οὐ γέγονε, πολλῶν δὲ καὶ κατὰ γνώμην δῆθεν τυχὼν μικρὸν ὕστερον ἐμεμψάμην τὴν τύχην ὅτι καὶ γέγονεν. οὕτως ἄρα πρὸς μικρὰ βλέποντες ἄνθρωποι τὴν φύσιν οὐκ ἔχουσι διαρκῆ, καὶ ἅπερ ἂν μέλλῃ καθάπαξ λυσιτελεῖν ἠγνοήκαμεν. τοιγαροῦν παραχωρεῖν ἀνάγκη τῷ κρείττονι σοφῶς ἄγοντι τὰ ἡμέτερα, κἂν ἡμῖν ἀγνοῆται τὰ δόγματα.