Letter 416
To Elpidius. (355)
I thought that as soon as you heard the governor was on our side, you yourself would be here. The things that troubled you were serious, and they could only be resolved this way. But you have neither arrived nor explained your absence.
If there is something worthwhile where you are -- something you can enjoy by staying -- then stay, and good luck to you. Your happiness cheers me more than your absence grieves me. But if you are sitting still out of mere reluctance to travel, be careful that this pleasant idleness does not breed something unpleasant.
Modern English rendering for readability. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek for scholarly use.
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Now, most of all, do I feel my bodily infirmity, when I see how it stands in the way of my soul's good. Had matters gone as I hoped, I should not now be speaking to you by letter or by messenger, but should in my own person have been paying the debt of affection and enjoying spiritual advantage face to face. Now, however, I am so situated that I...