Letter 243: You do not give me a chance to ask for anything -- you who send everything before being asked.

To Demetrius. (360/361) You do not give me a chance to ask for anything -- you who send everything before being asked. The moment the land produces something for you, it produces something for me through you. No sooner has someone said, "What fine country your neighbors have, and what it grows!" than your servant appears at my door carrying the very things for which the land was praised. How, then, can a man ask for what he has already received? A farmer, when Zeus does not send rain, prays for the god to send it. But when the rain is falling, he sits back content -- he does not pray.

Δημητρίῳ. (360/61) Σύ με οὐκ ἐᾷς αἰτεῖν ὁ πάντα πέμπων πρὶν αἰτηθῆναι. 15 ὁμοῦ γὰρ ὑμῖν τέ τι παρὰ τῆς γῆς δέδοται καὶ ἐμοὶ παρὰ σοῦ, καὶ οὐκ ἔφθη τις εἰπών, ὡς ἀγαθή γε τῶν ἀστυγειτό- νων χώρα, νῦν τὸ καὶ φύει ὁ σὸς οἰκέτης ἐγγὺς φέρων ἡμῖν ἐφ’ οἷς ἡ χώρα ἐπῃνέθη. πῶς οὖν ἔστιν ἅ τις εἴληφεν αἰτεῖν, ὅπως ἂν λάβοι; ὁ γεωργός, ὅταν ὁ Ζεὺς οὐχ ὕῃ, ὗσαι τὸν θεὸν αἰτεῖ, ὕοντος δὲ χαίρει καθήμενος, ἀλλ’ οὐκ αἰτεῖ.